• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.8-22
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• 2019

Among numerous chemicals used globally, the number of emerging contaminants is increasing. Numerical modeling for contaminant fate and transport in the subsurface is critical to evaluate environmental and health risk. In general, such models require physicochemical properties of contaminants as input values, which can be found in numerous chemical databases (DB). However, there exist lack of information specific to recently emerging contaminants, which requires estimation of physicochemical properties using regression programs. The purpose of the study is to introduce the workflow for identifying physicochemical properties of potential contaminants utilizing numerous chemical DBs, which frequently lists up potential contaminants for estimating chemical behavior. In this review paper, details of several chemical DBs such as KISChem, TOXNET, etc. and regression programs including EPI $Suite^{TM}$, ChemAxon, etc. were summarized and also benefit of using such DBs were explained. Finally, a few examples were introduced to estimate predominant phase, removal ratio, partitioning, and eco-toxicities by searching or regressing physicochemical properties.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.164-171
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• 2019

The protonation parameters, dissociation constants ($pK_{BH^+}$) of conjugate acid, slope values (m, ${\phi}$ and $m^*$) and correlation coefficients (r) of hydroxamic acids were determined by Hammett acidity function method, Bunnett-Olsen method and excess acidity method in hydrochloric and perchloric acid solutions. Effect of acid concentration on partition and percentage protonation was also studied. $pK_{BH^+}$ values show that hydroxamic acids do not behave as Hammett bases, but hydroxamic acids behave as weak bases in strong acidic solutions. The values of $pK_{BH^+}$ obtained through Bunnett-Olsen method and excess acidity method were compared with the Hammett acidity function. ChemAxon's MarvinSketch 6.1.5 software was also used for determining $pK_a$, pI and microspecies distribution (%) of hydroxamic acids with pH. Hydrogen donor and acceptor values and logD were also obtained. The results show that N-p-chlorophenyl-4-bromobenzohydroxamic acid has the highest $pK_a$ and lowest logD values. On the contrary, N-phenyl-3,5-dinitrobenzohydroxamic acid has lowest the $pK_a$ and highest logD values.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.231-242
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• 2022

The neuromuscular junction (NMJ), which is a synapse for signal transmission from motor neurons to muscle cells, has emerged as an important region because of its association with several peripheral neuropathies. In particular, mutations in GARS that affect the formation of NMJ result in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and distal hereditary motor neuropathy. These disorders are mainly considered to be caused by neuronal axon abnormalities; however, no treatment is currently available. Therefore, in order to determine whether the NMJ could be targeted to treat neurodegenerative disorders, we investigated the NMJ recovery effect of HDAC6 inhibitors, which have been used in the treatment of several peripheral neuropathies. In the present study, we demonstrated that HDAC6 inhibition was sufficient to enhance movement by restoring NMJ impairments observed in a zebrafish disease model. We found that CKD-504, a novel HDAC6 inhibitor, was effective in repairing NMJ defects, suggesting that treatment of neurodegenerative diseases via NMJ targeting is possible.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.60 no.4
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• pp.247-254
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• 2022

Vincristine (VCR) is a chemotherapeutic agent widely used in treatment of malignancies. However, VCR has a limitation in use since it commonly causes a painful neuropathy (VCR-induced peripheral neuropathy, VIPN). Inflammatory cytokines secreted by immune cells such as macrophages can exacerbate allodynia and hyperalgesia, because inhibiting the inflammatory response is a treatment target for VIPN. In this study, we investigated whether Trichinella spiralis, a widely studied helminth for its immunomodulatory abilities, can alleviate VCR-induced allodynia. Von Frey test showed that T. spiralis infection improved mechanical allodynia at 10 days after VCR injection. We further observed whether the difference was due to mitigated axon degeneration, but no significant difference between the groups in axonal degeneration in sciatic nerves and intra-epidermal nerve fibers was found. Conversely, we observed that number of infiltrated macrophages was decreased in the sciatic nerves of the T. spiralis infected mice. Moreover, treatment of T. spiralis excretory-secretory products caused peritoneal macrophages to secrete decreased level of IL-1β. This study suggests that T. spiralis can relieve VCR-induced mechanical allodynia by suppressing neuroinflammation and that application of controllable degree of helminth may prove beneficial for VIPN treatment.

