• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.17
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• pp.7943-7957
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• 2015

Background and Aims: Colorectal cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world. The aim of this study was to investigate the growth-suppression potentiality of a crude saponin extract (CSENS) prepared from medicinal herb, Nigella sativa, on human colon cancer cells, HCT116. Materials and Methods: HCT116 cells were subjected to increasing doses of CSENS for 24, 48 and 72 h, and then harvested and assayed for cell viability by WST-1. Flow cytometry analyses, cell death detection ELISA, fluorescent stains (Hoechst 33342 and acridine orange/ethidium bromide), DNA laddering and comet assays were carried out to confirm the apoptogenic effects of CSENS. Luciferase reporter gene assays, quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and Western blot analyses were performed to assess the impact of CAERS and CFEZO on the expression levels of key regulatory proteins in HCT116 cells. Results: The results demonstrated that CSENS inhibited proliferation and induced apoptosis. Apoptosis was confirmed by flow cytometry analyses, while CSENS-treated cells exhibited morphological hallmarks of apoptosis including cell shrinkage, irregularity in cellular shape, cellular detachment and chromatin condensation. Biochemical signs of apoptosis, such as DNA degradation, were observed by comet assay and gel electrophoresis. The pro-apoptotic effect of CSENS was caspase-3-independent and associated with increase of the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. CSENS treatment down-regulated transcriptional and DNA-binding activities of NF-${\kappa}B$ and AP-1 proteins, associated with down-regulation of their target oncogenes, c-Myc, cyclin D1 and survivin. On the other hand, CSENS up-regulated transcriptional and DNA-binding activities of Nrf2 and expression of cytoprotective genes. In addition, CSENS modulated the expression levels of ERK1/2 MAPK, p53 and p21. Conclusions: These findings suggest that CSENS may be a valuable agent for treatment of colon cancer.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.520-523
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• 2001

Hydrogen $peroxide(H_2O_2)$ reacts with HCr$O^-_4$ in an acidic condition to produce $CrO(O_2)_2$ which exhibits an intense blue color. This reaction is coupled with a technique of Flow Injection Analysis(FIA) for the absorption spectrometry of $H_2O_2$ in the aqueous samples. The method could be applied for the deter-mination of $H_2O_2$ over the range of 2.00{\times}$10^{-6}$M∼0.020 M with the limit of detection of ∼1.00${\times}10^{-6}$M. The method was also used to successfully determination of the $H_2O_2$ content in the snow and rain samples.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.50-54
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• 1994

Spectrophotometric determination of some light lanthanide ions by flow injection method is described. Chromeazurol S forms water soluble complex with lanthanide ions in the presence of DTAB. The absorption maximum of the complexes are from 650 nm to 655 nm and the molar absorptivities were ca. $1.8{\times}10^5\;L mol^{-1}cm^{-1}$ on Tris buffer (pH 10.5). The calibration curves for Nd(III), Eu(III) and Sm(III) obtained by FIA are over the range of 0.1 to 0.6 ppm and the correlation coefficient were ca. 0.9993. The detection limits (S/N) were from 10 ppb for Nd(III) and Eu(III) to 20 ppb for Sm(III). The relative standard deviations was ${\pm}$.2% for 0.4 ppm sample. The samples throughput was ca. $50\;cm^{-1}$.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.38 no.4 s.114
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• pp.439-444
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• 2005

The environmental quality of the middle-reach of the Yahagi River has deteriorated in recent years. The nutrient dynamics within the reach were investigated to explain the changes. Seasonal pattern of $NO_3\;^--N$ concentration tended to stay low from April or May through July or August and then increased till winter or early spring, although there were peaks during high flow periods in mid-September, 2000 and late-August, 2001. No clear seasonal changes were observed in $PO_4\;^{3-}-P$ concentration. In the bimonthly records from 1980-2002, the DIN concentrations on January and March were higher than other months whereas the average daily flows on January and March were lower than they were in other months. The mean DIN concentration showed a high negative correlation with the median of average daily flow. In the past 50 years, the average concentration of DIN (excluding nitrite) was 0.21 mg $L^{-1}$ in 1952-1953. The concentration was about twice this high around 1980, and it is about three times this high at present. On the other hand, the average concentration of $PO_4\;^{3-}-P$ was below the limit of detection in 1952-53. However, it increased to almost 0.03 mg $L^{-1}$ around 1980, then decreased to approximately 0.016mg $L^{-1}$ at present. Our results suggest that the increasing DIN concentration is one of the causes of environmental change in the Yahagi River. We conclude that controlling the DIN concentration is essential for improving the river environment.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.181-188
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• 2018

