• BMB Reports
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.315-324
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• 2007

The novel $\alpha$-amylase purified from locally isolated strain, Bacillus sp. KR-8104, (KRA) (Enzyme Microb Technol; 2005; 36: 666-671) is active in a wide range of pH. The enzyme maximum activity is at pH 4.0 and it retains 90% of activity at pH 3.5. The irreversible thermoinactivation patterns of KRA and the enzyme activity are not changed in the presence and absence of $Ca^{2+}$ and EDTA. Therefore, KRA acts as a $Ca^{2+}$-independent enzyme. Based on circular dichroism (CD) data from thermal unfolding of the enzyme recorded at 222 nm, addition of $Ca^{2+}$ and EDTA similar to its irreversible thermoinactivation, does not influence the thermal denaturation of the enzyme and its Tm. The amino acid sequence of KRA was obtained from the nucleotide sequencing of PCR products of encoding gene. The deduced amino acid sequence of the enzyme revealed a very high sequence homology to Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (BAA) (85% identity, 90% similarity) and Bacillus licheniformis $\alpha$-amylases (BLA) (81% identity, 88% similarity). To elucidate and understand these characteristics of the $\alpha$-amylase, a model of 3D structure of KRA was constructed using the crystal structure of the mutant of BLA as the platform and refined with a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation program. Interestingly enough, there is only one amino acid substitution for KRA in comparison with BLA and BAA in the region involved in the calcium-binding sites. On the other hand, there are many amino acid differences between BLA and KRA at the interface of A and B domains and around the metal triad and active site area. These alterations could have a role in stabilizing the native structure of the loop in the active site cleft and maintenance and stabilization of the putative metal triad-binding site. The amino acid differences at the active site cleft and around the catalytic residues might affect their pKa values and consequently shift its pH profile. In addition, the intrinsic fluorescence intensity of the enzyme at 350 nm does not show considerable change at pH 3.5-7.0.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.29-38
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• 2002

Hypertension is an important public health problem because it increases the risk of stroke, angina, myocardial infarction, heart failure, and end-stage renal disease. If it is not actively treated, morbidity and mortality increase with hypertension-induced complications and quality of life decreases. This study was to evaluate the use of antihypertensive drugs and blood pressure changes and to compare algorithms chosen (or the 1st and 2nd line therapy of hypertension based on the JNC VI recommendations. The medical charts of 222 patients with essential hypertension at St. Vincent's Hospital in Suwon from January 1997 to January 2000 were reviewed retrospectively. Data collection and analysis included baseline BP underlying diseases and complications, administered antihypertensives, BP changes, changes of antihypertensive regimen, and adverse effects with treatments. As results, the higher BP the patients had, the more frequent they had target organ damages and clinical cardiovascular diseases. Mean duration to reduce blood pressure less than 140/90 mmHg was 8 weeks in $85.3\%$ of the patients. The rate of control in BP was $82.4\%$ at 6 months. The major antihypertensive drugs prescribed were calcium channel blockers $(61.8\%)$ , ACE inhibitors $(19.1\%),\;\beta-blockers\;(13.7\%)$ and diuretics $(5.3\%)$ as the 1st-line monotherapy. The methods of treatment used as the 1st-line therapy were monotherapy$(59\%)$ and combination therapy $(41\%)$. Blood pressure change was significantly greater for combination therapy than monotherapy$(-26.2\pm21.4\;vs.\;-18.56\pm16.7$ mmHg for systolic blood pressure; P<0.003, $-16.9\pm13.2\;vs.\;-9.2\pm12.8$ mmHg for diastolic blood pressure; p<0.001). When blood pressure was not completely controlled with the first antihypertensive selected, the 2nd line therapy had 4 options: addition of 2nd agent from different class; $66.2\%$, substitution with another drug, $21.9\%$ increase dose $11.9\%$ continue first regimen $27.9\%$ Calcium channel blockers were the most frequently prescribed agents. This was not comparable to the JNC VI guideline which recommended diuretics and $\beta-blockers$ for the 1st-line therapy. Most of patients achieved the goal BP and maintained it until 6 months, but the remaining patients should be controlled more tightly to improve their BP with combination of life style modification, patient education, and pharmacotherapy.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.198-203
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• 2010

Although barley $\alpha$-amylase isozyme 1 (AMY1) and 2 (AMY2) share up to 80% of amino acid sequence identity, their enzymatic properties differ remarkably. In this study, the 42nd alanine residue of AMY2 was replaced with another random amino acid via saturation mutagenesis. Eight out of 370 recombinant E. coli cells showing enhanced starch-hydrolyzing activity were characterized as possessing the same proline residue instead of alanine. Even though the specific activity of AMY2-A42P is reduced to 81% of wild-type, its expression level and purification yield were enhanced by approximately 2 and 4 times that of AMY2, respectively. Characterization of its enzymatic properties confirmed that AMY2-A42P is similar to that of wild-type. However, its specificity to starch substrates is likely to be intermediate between AMY1 and AMY2.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.53-61
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• 2020

