• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.56 no.2
• /
• pp.187-197
• /
• 2004

Background : Nitric Oxide (NO) is a multi-faceted molecule with dichotomous regulatory roles in many areas of biology. NO can promote apoptosis in some cells, whereas it inhibits apoptosis in other cell types. This study was performed to characterize NO-induced cell death in lung epithelial cells and to investigate the roles of cell death regulators including iron, bcl-2 and p53. Methods : A549 cells were used for lung epithelial cells. SNP (sodium nitroprusside) and SNAP (S-nitroso-N-acetyl- penicillamine) were used for NO donor. Cytoxicity assay was done by MTT assay and crystal violet assay. Apoptotic assay was done by fluorescent microscopy after double staining with propidium iodide and hoecst 33342. Iron inhibition study was done with RBCs and FeSO4. For bcl-2 study, bcl-2 overexpressing cells (A549-bcl-2) were used and for p53 study, Western blot analysis and p53 functionally knock-out cells (A549-E6) were used. Results : SNP and SNAP induced dose-dependent cell death in A549 cells and fluorescent microscopy revealed that SNAP induced apoptosis in low doses but necrosis in high doses while SNP induced exclusively necrotic cell death. Iron inhibition study using RBCs and FeSO4 significantly blocked SNAP-induced cell death. And also SNAP-induced cell death was blocked by bcl-2 overexpression. Finally, we found that SNAP activate p53 by Western blot analysis and that SNAP-induced cell death was decreased in the abscence of p53. Conclusion : In lung epithelial cells, NO can induce cell death, more precisely apoptosis in low doses and necrosis in high doses. And iron, bcl-2, and p53 play important roles in NO-induced cell death.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
• /
• v.49 no.6
• /
• pp.676-684
• /
• 2017

The present study aimed to examine the hepatoprotective effects of ethanol extracts from steam-dried ginseng berry (SGBE) in both $\text\tiny{D}$-Galactosamine/Lipopolysaccharide ($\text\tiny{D}$-GalN/LPS)-sensitized mice and in vitro models. Our results clearly demonstrated that SGBE significantly reduced the level of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, and lactate dehydrogenase in blood, and $TNF{\alpha}$ was normalized in 8 h after the treatment with $\text\tiny{D}$-GalN/LPS. Coincidently, major organs remained unimpaired when compared to $\text\tiny{D}$-GalN/LPS control group. Moreover, p38, which stimulates expression of NAFLD-associated cytokines, was markedly inhibited when treated with SGBE. In vitro analysis revealed that the main components of SGBE, linoleic acid and ginsenoside Re/Rd, may play a role in protecting liver from $\text\tiny{D}$-GalN/LPS-induced toxicity. Finally, we concluded that SGBE may be a promising therapeutic agent for preventing damage to the liver.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.34 no.6_4
• /
• pp.1479-1488
• /
• 2018

On September 3rd 2017, strong artificial seismic signals from North Korea were detected in KMA (Korea Meteorological Administration) seismic network. The location of the epicenter was estimated to be Punggye-ri nuclear test site and it was the most powerful to date. The event was not studied well due to accessibility and geodetic measurements. Therefore, we used remote sensing data to analyze surface changes around Mt. Mantap area. First of all, we tried to detect surface deformation using InSAR method with Advanced Land Observation Satellite-2 (ALOS-2). Even though ALOS-2 data used L-band long wavelength, it was not working well for this particular case because of decorrelation on interferogram. The main reason would be large deformation near the Mt. Mantap area. To overcome this limitation of decorrelation, we applied offset tracking method to measure deformation. However, this method is affected by window kernel size. So we applied various window sizes from 32 to 224 in 16 steps. We could retrieve 2D surface deformation of about 3 m in maximum in the west side of Mt. Mantap. Second, we used Pleiadas-A/B high resolution satellite optical images which were acquired before and after the 6th nuclear test. We detected widespread surface damage around the top of Mt. Mantap such as landslide and suspected collapse area. This phenomenon may be caused by a very strong underground nuclear explosion test. High-resolution satellite images could be used to analyze non-accessible area.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.1-7
• /
• 2003

