• Journal of Life Science
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.1005-1010
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• 2008

In this study, we investigated the inhibitory effect of four solvent fractions of Alnus firma on ${\alpha}-amylase$, ${\alpha}-glucosidase$ and aldose reductase activities. The inhibitory test showed that methanol (MeOH) extract and hexane (HX) fraction strongly inhibited pork pancreatin and salivary ${\alpha}-amylase$ activity. The MeOH extract and HX fraction of Alnus firma at the concentration of 4 mg/ml inhibited more than 70% of pancreatin and salivary ${\alpha}-amylase$ activity. The inhibitory effect of fractions has different specificities against ${\alpha}-amylase$ from pancreatin and salivary. In addition, the MeOH extract and butanol (BuOH) fraction showed the highest inhibitory activity on yeast ${\alpha}-glucosidase$ at values of $IC_{50}$ $137.36\;{\mu}g/ml$ and $115.14\;{\mu}g/ml$ respectively. The MeOH extract and BuOH fraction showed the highest inhibitory activity on yeast ${\alpha}-glucosidase$ than commercial agent such as 1-deoxynorjirimycin and acarbose. Inhibition kinetics of solvent fractions showed that ${\alpha}-glucosidase$ has been inhibited noncompetitively by the MeOH, EA and BuOH fraction. The aldose reductase from human muscle cell had been inhibited strongly by the MeOH extract and EA fraction at 57.996% and 83.293% at the concentration of $50\;{\mu}g/ml$, respectively. These findings may contribute to biological significance in that ${\alpha}-amylase$, ${\alpha}-glucosidase$ and aldose reductase inhibitory compounds could be used as a functional food and a drug for the symptomatic treatment of antidiabetic disease in the future.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.271-276
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• 2002

To develop a wrapping film, which suppresses the microbial decay through the storage and prolongs the selflife of fruits and vegetables, the antimicrobial packaging films were prepared and applied to the preservation of strtwberries and cucumbers. Low density polyethylene(LDPE) film of 50㎛ thickness was faricated with 1% of Scutellariae baicalensis extract. The LDPE film impregnated with Scutellariae baicalensis extract showed antimicrobial activity on the disk test against Bacillus cereus, Escherchia coli and Fusarium sp.. The antimicrobial film changed the color and light transmittance, but did not affect heat shrinkage, mechanical tensile strength and wattability. Strawberries and cucumbers were separately wrapped with packaging films in the state of closely-adhered packaging as well as modified atmosphere packaging(MAP). The wrapped strawberries and cucumbers were stored for 21 days at 5$\^{C}$ and for 40 days at l0$\^{C}$, respectively. For the packaged strawberries and cucumbers at 5$\^{C}$ and 10$\^{C}$, the LDPE film impregnated with Scutellariae baicalensis extract showed the reduced growth of total aerobic bacteria, molds and yeasts and did not give any negative effect on other quality attributes during storage in comparison with conttrol film without any additive.

• 한국환경농학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.07a
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• pp.273-282
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• 2009

The transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) disease group are fatal neurodegenerative disorders affecting a wide range of hosts. The group includes kuru and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans, scrapie in sheep and goats and Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle. The exact nature of the infectious agent involved in the transmission of these diseases remains controversial. However, a central event in their pathogenesis is the accumulation in infected tissues of an abnormal form of a host-encoded protein, the prion protein (PrP). Whereas the normal cellular protein is fully sensitive to protease ($PrP^{sen}$), the disease-associated prion protein ($PrP^d$) is only partly degraded ($PrP^{res}$), its amino-terminal end being removed. BSE was first reported in the mid-80s in the UK. Ten years later, a new form of human prion disease, variant CJD (vCJD) developed in the wake of the BSE epidemic, and there is now strong scientific evidence that vCJD was initiated by the exposure of humans to BSE-infected tissues, thus indicating a zoonotic disease. However, the ban on the feeding of animal-derived proteins to ruminants, and the apparent lack of vertical transmission of BSE, have led to a decline in the incidence of the disease within cattle herd and therefore, an assumed decreased risk for human contacting vCJD. The origin of the original case(s) of BSE still remains an enigma even though three hypotheses have been raised. Hypotheses are i) sheep- or goat-derived scrapie-infected tissues included in meat and bone meal fed to cattle, ii) a previously undetected sporadic or genetic bovine TSE contaminating cattle feed or iii) originating from a human TSE through animal feed contaminated with human remains. A host cellular membrane protein ($PrP^C$), which is abundant in central nervous system tissue, appear to be conformationally altered in the diseased host into a prion protein ($PrP^{Sc}$). This $PrP^{Sc}$ is detergent insoluble and partially protease-resistant ($PrP^{res}$). The term $PrP^{res}$ is normally used to describe the protein detected after protease treatment, in techniques such as Western immunoblotting, and enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay using fresh/frozen tissue. Immunohistochemistry may performed with formalin-fixed tissues. Also, clinical signs of the BSE are one of the major diagnostic indicators. Recently, atypical forms (known as H- and L-type) of BSE have appeared in several European countries, Japan, Canada and the United States. An unusual case was also reported in a miniature zebu. The atypical BSE fall into two groups based on the relative molecular mass (Mm) of the unglycosylated $PrP^{res}$ band relative to that of classical BSE, one of the higher Mm (H-type) and the other lower (L-type). Both types have been detected worldwide as rare cases in older animals, at a low prevalence consistent with the possibility of sporadic forms of prion diseases in cattle. This raises the unwelcome possibility that vCJD could increase in the human population. Now, active surveillance program against BSE is going on in Korea. In regional veterinary service lab, ELISA is applied to screen the BSE in slaughter and confirmatory tests by Western immunoblotting and immunohistochemisty are carried out if there are positive or suspect in the screening test. Also, the ruminant feed ban is rigorously enforced. Removal of specified risk materials such as brain and spinal cord from cattle is mandatory process at slaughter to prevent the infected material from entering the human food chain.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.20 no.5 s.94
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• pp.376-382
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• 2005

Avermectin (AVM) $B_{1a}$ produced by Streptomyces avermitilis via polyketide pathway is a secondary metabolite with powerful anthelmintic and insecticidal activities, thus being used as an efficient agent in the field of agriculture and animal health. It has been reported that a precursor for AVM $B_{1a}$ biosynthesis was isoleucine and the biosynthetic pathway of AVM $B_{1a}$ was closely similar to that of fatty acid. Based on understanding of the biosynthetic pathway of AVM $B_{1a}$, we intended to screen various mutants resistant against O-methyl threonine (OMT), an isoleucine-anti metabolite, and/or mutants resistant against p-fluoro phenoxy acetic acid (pFAC), an inhibitor of fatty acid biosynthesis. It was inferred that these mutants could produce AVM $B_{1a}$ more efficiently, due to the acquired capability of not only overproducing isoleucine intracellularly but also channelling metabolized carbon-sources into the polyketide pathway, thus leading to enhanced biosynthesis of AVM $B_{1a}$. The resulting mutant (PFA-1 strain) resistant against 100 ppm of pFAC was able to produce approximately 42 fold higher amount of AVM $B_{1a}$ compared to the parallel mother strain (4,200 vs. 100 units/l). In addition, through the process of continuous strain improvement program carried out by gradually increasing the OMT concentration, it was possible to obtain a more attractive mutant with greater AVM $B_{1a}$ production capacity (9,000 units/l). Notable was that significantly higher producer (12,000 units/l) could be selected through further screening of the resistant mutants, this time, to even higher concentration of PFAC. Meanwhile, through the analysis of AVM Bla production histograms (i.e., number of strains according to their AVM $B_{1a}$ biosynthetic ability) for the earlier strains in comparison with the high producers having the characteristics of resistance to OMT and pFAC, it was found that production stability of the high-yielding producers were remarkably improved, as demonstrated by the fact that larger proportion of the mutated strains had greater capability of AVM $B_{1a}$ biosynthesis ($71\%$ in the range between 5,000 and 7,000 units/L; $47\%$ in the range between 6,000 and 7,000 units/l). Based on these consequences, it was concluded that the rational screening strategy based on the understanding of the biosynthetic pathway of AVM $B_{1a}$ was very effective in obtaining high-yielding mutants with the features of enhanced production stability.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.45 no.11
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• pp.1589-1594
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• 2016

