• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.18-18
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• 2011

Climate change is impacting and will increasingly impact both the quantity and quality of the world's water resources in a variety of ways. In some areas warming climate results in increased rainfall, surface runoff, and groundwater recharge while in others there may be declines in all of these. Water quality is described by a number of variables. Some are directly impacted by climate change. Temperature is an obvious example. Notably, increased atmospheric concentrations of $CO_2$ triggering climate change increase the $CO_2$ dissolving into water. This has manifold consequences including decreased pH and increased alkalinity, with resultant increases in dissolved concentrations of the minerals in geologic materials contacted by such water. Climate change is also expected to increase the number and intensity of extreme climate events, with related hydrologic changes. A simple framework has been developed in New Zealand for assessing and predicting climate change impacts on water resources. Assessment is largely based on trend analysis of historic data using the non-parametric Mann-Kendall method. Trend analysis requires long-term, regular monitoring data for both climate and hydrologic variables. Data quality is of primary importance and data gaps must be avoided. Quantitative prediction of climate change impacts on the quantity of water resources can be accomplished by computer modelling. This requires the serial coupling of various models. For example, regional downscaling of results from a world-wide general circulation model (GCM) can be used to forecast temperatures and precipitation for various emissions scenarios in specific catchments. Mechanistic or artificial intelligence modelling can then be used with these inputs to simulate climate change impacts over time, such as changes in streamflow, groundwater-surface water interactions, and changes in groundwater levels. The Waimea Plains catchment in New Zealand was selected for a test application of these assessment and prediction methods. This catchment is predicted to undergo relatively minor impacts due to climate change. All available climate and hydrologic databases were obtained and analyzed. These included climate (temperature, precipitation, solar radiation and sunshine hours, evapotranspiration, humidity, and cloud cover) and hydrologic (streamflow and quality and groundwater levels and quality) records. Results varied but there were indications of atmospheric temperature increasing, rainfall decreasing, streamflow decreasing, and groundwater level decreasing trends. Artificial intelligence modelling was applied to predict water usage, rainfall recharge of groundwater, and upstream flow for two regionally downscaled climate change scenarios (A1B and A2). The AI methods used were multi-layer perceptron (MLP) with extended Kalman filtering (EKF), genetic programming (GP), and a dynamic neuro-fuzzy local modelling system (DNFLMS), respectively. These were then used as inputs to a mechanistic groundwater flow-surface water interaction model (MODFLOW). A DNFLMS was also used to simulate downstream flow and groundwater levels for comparison with MODFLOW outputs. MODFLOW and DNFLMS outputs were consistent. They indicated declines in streamflow on the order of 21 to 23% for MODFLOW and DNFLMS (A1B scenario), respectively, and 27% in both cases for the A2 scenario under severe drought conditions by 2058-2059, with little if any change in groundwater levels.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.257-266
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• 2014

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Licorice has been shown to possess cancer chemopreventive effects. However, glycyrrhizin, a major component in licorice, was found to interfere with steroid metabolism and cause edema and hypertension. The roasting process of licorice modifies the chemical composition and converts glycyrrhizin to glycyrrhetinic acid. The purpose of this study was to examine the anti-carcinogenic effects of the ethanol extract of roasted licorice (EERL) and to identify the active compound in EERL. MATERIALS/METHODS: Ethanol and aqueous extracts of roasted and un-roasted licorice were prepared. The active fraction was separated from the methylene chloride (MC)-soluble fraction of EERL and the structure of the purified compound was determined by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The anti-carcinogenic effects of licorice extracts and licochalcone A was evaluated using a MTT assay, Western blot, flow cytometry, and two-stage skin carcinogenesis model. RESULTS: EERL was determined to be more potent and efficacious than the ethanol extract of un-roasted licorice in inhibiting the growth of DU145 and MLL prostate cancer cells, as well as HT-29 colon cancer cells. The aqueous extracts of un-roasted and roasted licorice showed minimal effects on cell growth. EERL potently inhibited growth of MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 breast, B16-F10 melanoma, and A375 and A2058 skin cancer cells, whereas EERL slightly stimulated the growth of normal IEC-6 intestinal epithelial cells and CCD118SK fibroblasts. The MC-soluble fraction was more efficacious than EERL in inhibiting DU145 cell growth. Licochalcone A was isolated from the MC fraction and identified as the active compound of EERL. Both EERL and licochalcone A induced apoptosis of DU145 cells. EERL potently inhibited chemically-induced skin papilloma formation in mice. CONCLUSIONS: Non-polar compounds in EERL exert potent anti-carcinogenic effects, and that roasted rather than un-roasted licorice should be favored as a cancer preventive agent, whether being used as an additive to food or medicine preparations.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.685-690
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• 2002

