• Journal of Technologic Dentistry
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.11-24
• /
• 1988

The purpose of this study was to determine the concentration of cadmium, nickel and chromium in the air of the work-place, blood of and urine of workers and compare the level of those heavy metals by the duration of work, work-place, process of work, smoking and other factors. In this study, 48 male dental laboratory technicans and 72 office workers as the control group were subjected. The concentration of cadmium, nickel and chromium in their blood sand urine, and that of heavy metals in the air of their work-rooms were examined and analyzed from June I 1987 to September 30, 1987. The results were as follows : 1. The concentration of cadmium in the air was the highest in the porcelain part, $0.0087{\pm}0.0016mg/m^3$, that of nickel was the highest in the crown bridge part, $0.4253{\pm}0.0052mg/m^3$, and that of chrnmium was highest in the partial denture part, $0.1063{\pm}0.0024mg/m^3$. 2. cadmium, nickel and chromium concentrations in the blood and urine of dental laboratory techincians were higher that in the office workers'. Especially the concentration of cadmium in the blood($1.92{\pm}1.23{\mu}g$/100ml) of th dental laboratory techician was about two times as high as that in the office workers'($0.90{\pm}0.73{\mu}g$/100ml), and the concentration of nickel in the urine($48.53{\pm}38.83{\mu}g$/e) of the dental laboratory thchnician was about two times as high as that in the office worker's($20.24{\pm}15.35{\mu}g$/e). 3. there was no difference in the concentration of cadmium, nickel and chromium in the blood and urine with a longer duration of work. 4. The concentration of cadmium and chromium in the blood and urine differed significantly depending upon the place of work. The concentration of cadmium was the highest in the blood of dental laboratory technicians working kin the poreclain part marking at $2.53{\pm}1.08{\mu}g$/100ml. The chromium level was the heighest in the blood of partial denture park workers with a concentration of $3.60{\pm}1.02{\mu}g$/100ml. Concerning the level of cadmium in urine, it was the highest in the porcelain part workers with a concentration of $3.41{\pm}3.15{\mu}g$/e. 5. The concentration of cadmium in the urine of metal trimming and polishing group($2.64{\pm}2.41{\mu}g$/e) was higher than that of non-metal trimming and polishing group($1.39{\pm}1.18{\mu}g$/e). 6. The concentration of chromium in the blood of smoking group($2.46{\pm}1.54{\mu}g$/100ml)was higher than that lf non-smoking group($1.54{\pm}1.25{\mu}g$/100ml). 7. The height positive correlation coefficient was shown between the concentration of nickel and chromium in the blood among the all correlations between 3metals(Cd, Ni, Cr) in the blood and those in urine. The correlation coefficient was relatively high(r=0.605,,p<0.01). In general, the higher the concentration of heavy metals in the air of work places the higher the concention lf them in the blood and urine of workers, mere attention should be paid to the working environment of dental laboratory workers, Furthermore, continuous biological monitoring and further research are required for an efficient health management for dental laboratory workers.

• Journal of Mushroom
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.111-117
• /
• 2018

This study was conducted to compare the composition and antioxidant activity of 1- and 2-year-old Poria cocos Wolf cultivated at a mortuary and cemetery. An elemental analyzer test showed oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulfur to be present at concentrations of 45~46%, 39~41%, 6.06~6.1%, 0.21~0.22%, and 0%, respectively. No differences in composition were observed among samples. Eleven minerals (S, Ca, Mg, P, As, Se, Cu, Fe, Pb, Zn, and Cd) found in P. cocos cultivated at the mortuary and cemetery were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP). The levels of S, Fe, Mg, and Zn in P. cocos were higher in cemetery-cultivated samples than in mortuary-cultivated samples. A 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay for antioxidant activity revealed half-maximal inhibitory concentration ($IC_{50}$)values of P. cocos to be 8.601 mg/mL (mortuary, 1 year old), 12.85 mg/mL (cemetery, 1 year old), 1.23 mg/mL (mortuary, 2 years old), and 1.18 mg/mL (landfill, 1 year old). A 2,2'-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) assay revealed $IC_{50}$ values of 15.85 mg/mL (mortuary, 1 year old),14.59 mg/mL(cemetery, 1 year old), 3.9 mg/mL (mortuary, 2 years old), and 14.92 mg/mL (cemetery, 1 year old). The results showed a concentration-dependent effect. Two-year-old mortuary-cultivated P. cocos had the highest antioxidant activity among samples. Ultrastructure analysis with a field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) showed no obvious differences among samples.

