• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.3.1-3.10
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• 2023

Characterization as well as prediction of the secondary and tertiary structure of hypothetical proteins from their amino acid sequences uploaded in databases by in silico approach are the critical issues in computational biology. Severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which is responsible for pneumonia alike diseases, possesses a wide range of proteins of which many are still uncharacterized. The current study was conducted to reveal the physicochemical characteristics and structures of an uncharacterized protein Q6S8D9_SARS of SARS-CoV. Following the common flowchart of characterizing a hypothetical protein, several sophisticated computerized tools e.g., ExPASy Protparam, CD Search, SOPMA, PSIPRED, HHpred, etc. were employed to discover the functions and structures of Q6S8D9_SARS. After delineating the secondary and tertiary structures of the protein, some quality evaluating tools e.g., PROCHECK, ProSA-web etc. were performed to assess the structures and later the active site was identified also by CASTp v.3.0. The protein contains more negatively charged residues than positively charged residues and a high aliphatic index value which make the protein more stable. The 2D and 3D structures modeled by several bioinformatics tools ensured that the proteins had domain in it which indicated it was functional protein having the ability to trouble host antiviral inflammatory cytokine and interferon production pathways. Moreover, active site was found in the protein where ligand could bind. The study was aimed to unveil the features and structures of an uncharacterized protein of SARS-CoV which can be a therapeutic target for development of vaccines against the virus. Further research are needed to accomplish the task.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.527-534
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• 1999

This study was carried out to investigate the effects of pine needle extracts on lipid oxidation and free radical reaction in iron sources reacted with active oxygen species. The results were summarized as follow; the catalytic effects of active oxygen on lipid oxidation in oil emulsion tended to be showed $OH,\;H_2O_2\;and\;KO_2$ in order. At the same time, pine needle extracts itself were tended to be showed a little catalytic effects. Active oxygen scavenging ability of pine needle extracts didn't show, but pine needle extracts played role as a strong chelating agents to bind iron ion if $Fe^{2+}$ ion exist in oil emulsion. The content of $Fe^{2+}$ ion and total iron in CPNP were higher than those of HPNP and FPN. The content of ascorbic acid of FPN showed the highest (87.77 ppm) among several pine needle extracts. Electron donating ability of HPNP and CPNP were 81% and 78%, respectively, which were showed higher content than those of FPN. The SOD-like activity of HPNP showed 44.30%, compared to other pine needle extracts which means the most strong antioxidant reaction. The nitrite scavenging effects were tended to be different, depending on pH value as pH value was increased. Especially, they didn't show the nitrite scavenging effect in pH6.0.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.389-397
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• 2017

Friedel's salt is an important product of chemical adsorption between cement hydrate and chloride ions because it contains chlorine in its structure. When cement reacts with water in the presence of chloride ions, the $C_3A$ phase, and $C_4AF$ phase react with chloride to produce Friedel's salt. If chloride ions penetrate into concrete from external environments, many calcium aluminate hydrates, including AFm, can bind chloride ions. It is very important, therefore, to investigate the chloride binding isotherm of $C_3A$ phase, $C_4AF$ phase, and AFm phase to gain a better understanding of chloride binding in cementitious materials. Meanwhile, the adsorption isotherm can provide us with the fundamental information for the understanding of adsorption process. The experimental results of the isotherm can supply not only the quantitative knowledge of the cement-Friedel's salt system, but also the mechanism of adsorption and the properties of their interactions. The purpose of this study is to explore the time dependant behaviors of chloride ions adsorption with $C_3A$, $C_4AF$ and AFm phases. The chloride adsorption isotherm was depicted with Langmuir isotherm and the adsorption capacity was low in terms of the stoichiometric point of view. However, the chloride adsorption of AFm phase was depicted with Freundlich isotherm and the value was very low. Since the amount of the adsorption was governed by temperature, the affecting parameters of isotherm were expressed as a function of temperature.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.789-795
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• 2002

