• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.46 no.9
• /
• pp.545-557
• /
• 2023

Sphingomyelinase (SMase) catalyzes ceramide production from sphingomyelin. Ceramides are critical in cellular responses such as apoptosis. They enhance mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization (MOMP) through self-assembly in the mitochondrial outer membrane to form channels that release cytochrome c from intermembrane space (IMS) into the cytosol, triggering caspase-9 activation. However, the SMase involved in MOMP is yet to be identified. Here, we identified a mitochondrial Mg²⁺-independent SMase (mt-iSMase) from rat brain, which was purified 6,130-fold using a Percoll gradient, pulled down with biotinylated sphingomyelin, and subjected to Mono Q anion exchange. A single peak of mt-iSMase activity was eluted at a molecular mass of approximately 65 kDa using Superose 6 gel filtration. The purified enzyme showed optimal activity at pH of 6.5 and was inhibited by dithiothreitol and Mg²⁺, Mn²⁺, Ni²⁺, Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺, Fe²⁺, and Fe³⁺ ions. It was also inhibited by GW4869, which is a non-competitive inhibitor of Mg²⁺-dependent neutral SMase 2 (encoded by SMPD3), that protects against cytochrome c release-mediated cell death. Subfractionation experiments showed that mt-iSMase localizes in the IMS of the mitochondria, implying that mt-iSMase may play a critical role in generating ceramides for MOMP, cytochrome c release, and apoptosis. These data suggest that the purified enzyme in this study is a novel SMase.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
• /
• v.16 no.6
• /
• pp.526-532
• /
• 2023

Falls are fatal accidents that occur more than 420,000 times a year worldwide. Therefore, to study patients with falls, we found the association between extrinsic injury codes and principal diagnosis S-codes of patients with falls, and developed a prediction model to predict extrinsic injury codes based on the data of principal diagnosis S-codes of patients with falls. In this study, we received two years of data from 2020 and 2021 from Institution A, located in Gangneung City, Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province, and extracted only the data from W00 to W19 of the extrinsic injury codes related to falls, and developed a prediction model using W01, W10, W13, and W18 of the extrinsic injury codes of falls, which had enough principal diagnosis S-codes to develop a prediction model. 80% of the data were categorized as training data and 20% as testing data. The model was developed using MLP (Multi-Layer Perceptron) with 6 variables (gender, age, principal diagnosis S-code, surgery, hospitalization, and alcohol consumption) in the input layer, 2 hidden layers with 64 nodes, and an output layer with 4 nodes for W01, W10, W13, and W18 exogenous damage codes using the softmax activation function. As a result of the training, the first training had an accuracy of 31.2%, but the 30th training had an accuracy of 87.5%, which confirmed the association between the fall extrinsic code and the main diagnosis S code of the fall patient.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.65-88
• /
• 2006

This study intended to activate public education, researched and analyzed real conditions of preschool education to know desirable directions of public education and help parents recognize public education. The final purpose is to offer basic materials to reestablish preschool education in the public education system. First, parents' recognition concerning preschool education in the public education system was much different from that of teachers. As for definitions of preschool education as a public education, parents understood that it means 'the nation and self-governing bodies manage aid both the public and private kindergartens', and teachers recognized that it means that 'the nation and self-governing bodies not only found operate public kindergartens but also aid manage educational funds of private kindergartens. Second, the examination of educational environments of kindergartens told that teachers and parents thought that opportunity to enter the kindergarten is not equal for all children in our country, and quality of kindergarten teachers is satisfactory. Also, they thought that curriculums of preschool educational organs have been set well according to children's developmental stages, education quality is different according to preschool education organs' foundation-types. They recognized that facilities and apparatus of preschools are satisfactory, security and neatness of preschools are satisfactory, too. Third, the examination of developmental directions of preschool education as a public education proved following facts; as for foundation-types of kindergartens in the future when promoting preschool education as a public education, parents answered financial support and supervision by the government, teachers answered aid and management of operational fees as well as support for teacher personnel expenses.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
• /
• v.34 no.5
• /
• pp.605-612
• /
• 2005

