• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.107-117
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• 1991

The effect of 3-aminobenzamide (3AB), an inhibitor of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase, on ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS)-or bleomycin (BLM)-induced DNA repair synthesis and chromosome aberrations was examined during the cell cycle of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO)-K$_1$ cells. The synchronized cells were obtained by using thymidine double block method and mitotic selection method. Three assays were employed in this study: unscheduled DNA synthesis, alkaline elution and chromosome aberrations. 3AB alone did not induce DNA repair and chromosome aberrations in all phases. The post-treatment with 3AB inhibited DNA repair synthesis induced by EMS or BLM in G$_2$ phase, whereas 3AB did not affect chromosome aberrations induced by EMS or BLM in all phases. These results suggest that 3AB aggravates the cell cycle disturbance which occur after DNA damage, and leads to an accumulation of cells at G$_2$ phase, and inhibits DNA repair synthesis, while the effect 3AB on chromosome aberrations may need reevaluated.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.694-700
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• 2017

Clostridium difficile, which causes pseudomembranous colitis, releases toxin A and toxin B. These toxins are considered to be the main causative agents for the disease pathogenesis, and their expression is associated with a marked increase of apoptosis in mucosal epithelial cells. Colonic epithelial cells are believed to form a physical barrier between the lumen and the submucosa, and abnormally increased mucosal epithelial cell apoptosis is considered to be an initial step in gut inflammation responses. Therefore, one approach to treating pseudomembranous colitis would be to develop agents that block the mucosal epithelial cell apoptosis caused by toxin A, thus restoring barrier function and curing inflammatory responses in the gut. We recently isolated an antimicrobial peptide, Periplanetasin-2 (Peri-2, YPCKLNLKLGKVPFH) from the American cockroach, whose extracts have shown great potential for clinical use. Here, we assessed whether Peri-2 could inhibit the cell toxicity and inflammation caused by C. difficile toxin A. Indeed, in human colonocyte HT29 cells, Peri-2 inhibited the toxin A-induced decrease in cell proliferation and ameliorated the cell apoptosis induced by this toxin. Moreover, in the toxin A-induced mouse enteritis model, Peri-2 blocked the mucosal disruption and inflammatory response caused by toxin A. These results suggest that the American cockroach peptide Peri-2 could be a possible drug candidate for addressing the pseudomembranous colitis caused by C. difficile toxin A.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2015

Objectives: Quercetin, a flavonoid compound, has been reported to induce apoptosis in cancer cells, but its anti-inflammatory effects, which are also closely linked with apoptosis, if any, on non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have not so far been critically examined. In this study, we tried to determine if quercetin had any demonstrable anti-inflammatory potential, which also could significantly contribute to inducing apoptosis in a NSCLC cell line, A549. Methods: In this context, several assays, including cytotoxicity, flow cytometry and fluorimetry, were done. Gene expression was analyzed by using a western blot analysis. Results: Results revealed that quercetin could induce apoptosis in A549 cells through mitochondrial depolarization by causing an imbalance in B-cell lymphoma 2/Bcl2 Antagonist X (Bcl2/Bax) ratio and by down-regulating the interleukine-6/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (IL-6/STAT3) signaling pathway. An analysis of the data revealed that quercetin could block nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-${\kappa}B$) activity at early hours, which might cause a down-regulation of the IL-6 titer, and the IL-6 expression, in turn, could inhibit p-STAT3 expression. Down-regulation of both the STAT3 and the NF-${\kappa}B$ expressions might, therefore, cause down-regulation of Bcl2 activity because both are major upstream effectors of Bcl2. Alteration in Bcl2 responses might result in an imbalance in the Bcl2/Bax ratio, which could ultimately bring about mitochondria mediated apoptosis in A549 cells. Conclusion: Overall, the finding of this study indicates that a quercetin induced anti-inflammatory pathway in A549 cells appeared to make a significant contribution towards induction of apoptosis in NSCLC and, thus, may have a therapeutic use such as a strong apoptosis inducer in cancer cells.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.1098-1103
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• 1994

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) images of two conducting layered transition-metal ditellurides, $TaTe_2$ and $Ta_{0.5}$$V_{0.5}$$Te_2$, were examined and their surface and bulk structural features were compared. All the measured unit cell parameters from AFM image were consistent and in complete agreement with the results of the X-ray diffraction. The microscopic structures of corrugated surface tellurium sheets were strongly affected by the modification of metal double zig-zag chains underneath Te surface. Large difference in the height amplitudes of AFM images in $TaTe_2$ and $Ta_{0.5}$$V_{0.5}$$Te_2$ phases was observed and this reflects large difference in the surface electron densities of two phases. On surface, the shorter intralayer Te…Te contacts in $TaTe_2$ induce more electron transfer from Te p-block bands to Ta d-block bands, thus electron density on surface observed in $TaTe_2$ is much lower than that of $Ta_{0.5}$$V_{0.5}$$Te_2$. However, in bulk, interlayer Te…Te contacts in V substituted phase are shorter than those in $TaTe_2$ phase, thus tellurium-to-metal electron transfer occurs more easily in $Ta_{0.5}$$V_{0.5}$$Te_2$ phase.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.37-49
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• 1980

