• BMB Reports
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.519-524
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• 1996

Peptidylprolyl cis-trans isomerase (PPlase) catalyzes the cis-trans isomerization of prolyl peptide and facilitates the folding of cellular proteins and peptides. PPlase consists of two distinct immunophilins, each specifically binding to the immunosupressive drug cyclosporin A (CsA) or FK506, respectively. A PPlase was isolated and partially purified from porcine spleen. The molecular weight of porcine spleen PPlase was determined to be ~14,000 on the basis of SDS-PAGE. The purified enzyme was strongly inhibited by FK506, but not by CsA. The inhibition constant and the true concentration of enzyme preparations were determined by active site titration using the tight binding inhibitor FK506: $K_{i}=18.7$ nM and $E_{t}=172$ nM. The equilibrium ratio of conformer. [cis]/[trans], of prolyl peptide substrates (N-Suc-Ala-Xaa-Pro-Phe-p-NA) in anhydrous trifluoroethanol/LiCl solvent system varied from 0.24 to 0.85 depending on the nature of Xaa. Overall. in this solvent-salt system, the populations of the cis conformer of substrates in equilibrium are higher than in an aqueous solution so that the substantial error caused by high background absorption can be reduced. The reactivities of porcine spleen PPlase are shown to be highly sensitive to changes in the structure of substrates. Thus, $k_{cat}/K_m$ value for the most reactive substrate (Xaa Leu) is $4.007+10^{6}M^{1}s^{1}$ and, is 2,636 fold higher than that for the least reactive peptide substrate tested, Xaa=Glu.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.585-593
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• 2013

This study was designed to measure taste sensitivity and the five basic senses by an educational classification instrument. The instrument was a rice kit that could use samples in a dry powder form or oil extract after long-term storage To test for taste, sucrose, salt, citric acid, and quinine sulfate were made at different concentrations and taste sensitivity was measured on a scale from level 1 to level 5. To obtain baseline data, an inspection tool for the five senses was used and randomly applied on 101 schoolchildren in the third and fourth grade in the city of Cheonan in Korea. The inspection tool was composed of 17 questions; 5 questions regarding visual characteristics and three questions each for characteristics regarding taste, hearing, smell, and touch. The average age of the schoolchildren was 9.5 years old and there were 49 third grade students (9 years of age), and 52 fourth grade students (ten years of age). There were slightly more male students than female students, 56 (55.4%) compared to 45 (44.6%), respectively. The average height of female students was higher than that of males, but the average BMI (body mass index) of the male students was slightly higher than that of female students (18.28 compared to 18.09, respectively). Female students were slightly more sensitive to salty tastes than male students (2.8 compared to 2.5, respectively). In the score distribution for each sense, touch sense was the highest at 7.59, sight sense was 7.49, hearing sense was 5.43, smell sense was 5.24, and taste sense was lowest at 3.69. Therefore, schoolchildren first tend to recognize and deem important the touch and sight of food before its taste.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.16-27
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• 2003

For the last decade, some 400 small and large oil spill accidents have occurred every year. Such accident blow a serious damage to the marine resource and ecosystem, which can't be estimated in terms of economic and environmental losses. The physical/chemical methods used currently may be effective at the initial stage of accidents, but they can't serve to remove the spilled oil completely. Moreover, the dispersant may lead to a secondary contamination detrimental to the lives inhabiting wet lands, beaches and tidal zone. Thus, a new decomposing technology Is required for the environmentally sensitive areas. Bioremediation is the active use of biological techniques to mitigate the consequences of a spill using biological processes and refers both of stimulation of pollutant biodegradation and/or to enhance ecosystem recovery Bioremediation is an economically attractive method for the clean-up of oil-contaminated area. Bioremediation has been demonstrated to be an effective oil spill countermeasure for use in cobble, sand beach, salt marsh, and mud flat environment.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.645-658
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• 2021

Porins are essential for the viability of Gram-negative bacteria. They ensure the uptake of nutrients, can be involved in the maintenance of outer membrane integrity and define the antibiotic or drug resistance of organisms. The function and structure of porins in proteobacteria is well described, while their function in photoautotrophic cyanobacteria has not been systematically explored. We compared the domain architecture of nine putative porins in the filamentous cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 and analyzed the seven candidates with predicted OprB-domain. Single recombinant mutants of the seven genes were created and their growth capacity under different conditions was analyzed. Most of the putative porins seem to be involved in the transport of salt and copper, as respective mutants were resistant to elevated concentrations of these substances. In turn, only the mutant of alr2231 was less sensitive to elevated zinc concentrations, while mutants of alr0834, alr4741 and all4499 were resistant to high manganese concentrations. Notably the mutant of alr4550 shows a high sensitivity against harmful compounds, which is indicative for a function related to the maintenance of outer membrane integrity. Moreover, the mutant of all5191 exhibited a phenotype which suggests either a higher nitrate demand or an inefficient nitrogen fixation. The dependency of porin membrane insertion on Omp85 proteins was tested exemplarily for Alr4550, and an enhanced aggregation of Alr4550 was observed in two omp85 mutants. The comparative analysis of porin mutants suggests that the proteins in parts perform distinct functions related to envelope integrity and solute uptake.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.537-550
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• 2011

