• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.14 no.10
• /
• pp.6165-6171
• /
• 2013

This study aimed to analyze the expression and clinical significance of cyclin G2 (CCNG2) in thyroid carcinoma and the biological effects of CCNG2 overexpression in a cell line. Immunohistochemistry and Western blotting were used to analyze CCNG2 protein expression in 63 cases of thyroid cancer and normal tissues to allow the relationship with clinical factors to be assessed. CCNG2 lentiviral and empty vectors were transfected into the thyroid cancer K1 cell line. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blotting were applied to detect the mRNA and protein levels of CCNG2. MTT assay and cell cycle were also conducted to assess the influence of up-regulated expression of CCNG2 on K1 cell biology. The level of CCNG2 protein expression was found to be significantly lower in thyroid cancer tissue than normal tissues (P<0.05). Western blot: The relative amount of CCNG2 protein in thyroid cancer tissue was respectively found to be significantly lower than in normal tissues (P<0.05), correlating with lymph node metastasis, clinic stage and histological grade (P<0.05), but not gender, age or tumor size (P>0.05). Loss of CCNG2 expression correlated significantly with poor overall survival time on Kaplan-Meier analysis (P<0.05). The results for biological functions showed that K1 cell transfected CCNG2 had a lower survival fraction, a greater percentage in the G0/G1 phases, and lower cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2) protein expression compared with K1 cells non-transfected with CCNG2 (P<0.05). CCNG2 expression decreased in thyroid cancer and correlated significantly lymph node metastasis, clinic stage, histological grade and poor overall survival, suggesting that CCNG2 may play important roles as a negative regulator in thyroid cancer K1 cells by promoting degradation of CDK2.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
• /
• v.63 no.4
• /
• pp.84-100
• /
• 2013

Ancient Greece was a patriarchal society that distinguished gender roles between men and women. Although their costumes were composed of simple rectangular fabric without any technical complications in itself, the Greeks did try to express gender differences in their clothing. The final look of the Greek costume was dependent on the way the cloth draped onto its wearer as well as the wearer's identity. Greeks costume could just be seen as a rectangular fabric when it was not draped on a person's body. The purpose of this study is to examine how the gender differences were expressed in the ancient Greek drapery costume, which was made by using a completely different technical process, compared with the modern tailored costume. There are four elements of the costume that give the costume its formative shape, which are the wearer's body, the rectangular fabric (material as the first formative costume), the way the fabric is draped, and the final appearance as the second formative costume (the relationship between the wearer's body and the costume) and this study analyzes these elements individually. It is intended to analyze the gender characteristics and how each element appears in a different way from the perspective of Structuralism, an analytical method that considers a phenomenon as a total sum of the elements. Literature research was conducted and representative sculpture, painting and pottery, were used between the Archaic Period (B.C. 800~500) and the Classical Period (B.C. 500~323). The results show that the gender differences appear in each formative element of costume: First, the body was distinguished by the ancient Greek custom. The man's nudity was accepted while the woman's body was concealed. Second, in regards to the first formative costume, which was the rectangular fabric, men's were made with thick high quality wool because their involvement in outdoor activities meant that they needed clothes to stay warm, while the women wore clothes made of thin wool or hemp cloth, because their most of their activities were at home. Third, the way to drape the fabric shows the gender differences by changing the length of the clothing and its design ; men's short khiton was practical for big movement and at the same time the clothing exposed the man's body. The woman's doric khiton diversified its decoration by the size of the apotigma and by using the belt. Finally the second formative costume reflected the Greeks' social distinction between a man's body and a woman's body. The man's costume naturally exposed the man's body. On the other hand, the woman's long costume has a variety of shapes on the ground, that concealed her lower body, while the ornamental function was more accentuated than the man's costume. The gender differences expressed in Greek costume fundamentally reflected the point of view of the male and female body and their social roles in society.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.16 no.8
• /
• pp.3383-3387
• /
• 2015

