• BMB Reports
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• v.41 no.12
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• pp.881-885
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• 2008

Protein phosphatase 1 consists of a secondary structure arrangement, conserved in the serine/threonine protein phosphatase gene family, flanked by nonconserved N-terminal and C-terminal domains. The deletion mutant of PP1 with the 8 nonconserved N-terminal residues removed was designated PP1-(9-330). PP1-(9-330) had a higher activity and affinity than PP1 when assayed against four different substrates, and it also demonstrated a 6-fold higher sensitivity to the inhibitor okadaic acid. This suggested that the N-terminal domain suppresed the activity of PP1 and interfered with its inhibition by okadaic acid. The ANS fluorescence intensity of PP1-(9-330) was greater than that of PP1, which implies that the hydrophobic groove running from active site in the truncated PP1 was more hydrophobic than in PP1. Our findings provide evidence that the nonconserved N-terminus of PP1 functions as an important regulatory domain that influences the active site and its pertinent properties.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.36-42
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• 2002

The dissolved organic carbon extracted from groundwater is separated into humic acid and fulvic acid. They are characterized for their chemical composition, spectroscopic characteristics using UV/VIS, IR and solid state $^{13}C-NMR$ spectroscopy, proton exchange capacity and molecular size distribution. The results are comparable with the literature data. The study explains that the aquatic humic and fulvic acid in this experiment are site-specipic and polydisperse natural organic matter with considerable proton exchange capacity.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.133-138
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• 2008

Fire can affect microbial community structure of soil through altered environmental conditions, nutrient availability, and biotic source for microbial re-colonization. We examined the influence of fire on chemical properties and soil enzyme activities of soil for 10 months. We also characterized the soil microbial community structure through ester-linked fatty acid analysis(EL-FAME). For this study, we established five burned plots(1*1 m) and 5 unburned plots outside the margin of fire. Soil was sampled three soil cores in a each plots and composited for analysis at 1, 3, 5, 8, and 10 month after fire. The fire caused an increase in soil pH, exchangeable Ca, and Mg, organic matter, available $P_2O_5$ compared to unburned sites. The content of $NH_4-N$ in burned site was significantly higher than that of unburned site and this effect continued for 8 months after fire. There was no difference of $NO_3-N$ content in soil between burned and unburned site. Fire caused no change in acid phosphatase and arylsulfatase activities but $\beta$-glucosidase and alkaline phosphatase activities in burned site were increased compared to unburned site. Microbial biomass as estimated by total concentration of EL-FAMEs in burned sites was significantly higher than that of unburned sites at one month after fire. Burned site decreased the EL-FAMEs indicative of gram-positive bacteria and tended to increase the fatty acid associated with gram-negative bacteria at one and three months after fire. The sum of EL-FAME compound $18:2{\omega}6,9c$ and $18:1{\omega}9c$ as served fungal biomarkers was decreased in burned site compared to unburned site.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.383-392
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• 1998

Pollution characteristics of leachate and underground soul of the two landfill states were Investigated Domestic wastes were dumped In the two adjacent landfill states. Only small portion of S landifill site was filled with domestic wastes at the first stage of dumping, and most portion of the site was filled with construction wastes. However Y landfill strate was filed with mostly domestic wastes. Higher concentrations of organic pollutants including VOCs were measured In Y landfill site leachate than In S tendon site. Underground souls of the two linam states were analyzed by the two kinds of leaching methods, KEP (Korean Extraction Processl and Acid Digestion. Underground souls of the both landfill states were not polluted by leachates. Underground soils of the two were composed of firie salty material. Thus It Is fecund that fine silty soul layer of the sea shore may be used as a landfillsite.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Groundwater Environment
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.30-36
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• 1998

