• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Food Hygiene and Safety Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.137-137
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• 2002

Several epidemiologidal studies suggested that arsenic exposure was strongly correlated with the development of cardiovascular disease such as hypertension. In order to examine whether arsenic affects vasomotor tone in blood vessels, we investigated the effect of arsenic on agonist-induced vasorelaxation using the isolated rat aortic ring in in vitro organ bath system. Treatment with arsenite inhibited acetylcholine-induced relaxation of aortic rings in a concentration- dependent manner. The inhibitory effects by arsenic were also observed in the relaxation induced by sodium nitroprusside, a NO-donor. Consistent with these findings, the cGMP levels stimulated by acetylcholine in blood vessels were reduced significantly by arsenite treatment. In addition, higher concentration of arsenite decreased the relaxation by 8-Br-cGMP, a cGMP analog, in aortic rings without endothelium. These in vitro results indicated that arsenite that arsenite was capable of suppressing acetylcholine-induced relaxation in blood vessels by inhibiting production of nitric oxide in endothelial cells and by impairing the relaxation machinary in smooth muscle cells. In vivo studies revealed that the reduction of blood pressure by acetylcholine infusion was signigicantly suppressed after arsenite was administered intravenously to rate. These data suggest that vasomotor tone impaired by arsenite exposure may be one of the contrbuting factors in development of cardiovascular disease.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.111-120
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• 1990

Effects of royal jelly(RJ) on the immune system in normal and cyclophosphamide(CY)-treated mice were investigated. The results were as following: 1. Body weight, spleen weight, thymus weight, WBC, cell-mediated immunity (CMI, contact hypersensitivity to DNFB), humoral immunity (HI, Hemagglutinin-, Hemolysin-titer) were increased or decreased dependent on the day of administration of RJ in normal mice. But it showed no effect on liver weight and RBC. 2. Combined treatment with RJ in CY-treated mice on the day which RJ showed the increasing activities in normal mice inhibited the decrease of survival rate, body weight, spleen weight, WBC and CMI caused by CY, but no effect on the decrease of thymus weight and HI induced by CY.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.482-484
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• 2007

To investigate production and hydrolysis of levan, the levansucrase enzymes from Zymomonas mobilis ATCC 10988 and Rahnella aquatilis ATCC 33071 were used. The optimum temperature of R. aquatilis levansucrase for levan formation was $37^{\circ}C$, whereas that of Z. mobilis was $4^{\circ}C$, under the experimental conditions. Both levansucrases also catalyzed the reverse levan hydrolysis reaction. Levan hydrolysis reactions from both levansucrases were temperature dependent; high temperature ($20^{\circ}C$) was more favorable than low temperature ($4^{\circ}C$) by 4 times. Fructose was the only product from hydrolysis reaction by both levansucrases, showing that both levansucrases mediated the hydrolysis reaction of exo-enzyme acting. In both enzymes, initial levan hydrolysis activity was almost accounted to 1% of initial levan formation activity. The results allow the estimation of the fructose release rate in enzyme processing conditions.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.22-27
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• 2018

Purpose: Podocytes are important architectures that maintain the crucial roles of glomerular filtration barrier functions. Despite this structural importance, however, the mechanisms of the changes in podocytes that can be an important pathogenesis of minimal change nephrotic syndrome (MCNS) are not clear yet. The aim of this study was to investigate whether apoptosis is induced by interleukin (IL)-13 in cultured human podocytes. Methods: Human podocytes were treated with different IL-13 doses and apoptotic cells were analyzed using terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL assay) and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). Results: The IL-13 increased the number of TUNEL-positive cells in a dose-dependent manner at 6 and 18 hours (P<0.05 and P<0.05, respectively). The apoptosis rate was appeared to be increased slightly in the IL-13-stimulated podocytes (8.63%, 13.02%, and 14.46%; 3, 10 and 30 ng/mL, respectively) than in the control cells (7.66%) at 12 hours by FACS assay. Conclusion: Our study revealed that IL-13 expression may increase podocyte apoptosis. Blocking the IL-13 signal pathway can potentially play an important role in regulating the apoptosis of podocytes.

