• Molecules and Cells
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• v.37 no.12
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• pp.873-880
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• 2014

In our previous study, miRNA-183, a miRNA in the miR-96-182-183 cluster, was significantly over-expressed in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). In the present study, we explored the oncogenic roles of miR-183 in ESCC by gain and loss of function analysis in an esophageal cancer cell line (EC9706). Genome-wide mRNA micro-array was applied to determine the genes that were regulated directly or indirectly by miR-183. 3'UTR luciferase reporter assay, RT-PCR, and Western blot were conducted to verify the target gene of miR-183. Cell culture results showed that miR-183 inhibited apoptosis (p < 0.05), enhanced cell proliferation (p < 0.05), and accelerated G1/S transition (p < 0.05). Moreover, the inhibitory effect of miR-183 on apoptosis was rescued when miR-183 was suppressed via miR-183 inhibitor (p < 0.05). Western blot analysis showed that the expression of programmed cell death 4 (PDCD4), which was predicted as the target gene of miR-183 by microarray profiling and bioinformatics predictions, decreased when miR-183 was over-expressed. The 3'UTR luciferase reporter assay confirmed that miR-183 directly regulated PDCD4 by binding to sequences in the 3'UTR of PDCD4. Pearson correlation analysis further confirmed the significant negative correlation between miR-183 and PDCD4 in both cell lines and in ESCC patients. Our data suggest that miR-183 might play an oncogenic role in ESCC by regulating PDCD4 expression.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.1331-1337
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• 2015

S-allylcysteine (SAC) is an aged garlic derived water soluble organosulfur compound and has been suggested to have anticarcinogenic activity against diverse types of cancer cells. This review summarizes the cellular signaling pathways and molecular mechanisms whereby SAC exerts its effects on cellular proliferation, apoptosis, cell cycle progression and metastasis based on the results from both in vitro and in vivo studies. SAC activates proapoptotic proteins including Bax and caspase-3, but suppresses antiapoptotic Bcl-2 family proteins to bring about cancer cell death through mitochondria-mediated intrinsic pathway. SAC also inhibits cellular proliferation by inducing cell cycle arrest in which SAC reduces expression and activation of NF-κB, cyclins, Cdks, PCNA and c-Jun, but elevates expression of cell cycle inhibitor proteins p16 and p21 through suppression of both PI3K/Akt/mTOR and MAPK/ERK signaling pathways. And, SAC inhibits invasion and metastasis of cancer cells by inducing suppression of both angiogenesis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) through decreased cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 expression and increased E-cadherin expression which were then caused by suppression of inhibitory transcription factors Id-1 and SLUG from SAC-mediated inactivation of both MAPK/ERK and PI3K/Akt/mTOR/NF-κB signaling pathways. Furthermore, SAC prevents toxic compound-induced carcinogenesis by inducing antioxidant enzymes such as glutathione-s-transferase (GST). Thus, SAC can be considered as a potential chemotherapeutic agent for the prevention and treatment of cancer.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.73-78
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• 2016

Propolis possesses antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anaesthetic and immunostimulating activities. The aim of this study was to evaluated chemical composition and in vitro anti-Helicobacter pylori activity of eight propolis ethanolic extracts form different region in Korea. The chemical composition of eight Korean propolis was investicated by absorption spectrophotomety and UHPLC. Total penolic and total flavonoids content ranged between $21{\pm}1.5$ and $31{\pm}1.8$ gallic acid g/100 g and $7.2{\pm}0.9$ and $24.4{\pm}1.9$ quercetin g/100 g, respectively. The p-coumaric acid as standard components content ranged between $0.29{\pm}0.00$ and $2.34{\pm}0.02mg/g$ using UHPLC. Cinnamic acid content between $0.43{\pm}0.00$ and $1.33{\pm}0.01mg/g$. 80% ethanolic extract of propolis against H. pylori was evaluated by using the disc diffusion method. Ethanol was used as a control. Mean diameters of H. pylori growth inhibition using $10{\mu}g/mL$, $50{\mu}g/mL$ or $100{\mu}g/mL$ ethanol propolis per disc were 0, ranging from 0.9 to 2.1 mm and from 1.9 to 3.5 mm, respectively. In conclusion, variation in the chemical composition of Korean propolis were mainly due to the difference in the preferred regional plants visited by honeybees. Also Korean propolis possesses considerable antibacterial activity against H. pylori. There was not confirmed a correlation between the chemical composion contens and anti-H. pylori effect. The potential of propolis in the prevention or treatment of H. pylori infection is worth further extensive evaluation.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.72-78
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• 2020