In previous studies, we evaluated the effect of the 6 energy-tonic or blood-building prescriptions of traditional oriental medicine, and observed that Si-Wu-Tang and Bu-Zhong-Yi-Qi-Tang showed high activity in the protection of the gastrointestinal and hematopoietic organs in irradiated mice. But any of these prescriptions did not show a high activity in the activation of the immune cells. We performed this study to design an herb mixture which protects the self-renewal tissues and also promotes recovery of the immune system against radiation damage. In order to meet all the requirements, we designed a new mixture of 3 edible herbs listed in Korean Food Code. The mixture of Angelim gigas radix, Cnidium officinale rhizoma and Paeonia japonica radix was decocted with hot water, and the activities of the water extract (HIM-I) were evaluated. HIM-1 stimulated the immune cells in a much higher extent than the traditional prescriptions, and promoted dramatically the growth of bone marrow stem cells in vitro. Also, HIM-1 protected digestive and hematopoietic organs against radiation as effectively as the 2 prescriptions, Si-Wu-Tang and Bu-Zhong-Yi-Qi-Tang. On the other hand, it showed high in vitro antioxidative activity that might be considered as a mechanism of the protective effects against radiation. Although the detailed mechanisms of those effects remain to be elucidated, these results indicated that HIM-I might be a useful agent for protection and recovery of body from various risk factor as well as radiation, especially since it is a relatively nontoxic natural product.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.31 no.4 s.63
• /
• pp.857-874
• /
• 1998

The objective of this study is to collect the opinions on the present condition and the improvement directions of urban health centers from and to make a comparison. Samples were drawn from the various sources of a district in seoul. 53 persons involved in district health's administration(the Members of a District Parliament, the senior officials of a District office, village chief) and 84 health center workers were surveyed with anonymous postal questionaires and 427 district private medical personnels with postal questionaires and 625 users of a health center with direct questionaires, from November 18 to 25, 1996. Additionally, 12,151 households were surveyed with self-reported questionaires including priorities on special district health services of health center, from September 1 to 7, 1996. The major findings were as follows : 1) Although the persons involved in district health administration tend to put lower priority on health service over other community activities, they well acknowledged the importance of health center. But health center workers strongly acknowledged the importance of both health service and heath center. 2) As to the level of human resoureces, equipments and ammenities of Health Center commpared with private medical institute, the persons involved in district health's administration and health center workers responded that health center was higher in following order : 54.9%, 41.6%, 36.5% and 88.0%, 80.7%, 44.1%. 3) Concerning the priorities of health center's improvement, the persons involved in district health's administration replied in the order of reinforcement of proffesional health workers (43.3%), improvement of equipments and ammenities(28.3%), and the health center workers replied in the order of reconstruction of organization(24.1%), public health education and promotion(22.8%), reinforcement of proffesional health workers(21.0%). 4) Both the persons involved in district health's administration and health center workers replied that Ministry Health and Welfare, District office, health center were essential as the most critical organizations in the activation of Health Center's Function. 5) Persons involved in district health's administration and health center workers chose, as the most important health center's Function, medical treatment and prevention of infectious disease, and prevention of acute and chrone disease control and special district health service, respectively. Both Groups replied that fammily planning and parasite control are no longer in need. 6) As the future health service requiring reinforcement, every human resources parties considered health conselling, health line, sex education as the most imortant elements in public health education. Concerning the reinforement of other health services such as medical checkup and visiting nurses, every human resources parties showed more than 80% approval rate, but for oriental medical care service, the private medical personels showed relatively low approval rate(52.9%). Therefore the planning for reinforcement of health center's function requires the reflection of human resources party's opinion and the implication of system which can control and combine the differences in party's opinions.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.7 no.3
• /
• pp.181-190
• /
• 2012

After industrialization, the labor force participation rates of women, especially married women is drastically increasing. So, this study was designed to analyze the determinants of married women's employment status considered. For this, the determinants of married women's employment status were divided into individual-related, children-related, household-related and job-related variables to establish the research models. Based on this, the following results were drawn from a multinominal logistic regression analysis of the determinants of married women's employment status. First, an analysis of individual-related variable showed that married women had the employment status of labor wages with residence in the center of the city and high academic background. Second, an analysis of children-related variable showed that they had the employment status of labor wages with many their children and no their children under the age of six. Third, an analysis of household-related variable showed that they had the self-employment status of labor wages with nuclear family and few income earners of family members. Finally, an analysis of job-related variable showed that they had the employment status of labor wages when they got a job before they got married, their husband didn't get a job, and their husband worked in a professional field. As for findings stated above, as there was a difference in the determinants of married women's employment status, the ways for improvement in the married women's employment status would be suggested as follows. First, married women with young children have the low employment status, basically, requiring problem-solving ways for this because the housekeeping and child-rearing burden caused by marriage and childbirth are factors that continue to obstruct a job. For this, the flexible working hours system, which housekeeping and child-rearing can harmonize with economic activities like developed countries, needs to be activated. But the activation of such flexible working system will produce actual results under institutional protection, such as a related-protection law. Second, the Leave of Child Care System is debated as one of the most representatively systems that housekeeping can harmonize with economic activities. Now, although the System is legislated, the use is very poor.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.129-135
• /
• 2000

