• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.24 no.8
• /
• pp.820-826
• /
• 2014

The localization to specific subcellular sites and the regulation of cell surface receptors and channels are crucial for proper functioning. Postsynaptic density-95/Disks large/Zonula occludens-1 (PDZ)-domain is involved in recognition of and interaction between various proteins, by which the localization and the regulation are mediated. Multi-PDZ domain protein 1 (MUPP1) contains 13 PDZ domains. MUPP1 serves a scaffolding function for structure proteins and signaling proteins, but the mechanism how MUPP1 is stabilized and signalized has not yet been elucidated. We used the yeast two-hybrid system to identify proteins that interact with PDZ domains of MUPP1. We found an interaction between MUPP1 and Parkin. Parkin is an E3 ubiquitin ligase. Loss-of-function mutations of Parkin gene are known to cause an autosomal recessive juvenile parkinsonism. Parkin bound to the $12^{th}$ PDZ domain, but not to other PDZ domains of MUPP1. The C-terminal end of Parkin has a type II PDZ-association motif, which was essential for the interaction with MUPP1 in the yeast two-hybrid assay. When co-expressed in HEK-293T cells, Parkin co-localized with MUPP1. When co-expressed with ubiquitin in HEK-293T cells, MUPP1 has been strongly ubiquitinated by Parkin. These findings collectively suggest that MUPP1 is a novel substrate of Parkin and its function or stability could be modulated by Parkin-mediated ubiquitination.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.96-104
• /
• 2002

This study was carried out to investigate cytotoxicity of paraquat on NIH 3T3 fibroblasts, toxicity of paraquat and compensatory effects of 3-methylcholanthrene (3-MC) on the rat lung. In order to conduct MIT [3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl) -2,5-diphenyl -2H-tetrazolium-bromide] and NR (Neutral red) assay, the $5.0{\times}10^4cell/ml$ of NIH 3T3 fibroblast in each well of 24 multi-dish were cultured. After 24 hours, the cells were treated with solution of paraquat (1, 25, 50 and $100{\mu}M$ respectively). After the NIH 3T3 fibroblast of all groups were cultured in same condition for 48 hours. MIT and NR assay were performed to evaluate the cytotoxicity of cell organelles. $MTT_{50}\;and\;NR_{50}$ of paraquat were $1668.97{\mu}M\;and\;1030.85{\mu}M$, respectively. These $IC_{50}$ of Paraquat were decided as a low cytotoxicity by Borenfreund and Puemer (1984). In order to observe the toxicity and compensatory effects of paraquat on the rat lung, Spraque Dawley male rats were used as experimental animals and were divided into paraquat only treated group and simultaneous application group of paraquat and 3-MC, at 30 min and 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48 and 96 hrs interval after each treatment. The animals were sacrificed by decapitation and their or the lungs were immediately removed, immersed in fixatives, and were processed with routine method for light microscopic study. Paraffin sections were stained with H&E and iron hematoxylin of Verhoeff. Under the light microscopy, erythrocytes were full in alveolar capillaries at 3 hrs and congested at 24 hrs after paraquat administration. The great alveolar cells (Type II cell) were increased and mitosis of great alveolar were observed in interalveolar septa. Many lymphocytes, macrophages and polymorphonuclear (PMN) cells were observed in connective tissue surrounding lung tissue and germinal center in lymph follicles of terminal bronchiole. Alveolar macrophages were increased in interalveolar septa and alveoli at 48 hrs. And observed many alveolar macrophages at 96 hrs. In iron hematoxylin stain of Verhoeff, Collagen fiber were increased in respiratory bronchiole, interalveolar septa and alveoli and breath of alveoli, and alveolar pore were broaden. But, in paraquat plus 3-MC treated group, morphological changes were mild in lung tissue. These results indicate that 3-MC has a compensatory effects against toxicity of paraquat by conjugation with oxygen.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.101-108
• /
• 2007