This study aimed to develop a foam concrete material for a ground repair system that has low strength and low fluidity by using an eco-friendly binder, which substitutes industrial by-products for more than 90% of cement. Basic properties were evaluated after substituting a small amount of calcium sulfo aluminate (CSA) for the binder to improve the sinking depth rate and volume change, commonly found when it had a large amount of industrial by-products. The substitution rates of CSA for the eco-friendly binder used for the foam concrete were 2.5, 5, and 10%. Fresh properties, hardened properties, pore structure, and hydrates were analyzed. Experimental results showed that using only 2.5% of CSA could improve the deep sinking depth which occurred when using an eco-friendly binder. As a result, the weight difference between the upper, middle, and lower parts of cast specimens was improved even after being hardened. The addition of CSA also contributed to the formation of small, uniformly sized closed pores and improved initial strength. However, when the proportion of CSA increased, the long-term strength decreased. However, it satisfied the target strength when 5% or less of CSA was used. The results of this study revealed that it was possible to manufacture foam concrete with low strength and high fluidity for repairing ground satisfying target qualities by adding 2.5% of CSA to the eco-friendly binder containing a large amount of industrial by-products.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.251-258
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• 2022

In the cement industry, in order to reduce CO₂ emissions, technology for raw materials substitution and conversion, technology for improving process efficiency of utilizing low-carbon new heat sources, and technology for collecting and recycling process-generated CO₂ are being developed. In this study, we conducted a basic experiment to contribute to the development of CSC that can store CO₂ as carbonate minerals among process-generated CO₂ capture and recycling technologies. Three types of CSC clinker with different SiO₂/(CaO+SiO₂) molar ratios were prepared with the clinker raw material formulation, and the characteristics of the clinker were analyzed. As a result of analysis and observation of CSC clinker, wollastonite and rankinite were formed. In addition, as a result of the carbonation test of the CSC paste, it was confirmed that calcite was produced as a carbonation product. The lower the SiO₂/(CaO+SiO₂) molar ratio in the CSC clinker chemical composition, the lower the wollastonite production amount, and the higher the rankinite production amount. And the amount of calcite production increased with the progress of carbonation of the CSC paste specimen. It is judged that rankinite is more reactive in mineralizing CO₂ than wollastonite.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.80-80
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• 2017

Titanium and its alloys that have a good biocompatibility, corrosion resistance, and mechanical properties such as hardness and wear resistance are widely used in dental and orthopedic implant applications. However, they do not form a chemical bond with bone tissue. Plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) that combines the high voltage spark and electro-chemical oxidation is a novel method to form ceramic coatings on light metals such as tita-nium and its alloys. This is an excellent re-producibility and economical, because the size and shape control of the nano-structure is relatively easy. Silicon (Si), manganese (Mn), and magne-sium (Mg) have a useful to bone. Particularly, Si has been found to be essential for normal bone, cartilage growth, and development. Mn influences regulation of bone remodeling be-cause its low content in body is connected with the rise of the concentration of calcium, phosphates and phosphatase out of cells. Pre-studies have shown that Mg plays very im-portant roles in essential for normal growth and metabolism of skeletal tissue in verte-brates and can be detected as minor constitu-ents in teeth and bone. In this study, Electrochemical behavior of plasma electrolytic oxidized films formed in solution containing Mn, Mg and Si ions were researched using various experimental in-struments. A series of Si-Mn-Mg coatings are produced on Ti dental implant using PEO, with the substitution degree, respectively, at 5 and 10%. The potentiodynamic polarization and AC impedance tests for corrosion behav-iors were carried out in 0.9% NaCl solution at similar body temperature using a potentiostat with a scan rate of 1.67mV/s and potential range from -1500mV to + 2000mV. Also, AC impedance was performed at frequencies anging from 10MHz to 100kHz for corrosion resistance.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.179-183
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• 1996

Streptoccus Pneumoniae (pneumococcus), the most common cause of bacterial pneumonia, has an ample polysaccharide (PS) capsule that is highly antigenic and is the source of PS vaccine. This investigation was undertaken to optimize the culture conditions for the production of capsulard PS by type 1 pneumococcus. Among several culture media, brain heart infusion (BHI) and Casitone based media were found to support luxuriant growth of pneumococcus type 1 at the same level. Because BHI medium is rather expensive and more complex than the Casitone based media, the Casitone based media was uwed to study optimization of the culture condition. The phase of growth which accomodated maximum PS production was logarithmic phase. Concentrations of glucose greater than 0.2% did not ehnahce growth or PS production. Substitution of netrogen sources with other resources or supplementation of various concentrations of metal ion (with the exception of calcium ion) had adverse affects on growth and PS production. On the other hand, low level aeration was beneficial for increased PS production. Addition of 3 mg/1 concentration of methionine, phenylalanine, and threonine were found to enhance growth and PS production. The synerigistic effect of all the favorable conditions observed in pneumococcal growth assays provided a two-fold cummulative increase in capsular PS production.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.273-278
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• 2018

