• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.60 no.1
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• pp.123-137
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• 2015

This study was carried out to investigate the effect of pre-germination soaking on germination in 90 Korean soybean varieties and identification of protein in seeds of 7 soybean varieties. The results obtained that germination rate of soybean seeds was decreased as amount of soaking water and soaking duration in number of days. Difference in germination rate of soybean seeds was significant at three days soaking with water volume of 90 ml. Water absorption of seeds was rapidly increased during the first 6 hours, followed by slow increase until 24 hours and then decreased 24 to 48 hours after soaking soybean varieties for bean sprout soaked the lowest amount of water, while soybean varieties for cooking with rice showed the lowest seed water content. Dissolved oxygen (DO) in soaking water was rapidly decreased during the first 3 hours after soaking, and then slowly decreased. Soybean varieties for vegetable and early maturity showed the lowest DO during early soaking periods, but showed higher DO after 24 hours than other groups of soybean varieties. Electrical conductivity and Total Dissolved Solid (TDS) were increased as number of soaking days increased. Soybean varieties for vegetable and early maturity showed the highest electrical conductivity and TDS, followed by those for sauce and paste or cooking with rice, while showed the lowest electrical conductivity and TDS, varieties for bean sprout. Among 90 Korean soybean varieties, varieties which showed the highest germination rate were Jangsu-kong for sauce and paste, Sobaegnamul-kong for bean sprout, Seonheuk-kong for cooking with rice, Seunnokkong for vegetable and early maturity. On the ather hand varieties which showed the lowest germination rate were Iksan and Songhak-kong for sauce and paste, Pangsa-kong for bean sprout, Jinyeul-kong for cooking with rice, Sinlok-kong for vegetable and early maturity. Germination rates of soybean seeds were higher when electrical conductivity, TDS and water absorption of seeds were lower. There were negative correlations between electrical conductivity, TDS and water absorption of seeds and germination rate, while there were positive correlations among electrical conductivity, TDS and soybean seed weight.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.111-119
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• 2009

Purpose: This study aimed at assessing the value of fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography ($^{18}F$-FDG PET) for predicting the response of locally advanced rectal cancer to neoadjuvant CRT. Materials and Methods: Between August 2006 and January 2008, we prospectively enrolled 20 patients with locally advanced rectal cancer and who were treated with neoadjuvant CRT at the Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences. The treatment consisted of radiation therapy and chemotherapy, and this was followed by curative resection 6 weeks later. All the patients underwent $^{18}F$-FDG PET/CT both before CRT and 6 weeks after completing CRT. The measurements of the FDG uptake ($SUV_{max}$), the absolute difference (${\Delta}SUV_{max}$) and the percent $SUV_{max}$ difference (response index, $RI_{SUV}$) between the pre- and post-CRT $^{18}F$-FDG PET/CT scans were assessed. The measurements of the metabolic volume, the absolute difference (${\Delta}$metabolic volume) and the percent metabolic volume difference (response index, $RI_{metabolic\;volume}$) were also assessed. Results: Of the 20 patients who underwent surgery, 11 patients (55%) were classified as responders according to Dworak's classification. The post-CRT $SUV_{max}$ was significantly lower than the pre-CRT $SUV_{max}$. However, there were no significant differences in the $SUV_{max}$ and the metabolic volume reduction between the responders and non-responders. We used a minimum $SUV_{max}$ reduction of 67% as the cut-off value for defining a response, with a sensitivity of 45.5%, a specificity of 88.9%, a positive predictive value of 77% and a negative predictive value of 53.8%. Conclusion: Although there were no statistically significant results in this study, other studies have revealed that $^{18}F$-FDG PET/CT has the potential to assess the tumor response to neoadjuvant CRT in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.117-122
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• 1997