The mitogen-stimulated serine/threonine kinase $p70^{S6k}$ plays an important role in the progression of cells from $G_0/G$_1$$ to S phase of the cell cycle by translational up-regulation of a family of mRNA transcripts family of mRNA transcripts which contain polypyrimidine tract at their 5 transcriptional start site. Here, we report that $p70^{S6k}$ was constitutively phosphorylated and activated to various degrees in serum-deprived AGS, A2058, HT-1376, MG63, MCF7, MDA-MB-435S, MDA-MB-231 and MB-157. Rapamycin treatment induced a significant dephosphorylation and inactivation of $p70^{S6k}$ in all cancer cell lines, while wortmannin, a specific inhibitor of PI3-K, caused a mild dephosphorylation of $p70^{S6k}$ in AGS, MDA-MB-435S and MB-157. In addition, SQ20006, methylxanthine phosphodiesterase inhibitor, reduced the phosphorylation of $p70^{S6k}$ in all cancer cells tested. Consistent with inhibitory effect of rapamycin on $p70^{S6k}$ activity, rapamycin inhibited [$^3H$]-thymidine incorporation and increased the number of cells at $G_{0}G_{1}$ phase. Furthermore, these inhibitory effects were accompanied by the decrease in growth of cancer cells. Taken together, the results indicate that the antiproliferative activity of rapamycin might be attributed to cell cycle arrest at $G_{0}G_{1}$ phase in human cancer cells through the inhibition of constitutively activated $p70^{S6k}$ of cancer cells and suggest $p70^{S6k}$ as a potential target for therapeutic strategies aimed at preventing or inhibiting tumor growth.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.183-190
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• 2004

Objectives: Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) mutation are commonly associated with hyperhomocysteinemia, and through their defects in homocysteine metabolism, they have been implicated as a risk factor for recurrent spontaneous abortion. Recent report describe that 28-bp tandem repeat polymorphism in thymidylate synthase enhancer region (TSER) that influence enzyme activity would affect plasma homocysteine level. We have investigated the relationship between TSER genotype and plasma homocysteine level in 54 patients with recurrent spontaneous abortion. Methods: Plasma homocysteine level was measured by fluorescent polarizing immunoassay. MTHFR mutation (C677T and A1298C) was identified by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism assay and TSER mutation was analyzed by PCR method. The data were analyzed using the program SAS 8.2 for Windows. Results: Total homocysteine level was significantly higher in MTHFR 677TT genotype ($9.80{\pm}3.87{\mu}mol/L$) than MTHFR 677CC genotype ($8.14{\pm}1.74{\mu}mol/L$) in Korean patients with unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion (p=0.0143). However, the plasma homocysteine level was not significantly different in the MTHFR 1298AA ($8.42{\pm}2.65{\mu}mol/L$) and 1298CC ($6.09{\pm}0.32{\mu}mol/L$; p=0.2058) and, TSER 2R2R ($8.61{\pm}1.68{\mu}mol/L$) and 3R3R ($8.05{\pm}2.81{\mu}mol/L$; p=0.9319) mutant genotypes, respectively. In this study, we found the combination effects of TSER and MTHFR C677T genotypes. Plasma homocysteine levels were the highest ($11.47{\pm}4.66{\mu}mol/L$) in individuals with TSER 3R3R ($8.05{\pm}2.81{\mu}mol/L$) and MTHFR 677TT ($9.80{\pm}3.87{\mu}mol/L$) genotypes. Individuals with a combination of both TSER 2R2R/2R3R and MTHFR 677CC/CT genotypes ($7.69{\pm}1.77{\mu}mol/L$) had lower plasma homocysteine levels than TSER 2R2R ($8.61{\pm}1.68{\mu}mol/L$) and MTHR 677CC ($8.14{\pm}1.74{\mu}mol/L$) genotypes, respectively. The effect of MTHFR polymorphism in the homocysteine metabolism appears to be stronger than that of TSER polymorphism. Conclusion: Although statistically not significant, we found the elevated level of plasma homocysteine in combined genotypes with TSER and MTHFR (C677T and A1298C) in Korean patients with unexplained habitual abortion. In this study, we reported the possibility that TSER polymorphism is a genetic determinant of plasma homocysteine levels in the Korean patients as well as MTHFR C677T polymorphism. A large prospective study is needed to verify our findings.