• Development and Reproduction
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.297-306
• /
• 2010

Tributyltin (TBT), an endocrine disrupting chemical, has been reported to decrease testicular function by causing apoptosis in the testis, but this mechanism is not fully understood. Thus, in this study we examined whether TBT induces adipogenesis of the Leydig cells to find out the correlation between adipogenesis and apoptosis in the testis. Three week old SD male rats were orally administrated with sesame oil, 1 mg/kg of TBT, or 10 mg/kg of TBT daily for 1 week and weighed after administration. The testes obtained on day 8 were weighed and stained with BODIPY and TUNEL kit. Using total RNA extracted from the isolated Leydig cells, adipogenesis and apoptosis-related genes were analyzed by real-time PCR. The testicular weights of the rats treated with 10 mg/kg TBT were significantly decreased compared to those in the control rats treated with sesame oil. As a result of BODIPY staining, the number of Leydig cells stained with BODIPY was increased in the rats treated with 10 mg/kg TBT compared with the control rats. Similar to BODIPY staining results, the TUNEL assay showed that the apoptosis of Leydig cells was increased in TBT treated rats. The results of the gene expression analysis in the Leydig cells showed that the expression of adipogenesis-related genes (PPAR${\gamma}$, aP2, Perilipin, CD36) and apoptosis-related genes (TNFRSF1A, TNFSF10) was increased after TBT administration. The present study demonstrates that TBT induces the expression of adipogenesis-related and apoptosis-related genes in the Leydig cells leading to adipogenesis and apoptosis in the testes. These results suggest that the dysfunction of Leydig cells by TBT exposure may cause a loss in testicular function.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.35-42
• /
• 2015

This study was performed for both evaluating the safety of other processed products and providing basic information for making the general standard for contaminants in the category of other processed products. We analyzed the contents of three heavy metals, thirty six anti-impotence drugs and their analogues, three anti-obesity drugs and their analogues, twenty eight steroid drugs and their analogues, collecting in Incheon Metropolitan City. Any illegal compound was not detected in those products. However the contents of lead, cadmium and mercury of those products were at the range of 0.001-13.390 mg/kg, 0.03-1.231 mg/kg and 0.001-0.650 mg/kg respectively. Because there are no standards of heavy metals against other processed products, we compared the analytical results with relevant standards of both S. Korea and foreign countries. As a result, two products exceeded the relevant standards of lead, and other two products exceeded the relevant standards of mercury. The relative hazards compared to PTWI of FAO/WHO (Codex), Seafoods-pajeonmix, Perilla seed powder exceeded PTWI standards 0.214. The compulsory standards of each food product are determined by the category of the products. Because there is no standard of heavy metals in the category of other processed products in S. Korea, any food products registered as other processed product by manufacturer are free with those standards. Abusing similar problems on the categorization of food products could cause consumers' health problem. To prevent these problems, detail regulations on the categorization of food products have to be introduced.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.21-35
• /
• 2018