Purpose : To clarify the clinical findings, laboratory findings and disease course of EP complicated with CAPD and to find out possible predisposing factors to EP. Methods : The medical records of 34 children who underwent CAPD at our hospital between Jan. '94 and Dec. '96 were retrospectively reviewed. The clinical features and laboratory findings of EP were analyzed, and several parameters were evaluated as predisposing factors of EP. Results : EP developed in 7(21%) out of 34 patients. The major symptom of EP was turbid peritoneal fluid without fever, abdominal pain or disturbance of drainage in all cases. The microbiologic culture studies of the peritoneal fluid resulted negative in all cases. Patients with peripheral blood eosinophilia before insertion of CAPD catheter had higher risk of EP than those without eosinophilia (P=0.002). And peripheral blood eosinophilia, noted after insertion of hemodialysis catheter in cases with previous hemodialysis before CAPD, showed significant correlation with the occurrence of EP (P=0.016), too. However, there was no significant correlation between peripheral blood eosinophilia noted after insertion of CAPD cathter and the occurrence of EP. Identification of eosinophils in peritoneal fluids was more accurate with cytospin analysis. Conclusions : An early and accurate diagnosis of EP in patients with CAPD can prevent unnecessary treatment of antibiotics. Peripheral blood eosinophilia before insertion of CAPD catheter is one of the predisposing factors of EP. And, cytospin analysis of peritoneal fluid is an accurate method for diagnosis of EP.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.317-324
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• 2010

Recently, fallow paddy land located in the mid-mountain area (FPL) due to a decrease in rice consumption has increased in some regions of our country. So, grasses and forage crops available for years in once sowing should be introduced in FPL. This study was conducted to develop the technique for cultivation of grasses and forage crops using animal manure in FPL The field experiments were carried out from 2007 to 2009 on FPL at Kumsan, Chungbuk province in Korea. Cattle feedlot manure (CFM) was prepared by mixing feces and urine of cattle with rice straw in cattle feedlot for 6 months. The experimental plots were consisted of four treatments; tall fescue-based mixed pasture applied with chemical fertilizer (Control), mono-tall fescue pasture (MTFP), tall fescue-based mixed pasture (TFBMP), mono-Perennial ryegrass (MPR-FCM), mono-Italian ryegrass (MIR-FCM), mono-Red clover (MRC-FCM) and mono-Reed canarygrass (MRCG-FCM) applied with FCM. The field of tall fescue-based pasture had been sown with a grasses mixture containing 'Fawn' tall fescue, 'potomac' orchardgrass, 'Reveille' Perennial ryegrass, and 'kenblue' Kentuky bluegrass, 'Kenland' Red clover. Seeding rates were 16, 6, 4, 2 and $2\;ha^{-1}$, respectively. DM yields of forages and rates of grass coverage was higher in MTFP, TFBMP and MRCG-FCM as compated with control treatment. This result means that FPL has contained with favorable conditions for growing grass, because forage productivity is more than 15 tons per ha per year in fallow paddy land. In addition, the farmer can save the trouble of repeated plowing and sowing every year, due to the introduction of perennial grasses. The farmer must conduct the re-seeding and induce the improvement of management methods for the elevation of the persistence of red clover and perennial ryegrass, because both red clover and perennial ryegrass having high nutritive value and palatability was less persistent. Therefore, we suggest that FPL may be the good land for forage production utilizing FCM and FCM can be applied on FPL without any negative effects on DM production and the property of soil. FPL of Korea can be better utilized by applying FCM to the mono and/or mixed swards.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.1383-1391
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• 2016

