• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.75-83
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• 2007

Elasticity is an important physical property of biological tissues. Differences in elasticity can help facilitate the diagnosis of tumors and their extent. Magnetic Resonance Elastography (MRE) tries to visualize images of tissue elasticity by externally applying shear stress on the surface of an imaging object. Applied shear stress induces internal displacements that can be measured from MR phase images. In order to conduct MRE imaging experiments, we need to first develop a vibrator. We found that there does not exist enough technical information to design the MRE vibrator. In this paper, we describe the theory, design and construction of an MRE vibrator. We report the performance of the developed vibrator using two different test methods. We found that the vibrator successfully induces enough internal displacements that can be imaged using an MRI scanner. We suggest future studies of numerous MRE imaging experiments using the vibrator.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.31 no.8
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• pp.2315-2321
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• 2010

Twenty spirodiclofen analogues have been designed and conveniently synthesized via three steps including esterification, one-pot heterocyclization, and acylation reactions. The target molecules have been identified on the basis of analytical spectra ($^1H$ NMR, $^{13}C$ NMR and ESI-MS) data. All newly synthesized compounds have been screened for their potential insecticidal and herbicidal activity by standard method. The preliminary assays indicated that some of analogues displayed moderate to good insecticidal activity against Plutella xylostella compared with spirodiclofen, and some compounds showed obvious activity against Brassica chinensis. Structure-activity relationship (SAR) is also discussed based on the experimental data.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.113-128
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• 2014

Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine strategies could offer new hope for patients with serious tissue injuries or end-stage organ failure. Scientists are now applying the principles of cell transplantation, material science, and engineering to create biological substitutes that can restore and maintain normal function in diseased or injured tissues/organs. Specifically, creation of engineered tissue construct requires a polymeric biomaterial scaffold that serves as a cell carrier, which would provide structural support until native tissue forms in vivo. Even though the requirements for scaffolds may be different depending on the target applications, a general function of scaffolds that need to be fulfilled is biodegradability, biological and mechanical properties, and temporal structural integrity. The scaffold's internal architecture should also enhance the permeability of nutrients and neovascularization. In addition, the stem cell field is advancing, and new discoveries in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine will lead to new therapeutic strategies. Although use of stem cells is still in the research phase, some therapies arising from tissue engineering endeavors that make use of autologous adult cells have already entered the clinic. This review discusses these tissue engineering and regenerative medicine strategies for various tissues and organs.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.59 no.2
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• pp.145-147
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• 2016

Recently, conjugates of medicinal herb-derived bioflavonoids, such as quercetin, and gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have gained attention as targeted drug delivery systems. In the present study, because quercetin is an important flavonoid with anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, and anti-oxidant properties, GNP-quercetin complexes (GNPQs) were synthesized to investigate possible adverse effects such as cytotoxicity. We found that while quercetin was cytotoxic, GNPQs were not cytotoxic towards the RAW 264.7 and THP-1 cell lines. Therefore, GNPQs may serve as a potential drug delivery system for cancer treatment.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.69-77
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• 2019

Screening microorganisms that can produce glucan hydrolases for industrial, environmental, and biomedical applications is important. Herein, we describe a novel approach to perform glucan hydrolase screening-based on analysis of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) spectra-which involves degradation of the oligo- and polysaccharides. As a proof-of-concept study, glucan hydrolases that could break down glucans made of several glucose units were used to demonstrate the MALDI-MS-based enzyme assay. First, the enzyme activities of ${\alpha}$-amylase and cellulase on a mixture of glucan oligosaccharides were successfully discriminated, where changes of the MALDI-MS profiles directly reflected the glucan hydrolase activities. Next, we validated that this MALDI-MS-based enzyme assay could be applied to glucan polysaccharides (i.e., pullulan, lichenan, and schizophyllan). Finally, the bacterial glucan hydrolase activities were screened on 96-well plate-based platforms, using cell lysates or samples of secreted enzyme. Our results demonstrated that the MALDI-MS-based enzyme assay system would be useful for investigating bacterial glucoside hydrolases in a high-throughput manner.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.419-428
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• 2019

Phytases are enzymes that can hydrolyze phytate and its salts into inositol and phosphoric acid, and have been utilized to increase the availability of nutrients in animal feed and mitigate environmental pollution. However, the enzymes' low thermostability has limited their application during the feed palletization process. In this study, a combination of B-value calculation and protein surface engineering was applied to rationally evolve the heat stability of Escherichia coli phytase. After systematic alignment and mining for homologs of the original phytase from the histidine acid phosphatase family, the two models 1DKL and 1DKQ were chosen and used to identify the B-values and spatial distribution of key amino acid residues. Consequently, thirteen potential amino acid mutation sites were obtained and categorized into six domains to construct mutant libraries. After five rounds of iterative mutation screening, the thermophilic phytase mutant P56214 was finally yielded. Compared with the wild-type, the residual enzyme activity of the mutant increased from 20% to 75% after incubation at $90^{\circ}C$ for 5 min. Compared with traditional methods, the rational engineering approach used in this study reduces the screening workload and provides a reference for future applications of phytases as green catalysts.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.83-94
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• 2017

