• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.457-461
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• 2010

Familial hypokalemic periodic paralysis (HOKPP) is an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by reversible flaccid paralysis and intermittent hypokalemia. Although it has been reported that decreased activity in the $K_{ATP}$ channels of the skeletal muscle cell membrane plays a role in the pathogenesis of HOKPP, a clear mechanism has not yet been established. This study aimed to investigate the molecular biological mechanism underlying the decreased activity of $K_{ATP}$ channels in the skeletal muscles of familial HOKPP patients by studying the levels of the $K_{ATP}$ channel subunit Kir6.2. We found that when cells obtained from healthy individuals (normal cells) and HOKPP patients (patient cells) were treated with 4 mM potassium buffer, there was no quantitative change in the KCNJ11 mRNA levels and no difference in the Kir6.2 protein expression in the cytosol and cell membrane. On the other hand, when 1 mM potassium buffer was used, normal cells showed decreased expression of KCNJ11 mRNA as well as decreased expression of Kir6.2 protein in the cell membrane. However, patient cells treated with the same buffer showed no quantitative change in the levels of KCNJ11 mRNA or in the levels of Kir6.2 protein in the cytosol and cell membrane. Thus, in HOKPP patients, the Kir6.2 protein cannot be transported from the cell membrane to the cytosol, leading to closure of the $K_{ATP}$ channels, induction of depolarization, and subsequently, to the paralytic symptoms observed in the patient. Our findings thus provide new insights into the pathogenesis of HOKPP.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.245-255
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• 2018

The research was aimed to analyze the functional constituents (GABA and isoflavone), radical (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS), and hydroxyl) scavenging activities and enzyme (${\alpha}-glucosidase$ and lipase) inhibitory effects of soypowder milk (SPM) and fermented soy-powder milk (FSPM) with varied Lactobacillus brevis. Ten ${\gamma}-aminobutyric$ acid (GABA) producing lactic acid bacteria that showed 96-99% similarity with L. brevis, according to 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, were isolated from fermented kimchi. The conversion rates of GABA were obtained 66.96-93.51, 63.76-84.58, and 57.05-69.75% in monosodium glutamate, gluten and soy protein, respectively. The levels of pH and glutamic acid of FSPM were found lower than those of SPM, but the acidity and GABA contents were higher. The GABA conversion rate of FSPM with BMK484 strain was attained the highest 69.97%. The contents of isoflavone glycoside ($1290.93{\mu}g/g$) was higher in SPM, but the content of isoflavone aglycone ($287.27-501.9{\mu}g/g$) was higher in FSPM. The levels of isoflavone aglycone such as daidzein, glycitein and genistein, were found as the highest 240.2, 61.24 and $200.45{\mu}g/g$, respectively, when FSPM was made with BMK484 strain. The DPPH, ABTS and hydroxyl radical scavenging and ${\alpha}-glucosidase$ and pancreatic lipase inhibitory activities of FSPM made with BMK484 strain were the relatively higher 60.31, 88.10, 61.25, 52.71, and 39.37%, respectively. Therefore, the L. brevis can be used as a material capable of simultaneously enhanced GABA and isoflavone aglycone in FSPM.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.52-58
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• 2011

Osteoporotic fracture (OF), along with bone mineral density (BMD), is an important diagnostic parameter and a clinical predictive risk factor in the assessment of osteoporosis in the elderly population. However, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on OF has not yet been clarified sufficiently. To identify OF-associated genetic variants and candidate genes, we conducted a GWAS in a population-based cohort (Korean Association Resource [KARE], n=1,427 [case: 288 and control: 1139]) and performed a de novo replication study in hospital-based individuals (Asan and Catholic Medical Center [ACMC], n=1,082 [case: 272 and control: 810]). In a combined meta-analysis, a newly identified genetic locus in an intergenic region at 10p11.2 (near genes FZD8 and ANKRD30A ) showed the most significant association (odd ratio [OR] = 2.00, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.47~2.74, p=$1.27{\times}10^{-6}$) in the same direction. We provide the first evidence for a common genetic variant influencing OF and genetic information for further investigation in bone metabolism.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.285-295
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• 2014