Since the introduction of MP3 players, CD recordings have gradually been vanishing, and the music consuming environment of music users is shifting to mobile devices. The introduction of smart devices has increased the utilization of music through music playback, mass storage, and search functions that are integrated into smartphones and tablets. At the time of initial MP3 player supply, the bitrate of the compressed music contents generally was 128 Kbps. However, as increasing of the demand for high quality music, sound quality of 384 Kbps appeared. Recently, music content of FLAC (Free License Audio Codec) format using lossless compression method is becoming popular. The download service of many music sites in Korea has classified by unlimited download with technical protection and limited download without technical protection. Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology is used as a technical protection measure for unlimited download, but it can only be used with authenticated devices that have DRM installed. Even if music purchased by the user, it cannot be used by other devices. On the contrary, in the case of music that is limited in quantity but not technically protected, there is no way to enforce anyone who distributes it, and in the case of high quality music such as FLAC, the loss is greater. In this paper, the author proposes an audio watermarking technology for copyright protection of high quality stereo music. Two kinds of information, "Copyright" and "Copy_free", are generated by using the turbo code. The two watermarks are composed of 9 bytes (72 bits). If turbo code is applied for error correction, the amount of information to be inserted as 222 bits increases. The 222-bit watermark was expanded to 1024 bits to be robust against additional errors and finally used as a watermark to insert into stereo music. Turbo code is a way to recover raw data if the damaged amount is less than 15% even if part of the code is damaged due to attack of watermarked content. It can be extended to 1024 bits or it can find 222 bits from some damaged contents by increasing the probability, the watermark itself has made it more resistant to attack. The proposed algorithm uses quantization in DCT so that watermark can be detected efficiently and SNR can be improved when stereo music is converted into mono. As a result, on average SNR exceeded 40dB, resulting in sound quality improvements of over 10dB over traditional quantization methods. This is a very significant result because it means relatively 10 times improvement in sound quality. In addition, the sample length required for extracting the watermark can be extracted sufficiently if the length is shorter than 1 second, and the watermark can be completely extracted from music samples of less than one second in all of the MP3 compression having a bit rate of 128 Kbps. The conventional quantization method can extract the watermark with a length of only 1/10 compared to the case where the sampling of the 10-second length largely fails to extract the watermark. In this study, since the length of the watermark embedded into music is 72 bits, it provides sufficient capacity to embed necessary information for music. It is enough bits to identify the music distributed all over the world. 272 can identify $4*10^{21}$, so it can be used as an identifier and it can be used for copyright protection of high quality music service. The proposed algorithm can be used not only for high quality audio but also for development of watermarking algorithm in multimedia such as UHD (Ultra High Definition) TV and high-resolution image. In addition, with the development of digital devices, users are demanding high quality music in the music industry, and artificial intelligence assistant is coming along with high quality music and streaming service. The results of this study can be used to protect the rights of copyright holders in these industries.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
• /
• v.42 no.7
• /
• pp.1115-1124
• /
• 2013

The present study was conducted to ensure the diversity of domestic solar salt by analyzing the composition and microbiological characteristics of solar salt (from Docho island: DS) and the flower of salt produced in different Korean salt flats (Sinui island: SF, Bigum island: BF, and Docho island: DF). The analyses showed that the moisture content of the three types of flower of salt and solar salt ranged from 10.54~13.82% and NaCl content ranged from 78.81~84.61%. The mineral content of those salts ranged from 3.57~5.51%. The content of insoluble matter in these salts was $0.01{\pm}0.00{\sim}0.05{\pm}0.00%$. The sand content of these salts was $0.01{\pm}0.01{\sim}0.03{\pm}0.01%$. By Hunter's color value analysis, the color of the flower of salt was brighter and whiter than solar salt. The salinity of the flower of salt was a little higher than solar salt as well. The magnesium and potassium ion content of DF was $9,886.72{\pm}104.78mg/kg$ and $2,975.23{\pm}79.73mg/kg$, respectively, which was lower than the content in SF, BF, and DS. The heavy metal content of all salts was acceptable under the Korean Food Sanitation Law. The flower of salt was confirmed to be sweeter and preferable to solar salt. More than 80% of the solar salt crystals were 2~3 mm in size, whereas crystals from the flower of salt were 0.5~2 mm in size. The bacterial diversity of DF and DS were investigated by culture and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) methods. The number of cultured bacteria in flower of salt was approximately three times more than solar salt. By DGGE analysis, major microbes of DF were Maritimibacter sp., Cupriavidus sp., and unculturable bacteria, and those of DS were Cupriavidus sp., Dunalidella salina and unculturable bacteria. The results of DGGE analysis showed that major microorganisms in solar salts were composed of unidentified and unculturable bacteria and only a few microorganisms were culturable.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Rock Mechanics Conference
• /
• 2000.09a
• /
• pp.201-210
• /
• 2000

