• Journal of Ginseng Research
• /
• v.41 no.3
• /
• pp.316-325
• /
• 2017

Background: Ginseng essence (GE) is a formulation comprising four medicinal and edible herbs including ginseng (Panax ginseng), American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius), lotus seed (Nelumbo nucifera), and lily bulb (Lilium longiflorum). This study was aimed at investigating the hepatoprotective effect of GE against carbon tetrachloride ($CCl_4$)-induced liver injury in rats. Methods: We treated Wistar rats daily with low, medium, and high [0.625 g/kg body weight (bw), 1.25 g/kg bw, and 3.125 g/kg bw, respectively] doses of GE for 9 wk. After the 1st wk of treatment, rats were administered 20% $CCl_4$ (1.5 mL/kg bw) two times a week to induce liver damage until the treatment ended. Results: Serum biochemical analysis indicated that GE ameliorated the elevation of aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase and albumin decline in $CCl_4$-treated rats. Moreover, $CCl_4$-induced accumulation of hepatic total cholesterol and triglyceride was inhibited. The hepatoprotective effects of GE involved enhancing the hepatic antioxidant defense system including glutathione, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, glutathione S-transferase, superoxide dismutase, and catalase. In addition, histological analysis using hematoxylin and eosin and Masson's trichrome staining showed that GE inhibited $CCl_4$-induced hepatic inflammation and fibrosis. Furthermore, immunohistochemical staining of alpha-smooth muscle actin indicated that $CCl_4$-triggered activation of hepatic stellate cells was reduced. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that GE improves $CCl_4$-induced liver inflammation and fibrosis by attenuating oxidative stress. Therefore, GE could be a promising hepatoprotective herbal formulation for future development of phytotherapy.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.56 no.6
• /
• pp.811-818
• /
• 2018

A fire and explosion accident caused by a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) welding and cutting torch gas leak occurred 10 m underground at the site of reinforcement work for bridge columns, killing four people and seriously injuring ten. We conducted a comprehensive investigation into the accident to identify the fundamental causes of the explosion by analyzing the structure of the construction site and the properties of propane, which was the main component of LPG welding and cutting work used at the site. The range between the lower and upper explosion limits of leaking LPG for welding and cutting work was examined using Le Chatelier's formula; the behavior of LPG concentration change, which included dispersion and concentration change, was analyzed using the fire dynamic simulator (FDS). We concluded that the primary cause of the accident was combustible LPG that leaked from a welding and cutting torch and formed a explosion range between the lower and upper limits. When the LPG contacted the flame of the welding and cutting torch, LPG explosion occurred. The LPG explosion power calculation was verified by the blast effect computation program developed by the Department of Defense Explosive Safety Board (DDESB). According to the fire simulation results, we concluded that the welding and cutting torch LPG leak caused the gas explosion. This study is useful for safety management to prevent accidents caused by LPG welding and cutting work at construction sites.

• Journal of Information Processing Systems
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.865-889
• /
• 2019

The need for cyber resilience is increasingly important in our technology-dependent society where computing devices and data have been, and will continue to be, the target of cyber-attackers, particularly advanced persistent threat (APT) and nation-state/sponsored actors. APT and nation-state/sponsored actors tend to be more sophisticated, having access to significantly more resources and time to facilitate their attacks, which in most cases are not financially driven (unlike typical cyber-criminals). For example, such threat actors often utilize a broad range of attack vectors, cyber and/or physical, and constantly evolve their attack tactics. Thus, having up-to-date and detailed information of APT's tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) facilitates the design of effective defense strategies as the focus of this paper. Specifically, we posit the importance of taxonomies in categorizing cyber-attacks. Note, however, that existing information about APT attack campaigns is fragmented across practitioner, government (including intelligence/classified), and academic publications, and existing taxonomies generally have a narrow scope (e.g., to a limited number of APT campaigns). Therefore, in this paper, we leverage the Cyber Kill Chain (CKC) model to "decompose" any complex attack and identify the relevant characteristics of such attacks. We then comprehensively analyze more than 40 APT campaigns disclosed before 2018 to build our taxonomy. Such taxonomy can facilitate incident response and cyber threat hunting by aiding in understanding of the potential attacks to organizations as well as which attacks may surface. In addition, the taxonomy can allow national security and intelligence agencies and businesses to share their analysis of ongoing, sensitive APT campaigns without the need to disclose detailed information about the campaigns. It can also notify future security policies and mitigation strategy formulation.

• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.249-259
• /
• 2010

Synthetic environment data used in defense M&S fields, which came from various organization and source, are consumed and managed by their own native database system in distributed environment. But to manage these diverse data while interoperation in HLA/RTI environment, neutral synthetic environment data model is necessary to transmit the data between native database. By the support of DMSO, SEDRIS was developed to achieve this requirement and this specification guarantees loss-less data representation, interchange and interoperability. In this research, to use SEDRIS as a standard simulation database, base research, visualization for validation, data interchange experiment through test-bed was done. This paper shows each research case, result and future research direction, to propose standardized SEDRIS usage process.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
• /
• v.32 no.1
• /
• pp.77-83
• /
• 2024

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by neuronal cell death and memory impairment. Corticosterone (CORT) is a glucocorticoid hormone produced by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in response to a stressful condition. Excessive stress and high CORT levels are known to cause neurotoxicity and aggravate various diseases, whereas mild stress and low CORT levels exert beneficial actions under pathophysiological conditions. However, the effects of mild stress on AD have not been clearly elucidated yet. In this study, the effects of low (3 and 30 nM) CORT concentration on Aβ_25-35-induced neurotoxicity in SH-SY5Y cells and underlying molecular mechanisms have been investigated. Cytotoxicity caused by Aβ_25-35 was significantly inhibited by the low concentration of CORT treatment in the cells. Furthermore, CORT pretreatment significantly reduced Aβ_25-35-mediated pro-apoptotic signals, such as increased Bim/Bcl-2 ratio and caspase-3 cleavage. Moreover, low concentration of CORT treatment inhibited the Aβ_25-35-induced cyclooxygenase-2 and pro-inflammatory cytokine expressions, including tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-1β. Aβ_25-35 resulted in intracellular accumulation of reactive oxygen species and lipid peroxidation, which were effectively reduced by the low CORT concentration. As a molecular mechanism, low CORT concentration activated the nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor 2, a redox-sensitive transcription factor mediating cellular defense and upregulating the expression of antioxidant enzymes, such as NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase, glutamylcysteine synthetase, and manganese superoxide dismutase. These findings suggest that low CORT concentration exerts protective actions against Aβ_25-35-induced neurotoxicity and might be used to treat and/or prevent AD.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
• /
• v.46 no.3
• /
• pp.189-204
• /
• 2019

In this study, we analyzed the changes in glucosinolate content and gene expression in TO1000DH3 and Early big seedling upon methyl jasmonate (MeJA) treatment. Analysis of glucosinolate contents after MeJA treatment at $200{\mu}M$ concentration showed that the total glucosinolate content increased by 1.3-1.5 fold in TO1000DH3 and 1.3-3.8 fold in Early big compared to those before treatment. Aliphatic glucosinolates, progoitrin and gluconapin, were detected only in TO1000DH3, and the changes in the content of neoglucobrassicin were the greatest at 48 hours after MeJA treatment in TO1000DH3 and Early big. The transcriptomic analysis showed that transcripts involved in stress or defense reactions, or those related to growth were specifically expressed in TO1000DH3, while transcripts related to nucleosides or ATP biosynthesis were specifically expressed in Early big. GO analysis on transcripts with more than two-fold change in expression upon MeJA treatment, corresponding to 12,020 transcripts in TO1000DH3 and 13,510 transcripts in Early big, showed that the expression of transcripts that react to stimulus and chemical increased in TO1000DH3 and Early big, while those related to single-organism and ribosome synthesis decreased. In particular, the expression increased for all transcripts related to indole glucosinolate biosynthesis, which is associated with increase in glucobrassicin and neoglucobrassicin contents. Upon MeJA treatment, the expression of AOP3 (Bo9g006220, Bo9g006240), TGG1 (Bo14804s010) increased only in TO1000DH3, while the expression of Dof1.1 (Bo5g008360), UGT74C1 (Bo4g177540), and GSL-OH (Bo4g173560, Bo4g173550, Bo4g173530) increased specifically in Early big.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.330-336
• /
• 2013

Rheum tanguticum has long been used in oriental medicine as antipyretics, analgesics, anti-inflammation, aperient, hypertension medicine and medicine for skin disease. This study has investigated the effectiveness of defense for gastritis making use of Rheum tanguticum and its similar plants, Rumex cripus, Rheum officinale, Rhem palmatum and Rheum undulatum. Chysophanol, chrysophanol-8-O-glc, Desoxyrhaponticin desoxyrhaponti-genin, emodin, isorhaponticin, 2-methoxy-4-hydroxyanthraquinone-5-O-glc, physcion, pirace-tannol-3'-O-glc, resveratrol, rhaponticin and rhapontigenin are used as the components of Rheum tanguticum. In HCl ethanol-induced gastritis in rat, the most effective extract was 70 percent ethanol which is of Rheum tanguticum, showing the inhibition of 91.8 percent to the gastric lesions. 70% ethanol extract of Rhem palmatum and Rumex cripus shown inhibition of 75.6 percent and 73.2 percent, respectively. This effectiveness is considered as acid-neutralizing capacity, anti-H.pylori and anti-oxidant activity. 70% ethanol extract of Rheum tanguticum and its component, piracetannol-3'-O-glc exhibited higher free radical scavenging activity than others. These results suggest that Rheum species extracts and their active components could be utilized for the treatment of gastritis. Furthermore, these results are expected to contribute the standardization with objectivity and reliability for Rheum species, medicinal herbs. In addition, it can contribute to the prevention of indiscriminate distribution of imitation, and the rising rate of dependence on imports of medicinal herbs, and mixing prevention of low-quality goods.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.36 no.4
• /
• pp.261-268
• /
• 1998