This study was conducted to survey the epidemiological characteristics and the isolated strains for pathogenic E. coli which was the major causative organisms for food poisoning occurred at school food services in the Gyeonggi-do area during the past three years. We investigated 19 accidents of food-borne disease outbreaks by pathogenic E. coli at school food services from 2010 to 2012. Food-borne disease outbreaks by pathogenic E. coli were usually occurred at direct management type (18 accidents, 95%) and high schools. For the seasonal factors, 13 accidents (65%) were occurred in June to September, especially the end of August and September after the summer holidays. The first patients were occurred on Wednesday (7 accidents, 37%) and Thursday (7 accidents, 37%), and they were mainly reported on Thursday (7 accidents, 37%) and Friday (5 accidents, 26%). The exposure of risk was estimated in Monday (4 accidents, 21%), Tuesday (7 accidents, 37%) and Wednesday (4 accidents, 21%), and kimchi (5 accidents, 50%) was estimated as the food of the high risk responsible for the outbreaks. 98 isolates of pathogenic E. coli consisted of PEC (50%), ETEC (34%), EAEC (15%), and EHEC (1%). The antibiotic resistance of pathogenic E. coli showed in the descending order of ampicilline (40%), nalidixic acid (37%), trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (24%), and tetracycline (19%). The antibiotics of second and third generation cephalosporins, cabarpenem, aminoglycosides, and second generation quinolones had antimicrobial susceptibilities and cefalotin, ampicillin/sulbactam and chloramphenicol showed medium resistance at 29%, 25%, and 6% respectively, and 70% of isolates were resistant to more than one antibiotic. By the PFGE analysis, they were classified into nine major groups and 31 profiles with 57% pattern similarity. It was very difficult to find the correlation of antimicrobial susceptibilities and genotype in the small scale-food poisoning, but the similarity of antimicrobial resistance and PFGE patterns in the large scale-food poisoning enabled the outbreaks to estimate the same pathotype of E. coli derived from identical origins.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.36-48
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• 2010

The objectives of this study are to research and analyze the positioning of Mt. Back Hwa(白華山) and the characteristics of its neighboring cultural scenery based on the Two Seated Buddah Temple, a small Buddhist temple of Taeul in Taean and to view both landscape geographic codes and religious attractions over Mt. Back Hwa by discussing its expression and meaning for the scenery scattered or nested over this districts. The panoramic view of west shows the character of Mt. Back Hwa as a magnanimity of Buddhist Goddess of Mercy which is viewed as a view point field no less than its location as a landscape target and its singularity as a rocky mountain. The ancient castle, signal beacon post and the small Buddhist temple of Taeul to be read importantly in the old map and SinjeungDongkukyeojiseungram(新增東國輿地勝覽) form the core of place identity, and a number of carve(engrave) letters such as Eopungdae(御風臺), Youngsadae(永思臺), etc. show the prospect of this mountain and monumentality derived from place characteristics. In addition removing of Taeiljeon, a portrait scroll of Dangun, national ancestor makes possible to guess the national status hold by Mt. Back Hwa in advance and to know that it has symbiotic relationship with indigenous religion and shares with the universal locality which have been continued for a long time through a portrait scroll of Dangun enshrined in Samsunggak. More than anything else, however the Rock-carved Buddha Triad in Taean, Giant Buddha of Baekjae era enshrined in the small Buddhist temple of Taeul is not only why Mt. Back Hwa, magnanimity of Buddhist Goddess of Mercy exists but also a signifier. In spite of such a placity, the union ideas of confucianism, buddhism and doctrinism of buddhism prevailed in the Late Joseon Dynasty allows the cultural phenomenon of taoism to be read in the same weight through Ilsogae(一笑溪) and Gammodae(感慕臺) which are mountain stream and pond area respectively centered in the carve letter, 'Taeeuldongcheon(太乙洞天)' constructed in front of the small Buddhist temple of Taeul, the Baduk board type of rock carvings engraved over them and a number of traces of carve letters made by confucian scholars since the Middle of Joseon Dynasty. The reason such various cultural sceneries are mixed in Mt. Back Hwa is in the results of inheritance of religious places and fusion of sprit of the times, and the various type of cultural scenery elements scattered in Mt. Back Hwa are deemed as unique geographic code to understand the multi-layered placity and the characteristics of scenery of Mt. Back Hwa in Taean.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.125-132
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• 2003

Purpose : Lipoprotein(a) is a genetically determined risk factor for atherosclerotic vascular disease and is elevated in patients with renal disease. Especially the patients with nephrotic syndrome exhibit excessively high Lp(a) plasma concentrations. Also the patients with end-stage renal disease have elevated Lp(a) levels. But the mechanism underlying this elevation is unclear. Thus, in this study, by measuring the level of serum Lp(a) in common renal diseases in children, we hoped to see whether there would be a change in Lp(a) in renal diseases other than nephrotic syndrome. Then, we figured out its implications, and looked for the factors that affect the Lp(a) concentrations. Methods : A total of 75 patients(34 patients with hematuria of unknown etiology, 10 with hematuria and hypercalciuria, 8 with IgA nephropathy, 8 with poststreptococcal glomerulone phritis, 3 with $Henoch-Sch\"{o}nlein$ nephritis, 7 with urinary tract infection, and 5 with or- thostatic proteinuria) were studied. The control group included 20 patients without renal and liver disease. Serum Lp(a), total protein, and albumin levels, 24-hour urine protein and calcium excretions, creatinine clearance and the number of RBCs and WBCs in the urinary sediment were evaluated. Data analysis was peformed using the Student t-test and a P-value less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results : LP(a) was not correlated with 24-hour urine calcium and creatinine. Lp(a) level had a positive correlation with proteinuria and negative correlation with serum albumin and serum protein. Among the common renal diseases in children, Lp(a) was elevated only in orthostatic proteinuria (P<0.05). Conclusion : Lp(a) is correlated with proteinuria, serum protein, and serum albumin, but not with any kind of specific renal disease. Afterward, Lp(a) needs to be assessed in patients with orthostatic proteinuria and its possible role as a prognostic factor could be confirmed.

