• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.228-236
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• 2009

In this study, we investigated morphological characteristics of $SF_6$ clathrate hydrate crystals to understand its formation and growth mechanism. $SF_6$ clathrate hydrate crystals were formed in high-pressure reaction cell charged with pure water and $SF_6$ gas at constant pressure and temperature. Two-phase ($SF_6$ gas/aqueous solution) and three-phase ($SF_6$ gas/aqueous solution/$SF_6$ liquid) conditions were investigated, In both conditions, dendritic shape hydrate crystals were grown as like fibriform crystals along upward growth direction at the gas/aqueous solution interface. In the case of the reaction process of three-phase condition, when the $SF_6$ gas bubbles which were generated in $SF_6$ liquid phase due to the reduction of reaction cell pressure stuck to the gas/aqueous interfaces, the hydrate phase were appeared at the surface of the bubbles. This paper presents the detail growth characteristics of $SF_6$ hydrate crystals including crystal nucleation, migration, growth and interference.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of IIIuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.467-472
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• 2005

In this paper, design and control of the novel SEPIC-Flyback converter(SF converter) is developed as a possible converter for fuel cell system. This output characteristic of SF converter is similar to Buck-Boost converter in that it can step-up or step-down the voltage. With the small signal equivalent circuit modeling of SF converter, control-to-output transfer function is obtained. SF converter couples up the inductive type converter to capacitive type converter with one transformer, which has less ripple current than its respective one does. To verify the validity of the proposed converter, 500W, 100kHz converter is designed and tested. ZVS switching and active clamping are also tested in practice.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.27-31
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• 1994

There are a number of reports suggesting that there may be a correlation between the clinical response to radiotherapy in various tumors and the clonogenic survival of cell lines derived from these tumors following exposure to 2 Gy(SF2). Authors conducted this study to determine SF2 for cells in primary culture from surgical specimens. The tumor tissues with squamous cell carcinoma of uterine cervix and head and neck were obtained. The tumor tissues were disaggregated to single cells by incubating with collagenase type w for 2 hours with constant stirring. Single cell suspensions were inoculated in four 24-well plates precoated with cell adhesive matrix. After 24 hours of incubation at 37$ ^{\circ}C $, rows of four wells were then irradiated, consisting of control set and five other sets each receiving doses of 1,2,3,4, and 6 Gy. After incubation for a total of 13 days, the cultures were stained with crystal violet and survival at each dose was determined by quantitative image analysis system, To determine whether cell growth was of epithelial origin, immunocytochemical staining with a mixture of cytokeratin and epithelial monoclonal antibodies were performed on cell cultures. During the period of this study, we received 5 squamous cell carcinoma specimens of head and neck and 20 of uterine cervical carcinoma. Of these, 15 yielded enough cells for radiosensitivity testing. This resulted an overall success rate of 60$ \% $. The mean SF2 value for 15 tumours was 0.55$\pm$0.17 ranging from 0.20 to 0.79. These results indicate that there is a broad range of sensitivities to radiation in same histologic type. So with a large patient population, we plan to determine whether a different SF2 value is associated with tumours that are controlled with radiotherapy than those that are not.

• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.147-153
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• 2007

Objectives : Sophora flavescens (SF) is widely used in traditional herbal medicine in Korea and is well recognized for its anti-inflammatory effect. However, its effect on Tumornecrosis factor alpha (Tnf) production in BV2 microglial cell is not yet known. Methods : We investigated the effect of SF on the production and expression of Tnf, a well known inflammatory mediator, in lipopolysaccaride (LPS)-activated BV2 microglial cells. Results : The LPS-induced Tnf production was markedly reduced by treatment with SF (50 ${\mu}g/ml$). In reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis, SF suppressed the LPS activated expression of Tnf mRNA. In addition, Western blot analysis confirmed that SF suppressed the expression of Tnf. Sophora flavescens also inhibited the LPS-induced phosphylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK), which mediate the Tnfproduction signaling pathway whereas LPS-induced phosphylation of p38 mitogen activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK), and c-Jun NH2-terminal kinases (JNK) was not inhibited by SF, which implies that SF suppresses LPS-induced Tnf production via the ERK mediated pathway. Conclusion : Taken together, these findings indicated that SF inhibits LPS-induce Tnf production, and that this inhibitory effect is mediated via the ERK pathway.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.327-332
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• 2005

