• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.143-164
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• 2008

Concern about perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) is growing nationally as well as globally. PFCs could be considered emerging POPs due to their environmentally persistent, bioaccumulative, and potentially harmful properties. Moreover. perfluoroalkylates (PFAs) such as PFOS and PFOA are reported to experience long-range transport (LRT) to the Arctic in spite of their low volatility and strong solubility. The possible pathways contributing to LRT have been proposed but are still in debate in combination with unclear source definition and uncertain physico-chemical properties. The environmental fate of PFCs is more complicated because of the presence of precursors that are degraded to PFAs and are extremely different from their daughters, PFAs. in physico-chemical properties. To what extent and through what pathways are human and wildlife exposed is determined by the environmental fate and distribution of PFCs. To define uncertainties in fate and distribution thus is critical to prevent erroneous policy and/or determination related with exposure and risk reduction. This article aimed to review controversy and/or uncertain issues for the environmental fate and distribution of PFCs and to prospect research topics necessary to dissolve uncertainties.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.46 no.12
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• pp.727-735
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• 2023

Stem cells require high amounts of energy to replicate their genome and organelles and differentiate into numerous cell types. Therefore, metabolic stress has a major impact on stem cell fate determination, including self-renewal, quiescence, and differentiation. Lysosomes are catabolic organelles that influence stem cell function and fate by regulating the degradation of intracellular components and maintaining cellular homeostasis in response to metabolic stress. Lysosomal functions altered by metabolic stress are tightly regulated by the transcription factor EB (TFEB) and TFE3, critical regulators of lysosomal gene expression. Therefore, understanding the regulatory mechanism of TFEB-mediated lysosomal function may provide some insight into stem cell fate determination under metabolic stress. In this review, we summarize the molecular mechanism of TFEB/TFE3 in modulating stem cell lysosomal function and then elucidate the role of TFEB/TFE3-mediated transcriptional activity in the determination of stem cell fate under metabolic stress.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.19 no.4 s.65
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• pp.35-41
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• 2005

There has been increasing offshore oil exploration, drilling, and production activities, as well as a huge amount of petroleum being transported by tankers and pipelines through the ocean and costal environment. Assessment must be made of the potential risk of damage resulting from the exploration, development and transportation activities. This is achieved through predictive impact evaluations of the fate of hypothetical or real oil spills. VVhen an oil spill occurs, planning and execution of cleanup measures also require the capability to forecast the short-term and long-term behavior of the spilled oil. A great amount of effort has been spent by government agencies, oil industries, and researchers over the past decade to develop more realistic models for oil spills. Numerous oil spill models have been developed and applied, most of which attempt to predict the oil spill fate and behavior. For an actual contingency planning, the oil fate and behavior model should be combined with an oil spill incident model, an environmental impact and risk model and a contingency planning model. The purpose of this review study is to give an overview of existing oil spill models that deal with the physical, chemical, biological, and socia-economical aspects of the incident, fate, and environmental impact of oil spills. After reviewing the existing models, future research needs are suggested. In the study, available oil spill models are separated into oil spill incident, oil spill fate and behavior, environmental impact and risk, and contingency planning models. The processes of the oil spill fate and behavior are reviewed in detail and the characteristics of existing oil spill fate and behavior models are examined and classified so that an ideal model may be identified. Finally, future research needs are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.130
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• pp.1-22
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• 2014

Li Zehou(李澤厚) regards Chuang-tzu's fatalism as a kind of pessimism and slavish conformism. The main issue of this paper is to opposes Li Zehou(李澤厚)'s view, and reveal that Chuang-tzu's fatalism is not the negative and slavish conformism but the true positivism of the fate. These Chuang-tzu's fatalism can be conceptualized as a 安之若命. When the human was faced with unavoidable fate, Chuang-tzu's 安之若命 is not pessimistically surrender itself to the fate such as a slave, but pleasantly accepts and affirms the fate. Now, the next three process proves that Chuang-tzu's 安之若命 affirms the fate.The attitude of 安之若命, First, takes the unavoidable(不得已) fate as it is. Second, it resolves a humane 'sadness and joy(哀樂)' through 'the forgetting(忘).' Third, it understands the life and death, the change of world, the human body as the stream of energy(氣). Fourth, in conclusion, it affirms the fate by these processes. These point of view can conceptualize as Chuang-tzu's Amor Fati. That is to say, Chuang-tzu' 安之若命 is not a pessimistic but a positive view of the fate.

