• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.8
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• pp.1131-1140
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• 2014

This research focused on the effects of different doses of Bacillus subtilis KN-42 on the growth performance, diarrhea incidence, faecal bacterial flora, and the relative number of Lactobacillus and Escherichia coli in faeces of weaned piglets to determine whether the strain can serve as a candidate antimicrobial growth promoter. A total of 360 piglets (initial body weight $7.14{\pm}0.63$ kg) weaned at $26{\pm}2$ days of age were randomly allotted to 5 treatment groups (4 pens per treatment with 18 pigs per pen) for a 28-day trial. Dietary treatments were basal diet without any antimicrobial (negative control; NC), basal diet supplemented with 120 mg/kg feed of neomycin sulfate (positive control; PC) and basal diet supplemented with $2{\times}10^9$ (L), $4{\times}10^9$ (M) and $20{\times}10^9$ (H) CFU/kg feed of B. subtilis KN-42. During the overall period, average daily gain and feed efficiency of piglets were higher in groups PC, M, and H than those in group NC (p<0.05), and all probiotics and antibiotics groups had a lower diarrhea index than group NC (p<0.05). The 16S rDNA gene-based methods were used to analyze faecal bacterial flora on day 28 of experiment. The result of denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis showed that supplementation of B. subtilis KN-42 to the diet changed the bacterial communities, with a higher bacterial diversity and band number in group M than in the other four groups. Real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis showed that the relative number of Lactobacillus were higher in groups PC and H than in group NC (p<0.05), and the supplemented B. subtilis KN-42 to the diet also reduced the relative number of E. coli (p<0.05). These results suggest that dietary addition of B. subtilis KN-42 can improve the growth performance and gastrointestinal health of piglets.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.367-371
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• 2011

TBAB (tetra-n-butyl ammonium bromide) forms a semi-clathrate with water under atmospheric pressure conditions and recently has attracted great attention due to its usage as a thermodynamic promoter in gas storage and separation process using gas hydrate formation. In this study, we measured the three-phase (hydrate (H) - liquid water ($L_{w}$)-vapor (V)) equilibria of the ternary $CH_{4}$+TBAB+water and $CO_{2}$+TBAB+water mixtures at the TBAB concentrations of 5 and 32 wt% to investigate promoting characteristics of TBAB. The greater promotion effect of TBAB was observed at 32 wt% than at 5 wt%. This result was in good agreement with that from pure TBAB semi-clathrate phase diagram under atmospheric pressure conditions. Through $^{13}C$ NMR analysis of the $CH_{4}$+TBAB semi-clathrate, it was found that $CH_{4}$ molecules are enclathrated in the cages of the double semi-clathrate and the position of resonance peak from encaged $CH_{4}$ molocules in the double semi-clathrate is the same as that from encaged $CH_{4}$ molocules in the pure $CH_{4}$ hydrate of structure I.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.388-412
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• 2009

This study analyzed the important factors in service quality for public usage of national R&D facilities and equipments, and, using those factors, performed the importance-performance analysis for several national R&D programs in order to examine what service quality factors should be concentrically improved in each programs. Additionally, the in-depth interview with program managers and R&D facility experts was performed to realize the managerial issues subject to the characteristics of programs regarding the national R&D public facility management. As the results, this study made some political suggestions such as the reformation of promoter's role regarding the formulation of the government policy to support those programs. For example, it is more suitable for colleges as the subject of programs to be invested for self-research purpose rather than public usage, for independent corporation to be centered on the more general and common production fields, and for the government R&D agencies on the leading and special technical fields.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.227-234
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• 2012

We observed that oil began to accumulate at 25 seed days after flowering (DAF) and reached the maximum potential at 35 seed DAF of oilseed rape, and the greatest weight of 100 seeds was obtained at 35 seed DAF. To survey a broad analysis of gene expression in developing embryos of Brassica napus, the Bn 300k microarray have been constructed. The Bn 300k Microarrary was designed from 80,696 unigenes clustered from 543,448 ESTs and 780 cDNA at NCBI. These arrays have been hybridized in a series of experiments with probes derived from seeds and leaf of B. napus. Approximately 8.5% of the 7,000 genes were expressed as ratios 2-fold higher in seed (25 DAF) than leaves and 0.4% at ratios 10. Also we observed that storage and cell differentiation-related genes were highly expressed at 10 DAF, whereas energy-related genes including fatty acid metabolism were increased up depending on seed maturation using Microarray, which was confirmed by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. These results suggest that B. napus arrays provide a very useful data set of seed-specific expression that can be further analyzed by examination of the promoter regions of these genes and help our understanding of the complex regulatory network in developing seeds.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.11
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• pp.1519-1528
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• 2013

