• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.45 no.11
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• pp.1589-1594
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• 2016

Piperine [(E,E)-5-(3,4-methtylenedioxyphenyl)-2,4-pentadienolypiperidide] is a principal of Piperaceae, including Piper nigrum L. and Piper longum Linn., which has been used as a spice and traditional medicine. In this study, we investigated whether or not piperine has anti-cancer effects on AGS human gastric cancer cells. The results demonstrated that piperine not only inhibited proliferation using MTT assay but also induced apoptotic bodies using DAPI assay in a dose-dependent manner in response to piperine. Expression levels of p53, Bax (pro-apoptotic), cleaved caspase-9, and cleaved-PARP increased, whereas expression levels of Bcl-2, XIAP (anti-apoptotic), and Akt decreased in a dose-dependent manner compared with the control by western blotting analysis. To identify the connection between phospo-Akt and Bcl-2 family in response to piperine, LY249002 (Akt inhibitor) was treated with piperine ($150{\mu}M$). The results were shown that expression of phospo-Akt was reduced whereas expression of Bax and cleaved-PARP increased in a dose-dependent manner. These results indicate that piperine induced apoptosis in AGS cells and may serve as a chemopreventive or therapeutic agent for human gastric cancer.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.105-113
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• 2015

The theory of landscape architecture applies environmental ethics in order to secure an ecological status. However, environmental ethics that focus on nature conservation excludes landscape architecture as artifacts. In the process, it is hard to identify what landscape architecture insists on as the middle position between humans and nature. Rather, landscape architecture pretends to be an 'agent of nature' and pushes the traditional moral values 'for people.' Therefore, the purpose of this study is to reestablish the anthropocentrism moral position of landscape architecture through critical analysis. Hargrove's weak anthropocentrism' of several environmental ethics branches accepts natural aesthetics(such as landscape architecture) as an ethical virtue. But environmental ethics makes landscape architecture a critical target. For that reason, this study looked into critical contents and objects that in a position to moral, aesthetic and landscape architecture. Critical details are as follows: First, nature is an absolute as an aesthetic and moral value, but landscape architecture is an imitation and takes a relaxed attitude about nature. Second, nature is full of aesthetic substance because it is self-creative, but landscape architecture is designed nature covered human flaws through imagination. Third, environmental management granting techniques in nature generate a moral nihilism. As an argument, environmental ethics overlooked the moral practices of landscape architecture beyond nature another moral aspect of creation and the imagination-and moral aspects of environmental management as 'care' because they rule out 'moral autonomy' and simplify what is considered 'good.' As a result, conservation cannot be the only virtue why the problem of nature in reality cannot be separated from human life. The moral position of landscape architecture based on a 'good life' is more appropriate under anthropocentrism than as a middle position.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.197-206
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• 2013

The present study investigated whether leukemia-maintaining cells reside in a differentiation-resistant fraction using a megakaryocytic differentiation model of K562 cells. Treatment with phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA) significantly inhibited the colony-forming efficiency of the K562 cells. At a PMA concentration of 1 nM or higher, colony was not formed, but approximately 40% of K562 cells still survived in soft agar. Approximately 70% of colony-forming cells that were isolated following the removal of PMA after exposure to the agent were differentiated after treatment with 10 nM PMA for 3 days. The differentiation rate of the colony-forming cells was gradually increased and reached about 90% 6 weeks after colony isolation, which was comparable to the level of a PMA-treated K562 control. Meanwhile, imatinib-resistant variants from the K562 cells, including K562/R1, K562/R2, and K562/R3 cells, did not show any colony-forming activity, and most imatinib-resistant variants were CD44 positive. After 4 months of culture in drug-free medium, the surface level of CD44 was decreased in comparison with primary imatinib-resistant variants, and a few colonies were formed from K562/R3 cells. In these cells, Bcr-Abl, which was lost in the imatinib-resistant variants, was re-expressed, and the original phenotypes of the K562 cells were partially recovered. These results suggest that leukemia-maintaining cells might reside in a differentiation-resistant population. Differentiation therapy to eliminate leukemia-maintaining cells could be a successful treatment for leukemia if the leukemia-maintaining cells were exposed to a differentiation inducer for a long time and at a high dose.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.634-649
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• 2020

Recently, stream longitudinal connectivity has been a topic of investigation due to the frequent disconnections and the impact of aquatic ecosystems caused by the construction of small and medium-sized weirs and various artificial structures (fishways) directly influencing the stream ecosystem health. In this study, the international and domestic research trends of the longitudinal connectivity in aquatic ecosystems were evaluated and the applicability of fish-based longitudinal connectivity models used in developed countries was analyzed. For these purposes, we analyzed the current status of research on longitudinal connectivity and structural problems, fish monitoring methodology, monitoring approaches, longitudinal disconnectivity of fish movement, and biodiversity. In addition, we analyzed the current status and some technical limitations of physical habitat suitability evaluation, ecology-based water flow, eco-hydrological modeling for fish habitat connectivity, and the s/w program development for agent-based model. Numerous references, data, and various reports were examined to identify worldwide longitudinal stream connectivity evaluation models in European and non-European countries. The international approaches to longitudinal connectivity evaluations were categorized into five phases including 1) an approach integrating fish community and artificial structure surveys (two types input variables), 2) field monitoring approaches, 3) a stream geomorphological approach, 4) an artificial structure-based DB analytical approach, and 5) other approaches. the overall evaluation of survey methodologies and applicability for longitudinal stream connectivity suggested that the ICE model (Information sur la Continuite Ecologique) and the ICF model (Index de Connectivitat Fluvial), widely used in European countries, were appropriate for the application of longitudinal connectivity evaluations in Korean streams.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.181-190
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• 2023

Domestic hop (Humulus lupulus L.) production has been suspended since the early 1990s due to foreign imports, but interest in local production is rising due to the recent craft beer boom in Korea. This study was conducted focusing on the development of growth characteristics and propagation technology for 6 introduced hop cultivars as a basic study for domestic hop production and breeding program. In the hop growth survey conducted in 2021 and 2022, the 5-year-old plants after planting generally showed a tendency to increase the height of strobile setting, strobile size, number and weight of strobile per hill compared to the 4-year-old plants. As a result of the experiment with hop vine cuttings, the average rooting rate of all cultivars was as high as 88% even in only water treatment that were not added with Atonik (Atonik, Arysta, Japan), a rooting agent. There were differences between cultivars in rooting length and rooting rate according to the Atonik treatment method. When checking the survival rate of the rooted cuttings seedlings after transplanting into the soil, it was confirmed that the survival rate of the cuttings in the tissue culture room was significantly lower than that of the cuttings in the greenhouse. However, in transplanting step, cutting plants from culture room condition was strongly inhibited plant growth because of changing environment conditions. As a results of tissue culture, the thidiazuron (TDZ) 1 ㎎/L treatment in the media generated 6 to 9 shoots/explant, while the 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) 1 ㎎/L treatment generated only 1 to 2 shoots/explant. Therefore, it is more effective to culture by adding TDZ rather than BAP. These results indicated that the development of technology to manage stably after transplanting of cutting or micropropagating plants into potting soil is important for mass propagation of hops.