• BMB Reports
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.93-98
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• 2016

Germline stem cells (GSCs) are the best understood adult stem cell types in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, and have provided an important model system for studying stem cells and their cell fate in vivo, in mammals. In this review, we propose a mechanism that controls GSCs and their cell fate through selective activation, repression and mobilization of the specific mRNAs. This mechanism is acutely controlled by known signal transduction pathways (e.g., Notch signaling and Ras-ERK MAPK signaling pathways) and P granule (analogous to mammalian germ granule)-associated mRNA regulators (FBF-1, FBF-2, GLD-1, GLD-2, GLD-3, RNP-8 and IFE-1). Importantly, all regulators are highly conserved in many multi-cellular animals. Therefore, GSCs from a simple animal may provide broad insight into vertebrate stem cells (e.g., hematopoietic stem cells) and their cell fate specification.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.69-80
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• 1993

Environmental hazards of a chemical could be assessed by two different approaches : toxicity test and assessment of exposure potentials to human and environmental organisms. For the prediction of environmental fate of chemicals three available computer programs were compared each other and were verified. The results obtained by using these computer programs, PCHEM, EXAMS, and E4CHEM were summarized as follows. The estimated octanol/water partition coefficients by PCHEM were similar to the experimental values in the literature. But the other factors, water solubility and vapor pressure were different from the data in the literature. The simulation results of selected compounds by EXAMS showed similar tendency to the literature results of model field environment. Therefore, this computer program could be utilized to predict the environmental fate of chemicals. E4CHEM program is very simple and this program could predict the ultimate environmental fate of stable chemicals by input of two or three parameters. However, the validity should further be verified in the future field study using more compounds. It is suggested that these approaches could be fully utilized by understanding their limitations to predict the environmental fate of new chemicals under development, to screen the potential environmental pollutants among chemicals already-in use, and to devise measures to minimize the hazards to the environment.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.15-24
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• 2019

Neural stem cells (NSCs) can proliferate and differentiate into multiple cell types that constitute the nervous system. NSCs can be derived from developing fetuses, embryonic stem cells, or induced pluripotent stem cells. NSCs provide a good platform to screen drugs for neurodegenerative diseases and also have potential applications in regenerative medicine. Natural products have long been used as compounds to develop new drugs. In this review, natural products that control NSC fate and induce their differentiation into neurons or glia are discussed. These phytochemicals enable promising advances to be made in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

• Proceedings of the Korea Environmental Mutagen Society Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.197-197
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• 2002

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.116-121
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• 2018

Background: Black ginseng (BG) has greatly enhanced pharmacological activities relative to white or red ginseng. However, the effect and molecular mechanism of BG on muscle growth has not yet been examined. In this study, we investigated whether BG could regulate myoblast differentiation and myotube hypertrophy. Methods: BG-treated C2C12 myoblasts were differentiated, followed by immunoblotting for myogenic regulators, immunostaining for a muscle marker, myosin heavy chain or immunoprecipitation analysis for myogenic transcription factors. Results: BG treatment of C2C12 cells resulted in the activation of Akt, thereby enhancing hetero-dimerization of MyoD and E proteins, which in turn promoted muscle-specific gene expression and myoblast differentiation. BG-treated myoblasts formed larger multinucleated myotubes with increased diameter and thickness, accompanied by enhanced Akt/mTOR/p70S6K activation. Furthermore, the BG treatment of human rhabdomyosarcoma cells restored myogenic differentiation. Conclusion: BG enhances myoblast differentiation and myotube hypertrophy by activating Akt/mTOR/p70S6k axis. Thus, our study demonstrates that BG has promising potential to treat or prevent muscle loss related to aging or other pathological conditions, such as diabetes.

• BMB Reports
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.219-224
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• 2013

The cell-fate specification of the anchor cell (AC) and a ventral uterine precursor cell (VU) in Caenorhabditis elegans is initiated by a stochastic interaction between LIN-12/Notch receptor and LAG-2/Delta ligand in two neighboring Z1.ppp and Z4.aaa cells. Both cells express lin-12 and lag-2 before specification, and a small difference in LIN-12 activity leads to the exclusive expressions of lin-12 in VU and lag-2 in the AC, through a feedback mechanism of unknown nature. Here we show that the expression pattern of lag-1/CSL, a transcriptional repressor itself that turns into an activator upon binding of the intracellular domain of Notch, overlaps with that of lin-12. Site-directed mutagenesis of LAG-1 binding sites in lag-1 maintains its expression in the AC, and eliminates it in the VU. Thus, AC/VU cell-fate specification appears to involve direct regulation of lag-1 expression by the LAG-1 protein, activating its transcription in VU cells, but repressing it in the AC.