• Applied Microscopy
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.55-68
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• 1982

The study on the nerve cells in the pars intercerebralis(IP) of 5-day-old cabbage butterfly Pieris rapae L. was performed to observe their ultrastructures and classify them on the basis. of the differences in size, shape and relative distribution cf cell organelles. The brain-subesophageal ganglion complex was fixed in 1% paraformaldehyde-1% gluaraldehyde mixture and embedded in araldite mixture. The transverse thin sections of IP were stained with uranyl acetate and lead citrate and examined by Hitachi 500 and ]EM 100B electron microscope. Five distinct types. of nerve cells are recognized and are arbitrarily designated as Type I, Type II Type III, Type IV and Type V. Type I neurone: These neurones are neurosecretory cells. Several neurosecretory cells are. recognized in the pars intercerebralis. They are roughly round or peach-shaped cells measuring $13{\sim}25{\mu}m$ in diameter. The rounded nucleus shows about $5{\sim}10{\mu}m$ in diameter. The chromatin is predominantly diffused with only occasional dense patches. The perikaryon contains numerous. mitochondria, free polyribosomes and neurosecretory granules. The neurosecretory granules are relatively uniform in electron density, and each one is about $100{\sim}400{\mu}m$ in diameter and surrounded by a single membrane. The granules are also observed mostly as in groups. In one group of neurones the cisternae of endoplasmic reticulum are distended or in other group of neurones are not distended. Golgi saccules are slightly dilated at their lateral extremities and contains. frequenty dense rounded materials. Type II neurone: Thes have the largest soma in the pars intercerebralis about $30{\sim}35{\mu}m$ in diameter. They also show roughly polygonal in shape. The nucleus is elongated or sickle-shaped. The chromatin is mainly in the euchromatin form. The perikarya in these cells are well populated with populated with free ribosomes and contain numerous mitochondria and Golgi bodies. The cisternae of granular endoplasmic reticulum are also well distributed. Type III neurone: They are oval or spindle-shaped and also medium-sized. neurones approximately $15{\sim}17{\mu}m$ in length. The nucleus is oval or slightly elongated in shape and $8{\sim}9{\mu}m$ in length. The chromatin occurs in diffused form. The cytoplasm contains many filamentous or oval mitochondria. The perikaryon has also numerous free polyribosomes and cisternae of granular endoplasmic reticulum. Type VI neurone: They are roughly polygonal in shape probably due to the close approximation of the adjacent cells. The soma is about $7{\sim}8{\mu}m$ in diameter. The nucleus is round or oval in shape and $5.0{\sim}5.8{\mu}m$ in diameter. The necleus also occupies a large proprion of the cell body. The perikaryon is well populated with free ribosomes and contains several mitochondria and cistenae of granular endoplasmic reticulum. Type V neurone: These neurones are similar to Type VI neurones in various respects such as cell size and cell inclusion, but they differ from Type IV neurones in shape. The soma is oval or slightly elongated. The cell body contains several filamentous and oval mitochondria.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.205-210
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• 2018

Salvianolic acid B, which is a compound in the Salvia miltiorrhiza, has diverse biological activities, In particular, the antioxidative effects were reported to be involved in the protection of hepatocytes, neurons, and various cell types. On the other hand, some phenolic compounds, such as ferulic acid, which is regarded as an antioxidant, plays a pro-oxidative role in the specific transitional metal environment, which could explain the anticancer effect. This study examined the pro-oxidative effects of salvianolic acid B in the presence of $Cu^{2+}$. Treatment with both salvianolic acid B and $Cu^{2+}$ induced the transition of supercoiled DNA to the open circular or linear form but not in the sole salvianolic acid B or $Cu^{2+}$ treatments. Salvianolic acid B reduced the $Cu^{2+}$ to $Cu^+$ using neocuproine, a $Cu^+$ specific chelator. In addition, catalase, an enzyme that breaks down the $H_2O_2$ to water and molecular oxygen, inhibited the DNA breakage. $H_2O_2$, a reactive oxygen species, has detrimental effects on biological molecules, particularly DNA. Overall, the reduction of $Cu^{2+}$ by salvianolic acid B could lead to the production of $H_2O_2$ followed by DNA breakage. These results suggest that the pro-oxidative effects could be the one of the anti-cancer mechanisms of salvianolic acid B, which remains to be explained.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.393-397
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• 1998

