• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.12-24
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• 2008

Background and Objective : Chungsangboha-tang (CSBHT) has analgesic, sedative, anti-convulsive and anti-histamine effects, so it alleviates the symptoms of asthma. For the comparison of anti-inflammatory effect(s) on CSBHT, PD098059 was used as a negative control. Materials and Methods : This study emphasized THP-1 cells, which had been well characterized as a human monocytic leukemic cell line. The cells resemble monocytes with respect to several criteria and can be differentiated into macrophage-like cells by treatment with PMA. By using the MTS assay, it was possible to prove the safety of CSBHT. Results : Results shows that the CSBHT did not affected cell survival within $10^{1}$ ng/ml to $10^{5}$ ng/ml. Especially, $10^{5}$ ng/ml CSBHT treated cells show 70% deduction of $TNF-{\alpha}$ gene expression against that of LPS treated group. Furthermore, $IL-1{\beta}$, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10 and $TNF-{\alpha}$ levels are down-regulated when treated with CSBHT with concentrations up to 100 ug/ml on monocyte-derived macrophages. Interestingly, CSBHT-treated samples showed that overall transcriptional activities were down-regulated to 20% of that of PD098059 ($TNF-{\alpha}$ inhibitor). At protein level, the expression of $TNF-{\alpha}$ showed similar results as that of transcriptional activity. Results show that the protein level decreased more in the CSBHT-treated group (487 ${\pm}$ 87 pg/ml) than in the LPS-treated group (703 ${\pm}$ 103 pg/ml). In addition, the protein level of IL-8 in the CSBHT treated-group (9.84 ${\pm}$ 3.28 ng/ml) decreased similar as the expression of the control and PD098059-treated groups. Conclusion : CSBHT affects immune response, especially allergic responses and suppression of inflammatory reaction. The results provide us an alternative way to care for clinical inflammatory diseases, not only asthma but also the other possible general inflammatory and allergic diseases.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.383-407
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• 2013

As an alternative of making students active and independent under the passive learning conditions in school math classes, many researchers have paid much attention to problem posing and done a lot of research on it. Above all, Brown and Walter proposed What I f Not strategy as a means of problem posing. In this strategy, during the process of posing problems, the transformation of their attributes is inevitably made, and so after problem posing, the process is finished by explaining the problem. But only the simple transformation of attributes could pose wrong problems. It suggests that it is very important to recognize the relationship which leads to organic connection between attributes in order to pose the right problem. However, many other studies of problem posing haven't focused on this fact. Thus, this study tried to design a model of problem posing to help recognize inherent knowledge in the problem and then pose the right problem by adding an activity of meaning analysis. We concretely showed a model of problem posing emphasizing the analysis of meaning by means of an example, thereby examining the meaning of the model. This study expects students to have the chance to understand the true meaning of problem posing and to be active learners after all.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.1-29
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• 2013

The main goal of the research is to develop instructional consulting manual to help math teachers improve classroom teaching. Improving the quality of teaching in schools is stressed as a central focus of meaningful classroom instruction and high quality education. In this research, teaching consulting was defined as an activity that covers reflection process oriented towards formative assessment and continuing professional development. Within this context, subject-specific teaching consulting and teaching professionalism with focus on PCK was reviewed. Further, the questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the current situation of teaching consulting and teachers' needs for consulting. And also, specific examples of subject-specific consulting based on our previous consulting experiences in math classes were shown. Alternative ways to improve subject teaching were derived through the conferences where consultants and consultees analyze video-taped lessons conducted by the consultees. By those results, a manual for invigorating teaching consulting was developed. The contents of the manual consists of setting conditions of teaching consulting and its implementation in the classroom teaching. The first part of the manual contains steps to establish teaching consulting system, the qualification and role of the consultant, system evaluation, etc. The second part of the manual presents the pre-preparation, prescription and implementation and follow-up management steps. Each part of the manual provides consultants with specific guidelines for each step. Finally, recommendations for making policy related to ways to invigorate teaching consulting was suggested. It is expected that specific examples and cases of subject-specific teaching consulting presented in this research will be used to narrow the gap between theory and practice of teaching consulting, and to help math, science and English teachers develop teaching professionalism.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.208-214
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• 2015