Sf21 cells become popular as the host permissive cell line to support the baculovirus AcNPV replication and protein synthesis. The cells grow well on TC-100 medium that contains $0.1\%$ D-glucose as the major carbon source, strongly suggesting the presence of endogenous glucose transporters. However, unlike human glucose transporters, very little is known about the characteristics of the endogenoussugar transporter(s) in Sf21 cells. Thus, some kinetic properties of the sugar transport system were investigated, involving the uptake of 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2dG1c). In order to obtain a true measure of the initial rate of uptake, the uptake of $[^3H]2dGlc$ from both low $(100{\mu}M)$ and high (10 mM) extracellular concentrations was measured over periods ranging from 30 sec to30 min. The data obtained indicated that the uptake was linear for at least 2 min at both concentrations, suggesting that measurements made over a 1min time course would reflect initial rates of the jexpse uptake. To determine $K_m\;and\;V_{max}$ of the endogenous glucose transporter(s) in Sf21 cells, the uptake of 2dG1c was measured over a range of substrate concentrations $(50{\mu}M\~10mM)$ 2dG1c uptake by the Sf21 cells appeared to involve both saturable and non-saturable (or very low affinity) components. A saturable transport system for 2dG1c was relatively high, the $K_m$ value for uptake being < 0.45 mM. The $V_{max}$ value obtained for 2dG1c transport in the Sf21 cells was about 9.7-folds higher than that reported for Chinese hamster ovary cells, which contain a GLUT1 homologue. Thus, it appeared that the transport activity of the Sf21 cells was very high. In addition, the Sf21 glucose transporter was found to have very low affinity for cytochalasin B, a potent inhibitor of human erythrocyte glucose transporter

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.55-60
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• 2009

Insect cells such as Spodoptera frugiperda Clone 9 (Sf9) cells are widely chosen as the host for heterologous expression of a mammalian sugar transport protein using the baculovirus expression system. Characterization of the expressed protein is expected to include assay of its function, including its ability to transport sugars and to bind inhibitory ligands such as cytochalasin B. It is therefore very important first to establish the transport characteristics and other properties of the endogenous sugar transport proteins of the host insect cells. However, very little is known of the transport characteristics of Sf9 cells, although their ability to grow on TC-100 medium strongly suggested the presence of endogenous glucose transport system. In order to investigate the substrate and inhibitor recognition properties of the Sf9 cell transporter, the ability of pentoses to inhibit 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2dGlc) transport was investigated by measuring inhibition constants $(K_i)$. To determine the time period over which of sugar into the Sf cells was linear, the uptake of 2dGlc 0.1mM extracellular concentration was measured over periods ranging from 30 seconds to 30 minutes. The uptake was linear for at least 2 minutes at the concentration, implying that uptake made over a 1 minute time course would reflect initial rates of the sugar uptake. The data have also revealed the existence of a saturable transport system for pentose uptake by the insect cells. The transport was inhibited by D-xylose and D-ribose, although not as effective as hexoses. However, L-xylose had a little effect on 2dGlc transport in the Sf9 cells, indicating that the transport is stereoselective. Unlike the human erythrocyte-type glucose transport system, D-ribose had a somewhat greater apparent affinity for the Sf9 cell transporter than D-xylose. It is therefore concluded that Sf9 cells contain an endogenous sugar transport activity that in some aspects resembled the human erythrocyte-type counterpart, although the Sf9 and human transport systems do differ in their affinity for cytochalasin B.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.592-600
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• 2021

Probiotics can be processed into a powder, tablet, or capsule form for easy intake. They are exposed to frequent stresses not only during complex processing steps, but also in the human body after intake. For this reason, various coating agents that promote probiotic bacterial stability in the intestinal environment have been developed. Silk fibroin (SF) is a material used in a variety of fields from drug delivery systems to enzyme immobilization and has potential as a coating agent for probiotics. In this study, we investigated this potential by coating probiotic strains with 0.1% or 1% water-soluble calcium (WSC), 1% SF, and 10% trehalose. Under simulated gastrointestinal conditions, cell viability, cell surface hydrophobicity, and cell adhesion to intestinal epithelial cells were then measured. The survival ratio after freeze-drying was highest upon addition of 0.1% WSC. The probiotic bacteria coated with SF showed improved survival by more than 10.0% under simulated gastric conditions and 4.8% under simulated intestinal conditions. Moreover, the cell adhesion to intestinal epithelial cells was elevated by 1.0-36.0%. Our results indicate that SF has positive effects on enhancing the survival and adhesion capacity of bacterial strains under environmental stresses, thus demonstrating its potential as a suitable coating agent to stabilize probiotics throughout processing, packaging, storage and consumption.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.305-313
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• 2006

