• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.75-84
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• 2003

Object : The present experiments were designed to study on the memory enhancement of the extract of Gongjadaesungjichimjung-bang(GDJB). Methods : The water extract of GCJB has been tested for its activities on memory enhancement by passive avoidance task in vivo and for its inhibitory effect on the acetylcholine esterase activity. Results : GDJB water extract significantly enhanced the memory at a concentration of 50mg/kg, but this effect did not proportionally increased at a dose of l00mg/kg and significantly inhibited the acetylcholine esterase activity in a dose-dependent manner in in vitro assay with IC50 value of 1.57mg/ml and also in in vivo assay. Conclusion : The extract of GDJB showed a memory enhancement as well as the inhibitory effect on acetylcholine esterase activity, which suggest that this prescription may be applied for the treatment of memory impairment.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.201-208
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• 1997

It is becoming increasingly clear that the inflammatory reaction can be ascribed to a complex array of mediators generated and released from activated phagocytes. In this study, the effect of PAF on interleukin-1(IL-1) activity by rat alveolar macrophages(AM) was examined using thymocyte proliferation assay in the supernate of sample obtained after 24 hr culture. When AM were cultured with PAF alone, no change in IL-1 activity was observed. However, the combined addition of PAF and muramyl dipeptide(MDP) or lipopolysaccharide(LPS) to AM cultures markedly enhanced IL-1 activity by 2-3 fold compared with AM cultures with the stimulant alone in a concentration dependent fashion. The peack effect was found at $10^{-8}$ M PAF with MDP and $10^{-14}$ M PAF with LPS. the effect of PAF was also tested in silica, toxic respirable dust, -added AM cultures as well as in the cultures containing bacterial compounds. Although silica did not stimulate the IL-1 activity, PAF could enhance IL-1 activity by 2 fold above the value of the silica-treated AM cultures with the peak response at $10^{-12}$ M PAF. Optimal enhancement of IL-1 activity occured when MDP and PAF were present together at the initiation of the 24 hr AM cultures. Additionaly, the biologically inactive precursor/metabolite of PAF, lyso-PAF failed to induce enhancement of IL-1 activity. When the specific, but structurally different PAF receptor antagonists, BN 52021($10^{-5}$ M) and CV 3988($10^{-5}$ M) was treated 15 min before addition of PAF($10^{-8}$ M) and MDP$(10\;{\mu}g/ml)$ to the AM cultures, it markedly inhibited the enhancement of IL-1 activity induced by PAF. The effects of these PAF antagonists were also observed in LPS$(10\;{\mu}g/ml)$-stimulated cells. Collectively, these data suggest that PAF enhances IL-1 activity by interaction with a specific receptor.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.71-77
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• 2011

Drought and salinity are the most important abiotic stresses that affect the normal growth and development of plants. Glycine betaine is one of the most important osmolytes present in higher plants that enable them to cope with environmental stresses through osmotic adjustment. In this study, a betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase (BADH) gene from spinach under the control of the stress-induced promoter rd29A from Arabidopsis thaliana was introduced into potato cultivar Gannongshu 2 by the Agrobacterium tumefaciens system. Putative transgenic plants were confirmed by Southern blot analysis. Northern hybridization analysis demonstrated that expression of BADH gene was induced by drought and NaCl stress in the transgenic potato plants. The BADH activity in the transgenic potato plants was between 10.8 and 11.7 U. There was a negative relationship (y = -2.2083x + 43.329, r = 0.9495) between BADH activity and the relative electrical conductivity of the transgenic potato plant leaves. Plant height increased by 0.4-0.9 cm and fresh weight per plant increased by 17-29% for the transgenic potato plants under NaCl and polyethylene glycol stresses compared with the control potato plants. These results indicated that the ability of transgenic plants to tolerate drought and salt was increased when their BADH activity was increased.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.111-117
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• 2011

We previously reported that fermentation by Lactobacillus brevis LB-20 isolated from Kimchi resulted in improvement of the sensory quality of Hizikia fusiforme water extract. This study was conducted to evaluate the possible application of lactic acid bacteria fermentation to improve the functional qualities of H. fusiforme extract. L. brevis LB-20 was inoculated and cultivated in H. fusiforme extract. The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of extract were then assayed both before and following fermentation for two days. Antioxidant activity was determined by assaying levels of radical scavenging activity against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), hydroxyl, superoxide, and alkyl radical. Lactic acid bacterial fermentation of H. fusiforme extract resulted in enhancement of antioxidant activity. The greatest enhancement of antioxidant activity was seen in the hydroxyl radical scavenging assay that incorporated 0.5 mg/mL of raw and fermented H. fusiforme extract. Fermented extract exhibited greater (21.95%) inhibition of nitric oxide synthesis than did raw extract (14.66%) at a concentration of 1 mg/mL. The fermented extract exerted its potent anti-inflammatory activity via attenuation of expression of inflammation-related cytokine proteins (TNF-${\alpha}$ and iNOS).

