• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.234-239
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• 1992

The experiment was performed to find out the possibilities to detect virus infection in oyster mushrooms, Pleurotus species by analysis of doublestranded ribonucleic acid (ds RNA). Ds RNA segments were extracted from virus infected isolates which grew abnormally. But virus free isolates didn't show any ds RNA segments. The ds RNA was consisted of one large segment of 8100 base pairs (bp) and 4 smaller segments with 2170, 2120, 1980 and 1984 bp. Whereas, cell free virus particles showed only one larger ds RNA segment. The ds RNA was dissolved by RNase A in low salt, 0.1 M SSC and melted at $85^{\circ}C$. It was possible to use the ds RNA analysis for detecting virus infection directly from the host cells.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.43-59
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• 2010

This study examined how much support families with pre-school children receive for child care along with the types of support they receive. The paper also investigated the factors that influence the financial and social support received from government, employers and grandparents of the children. Data for this study were obtained from a questionnaire completed by mothers of pre-school children (n=641) during the spring of 2009. The data were analyzed by the following methods: $\chi^2$, t-test, ANOVA, Logit analysis, and Tobit analysis using SPSS and STATA software. The profile of support for child care showed that approximately 33 percent of families with pre-school children received free or subsidized child care from the government, 12 percent received some forms of support for child care from the parents' employers, and 26 percent received support from grandparents either financially or in the form of free child care. The results of the Logit analysis demonstrated that families with pre-school children were more likely to receive child care subsides from the government when they had a higher number of pre-school children and a lower level of family income. The significant factors that influence support from employers were mother's educational level, the number of pre-school children, and family income. The significant factors that affect support from grandparents of the children were the mother's age, the mother's employment status, the type of residence, and the family type.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.39-53
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• 1995

The purpose of this study was development of 'Environmental Science' of high school appropriate to Sixth Natinal Education Curriculum. In view that ultimate aim of environmental education is forming responsible environmental behaviors and the goals of values and behaviors are as important as knowledges and skills, A new environmental text of high school level was developed and it was based on analysis of seven texts and environmental education in Fifth Korean Curriculum. This text have seven units, 1.Habitates : What're the Meanings?, 2.Nuclear Energy: Can't be Avoid?, 3.Acid Rain : What're the Messages", 4.Ethanol : Is this Future Fuel?, 5.Wastes : A New War!, 6.What're the National and Global Environmental Issues? and 7.Our Water: Can Drink, Really? This text was stressed equally in goals of four environmental education and avoided from the array of knowledges. Therefore included various teaching strategies and independent actions of students. 'Open-ended value learning' and 'free behavior learning' in text were special learning parts for aquisition of values and formation of behaviors. To verify the effects of new developed environmental text, the direct learning was carried out by 286 students in total. Post test scores of experimental groups per each units were significantly higher than those of control groups about four goals, respectively. The Results of questionnaires by 50 teachers from five different schools were as follows. For validity of selecting contents for units, 74% of respondents replied positively. For classification and presentation of four goal-groups, 90% replied positively in validity and 82%, in utility. For validity of various teaching strategies, 88% and for the degree of including student-centered independent actions, 86% replied positively. For importances and expected effects of 'open-ended value learning' and 'free behavior learning', showed positive responses respectively, 88%, 92%. Therefore this text is effective to acheive four goals of environmental education equally.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.49-57
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• 2020

We present numerical simulations of decaying hydrodynamic turbulence initially driven by solenoidal (divergence-free) and compressive (curl-free) drivings. Most previous numerical studies for decaying turbulence assume an isothermal equation of state (EOS). Here we use a polytropic EOS, P ∝ ρ^γ, with polytropic exponent γ ranging from 0.7 to 5/3. We mainly aim at determining the effects of γ and driving schemes on the decay law of turbulence energy, E ∝ t^-α. We additionally study probability density function (PDF) of gas density and skewness of the distribution in polytropic turbulence driven by compressive driving. Our findings are as follows. First of all, we find that even if γ does not strongly change the decay law, the driving schemes weakly change the relation; in our all simulations, turbulence decays with α ≈ 1, but compressive driving yields smaller α than solenoidal driving at the same sonic Mach number. Second, we calculate compressive and solenoidal velocity components separately and compare their decay rates in turbulence initially driven by compressive driving. We find that the former decays much faster so that it ends up having a smaller fraction than the latter. Third, the density PDF of compressively driven turbulence with γ > 1 deviates from log-normal distribution: it has a power-law tail at low density as in the case of solenoidally driven turbulence. However, as it decays, the density PDF becomes approximately log-normal. We discuss why decay rates of compressive and solenoidal velocity components are different in compressively driven turbulence and astrophysical implication of our findings.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.68-74
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• 2017

