• Title/Summary/Keyword: Functional Division

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Biochemical Adaptation to the Freezing Environment - the Biology of Fish Antifreeze Proteins

  • Li, Zhengjun;Li, n Qingsong;Low Woon-Kai;Miao Megan;Hew Choy L.
    • Ocean and Polar Research
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    • v.25 no.4
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    • pp.607-615
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    • 2003
  • Many organisms are known to survive in icy environments. These include both over wintering terrestrial insects and plants as well the marine fish inhabiting high latitudes. The adaptation of these organisms is both a fascinating and important topic in biology. Marine teleosts in particular, can encounter ice-laden seawater that is approximately $1^{\circ}C$ colder than the colligative freezing point of their body fluids. These animals produce a unique group of proteins, the antifreeze proteins (AFPs) or antifreeze glycoproteins (AFGPs) that absorb the ice nuclei and prevent ice crystal growth. Presently, there are at least four different AFP types and one AFGP type that are isolated from a wide variety of fish. Despite their functional similarity, there is no apparent common protein homology or ice-binding motifs among these proteins, except that the surface-surface complementarity between the protein and ice are important for binding. The remarkable diversity of these proteins and their odd phylogenetic distribution would suggest that these proteins might have evolved recently in response to sea level glaciations just 1-2 million years ago in the northern hemisphere and 10-30 million years ago around Antarctica. Winter flounder, Pleuronectes americanus, has been used as a popular model to study the regulation of AFP gene expression. It has a built-in annual cycle of AFP expression controlled negatively by the growth hormone. The signal transduction pathways, transcription factors and promoter elements involved in this process have been studied in our laboratory and these studies will be presented.

A Direct Approach for Finding Functional Lipolytic Enzymes from the Paenibacillus polymyxa Genome

  • JUNG, YEO-JIN;KIM, HYUNG-KWOUN;KIM, JIHYUN F.;PARK, SEUNG-HWAN;OH, TAE-KWANG;LEE, JUNG-KEE
    • Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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    • v.15 no.1
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    • pp.155-160
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    • 2005
  • Abstract A direct approach was used to retrieve active lipases from Paenibacillus polymyxa genome databases. Twelve putative lipase genes were tested using a typical lipase sequence rule built on the basis of a consensus sequence of a catalytic triad and oxyanion hole. Among them, six genes satisfied the sequence rule and had similarity (about 25%) with known bacterial lipases. To obtain the six lipase proteins, lipase genes were expressed in E. coli cells and lipolytic activities were measured by using tributyrin plate and pnitrophenyl caproate. One of them, contig 160-26, was expressed as a soluble and active form in E. coli cell. After purifying on Ni-NTA column, its detailed biochemical properties were characterized. It had a maximum hydrolytic activity at $30^{\circ}C$ and pH 7- 8, and was stable up to $40^{\circ}C$ and in the range of pH 5- 8. It most rapidly hydrolyzed pNPC$_6$ among various PNPesters. The other contigs were expressed more or less as soluble forms, although no lipolytic activities were detected. As they have many conserved regions with lipase 160-26 as well as other bacterial lipases throughout their equence, they are suggested as true lipase genes.

Early effect of Botox-A injection into the masseter muscle of rats: functional and histological evaluation