The common features of the behavioral inhibition and the action monitoring that are considered as one of the executive functions were investigated using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and source localization analysis. The electrophysiological correlates of behavioral inhibition and action monitoring ate analyzed when the subjects performed the Go/NoGo task. Two ERP components of behavioral inhibition termed as N200 and P300 in NoGo condition were differ from those of Go condition, that is the amplitudes of NoGo N200 and P300 are largest on the fronto-central region, which may reflect the inhibitory control of frontal lobe required in NoGo condition. The error-related negativity (ERN) observed on the fronto-central region when the subjects committed error was much larger in amplitude and faster in latency than those of the correct-related negativity (CRN), which may indicate that the signal of action monitoring is much more required for the error response. The correlation analysis for the ERP components of behavioral inhibition and action monitoring revealed the significant negative correlation among the latencies of NoGo N200 and P300 and the amplitude of ERN, which may reflects that the faster subjects inhibit response, the more monitor their own action. The close relationship between behavioral inhibition and action monitoring was also supported by the results of source localization analysis, which showed the common neural sources of NoGo N200 and ERN was anterior cingulate cortex.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.1269-1278
• /
• 2014

The urban highway, which is a motorway constructed to solve traffic issues, has the characteristic of extremely high damage to life during traffic accidents because the speed of vehicles is higher than typical roadways. In particular, because traffic accidents involving serious injuries hold a very important place among overall traffic accidents, analysis on factors affecting the occurrence of traffic accidents involving serious injuries must be considered with priority when establishing a reduction measure. Therefore, the study built a model that was capable of distinguishing the degree of the factors as part of microscopic analysis for investigating the complex effect of many elements concerning the occurrence of traffic accidents involving serious injuries in urban highways. The results are as follows. First, discriminant model showed a comparatively high level in overall accuracy rates, and, considering the correlation ratio, the models were determined to be valid, as all characteristics of the factors were clearly distinguished. Second, the problems of traffic accidents involving serious injuries on urban highways according to each factor, were clearly drawn out through the discriminant model. Third, the improvement measure for the problems drawn out from the discriminant models were clearly proposed.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.31 no.8
• /
• pp.17-28
• /
• 2015

The purpose of this study is to measure the volumetric water content of unsaturated soils during drying and wetting process by using volumetric pressure plate extractor (VPPE) incorporated with time domain reflectometry (TDR). The VPPE consists of a pressure cell, a pressure regulator, a burette system and a TDR probe. Two samples with different initial void ratios were prepared in the pressure cell, and the air pressure at the range of 0.1 kPa - 50 kPa was applied to adjust the matric suction by the pressure regulator. The burette system was used to measure the volumetric water content change of the sample according to the matric suction. In addition, the TDR probe, installed in the cell, was used to evaluate the dielectric constant from the reflected signal of the electromagnetic wave at the probe. The volumetric water content of specimen was estimated by the empirical equation between the volumetric water content and dielectric constant, which was calibrated with the Jumunjin sand. The test results show that the volumetric water content calculated by TDR probe is strongly correlated to the measured value by burette system. The hysteresis occurs during drying and wetting process. Furthermore, the degree of hysteresis reduces in the repeated process. This study suggests that TDR may be effectively used to evaluate the water content soil for the determination of water characteristic curve of unsaturated soils.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
• /
• v.23 no.3 s.81
• /
• pp.125-136
• /
• 2005

The current traffic accident reduction procedure in economic feasibility study does not consider the characteristics of road and V/C ratio. For solving this problem, this paper suggests methods to be able to evaluate safety of each road in construction and improvement through developing accident Prediction model in reflecting V/C ratio Per road types and traffic characters. In this paper as primary process, model is made by tke object of urban roads. Most of all, factor effecting on accident relying on road types is selected. At this point, selecting criteria chooses data obtained from road planning procedure, traffic volume, existence or non-existence of median barrier, and the number of crossing point, of connecting road. and of traffic signals. As a result of analyzing between each factor and accident. all appear to have relatives at a significant level of statistics. In this research, models are classified as 4-categorized classes according to roads and V/C ratio and each of models draws accident predicting model through Poisson regression along with verifying real situation data. The results of verifying models come out relatively satisfactory estimation against real traffic data. In this paper, traffic accident prediction is possible caused by road's physical characters by developing accident predicting model per road types resulted in V/C ratio and this result is inferred to be used on predicting accident cost when road construction and improvement are performed. Because data using this paper are limited in only province of Jeollabuk-Do, this paper has a limitation of revealing standards of all regions (nation).

