• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.1111-1119
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• 2006

Beauvericins and enniatins are cyclohexadepsipeptides exhibiting various biological activities on animal systems, including humans. Fusarium oxysporum FB1501 (KFCC 11363P) that produces four different cyclohexadepsipeptides was isolated from soil in Korea and the structures of the four cyclohexadepsipeptides elucidated by HPLC, MS, IR, and NMR analyses. The molecular weights for compounds 1,2,3, and 4 were determined to be 654.5, 784.5, 668.6, and 682.5, respectively, on the basis of ESI-MS measurements. The IR spectra for all the compounds exhibited absorptions for ester $(1,733-1,743\;cm^{-1})$ and amide $(1,649-1,655\;cm^{-1})$ bonds that were very similar to those for beauvericin and enniatins with ester and amide absorptions. The results of the NMR analysis $(^{1}H,\;^{13}C,\;135-DEPT,\;COSY,\;HMQC,\;and\;HMBC;\;in\;COCl_{3})$ revealed that compounds 1,3, and 4 consisted of $_{L}-N-methyl\;valine$ (N-MeVal), $_{D}-{\alpha}-hydroxyisovaleic\;acid$ (Hiv), and 2-hydroxy-3-methylpentanoic acid (Hmp) residues (compound 1: three N-MeVal residues, two Hiv residues, and one Hmp residue; compound 3: three N-MeVal residues, one Hiv, and two Hmp residues; compound 4: three N-MeVal residues and three Hmp residues). Therefore, the compounds were identified as enniatin H (compound 1), enniatin I (compound 3), and enniatin MK1688 (compound 4). Compound 2 was analyzed as beauvericin according to 1D and 2D NMR analyses. This study is the first report related to the co-production of beauvericin with other unusual enniatins, such as enniatin H, enniatin I, and enniatin MK1688, by Fusarium oxysporum.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.259-265
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• 2001

Staphylococal infection still remains to be one of the most serious infections, having various complications in the clinical use of indwelling polymeric medical devices. However, there are a few promising systems showing a high antibacterial effect without causing any demage of polymer backbone under biological environments such as blood or body fluid. In order to resolve this problem, we have designed a new antibiotic releasing system via a hydrolysis mechanism. The surface of biomedical polyurethane (PU) was modified by using 1,6-diisocyanatohexane (HMDI) to immobilize the rifampicon. Also, the immobilized rifampicin was designed to be released by a selective cleavage of the unstable carbamate linkage that exists on the rifampicin-immobilized polyurethane (PHR). The immobilization of rifampicin on the surface of polyurethane was confirmed by the disappearance of the characteristics IR absorbance peak of the isocyanate (-NCO) group at $2,267\;cm^{-1}$. The PHR showed a continuous rifampicin release profile under an aqueous environment of 10 mM of PBS (phosphate-buffered saline) for ove 6 days. The rifampicin molecules, which are released from PHR under an optimal bacterial infection environment, had a higher antibacterial activity against both S. aureus and S. epidermidis than rifampicin-incorporated polyurethane (RIP). In addition, the PHR maintained a stable antibacterial effect under a blood-mimic aqueous environment such as bovine calf serum.

• 모자간호학회지
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.187-196
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• 1993

This study examined nurses' knowledge about breastfeeding (biological signifiance) and their nursing activities for promoting breastfeeding overall deficiency of knowledge about breastfeeding (an average score 12.8 out of 20) and accordingly many nurses did not promote actively merits (preparation, technique, & frequency). We developed new instruments for the measurements of nurses' knowledge (20 items) and activities (30 items). The self-reports of 203 nurses showed of breastfeeding(average score : 65.5 out of 120). Nurses' Knowledge about breastfeeding was significantly related to age, rank of position, and number of nurse' own children promotion of breastfeeding activities by nurses was related to the size of services nurses working in a small or middle sized hospital promoted more breastfeeding activities than a large hospital other factors, such as number of children, also influneced nursing activities for breastfeeding eighty seven percent of the nurses reported that they did not have any in-service education for the breastfeeding. They ascribed reasons for not actively promoting breastfeeding program to the overload of their services and inadequacy of administrative systems.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.153-159
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• 2002