A 25-year-old man with viral cardiomyopathy and chronic active hepatitis successfully underwent dynamic cardiomyoplasty for the first time in Korea on July 30, 1996. The patient had been intermittently dyspneic for 5 years and was admitted to our center twice because of heart failure. For the past 2 years, he was NYHA functional class III status with a left ventricular ejection fraction(LVEF) of around 30%. The patient was born with scoliosis and showed a short stature. The liver function showed elevated liver enzymes, and hepatitis B antigen was positive. The liver biopsy revealed chronic active hepatitis. The preoperative echocardiogram showed decreased left ventricular function with grade II mitral and grade II tricuspid regurgitation with dilated left and right atrium. Recently his symptoms worsened and we decided to perform a dynamic cardiomyoplasty. The left latissmus dorsi muscle(LDM) was mobilized and tested with lead placement on his right lateral decubitus position. The patient was positioned into supine and, after median sternotomy, the heart was wrapped with the mobilized muscle. The Russian made cardiomyostimulator(EKS-445) and leads (Myocardial PEMB for heart and PEMP-1 for LDM) were used. The total operation time was 8 hours and there were no perioperative episodes. Postoperatively the LDM had been trained for a 10 week period and currently the stimulation ratio is maintained at 1:4. The postoperative LVEF did not increase with the value of 30-35%. However, the patient feels better postoperatively with slightly increased activity.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.39 no.3 s.164
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• pp.275-288
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• 2006

This study develops ESP (Ensemble Streamflow Prediction) system by using medium-term numerical weather prediction model which is GDAPS(T213) of KMA. The developed system forecasts medium- and long-range exceedance Probability for streamflow and RPSS evaluation scheme is used to analyze the accuracy of probability forecasts. It can be seen that the daily probability forecast results contain high uncertainties. A sensitivity analysis with respect to forecast time resolution shows that uncertainties decrease and accuracy generally improves as the forecast time step increase. Weekly ESP results by using the GDAPS output with a lead time of up to 28 days are more accurately predicted than traditional ESP results because conditional probabilities are stably distributed and uncertainties can be reduced. Therefore, it can be concluded that the developed system will be useful tool for medium- and long-term reservoir inflow forecasts in order to manage water resources.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.381-386
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• 2022

Non-Destruction Test (NDT) is a method to check internal defects without destroying the product. Among them, radiographic testing (RT) uses high-energy radiation, so it is very important to prevent radiation exposure of workers. Therefore, in this study, in this study, a radiation sensor structure that improves radiation detection performance compared to the existing PbI₂ and can immediately detect accidents in RT was presented. For evaluation, the conversion efficiency was analyzed in the gamma ray source through FLUKA simulation. PbI₂ with overlapping Gd₂O₂S:Tb presented in this study showed a higher radiation sensitivity from 1.22 to 3.22 times than that of non-overlapping PbI₂. This indicates that the presented sensor is suitable for use as a radiation sensor for source detection in RT.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Developmental Biology Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.84-84
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• 2003

DNA methylation is involved in epigenetic processes such as X-chromosome inactivation, imprinting and silencing of transposons. DNA methylation is a highly plastic and critical component of mammalian development The DNA methyltransferases (Dnmts) are responsible for the generation of genomic methylation patterns, which lead to transcriptional silencing. The maintenance DNA methyltransferase enzyme, Dnmt 1, and the de novo methyltransferase, Dnmt3a and Dnmt3b, are indispensable for development because mice homozygous for the targeted disruption of any of these genes are not viable. The occurrence of DNA methylation is not random, and it can result in gene silencing The mechanisms underlying these processes are poorly understood. It is well established that DNA methylation and histone deacetylation operate along a common mechanistic pathway to repress transcription through the action of methyl-binding domain proteins (MBDs), which are components of, or recruit, histone deacetylase (HDAC) complexes to methylated DNA. As a basis for future studies on the role of the DNA-methyl-transferase in porcine development, we have isolated and characterized a partial cDNA coding for the porcine Dnmt1. Total RNA of testis, lung and ovary was isolated with TRlzol according to the manufacture's specifications. 5 ug of total RNA was reverse transcribed with Super Script II in the presence of porcine Dnmt 1 specific primers. Standard PCRs were performed in a total volume of 50 ul with cDNA as template. Two DNA fragmenets in different position were produced about 700bp, 1500bp and were cloned into pCR II-TOPO according to the manufacture's specification. Assembly of all sequences resulted in a cDNA from 158bp of 5'to 4861bp of 3'compare with the known human maintenance methyltransferase. Now, we are cloning the unknown Dnmt 1 region by 5'-RACE method and expression of Dnmt 1 in tissues from adult porcine animals.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.388-393
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• 2023