[ $\underline{Purpose}$ ]: To compare radiation therapy alone to combined modality therapy about survival rate and tolerance of elderly patients ($70=or{\geq}$) with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). $\underline{Materials\;and\;Methods}$: Between 1998 and 2002, 57 patients given radiation therapy due to NSCLC (Stage III) were analysed retrospectively. Radiation therapy alone (RT), concurrent chemoradiation (CRT), and sequential chemoradiation (SCRT) was done to 33, 16 and 8 patients, respectively. Patients' median age was 74 (range $70{\sim}85$). Male and female are 51 patients and 6 patients, respectively. 23 patients were stage IIIa and 34 were stage IIIb. Patients' characteristic distribution of RT and CRT was not significantly different except mass size that RT has a bigger than CRT. The fraction size of radiation therapy was 1.8 Gy in CRT and $1.8{\sim}3\;Gy$ in other groups. Total radiation dose was $51{\sim}63\;Gy$ according to the fraction size. If the prescribed total radiation dose was successfully irradiated, we stated that it was completion of radiation therapy. $\underline{Results}$: 52 patients were dead. Median period of radiation therapy was as follow: RT, 35 days, CRT, 60.5 days and SCRT, 35 days. Overall median survival time (MST) was 10.1 months. The 1 yr- and 2 yr-overall survival rate was 39.8% and 17.6%, respectively. MST of RT, CRT and SCRT was 8.9, 8.2 and 11.7 months, respectively. The 1 yr survival rate of RT, CRT and SCRT was 38.4%, 37.5% and 50% (not significant). Patients given incomplete radiation therapy were 12 (RT, 5 CRT, 6 SCRT, 1). N stage (p=0.081) and the difference of treatment methods (p=0.079) were the factors affecting incompletion of radiation therapy, but it was not significant. In case of combined-agents chemotherapy, 4 of 8 ceased radiation therapy. T stage ($T{\geq}3$), mass size (${\geq}5\;cm$), Karnofsky performance scale (${\leq}70$) and completion of radiation therapy were the prognostic factors in uni- and multi-variate analysis. $\underline{Conclusion}$: In elderly patients with NSCLC, radiation therapy alone was a treatment method with similar survival period compared with other methods. Generally, patients given radiation therapy alone was tolerable to a treatment. Before planning concurrent chemoirradiation in elderly patients with NSCLC, physicians pay attention to a selection of patients and chemotherapy agents considering general condition and toxicity.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.447-455
• /
• 2012

Akt plays an important role in a variety of cellular physiologies such as growth, proliferation, and differentiation. In skeletal muscle, Akt has been implicated in regulating regeneration, hypertrophy, and atrophy. In this study, the role of Akt has been examined during skeletal muscle differentiation. Culturing C2C12 myoblasts under low serum (1% horse serum) and high density converted cell morphology from a round shape to an elongated and multi-nucleated shape. Morphological changes were initiated from day 2 of differentiation. In addition, the expression of both myogenin G and myogenin D was elevated from day 2 of differentiation. Skeletal muscle differentiation was abolished by silencing Akt1 or Akt2, but was significantly enhanced by the over-expression of either Akt1 or Akt2. The activation of Akt was observed from day 2 of differentiation and disappeared after day 7. The expression of kruppel-like factor 4 was observed from day 6 of differentiation. Moreover, this expression was blocked in cells silencing either Akt1 or Akt2. In addition, the promoter activity of kruppel-like factor 4 was significantly reduced in cells silencing Akt1 or Akt2. These results suggest that Akt regulates skeletal muscle differentiation through the regulation of kruppel-like factor 4 expression.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.50 no.5
• /
• pp.339-345
• /
• 2017

Background: In recent years, single-port video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) for lobectomy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients has become increasingly common. The objective of this study was to compare the feasibility and safety of single-port and triple-port VATS lobectomy. Methods: A total of 73 patients with NSCLC who underwent VATS lobectomy from December 2011 to August 2016 were retrospectively reviewed, including 47 in the triple-port group and 26 in the single-port group. Statistical analysis was performed after propensity score matching. Patients were matched on a 1-to-1 basis. Results: Operative time and intraoperative blood loss in the triple-port group and the single-port group were similar ($189.4{\pm}50.8minutes$ vs. $205.4{\pm}50.6minutes$, p=0.259; $286.5{\pm}531.0mL$ vs. $314.6{\pm}513.1mL$, p=0.813). There were no cases of morbidity or mortality. No significant differences in complications or the total number of dissected lymph nodes were found between the 2 groups. In the single-port group, more mediastinal lymph nodes were dissected than in the triple-port group ($1.7{\pm}0.6$ vs. $1.2{\pm}0.5$, p=0.011). Both groups had 1 patient with bronchopleural fistula. Chest tube duration and postoperative hospital stay were shorter in the single-port group than in the triple-port group ($8.7{\pm}5.1days$ vs. $6.2{\pm}6.6days$, p=0.130; $11.7{\pm}6.1days$ vs. $9.5{\pm}6.4days$, p=0.226). However, the differences were not statistically significant. In the single-port group, the rate of conversion to multi-port VATS lobectomy was 11.5% (3 of 26). The rates of conversion to open thoracotomy in the triple-port and single-port groups were 7.7% and 3.8%, respectively (p=1.000). Conclusion: In comparison with the triple-port group, single-port VATS lobectomy showed similar results in safety and efficacy, indicating that single-port VATS lobectomy is a feasible and safe option for lung cancer patients.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.68-81
• /
• 2014