Gene therapy is fundamentally a sophisticated drug delivery technology to cure a disease by the transfer of genetic material to modify living cells. In other words, the gene is used as a therapeutic drug much like a chemical compound is employed in chemotherapy. Currently almost 600 clinical trials are underway worldwide since the first clinical trials carried out in 1990 to treat adenosine deaminase deficiency using retroviral vectors. Despite the great progress still is there no gene therapy product being approved as a new drug. This is partly due to a lack of an ideal gene delivery system that is safe and can provide stable, optimal level production of the therapeutic proteins in the cell. This review covers the current status of several different biological and physico-chemical agents that are being developed as gene delivery vehicles. Although gene therapy promises great hopes toward the cure of a broad spectrum of genetic and acquired diseases, the success of gene therapy heavily asks for the development of vector systems for safe and efficient application in humans.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.48 no.7
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• pp.3-14
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• 2006

The objective of this study was to develop a GIS-based decision support system (GIS-USLE system) to estimate soil erosion and evaluate its effect on concentrated upland plots in Godang district, Korea. This system was developed for the ArcView environment using A VENUE script. Three modules were used in the GIS-USLE system, namely pre-processing, the USLE factors calculator module, and post-processing. This system benefits from a user friendly environment that allows users with limited computer knowledge to use it. This system was applied to 1,285 individual upland plots ranging from 0.005 to 1.347 ha in size with an average slope steepness of 14 %. The rainfall distributions were estimated using the three methods, namely Mononobe and Yen-Chow with Triangle and with Trapezoid type, and then used to calculate the rainfall erosivity factor. The soil erosion amounts from the 1,285 individual plots in the study area by 2 year return period with a 24h maximum rainfall amount of 154.6 mm were estimated at 5 tons/ha on average. Slope appeared to be the most important factor affecting soil erosion estimation, as expected. The prototype model was applied to the project area, and the results appeared to support the practical applications. By examining many fields simultaneously, this system can easily provide fast estimation of soil erosion and thus reveal the spatial pattern of erosion from fields in a region. This study will help estimate and evaluate soil erosion in concentrated upland districts and identify the best management practices.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.345-352
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• 2017

Since previous studies have reported that hydroquinone (HQ) exerted immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory activity, various HQ derivatives have been synthesized and their biological activities investigated. In this study, we explored the anti-inflammatory activity of JS-III-49, a novel HQ derivative, in macrophage-mediated inflammatory responses. JS-III-49 suppressed the production of the inflammatory mediators nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin $E_2$ ($PGE_2$) and down-regulated the mRNA expression of the inflammatory enzymes cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) as well as the expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin-6 (IL-6) and IL-$1{\beta}$ without cytotoxicity in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells. JS-III-49 inhibited nuclear translocation of the $NF-{\kappa}B$ transcription factors p65 and p50 by directly targeting Akt, an upstream kinase of the $NF-{\kappa}B$ pathway, in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells. However, JS-III-49 did not directly inhibit the kinase activities of Src and Syk, which are upstream kinases of Akt, in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells. Moreover, JS-III-49 suppressed the nuclear translocation of c-Fos, one of the components of AP-1, by specifically targeting p38, an upstream mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) in the AP-1 pathway in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells. These results suggest that JS-III-49 plays an anti-inflammatory role in LPS-stimulated macrophages by targeting Akt and p38 in the $NF-{\kappa}B$ and AP-1 pathways, respectively.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.170-176
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• 2013

Lymphedema is a phenomenon in which fluid is accumulated inside tissues due to the damaged lymphatic systems. Lymphedema can cause complications such as lymphangitis, infection, changes in skin texture, fibrosis, and lymphangiosarcoma. In this study, a lymphedema screening system based on the elasticity of the skin is proposed to easily quantify lymphedema. The developed probe consists of touch sensors, a load cell and hall-effect sensors to measure the indentation force on the skin and the return time of the skin. The developed system can be used to estimate the change in the elasticity of the skin to quantify lymphedema. The system was tested with a thyroid phantom and gelatin phantoms of different concentrations and the resulting force and the time were recorded. It was found that the increase in the elasticity leads to a higher indentation force and shorter return time. This shows that the developed system can monitor the change in the skin elasticity by measuring the return time and the indentation force. The feasibility of the system in clinical applications will be evaluated in the future study.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.212-217
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• 2013