In this paper, the risk of damages to humans and properties due to fire explosions in gasoline storage tanks is identified, and the effects of radiant heat on adjacent tanks are evaluated to present the necessary area to secure safety. A simulation was conducted to evaluate the effect of radiant heat (Maximum emission) on adjacent tanks in an oil storage tank fire due to environmental conditions (Wind speed and temperature) in the Northern Gyeonggi Province. The result indicated that the radiant heat released in the fire of an oil storage tank was increased by approximately 1.9 times by the maximum wind speed and the difference occurred in the range of 700~800 kW by the maximum temperature. If a storage tank fire occurs, securing approximately 34.4 m of holding area is necessary. In the future, evaluating the radiant heat emitted by the fire of gasoline storage tanks will be required by applying various environmental conditions, and through this, research on specific and quantitative holding area is required.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.138-142
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• 2019

By securing golden time, this study analyzed the effects of an emergency vehicle priority system in Cheongju, North Chungcheong province. Until the scene of a fire is reached, severe obstacles in the street, such as traffic congestion, cars coming forward, non-cooperative vehicles etc., are significant. To solve these problems of road obstacles, it is essential to adopt an emergency vehicle priority system. From April 2017 to June 2018 (1 year and 2 months, 426 days), the dispatch time and date, fire truck moving distance and required time, traffic signal control section and pass time, and shortening time, were measured. This study selected 140 cases consisting of five heavy traffic and frequent dispatch routes out of 293 cases. The effects of the emergency vehicle priority system were excellent. Overall, it took 3 min 3 s to pass 1 km on an uncontrolled traffic signal section. On the other hand, it took 1 min 23 s to pass 1 km on the same section that was controlled. The shortening time to pass 1 km was 1 min 40 s, showing a 45.4% reduction. This means that the 15 min driving time can be reduced to 6 min and 49 s. From this result, an emergency vehicle priority system should be implemented nationwide as soon as possible.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.51-55
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• 2019

To prevent ozone depletion caused by CFCs, the replacement of Halon with clean agents has been developed in the fire protection field along with refrigerants, detergents, and foaming agents. The alternatives for Halon 1211 have been developed in the portable fire extinguisher area and HCFC-123 is used widely as a clean fire extinguishing agent. The type of expellant gas is important because their own vapor pressure is low. In this study, HCFC-123, HCFC-124, HFC-125, and Novec-1230 were selected as fire extinguishing agents and CO₂, which is expected to improve the fire extinguishing ability, was chosen as the expellant gas. For each agent, experiments changing the agent and CO₂ amount were carried out and HCFC-123 showed a good result, as expected. The extinguisher, HCFC-123 of 1.5 kg, showed the same ability to suppress a class A and B fire as the extinguisher, HCFC-123 of 2.5 kg, which is currently sold on the market. According to this result, the expellant gas has a subsidiary fire extinguish effect. This can reduce the amount of HCFC fire extinguishing agent, which is categorized in the phase-out alternatives, and is a more eco-friendly and economical fire extinguisher than the previous one. This study can also help solve the problems of CO₂ fire extinguishers for class B and C fires, and can be used to extinguish electric and electron facilities fire, which contains large amounts of class A fire combustibles.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.423-431
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• 1993

To eveluate the risk factors which are related to recurrence of ischemic stroke, we selected subjects who were admitted to YNUH due to recurrent stroke and compared their risk factors with non-recurred group who suffered from single ischemic stroke. In the subjects, 55 of them are men and 22 were women and in the non-recurred groups, 84 of them were men and 40 were women, Subject's age ranged from 29 to 85 years(Mean 62, 5years), and non-recurred group's age ranged from 27 to 90 years(Mean 60, 7years), Peak incidence of ischemic stroke is in the 7th decade in both groups. Age and sex are not, statistically significant for recurrence of ischemic stroke. The patient's history of diabetes mellitus, myocardial infarction, atrial fibrillation, transient attack and type or site of ischemic stroke had no significant effect statistically on the recurrent ischemic stroke. However, when the patient had previous history of hypertension or systolic blood pressure more than 160mmHg and diastolic more than 95mmHg, there was substantial difference(P<0.05) between the two group in the recurrence of ischemic stroke. According to the above results, hypertension is most likely significant risk factor of the recurrence of ischemic stroke within 2years after initial one. Therefore, adequate treatment of the hypertension is important for the prevention of ischemic stroke. Further study is required for searching other risk factors.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.298-304
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• 1998