• MALSORI
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• v.68
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• pp.33-47
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• 2008

In this paper, we propose a hybrid acoustic and pronunciation model adaptation method based on context dependency for Korean-English speech recognition. The proposed method is performed as follows. First, in order to derive pronunciation variant rules, an n-best phoneme sequence is obtained by phone recognition. Second, we decompose each rule into a context independent (CI) or a context dependent (CD) one. To this end, it is assumed that a different phoneme structure between Korean and English makes CI pronunciation variabilities while coarticulation effects are related to CD pronunciation variabilities. Finally, we perform an acoustic model adaptation and a pronunciation model adaptation for CI and CD pronunciation variabilities, respectively. It is shown from the Korean-English speech recognition experiments that the average word error rate (WER) is decreased by 36.0% when compared to the baseline that does not include any adaptation. In addition, the proposed method has a lower average WER than either the acoustic model adaptation or the pronunciation model adaptation.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.73-79
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• 1995

The effect of prior cumulative mixing was evaluated by means of a simple regression model which used as a dependent variable percentage(%) change of each repeated observed value for the initial value. The red blood cell count (RBC), hematocrit (Hct), and mean corpuscular volume(MCV) showed a significant decrease (p<.01), but % of basophils had a significant increase (p<.05). The ratios of rate of change (regression coefficient/SD) were .0012 for RBC, .0020 for Hct, .0024 for MCV, and .0011 for % of basophils. Of the 19 parameters evaluated, 21% changed.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.1138-1142
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• 2011

Kinetic studies for the reactions of Y-aryl phenyl chlorothiophosphates with X-pyridines have been carried out in acetonitrile at $35.0^{\circ}C$. The Hammett and Bronsted plots for substituent X variations in the nucleophiles are biphasic concave upwards with a break point at X = 3-Ph, while the Hammett plots for substituent Y variations in the substrates are biphasic concave downwards (and partially upwards) with a break point at Y = H. The signs and magnitudes of the cross-interaction constant (${\rho}_{XY}$) are strongly dependent upon the nature of substituents, X and Y. The proposed mechanism is a stepwise process with a rate-limiting step change from bond breaking with the weaker electrophiles to bond formation with the stronger eletrophiles. The nonlinear free energy correlations of biphasic concave upward plots for substituent X variations in the nucleophiles are rationalized by a change in the attacking direction of the nucleophile from a backside with less basic pyridines to a frontside attack with more basic pyridines.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.467-470
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• 2004

Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) thin film is a semiconductor with high mechanical hardness, low friction coefficient, high chemical inertness, and optical transparency. DLC thin films have widespread applications as protective coatings and solid lubricant coatings in areas such as Hard Disk Drive (HDD) and Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS). In this work, the wear characteristics of DLC thin films deposited on silicon substrates using a DC-magnetron sputtering system were analyzed. The wear tracks were measured with an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). To identify the sp2 and sp3 hybridization of carbon bonds and other bonds Raman spectroscopy was used. The structural information of DLC thin films was obtained with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and wear tests were conducted by using a micro-pin-on-reciprocator tester. Results showed that the wear characteristics were dependent on the sputtering conditions. The wear rate could be correlated with the bonding state of the DLC thin film.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.9
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• pp.1518-1521
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• 2008

Bacteria sense their population density and coordinate the expression of target genes, including virulence factors in Gram-negative bacteria, by the N-acylhomoserine lactones (AHLs)-dependent quorum sensing (QS) mechanism. In contrast, several soil bacteria are able to interfere with QS by enzymatic degradation of AHLs, referred to as quorum quenching. A potent AHL-degrading enzyme, AiiA, from Bacillus thuringiensis has been reported to effectively attenuate the virulence of bacteria by quorum quenching. However, little is known about the role of AiiA in B. thuringiensis itself. In the present study, an aiiA-defective mutant was generated to investigate the role of AHA in rhizosphere competence in the root system of pepper. The aiiA mutant showed no detectable AHL￢-egrading activity and was less effective for suppression of soft-rot symptom caused by Erwinia carotovora on the potato slice. On the pepper root, the survival rate of the aiiA mutant significantly decreased over time compared with that of wild type. Interestingly, viable cell count analysis revealed that the bacterial number and composition of E. carotovora were not different between treatments of wild type and the aiiA mutant. These results provide evidence that AHA can play an important role in rhizosphere competentce of B. thuringiensis and bacterial quorum quenching to Gram-negative bacteria without changing bacterial number or composition.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.110-126
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• 1997

A two-dimensional continuum model for the hydrogen mining phenomena in the containment subcompartment under severe accident conditions has been developed to predict the spatial distribution of the hydrogen concentration. The model can predict the distribution of time-dependent hydrogen concentration for HEDL experiments well. For the simulation of these experiments, the hydrogen is mixed uniform within the test compartment. To predict the extent of non-uniform distribution, the dominant factors such as the geometrical shape of obstacle and velocity of source injection in mixing phenomena are investigated. If the obstacle disturbing the flow of gas mixture exists in the compartment, the uniform distribution of hydrogen might be not guaranteed. The convective circulation of gas flow is separately formed up and down of the obstacle position, which makes a difference of hydrogen concentration between the upper and lower region of the compartment. The recirculation flow must have a considerable mass flow rate relative to velocity of the source injection to sustain the well-mixed conditions of hydrogen. Finally, in order to account for non-uniform distribution of the hydrogen due to the geometrical configuration the maximum-to-average ratio is functionalized.