For successful soil flushing process selection of appropriate flushing reagents is essential. Futhermore, obtaining operating parameters for site remediation application through various bench-scale tests is also important. In this research a series of organic acids (acetic, citric, oxalic, and succinic acids) were tested for flushing capability. Copper-contaminated natural soil was used as a test medium, and flushing experiments were performed with batch system. All the organic acids used did not provide effective flushing conditions at concentration of 1 mM. At the acid concentration of 50 and 100 mM copper was removed efficiently although 50 and 100 mM did not show any significant differences in removal efficiencies. Citric acid and oxalic acid removed copper more efficiently than the others, and especially, citric acid showed over 87% of removal efficiency of copper at near neutral pH of 5 to 7. Speciation of extracted copper using GEOCHEM simulation showed majority of extracted copper existed as complexed with organic acids and only small portion of organic acids were complexed with copper indicating promising application of soil flushing with organic acid to heavy metal-contaminated site remediation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.1.1-32
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• 1997

Atmospheric monitoring capabilities were established in 1988 by the University of Florida at Duke forest, near Durham. NC: Cary forest, near Gainesville, FL: and Austin forest, near Nacogdoches, TX. Continuous (hourly averaged) measurements of air quality (ozone, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide) and meteorological variables were made at these three low elevation (< 200 meters), rural locations in the southeastern U.S. for more than three years. During the same period at these sites wet and dry acid deposition samples were collected and analyzed on an event and weekly basis, respectively The monitoring locations were selected to determine actual atmospheric exposure indices for southern pine species in support of on-site surrogate exposure chamber studies conducted by Southern Commercial Forest Research Cooperative (SCFRC) investigators. Daily and quarterly averaged ozone maxima were higher (55 ppb) at the northernmost site in the network (Duke forest) in the second and third quarters (spring and summer seasons) and lower (35 ppb) in the first and fourth quarters (winter and fall seasons), when compared to ozone levels at the two southernmost sites (Cary and Austin forests). Seasonal ozone levels at the latter two sites were similar Nitrogen oxieds and sulfur dioxide levels were insignificant (< 5 ppb) most of the time at all sites, although soil emissions of NO at two sites were found to influence nighttime ozone concentrations. Typical maximum quarterly and annual aggregate ozone exposure indices were significantly higher at Duke forest (92.5/259 ppm-hr) than those values observed at the two southern sites (65.6/210 ppm-hr). Acid deposition (wet and dry) components concentrations and deposition fluxes observed at the Duke forest, NC piedmont site, were generally greater, dependent on site and season, than corresponding variables measured at either of the two southern coastal plain sites (Cary and Austin forests). Acid deposition variables observed at the latter two sites were remarkably similar, both qualitatively and quantitatively, although the sites were located 1300 km apart. A comparison of deposition fluxes of elemental nitrogen (NO3, NH4') and sulfur (5042-, SO3) components in wet and dry forms indicated that wet deposition accounts for approximately 70% of the total nitrogen and 73% of the total sulfur input on an annual equivalent basis at all sites.

• BMB Reports
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.153-158
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• 2004

The acid-labile subunit (ALS) is known to interact with the IGF binding protein (IGFBP) in the presence of insulin-like growth factors (IGFs). Studies, however, indicate that ALS forms a doublet with IGFBP3, independent of IGFs. To characterize the structural domain required for the IGF-free ALS-IGFBP3 interaction, seven recombinant human IGFBP3 mutants were generated: three deletion mutants and four site-specific mutants that had altering N-terminal regions of IGFBP3. ALS and IGFBP3 mRNAs were co-injected into Xenopus oocytes, and their products were cross-linked and immunoprecipitated using antisera against ALS or IGFBP3. Among the deletion mutants, the mutant of D40 (deleted in 11-40th amino acids) exerted no effect in the interaction with ALS, while D60 (${\Delta}11$-60) demonstrated a moderate reduction. D88 (${\Delta}11$-88), however, showed a significant decrease. In the case of site-specific mutants, the mutation that alterated the IGF binding site (codons 56 or 80) exerted a significant reduction in the interaction, whereas codons 72 or 87 showed no significant change in the interaction with ALS. The stability of the ALS-IGFBP3 interaction was analyzed according to a time-dependent mode. Consistent with the binding study, mutants on the IGF binding sites (56 or 80) consistently show a weakness in the ALS-IGFBP3 interaction when compared to the mutants that covered the non-IGF binding sites (72 or 87). This study suggests that the N-terminal of IGFBP3, especially the IGF binding site, plays an important role in interacting with ALS as well as in stabilizing the dual complex, independent of IGFs.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.595-602
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• 2007

