• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.12
• /
• pp.6191-6196
• /
• 2012

Aims and Background: Traditional chemotherapy strategies for human leukemia commonly use drugs based on cytotoxicity to eradicate cancer cells. One predicament is that substantial damage to normal tissues is likely to occur in the course of standard treatments. Obviously, it is urgent to explore therapies that can effectively eliminate malignant cells without affecting normal cells. Our previous studies indicated that ginsenoside $Rg_1$ ($Rg_1$), a major active pharmacological ingredient of ginseng, could delay normal hematopoietic stem cell senescence. However, whether $Rg_1$ can induce cancer cell senescence is still unclear. Methods: In the current study, human leukemia K562 cells were subjected to $Rg_1$ exposure. The optimal drug concentration and duration with K562 cells was obtained by MTT colorimetric test. Effects of $Rg_1$ on cell cycle were analyzed using flow cytometry and by SA-${\beta}$-Gal staining. Colony-forming ability was measured by colony-assay. Telomere lengths were assessed by Southern blotting and expression of senescence-associated proteins P21, P16 and RB by Western blotting. Ultrastructural morphology changes were observed by transmission electron microscopy. Results: K562 cells demonstrated a maximum proliferation inhibition rate with an $Rg_1$ concentration of $20{\mu}\;mol{\cdot}L^{-1}$ for 48h, the cells exhibiting dramatic morphological alterations including an enlarged and flat cellular morphology, larger mitochondria and increased number of lysosomes. Senescence associated-${\beta}$-galactosidase (SA-${\beta}$-Gal) activity was increased. K562 cells also had decreased ability for colony formation, and shortened telomere length as well as reduction of proliferating potential and arrestin $G_2$/M phase after $Rg_1$ interaction. The senescence associated proteins P21, P16 and RB were significantly up-regulated. Conclusion: Ginsenoside $Rg_1$ can induce a state of senescence in human leukemia K562 cells, which is associated with p21-Rb and p16-Rb pathways.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.1-17
• /
• 2015

Ecological reservoir is a multifunctional space where provides the functions of retention, animal habitat and improvement of ecosystem health and landscape. The ecological reservoir of Anteo Eco Park located in Gwangmyeong-si has established to functions for water purification, maintenance of healthy aquatic ecosystem. Because the Anteo Eco Park is located in the site where nonpoint pollutant materials flow in, Anteo Eco Park has potential factors which aquatic ecosystem health deteriorates and damages the habitat of golden frog(Rana plancyi chosenica) which is restoration target species. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to suggest the plan to manage the variables which impede the right functions of aquatic ecosystem by understanding the causal loop diagram for the change of water quality environment and the interaction of predator-prey through system thinking. The results are as follows. First, the study showed that the individual number of golden frog which is an indicator species of Anteo Eco Park is threatened by snakeheaded fish, which is an upper predator. Therefore, balanced food chain should be hold to protect golden frog by capturing the snakeheaded fish which is individual number's density is high, and the monitoring management of the individual number for predator(snakeheaded fish)-prey(golden frog) should be performed. Second, the study represented that water pollution and carnification is caused by the sediment as the dead body of the large emergent vegetation in the winter cumulates as sediment. Ecological reservoir in Anteo Eco Park has been managed by eliminating the dead body of the large emergent vegetation, but the guideline for the proper density maintenance of vegetation community is additionally needed. Lastly, the study showed that aquatic ecosystem of Anteo Eco Park where is contaminated from the inflow of nonpoint pollutants affects the individual number's decline of golden frog and snakeheaded fish. Accordingly, the creation of a buffer area and a substitution wetland is needed in the periphery of the Anteo Eco Park to control the inflow of nonpoint pollutants including organic matters, nutrients and heavy metals. This study will be helpful that Anteo Eco Park improves the regional landscape and maintain healthy aquatic ecosystem space for the park visitors including local residents.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.8
• /
• pp.3651-3657
• /
• 2014

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has a relatively higher incidence in many countries of Asia. Globally, HCC has a high fatality rate and short survival. Epirubicin, a doxorubicin analogue, may be administered alone or in combination with other agents to treat primary liver cancer and metastatic diseases. However, the toxic effects of epirubicin to normal tissues and cells have been one of the major obstacles to successful cancer chemotherapy. Here, we investigated the effects of epirubicin in combination with kappa-selenocarrageenan on mice with H22 implanted tumors and HepG-2 cell proliferation, immune organ index, morphology, cell cycle and related protein expressions in vivo and in vitro with sequential drug exposure. The inhibitory rate of tumor growth in vivo was calculated. Drug sensitivity was measured by MTT assay, and the King's principle was used to evaluate the interaction of drug combination. Morphological changes were observed by fluorescent microscopy. Cell cycle changes were analyzed by flow cytometry. Expression of cyclin A, Cdc25A and Cdk2 were detected by Western blotting. In vivo results demonstrated that the inhibitory rate of EPI combined with KSC was higher than that of KSC or EPI alone, and the Q value indicated an additive effect. In addition, KSC could significantly raise the thymus and spleen indices of mice with H22 implanted tumors. In the drug sensitivity assay in vitro, exposure to KSC and EPI simultaneously was more effective than exposure sequentially in HepG-2 cells, while exposure to KSC prior to EPI was more effective than exposure to EPI prior to KSC. Q values showed an additive effect in the simultaneous group and antagonistic effects in the sequential groups. Morphological analysis showed similar results to the drug sensitivity assay. Cell cycle analysis revealed that exposure to KSC or EPI alone arrested the cells in S phase in HepG-2 cells, exposure to KSC and EPI simultaneously caused accumulation in the S phase, an effect caused by either KSC or EPI. Expression of cyclin A, Cdc25A and Cdk2 protein was down-regulated following exposure to KSC and EPI alone or in combination, exposure to KSC and EPI simultaneously resulting in the lowest values. Taken together, our findings suggest that KSC in combination with EPI might have potential as a new therapeutic regimen against HCC.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.38 no.4
• /
• pp.1-10
• /
• 2010