Purpose : We previously reported the short-term immunogenecity and safety of 47 passaged Oka strain live attenuated varicella vaccine in healthy children in 1997. Now, we conducted this two-year follow-up study to confirm the maintenance of immunity, the occurrence of natural varicella infection and the activation of vaccine induced latent infection on the same vaccine. Methods : 99 children who had been immunized by 47 passaged Oka strain live attenuated varicella vaccine in 1997 were followed up by questionnaire, and 46 children out of study group were followed up serologically. They were asked to report any instance of varicella or herpes zoster since they had been immunized. If there was any evidence of varicella or herpes zoster, they should be clinically or serologically confirmed by doctor. Also, those patients' parents were asked to report any instance of varicella or herpes zoster in their family, playmate, kindergarten, school, or other settings. The immunity to VZV was confirmed by EIA and FAMA test. Results : 6 recipients developed breakthrough varicella after exposure to VZV in family, kindergarten and school during follow-up period. However, clinical features of those patients were very mild and self limited without therapy. And none of the recipients developed herpes zoster during this observation period. The results of EIA test showed that study subjects were all seropositive except one, and the antibody titers and GMT of FAMA test were seropositively maintained in all subjects. Statistically, the antibody titers of EIA and FAMA test confirmed two years after vaccination were higher than those results confirmed one month after vaccination. Conclusion : Our study results suggest that the immunity of 47 passaged Oka strain live attenuated varicella is well maintained until 2 years later after vaccination, and mild natural infection after exposure to VZV can be occurred with low rate. There were not developing zoster in study vaccine after vaccination for two-years.

• Proceedings of the Microbiological Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2008.05a
• /
• pp.39-41
• /
• 2008

The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been shown to contain three isoforms of citrate synthase (CS). The mitochondrial CS, Cit1, catalyzes the first reaction of the TCA cycle, i.e., condensation of acetyl-CoA and oxaloacetate to form citrate [1]. The peroxisomal CS, Cit2, participates in the glyoxylate cycle [2]. The third CS is a minor mitochondrial isofunctional enzyme, Cit3, and related to glycerol metabolism. However, the level of its intracellular activity is low and insufficient for metabolic needs of cells [3]. It has been reported that ${\Delta}cit1$ strain is not able to grow with acetate as a sole carbon source on either rich or minimal medium and that it shows a lag in attaining parental growth rates on nonfermentable carbon sources [2, 4, 5]. Cells of ${\Delta}cit2$, on the other hand, have similar growth phenotype as wild-type on various carbon sources. Thus, the biochemical basis of carbon metabolism in the yeast cells with deletion of CIT1 or CIT2 gene has not been clearly addressed yet. In the present study, we focused our efforts on understanding the function of Cit2 in utilizing $C_2$ carbon sources and then found that ${\Delta}cit1$ cells can grow on minimal medium containing $C_2$ carbon sources, such as acetate. We also analyzed that the characteristics of mutant strains defective in each of the genes encoding the enzymes involved in TCA and glyoxylate cycles and membrane carriers for metabolite transport. Our results suggest that citrate produced by peroxisomal CS can be utilized via glyoxylate cycle, and moreover that the glyoxylate cycle by itself functions as a fully competent metabolic pathway for acetate utilization in S. cerevisiae. We also studied the relationship between Cit1 and apoptosis in S. cerevisiae [6]. In multicellular organisms, apoptosis is a highly regulated process of cell death that allows a cell to self-degrade in order for the body to eliminate potentially threatening or undesired cells, and thus is a crucial event for common defense mechanisms and in development [7]. The process of cellular suicide is also present in unicellular organisms such as yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae [8]. When unicellular organisms are exposed to harsh conditions, apoptosis may serve as a defense mechanism for the preservation of cell populations through the sacrifice of some members of a population to promote the survival of others [9]. Apoptosis in S. cerevisiae shows some typical features of mammalian apoptosis such as flipping of phosphatidylserine, membrane blebbing, chromatin condensation and margination, and DNA cleavage [10]. Yeast cells with ${\Delta}cit1$ deletion showed a temperature-sensitive growth phenotype, and displayed a rapid loss in viability associated with typical apoptotic hallmarks, i.e., ROS accumulation, nuclear fragmentation, DNA breakage, and phosphatidylserine translocation, when exposed to heat stress. Upon long-term cultivation, ${\Delta}cit1$ cells showed increased potentials for both aging-induced apoptosis and adaptive regrowth. Activation of the metacaspase Yca1 was detected during heat- or aging-induced apoptosis in ${\Delta}cit1$ cells, and accordingly, deletion of YCA1 suppressed the apoptotic phenotype caused by ${\Delta}cit1$ mutation. Cells with ${\Delta}cit1$ deletion showed higher tendency toward glutathione (GSH) depletion and subsequent ROS accumulation than the wild-type, which was rescued by exogenous GSH, glutamate, or glutathione disulfide (GSSG). Beside Cit1, other enzymes of TCA cycle and glutamate dehydrogenases (GDHs) were found to be involved in stress-induced apoptosis. Deletion of the genes encoding the TCA cycle enzymes and one of the three GDHs, Gdh3, caused increased sensitivity to heat stress. These results lead us to conclude that GSH deficiency in ${\Delta}cit1$ cells is caused by an insufficient supply of glutamate necessary for biosynthesis of GSH rather than the depletion of reducing power required for reduction of GSSG to GSH.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.38 no.5
• /
• pp.705-720
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study is to shed light on the meaning and value of interest (in Korean 'Jae-mi') in science education through literature analysis. Literature analyses were conducted on literature related to interest in various fields such as Korean language, psychology, philosophy, and education. Specifically, this study discussed the meaning of interest, the characteristics of the context of experiencing interest, the educational value of interest in science education, and the direction of science education to realize the value of interest. First, it was found that interest is an experience of emotional activation that can be felt through interaction with a specific object, and it is an emotional experience caused by the complex combination of various psychological factors, which is oriented sense, relationship, self, and object. Second, to understand the context of experience of interest, we conducted a topic modeling analysis with 1173 research articles related to interest. As a result of the analysis, it was confirmed that the context of interest is closely related with playfulness. And we addressed that this kind of playfulness is also found in science. Third, the educational values of interest in science education were discussed. In science education, fun is not only an instrumental value to induce science learning behavior, it is also one of the universal experiences that learners feel lively in science teaching-learning, and driving force of individual students' emotional development related to science. The students' active attitude to feel interest lead to creative thinking and action. Finally, we argued that the interest that should be aimed in science education should be active interest and experienced at trial and error, not passive interest induced by external stimuli. And science education culture should be encouraged to respect those who enjoy science. In particular, this study discussed the importance of each student's unique interest experience based on the philosophy of philosopher Deleuze (1976).