This paper proposes a method that discriminates signal peptide and predicts the cleavage site of the secretory proteins cleaved by the signal peptidase I. The preprocessing stage uses hydrophobicity scales of amino acids in order to predict the presence of signal sequence and the cleavage site. The preprocessing enhances the performance of the prediction method by eliminating the non-secretory proteins in the early stage of prediction. for the effective use of support vector machine for the signal sequence prediction, the biologically relevant distance between the amino acid sequences is defined by using the hydrophobicity and substitution matrix; the hydrophobicity can be used to Predict the location of amino acid in a cell and the substitution matrix represents the evolutionary relationships of amino acids. The proposed method showed 98.9% discrimination rates from signal sequences and 88% correct rate of the cleavage site prediction on Swiss-Prot release 50 protein database using the 5-fold-cross-validation. In the comparison tests, the proposed method has performed significantly better than other prediction methods.

• Archives of Craniofacial Surgery
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-4
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• 2016

Absorbable plates are used widely for fixation of facial bone fractures. Compared to conventional titanium plating systems, absorbable plates have many favorable traits. They are not palpable after plate absorption, which obviates the need for plate removal. Absorbable plate-related infections are relatively uncommon at less than 5% of patients undergoing fixation of facial bone fractures. The plates are made from a mixture of poly-L-lactic acid and poly-DL-lactic acid or poly-DL-lactic acid and polyglycolic acid, and the ratio of these biodegradable polymers is used to control the longevity of the plates. Degradation rate of absorbable plate is closely related to the chance of infection. Low degradation is associated with increased accumulation of plate debris, which in turn can increase the chance of infection. Predisposing factors for absorbable plate-related infection include the presence of maxillary sinusitis, plate proximity to incision site, and use of tobacco and significant amount of alcohol. Using short screws in fixating maxillary fracture accompanied maxillary sinusitis will increase the rate of infection. Avoiding fixating plates near the incision site will also minimize infection. Close observation until complete absorption of the plate is crucial, especially those who are smokers or heavy alcoholics. The management of plate infection is varied depending on the clinical situation. Severe infections require plate removal. Wound culture and radiologic exam are essential in treatment planning.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.62-69
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• 1999

In order to investigate the critical amino acid residues involved in the catalytic activities of $\beta$-cyclodextrin glucanotransferase ($\beta$-CGTase) excreted by Bacillus firmus var. alkalophilus, the amino acid residues in $\beta$-CGTase were modified by various site-specific amino acid modifying reagents. The cyclizing and amylolytic activities of $\beta$-CGTase were all seriously reduced after treatment with Woodward's reagent K (WRK) modifying aspartic/glutamic acid, N-bromosuccinimde (NBS) modifying tryptophan, and diethylpyrocarbonate (DEPC) modifying histidine residues. The roles of tryptophan and histidine residues in $\beta$-CGTase were further investigated by measuring the protection effect of various substrates during chemical modification, comparing protein mobility in native and affinity polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis containing soluble starch, and comparing the $K_m$ and $V_{max}$ values of native and modified enzymes. Tryptophan residues were identified as affecting substrate-binding ability rather than influencing catalytic activities. On the other hand, histidine residues influenced catalytic ability rather than substrate-binding ability, plus histidine modification had an effect on shifting the optimum pH and pH stability.