• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.455-465
• /
• 2020

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the photoneutron characteristics generated by the linear accelerator target and collimator. The computer simulation design firstly, consisted of a target, a single material target and a composite material target. Secondly, it consisted of a cone beam and a fan beam depending on the type of the collimator. Finally, the material of the fan beam collimator is composed of a single material composed of only lead (Pb) and a composite material collimator composed of tungsten (W) and lead (Pb). The research method calculated the photoneutron production rate and energy spectrum using F2 tally from the surface of a virtual sphere at a distance of 100 cm from the target. As a result, firstly the photoneutron production rate was 20% difference, depending on the target. Secondly, depending on the type of the collimator, there was a 10% difference. Finally, depending on the collimator material, there was a 40% difference. In the photoneutron energy spectrum, the average photoneutron flux tended to be similar to the photoneutron production rate. As a result, it was confirmed that the 9 MeV linear accelerator photoneutron are production increased more by the collimator than by the target, and by the material, not the type of the collimator. Selecting and operating targets and collimator with low photoneutron production will be the most active radiation protection. Therefore, it is considered that this research can be a useful data for introducing and operating and radiation protection of a linear accelerator for container security inspection.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.51 no.3
• /
• pp.363-367
• /
• 2013

The prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in birds has epidemiological significance because birds are indeed considered as a good indicator of environmental contamination by T. gondii oocysts. In this study, the prevalence of T. gondii in 313 house sparrows in Lanzhou, northwestern China was assayed by the modified agglutination test (MAT). Antibodies to T. gondii were positive in 39 (12.46%) of 313 samples (MAT titer ${\geq}$ 1:5). Tissues of heart, brain, and lung from the 39 seropositive house sparrows were tested for T. gondii DNA, 11 of which were found to be positive for the T. gondii B1 gene by PCR amplification. These positive DNA samples were typed at 9 genetic markers, including 8 nuclear loci, i.e., SAG1, 5'- and 3'-SAG2, alternative SAG2, SAG3, GRA6, L358, PK1, c22-8 and an apicoplast locus Apico. Of them, 4 isolates were genotyped with complete data for all loci, and 2 genotypes (Type II variants; ToxoDB #3 and a new genotype) were identified. These results showed that there is a potential risk for human infection with T. gondii in this region. To our knowledge, this is the first report of T. gondii seroprevalence in house sparrows in China.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
• /
• v.18 no.5
• /
• pp.251-258
• /
• 2002

A potyvirus was isolated from cultivated Iris plants showing leaf streak mosaic symptom. Reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) product of 1 kb long which encoded partial nuclear inclusion B and N-terminal region of viral coat protein (CP) genes for potyviruses was successfully amplified with a set of potyvirus-specific degenerate primers with viral RNA samples from the infected leaves: The RT-PCR product was cloned into the plasmid vector and its nucleotide sequences were determined. The nucleotide sequence of a CDNA clone revealed that the virus was an isolate of Ornithogalum moseic virus (OrMV) based on BLAST search analysis and was denoted as OrMV Korean isolate (OrMV-Ky). To further characterize the CP gene of the virus, a pair of OrMV-specific primers was designed and used for amplification of the entire CP gene of OrMV-Kr, The virus was easily and reliably detected from virus-infected Iris leaves by using the RT-PCR with the set of virus-specific primers. The RT-PCR product of the CP gene of the virus was cloned and its sequences were determined from selected recombinant CDNA clones. Sequence analysis revealed that the CP of OrMV-Kr consisted of 762 nucleotides, which encoded 253 amino acid residues. The CP of OrMV-Ky has 94.1-98.0% amino acid sequence identities (20 amino acid alterations) with that of other three isolates of OrMV, Two NT rich potential N-glycosylation motif sequences, NCTS and NWTM, and a DAC triple box responsible for aphid transmission were conserved in CPs of all the strains of OrMV. The virus has 58.5-86.2% amino acid sequence identities with that of other 16 potyviruses, indicating OrMV to be a distinct species of the genus. OrMV-Ky was the most related with Pterostylia virus Yin the phylogenetic tree analysis of CP at the amino acid level. This is the first report on the occurrence of OrMV in Iris plants in Korea. Data in this study indicate that OrMV is found in cultivated Iris plants, and may have mixed infection of OrMV and Iris severe mosaic virus in Korea.