Bacillus pumilus SG2, a halotolerant strain, expresses two major chitinases designated ChiS and ChiL that were induced by chitin and secreted into the supernatant. The present work aimed to obtain a mutant with higher chitinolytic activity through mutagenesis of Bacillus pumilus SG2 using a combination of UV irradiation and nitrous acid treatment. Following mutagenesis and screening on chitin agar and subsequent formation of halos, the mutated strains were examined for degradation of chitin under different conditions. A mutant designated AV2-9 was selected owing to its higher chitinase activity. To search for possible mutations in the whole operon including ChiS and ChiL, the entire chitinase operon, including the intergenic region, promoter, and two areas corresponding to the ChiS and ChiL ORF, was suquenced. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the complete chitinase operon from the SG2 and AV2-9 strains showed the presence of a mutation in the catalytic domain (GH18) of chitinase (ChiL). The results demonstrated that a single base change had occurred in the ChiL sequence in AV2-9. The wild-type chitinase, ChiL, and the mutant (designated ChiLm) were cloned, expressed, and purified in E. coli. Both enzymes showed similar profiles of activity at different ranges of pH, NaCl concentration, and temperature, but the mutant enzyme showed approximately 30% higher catalytic activity under all the conditions tested. The results obtained in this study showed that the thermal stability of chitinase increased in the mutant strain. Bioinformatics analysis was performed to predict changes in the stability of proteins caused by mutation.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.45-63
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• 2011

Objective : Atractyloides Chinensis Rhizome (ACR) is widely used in oriental medicine as a remedy for an inflammation and an allergic disease. However, as yet there is no clear explanation of how ACR affects the production of inflammatory cytokine. This study was to determine the effects of ACR on the mast cell-mediated inflammatory responses. Method : The amount of inflammatory cytokine production induced by the phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) plus calcium ionophore(A23187) in the human mast cell line (HMC-1) incubated with various concentrations of ACR was measured. The TNF-${\alpha}$ protein levels were analysised by Western blots. The TNF-${\alpha}$, IL-6 and IL-8 secreted protein levels were measured by the ELISA assay. The TNF-${\alpha}$, IL-6 and IL-8 mRNA levels were measured by the RT-PCR analysis. NF-${\kappa}$B, phospho-I${\kappa}$B and MAPKs were examined by Western blot analysis. The NF-${\kappa}$B promoter activity was examined by a luciferase assay. Results : 1. The expressions of TNF-${\alpha}$ and TNF-${\alpha}$ mRNA were decreased dose-dependently at 0.05-0.2mg/$m\ell$ of ACR and significantly decreased at 0.2mg/$m\ell$. 2. The expressions of IL-6 and IL-6 mRNA were decreased dose-dependently at 0.05-0.2mg/$m\ell$ of ACR and significantly decreased at 0.2mg/$m\ell$. 3. The expressions of IL-8 and IL-8 mRNA were decreased dose-dependently at 0.05-0.2mg/$m\ell$ of ACR and significantly decreased at 0.2mg/$m\ell$ specially. 4. The expressions of Phosphorylated-JNK were decreased, not p38, ERK 5. The expressions of NF-${\kappa}$B were decreased dose-dependently at 0.1-0.2mg/$m\ell$ of ACR. The expressions of Phosphorylated I${\kappa}$B were significantly decreased at 0.2mg/$m\ell$. In addition, ACR suppressed PMA plus A23187-induced NF-${\kappa}$B promoting activity. Conclusion : It is suggested that ACR should suppress through inhibition of NF-${\kappa}$B activity and cytokine production.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.1-18
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• 2009

Objective : Moutan Cortex (the root bark of Paeonia suffruticosa Andr.) is widely used in oriental medicine as a remedy for inflammation. However, as yet there is no clear explanation of how MC(Moutan Cortex) affects the production of inflammatory cytokine. This study was to determine the effects of Essence extracted MC on the mast cell-mediated inflammatory responses. Method : We observed the effect of MC on compound 48/80-induced histamine release of rat peritoneal mast cells and the effect of administering MC on PCA in rat. We measured the amount of inflammatory cytokine production induced by the phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) plus calcium ionophore(A23187) in the human mast cell line (HMC-1) incubated with various concentrations of MC. The TNF-$\alpha$ protein levels were analysised by Western blot. The TNF-$\alpha$, IL-6 and IL-8 secreted protein levels were measured by the ELISA assay. The TNF-$\alpha$, IL-6 and IL-8 mRNA levels were measured by the RT-PCR analysis. NF-$\kappa$B, phospho-I$\kappa$B and MAPKs were exmined by Western blot analysis. The NF-$\kappa$B promoter activity was examined by luciferase assay. Result : 1. Enzyme immunoassay indicated that MC suppressed histamine secretion of rat peritoneal mast cells. 2. In PCA dependent on IgE, MC had anti-allergic effect of the internal surface of rat skin. 3. Western blot indicated that MC decreased TNF-$\alpha$ protein levels. 4. ELISA indicated that MC decreased TNF-$\alpha$, IL-6 but MC had no significant effect on IL-8 in HMC-1 cells. 5. RT-PCR indicated that MC decreased TNF-$\alpha$, IL-8 but MC had no significant effect on IL-6 in HMC-l cells. 6. Western blot indicated that MC suppressed the induction of MAPKs, NF-$\kappa$B & phospho-I$\kappa$B activity in HMC-1 cells. 7. Luciferase assay indicated that MC suppressed the PMA plus A23187-induced NF-$\kappa$B promoting activityin HMC-1 cells. Conclusion : In this study, we have found that MC is an inhibitor of NF-$\kappa$B, MAPKs & cytokines on the mast cell-mediated inflammatory responses.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.23-29
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• 2009