Anti-estrogen drugs such as tamoxifen have been used for treating patients with ER-positive, early breast cancer. However, resistance to anti-estrogen treatment is inevitable in most patients. Breast cancer anti-estrogen resistance-3 (BCAR3) has been identified as the protein responsible for the induction of tamoxifen resistance in estrogen-dependent human breast cancer. We have previously reported that BCAR3 regulates the cell cycle progression and the signaling pathway of EGF and insulin leading to DNA synthesis. In this study, we investigated the functional role of BCAR3 in regulating c-Jun transcription in non-tumorigenic human breast epithelial MCF-12A cells. A transient transfection of BCAR3 increased both the mRNA and protein of c-Jun expression, and stable expression of BCAR3 increased c-Jun protein expression. The overexpression of BCAR3 directly activated the promoter of c-jun, AP-1, and SRE but not that of $NF-{\kappa}B$. Furthermore, single-cell microinjection of BCAR3 expression plasmid in the cell cycle-arrested MCF-12A cells induced c-Jun protein expression, and co-injection of dominant negative mutants of Ras, Rac, and Rho suppressed the transcriptional activity of c-Jun in the presence of BCAR3. Furthermore, stable expression of BCAR3 increased the proliferation of MCF-12A cells. The microinjection of inhibitory materials such as anti-BCAR3 antibody and siRNA BCAR3 inhibited EGF-induced c-Jun expression but did not affect IGF-1 induced upregulation of c-Jun. Taken together, we propose that BCAR3 plays a crucial role in c-Jun protein expression and cell proliferation and that small GTPases (e.g., Ras, Rac, and Rho) are required for the BCAR3-mediated activation of c-Jun expression.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.69-77
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• 2009

This study was performed to investigate the effect of dried powder of chestnut on lipid metabolism, anti-thrombotic effect in rats. Thirty 5-week-old male Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were randomly allocated into five groups and used for experiment. We examined the lipid metabolism and antithrombotic capacity of SD rats administered for 5 weeks with 0.16 g/kg, 0.5 g/kg chestnut flesh powder and 0.16 g/kg, 0.5 g/kg chestnut inner shell and flesh powder mixture, respectively. Food intake, body weight gain and food efficiency ratio were also checked. The levels of serum triglyceride and tree fatty acid were not statistically significant between the all experimental groups. However, the antithrombotic capacity and total lipid levels of the treatment groups were significantly lower than those of the negative control group. These results suggest that the supplementation of chestnut on diet lower the total lipid level in SD rats.

• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.133-144
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• 1986