• BMB Reports
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.126-131
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• 2023

The abnormal accumulation and aggregation of the misfolded α-synuclein protein is the neuropathological hallmark of all α-synucleinopathies, including Parkinson's disease. The secreted proteins known as netrins (netrin-1, netrin-3, and netrin-4) are related to laminin and have a role in the molecular pathway for axon guidance and cell survival. Interestingly, only netrin-1 is significantly expressed in the substantia nigra (SN) of healthy adult brains and its expression inversely correlates with that of α-synuclein, which prompted us to look into the role of α-synuclein and netrin-1 molecular interaction in the future of dopaminergic neurons. Here, we showed that netrin-1 and α-synuclein directly interacted in pre-formed fibrils (PFFs) generation test, real time binding assay, and co-immunoprecipitation with neurotoxin treated cell lysates. Netrin-1 deficiency appeared to activate the dopaminergic neuronal cell death signal pathway via α-synuclein aggregation and hyperphosphorylation of α-synuclein S129. Taken together, netrin-1 can be a promising therapeutic molecule in Parkinson's disease.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.2718-2731
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• 2023

This paper presents a method of using syntax and shallow semantic analysis for Vietnamese question generation (QG). Specifically, our proposed technique concentrates on investigating both the syntactic and shallow semantic structure of each sentence. The main goal of our method is to generate questions from a single sentence. These generated questions are known as factoid questions which require short, fact-based answers. In general, syntax-based analysis is one of the most popular approaches within the QG field, but it requires linguistic expert knowledge as well as a deep understanding of syntax rules in the Vietnamese language. It is thus considered a high-cost and inefficient solution due to the requirement of significant human effort to achieve qualified syntax rules. To deal with this problem, we collected the syntax rules in Vietnamese from a Vietnamese language textbook. Moreover, we also used different natural language processing (NLP) techniques to analyze Vietnamese shallow syntax and semantics for the QG task. These techniques include: sentence segmentation, word segmentation, part of speech, chunking, dependency parsing, and named entity recognition. We used human evaluation to assess the credibility of our model, which means we manually generated questions from the corpus, and then compared them with the generated questions. The empirical evidence demonstrates that our proposed technique has significant performance, in which the generated questions are very similar to those which are created by humans.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.137-147
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• 2023

Pharyngeal pouches are an important epithelial structure controlling facial skeletal development in vertebrates. A series of pouches arise sequentially in the pharyngeal endoderm through collective cell migration followed by rearrangement of pouch-forming cells. While crucial transcription factors and signaling molecules have been identified in pouch formation, a role for Neuropilins (Nrps) in pouch development has not yet been analyzed in any vertebrates. Nrps are cell surface receptors essential for angiogenesis and axon guidance. In all vertebrates, the two Nrp family members, Nrp1 and Nrp2, are conserved in the genome, with two paralogs for Nrp1 (Nrp1a and Nrp1b) and Nrp2 (Nrp2a and Nrp2b) being identified in zebrafish. Here, I report a potential requirement of Nrp signaling in pouch development in zebrafish. nrp1a and nrp2b were expressed in the developing pouches, with sema3d, a ligand for Nrps, being expressed in the pouches. Knocking down Nrps signaling in the pharyngeal endoderm led to severe defects in pouches and facial cartilages. In addition, blocking Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) activities, a downstream effector of Nrp signaling, in the pharyngeal endoderm caused similar defects in pouches and facial skeleton to those by knocking down Nrps signaling. My results suggest that Nrp signaling acts for pouch formation through MAPK.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.250-255
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• 1998