  • Moon, Young-Min;Kim, Young-Jun;Kim, Min-Keun;Kim, Seong-Gon;Kweon, HaeYong;Kim, Tae-Woo
    • Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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    • v.37
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    • pp.46.1-46.6
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    • 2015
  • Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the change of food intake after different dosages of botulinum toxin A (BTX) injection in the animal model. Additionally, the dimensional and histological change at 14 days after BTX injection was also evaluated. Methods: The comparative study was performed using the BTX injection model in rats (n = 5 for each group). Group 1 was the saline-injected group. Group 2 was the 5-unit BTX-injection group to each masseter muscle. Group 3 was the 10-unit BTX-injection group to each masseter muscle. Food intake rates and body weight were checked daily before and after BTX injection until 10 days. All animals were sacrificed at 14 days after BTX injection, and the specimens underwent hematoxylin and eosin stain and immunohistochemical staining for myosin type II (MYH2). Results: The recovery of food intake in groups 2 and 3 decreased significantly compared with group 1 from day 2 to day 7 and day 9 after injection (p < 0.05). The BTX-treated masseter muscles were significantly smaller than those in group 1 (p = 0.015). The immunohistochemical findings demonstrated that the expression of MYH2 was significantly higher in group 3 compared to groups 1 and 2 (p < 0.001). Conclusions: BTX injection to the masseter muscle in rats demonstrated short food-intake-rate reduction with recovery until 10 days after injection. The thickness of the masseter muscle and MYH2 expression were significantly changed according to the injected dose of BTX.

The antihypertensive effect of ethyl acetate extract of radish leaves in spontaneously hypertensive rats

  • Chung, Da-Hee;Kim, Sun-Hee;Myung, Na-Hye;Cho, Kang-Jin;Chang, Moon-Jeong
    • Nutrition Research and Practice
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    • v.6 no.4
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    • pp.308-314
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    • 2012
  • Radish (Raphanus sativus L.) is a cruciferous vegetable, and its leaves have antioxidant and anticancer properties. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of ethyl acetate extracts from radish leaves on hypertension in 11-week-old spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs). The SHRs were randomly divided into 3 groups of 6 rats each on the basis of initial systolic blood pressure (SBP) and were treated with oral administration of radish leaf extract (0, 30, or 90 mg/kg body weight [bw], respectively) for 5 weeks. Six Wistar rats were used as normotensive controls. The amount of the radish leaf extract had no effect on body weight. The SBP of the SHRs showed a decreasing trend with the consumption of the radish leaf extract. In the third week, the SBP of the group fed 90 mg extract/kg bw reduced from 214 mmHg to 166 mmHg and was significantly lower than that of the normotensive and hypertensive controls. The extract did not show a significant effect on the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) activity in the serum, kidney, and lung. The extract increased the concentration of NO in serum and the activities of antioxidant enzymes such as glutathione peroxidase and catalase in red blood cells (RBCs). The serum concentrations of $Na^+$ and $K^+$ were not significantly different between all groups. However, the fecal concentrations of $Na^+$ and $K^+$ increased; the fecal concentrations of $Na^+$ and$K^+$for the normotensive and hypertensive controls were not different. Urinary excretion of $Na^+$ was higher in the normotensive Wistar rats than in the SHRs, while that of $K^+$ was not significantly different. These findings indicate that consumption of radish leaves might have had antihypertensive effects in SHRs by increasing the serum concentration of NO and fecal concentration of $Na^+$ and enhancing antioxidant activities.

Protective effects of extracts from six local strains of Pyropia yezoensis against oxidative damage in vitro and in zebrafish model

  • Dai, Yu-Lin;Kim, Gwang Hoon;Kang, Min-Cheol;Jeon, You-Jin
    • ALGAE
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    • v.35 no.2
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    • pp.189-200
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    • 2020
  • Pyropia yezoensis has been used as functional food in East Asia, especially in Korea and Japan, for more than five hundred years. This study aims to evaluate the antioxidant effect of polyphenols and proteins-rich extracts from P. yezoensis (PPPs) against 2,2'-azobis (2-amidinopropane) dihydrochloride (AAPH)-induced oxidative cell damage. Among six Korean local strains obtained from Jinhae (JiH), Haenam (HN), Jangheung (JaH), Jindo (JD), Wando (WD), and Sinan (SA) areas, the extracts of P. yezoensis from SA and JD are relatively higher in polyphenols and proteins contents. SA showed the lowest IC50 scavenging activities against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl and alkyl radicals and displayed protective effects against reactive oxygen species (ROS) in AAPH-induced Vero cells. Especially, the PPPs extracts from SA and JD showed protective activities against AAPH-induced apoptosis, as observed by nuclear staining with Hoechst 33342. Furthermore, in vivo studies of the SA extract in zebrafish showed significantly reduced ROS generation, lipid peroxidation, and cell damage. This is the first study, to our knowledge, to evaluate the antioxidant bioactivity of PPP in the Korean Peninsula using a zebrafish model. Due to SA and JD both located in the west coast of Korea, we deduced that the chemical content of the different PPP extracts was mildly influenced by their geographic location, and this alga has potential of protective activity against AAPH-induced ROS both in vitro and in vivo.

