• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.170-180
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• 2020

Abnormal regulation, hyperphosphorylation, and aggregation of the tau protein are the hallmark of several types of dementia, including Alzheimer's Disease. Increased activity of Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3β (GSK-3β) in the Central Nervous System (CNS), increased the tau hyperphosphorylation and caused the neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) formation in the brain cells. Over the last two decades, numerous adenosine triphosphate (ATP) competitive inhibitors have been discovered that show inhibitory activity against GSK-3β. But these compounds exhibited off-target effects which motivated researchers to find new GSK-3β inhibitors. In the present study, we have collected the dataset of 31 C-Glycosylflavones derivatives that showed inhibitory activity against GSK-3β. Among the dataset, the most active compound was docked with the GSK-3β and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation was performed for 50 ns. Based on the 50 ns MD pose of the most active compound, the other dataset compounds were sketched, minimized, and aligned. The 3D-QSAR based Comparative Molecular Field Analysis (CoMFA) model was developed, which showed a reasonable value of q2=0.664 and r2=0.920. The contour maps generated based on the CoMFA model elaborated on the favorable substitutions at the R2 position. This study could assist in the future development of new GSK-3β inhibitors.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.594-602
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• 2021

The NLRP3 (nucleotide-binding domain, leucine-rich repeat family pyrin domain containing 3) inflammasome plays an important role in the initiation of inflammatory responses, through the recognition of pathogen-associated molecular patterns and tumor progression, including tumor growth and metastasis. In this study, we examined the effects of defective NLRP3 on the growth, migration, and invasiveness of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) SK-Hep1 cell. First, HCC SK-Hep1 cells were transfected with human NLRP3 targeting LentiCRISPRv2 vector using the CRISPR-Cas9 system, and NLRP3 deficiency was confirmed by RT-qPCR and western blotting. NLRP3 deficient SK-Hep1 cells showed delayed cell growth and decreased protein expression of PI3K, p-AKT, and pNF-κB when compared to NLRP3 complete SK-Hep1 cells. In addition, NLRP3 deficiency arrested the cell cycle at G1 phase through an increase in p21 and a reduction in CDK6. NLRP3 deficient SK-Hep1 cells also showed significantly delayed cell migration, invasion, and wound healing. The expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition signaling molecules, such as N-cadherin and MMP-9, was found to be dramatically decreased in NLRP3 deficient SK-Hep1 cells compared to NLRP3 complete SK-Hep1 cells.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.317-325
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• 2008

The electrocardiogram (ECG) measurement system consists of I/O interface to input the ECG signals from two electrodes, FPGA (Field programmable gate arrays) module to process the signal conditioning, and real time module to control the system. The algorithms based on wavelet transform were developed to remove the noise of the ECG signals and to determine the QRS-waves. Triangular wave tests were conducted to determine the optimal factors of the wavelet filter by analyzing the SNRs (signal to noise ratios) and RMSEs (root mean square errors). The hybrid rule, soft method, and symlets of order 5 were selected as thresholding rule, thresholding method, and mother wavelet, respectively. The developed wavelet filter showed good performance to remove the noise of the triangular waves with 10.98 dB of SNR and 0.140 mV of RMSE. The ECG signals from a total of 6 subjects were measured at different measuring postures such as lying, sitting, and standing. The durations of QRS-waves, the amplitudes of R-waves, the intervals of RR-waves were analyzed by using the finite impulse response (FIR) filter and the developed wavelet filter. The wavelet filter showed good performance to determine the features of QRS-waves, but the FIR filter had some problems to detect the peaks of Q and S waves. The measuring postures affected accuracy and precision of the ECG signals. The noises of the ECG signals were increased due to the movement of the subject during measurement. The results showed that the wavelet filter was a useful tool to remove the noise of the ECG signals and to determine the features of the QRS-waves.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 1999

Benzylalcohol-$\alpha$-glucoside (BG) was synthesized from soluble starch by transglycosylation of $\alpha$-amylase. Transglycosylation in water-organic two phase system containing 1% soluble starch as a glycosyl donor, 90% benzylalcohol as a glycosyl acceplor, 10% citrate buffer solulion (0.1 M, pH 5.0), and 10 unit of $\alpha$-amylase (Aspergilllw oryzae) was showed highcst efficiency. About 4 mg BG was obtained from 10 mg starch in reaction for 80 hrs at $40^{\circ}C$. Initially benzylalcohol-$\alpha$-maltoside Q3M) was major product, but as the reaction proceeded, it was hydrolyzed to glucose and BG. Finally the product of transglycosylation by $\alpha$-amylase was only BG. The both products did not show reducing powcr and hydrolyzed by $\alpha$-glucosidase and $\alpha$-amylase, respectively. The molecular wcights of both were estimated to be 270 and 432 by ES1-Mass, respectively.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.377-385
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• 2014

In this study, a wastewater treatment system for hypersaline wastewater utilizing the Hypersaline Wastewater Treatment Community (HWTC) has been developed. The hypersaline wastewater treatment efficiency and microbial community of the HWTC were investigated. The average removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand were 84% in an HRT of 2.5 days. Microbial community analysis, by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA gene fragments and 16S rRNA gene clone library, revealed community diversity. The 16S rRNA gene analysis of dominant microbial bacteria in 4% hypersaline wastewater confirmed the presence of Halomonas sp. and Paenibacillus sp. Phylogenetic analysis suggested that the taxonomic affiliation of the dominant species in the HWTC was ${\gamma}$-proteobacteria and firmicutes. These results indicate the possibility that an appropriate hypersaline wastewater treatment system can be designed using acclimated sludge with a halophilic community.