• Korean Journal of Breeding Science
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.349-353
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• 2009

We developed a new barley cultivar "Dami" (Hordeum vulgare L.) with the auricleless gene lig (al, li, aur-a). The characteristic of auricleless is a spontaneous mutant type which has known as a monogenic recessive gene. The plant with the gene has erect leaf blades because of no auricle. The cultivar was derived from a cross between 'BGS60' and 'Kangbori'. 'BGS60' has the auricleless gene (li), while 'Kangbori' showed a high biomass with winter hardiness and resistance to BaYMV (Barley Yellow Mosaic Virus). Subsequent generations were handled by the bulk method in a pedigree selection program. A promising line showed both high yield and lodging resistance in the yield trials at Iksan in 2003 to 2004, and designated as Iksan414. The line was subsequently evaluated for winter hardiness, earliness, and yield in the seven locations around Korea for three years from 2005 to 2007 and was designated as "Dami" and released. It has the growth habit of III, erect plant type, green leaf and stem similar to the check cultivar 'Sunwoo' Its heading date was April 30, and maturing date May 31 in paddy field conditions, which were similar to those of 'Sunwoo' respectively. The cultivar Dami was 97 cm in culm length, had 643 spikes per $m^2$ and higher leaf dry weight, and better adaptability to dense planting, winter hardiness, and resistance to BaYMV than the check cultivar did. The average forage yield of "Dami" was about 12 ton $ha^{-1}$ in dry matter (33 ton $ha^{-1}$ in fresh matter) in paddy field. "Dami" also showed 7.5% of crude protein content, 28.5% of ADF (Acid Detergent Fiber), 50.1% of NDF (Neutral Detergent Fiber), and 66.4% of TDN (Total Digestible Nutrients), including higher grade of silage quality for whole crop barley. This cultivar would be suitable for the area where the daily minimum temperature of January is above $-8^{\circ}C$ in Korean peninsula.

• FLOWER RESEARCH JOURNAL
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.55-63
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• 2011

This study was carried out to develop new cultivars of Hibiscus species from crosses between introduced interspecific hybrids and cultivars in Hibiscus species. Fruit setting of interspecific crosses of Hibiscus strains was less than 10% and the number of seeds in the fruit was also in low level. Three individuals of specific flower and leaf characteristics were selected from crosses between introduced interspecific hybrid, 'Fujimusme'(♀), and H. syriacus 'Namwon'(♂) in 2004. A new strain, Hibiscus ${\times}$ 'W-26', was selected from the crossing of interspecific hybrid, 'Fujimusme'(♀), and H. syriacus 'Namwon'(♂), which had white flower and narrow separated petal. Hibiscus ${\times}$ 'WRB-2' was selected from the crossing of interspecific hybrid, 'Fujimusme'(♀), and H. syriacus 'Namwon'(♂), which had white flower and blue eye spot. Hibiscus ${\times}$ 'R-141' was selected from crosses between introduced interspecific hybrid, 'Shichisai'(♀) and H. syriacus 'Namwon'(♂), which had large flowers over 13 cm diameter and revealed tall tree type. Hibiscus ${\times}$ 'R-142' was selected from the crossing of interspecific hybrid, 'Shichisai'(♀), and H. syriacus 'Namwon'(♂), which had large flowers over 13 cm diameter and revealed tall tree type. The characteristics were succeded after grafting. Flower of 'R-142' had reddish violet color with red eye spot, whereas its parent had blue and purple flowers.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.33.1-33.7
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• 2020

This paper describes a community effort to improve earlier versions of the full-text corpus of Genomics & Informatics by semi-automatically detecting and correcting PDF-to-text conversion errors and optical character recognition errors during the first hackathon of Genomics & Informatics Annotation Hackathon (GIAH) event. Extracting text from multi-column biomedical documents such as Genomics & Informatics is known to be notoriously difficult. The hackathon was piloted as part of a coding competition of the ELTEC College of Engineering at Ewha Womans University in order to enable researchers and students to create or annotate their own versions of the Genomics & Informatics corpus, to gain and create knowledge about corpus linguistics, and simultaneously to acquire tangible and transferable skills. The proposed projects during the hackathon harness an internal database containing different versions of the corpus and annotations.

• Korean Journal of Breeding Science
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.397-406
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• 2010

Field screening method has been commonly used for purity test of $F_1$ hybrid seeds in melon and oriental melon. However, as this method takes a lot of time and cost, molecular marker-based purity test is necessary. To develop molecular markers for purity test, thirty pairs of SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) primers were obtained from melon EST sequences, and 10 polymorphic markers showing HRM (high resolution melting) polymorphisms between parents of two melon cultivars and one oriental melon cultivar were selected. Blind tests were performed to validate usefulness of the selected markers for purity test. Blind test results showed that HRM genotypes were matched with the expected identity of individual sample, $F_1$ hybrid, male or female parents. Three HRM-based SNP markers were converted to CAPS markers for general use which is favor to breeders. We expect that SNP markers developed in this study will be useful for purity test of $F_1$ hybrid seeds in melon and oriental melon.