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.25-38
• /
• 2010

This study aims to, first, classify the approach system of utilizing national and local amenities into three groups: evaluation of the level of the amenity, evaluation of the value of amenity resources, and utilization of amenity resources. Secondly, the study aims to derive an evaluation index which is required according to the approach system. As for a strategy of utilizing amenities, the self-diagnosis based on the evaluation of the level of local amenities is required. In this study, three sectors, ten items and 43 detailed items have been derived though specialists, FGIs(Focus Group Interview), and the cases within and outside of the country. In the survey with specialists, a unit-space key index which can be used in accordance with the unit-space characteristics(such as urban and rural area, fishing villages, mountain villages, and littoral areas), environmental area, important index and optional index have been derived. As for the evaluation index which is needed for the development of typical local amenities resources, 14 detailed evaluation indexes from three sectors have been derived. These have been classified again into six key indexes, six important indexes and two optional indexes. In the evaluation index of amenity resources, natural and environmental value-such as ecological value of preservation, uniqueness of aesthetic landscape and ecological value of restoration-historic and cultural value of preservation and individuality of the resources, and aesthetic and cultural values are derived as being important. As for utilization of amenity resources, 15 items from three sectors-such as reservation, restoration, intentional use, and industrial use-have been derived. Also, through a survey with specialists, key indexes and important indexes were derived by unit-space. As a result, in urban areas, seven items-including creative development of space, aesthetic landscape control and development of cultural contents-have been derived as key indexes; in rural areas, mountain villages, fishing villages and littoral areas, eight items-including brand of region, brand of the products, and brand of tourism resources-have been derived. In environmental areas, six items-including reservation of natural resources, historic and cultural heritage, and restoration of ecosystem-have been derived. Indexes derived from this study can be utilized in order to establish a strategy for amenity plans and an implementation strategy, but can be readjusted, allowing for various regional characteristics. It is, thus, advisable that local governments selectively utilize indexes according to regional characteristics or newly develop them for the maximum utilization of regional amenities.