• The Journal of Natural Sciences
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.67-82
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• 2004

A thiol-specific antioxidant protein (TSA or TPx) was purified from Halophilic archeabacteria Halococcus agglomeratus, by DEAE-Cellulose, Phnyl, sepharose, Sephadex G-75, Sephacryl S-100, Sephacryl S-200, and Q-Wepharose FF. This protein exhibited the preventeive effect against the inactivation of glutamine synthehase (GS) activity was support by a thiol-reducing equicalent such as dithiothreitol. TPx activity was maximal at NaCl concentration above 500mM. The molecular mass of the protein was determinated to be 22-kDa by SDS-PAGE. The TPx purified from Halococcus agglomeratus seems to be similar to other TPx family, except for the salt requirement for the maximal antioxidant activity.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.64-68
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• 2002

The antibacterial protein gene, nuecin was expressed in Sf9 cells using baculovirus expression vector system (BEVS). The antibactetial activity of mature nuecin against Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum, Ralstonia solanacearum and Pseudomonas tolaasii was significantly high, demonstrating that nuecin had a wider antibacterial spectrum on gram negative and positive bacteria. The result appears to be superior to other antibacterial peptide, attacin. The nuecin was purified by SP-sepharose and Mono Q HR ion-exchange chromatography, and then by Superdex 200 HR 10/30 column. The purified nuecin is quite stable at 80$\^{C}$ and 100$\^{C}$ for several hours of incubation and in a wide pH range (pH 2-12).

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.687-700
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• 2021

This study performed to evaluate the applicability of functional dairy food materials by comparing the calcium solubilization ability and anti-inflammatory effects of hydrolyzed casein protein. Commercial enzyme (Alcalase^®; Neutrase^®; Protamex^®; Flavourzyme^®) was added to the 10% casein solution to prepare the casein hydrolysates. Samples obtained every hour [1:200 (w/v)]. According to results of measuring the degree of hydrolysis (DH), all of four enzymatic hydrolysates increased rapidly from 30 to 40 min, and after 150 min, there were no change. Protamex^® and Neutrase^® had the highest DH compared to others enzymatic hydrolysates. After that, peptides obtained throughout a preparative liquid chromatography system. In the calcium solubility experiments, neutrase fraction (NF) 4 and NF7 showed similar activities with casein phosphopeptide (CPP). In vitro cell experiments showed that no cytotoxicity except for NF6. Also, the production of nitric oxide (NO) inhibited as the concentration of fraction samples increased. The cytokine (IL-1α, IL-6, and TNF-α) production was lower than lipopolysaccharide (+) group significantly. Therefore, the possibility of anti-inflammatory activity found in the hydrolyzed samples. According to the above experiments, NF3 and Protamex Fraction (PF) 3 selected. Amino acids selected throughout an AccQ-Tag system. As a result, 17 species of amino acids and several species of unknown amino acids identified. Both fractions had the highest content of phenylalanine. This study identified the potential of biologically active and functional peptides derived from casein that affect the food and dairy industry.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.71-81
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• 2021

This paper presents a real-time, false-pick filter based on deep learning to reduce false alarms of an onsite Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) system. Most onsite EEW systems use P-wave to predict S-wave. Therefore, it is essential to properly distinguish P-waves from noises or other seismic phases to avoid false alarms. To reduce false-picks causing false alarms, this study made the EEWNet Part 1 'False-Pick Filter' model based on Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). Specifically, it modified the Pick_FP (Lomax et al.) to generate input data such as the amplitude, velocity, and displacement of three components from 2 seconds ahead and 2 seconds after the P-wave arrival following one-second time steps. This model extracts log-mel power spectrum features from this input data, then classifies P-waves and others using these features. The dataset consisted of 3,189,583 samples: 81,394 samples from event data (727 events in the Korean Peninsula, 103 teleseismic events, and 1,734 events in Taiwan) and 3,108,189 samples from continuous data (recorded by seismic stations in South Korea for 27 months from 2018 to 2020). This model was trained with 1,826,357 samples through balancing, then tested on continuous data samples of the year 2019, filtering more than 99% of strong false-picks that could trigger false alarms. This model was developed as a module for USGS Earthworm and is written in C language to operate with minimal computing resources.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.217-234
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• 2009

This study characterized groundwater quality and the influence of agrochemicals in a part of Ilgwang-Myeon agricultural area in Gijang-Gun, Busan Metropolitan City, using factor analyses. From the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd analyses of groundwater samples, the mean concentrations of $Ca^{2+}$, $Na^+$, $Mg^{2+}$, $K^+$, $Zn^{2+}$, $Cu^{2+}$, $Fe^{2+}$, $Al^{3+}$, $NO_3\;^-$, $Cl^-$, $SO_4\;^{2-}$, $F^-$, and $SiO_2$ were higher in the 2nd analysis than the other analyses. Pesticide carbofuran and herbicide alachlor were detected at the wells more than a half of all the wells in the 2nd analysis but not in the 4th analysis. This fact may be explained by that a higher precipitation induced higher infiltration rate of contaminants into groundwater during the 2nd survey. According to R- and Q-mode factor analyses, and chemical composition, inorganic constituents excepting $SiO_2$, $HC0_3\;^-$-, and $F^-$ may be influenced by anthropogenic sources (manures, synthetic fertilizers, and domestic wastes), seawater as well as water-mineral interaction. A typical indicator of groundwater contamination, nitrate, exceeds around 4-5 times over the Korean standard for drinking water. Additionally, the influence of seawater diminishes from the seaside to inland.