Portulaca oleracea (Family: Portulacaceae), is well known for its anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, anti-bacterial, and anti-tumor activities. However, cytotoxic effects of seed oil of Portulaca oleracea against human liver cancer (HepG2) and human lung cancer (A-549) cell lines have not been studied previously. Therefore, the present study was designed to investigate the cytotoxic effects of Portulaca oleracea seed oil on HepG2 and A-549 cell lines. Both cell lines were exposed to various concentrations of Portulaca oleracea seed oil for 24h. After the exposure, percentage cell viability was studied by (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) (MTT), neutral red uptake (NRU) assays, and cellular morphology by phase contrast inverted microscopy. The results showed a concentration-dependent significant reduction in the percentage cell viability and an alteration in the cellular morphology of HepG2 and A-549 cells. The percentage cell viability was recorded as 73%, 63%, and 54% by MTT assay and 76%, 61%, and 50% by NRU assay at 250, 500, and $1000{\mu}g/ml$, respectively in HepG2 cells. Percentage cell viability was recorded as 82%, 72%, and 64% by MTT assay and 83%, 68%, and 56% by NRU assay at 250, 500, and $1000{\mu}g/ml$, respectively in A-549 cells. The 100 $100{\mu}g/ml$ and lower concentrations were found to be non cytotoxic to A-549 cells, whereas decrease of 14% and 12% were recorded by MTT and NRU assay, respectively in HepG2 cells. Both HepG2 and A-549 cell lines exposed to 250, 500, and $1000{\mu}g/ml$ of Portulaca oleracea seed oil lost their normal morphology, cell adhesion capacity, become rounded, and appeared smaller in size. The data from this study showed that exposure to seed oil of Portulaca oleracea resulted in significant cytotoxicity and inhibition of growth of the human liver cancer (HepG2) and human lung cancer (A-549) cell lines.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.23 no.5
• /
• pp.563-574
• /
• 2007

There seems to be a consensus among most people that visibility impairment is the most obvious indicator of air pollution. While considerable evidence on the association between air pollution and health outcomes including death and disease have been established, based on industrial complex areas or huge urban cities, time-series, case-crossover and cohort studies, scarce literature exists on the direct evidence for the association between visibility and adverse health outcomes. Our study is assessed the effect of air pollution measured by visibility impairment on respiratory mortality over a period of six years. Relative risks in respiratory deaths were estimated by a Poisson regression model of daily deaths between $1999{\sim}2004$. Daily counts of respiratory deaths as dependent variable was modelled with daily 24-hr mean visibility measurements (kilometers) as independent variable by means of Poisson regression. This model is controlled for confounding factors such as day of weeks, weather variables, seasonal variables and $PM_{10}$. The results in this study is observed the statistically significant association between an inverse health effect and visibility during the study period for respiratory mortality (percentage change in the relative risk for all aged -0.57%, 95% Cl, $-1.01%{\sim}-0.12%$; for $0{\sim}15$ aged -7.12%, 95% Cl, $-13.29%{\sim}-0.51%$; for 65+ aged -0.43%, 95% Cl, $-0.93%{\sim}-0.06%$ per 1 km increased in visibility). The effect size was much reduced during warm season. Visibility impairment resulting from air pollution is strongly associated with respiratory mortality, especially for children may be spent at outdoor. Our result provides a quick and useful indicator for eliciting the contribution of air pollution to the excess risk of respiratory mortality in Seoul, Korea.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.14 no.9
• /
• pp.5011-5016
• /
• 2013