To evaluate the bind rate and behavior of two types chloride ion-one is the chloride ion added in mixture when un-washed sea sand is used as fine aggregate, one is the chloride ion admitted in the new version of concrete standard specification, pore solution extracted in cement paste were analyzed. The results are follow. 1 As passing the time, the chloride concentration in the pore solution decreases with the Increase in the chloride content absorbed by the hydrate products. As compared with chloride contents in mixing water, the bound ratio of chloride at 49 days is 64∼90％. 2. The bound ratio of chloride in cement paste considering evaporable water as pore solution is obtained. In case of Pl∼P3(added chloride content wt of cement 0.046∼0.16 ％), the bound ratio of chloride is 91.8∼93.5 ％. P4(added chloride wt of cement 0.3％) is 89.1％, but P5(added chloride wt of cement 0.617％) bound is only 77％. 3. The bound ratio of chloride to wt of cement is 0.015∼0.475％ with adding chloride. In case chloride added over 0.091 ％ wt of cement, the bound chloride content increases 1.7∼1.8 times in spite of added chloride increase twice. The bound ratio of chloride to wt of cement decreased with the increase in the chloride content. 4. The more increase added chloride content, the more increase the bound ration of chloride. But the absolute value of chloride content in pore solution increased.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.175-180
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• 2010

Albumin-modification has been viewed as one of the most effective ways of extending the short in vivo lifetimes of peptide drugs by delaying glomerular filtration. In this study, we describe a new type 2 anti-diabetic exendin-4 (Ex4) peptide derivative with significant binding ability to human serum albumin (HSA). This exendin-4 derivative consists of a 4-branched polyethylene glycol $(PEG)_{5k}$ (Mw: 20 kDa) modified with three stearylamines ($C_{18}-NH_2$) and one exendin-4 on its branches. PEG and stearylamine were selected to provide functionality to increase molecular size and bind to albumin, respectively. This derivative ($3C_{18}-4PEG_{5k}$-Ex4) was shown to have larger molecular size (Ca. 152 kDa) than actual (25.0 kDa) when subjected to size-exclusion chromatography, and the fluorescein-tagged $3C_{18}-4PEG_{5k}$-Ex4 displayed significant binding to the HSA-immobilized Sepharose CL-4B resin using confocal laser scanning microscopy. Furthermore, $3C_{18}-4PEG_{5k}$-Ex4 was found to have acceptable anti-hyperglycemic efficacy via three consecutive oral glucose tolerance testings (OGTT) in fasted type 2 diabetic db/db mice. The $HD_{total}$ value ($57.6{\pm}12.3%$) of $3C_{18}-4PEG_{5k}$-Ex4 at a 50 nmol/kg dose was 2-fold greater than that ($31.0{\pm}8.7%$) of native exendin-4 in non-fasted db/db mice. Especially, the blood glucose levels in the mice group treated with $3C_{18}-4PEG_{5k}$-Ex4 did not rebound to ~150 mg/dL until 24 h after the injection, which obviously shows the extended hypoglycemia. We believe that this derivative has great pharmaceutical potential as a novel long-acting type 2 anti-diabetic injection treatment.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.37-45
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• 1991