To develop an effective biopesticide to control pepper anthracnose disease, an isolate which showed strong inhibitory effect on the mycelial growth and conidial germination of Colletotrichum acutatum was selected among the antagonistic bacterial isolates collected from pepper grown soil. The bacterial isolate was identified as Bacillus sp. KBC1004 using 16S rRNA sequence analysis. The liquid culture of KBC1004 was freeze-dried and formulated as a wettable powder(WP). The wettable powder form of KBC1004 required at least 24 hours to activate and to inhibit the conidial germination of C. acutatum. In vitro bioassay using the detached green pepper fruits, biocontrol activity of the WP was not recognizable in simultaneous inoculation, but significant disease suppression was observed pre-treatment (24 hr) of the WP before pathogen inoculation. In field experiment, 4 times foliar applications of the 1/500 diluted wettable powder from the end of June showed great control efficacy similar to that of the chemical fungicide application. These results suggest that the formulated WP product could be an alternative mean to control of pepper anthracnose disease in environmentally friendly farming practices.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.58 no.3
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• pp.219-226
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• 2015

The anticancer activity of a methanolic extract from lemon leaves (MLL) was assessed in MCF-7-SC human breast cancer stem cells. MLL induced apoptosis in MCF-7-SC, as evidenced by increased apoptotic body formation, sub-G1 cell population, annexin V-positive cells, Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, as well as proteolytic activation of caspase-9 and caspase-3, and degradation of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) protein. Concomitantly, MLL induced the formation of acidic vesicular organelles, increased LC3-II accumulation, and reduced the activation of Akt, mTOR, and p70S6K, suggesting that MLL initiates an autophagic progression in MCF-7-SC via the Akt/mTOR pathway. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a critical step in the acquisition of the metastatic state, is an attractive target for therapeutic interventions directed against tumor metastasis. At low concentrations, MLL induced anti-metastatic effects on MCF-7-SC by inhibiting the EMT process. Exposure to MLL also led to an increase in the epithelial marker E-cadherin, but decreased protein levels of the mesenchymal markers Snail and Slug. Collectively, this study provides evidence that lemon leaves possess cytotoxicity and anti-metastatic properties. Therefore, MLL may prove to be beneficial as a medicinal plant for alternative novel anticancer drugs and nutraceutical products.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 2012

Arabinoxylan (Ara) rice bran has been shown to be a potent biological response modifier as manifested by stimulation of different arms of the immune system. We examined the effects of Ara rice bran and exercise on the immune function and cytokines in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated rats. As the results, tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$ as representative inflammatory cytokines showed a significantly lower in Ara supplement group, thus the Ara rice bran had a higher inhibitory activity than the both exercise and control group. However, 4 weeks of exercise training significantly increased inflammatory reactions rather than treatment with Ara in LPS-treated rats. The Ara rice bran acted to decrease the inflammatory reaction. These results suggest that the supplement of Ara rice bran is likely contribute to inflammation response and the Ara rice bran can be used as a possible safe alternative to the immunotherapeutic modalities.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.210-216
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• 2015

This study was investigated about the antibacterial effects of aqueous garlic extract (AGE) against Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli O157:H7), Salmonella typhimurium (S. typhimurium) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of AGE against E. coli O157:H7, S. typhimurium, and S. aureus was 24, 48 and 24 mg/mL, respectively. In addition, the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of AGE against E. coli O157:H7, S. typhimurium, and S. aureus was all of 96 mg/mL. The growth of E. coli O157:H7 was significantly inhibited at the concentration of AGE 24 mg/mL at 24 hr post-incubation (p < 0.01), but that of S. aureus was not significantly inhibited at the same concentration. However, the growth of S. aureus at the concentration of AGE 96 mg/mL was significantly inhibited at 24 hr post-incubation compared to that of untreated bacteria (p < 0.01). At the concentration of AGE 48 (p < 0.05) and 96 mg/mL (p < 0.001), the growth of S. typhimurim was significantly inhibited at 24 hr after incubation compared to that of untreated bacteria. With the results of this study, AGE can be used as alternative to antibiotics and chemical food preservatives.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.368-374
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• 2012