This study was undertaken to assess the effect of ginseng administration on T lymphocyte induced local xenogenic graft-versus-host(GVM) reactions which were induced with thymocyte, spleen cell and lymph node cell of ICR mice. Mice received daily 10mg of 70% alcohol ginseng extract oral1y for 100days and control mice remained untreated for the same period of time. The cells from donor mice were injected intradermally into the closely shaven abdominal skin of Sprague-Dawley rats for GVH tests. The thymocyte from control(ginseng-untreated) mice showed a negative local GVH reaction, whereas thymocyte from experimental(ginseng-treated) mice showed a positive reaction with the rate of 17.4%. When spleen cells were injected, the incidence of positive local GVH reaction was 66.7% among ginseng-treated mice, as opposed to incidence of 45.5% of positive local GVH reaction among control mice. The incidence of positive local GVH reaction of the lymph node cells when injected into a recipient was 71.4% among ginseng-treated mice as compared with that of 18.9% among control mice. The relationship between spleen cell inoculum and intensity of the local GVH reaction was assessed in ginseng-untreated mice. The intensity of GVH reaction clearly appears to be dose related. In ginseng-treated mice, a minimum of $1{\times}10^7$ spleen cell was required for production of positive local GVH reaction with almost linear relationship up to an inoculum of $5{\times}10^8$ cells. In control mice, however, a minimum of $1{\times}10^8$ spleen cells was required for positive GVH reaction. These results strongly suggest that the ginseng administration augments significantly the local xenogenic GVH reaction which was used to assess T lymphocyte function and immunocompetence of mice and in addition to this, these results appear to support previous suggestions that the local GVH reaction consitutes a qualitative test of the functional activity of T lymphocytes. These results may be the first to induce local GVH reaction, employing rats as recipient and mice as donor. This study was also desingned to investigate some of the effects of ginseng extract on lymphocyte-macrophage interactions. This was accomplished by in vitro quantification of 1) migratory inhibitory factor(MIF) synthetic capacity of splenic lymphocytes in mice previously primed with ginseng 2) MIF responsiveness of mouse peritoneal macrophages or chicken peripheral leucocytes under the presence of ginseng extract 3) migration ability of chicken peripheral leucocytes by direct stimulation of ginseng extract or ginseng saponin and 4) immunosuppressive effects of immunosuppressants such as cyclophosphamide, cyclosporin A or dexamethasone. Mice divided equally into the ginseng and the saline groups, which received intraperitoneally daily 0.2ml of ginseng absolute alcohol-extract(5mg/ml) and same amount of saline for 15 days, respectively. The cellular immune responsiveness of these mice was assayed 15 days after ginseng pretreatment. Splenic lymphocytes of mice treated with ginseng, when stimulated with sensitized specific-antigen such as sheep red blood cells or toxoplasmin, or with polyclonal activator concanavalin A, produced significantly more MIF than those of control saline group. MIF responsiveness of normal mouse macrophages was significantly augmented when assayed under the presence of ginseng extract (1mg/ml). The migratory ability of normal chicken leucocytes in the absence of MIF was significantly decreased by the stimulation of ginseng extract alone. MIF response was significantly decreased by immunosuppressants and this impaired response was not restored by ginseng pretreatment. This study was additionally performed to evaluate the effect of ginseng on the expulsion of adult Trichinella spiralis in mice. ICR mice were infected experimentally by esophageal incubation of 300 T. spiralis infective muscle larvae prepared by acid-pepsin digestion of infected mice. and received oral administration of 70% alcohol ginseng extract(10mg/mouse/day) for the indicated days plus 4 days before infection. At various times after infection, the number of adult T. spiralis worms in small intestines was determined. Interestingly, ginseng-treatment was accompanied by accelerated expulson of T. spiralis. These results led to the conclusion that Panax ginseng caused some enhancing effect on GVH reaction, macrophage migration inhibition reaction and expulsion of T. spiralis. In addition these results suggested that the mechanisms responsible for this enhancement of ginseng may be chiefly or partially due to nonspecific stimulation of cell-mediated immune response.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.51-59
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• 2007

Purpose: Recently well-developed anorectal function tests have revealed that there is an obvious pelvic floor dyssynergia (PFD) pattern in pediatric patients with constipation, as well as in adult's. The use of biofeedback therapy (BT) has been widely implemented in adult PFD patients; however, this approach has only rarely been considered for pediatric PFD patients. Therefore, we assessed the effectiveness of BT in children with PFD. Methods: We studied 70 children with PFD, who were referred to the department of pediatrics at the Asan Medical Center for the management of soiling or chronic constipation from September 2002 to February 2005. Diagnosis of PFD and assessment of the efficacy of BT for PFD treatment were carried out along with several ano-rectal function tests (cine-defecography, ano-rectal manometry, balloon expulsion test and intra-anal EMG); in addition, a questionnaire was administered. The BT based intra-anal EMG was performed. A follow-up telephone interview was performed more than 6 months later. Results: Most of the symptoms and results of the ano-rectal function tests were statistically improved after BT. In comparisons between the BT and control groups (BT refusal group due to poor compliance), the symptoms were statistically improved at follow-up. Therefore, for the shortterm improvement of symptoms, BT was better than conservative therapy alone. The negative feelings associated with ano-rectal function testing and BT were directly associated with failure or success of therapy. Conclusion: Pediatric patients with constipation or soiling that presented with an obvious PFD pattern showed that BT was a useful therapeutic tool for rapid improvement of symptoms.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.149-157
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• 2003