Lithium-ion batteries have been considered the most important devices to power mobile or small-sized devices due to their high energy density. $LixCoO_2$ has been studied as a cathode material for the Li-ion battery. However, the limitation of its capacity impedes the development of high capacity cathode materials with Ni, Mn, etc. in them. The substitution of Mn and Ni for Co leads to the formation of solid solution phase $LiNi_xMn_yCo_{1-x-y}O_2$ (NMC, both x and y < 1), which shows better battery performance than unsubstituted $LiCoO_2$. However, despite a high discharge capacity in the Ni-rich compound (Ni > 0.8 in the metal site), poor cycle retention capability still remains to be overcome. In this study, aiming to improve the stability of the physical and chemical bonding, we investigate the stabilization effect of Ca in the Ni-rich layered compound $Li(Ni_{0.83}Co_{0.12}Mn_{0.05})O_2$, and then Ca is added to the modified secondary particles to lower the degree of cationic mixing of the final particles. For the optimization of the final grains added with Ca, the Ca content (x = 0, 2.5, 5.0, 10.0 at.%) versus Li is analyzed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2016.11a
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• pp.120-120
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• 2016

Ti-6Al-4V alloy have been used for dental implant because of its excellent biocompatibility, corrosion resistance, and mechanical properties. However, the integration of such implant in bone was not in good condition to achieve improved osseointergraiton. For solving this problem, calcium phosphate (CaP) has been applied as coating materials on Ti alloy implants for hard tissue applications because its chemical similarity to the inorganic component of human bone, capability of conducting bone formation and strong affinity to the surrounding bone tissue. Various metallic elements, such as strontium (Sr), magnesium (Mg), zinc (Zn), sodium (Na), silicon (Si), silver (Ag), and yttrium (Y) are known to play an important role in the bone formation and also affect bone mineral characteristics, such as crystallinity, degradation behavior, and mechanical properties. Especially, Zn is essential for the growth of the human and Zn coating has a major impact on the improvement of corrosion resistance. Plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) is a promising technology to produce porous and firmly adherent inorganic Zn containing $TiO_2(Zn-TiO_2)$coatings on Ti surface, and the a mount of Zn introduced in to the coatings can be optimized by altering the electrolyte composition. In this study, corrosion behavior of Ti-6Al-4V alloy after plasma electrolytic oxidation in solutions containing Ca, P and Zn were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), AC impedance, and potentiodynamic polarization test. A series of $Zn-TiO_2$ coatings are produced on Ti dental implant using PEO, with the substitution degree, respectively, at 0, 5, 10 and 20%. The potentiodynamic polarization and AC impedance tests for corrosion behaviors were carried out in 0.9% NaCl solution at similar body temperature using a potentiostat with a scan rate of 1.67mV/s and potential range from -1500mV to +2000mV. Also, AC impedance was performed at frequencies ranging from 10MHz to 100kHz for corrosion resistance.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.2106-2112
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• 2018

Concanavalin A (ConA) interacts with carbohydrates as a lectin, and recent reports proposed its application for detecting a diversity of viruses and pathogens. Structural studies have detailed the interaction between ConA and carbohydrates and the metal coordination environment with manganese and calcium ions (Mn-Ca-ConA). In this study, ConA was crystallized with a cadmium-containing precipitant, and the refined structure indicates that $Mn^{2+}$ was replaced by $Cd^{2+}$ (Cd-Ca-ConA). The structural comparison with ConA demonstrates that the metal-coordinated residues of Cd-Ca-ConA, that is Glu8, Asp10, Asn14, Asp19, and His24, do not have conformational shifts, but residues for sugar binding, including Arg228, Tyr100, and Leu99, reorient their side chains, slightly. Previous studies demonstrated that excess cadmium ions can coordinate with other residues, including Glu87 and Glu183, which were not coordinated with $Cd^{2+}$ in this study. The trimeric ConA in this study coordinated $Cd^{2+}$ with other residues, including Asp80 and Asp82, for complex generation. The monomer does not have specific interaction near interface regions with the other monomer, but secondary cadmium coordinated with two aspartates (Asp80 and Asp82) from monomer 1 and one aspartate (Asp16) from monomer 2. This study demonstrated that complex generation was induced via coordination with secondary $Cd^{2+}$ and showed the application potential regarding the design of complex formation for specific interactions with target saccharides.