The present study was undertaken to investigate the role of cysteine proteinase of Trichomonas vaginalis in escaping from host defense mechanism. A cysteine proteinase of T. vaginalis was purified by affinity chromatography and gel filtration. Optimum pH for the purified proteinase activity was 6.0. The proteinase was inhibited by cysteine and serine proteinase inhibitors such as E-64, NEM, IAA, leupeptin. TPCK and TLCK, and also by $Hg^{2+}$, but not affected by serine-, metallo-, and aspartic proteinase inhibitors such as PMSF, EDTA and pepstatin A. However, it was activated by the cysteine proteinase activator, DTT. The molecular weight of a purified proteinase was 62 kDa on gel filtration and 60 kDa on SDS-PAGE. Interestingly, the purified proteinase was able to degrade serum IgA, secretory IgA, and serum IgG in time- and dose-dependent manners. In addition, the enzyme also degraded hemoglobin in a dose-dependent manner. These results suggest that the acidic cysteine proteinase of T. vaginalis may play a dual role for parasite survival in conferring escape from host humoral defense by degradation of immunoglobulins, and in supplying nutrients to parasites by degradation of hemoglobin.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.40 no.9
• /
• pp.812-817
• /
• 2016

This paper dealt with electrical and optical requirements of naval vessel's LED luminaires. And the products have been tested to determine whether the products meet these requirements or not. This study analyzes the cost-effectiveness of the LED luminaires which have been implemented for the application to naval vessel since 2012. The LED requirements were proposed based on comparison among other standards/specifications such as Korean Industrial Standard(KS), Korean Defense Specification(KDS) and US Navy Military Specification(MIL). Application of the proposed requirements were then be verified by analyzing and testing the electrical and optical characteristics of both fluorescent Luminaires and LED luminaires, and the LED luminaires were installed to A1 naval vessels according to the proposed requirements. As results, approximately 40% of power consumption was saved by using LED luminaires compared to using fluorescent luminaires while luminous flux was increased by 10~15%. Moreover, using LED luminaires of the proposed requirements exhibited the effect of reducing approximately 4,900 fluorescent luminaires in 10 naval vessels in the time period between 2012 to 2015, which is equivalent to cost reduction of \0.56M approximately. Such cost reduction is further expected considering the LED luminaires will continue to be applied to naval vessels in the future.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.28 no.12
• /
• pp.1742-1750
• /
• 2015

As a novel approach for disease control and prevention, nutritional modulation of the intestinal health has been proved. However, It is still unknown whether branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) is needed to maintain intestinal immune-related function. The objective of this study was to determine whether BCAA supplementation in protein restricted diet affects growth performance, intestinal barrier function and modulates post-weaning gut disorders. One hundred and eight weaned piglets ($7.96{\pm}0.26kg$) were randomly fed one of the three diets including a control diet (21% crude protein [CP], CON), a protein restricted diet (17% CP, PR) and a BCAA diet (BCAA supplementation in the PR diet) for 14 d. The growth performance, plasma amino acid concentrations, small intestinal morphology and intestinal immunoglobulins were tested. First, average daily gain (ADG) (p<0.05) and average daily feed intake (ADFI) (p<0.05) of weaned pigs in PR group were lower, while gain:feed ratio was lower than the CON group (p<0.05). Compared with PR group, BCAA group improved ADG (p<0.05), ADFI (p<0.05) and feed:gain ratio (p<0.05) of piglets. The growth performance data between CON and BCAA groups was not different (p>0.05). The PR and BCAA treatments had a higher (p<0.05) plasma concentration of methionine and threonine than the CON treatment. The level of some essential and functional amino acids (such as arginine, phenylalanine, histidine, glutamine etc.) in plasma of the PR group was lower (p<0.05) than that of the CON group. Compared with CON group, BCAA supplementation significantly increased BCAA concentrations (p<0.01) and decreased urea concentration (p<0.01) in pig plasma indicating that the efficiency of dietary nitrogen utilization was increased. Compared with CON group, the small intestine of piglets fed PR diet showed villous atrophy, increasing of intra-epithelial lymphocytes (IELs) number (p<0.05) and declining of the immunoglobulin concentration, including jejunal immunoglobulin A (IgA) (p = 0.04), secreted IgA (sIgA) (p = 0.03) and immunoglobulin M (p = 0.08), and ileal IgA (p = 0.01) and immunoglobulin G (p = 0.08). The BCAA supplementation increased villous height in the duodenum (p<0.01), reversed the trend of an increasing IELs number. Notably, BCAA supplementation increased levels of jejunal and ileal immunoglobulin mentioned above. In conclusion, BCAA supplementation to protein restricted diet improved intestinal immune defense function by protecting villous morphology and by increasing levels of intestinal immunoglobulins in weaned piglets. Our finding has the important implication that BCAA may be used to reduce the negative effects of a protein restricted diet on growth performance and intestinal immunity in weaned piglets.