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
• /
• v.17 no.11 s.114
• /
• pp.1120-1131
• /
• 2006

This paper describes the numerical analysis techniques using the Combined Integration/Matrix Method to calculate ground potential rise which can be occurred in the various grounding systems. Combined Integration/Matrix Method is used to reduce the error and computation time with the analytical integration equation and the proper segmentaion of earth embedded conductor. To do it, optimal segmentaion method for the buried conductors is presented through error analysis which is capable of applying the practical scaled various grounding systems. The optimum length of segmented element is much co-related with the buried depth of grounding electrode and the maximum length of buried electrode. As a result, less 3 precent errors was obtained by proposed model. The proposed model is applied to verify an effect of multi-grounding problems which was aroused much controversy with separated or common grounding between the high power grounding system and low power grounding system such as signal and telecommunication grounding.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.250-255
• /
• 2002

Fluorescent species-specific DNA probe (AT1) of toxic dinoflagellate Arexandrium tamarense was tested on several other species, on comparison of binding activity at different preservatives for fixation of the cells, at different culture age and estimation of cell density by light microscope or epifluorescent microscope using whole cell hybridization. Th AT1 probe specifically bound to Alexandrium tamarense, whereas it did not bind to other phytoplankton, in particular Alexandrium catenella, morphologically similar to Alexandrium tamarense, could not react to AT1 probe. When cells were fixed with all three preservatives, labeling cells of Alexandrium tamarense emitted strong fluorescent signal intensity. In addition, regardless culture days, binding activity with AT1 probe was strong. The tell densities estimated by epifluorescent microscope were than those estimated by light microscope. The enumeration and identifying of Arexandriurn tamarense using DNA probe method will be contributed to a new biotoxin monitoring and prediction system in field.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.41 no.4
• /
• pp.447-456
• /
• 2008

Background: Caspase-3 is a cysteine protease that plays a major role in the process of apoptotic cell death. The dysregulated expression of c-myc contributes to the tumorigenesis in a variety of human cancers. The aim of this study was to investigate the expressions of caspase-3 and c-myc and their significances as prognosis markers in patients with completely resected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Material and Method: A total 130 consecutive patients who had undergone complete resection without pre-operative radio-therapy or chemotherapy between May 1996 and December 2003 for NSCLC were retrospectively reviewed. The median follow-up period of the patients was 50 months (range: $3{\sim}128$ months). The expressions of caspase-3 and c-myc were immuno-histochemically examined, and these were correlated with the clinico-pathologic data. Result: The prevalence of caspase-3 and c-myc expressions in the patients was 68% (88/130) and 59% (77/130), respectively. Significant association was found between the frequency of the expressions of caspase-3 and c-myc (p=0.025). The caspase-3 and c-myc expressions were not significantly associated with the prognosis in all the patients. However, according to stages, a positive caspase-3 expression was significantly correlated with a favorable prognosis for patients with stage IIIa disease (median survival period: 35 months vs. 10 months, p=0.021). Multivariate analysis showed the pathologic stage to be significantly correlated with a good prognosis in all the patients (p=0.024), and with a positive caspase-3 expression, well differentiated tumor and negative neuronal invasion in the patients with stage llla disease (p=0.005, p=0.003, p=0.004, respectively). Conclusion: Caspase-3 and c-myc were frequently expressed in NSCLC, suggesting its possible involvement in tumor development. The caspase-3 expression, as determined with performing immunohistochemical staining, may be a favorable prognostic indicator in patients with completely resected NSCLC an advanced stage (IIIa).