Benthic macroinvertebrates were investigated in thermal discharge that flows Buso stream region from December 2015 to February 2016, Korea. Study site was selected for the upstream, downstream relative to the mixing station and mixing station which thermal effluent flows, water quality analysis and benthic macroinvertebrates composition, taxa of EPT-group individuals, analysis of biological water quality. As a result, a total of 4,015 individuals including 50 species, 30 families, 11 orders, 4 classes, and 3 phyla were recognized. Taxa of species is Ephemeroptera 16 species (32.0%) including 6 families, the density composition was highest in 1,848 individuals (46.03%) Diptera. EPT-group occupied during the study period were a total of 1,876 individuals (46.72%) including 32 species and 17 family, lowest in the mixing station for study period. As a results of community analysis, mixing station in the Limnodrilus gotoi and Chironomidae sp.2, which is dominated by the analysis was Ecdyonurus levis, Cincticostella levanidovae, Nemoura KUa. The dominant species showed a difference in the upstream and downstream. In the functional feeding groups, in the upstream and mixing station Gathering-Collectors, downstream it was analyzed that the ratio of the highest Filtering-Collectors and decreased the ratio of Shredders increasing from upstream to downstream. Habitat orientation group is analyzed that accounted for most of the Clingers and Burrowers, from upstream to downstream toward the higher the ratio of Clingers. Biological water quality assessment results were analyzed the worst state in the mixing station with an average 2.73 (${\pm}0.41$). Correspondence analysis, correlation analysis results of water temperature and the cold-water species, as the water temperature increases were analyzed by reducing cold-water species and EPT-group.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.231-237
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• 2009

This paper aimed to develop a solvent extraction and purification process to recover high-purified ${\beta}$-carotene from recombinant Escherichia coli. Cells harvested from the culture broth were treated through numerous steps: dehydration, solvent extraction, crystal formation and separation. To optimize the extracting condition, experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of cell disruption, temperature, organic solvents, solvent-biomass ratio on the yield of ${\beta}$-carotene extracted from cells. The result indicated that no significant differences of extraction yield were observed from cells with or without step of cell disruption. Among different extracting solvents, the highest extraction yield of ${\beta}$-carotene, 30.3 mg-${\beta}$-carotene/g-dry cells, was obtained with isobutyl acetate at solvent-biomass ratio 25 mL/g-dry cells at $50^{\circ}C$. Notably, in case of acetone, the extraction yield was quite low when using acetone itself, but increased almost up to the highest value when combining this solvent and olive oil. The purity of ${\beta}$-carotene crystals obtained from crystallization and separation was 89%. The purity degree was further improved up to 98.5% by treating crude crystals with additional ethanol washing.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.416-423
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• 2007

Alterations in the glycan chains of cell surface glycoconjugates are frequently involved biological processes such as cell-cell interaction, cell migration, differentiation and development. Cultured embryonic (E18) rat cortical neurons underwent apoptosis in response to camptothecin, and lectin histochemistry showed that binding to apoptotic neurons of FITC-conjugated Maackia amurensis agglutinin (MAA), which is specific for terminal ${\alpha}2,3$-sialic acid residues, increased progressively with increasing concentrations of camptothecin. Analysis of the total proteins of apoptotic neurons by SDS-PAGE, and lectin blotting using HRP-labeled MAA, revealed that the expression of terminal ${\alpha}2,3$-sialic acid residues on an unknown protein with an apparent molecular mass of 25.6 kDa also increased in apoptotic neurons. NP-HPLC analysis of the total cellular N-glycans of normal and apoptotic neurons demonstrated that the expression of structurally simpler biantennary types of N-glycans fell by 49% during apoptosis whereas the more branched triantennary types of N-glycans with terminal sialic acid residues increased by up to 59%. These results suggest that increased surface expression of ${\alpha}2,3$-sialic acid residues and hyperglycosylation of N-glycans is a common feature of cellular responses to changes in cell physiology such as tumorigenesis and apoptosis.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.312-317
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• 2018

In this study, activated carbon fibers (ACFs) were treated by oxy-fluorination to improve the adsorption property of benzene gas, one of the gases causing sick house syndrome. Surface properties and pore characteristics of oxyfluorinated activated carbon fibers were confirmed by X-ray photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), and adsorption properties of benzene gas were evaluated by gas chromatography (GC). As a result of XPS data, it was confirmed that the fluorine functional groups on activated carbon fibers surface increased with increasing the fluorine partial pressure. The specific surface area of all samples decreased after the oxyfluorination treatment, but the micropore volume ratio increased when the fluorine partial pressure was at 0.1 bar. The oxyfluorinated activated carbon fibers adsorbed 100 ppm benzene gas for an 11 h, it was found that the adsorption efficiency of benzene gas was improved about twice as much as that of untreated ones.