• Journal of KSNVE
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.107-114
• /
• 1996

The damping characteristics of a cylindrical structure containing oil and bearing balls is investigated for external bending forces. The experimental data obtained through the use of bearing balls with viscous oil in a column is given and analyzed. The viscous action of the oil and inertia effects of the balls on the inside of column create a drag force. The drag force dampens the vibration of the column. This study aims to search for an optimum combination of oil and balls which would produce maximum damping. Machining oils of various viscosities along with ball bearings of various sizes place inside cantilevered aluminium tubes of various diameters to create a rig on which the damping properties of the oil and balls can be studied. The contileved tubes are studied in both horizontal and vertical positions in order to gauge the effect of gravity on the system. The actions of the ball in the column and damping characteristics are investigated according to the dimensionless terms. The Buckingham theorem is used to reduce the variables and to predict the damping of an oil ball column. Though the damping ratio remains fairly constant in the horizontal position of column, the damping ratio begins to increase as the ratio of the number of balls and column length rise above 0.28 in the vertical position of oil ball column. The ratio of the ball diameter to column diameter influences the damping ratio with an optimum diameter ratio. Slenderness ratio and gravity effects on the damping ratio ane investigated.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.23 no.8
• /
• pp.1057-1063
• /
• 2013

Citri Pericarpium is one of the most commonly used traditional herbal medicines in Korea, China, and Japan. Its extracts have many properties including the treatment of indigestion and inflammatory respiratory syndromes such as bronchitis and asthma. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of anti-cancer activity and molecular targets are not fully understood. In this work, we investigated the anti-proliferative activity of Citri Pericapium (EMCP) methanol extract on reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and the association of these effects with apoptotic cell death using U937 human leukemia cells in vitro. EMCP treatment decreased cell proliferation in a dose-dependent manner following an increase of the sub-G1 phase, the down-regulation of Bax proteins, the activation of caspases, the degradation of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase proteins (PARP), and the induction of ROS generation. However, the quenching of ROS generation by N-acetyl-L-cysteine administration, a scavenger of ROS, reversed the EMCP-induced apoptosis effects. In addition, heme oxygenase-1 expression also recovered by inhibiting the nuclear translocation of phosphorylated NF-E2-related factor 2. Taken together, our data indicate that ROS are involved as key mediators in the early molecular events in the EMCP-induced apoptotic pathway.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.146-156
• /
• 2018

Spermidine is a naturally occurring polyamine compound that has recently emerged with anti-aging properties and suppresses inflammation and oxidation. However, its mechanisms of action on anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects have not been fully elucidated. In this study, the potential of spermidine for reducing pro-inflammatory and oxidative effects in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated macrophages and zebrafish was explored. Our data indicate that spermidine significantly inhibited the production of pro-inflammatory mediators such as nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin $E_2$ ($PGE_2$), and cytokines including tumor necrosis $factor-{\alpha}$ and $interleukin-1{\beta}$ in RAW 264.7 macrophages without any significant cytotoxicity. The protective effects of spermidine accompanied by a marked suppression in their regulatory gene expression at the transcription levels. Spermidine also attenuated the nuclear translocation of $NF-{\kappa}B$ p65 subunit and reduced LPS-induced intracellular accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in RAW 264.7 macrophages. Moreover, spermidine prevented the LPS-induced NO production and ROS accumulation in zebrafish larvae and was found to be associated with a diminished recruitment of neutrophils and macrophages. Although more work is needed to fully understand the critical role of spermidine on the inhibition of inflammation-associated migration of immune cells, our findings clearly demonstrate that spermidine may be a potential therapeutic intervention for the treatment of inflammatory and oxidative disorders.