Piperine [(E,E)-5-(3,4-methtylenedioxyphenyl)-2,4-pentadienolypiperidide] is a principal of Piperaceae, including Piper nigrum L. and Piper longum Linn., which has been used as a spice and traditional medicine. In this study, we investigated whether or not piperine has anti-cancer effects on AGS human gastric cancer cells. The results demonstrated that piperine not only inhibited proliferation using MTT assay but also induced apoptotic bodies using DAPI assay in a dose-dependent manner in response to piperine. Expression levels of p53, Bax (pro-apoptotic), cleaved caspase-9, and cleaved-PARP increased, whereas expression levels of Bcl-2, XIAP (anti-apoptotic), and Akt decreased in a dose-dependent manner compared with the control by western blotting analysis. To identify the connection between phospo-Akt and Bcl-2 family in response to piperine, LY249002 (Akt inhibitor) was treated with piperine ($150{\mu}M$). The results were shown that expression of phospo-Akt was reduced whereas expression of Bax and cleaved-PARP increased in a dose-dependent manner. These results indicate that piperine induced apoptosis in AGS cells and may serve as a chemopreventive or therapeutic agent for human gastric cancer.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.105-113
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• 2015

The theory of landscape architecture applies environmental ethics in order to secure an ecological status. However, environmental ethics that focus on nature conservation excludes landscape architecture as artifacts. In the process, it is hard to identify what landscape architecture insists on as the middle position between humans and nature. Rather, landscape architecture pretends to be an 'agent of nature' and pushes the traditional moral values 'for people.' Therefore, the purpose of this study is to reestablish the anthropocentrism moral position of landscape architecture through critical analysis. Hargrove's weak anthropocentrism' of several environmental ethics branches accepts natural aesthetics(such as landscape architecture) as an ethical virtue. But environmental ethics makes landscape architecture a critical target. For that reason, this study looked into critical contents and objects that in a position to moral, aesthetic and landscape architecture. Critical details are as follows: First, nature is an absolute as an aesthetic and moral value, but landscape architecture is an imitation and takes a relaxed attitude about nature. Second, nature is full of aesthetic substance because it is self-creative, but landscape architecture is designed nature covered human flaws through imagination. Third, environmental management granting techniques in nature generate a moral nihilism. As an argument, environmental ethics overlooked the moral practices of landscape architecture beyond nature another moral aspect of creation and the imagination-and moral aspects of environmental management as 'care' because they rule out 'moral autonomy' and simplify what is considered 'good.' As a result, conservation cannot be the only virtue why the problem of nature in reality cannot be separated from human life. The moral position of landscape architecture based on a 'good life' is more appropriate under anthropocentrism than as a middle position.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.197-206
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• 2013