Rock bridge in rock masses can be considered as one of several types of opening-mode fractures, and also it has been known to have a great influence on the stability of structures in rock mats. In the beginning of researching a rock bridge it used to be studied only in characteristics of its behavior, as considering resistance of material itself. However the distribution pattern of rock bridges, which can affect the stability of rock structures, is currently researched with a fracture mechanical approach in numerical studies. For investigating the effect of rock bridges on the development pattern of hydraulic fractures, the author analyzed numerically the stress state transition in rock bridges and their phenomena with a different pattern of the rock bridge distributons. From the numerical studies, a two-crack configuration could be defined to be representative of the most critical conditions for rock bridges, only when cracks are systematic and same in their length and angle. Moreover, coalescence stresses and onset of propagation stresses could be known to increase with decreasing s/L ratio or increasing d/L ratio. The effect of pre-existing crack on hydraulic fracturing was studied also in numerical models. Different to the simple hydraulic fracturing modeling in which the fractures propagated exactly parallel to the maximum remote stress, the hydraulic fractures with pre-existing cracks dial not propagate parallel to the maximum remote stress direction. These are representative of the tendency to change the hydraulic fractures direction because of the existence of pre-existing crack. Therefore s/L, d/L ratios will be identical as a function effective on hydraulic fractures propagation, that is, the $K_{I}$ vague increase with decreasing s/L ratio or increasing d/L ratio and its magnification from onset to propagation increases with decreasing s/L ratio. The scanline is a commonly used method to estimate the fracture distribution on outcrops. The data obtained from the scanline method can be applied to the evaluation of stress field in rock mass.s.

• Development and Reproduction
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.73-79
• /
• 2001

Recently many studies have reported that total and bioavailable androgens reduced in male and female athletes and that physical exercise reduces the body weight and increases the reproductive abnormalities such as oligomenorrhea, anovulation, inadequate luteal phase, and delayed puberty in women by the inhibition of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis . In addition, high mileage endurance 겨nning, psychological stress, and military endurance training in men also reduce the secretion of reproductive hormones. To investigate the efffcts of physical endurance exercise on the secretion of reproductive hormones in men, androgenic hormones from adrenal glands and testis were measured in serum by the conventional radioimmunoassays after long-term (more than3 months), short-term (1 week), and acute (1${sim}$2 hours) physical exercises. Androgenic hormones from adrenal glands and testis such as total testosterone (TT), free testosterone (fT), dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and androstenedione (A) decreased after thesestrenuous endurance trainings, whereas ACTH, cortisol, and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfetes (DHEAS) increased. Conadotropins (LH and FSH) were not idluenced by the physical exercises. Based upon the present results, we assume that the decrease in adrenal and testicular androgens by physical endurance exercises might be associated with the reproductive abnormalities in athletes by unknown factor(s) in addition to the HPG axis disturbance.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
• /
• v.33 no.3
• /
• pp.195-207
• /
• 2006