Background: Several epidemiological studies have shown associations between colorectal cancer (CRC) risk and type 2 diabetes and obesity. Any effects would be expected to be mediated through the insulin pathway. Therefore it is possible that variants of genes encoding components of the insulin pathway play roles in CRC susceptibility. In this study, we hypothesized that polymorphisms in the genes involving the insulin pathway are associated with risk of CRC. Materials and Methods: The associations of four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in IGF-I (rs6214), IGFBP-3 (rs3110697), INSR (rs1052371), and IRS2 (rs2289046) genes with the risk of CRC were evaluated using a case-control design with 167 CRC cases and 277 controls by the PCR-RFLP method. Results: Overall, we observed no significant difference in genotype and allele frequencies between the cases and controls for the IGF-I, IGFBP-3, INSR, IRS2 gene variants and CRC before or after adjusting for confounders (age, BMI, sex, and smoking status). However, we observed that the IRS2 (rs2289046) GG genotype compared with AA+AG genotypes has a protective effect for CRC in normal weight subjects (p=0.035, OR=0.259, 95%CI= 0.074-0.907). Conclusions: These findings do not support plausible associations between polymorphic variations in IGF-I, IGFBP-3, INSR, IRS2 genes and risk of CRC. However, the evidence for a link between the IRS2 (rs2289046) variant and risk of CRC dependent on the BMI of the subjects, requires confirmation in subsequent studies with greater sample size.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
• /
• v.25 no.6
• /
• pp.77-93
• /
• 2008

Objectives : Though there were many clinical studies of acupuncture effects they didn't have appropriate control group or use another therapy for control group. So, we didn't say it was true acupuncture effect, though subjects in clinical study improved. Recently several sham needles for control group were developed and validated. This study aimed at summarizing the validation studies of these needles and evaluating the control group of the acupuncture clinical study. Methods : Computerized literature searches were performed using 'acupuncture' and 'placebo or sham' with a limitation of the results to RCTs in Pubmed, Sciencedirect, NDSL, KISS, RISS. Data were extracted regarding study design, sample size, acupuncture point, stimulation form, credibility testing. And We have examined 106 acupuncture clinical studies published by Pubmed from January 1, 2005 to April 30, 2008. Data were extracted author's country, subject of study, type of study groups, type of control groups, type of blinding, difference between the results in the control groups. Results : Streitberger's placebo needle, Fink's sham needle, Park sham needle, Kim sham needle were developed. They were validated at domestic and abroad. But the results were deviation depending on the each of the researcher. They has shown that sample, acupuncture points, experiences or knowledge of acupuncture dependent on the results. Recent three years, acupuncture clinical trial had different results. Significant differences between Study group and control group emerged from using other therapy or non-treatment for control group. Many study has no significant differences using sham acupuncture for control groups. Conclusions : Acupuncture clinical studies need to meet several requirements. First of all, they require the basics of randomized controlled clinical studies such as blinding and the accurate implementation and description of randomization. And also need to research the unique circumstances of these studies such as the development of sham acupuncture and blinding method which differs from other clinical trials.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartB
• /
• v.10B no.6
• /
• pp.673-680
• /
• 2003

In this paper, we study the enhancement of VQ (Vector Quantization) design for text independent speaker recognition. In a concrete way, we present a non-iterative method which makes a vector quantization codebook and this method performs non-iterative learning so that the computational complexity is epochally reduced The proposed Classified Space VQ (CSVQ) design method for text Independent speaker recognition is generalized from Semi-noniterative VQ design method for text dependent speaker recognition. CSVQ contrasts with the existing desiEn method which uses the iterative learninE algorithm for every traininE speaker. The characteristics of a CSVQ design is as follows. First, the proposed method performs the non-iterative learning by using a Classified Space Codebook. Second, a quantization region of each speaker is equivalent for the quantization region of a Classified Space Codebook. And the quantization point of each speaker is the optimal point for the statistical distribution of each speaker in a quantization region of a Classified Space Codebook. Third, Classified Space Codebook (CSC) is constructed through Sample Vector Formation Method (CSVQ1, 2) and Hyper-Lattice Formation Method (CSVQ 3). In the numerical experiment, we use the 12th met-cepstrum feature vectors of 10 speakers and compare it with the existing method, changing the codebook size from 16 to 128 for each Classified Space Codebook. The recognition rate of the proposed method is 100% for CSVQ1, 2. It is equal to the recognition rate of the existing method. Therefore the proposed CSVQ design method is, reducing computational complexity and maintaining the recognition rate, new alternative proposal and CSVQ with CSC can be applied to a general purpose recognition.