Retinoids are applied to not only cancer prevention but also cancer chemotherapy by stimulating differentiation of cells. We studied differentiation inducing effect of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) by studying proportion of high dense fractions of stem-like cells and the size of S phase fraction in cell cycle. From mammary organoids obtained from 7- to 8-week old F344 female rat mammary gland, we cultured rat mammary epithelial cells (RMEC) and treated physiological doses of $10^{-6}$, $10^{-7}$, and $10^{-8}$ M ATRA from the first day and then cultured for 4, 7, and 14 days. After that, immunostaining was performed using peanut agglutinin (PNA) and anti-Thy-1.1 monoclonal antibody (Thy-1.1) that can be used as markers of differentiation. We separated four different cell subpopulations by flow cytometry: cells negative to both reagents (B-), PNA-positive cells (PNA+), Thy-1.1-positive cells (Thy-1.1+), and cells positive to both reagents (B+). We observed continuous decreases of high dense fractions of stem-like cells (PNA+ subpopulations) for 14 days and as much decreases as high doses of ATRA, which were thought to be proportional to doses of ATRA. We labeled RMEC with bromodeoxyuridine and investigated cell cycle fractions that went through S phase. We observed a tendency of decrease of S phase fraction with time in culture, which, is thought to be related to continuous decreases of PNA+ subpopulations and inhibitory role of ATRA on cell cycle. These results suggest that physiological doses of ATRA could stimulate differentiation of RMEC and convert stem-like RMEC to differentiated cells in SFM for a relatively long period of 14 days.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.81-89
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• 2018

Background: BIOGF1K, a compound-K-rich fraction, has been shown to display anti-inflammatory activity. Although Panax ginseng is widely used for the prevention of photoaging events induced by UVB irradiation, the effect of BIOGF1K on photoaging has not yet been examined. In this study, we investigated the effects of BIOGF1K on UVB-induced photoaging events. Methods: We analyzed the ability of BIOGF1K to prevent UVB-induced apoptosis, enhance matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) expression, upregulate anti-inflammatory activity, reduce sirtuin 1 expression, and melanin production using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, melanin content assay, tyrosinase assay, and flow cytometry. We also evaluated the effects of BIOGF1K on the activator protein-1 signaling pathway, which plays an important role in photoaging, by immunoblot analysis and luciferase reporter gene assays. Results: Treatment of UVB-irradiated NIH3T3 fibroblasts with BIOGF1K prevented UVB-induced cell death, inhibited apoptosis, suppressed morphological changes, reduced melanin secretion, restored the levels of type I procollagen and sirtuin 1, and prevented mRNA upregulation of MMP-1, MMP-2, and cyclo-oxygenase-2; these effects all occurred in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, BIOGF1K markedly reduced activator-protein-1-mediated luciferase activity and decreased the activity of mitogen-activated protein kinases (extracellular response kinase, p38, and C-Jun N-terminal kinase). Conclusion: Our results strongly suggest that BIOGF1K has anti-photoaging activity and that BIOGF1K could be used in anti-aging cosmeceutical preparations.

• Journal of Korea Spatial Information System Society
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.63-79
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• 2008

With the recent development of advanced GIS and complex spatial analysis technologies, the more sophisticated technologies are being required to support the advanced knowledge for solving geographical or spatial problems in various decision support systems. In addition, necessity for research on scientific crime investigation and forensic science is increasing particularly at law enforcement agencies and investigation institutions for efficient investigation and the prevention of crimes. There are active researches on geographic profiling to predict the base location such as criminals' residence by analyzing the spatial patterns of serial crimes. However, as previous researches on geographic profiling use simply statistical methods for spatial pattern analysis and do not apply a variety of spatial and temporal analysis technologies on serial crimes, they have the low prediction accuracy. Therefore, this paper identifies the typology the spatio-temporal patterns of serial crimes according to spatial distribution of crime sites and temporal distribution on occurrence of crimes and proposes STA-BLP(Spatio-Temporal Analysis based Base Location Prediction) algorithm which predicts the base location of serial crimes more accurately based on the patterns. STA-BLP improves the prediction accuracy by considering of the anisotropic pattern of serial crimes committed by criminals who prefer specific directions on a crime trip and the learning effect of criminals through repeated movement along the same route. In addition, it can predict base location more accurately in the serial crimes from multiple bases with the local prediction for some crime sites included in a cluster and the global prediction for all crime sites. Through a variety of experiments, we proved the superiority of the STA-BLP by comparing it with previous algorithms in terms of prediction accuracy.