Stem cells are the primordial, initial cells which usually divide asymmetrically giving rise to on the one hand self-renewals and on the other hand progenitor cells with potential for differentiation. Zygote (fertilized egg), with totipotency, deserves the top-ranking stem cell - he totipotent stem cell (TSC). Both the ICM (inner cell mass) taken from the 6 days-old human blastocyst and ESC (embryonic stem cell) derived from the in vitro cultured ICM have slightly less potency for differentiation than the zygote, and are termed pluripotent stem cells. Stem cells in the tissues and organs of fetus, infant, and adult have highly reduced potency and committed to produce only progenitor cells for particular tissues. These tissue-specific stem cells are called multipotent stem cells. These tissue-specific/committed multipotent stem cells, when placed in altered environment other than their original niche, can yield cells characteristic of the altered environment. These findings are certainly of potential interest from the clinical, therapeutic perspective. The controversial terminology 'somatic stem cell plasticity' coined by the stem cell community seems to have been proved true. Followings are some of the recent knowledges related to the stem cell. Just as the tissues of our body have their own multipotent stem cells, cancerous tumor has undifferentiated cells known as cancer stem cell (CSC). Each time CSC cleaves, it makes two daughter cells with different fate. One is endowed with immortality, the remarkable ability to divide indefinitely, while the other progeny cell divides occasionally but lives forever. In the cancer tumor, CSC is minority being as few as 3-5% of the tumor mass but it is the culprit behind the tumor-malignancy, metastasis, and recurrence of cancer. CSC is like a master print. As long as the original exists, copies can be made and the disease can persist. If the CSC is destroyed, cancer tumor can't grow. In the decades-long cancer therapy, efforts were focused on the reducing of the bulk of cancerous growth. How cancer therapy is changing to destroy the origin of tumor, the CSC. The next generation of treatments should be to recognize and target the root cause of cancerous growth, the CSC, rather than the reducing of the bulk of tumor, Now the strategy is to find a way to identify and isolate the stem cells. The surfaces of normal as well as the cancer stem cells are studded with proteins. In leukaemia stem cell, for example, protein CD 34 is identified. In the new treatment of cancer disease it is needed to look for protein unique to the CSC. Blocking the stem cell's source of nutrients might be another effective strategy. The mystery of sternness of stem cells has begun to be deciphered. ESC can replicate indefinitely and yet retains the potential to turn into any kind of differentiated cells. Polycomb group protein such as Suz 12 repress most of the regulatory genes which, activated, are turned to be developmental genes. These protein molecules keep the ESC in an undifferentiated state. Many of the regulator genes silenced by polycomb proteins are also occupied by such ESC transcription factors as Oct 4, Sox 2, and Nanog. Both polycomb and transcription factor proteins seem to cooperate to keep the ESC in an undifferentiated state, pluripotent, and self-renewable. A normal prion protein (PrP) is found throughout the body from blood to the brain. Prion diseases such as mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) are caused when a normal prion protein misfolds to give rise to PrP$^{SC}$ and assault brain tissue. Why has human body kept such a deadly and enigmatic protein? Although our body has preserved the prion protein, prion diseases are of rare occurrence. Deadly prion diseases have been intensively studied, but normal prion problems are not. Very few facts on the benefit of prion proteins have been known so far. It was found that PrP was hugely expressed on the stem cell surface of bone marrow and on the cells of neural progenitor, PrP seems to have some function in cell maturation and facilitate the division of stem cells and their self-renewal. PrP also might help guide the decision of neural progenitor cell to become a neuron.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
• /
• v.52 no.6
• /
• pp.515-528
• /
• 2019

Purpose: This study examined the immunological activity and optimized the mixture conditions of Sargassum horneri (S. horneri) extracts in vitro and in vivo models. Methods: S. horneri was extracted using three different methods: hot water extraction (HWE), 50% ethanol extraction (EE), and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE). Splenocyte proliferation and cytokine production (Interleukin-2 and Interferon-γ) were measured using a WST-1 assay and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively. The levels of nitric oxide and T cell activation production were measured using a Griess assay and flow cytometry, respectively. The natural killer (NK) cell activity was determined using an EZ-LDH kit. Results: Among the three different types of extracts, HWE showed the highest levels of splenocyte proliferation and cytokine production in vitro. In the animal model, three different types of extracts were administrated for 14 days (once/day) at 50 and 100 mg/kg body weight. HWE and SFE showed a high level of splenocyte proliferation and cytokine production in the with and without mitogen-treated groups, whereas EE administration did not induce the splenocyte activation. When RAW264.7 macrophage cells were treated with different mixtures (HWE with 5, 10, 15, 20% of SFE) to determine the optimal mixture ratio of HWE and SFE, the levels of nitric oxide and cytokine production increased strongly in the HWE with 5% and 10% of SFE containing group. In the animal model, HWE with 5% and 10% of SFE mixture administration increased the levels of splenocyte proliferation, cytokine production, and activated CD4⁺ cell population significantly, with the highest level observed in the HWE with 5% of SFE group. Moreover, the NK cell activity was increased significantly in the HWE with 5% of SFE mixture-treated group compared to the control group. Conclusion: The optimal mixture condition of S. horneri with immune-enhancing activity is the HWE with 5% of SFE mixture. These results confirmed that the extracts of S. horneri and its mixtures are potential candidate materials for immune enhancement.