• KSBB Journal
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.279-285
• /
• 2006

We investigated the effects of immobilization chemistry on the yield of immobilization and the bioactivity of the immobilized enzymes. Trypsin as a model protein and macroporous polymer beads(Toyopearl AF 650M, Tosho Co., Japan) was used as a model matrix. Four methods were used to immobilize trypsin; covalent conjugation by reductive amination(at pH 10.0 and pH 4.0) and affinity interaction via streptavidin-biotin, and double-affinity interaction via biotin-streptavidin-biotin system. The covalent conjugation immobilized $3{\sim}4$ mg/ml-gel, ca. 3-fold higher than the affinity method. However, the specific activity of the covalently(pH 10.0) and affinity-immobilized trypsin(via streptavidin-biotin) are ca. 37% and 50%, respectively, of that of the soluble enzyme(on the low-molecular-weight BAPNA substrate). When the molecular size of a substrate increased, the affinity-immobilized trypsin showed higher clavage activity on insulin and BSA. This result seemed to indicate the streptavidin-biotin system allowed more steric flexibility of the immobilized trypsin in its interaction with a substrate molecule. To confirm this, we studied the molecular flexibility of immobilized trypsin using quartz crystal microbalance-dissipation. Self-assembled monolayers were formed on the Q-sensor surface by aminoalkanethiols, and gultaraldehyde was attached to the SAMs. Trypsin was immobilized in two ways: reductive amination(at pH 10.0) and the streptavidin-biotin system. The dissipation shift of the affinity-immobilized trypsin was $0.8{\times}10^{-6}$, whereas that of the covalently attached enzyme was almost zero. This result confirmed that the streptavidin-biotin system allowed higher molecular flexibility. These results suggested that the bioactivity of the immobilized enzyme be strongly dependent on its molecular flexibility.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.129-141
• /
• 2009

Objective: This study was to investigate the anti-tumor effect, safety, safety, mechanism and metabolizing enzyme of Agrimonia pilosa LEDEB (APL) in female C57B/L mouse tumor (in vivo). Method: First, to evaluate the antitumor activity of APL, we divided the mice into four groups: normal, control, APL50 (50mg/kg), and APL100 (100mg/kg). LLC-obtained American Type Culture Collection was used. LLC had been inoculated to induce tumors. To measure the anti-tumor effect of APL, we calibrated tumor size and weight. To analyze the mechanism of anti-tumor in APL, we used western blotting and to observe metabolizing enzyme in APL we used to real-time PCR. Result: APL50 and APL100 significantly inhibited tumor growth from 12 days after medicine injected. APL did not induce caspase-dependent apoptosis in LLC-bearing mouse tumor. In APL100, it decreased 41% and 71% in CYP2D22 and CYP3A11, respectively. Conclusion: These results suggest that APL has some anti-tumor effects in female C57B/L mouse tumor. APL should be used carefully with other drugs related with CYP2D22 and CYP3A11.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.27-52
• /
• 2019

This research studied the determinants of private R&D investment by examining the innovation strategies of 481 small and medium enterprises (SMEs, their employee size is 5 or more and less than 300) in Busan, South Korea. The data is derived from the Technology Survey of Small and Medium Enterprises in 2001 and 2003. Three explanatory variables for the innovation strategies are the R&D portfolio, the organization (personnel) for R&D, and the strategic role of CEO for innovation. The technological levels of industries are controlled in the linear regression model. The dependent variable is the total private R&D investment of a firm in the given fiscal year. The empirical results indicate that the private R&D investment positively correlates with the complexity of the R&D portfolio, the formal organization for R&D team, and the increase of R&D personnel. The formal organization for R&D team and the number of R&D personnel are correlated with the increase of private R&D investment across the four groups in the manufacturing sector but not in the service sector. These findings suggest that the innovation policy needs to target firms who have complex R&D portfolios, the formal organization of R&D teams, and sufficient R&D personnel in order to increase the private R&D investment of SMEs in regions, with consideration of industrial characteristics.