A sidestream contains the filtrate or concentrate from the belt filter press, filter backwash and supernatant from sludge digesters. The sidestream flow, which heads back into the sewage treatment train, is about 1-3% less than the influent flow. However, the sidestream can increase the nutrient load since it contains high concentrations of phosphorus and nitrogen. In this study, the removal of PO4-P with organic matter characteristics and bacteriological changes during the sidestream treatment via ladle furnace (LF) slag was investigated. The sidestream used in this study consisted of 11-14% PO4-P and 3.2-3.6% soluble chemical oxygen demand in influent loading rates. LF slag, which had a relatively high $Ca^{2+}$ release compared to other slags, was used to remove $PO_4-P$ from the sidestream. The phosphate removal rates increased as the slag particle size decreased 19.1% (2.0-4.0 mm, 25.2% (1.0-2.0 mm) and 79.9% (0.5-1.0 mm). The removal rates of dissolved organic carbon, soluble chemical oxygen demand, color and aromatic organic matter ($UV_{254}$) were 17.6, 41.7, 90.2 and 77.3%, respectively. Fluorescence excitation-emission matrices and liquid chromatography-organic carbon detection demonstrated that the sidestream treatment via LF slag was effective in the removal of biopolymers. However, the removal of dissolved organic matter was not significant during the treatment. The intact bacterial biomass decreased from $1.64{\times}10^8cells/mL$ to $1.05{\times}10^8cells/mL$. The use of LF slag was effective for the removal of phosphate and the removal efficiency of phosphate was greater than 80% for up to 100 bed volumes.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.3289-3294
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• 2016

Naringin, a bioflavonoid found in Citrus seeds, inhibits proliferation of cancer cells. The objectives of this study were to investigate the mode and mechanism(s) of hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cell death induced by naringin. The cytotoxicity of naringin towards HepG2 cells proved dose-dependent, measured by MTT assay. Naringin-treated HepG2 cells underwent apoptosis also in a concentration related manner, determined by annexin V-fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) and propidium iodide (PI) employing flow cytometry. Mitochondrial transmembrane potential (MTP) measured using 3,3'-dihexyloxacarbocyanine iodide ($DiOC_6$) and flow cytometer was reduced concentration-dependently, which indicated influence on the mitochondrial signaling pathway. Caspase-3, -8 and -9 activities were enhanced as evidenced by colorimetric detection of para-nitroaniline tagged with a substrate for each caspase. Thus, the extrinsic and intrinsic pathways were linked in human naringin-treated HepG2 cell apoptosis. The expression levels of pro-apoptotic Bax and Bak proteins were increased whereas that of the anti-apoptotic Bcl-xL protein was decreased, confirming the involvement of the mitochondrial pathway by immunoblotting. There was an increased expression of truncated Bid (tBid), which indicated caspase-8 proteolysis activity in Bid cleavage as its substrate in the extrinsic pathway. In conclusion, naringin induces human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cell apoptosis via mitochondria-mediated activation of caspase-9 and caspase-8-mediated proteolysis of Bid. Naringin anticancer activity warrants further investigation for application in medical treatment.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.522-530
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• 2014