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the histologic change of the inferior alveolar nerve according to distraction amount following mandibular lengthening. Seven rabbits weighing about 2 kg were used. Corticotomy was performed on the mandibular body anterior to the right first premolar region and unilateral external fixation device was placed. Every effort was made to preserve the inferior alveolar nerve during the corticotomy. The rabbits were then allowed to heal for 7 days without distraction of the device. The mandible was lengthened 0.36 mm/day, 0.76 mm/day, or 1.0 mm/day. Corticotomy and lengthening of mandible were not performed in control group. After the completion of the lengthening process, a 14-day-consolidation period was allowed. After consolidation, rabbits were sacrificed, and histologic examination of the inferior alveolar nerve was performed. The results obtained were as follows : 1. In the control group, normal trifascicular pattern of inferior alveolar nerve was observed. Epineurium, perineurium, endoneurium, and axon with myelin sheath were observed in normal appearance. 2. In 0.36 mm/day distraction group, the trifascicular pattern was normally shown, and there was no destruction in epineurium, perineurium, and endoneurium. The mild changes including myelin attenuation, axoplasmic swelling and darkening were observed. 3. In 0.72 mm/day distraction group, it was possible to differentiate the epineurium from the perineurium. Two normal fascicles and one injuried fascicle were observed with a partially destructed perineurium. Most of the axons had axoplasmic swelling and darkening. 4. In 1 mm/day distraction group, it was difficult to differentiate the nerve structures such as fascicles, epineurium, perineurium, and endoneurium. The axons were severely destroyed, except few which showed decreases in size and changes in shape. Some collagen matrices were observed around the axons. These results suggest that the higher the distraction amount, the more severe the injury to the inferior alveolar nerve, fascicles, axons. Although distraction osteogenesis may be useful, the amount of distraction should be carefully selected.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.253-257
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• 2004

Schwann cells play an important role in peripheral nerve regeneration. Upon neuronal injury, activated Schwann cells clean up the myelin debris by phagocytosis, and promote neuronal survival and axon outgrowth by secreting various neurotrophic factors. However, it is unclear how the nerve injury induces Schwann cell activation. Recently, it was reported that certain cytoplasmic molecules, which are secreted by cells undergoing necrotic cell death, induce immune cell activation via the toll-like receptors (TLRs). This suggests that the TLRs expressed on Schwann cells may recognize nerve damage by binding to the endogenous ligands secreted by the damaged nerve, thereby inducing Schwann cell activation. Accordingly, this study was undertaken to examine the expression and the function of the TLRs on primary Schwann cells and iSC, a rat Schwann cell line. The transcripts of TLR2, 3, 4, and 9 were detected on the primary Schwann cells as well as on iSC. The stimulation of iSC with poly (I : C), a synthetic ligand for the TLR3, induced the expression of $TNF-{\alpha}$ and RANTES. In addition, poly (I : C) stimulation induced the iNOS expression and nitric oxide secretion in iSC. These results suggest that the TLRs may be involved in the inflammatory activation of Schwann cells, which is observed during Wallerian degeneration after a peripheral nerve injury.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.11-27
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• 1994

The morphological development of the carotid body was studied by electron microscope in human fetuses from 40mm to 260mm crown rump length (10-30 weeks of gestational age). At 40mm fetus, the carotid body was composed of cluster of primitive glomus cells, primitive supporting cells, unmyelinated nerve fibers, and blood capillaries. In connective tissue between internal and external carotid arteries adjacent to the superior cervical sympathetic ganglion, two types of glomus cells through all prenatal period were found. Dark cells contained a dense cytoplasm with conspicuous large dense-cored granules, whereas light cells had a less dense cytoplasm with dense-cored granules. The light cells contained dense-cored granules that were smaller and less abundant than those in the dark cells. The primitive supporting cells appeared star-shaped with attenuated cytoplasmic extensions intervening between the adjacent glomus cells. Synaptic contact between the axon terminals and soma of the glomus cells were first observed at 40mm fetus. In 80-100mm fetus, the carotid body contained tightly packed collection of glomus cells and supporting cells which surrounded the abundant thin-walled blood vessels. Intercellular junctions between the glomus cells and adjacent cells were commonly seen. Nerve endings on the glomus cells have the form of small boutons and the other from of large calyces. During the second half of the fetal period, the glomus cells were completely enveloped by supporting cells and nerve terminals. At 260mm, the morphological features of carotid body were similar to those of human adult. The result of this study demonstrates that there are differences between the carotid body and aorticopulmonary bodies, especially with respect to their synaptic complexes, abundant blood capillaries, and two glomus cell types.