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine if there were prognostic differences between BRCA related and BRCA non-related Korean patients with early-onset breast carcinomas. Materials and Methods: Sixty women who had developed breast cancers before the age of 40, and who were treated at the Soonchunhyang University Hospital, were studied independently of their family histories. The age range was 18 to 40 with a median of 34.5 years. Lymphocyte specimens from peripheral blood were studied for the heterozygous mutations of BRCA1 and BRCA2 using direct sequencing methods. Immunohistochemistry was peformed on the paraffin-embedded tissue blocks that were available. Results: Eleven deleterious mutations (18.3%, 6 in BRCA1 and 5 in BRCA2) and 7 missense mutations of unknown significance (11.7%), were found among the 60 patients. More than half of the mutation were novel, and were not reported in the database. Most of the BRCA-associated patients had no history of breast cancer. No treatment related failures were observed in the BRCA carriers, with the exception of one patient that had experienced a new primary tumor of the contralateral breast. The seven year relapse free survival rate were 50 and 79% In the BRCA carrier and BRCA negative patients, respectively. Although the expression of estrogen and progesterone receptors were less common, and histological features more aggressive, in the BRCA associated tumors, the outcome of the patients with BRCA mutations was not poorer than that on the patients without deleterious mutations. Conclusion.: Despite the BRCA mutation carriers having adverse prognostic features, the recurrence rate was relatively lower than that in the BRCA non-carrying Korean patients wi4h early-onset breast carcinomas. In addition, although the prevalence of the BRCA mutation in Korean patients was higher than that in white patients, the penetrance of the cancer seemed to be relatively low in Korean women carrying BRCA mutations. A large population based study of the BRCA mutation, with a long-term follow-up of the study patients will be required to confirm these results.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.65-82
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• 2011

In order to evaluate the weed suppressing effect of Solanum viarum Dunal. In this study species diversity in patch of S. viarum and allelopathic effects of the aqueous extracts on S. viarum were investigated. Number of species and species diversity in site close to patch of S. viarum were decreased gradually 1site ($7.7{\pm}2.0,\;1.5{\pm}0.2$), 2site ($5.3{\pm}1.2,\;1.2{\pm}0.2$) and 3site ($4.0{\pm}1.7,\;0.9{\pm}0.1$). And total phenolic compounds of soil in survey area were increased gradually site1 ($0.16{\pm}0.01mg\;g^{-1}$), site2 ($0.17{\pm}0.01mg\;g^{-1}$) and site3 ($0.22{\pm}0.02mg\;g^{-1}$). So the number of species and species diversity (r=-0.692, P<0.05) were negatively correlated with increased total phenolic compounds of soil in the survey area. The relative germination ratio, the mean germination time, the relative elongation ratio, the fresh weight and the dry weight of receptor plants are generally getting decreased while the concentration of the aqueous extracts from S. viarum escalate. But every ratio was various depending on the growing regions, the kind of receptor plants and the treatment of the aqueous extracts. Especially, the radicle by injection of the aqueous extracts concentration of S. viarum was influenced more than the shoot on the same condition. The total phenolic compounds on region of S. viarum was gradually increased in stems (fresh $0.56{\pm}0.02mg\;g^{-1}$, dry $1.58{\pm}0.08mg\;g^{-1}$), roots (fresh $1.77{\pm}0.07mg\;g^{-1}$, dry $2.64{\pm}0.06mg\;g^{-1}$), leaves (fresh $6.01{\pm}0.14mg\;g^{-1}$, dry $7.04{\pm}0.29mg\;g^{-1}$), seeds (fresh $6.21{\pm}0.17mg\;g^{-1}$, dry $9.08{\pm}0.73mg\;g^{-1}$) in order. On the contrary, the negative correlation on germination and growth of receptor plants was shown by total phenolic compounds on the each parts of S. viarum. We think that the aqueous extracts of S. viarum showed allelopathic effects on other plants. Therefore, S. viarum holds the higher competitiveness in plant community in Jeju Island and makes possibility of application as natural herbicide.