• Weed & Turfgrass Science
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.26-34
• /
• 2015

Korean Poaceae includes approximately 80 species of the agricultural weeds. Precise species identification is the first step for more effective weed management in the agricultural fields. However, the identification of species in Poaceae is not easy without the assistance of taxonomists or identification experts although they are relatively easy to distinguish from the plants of the other family by the unique characteristics of caryopsis. Thus, DNA barcode was suggested as an alternative powerful technique for species identification by using short sections of DNA from a specific region of the genome. Two standard barcode markers of vascular plants, chloroplast rbcL and matK, and a supplementary nuclear ribosomal Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region were used for barcode of major Korean Poaceae weeds, 403 individuals of 84 taxa. All the barcode markers revealed a good level of sequencing success with the lowest 73.7% for matK and the highest 88.8% for rbcL. The barcode sequences were deposited to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database for public use. Combined matK and ITS showed very high resolving power with 92.9%. Besides the identification of weeds for weed managment, the generated DNA barcode data could be used for many other applications such as rapid biodiversity assessment and conservation prioritization.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.27-35
• /
• 2005

Ultrasonic inspection methods are widely used for detecting flaws in materials. The signal analysis step plays a crucial part in the data interpretation process. A number of signal processing methods have been proposed to classify ultrasonic flaw signals. One of the more popular methods involves the extraction of an appropriate set of features followed by the use of a neural network for the classification of the signals in the feature spare. This paper describes an alternative approach which uses the least mean square (LMS) method and exportation maximization (EM) algorithm with the model based deconvolution which is employed for classifying nondestructive evaluation (NDE) signals from steam generator tubes in a nuclear power plant. The signals due to cracks and deposits are not significantly different. These signals must be discriminated to prevent from happening a huge disaster such as contamination of water or explosion. A model based deconvolution has been described to facilitate comparison of classification results. The method uses the space alternating generalized expectation maximiBation (SAGE) algorithm ill conjunction with the Newton-Raphson method which uses the Hessian parameter resulting in fast convergence to estimate the time of flight and the distance between the tube wall and the ultrasonic sensor. Results using these schemes for the classification of ultrasonic signals from cracks and deposits within steam generator tubes are presented and showed a reasonable performances.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
• /
• v.62 no.4
• /
• pp.323-326
• /
• 2019

The flowers of Coreopsis lanceolata were extracted with 80% aqueous MeOH and the concentrates were partitioned into EtOAc, n-BuOH, and H₂O fractions. The repeated silica gel (SiO₂) and octadecyl silica gel column chromatographies for the EtOAc fraction led to isolation of one flavonol and one benzoyl compounds. The chemical structures of the compounds were respectively determined as melanoxetin (1) and protocatechuic acid methyl ester (2) based on spectroscopic analyses including NMR, IR, and MS. These two compounds were isolated for the first time from C. lanceolata flowers in this study. All fractions and the isolated compounds were evaluated for 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl and 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid radical scavenging activities.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
• /
• v.4 no.4
• /
• pp.393-400
• /
• 2006

In design of a deep geological repository for the high level wastes, it is very important that the temperature of the bentonite block should not be over $100^{\circ}C$ to maintain the integrity of the bentonite buffer block from the decay heat. In this study, for the layout of the repository to meet the requirement, the analysis of the disposal tunnel and disposal pit spacing was carried out. To do this, based on the reference repository concept, several cases of cooling times and disposal tunnel and disposal pit spacing were compared. The thermal stabilities of the disposal systems were analyzed in terms of the cooling time and spacing. The results showed that it was more desirable to determine the layout of the repository in terms of disposal pit spacing than the disposal tunnel spacing. The results of these analyses can be used in the deep geological repository design. The detailed analyses with the exact site characteristics data will reduce the uncertainty of the results.