Objectives It is well known that problem drinking is associated with alterations of brain structures and functions. Brain functions related to alcohol consumption can be determined by the resting state functional connectivity in various resting state networks (RSNs). This study aims to ascertain the alcohol effect on the structures forming predetermined RSNs by assessing their cortical thickness. Methods Twenty-six abstinent male patients with alcohol dependence and the same number of age-matched healthy control were recruited from an inpatient mental hospital and community. All participants underwent a 3T MRI scan. Averaged cortical thickness of areas constituting 7 RSNs were determined by using FreeSurfer with Yeo atlas derived from cortical parcellation estimated by intrinsic functional connectivity. Results There were significant group differences of mean cortical thicknesses (Cohen's d, corrected p) in ventral attention (1.01, < 0.01), dorsal attention (0.93, 0.01), somatomotor (0.90, 0.01), and visual (0.88, 0.02) networks. We could not find significant group differences in the default mode network. There were also significant group differences of gray matter volumes corrected by head size across the all networks. However, there were no group differences of surface area in each network. Conclusions There are differences in degree and pattern of structural recovery after abstinence across areas forming RSNs. Considering the previous observation that group differences of functional connectivity were significant only in networks related to task-positive networks such as dorsal attention and cognitive control networks, we can explain recovery pattern of cognition and emotion related to the default mode network and the mechanisms for craving and relapse associated with task-positive networks.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.60-69
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• 2013

Purified melanin pigment from Klebsiella sp. GSK was characterized by thermogravimetric, differential thermal, X-ray diffraction and elemental analysis. This melanin pigment is structurally amorphous in nature. It is thermally stable up to $300^{\circ}C$ and emits a strong exothermic peak at $700^{\circ}C$. Its carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen composition is 47.9%, 6.9% and 12.0%, respectively. It was used to scavenge metal ions and free radicals. After immobilizing the pigment and using it to adsorb copper and lead ions, the metal ion adsorption capacity was evaluated by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and the identity of melanin functional groups involved in the binding of metal ions was determined by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Batch adsorption studies showed that 169 mg/g of copper and 280 mg/g of lead were adsorbed onto melanin-alginate beads. The metal ion adsorption capacity of the melanin-alginate beads was relatively significant compared to alginate beads. The metal ion desorption capacity of HCl was greater (81.5% and 99% for copper and lead, respectively) than that of EDTA (80% and 71% for copper and lead, respectively). The ability of the melanin pigment to scavenge free radicals was evaluated by inhibition of the oxidation of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) and was shown to be about 74% and 98%, respectively, compared with standard antioxidants.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.270-276
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• 2013

Fucoxanthin is an important carotenoid derived from edible brown seaweeds and is used in indigenous herbal medicines. The aim of the present study was to examine the cytoprotective effects of fucoxanthin against hydrogen peroxide-induced cell damage. Fucoxanthin decreased the level of intracellular reactive oxygen species, as assessed by fluorescence spectrometry performed after staining cultured human HaCaT keratinocytes with 2',7'-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate. In addition, electron spin resonance spectrometry showed that fucoxanthin scavenged hydroxyl radical generated by the Fenton reaction in a cell-free system. Fucoxanthin also inhibited comet tail formation and phospho-histone H2A.X expression, suggesting that it prevents hydrogen peroxide-induced cellular DNA damage. Furthermore, the compound reduced the number of apoptotic bodies stained with Hoechst 33342, indicating that it protected keratinocytes against hydrogen peroxide-induced apoptotic cell death. Finally, fucoxanthin prevented the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential. These protective actions were accompanied by the down-regulation of apoptosis-promoting mediators (i.e., B-cell lymphoma-2-associated ${\times}$ protein, caspase-9, and caspase-3) and the up-regulation of an apoptosis inhibitor (B-cell lymphoma-2). Taken together, the results of this study suggest that fucoxanthin defends keratinocytes against oxidative damage by scavenging ROS and inhibiting apoptosis.

• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.237-244
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• 2019

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Carthami flos on pacemaker potentials of small intestinal and colonic Interstitial Cells of Cajal (ICC). Methods : To dissociate the ICC, we used enzymatic digestions from the small intestine and colon in mice. In the ICC, the electrophysiological whole-cell patch-clamp configuration was used to record pacemaker potentials in the cultured ICC. Results : 1. The ICC generated pacemaker potentials in the murine small intestine and colon. 2. Pretreatment with a Ca²⁺ free solution and thapsigargin, a Ca²⁺-ATPase inhibitor in the endoplasmic reticulum, stopped the pacemaker potentials. In the case of Ca²⁺-free solutions, Carthami flos did not induce membrane depolarizations in the murine small intestine and colon. However, when thapsigargin in a bath solution was applied, Carthami flos induced membrane depolarizations only in the murine colon. 3. Pretreatment with 2-APB (transient receptor potential melastatin (TRPM) channel inhibitor) abolished the pacemaker potentials and suppressed Carthami flos-induced effects in the murine small intestine and colon. 4. However, pretreatment with T16Ainh-AO1 (Ca²⁺ activated Cl- channel; anoctamin 1 (ANO1) inhibitor) did not affect the pacemaker potentials and induced Carthami flos-induced effects only in the murine small intestine. Conclusions : These results suggest that Carthami flos can modulate the pacemaker activity of ICC and the mechanisms underlying pacemaking in ICC might be different in the small intestine and the colon.

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.106-111
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• 2010

Na-MMT intercalated with PEGMA macromer was prepared using an EtAc/acetone mixture (1/1 by volume) as a solvent. PEGMA/(Na-MMT)-co-MMA/MA nanocomposites was synthesized by copolymerizing intercalated compound with MMA and MA, and then characterization was performed. The results of X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that in the case of Na-MMT intercalated with PEGMA macromer the d-spacings of silicate of Na-MMT increased with increasing of Na-MMT loading. As the Na-MMT loading increases Tg showed increasing trend through the DSC measurement. TGA result showed that thermal stability of PEGMA/(Na-MMT)-co-MMA/MA nanocomposites improved a little more than the pure PEGMA-co-MMA/MA.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.207-214
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• 2012

Laccase- and peroxidase-free tyrosinase has commercial importance in the production of L-3, 4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA), which is mainly used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. In the present study, isolation of an actinomycetes microbial strain capable of producing only tyrosinase is reported. Among all soil isolates, three individual colonies revealed black color around the colony in the presence of tyrosine. Further screening for laccase and peroxidase activities using syringaldazine denoted that one of the isolates, designated as RSP-T1, is laccase and peroxidase negative and produces only tyrosinase. The microbe was authenticated as Streptomyces antibioticus based on 16S ribotyping. Effective growth of this isolate was noticed with the use of medium (pH 5.5) containing casein acid hydrolysate (10.0 g/l), $K_2HPO_4$ (5.0 g/l), $MgSO_4$ (0.25 g/l), L-tyrosine (1.0 g/l), and agar (15 g/l). The scanning electron micrograph depicted that the microbe is highly branched and filamentous in nature. The enzyme production was positively regulated in the presence of copper sulfate. The impact of different fermentation parameters on tyrosinase production depicted that the maximized enzyme titer values were observed when this isolate was grown at 6.5 pH and at $30^{\circ}C$ temperature under agitated conditions (220 rpm). Among all the studied physiological parameters, agitation played a significant role on tyrosinase production. Upon optimization of the parameters, the yield of tyrosinase was improved more than 100% compared with the initial yield.