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.79-83
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• 2001

To evaluate an effect of toluene application to skin on the enhancement of liver damage in $CCl_4$-pretreated rats, toluene (35 mg/$cm^2$) was sequentially applied for 5 days to the skin of liver damaged rats with $CCl_4$ (6 times every other day: 0.1 ml/100 g body weight-50% $CCl_4$ in olive oil) On the basis of the functional and morphological findings in rat liver, appling toluene to the skin in liver damaged animals led to the more enhanced liver damage. In addition, by applying toluene to skin of liver damaged rats, the hepatic cytochrome P450 content was somewhat more increased, but the hepatic benzylalcohol dehydrogenase activity was significantly decreased (P<0.001), whereas benzaldehyde dehydrogenase activity was not statistically changed. In conclusion, the toluene application to skin in liver-damaged rat led to enhancement of liver injury that may be due to the accumulation of toluene metabolite in liver.

• BMB Reports
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• v.49 no.10
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• pp.566-571
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• 2016

Forskolin (FSK), an adenylyl cyclase activator, has recently been shown to enhance nucleotide excision repair (NER) upon UV exposure. However, our study revealed that this effect was detected in human skin epithelial ARPE19 cells only in growing cells, but not in non-cycling cells. When the cells were grown at low density (70% confluence), FSK was capable of stimulating cAMP responsive element binding (CREB) phosphorylation, a marker for FSK-stimulated PKA activation, and resulted in a significant increase of NER activity compared to control treatment. However, cells grown under 100% confluent conditions showed neither FSK-induced CREB phosphorylation nor the resulting NER enhancement. These findings indicate that cellular growth is critical for FSK-induced NER enhancement and suggest that cellular growth conditions should be considered as a variable while evaluating a reagent's pharmacotherapeutic efficacy.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.28 no.11C
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• pp.1161-1168
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• 2003

In this paper, we propose an improved statistical model-based voice activity detection algorithm and threshold update method. We first improve signal-to-noise ratio by using speech enhancement preprocessing algorithm combined power subtraction method and matched filter, then apply it to LLR test optimum decision rule for improving the performance even in low SNR conditions. And we propose an adaptive threshold update method that was not concerned in any papers. We also perform extensive computer simulations to demonstrate the performance improvement of the proposed VAD algorithm employing the proposed speech enhancement preprocessing algorithm and adaptive threshold update method under various background noise environments. Finally we verify our results by comparing ITU-T G.729 Annex B.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.4E
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• pp.161-166
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• 2003

We present an adaptive wavelet packet based speech enhancement method with robust voice activity detection (VAD) in non-stationary noise environment. The proposed method can be divided into two main procedures. The first procedure is a VAD with adaptive wavelet packet transform. And the other is a speech enhancement procedure based on the proposed VAD method. The proposed VAD method shows remarkable performance even in low SNRs and non-stationary noise environment. And subjective evaluation shows that the performance of the proposed speech enhancement method with wavelet bases is better than that with Fourier basis.

• Proceedings of the Polymer Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.11-12
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• 2006

Incorporation of chromophores into multi-chromophore-containing dendrimers is shown to lead to a significant enhancement in electro-optic activity. These results are reasonably well simulated by pseudo-atomistic Monte Carlo calculations that permit dendrimers to interpenetrate (entangle). Calculations also lead to the correct prediction of material densities. An even greater enhancement in electro-optic activity is observed when such dendrimer materials are doped with a second chromophore. This latter effect may reflect an Ising-lattice-type phenomenon where one chromophore impacts the ordering of the other and vice versa.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.27-32
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• 2015

The current investigation was carried out to explore the possibility of submerged fermentation of Saccharina japonica as sole substrate using Aspergillus oryzae. In this study we used 2% S. japonica powder as fermentation media for A. oryzae. Fermentation period was optimized by monitoring the fermented sample at regular intervals for a period of 7 days. Results found that a fermentation period of 5 days was effective with maximum desirable characteristics such as total sugar, total phenolic and flavonoid contents. Under optimum fermentation period, fermented extracts showed enhanced antioxidant activity as determined by different assays such DPPH radical scavenging, ABTS scavenging and phosphomolydenum assay. This study provides the information for the enhancement of bioactive molecules in an eco-friendly manner and also paves way towards the development of wide range of seaweed-based functional foods.