The scientific verification of the physiological and psychological effects that result from interaction with green plants would not only provide objective knowledge on the psychological effect of green but would also establish useful grounds for the creation of green spaces that consider human emotions. The present study measured the cerebral activity(cerebral blood flow) and the autonomic nervous system activity (blood pressure, pulse rate, amylase) of fifteen Korean male subjects as they inhaled the natural scent diffused by pine needles. Impression and mood state evaluations of the reactions to the pine scent were carried out using the SD method and POMS. Cerebral activity was observed to be significantly activated in the feeling, judgment, and motor areas of the frontal lobe, as well as the memory area in the temporal lobe. Verbal evaluations by the SD method and POMS indicated a pine scent left natural but stimulated and active impressions, provided vigor, and also reduced confusion. The autonomic nervous system activities, however, showed no significant differences. These findings verified scientifically that a pine scent vitalizes humans both physiologically and psychologically. These results could be useful as fundamental data for the design of green spaces that consider human emotional aspects.

• Progress in Medical Physics
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.159-168
• /
• 1999

Cardiac disease is one of the leading causes of death in Korea. In quantitative analysis of cardiac function and morphological information by three-dimensional reconstruction of magnetic resonance images, left ventricle provides an important role functionally and physiologically. However, existing procedures mostly rely on the extensive human interaction and are seldom evaluated on clinical applications. In this study, we developed a system which could perform automatic extraction of enpicardial and endocardial contour and analysis of cardiac function to evaluate reliability and stability of each system comparing with the result of ARGUS system offered 1.5T Siemens MRI system and manual method performed by clinicians. For various aspects, we investigated reliability of each system by compared with left ventricular contour, end-diastolic volume (EDV), end-systolic volume (ESV), stock volume (SV), ejection fraction (EF), cardiac output (CO) and wall thickness (WT). When comparing with manual method, extracted results of developed process using minimum error threshold (MET) method that automatically extracts contour from cardiac MR images and ARGUS system were demonstrated as successful rate 90% of the contour extraction. When calculating cardiac function parameters using MET and comparing with using correlation coefficients analysis method, the process extracts endocardial and epicardial contour using MET, values from automatic and ARGUS method agreed with manual values within :t 3% average error. It was successfully demonstrated that automatic method using threshold technique could provide high potential for assessing of each parameters with relatively high reliability compared with manual method. In this study, the method developed in this study could reduce processing time compared with ARGUS and manual method due to a simple threshold technique. This method is useful for diagnosis of cardiac disease, simulating physiological function and amount of blood flow of left ventricle. In addition, this method could be valuable in developing automatic systems in order to apply to other deformable image models.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
• /
• v.48 no.12
• /
• pp.1023-1035
• /
• 2015

This study applies 3-D N-S solver based on PBM (Porous Body Model), LED-WASS-3D ver 2.0 to directly analyze non-linear interaction of seawater-freshwater-coastal aquifer in order to simulate the seawater infiltration into coastal aquifer. This numerical simulation is the first trial in Korea, as well as unusual and new numerical analysis abroad. Firstly, to validate the applied numerical model, the validity and effectiveness was verified for the numerical model by comparing and considering it with the result of laboratory experiment for seawater-freshwater interface in coastal aquifer. And then it simulated the seawater infiltration into coastal aquifer considering the changed levels of seawater and groundwater in order to analyze the distribution characteristics of flow field and seawater-freshwater interface of coastal aquifer as the level difference between seawater and groundwater and rate of seawater level (${\Delta}h/h$) increased. In addition, the characteristics of seawater infiltration were analyzed from the vertical salinity in the coastal aquifer by ${\Delta}h/h$, which cannot be obtained from existing non-diffusion numerical models. Finally, it analyzed the effect of ${\Delta}h/h$ on the seawater infiltration distance in coastal aquifer, which was indexed.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.752-757
• /
• 2016