The analysis of engineering data using neural network based on supervised learning has been utilized in various engineering fields such as optimization of chemical engineering process, concentration prediction of particulate matter pollution, prediction of thermodynamic phase equilibria, and prediction of physical properties for transport phenomena system. The supervised learning requires training data, and the performance of the supervised learning is affected by the composition and the configurations of the given training data. Among the frequently observed engineering data, the data is given in log-scale such as length of DNA, concentration of analytes, etc. In this study, for widely distributed log-scaled training data of virtual 100×100 images, available loss functions were quantitatively evaluated in terms of (i) confusion matrix, (ii) maximum relative error and (iii) mean relative error. As a result, the loss functions of mean-absolute-percentage-error and mean-squared-logarithmic-error were the optimal functions for the log-scaled training data. Furthermore, we figured out that uniformly selected training data lead to the best prediction performance. The optimal loss functions and method for how to compose training data studied in this work would be applied to engineering problems such as evaluating DNA length, analyzing biomolecules, predicting concentration of colloidal suspension.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.34-39
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• 2024

Energy harvesting technology that converts the wasted energy resources into electrical energy is emerging as a semipermanent power source for self-powered electronics and wireless low-power sensor systems. Among the various energy conversion techniques, flexible piezoelectric energy harvesters (f-PEHs), using materials with piezoelectric effects, have attracted significant interest because they can harvest a small mechanical energy into electrical signals without constraints of time and space in various environments. In this study, we used a flexible piezoelectric composite film fabricated by dispersing BaHf_xTi_(1-x)O₃ (x = 0, 0.01, 0.05, 0.1) piezoelectric powders inside a polymeric matrix to facilitate f-PEHs. The fabricated f-PEH with optimal Hf contents (x = 0.05) generated a maximum output voltage of 0.95 V and current signal of 130 nA with stable electrical/mechanical disabilities under periodically bending deformations. In addition, we demonstrated a cantilever-type f-PEH and investigated its potential as a sensor by characterizing the output performance under mechanical vibrations at various frequencies. This study provides the breakthrough for realizing self-powered energy harvesting and sensing systems by adopting the lead-free piezoelectric composites under vibrational environments.

• Proceedings of the Korea Environmental Mutagen Society Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.34-63
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• 2003