We have previously isolated a CCCH type zinc-finger protein gene, OsZF2 (Oryza sativa Zinc Finger 2), from the cold-treated rice cDNA library. To investigate the potential role of OsZF2, transgenic rice lines over-expressing OsZF2 under the control of CaMV 35S promoter have been developed through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Elevated level of OsZF2 transcripts was confirmed by RNA gel blot analysis in transgenic rice. Under the 100 mM NaCl condition, the transgenic rice showed significantly enhanced growth rate in terms of shoot length and fresh weight, implicating that OsZF2 is likely to be involved in salt response of rice. In the field condition, however, the transgenic rice showed a dwarf phenotype and flowering time was delayed. Genome expression profiling analysis of transgenic plants using the 20K NSF rice oligonucleotide array revealed many up-regulated genes related to stress responses and signaling pathways such as chaperone protein dnaJ 72, salt stress-induced protein, PR protein, disease resistance proteins RPM1 and Cf2/Cf5 disease resistance protein, carbohydrate/ sugar transporter, OsWAK kinase, brassinosteroid LRR receptor kinase, and jasmonate O-methyltransferase. These data suggest that the CCCH type zinc-finger protein OsZF2 is a upstream transcriptional factor regulating growth and stress responsiveness of rice.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.37-42
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• 2018

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug-activated gene-1 (NAG-1) is a transforming growth factor beta (TGF-${\beta}$) superfamily gene associated with pro-apoptotic and anti-tumorigenic activities. In the present study, we investigated if caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) derived from propolis could induce the expression of anti-tumorigenic gene NAG-1. Our results indicate that CAPE significantly induced NAG-1 expression in a time- and concentration-dependent manner in HCT116 cells. We also found that CAPE induced NAG-1 expression in a concentration-dependent manner in another human colorectal cancer cell line, LOVO. In addition, CAPE triggered apoptosis, which was detected with Western blot analysis using poly-(ADP-ribose) polymerase antibody. NAG-1 induction by CAPE was not dependent on transcription factor p53, which was confirmed with Western blot analysis using p53 null HCT116 cells. The luciferase assay results indicated that the new cis-elements candidates were located between -474 and -1,086 of the NAG-1 gene promoter. CAPE dramatically induced activating transcription factor 3 (ATF3) expression, but not cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB), which shares the same binding sites with ATF3. The co-transfection experiment with pCG-ATF3 and pCREB showed that only ATF3 was associated with NAG-1 up-regulation by CAPE, whereas CREB had no effect. In conclusion, the results suggest that CAPE could induce the expression of anti-tumorigenic gene NAG-1 mainly through ATF3.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.259-266
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• 2015

The regulation of flowering time has crucial implications for plant fitness. MicroRNA156 (miR156) represses the floral transition in Arabidopsis thaliana, but the mechanisms regulating its transcription remain unclear. Here, we show that two AGAMOUS-like proteins, AGL15 and AGL18, act as positive regulators of the expression of MIR156. Small RNA northern blot analysis revealed a significant decrease in the levels of mature miR156 in agl15 agl18 double mutants, but not in the single mutants, suggesting that AGL15 and AGL18 co-regulate miR156 expression. Histochemical analysis further indicated that the double mutants showed a reduction in MIR156 promoter strength. The double mutants also showed reduced abundance of pri-miR156a and pri-miR156c, two of the primary transcripts from MIR156 genes. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays demonstrated that AGL15 directly associated with the CArG motifs in the MIR156a/c promoters. AGL18 did not show binding affinity to the CArG motifs, but pull-down and yeast two-hybrid assays showed that AGL18 forms a heterodimer with AGL15. GFP reporter assays and bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) showed that AGL15 and AGL18 co-localize in the nucleus and confirmed their in vivo interaction. Overexpression of miR156 did not affect the levels of AGL15 and AGL18 transcripts. Taking these data together, we present a model for the transcriptional regulation of MIR156. In this model, AGL15 and AGL18 may form a complex along with other proteins, and bind to the CArG motifs of the promoters of MIR156 to activate the MIR156 expression.