Machine to Machine (M2M) communications is communications between a business application and devices via a communication network without any direct human interaction. The aim of our research is to connect any M2M device with an M2M AS (Application server) through an IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) Network Core using a M2M Gateway, in order to develop an M2M Horizontal Services Platform over IMS. An IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is an architectural framework defined by the wireless standards body of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) for delivering IP multimedia services to mobile users. This paper shows the design and implementation of a Horizontal M2M Network Services Platform over an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) using the Message Session Relay Protocol (MSRP). We summarize the protocols and architectures that formed the basis for the creation of our architecture. We provide a detailed description of our architecture design, describing the call flow of the proposed architecture and the entities operating in each process. We also describe the design and implementation process detailing the different tools used, explaining the selection of each component and its importance; also how we designed and implemented the M2M gateway, M2M Application Server, Open IMS Core, business application and M2M devices.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
• /
• v.5 no.2
• /
• pp.119-133
• /
• 1998

Attentional processes facilitate cognitive and behavioral performance in several ways. Attention serves to reduce the amount of information to receive. Attention enables humans to direct themselves to appropriate aspects of external environmental events and internal operations. Attention facilitates the selection of salient information and the allocation of cognitive processing appropriate to that information. Attention is not a unitary process that can be localized to a single neuroanatomical region. Before the cortical registration of sensory information, activation of important subcortical structures occurs, which is called as an orienting response. Once sensory information reaches the sensory cortex, a large number of perceptual processes occur, which provide various levels of perceptual resolution of the critical features of the stimuli. After this preattentional processing, information is integrated within higher cortical(heteromodal) systems in inferior parietal and temporal lobes. At this stage, the processing characteristics can be modified, and the biases of the system have a direct impact on attentional selection. Information flow has been traced through sensory analysis to a processing stage that enables the new information to be focused and modified in relation to preexisting biases. The limbic and paralimbic system play significant roles in modulating attentional response. It is labeled with affective salience and is integrated according to ongoing pressures from the motivational drive system of the hypothalamus. The salience of information greatly influences the allocation of attention. The frontal lobe operate response selection system with a reciprocal interaction with both the attention system of the parietal lobe and the limbic system. In this attentional process, the search with the spatial field is organized and a sequence of attentional responses is generated. Affective, motivational and appectitive impulses from limbic system and hypothalamus trigger response intention, preparation, planning, initiation and control of frontal lobe on this process. The reticular system, which produces ascending activation, catalyzes the overall system and increases attentional capacity. Also additional energetic pressures are created by the hypothalamus. As psychophysiological measurement, skin conductance, pupil diameter, muscle tension, heart rate, alpha wave of EEG can be used. Event related potentials also provide physiological evidence of attention during information process. NI component appears to be an electrophysiological index of selective attention. P3 response is developed during the attention related to stimulus discrimination, evaluation and response.

• Korean Journal of Crystallography
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.127-131
• /
• 1997

The crystal structure of a bromine sorption complex of vacuum-dehydrated Ag+ and Ca2+ exchanged zeolite A(a=12,234(1) Å) has been determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction methods in the cubic space group Pm3m. The crystal was prepared by flow method using exchange solution in which mole ratio of AgNo3 and Ca(NO3)2 was 1:150 with a total concentration of 0.05M. The crystal was dehydrated at 360℃ and 2 ×10-6 Torr for 2days, followed by exposure to 180 Torr of Br2 vapor for 20min. full-matrix least-squares refinements converged to the final error indices of R1=0.111 and R2=0.101 using 90 reflections for which I>3o(I). About 3.1 Ag+ ions and 4.45 Ca2+ ions lie on the two crystallographically nonequivalent three-fold axes associated with 6-ring oxygens. A total of six bromine molecules are sorbed per unit cell. Each bromine molecule approaches a framework oxide ions axially (Br-Br-O=171(2)', O-Br=3.25(6) Å; and Br-Br=2,61(8) Å by a charge-transfer interaction.

• Elastomers and Composites
• /
• v.46 no.1
• /
• pp.45-53
• /
• 2011

The effect of the silane coupling agent, bis(triethoxysilypropyl)tetrasulfide (TESPT), on mechanical properties of a silica-filled NBR compound for oilseal was investigated. Curing behavior and crosslinking density of the compounds were measured using ODR (oscillating disk rheometer) and swelling ratio in toluene. UTM (universal testing machine) and shore A hardness tester were used in order to study the characteristics of mechanical properties of original vulcanizates and aged ones with heated air and ASTM No. 3. oil. Recovery of elasticity which influences the performance and service life of oilseal was investigated by giving bending deformation to vulcanizates in aging condition. After bending aging test, recovery distance was measured and calculated angle of recovery from it. TR (temperature retraction) test was performed on these vulcanizates to determine the low temperature recovery behavior. Wear resistance was measured by Taber type abrasion tester. In addition, SEM was used to characterize the morphology of the worn surface of vulcanizates. The result showed that addition of TESPT into silica-filled compound improves not only compound flow-ability, interaction between NBR and silica and crosslinking density, but also hardness, 100% modulus, recovery of elasticity, wear resistance, heat resistance and ASTM No.3 oil resistance of vulcanizates.