Infarct size is a major determinant of prognosis after acute myocardial infarction. Up to date, however, clinically available tests to estimate this size have not been sufficiently accurate. Twelve lead electrocardiogram and wall motion abnormality measurement are not quantitative, and creatine phophokinase (CPK) measurement is inaccurate in the presence of reperfusion or right ventricular infarction. Methods have been developed to localize and size acute myocardial infarcts with agents that are selectively sequestered in areas of myocardial damage, but previously used agents have lacked sufficient specificity. Antibodies that bind specifically only to damaged myocardial cells may resolve this problem and provide an accurate method for noninvasively measuring infarct size. We determined the accuracy with which infarcted myocardial mass can be measured using single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and radiolabeled antimyosin antibodies. Seven patients with acute myocardial infarction and one stable angina patient were injected with 2 mCi of Indium-111 labeled antimyosin antibodies. Planar image and SPECT was performed 24 hours later. None of the patients had history of prior infarcts, and none had undergone reperfusion techniques prior to the study, which was done within 4 days of the attack. Planar image showed all infarct patients to have postive uptakes in the cardiac region. The location of this uptake correlated to the infarct site as indicated by electrocardiography in most of the cases. The angina patient, however, showed no such abnormal uptake. Infarct size was determined from transverse slices of the SPECT image using a 45% threshold value obtained from a phantom study. Measured infarct size ranged from 40 to 192 gr. There was significant correlation between the infarct size measured by SPECT and that estimated from serial measurements of CPK (r=0.73, p<0.05). These date suggest that acute myocardial infarct size can be accurately measured from SPECT Indium-111 antimyosin imaging. This method may be especially valuable in situations where other methods are unreliable, such as early reperfusion technique, right ventricular infarct or presence of prior infarcts.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.88-94
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• 2013

The hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) is well known as a hazardous ion, presumably inducing dermatic diseases and if serious cancer. The present study concerns the binding capacity of Cr(VI) ions in the cement powder and matrix for a quantitative technique of Cr(VI) ions in cement to influence human health. Both the water-soluble and acid-soluble Cr(VI) ions present in 3 types of ordinary Portland cement (OPC), pulverised fuel ash (PFA), ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS), and silica fume (SF) were measured using the spectrophotometer. As a result, it was found that the concentration of water-soluble Cr(VI) ion in cement ranged from 10.5 to 18.9mg/kg-cement, and in the additional materials a very low value of Cr(VI) ion was measured. Acid-soluble Cr(VI) ion was even higher than water-soluble Cr(VI) ion, ranging from 172.4 to 318.2mg/kg-cement. Nevertheless, the concentration of acid-soluble Cr(VI) ion is not proportional to addition of acid. It depends rather the variable pH of solvent involving cement paste. As enough cement hydration occurs, the binding capacity of Cr(VI) ion increases, inhibiting this ions from leaching out in the presence of hydration products such as ettringite or tri-calcium aluminate which bind Cr(VI) ion by ion-exchange.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.716-723
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• 1995

The fucoidan purified from Korean brown seaweed, Ecklonia stolonifera was characterized on molecular structure and blood anticoagulant activities. Extraction was conducted at $100^{\circ}C$ with water and repeated twice. The crude fucodian was 151.1g out of 20.0 kg of Ecklonia stolonifera. The Fucoidan-1, which was purified from crude fucoidan using calcium chloride and cetyl pyridium chloride (CPC), was 35.2% against crude fucoidan. Fucoidan-5 was obtained approximately 28.1% from Fucoidan-1 through DEAE-Toyopearl 650 M ion-exchange column chromatography and showed one band by cellulose acetate electrophoresis. The molecular weight of Fucoidan-5 was estimated to be about 21,000∼23,000 dalton by Sephacryl S-300 gel filtration chromatography. Fucoidan-5 consists of 35.7% of fucose and 4.3% of galactose and the molar ratio of fucose and sulfate was about one to one. IR spectrum of Fucoidan-5 showed absorption at $1240\;cm^{-1}\;and\;850\;cm^{-1}$ and specific rotation value, $[\alpha]$, was $[\alpha]$. These results suggests that the sulfate maybe bind at $C_{4}$ carbon on ${\alpha}-L-fucose$. Gas chromatograph of methyl alditol acetate revealed that Fucoidan-5 is a fucose containing sulfated polysaccharide with $({\alpha}l-2)\;or\;({\alpha}l-2)$ glycosidic linkage. Anti-thrombin activity of the Fucoidan-5 was estimated as 1.4 time stronger than heparin. From above results, the purification methods using CPC and ion exchange chromatography is effective tools for obtaining highly purified fucoidan from Gompi, Ecklonia stolonifera.