The primary goal of the wound healing is rapid wound closure. Recent advances in cellular and molecular biology have greatly expanded our understanding of the biologic processes involved in wound repair and tissue regeneration. This study was conducted to develop a new sponge type of biomaterial to be used for either wound dressing or scaffold for tissue engineering. We designed to make a comparative study of the wound healing effect of silk fibroin/hyaluronic acid (SF/HA) blend sponge in full-thickness dermal injury model of rat. Two full-thickness excisions were made on the back of the experimental animals. The excised wound was covered with either the silk fibroin (SF), hyaluronic acid (HA) or SF/HA (7 : 3 or 5 : 5 ratio) blend sponge. On the postoperative days of 3, 7, 10 and 14, the wound area was calculated by image analysis software. Simultaneously, the tissues were stained with Hematoxylin-Eosin and Masson's trichrome methods to measure the area of regenerated epithelium and collagen deposition. In addition, we evaluated the degree of the epithelial cell proliferation using immunohistochemistry for proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). We found that the half healing time ($HT_{50}$) of SF/HA blend sponge treated groups were significantly decreased as compared with either those of SF or HA treatment group. Furthermore, SF/HA blend sponges significantly increased the size of epithelialization and collagen deposition as well as the number of PCNA positive cells on epidermal basement membrane as compared with those of control treatment. Especially, the 5 : 5 ratio group of SF/HA among all treatment groups was most effective on wound healing rate and histological studies. These results suggest that SF/HA blend sponges could accelerate the wound healing process through the increase of epithelialization, collagen deposition and basal cell proliferation in full thickness skin injury.

• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.17-23
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• 2012

Objectives : Schisandrae Fructus (SF) has traditionally been used to balance level of body fluid and to strengthen kidney function. It has been reported that the SF extract has antioxidant, hepatoprotective, neuroprotective and anticancer effects. This study investigated an antiproliferative effect of SF extract on PC-3 human prostate cancer cells and analyzed active ingredients of SF extract qualitatively and quantitatively. Methods : We examined the antiproliferative effect of SF extract with MTT assay, DAPI staining and annexin-V/7-AAD double staining. The active ingredients of SF extract were identified by using HPTLC and HPLC/DAD system. Results : SF-chloroform fraction inhibited growth of PC-3 cells and changed the morphology of nucleus in a dose dependent manner. A dose-dependent apoptotic cell death was also measured by flow cytometry analysis. It was analyzed that SF-chloroform fraction contained more schizandrin than other fractions by using HPTLC and HPLC/DAD system. Conclusions : These results suggest that SF extract and schizandrin may be a potential chemotherapeutic agent for the control of PC-3 human prostate cancer cells.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.200-208
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• 2011

Most problematic antibiotic resistance mechanism for MLS (macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramn B) antibiotics encountered in clinical practice is mono- or dimethylation of specific adenine residue at 2058 (E. coli coordinate) of 23S rRNA which is performed by Erm (erythromycin ribosome resistance) protein through which bacterial ribosomes reduce the affinity to the antibiotics and become resistant to them. ErmSF is one of the four gene products produced by Streptomyces fradiae to be resistant to its own antibiotic, tylosin. Unlike other Erm proteins, ErmSF harbors idiosyncratic long N-terminal end region (NTER) 25% of which is comprised of arginine well known to interact with RNA. Furthermore, NTER was found to be important because when it was truncated, most of the enzyme activity was lost. Based on these facts, capability of NTER peptide to inhibit the enzymatic activity of ErmSF was sought. For this, expression system for two different proteins to be expressed in one cell was developed. In this system, two plasmids, pET23b and pACYC184 have unique replication origins to be compatible with each other in a cell. And expression system harboring promoter, ribosome binding site and transcription termination signal is identical but disparate amount of protein could be expressed according to the copy number of each vector, 15 for pACYC and 40 for pET23b. Expression of NTER peptide in pET23b together with ErmSF in pACYC 184 in E. coli successfully gave more amounts of NTER than ErmSF but no inhibitory effects were observed suggesting that there should be dynamicity in interaction between ErmSF and rRNA rather than simple and fixed binding to each other in methylation of 23S rRNA by ErmSF.