This study was conducted to identify behavioral characteristics of salty food intake according to saline sensitivity of adults living in a rural area. Anthropometry and blood pressure were measured and salt intake-related dietary behavior was surveyed by questionnaires through interviews with 402 subjects aged ${\geq}$ 40 years in Chungcheongbuk-Do, Korea. The percentages of overweight and obese among the subjects were 37.8% and 3.8% respectively. Mean blood pressure of the subjects was in the normal range, but the distribution of subjects who were normotensive, high normal, and hypertensive was 48.7%, 17.7%, and 33.6% respectively. Approximately 27% of all subjects habitually consumed salty food, which was the smallest group, followed by 38.1% normal and 35.1% not-salty food. However, 34.6% of the eldest group of ${\geq}$ 65 years consumed salty food. The saline insensitive group showed a higher percentage of irregular meals, overeating, speed-eating, an unbalanced diet, a preference for fried food, and habitual intake of salty foods. These subjects recognized the risk for eating salty food, but they lacked the will to reduce their salty food intake. Compared to spouses and family members, experts such as doctors, nurses, and dieticians were the most influential for reducing the salty food intake of subjects. Saline sensitive group had relatively better control over salty food intake at every meal, eating out, and even when eating salty food that the spouse preferred. The saline sensitive group ate more frequently vegetables and fruits, whereas the saline insensitive group ate more frequently hot spicy foods. In conclusion, the results suggest that it is necessary to establish a social atmosphere toward reducing salt intake at the level of the government and food industry and to set action plans to be available for nutrition education programs to reduce salt intake nationwide.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.25 no.3 s.107
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• pp.171-177
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• 2002

Three species of Chenopodiaceae, i.e. Suaeda japonica, Salicomia herbacea, Beta vulgaris var. cicla, were investigated to compare the physiological characteristics through ionic balances and osmoregulations under different environmental salt gradients. Plants were harvested in two weeks from treatments with salt gradients(0, 50, 100, 200 and 400 mM NaCl) and mineral nutrition gradients(1/1, l/5, 1/10 dilutions of Hoagland solution). Plants were analyzed for growth responses, ionic balances, osmolalities, conductivities, glycinebetaine and proline contents quantitatively. Three plants of Chenopodiaceae accumulated salts into tissues unlike some salt sensitive species, and showed unique adaptation patterns to overcome saline environments, i.e. strong growth stimulation for Salicomia herbacea, growth negative tolerance for Suaeda japonica, and growth positive tolerance for Beta vulgaris var cicla. The absorption of inorganic $Ca^{2+}$ ions was inhibited remarkably due to the excess uptake of $Na^+$ with increasing salinity. The $K^+$ content in plants was significantly reduced with increasing salinity. Total nitrogen content was reduced as mineral nutritions and salinity increases. Conductivity and osmolality increased with increasing salinity regardless of mineral nutritions. The ranges of glycinebetaine and proline contents were $0.2{\sim}2.5{\mu}M/g$ plant water and $0.1{\sim}0.6{\mu}M/g$ plant water, respectively.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.5A
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• pp.351-360
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• 2011

Jacket-type offshore structures are always exposed to severe environmental conditions such as salt, high speed of current, wave, and wind compared with other onshore structures. In spite of the importance of maintaining the structural integrity for offshore structure, there are few cases to apply structural health monitoring (SHM) system in practice. The impedance-based SHM is a kind of local SHM techniques and to date, numerous techniques and algorithms have been proposed for local SHM of real-scale structures. However, it still requires a significant challenge for practical applications to compensate unknown environmental effects and to extract only damage features from impedance signals. In this study, the impedance-based SHM was carried out on a 1/20-scaled model of an Uldolmok current power plant structure under changes in temperature and transverse loadings. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied using conventional damage index to eliminate principal components sensitive to environmental change. It was found that the proposed PCA-base approach is an effective tool for long-term SHM under significant environmental changes.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.10
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• pp.1490-1499
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• 2016