Spatio-temporal congestion evolution pattern can be reproduced using the VDS(Vehicle Detection System) historic speed dataset in the TMC(Traffic Management Center)s. Such dataset provides a pool of spatio-temporally experienced traffic conditions. Traffic flow pattern is known as spatio-temporally recurred, and even non-recurrent congestion caused by incidents has patterns according to the incident conditions. These imply that the information should be useful for traffic prediction and traffic management. Traffic flow predictions are generally performed using black-box approaches such as neural network, genetic algorithm, and etc. Black-box approaches are not designed to provide an explanation of their modeling and reasoning process and not to estimate the benefits and the risks of the implementation of such a solution. TMCs are reluctant to employ the black-box approaches even though there are numerous valuable articles. This research proposes a more readily understandable and intuitively appealing data-driven approach and developes an algorithm for identifying congestion patterns for recurrent and non-recurrent congestion management and information provision.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Tobacco Science
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.125-131
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• 2007

Hydrogen cyanide(HCN), formed from pyrolysis of various nitrogenous compounds such as protein, amino acids and nitrate in tobacco, is present in both the particulate phase and vapor phase of cigarette smoke. Typically the determination of HCN in cigarette smoke has been done through colorimetric and electrochemical techniques, such as fluorescence spectrometry, UV-spectrophotometry (UV), continuous flow analyzer (CFA), capillary GC-ECD and ion chromatography (IC). Most of these techniques are known to be time-consuming and some of them lack specificity or sensitivity. The available results from both our laboratory and reported literatures for 2R4F Kentucky reference cigarette, smoked under ISO condition, show a relatively wide variation ranging from 100 to 120 ug/cig of HCN. Especially, the precision and accuracy of the analytical results of HCN tend to get worse in low tar cigarettes and under intense smoking condition. In this paper, a more optimized analytical methods than previous ones are suggested. This method shows lower detection limit and has improved precision and accuracy, so it is applicable for wide tar level cigarettes under intense smoking condition as well as under ISO smoking condition. Important features of this method are improved sample collection and quantification systems such as the number of trapping units, volume, temperature and type of trapping solution. To avoid volatilization loss of HCN in analyzing mainstream smoke, it is highly recommended that pH values of trapping solutions should be maintained over 11 and cold traps should be used in collecting mainstream smoke.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.649-661
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• 1992

This study was performed to compare DNA content by flow cytometer (FCM) and glutathione S-transferase placental form (GST-P) positive foci for searching objective and accurated properties of tumor. Sprague-Dawley rats aged six weeks were divided into three groups and group 1 and 2 of rats were given an intraperitoneal injection of diethylnitrosamine at 200mg/kg body weight and group 3 of rats were given saline. Three weeks after beginning of the experiment, all groups were performed partial hepatectomy. Group 1 of rats were begun to feed on diets containing 0.02% 2-acetylaminofluorene as a promoter for six weeks, group 2 and 3 of rats were begun to feed on basal diets. At 4, 6, and 8 weeks after initiation, all groups of rats were killed, livers were extracted for H & E stain, immunohistochemical stain, and DNA ploidy analysis. In quantitative analysis for GST-P positive lesion number and area by using Image Analyzer, group 1 and 2 represented significant difference in comparison with group 3. In ploidy distribution, diploid cells of group 1 and 2 were increased significantly in comparison with those of group 3 at 4, 6, and 8 weeks after initiation, respectively tetraploid cells were reduced. But S-phase cells were not changed significantly. It is concluded that ploidy change by FCM is useful as objective data for early detection in hepatocarcinogenesis. Therefore, methodology and study of DNA content are carried out for more objective and accurate ploidy analysis in liver tumor.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.38 no.8
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• pp.576-584
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• 1994

The method described offers rapid and efficient sample preparation using on-line microwave digestion of metal oxides in water sample with direct elemental detection by ICP-AES. The open tubing digestion system(OTD) and the restraint tubing digestion system(RTD) for flow injection(FI) were designed and tested to find the optimum conditions. Comparison of OTD and RTD indicated that RTD was 3 times faster on the digestion time, and 10 times higher on sample mass. Finally, the results of RTD agree well with those by conventional microwave open vessel in all cases and show good precision; Fe and Cu show good with about 5% of RSD, while Zn and Co more or less than 10% RSD.