BACKGROUND: The urgency of feeding the world's growing population while combating soil pollution, salinization and desertification requires suitable biotechnology not only to improve crop productivity but also to improve soil health through interactions of soil nutrient and soil microorganism. Interest in the utilization of microbial fertilizer has increased. A principle of nature farming is to produce abundant and healthy crops without using chemical fertilizer and pesticides, and without interrupting the natural ecosystem. Beneficial microorganisms may provide supplemental nutrients in the soil, promote crop growth, and enhance plant resistance against pathogenic microorganisms. We mixed beneficial microorganisms such as Bacillus sp. Han-5 with anti-fungal activities, Trichoderma harziaum, Trichoderma longibrachiatum with organic material degrading activity, Actinomycetes bovis with antibiotic production and Pseudomonas sp. with nitrogen fixation. This study was carried out to investigate the mixtures on the soil microflora and soil chemical properties and the effect on the growth of lettuce and cucumber under greenhouse conditions. METHODS AND RESULTS: The microbial mixtures were used with each of organic fertilizer, swine manure and organic+swine manure and compared in regard to changes in soil chemical properties, soil microflora properties and crop growth. At 50 days after the treatment of microorganism mixtures, the pH improved from 5.8 to 6.3, and the EC, $NO_3$-Na and K decreased by 52.4%, 60.5% and 29.3%, respectively. The available $P_2O_5$ and $SiO_2$ increased by 25.9% and 21.2%, respectively. Otherwise, the population density of fluorescent Pseudomonas sp. was accelerated and the growth of vegetables increased. Moreover, the population density of E. coli and Fusarium sp., decreased remarkably. The ratio of bacteria to fungi (B/F) and the ratio of Actinomycetes bovis to fungi (A/F) increased 2.3 (from 272.2 to 624.4) and 1.7 times (from 38.3 to 64), respectively. Furthermore, the growth and yield of cucumber and lettuce significantly increased by the treatment of microorganism mixtures. CONCLUSION(S): These results suggest that the treatment of microorganism mixtures improved the chemical properties and the microflora of soil and the crop growth. Therefore, it is concluded that the microorganism mixtures could be good alternative soil amendments to restore soil nutrients and soil microflora.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.834-839
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• 2017

Propolis is a natural product collected from plants by honey bees product used extensively in traditional medicine for its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory and anti-cancer effects. Propolis exhibits a broad spectrum of biological activities because it is a complex mixture of natural substances. Ovarian cancer is the second most common newly diagnosed cancer from all cancers among women in Korea and the leading cause of death from gynecological malignancies. While most ovarian cancer patients initially respond to surgical debulking and chemotherapy, patients later succumb to the disease. Thus, there is an urgent need to test novel therapeutic agents to counteract the high mortality rate associated with ovarian cancer. In this study, we investigated the anti-cancer properties and the active mechanism of Australian propolis in human epithelial ovarian cancer A2780 cells. Our data revealed that propolis showed a cytotoxic activity in a dose-dependent manner. Flow cytometric analysis for cell cycle arrest and apoptosis using propidium iodide staning and annexin V-FITC indicated that propolis could induce cycle arrest in the G0/G1 phase and apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner on human epithelial ovarian cancer cells. These results suggest that the Australian propolis is potential alternative agent on ovarian cancer prevention and treatment.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2011

To improve the mechanical properties, such as durabilities and antioxidative characteristics, the covalently cross-linked (CL-) SPEEK (sulfonated polyether ether ketone)/Cs-substituted HPA (heteropoly acid) organic-inorganic composite membranes (CL-SPEEK/Cs-HPAs), have been intensively investigated. The composite membrane were prepared by blending cesium-substituted HPAs (Cs-HPAs), including tungstophosphoric acid (TPA), molybdophosphoric acid (MoPA), and tungstosilicic acid (TSiA) with cross-linking agent content of 0.01 mL. And composite electrolytes composed of Cs-HPAs, prepared by immersion (imm.) and titration (titr.) methods to increase the stability of HPAs in water, were applied to polymer electrolyte membrane electrolysis (PEME). As a result, the proton conductivity of Cs-substituted composite membranes increased rapidly over $60^{\circ}C$ but mechanical properties, such as tensile strength, decreased in accordance with added Cs content. The bleeding-out of Cs-TPA membranes by titration method (50 vol.% Cs) decreased steadily to 2.15%. In the oxidative stability test by Fenton solution, the durability of membranes with Cs-HPA significantly increased. In case of CL-SPEEK/ Cs-TPA membrane, duration time increased more than 1200 hours. It is expected that even though CL-SPEEK/Cs-MoPA membrane shows the high proton conductivity, electrocatalytic activity and cell voltage of 1.80 V for water electrolysis, the CL-SPEEK/Cs-TPA (imm.) is more suitable as an alternative membrane in real system with the satisfactory proton conductivity, mechanical properties, anti-oxidative stability and cell voltage of 1.89 V.