In this study, 69 lactobacilli isolated from Tibetan Qula, a raw yak milk cheese, were screened for their potential use as probiotics. The isolates were tested in terms of: Their ability to survive at pH 2.0, pH 3.0, and in the presence of 0.3% bile salts; tolerance of simulated gastric and intestinal juices; antimicrobial activity; sensitivity against 11 specific antibiotics; and their cell surface hydrophobicity. The results show that out of the 69 strains, 29 strains (42%) had survival rates above 90% after 2 h of incubation at pH values of 2.0 or 3.0. Of these 29 strains, 21 strains showed a tolerance for 0.3% bile salt. Incubation of these 21 isolates in simulated gastrointestinal fluid for 3 h revealed survival rates above 90%; the survival rate for 20 of these isolates remained above 90% after 4 h of incubation in simulated intestinal fluid. The viable counts of bacteria after incubation in simulated gastric fluid for 3 h and simulated intestinal fluid for 4 h were both significantly different compared with the counts at 0 h (p<0.001). Further screening performed on the above 20 isolates indicated that all 20 lactobacilli strains exhibited inhibitory activity against Micrococcus luteus ATCC 4698, Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633, Listeria monocytogenes ATCC 19115, and Salmonella enterica ATCC 43971. Moreover, all of the strains were resistant to vancomycin and streptomycin. Of the 20 strains, three were resistant to all 11 elected antibiotics (ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, tetracycline, penicillin G, ampicillin, streptomycin, polymyxin B, vancomycin, chloramphenicol, rifampicin, and gentamicin) in this study, and five were sensitive to more than half of the antibiotics. Additionally, the cell surface hydrophobicity of seven of the 20 lactobacilli strains was above 70%, including strains Lactobacillus casei 1,133 (92%), Lactobacillus plantarum 1086-1 (82%), Lactobacillus casei 1089 (81%), Lactobacillus casei 1138 (79%), Lactobacillus buchneri 1059 (78%), Lactobacillus plantarum 1141 (75%), and Lactobacillus plantarum 1197 (71%). Together, these results suggest that these seven strains are good probiotic candidates, and that tolerance against bile acid, simulated gastric and intestinal juices, antimicrobial activity, antibiotic resistance, and cell surface hydrophobicity could be adopted for preliminary screening of potentially probiotic lactobacilli.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Inherited Metabolic disease
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.70-78
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• 2016

21-hydroxylase deficiency (21-OHD), most common form of congenial adrenal hyperplasia, is categorized into classical forms, including the salt-wasting (SW) and the simple virilizing (SV) types, and nonclassical (NC) forms based on the severity of the disease. Newborn screening for 21-OHD has been performed in Korea since 2006. $17{\alpha}$-hydroxyprogesterone (17-OHP) is a marker for 21-OHD and is measured using a radioimmunoassay or a fluoroimmunoassay. Premature and low birth weight infants are likely to give false positive 17-OHP findings, therefore, cutoff values for these infants should be determined based on gestational weeks or birth weight. ACTH simulation test is helpful when the 17-OHP shows equivocal increase, and it is gold standard for diagnosis of NC type. Recently, liquid chromatography linked with tandem mass spectrometry was developed for rapid, highly specific, and sensitive analysis of multiple analytes. Molecular analysis of CYP21A2 is useful for confirming diagnosis of mild SV or NC type, predicting prognoses, and genetic counseling. In order to make newborn screening for 21-OHD more efficient, early detection of boy with SW type, early determination of girl with ambiguous genitalia, detection of NC type, and overcoming of false positive in premature and low birth weight infants should be considered. Above all, early treatment should be started when the patient is suspected as having 21- OHD clinically before confirming the diagnosis to prevent adrenal crisis. Here, author reviewed recent articles of guideline and proposed guideline for 21-OHD.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.397-401
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• 2016

A new solid oxidizer, pyridinium dinitramide (Py-DN) is a low toxic energetic material which can be utilized as a HPGP (high performance green propellant). In this work, Py-DN was synthesized using various starting materials including potassium sulfamate, pyridine hydrochloride, strong nitric acid and sulfuric acid. Physical and chemical properties of the Py-DN were characterized using UV-Vis, FT-IR and a thermal analyzer and their properties were compared to those of previously prepared salts including ammonium dinitramide[ADN, $NH_4N(NO_2)_2$] and guanidine dinitramide[GDN, $NH_2C(NH_2)NH_2N(NO_2)_2$] in our lab. Endothermic and exothermic decomposition temperatures of Py-DN were $77.4^{\circ}C$ and $144.7^{\circ}C$, respectively. The combustion caloric value was 1739 J/g, which is thermally more sensitive than that of conventional dinitramides. It may enable to lower the decomposition temperature, which can reduce preheating temperature required for satellite thruster applications.