The present study investigated whether leukemia-maintaining cells reside in a differentiation-resistant fraction using a megakaryocytic differentiation model of K562 cells. Treatment with phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA) significantly inhibited the colony-forming efficiency of the K562 cells. At a PMA concentration of 1 nM or higher, colony was not formed, but approximately 40% of K562 cells still survived in soft agar. Approximately 70% of colony-forming cells that were isolated following the removal of PMA after exposure to the agent were differentiated after treatment with 10 nM PMA for 3 days. The differentiation rate of the colony-forming cells was gradually increased and reached about 90% 6 weeks after colony isolation, which was comparable to the level of a PMA-treated K562 control. Meanwhile, imatinib-resistant variants from the K562 cells, including K562/R1, K562/R2, and K562/R3 cells, did not show any colony-forming activity, and most imatinib-resistant variants were CD44 positive. After 4 months of culture in drug-free medium, the surface level of CD44 was decreased in comparison with primary imatinib-resistant variants, and a few colonies were formed from K562/R3 cells. In these cells, Bcr-Abl, which was lost in the imatinib-resistant variants, was re-expressed, and the original phenotypes of the K562 cells were partially recovered. These results suggest that leukemia-maintaining cells might reside in a differentiation-resistant population. Differentiation therapy to eliminate leukemia-maintaining cells could be a successful treatment for leukemia if the leukemia-maintaining cells were exposed to a differentiation inducer for a long time and at a high dose.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.634-649
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• 2020

Recently, stream longitudinal connectivity has been a topic of investigation due to the frequent disconnections and the impact of aquatic ecosystems caused by the construction of small and medium-sized weirs and various artificial structures (fishways) directly influencing the stream ecosystem health. In this study, the international and domestic research trends of the longitudinal connectivity in aquatic ecosystems were evaluated and the applicability of fish-based longitudinal connectivity models used in developed countries was analyzed. For these purposes, we analyzed the current status of research on longitudinal connectivity and structural problems, fish monitoring methodology, monitoring approaches, longitudinal disconnectivity of fish movement, and biodiversity. In addition, we analyzed the current status and some technical limitations of physical habitat suitability evaluation, ecology-based water flow, eco-hydrological modeling for fish habitat connectivity, and the s/w program development for agent-based model. Numerous references, data, and various reports were examined to identify worldwide longitudinal stream connectivity evaluation models in European and non-European countries. The international approaches to longitudinal connectivity evaluations were categorized into five phases including 1) an approach integrating fish community and artificial structure surveys (two types input variables), 2) field monitoring approaches, 3) a stream geomorphological approach, 4) an artificial structure-based DB analytical approach, and 5) other approaches. the overall evaluation of survey methodologies and applicability for longitudinal stream connectivity suggested that the ICE model (Information sur la Continuite Ecologique) and the ICF model (Index de Connectivitat Fluvial), widely used in European countries, were appropriate for the application of longitudinal connectivity evaluations in Korean streams.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.181-190
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• 2023

Domestic hop (Humulus lupulus L.) production has been suspended since the early 1990s due to foreign imports, but interest in local production is rising due to the recent craft beer boom in Korea. This study was conducted focusing on the development of growth characteristics and propagation technology for 6 introduced hop cultivars as a basic study for domestic hop production and breeding program. In the hop growth survey conducted in 2021 and 2022, the 5-year-old plants after planting generally showed a tendency to increase the height of strobile setting, strobile size, number and weight of strobile per hill compared to the 4-year-old plants. As a result of the experiment with hop vine cuttings, the average rooting rate of all cultivars was as high as 88% even in only water treatment that were not added with Atonik (Atonik, Arysta, Japan), a rooting agent. There were differences between cultivars in rooting length and rooting rate according to the Atonik treatment method. When checking the survival rate of the rooted cuttings seedlings after transplanting into the soil, it was confirmed that the survival rate of the cuttings in the tissue culture room was significantly lower than that of the cuttings in the greenhouse. However, in transplanting step, cutting plants from culture room condition was strongly inhibited plant growth because of changing environment conditions. As a results of tissue culture, the thidiazuron (TDZ) 1 ㎎/L treatment in the media generated 6 to 9 shoots/explant, while the 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) 1 ㎎/L treatment generated only 1 to 2 shoots/explant. Therefore, it is more effective to culture by adding TDZ rather than BAP. These results indicated that the development of technology to manage stably after transplanting of cutting or micropropagating plants into potting soil is important for mass propagation of hops.