Occupational and environmental exposure to manganese continue to represent a realistic public health problem in both developed and developing countries. Increased utility of MMT as a replacement for lead in gasoline creates a new source of environmental exposure to manganese. It is, therefore, imperative that further attention be directed at molecular neurotoxicology of manganese. A Need for a more complete understanding of manganese functions both in health and disease, and for a better defined role of manganese in iron metabolism is well substantiated. The in-depth studies in this area should provide novel information on the potential public health risk associated with manganese exposure. It will also explore novel mechanism(s) of manganese-induced neurotoxicity from the angle of Mn-Fe interaction at both systemic and cellular levels. More importantly, the result of these studies will offer clues to the etiology of IPD and its associated abnormal iron and energy metabolism. To achieve these goals, however, a number of outstanding questions remain to be resolved. First, one must understand what species of manganese in the biological matrices plays critical role in the induction of neurotoxicity, Mn(II) or Mn(III)? In our own studies with aconitase, Cpx-I, and Cpx-II, manganese was added to the buffers as the divalent salt, i.e., $MnCl_2$. While it is quite reasonable to suggest that the effect on aconitase and/or Cpx-I activites was associated with the divalent species of manganese, the experimental design does not preclude the possibility that a manganese species of higher oxidation state, such as Mn(III), is required for the induction of these effects. The ionic radius of Mn(III) is 65 ppm, which is similar to the ionic size to Fe(III) (65 ppm at the high spin state) in aconitase (Nieboer and Fletcher, 1996; Sneed et al., 1953). Thus it is plausible that the higher oxidation state of manganese optimally fits into the geometric space of aconitase, serving as the active species in this enzymatic reaction. In the current literature, most of the studies on manganese toxicity have used Mn(II) as $MnCl_2$ rather than Mn(III). The obvious advantage of Mn(II) is its good water solubility, which allows effortless preparation in either in vivo or in vitro investigation, whereas almost all of the Mn(III) salt products on the comparison between two valent manganese species nearly infeasible. Thus a more intimate collaboration with physiochemists to develop a better way to study Mn(III) species in biological matrices is pressingly needed. Second, In spite of the special affinity of manganese for mitochondria and its similar chemical properties to iron, there is a sound reason to postulate that manganese may act as an iron surrogate in certain iron-requiring enzymes. It is, therefore, imperative to design the physiochemical studies to determine whether manganese can indeed exchange with iron in proteins, and to understand how manganese interacts with tertiary structure of proteins. The studies on binding properties (such as affinity constant, dissociation parameter, etc.) of manganese and iron to key enzymes associated with iron and energy regulation would add additional information to our knowledge of Mn-Fe neurotoxicity. Third, manganese exposure, either in vivo or in vitro, promotes cellular overload of iron. It is still unclear, however, how exactly manganese interacts with cellular iron regulatory processes and what is the mechanism underlying this cellular iron overload. As discussed above, the binding of IRP-I to TfR mRNA leads to the expression of TfR, thereby increasing cellular iron uptake. The sequence encoding TfR mRNA, in particular IRE fragments, has been well-documented in literature. It is therefore possible to use molecular technique to elaborate whether manganese cytotoxicity influences the mRNA expression of iron regulatory proteins and how manganese exposure alters the binding activity of IPRs to TfR mRNA. Finally, the current manganese investigation has largely focused on the issues ranging from disposition/toxicity study to the characterization of clinical symptoms. Much less has been done regarding the risk assessment of environmenta/occupational exposure. One of the unsolved, pressing puzzles is the lack of reliable biomarker(s) for manganese-induced neurologic lesions in long-term, low-level exposure situation. Lack of such a diagnostic means renders it impossible to assess the human health risk and long-term social impact associated with potentially elevated manganese in environment. The biochemical interaction between manganese and iron, particularly the ensuing subtle changes of certain relevant proteins, provides the opportunity to identify and develop such a specific biomarker for manganese-induced neuronal damage. By learning the molecular mechanism of cytotoxicity, one will be able to find a better way for prediction and treatment of manganese-initiated neurodegenerative diseases.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.509-518
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• 2012

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of heat shock treatments on the phytochemicals including antioxidants and anticancer materials in kale (Brassica oleracea L. var. acephala) sprouts. In study I, kale sprouts grown under the growing system for four days were soaked at 40, 50, or $60^{\circ}C$ distilled water for 10, 30, or 60 seconds, and in study II, kale sprouts were soaked at $50^{\circ}C$ distilled water for 10, 20, 30, 45, or 60 seconds. After the heat shock treatments, the sprouts were transferred into normal growing conditions and recovered there for two days. Fresh and dry weights, electrolyte leakage, total phenolic concentration, antioxidant capacity, total flavonoid concentration, phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) activity, and glucosinolates content of the sprouts were measured before and after the heat shock treatments. As a result, there was a significant decrease in the fresh and dry weight of kale sprouts treated with heat shock compared with control at harvest in study I. Especially, heat shock at $60^{\circ}C$ lead to more pronounced growth inhibition compared with heat treatments at 40 and $50^{\circ}C$. Electrolyte leakage by cell collapse was the highest in the sprouts exposed to $60^{\circ}C$ distilled water, which agreed with the growth results. Heat shock at $50^{\circ}C$ significantly induced the accumulation of phenolic compounds. In study II, fresh weight of kale sprouts at $50^{\circ}C$ heat shock showed a significant decrease compared with the control at one and two days after the treatment. However, the decrease was minimal and dry weight of kale sprouts was not significantly different from that in control. In contrast, the heat shock-treated kale sprouts had higher level of total phenolic concentration than control at harvest. Heat shock treatments at $50^{\circ}C$ for 20 seconds or more showed at least 1.5 and 1.2 times higher total phenolic concentration and antioxidants capacity than control, respectively. The change of the total flavonoid concentration was similar with that of antioxidants. PAL activity after 24 hours of heat shock was higher in all the heat shock-treated sprouts than that in control suggesting heat shock may stimulate secondary metabolic pathway in kale sprouts. Seven glucosinolates were identified in kale sprouts and soaking the sprouts with $50^{\circ}C$ water for 20 seconds had a pronounced impact on the accumulation of total glucosinolates as well as two major glucosinolates, progoitrin and sinigrin, at harvest. In conclusion, this study suggests that heat shock using hot water would be a potential strategy to improve nutritional quality of kale sprouts by inducing the accumulation of phytochemicals with antioxidant and anticancer properties.