Falling is one of the major public problems to the elderly, resulting in limitations of daily living activities. It can be induced by the functional loss of the balance ability and muscle strength in the elderly. It has been, however, not well investigated to suggest an effective methodology improving the balance ability and muscle strength for the prevention of the falling due to lack of information about the characteristics of the balance and muscle activations responded to the dynamic motions. The aim of the current study is, therefore, to identify the characteristics of the balance and muscle activations responded to the dynamic motions in Anterior-Posterior(AP) and Medial Lateral(ML) directions. For that, a motion capture system with eight infrared cameras, surface electromyogram system and Wii Fit system with a customized variable unstable base were used and kinematic and kinetic data obtained from the systems were analyzed for five healthy male($24.8{\pm}3.3years$, $177.4{\pm}2.0cm$, $73.9{\pm}12.9kg$, $23.5{\pm}4.0kg/m$). The results showed that the characteristics of the balance and muscle activations were differently responded to between the dynamic motions in Anterior-Posterior(AP) and Medial Lateral(ML) directions. These findings may indicate that customized dynamic motions should be applied to the training of the balance ability and muscle strength for the effective prevention of the falling. This study may be meaningful to providing basic information to establish a guideline improving effectively the balance ability and muscle strength.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.215-230
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• 2017

The development of hybrid systems comprising nanoparticles and polymers is an opening pathway for engineering nanocomposites exhibiting outstanding mechanical, optical, electrical, and magnetic properties. Among inorganic counterpart, iron oxide nanoparticles (IONP) exhibit high magnetization, controllable surface chemistry, spintronic properties, and biological compatibility. These characteristics enable them as a platform for biomedical applications and building blocks for bottom-up approaches, such as the layer-by-layer (LbL). In this regard, the present study is addressed to investigate IONP synthesised through co-precipitation route (average diameter around 7 nm), with either positive or negative surface charges, LbL assembled with sodium sulfonated polystyrene (PSS) or polyaniline (PANI). The surface and internal morphologies, and electrochemical properties of these nanocomposites were probed with atomic force microscopy, UV-vis and Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy, and electrochemical measurements. The nanocomposites display a globular morphology with IONP densely packed while surface dressed by polyelectrolytes. The investigation of the effect of thermal annealing (300 up to $600^{\circ}C$) on the oxidation process of IONP assembled with PSS was performed using Raman spectroscopy. Our findings showed that PSS protects IONP from oxidation/phase transformation to hematite up to $400^{\circ}C$. The electrochemical performance of nanocomposite comprising IONP and PANI were investigated in $0.5mol{\times}L^{-1}$ $Na_2SO_4$ electrolyte solution by cyclic voltammetry and chronopotentiometry. Our findings indicate this structure as promising candidate for potential application as electrodes for supercapacitors.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.286-290
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• 2012

The majority of laboratory animals were transported from commercial breeders to a research facility by ground transportation. During the transportation, many biological functions and systems can be affected by stress. In this experiment, the change of body weight during the transportation was measured and the recovery periods from the transportation stress established based on the body weight changes. Total 676 laboratory animals which were aged between 3 to 9 wk old were studied. The transportation time taken from container packing to unpacking the container was approximately 24 h. The temperature of animal container was constantly maintained by air-conditioning and heating equipment. Rats were found to be more sensitive than mice. The body weight of rats was significantly decreased 3.71% (p<0.05) compared to the body weight of mice which decreased 0.9% There was no significant difference between the strains in the same species. When the changes of body weights were compared between delivery days, C57BL/6 mice showed the most variable changes compared to other species and strains. Consequently, C57BL/6 was more sensitive to stress than the other strains and the transportation process needs to be standardized to reduce between day variability. To establish the recovery periods from transportation stress, the body weight changes were measured during the acclimation period. Although the body weight of animals decreased during transportation, animals recovered their weight loss after the next day.