This study aims to apply and evaluate the automatic DAD analysis method, which is able to establish the depth-area relationship more efficiently and accurately for point-to-areal rainfall conversion. First, the proposed automatic DAD analysis method tracks the expansion route of area from the storm center, and it is divided into Box-tracking, Point-tracking, Advanced point-tracking according to tracking method. After applying the proposed methods to 10 events occurred in Yongdam-watershed area, we confirmed that the Advanced point-tracking method makes it possible to estimate the maximum average areal rainfal(MAAR) more accurately with consideration of the storm movement and the multi-centered storm. In addition, Advanced point-tracking could reduce the errors of the estimated MAAR induced by increasing the area because it can estimate MAAR for each storm center and compare them at the same time. Finally, the DAD curve for the study area could be derived based on the DAD analysis of the selected 10 events.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.20 no.11
• /
• pp.606-610
• /
• 2010

Films consisting of a silicon quantum dot superlattice were fabricated by alternating deposition of silicon rich silicon nitride and $Si_3N_4$ layers using an rf magnetron co-sputtering system. In order to use the silicon quantum dot super lattice structure for third generation multi junction solar cell applications, it is important to control the dot size. Moreover, silicon quantum dots have to be in a regularly spaced array in the dielectric matrix material for in order to allow for effective carrier transport. In this study, therefore, we fabricated silicon quantum dot superlattice films under various conditions and investigated crystallization behavior of the silicon quantum dot super lattice structure. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra showed an increased intensity of the $840\;cm^{-1}$ peak with increasing annealing temperature due to the increase in the number of Si-N bonds. A more conspicuous characteristic of this process is the increased intensity of the $1100\;cm^{-1}$ peak. This peak was attributed to annealing induced reordering in the films that led to increased Si-$N_4$ bonding. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis showed that peak position was shifted to higher bonding energy as silicon 2p bonding energy changed. This transition is related to the formation of silicon quantum dots. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electron spin resonance (ESR) analysis also confirmed the formation of silicon quantum dots. This study revealed that post annealing at $1100^{\circ}C$ for at least one hour is necessary to precipitate the silicon quantum dots in the $SiN_x$ matrix.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.374-387
• /
• 2012

In this paper, we implement a new hardware for finding the significant coefficients of a digital hologram and ciphering them using discrete wavelet packet transform (DWPT). Discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and packetization of subbands is used, and the adopted ciphering technique can encrypt the subbands with various robustness based on the level of the wavelet transform and the threshold of subband energy. The hologram encryption consists of two parts; the first is to process DWPT, and the second is to encrypt the coefficients. We propose a lifting based hardware architecture for fast DWPT and block ciphering system with multi-mode for the various types of encryption. The unit cell which calculates the repeated arithmetic with the same structure is proposed and then it is expanded to the lifting kernel hardware. The block ciphering system is configured with three block cipher, AES, SEED and 3DES and encrypt and decrypt data with minimal latency time(minimum 128 clocks, maximum 256 clock) in real time. The information of a digital hologram can be hided by encrypting 0.032% data of all. The implemented hardware used about 200K gates in $0.25{\mu}m$ CMOS library and was stably operated with 165MHz clock frequency in timing simulation.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.36 no.4
• /
• pp.260-267
• /
• 2008

The choice of expression vector is very important for industrial production of proteins. Therefore, the systematic mining of promoters over a wider range of genetic resource and/or host is required. We previously reported a novel bidirectional reporting system (pBGR) for the isolation of promoters from metagenome and screened useful promoters that functioned constitutively in E. coli under general culture conditions. Among them, three promoter sequences including each upstream region were amplified by PCR and used to construct new expression vectors. To facilitate subcloning, a multi-cloning site was incorporated into the downstream region of the revere primer sequence. At these sites, GFP, esterase and $\beta$-glucosidase were subcloned and analyzed the constitutive expression ability of new promoter in terms of protein solubility and expression level. As a result, these vectors expressed the proteins constitutively to a level of $2{\sim}3%$ of the total cell protein in soluble fraction (>80 %). This study suggested that excavation of metagenomic promoters for construction of expression vector in a certain strain could provide a way for the development of the expression systems.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.18 no.6
• /
• pp.330-335
• /
• 2017

The demand for electric motor fuel cells has surged in the automotive industry, leading to a recent increase in the demand for square aluminum cans used as fuel cell battery casings. The air vent located on the bottom of the rectangular battery casing prevents large explosions by intermittent pressure release prior to the accumulation of abnormally high pressures. Conventionally, the square cup battery casing is produced via six-step deep drawing, with the outer shape of the vent being manufactured by welding to the square battery casing. On the other hand, this study directly incorporated the air vent outlet into the bottom surface of the rectangular casing. The product of a coupled finite element analysis technique applying the thickness and contour generated from the square cup multi-step deep drawing formation analysis was used as the forging input shape. The results yielded increased prediction accuracy and the advanced prediction of defects, such as swelling and fracture. Based on the results of the initial analyses, two of the generated forging shapes were determined to be suitable, with the optimal forging shape being determined by molding analysis. The results presented here were validated by mold fabrication and a subsequent comparison of the actual and analytical results.