Chlorpropamide, $C_{10}H_{13}N_{2}O_{3}SCI$, forms orthofombic crystals of space group $P_{2}_{ 1}2_{1}2_{1}$ with a 9.066 $\pm$ 0.004, b = 5.218 $\pm$ 0.003, c = 26, 604 $\pm$, 0.008 $\AA$, and four molecules per cell. Three dimensional photographic data were collected with Mo-K$\alpha$ radiation. The structure was determined using Patterson, Fourier and Difference syntheses methods and refined by the block-diagonal least-squares methods with anisotropic thermal parameters for all nonhydrogen atoms and isotropic thermal parameters for all hydrogen atomes. The final R value was 0.10 for the 1823 observed independent reflections. The dihedral angle between the planes through the benzene ring and the urea goup is 99$^{\circ}$. The conformational angle formed by the projection of the S-C(1) with that of N(1)-C(7) when the projection is taken along the S-N(1) bond is 76$^{\circ}$. The molecule appears to form with neighbouring molecules two hydrogen bonds, N(1)..H...O(3) and N(2)-H...0(2) of lengths 2.774 and 2.954$\AA$ respectively related by screw diads parallel to the a axis. Adjacent molecules parallel to b and c axis are bound together by van der Wasls forces.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.363-371
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• 2013

This paper describes a multi-standard LDPC decoder which supports 19 block lengths(576~2304) and 6 code rates(1/2, 2/3A, 2/3B, 3/4A, 3/4B, 5/6) of IEEE 802.16e mobile WiMAX standard and 3 block lengths(648, 1296, 1944) and 4 code rates(1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 5/6) of IEEE 802.11n WLAN standard. To minimize hardware complexity, it adopts a block-serial (partially parallel) architecture based on the layered decoding scheme. A DFU(decoding function unit) based on sign-magnitude arithmetic is used for hardware reduction. The designed LDPC decoder is verified by FPGA implementation, and synthesized with a 0.13-${\mu}m$ CMOS cell library. It has 312,000 gates and 70,000 bits RAM. The estimated throughput is about 79~210 Mbps at 100 MHz@1.8v.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.255-262
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• 2005

Striatum is involved in the control of movement and habitual memory. It receives glutamatergic input from wide area of the cerebral cortex as well as an extensive serotonergic (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) input from the raphe nuclei. In our study, the effects of 5-HT on synaptic transmission were studied in the rat corticostriatal brain slice using in vitro whole-cell recording technique. 5-HT inhibited the amplitude as well as frequency of spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic currents (sEPSC) significantly, and neither ${\gamma}-aminobutyric$ acid (GABA)A receptor antagonist bicuculline (BIC), nor $N-methyl-_{D}-aspartate$ (NMDA) receptor antagonist, $_{DL}-2-amino-5-phosphonovaleric$ acid (AP-V) could block the effect of 5-HT. In the presence non-NMDA receptor antagonist, 2,3-dioxo-6-nitro-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrobenxo[f] quinoxaline-7-sulfonamide (NBQX), the inhibitory effect of 5-HT was blocked. We also figured out that 5-HT change the channel kinetics of the sEPSC. There was a significant increase in the rise time during the 5-HT application. Our results suggest that 5-HT has an effect on both pre- and postsynaptic site with decreasing neurotransmitter release probability of glutamate and decreasing the sensitivity to glutamate by increasing the rise time of non-NMDA receptor mediated synaptic transmission in the corticostriatal synapses.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.655-663
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• 2005

Tribological characteristics in the sliding parts of oil hydraulic piston pumps are very important in increasing overall efficiency. In this study, the fluid film between the valve plate and the cylinder block was measured by using a gap sensor and the mercury-cell slip ring unit under real working conditions. To investigate the effect of the valve shape, we designed three valve plates each having a different shape. One of the valve plates was without bearing pad, another valve plate had bearing pad and the last valve plate was a spherical valve plate. It was noted that these three valve plates observed different aspects of the fluid film characteristics between the cylinder block and the valve plate. The leakage flow rates and the shaft torque were also investigated in order to clarify the performance difference between these three types of valve plates. From the results of this study, we found that the spherical valve plate estimated good fluid film patterns and good performance more than the other valve plates in oil hydraulic axial piston pumps.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.117-123
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• 1992

Development in vitro of 2-cell mouse embryos was examined after appropriate exposure to oviductal milieu to demonstrate biological activity present in the oviducts. ICR and ($C57Bl/6{\times}Balb/c$) $F_1$ hybrid mice were superovulated and mated for the recovery of early embryos. Embryos were recoverd at every 2h intervals from 32h post-hCG(hph) to 56 hph. The proportions of developmental stages were determined in the recovered embryos. Development in vitro of 2-cell embryos was more rapid in $F_1$ hybrid than in ICR, showing high proportions of 4-cell embryo and blastocyst at 120 hph. 100% of blastocyst development was obtained at 38hph in $F_1$ hybrid and at 50 hph in ICR when 2-cell embryos were cultured upto 120hph in vitro. Moreover, in vitro culture of oviducts containing 2-cell embryos in ICR mice for 12h from 34hph to 46hph increased developmental capacity of ICR mouse embryo in vitro. The results indicate that oviductal environment contains substances having mitogenic activity and overcoming early cell block in vitro. The mitogenic activity is effective in vitro as well as in vivo.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.163-168
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• 2020

We studied the change of photovoltaic properties of a flexible CuIn_xGa(_1-x)Se₂ (CIGS) solar cell fabricated on polyimide by mechanical bending with curvature radii of 75 mm (75R) and 20 mm (20R). The flexible CIGS cells were flattened on a PET film, then placed and forced against the surface of a curved block fabricated with pre-designed curvatures. Both up (compressive) and down (tensile) bending were applied to a specimen of CIGS on PET with curvatures of 75R and 20R for 10,000 times and 2,000 times, respectively. From J-V measurements, we found that the conversion efficiency (Eff.) was reduced by 3% and 4% for up-and down-bending, respectively, at curvature 75R; it was greatly reduced by 15% for curvature 20R in the up-bending. However, the open circuit voltage (V_oc) and short-circuit current density (J_sc) seemed to change little, within 3%, for the applied mechanical stresses. The degradation in Eff. resulted from the deterioration of the series (R_s) and shunt (R_sh) resistances of the solar cell.