Separation Reaction Characteristics of Boron Ion by Ion Exchange Method (이온교환법을 이용한 해수 중 붕소이온 분리 반응 특성)

  • Jung Boo-Young;Kang Suk-Hwan;Lee Jae-Chun;Hwang Taek-Sung
    • Polymer(Korea)
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    • v.30 no.1
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    • pp.45-49
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    • 2006
  • In this study, it was investigated on the boron separation ken synthetically prepared seawater. ion exchange resin used in the experiments was Amberlite IRA 743, containing glucamine functional group. The experiments were carried out as a function of the conditions of the pH, boron initial concentration and temperature of seawater in a batch reactor. As a result, optimum conditions for boron adsorption were at pH 8.5 and 313 K, respectively. The adsorption rate was increased very fast with increasing the temperature, but decreased with increasing the initial concentration of boron. Also, the kinetics for boron adsorption applied the pseudo-second order model, as follows: $$\frac{X}{1-X}=780[C_0]^{-1.65}t^{1.48}\;exp\;({-\frac{17883}{RT}}\)\;;\;pH8.5$$

An Efficient Test Method for a Full-Custom Design of a High-Speed Binary Multiplier (풀커스텀 (full-custom) 고속 곱셈기 회로의 효율적인 테스트 방안)

  • Moon, San-Gook
    • Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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    • 2007.10a
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    • pp.830-833
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    • 2007
  • In this paper, we implemented a $17{\times}17b$ binary digital multiplier using radix-4 Booth;s algorithmand proposed an efficient testing methodology for the full-custom design. A two-stage pipeline architecture was applied to achieve higher throughput and 4:2 adders were used for regular layout structure in the Wallace tree partition. Several chips were fabricated using LG Semicon 0.6-um 3-Metal N-well CMOS technology. We did fault simulations efficiently using the proposed test method resulting in the reduction of the number of faulty nodes by 88%. The chip contains 9115 transistors and the core area occupies $1135^*1545$ mm2. The functional tests using ATS-2 tester showed that it can operate with 24 MHz clock at 5.0 V at room temperature.

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Design and Evaluation of Wireless Sensor Node Application for u-Healthcare (u-헬스케어를 위한 무선센서노드 어플리케이션 구현 및 성능 평가)

  • Lee, Dae-Seok;Chung, Wan-Young
    • Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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    • 2007.10a
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    • pp.518-521
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    • 2007
  • The functional wireless sensor node for u-healthcare application was developed. The developed sensor node can check the abnormality of ECG in some simple software in ROM of microprocess in the sensor node. The ECG signal is one of very important health signal form human body, and wavelike signal which is sampled as a sampling frequency between 100 and 400 Hz for digitalization, so the wireless data dor ECG signal is some heavy in Zigbee communication. Thus the sensor send the ECG signal to other sensor nodes or base station when it find abnormality in ECG signal is key technology to reduce the traffic between sensor nodes in wireless sensor network for u-healthcare, The sensor node does not need to transmit ECG data all time in wireless sensor network and to server. Using these sensor nodes, the healthcare system can dramatically reduce wireless data packet overload, the power consumption of battery in the sensor nodes and thus increase the reliability of the wireless system.

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A Methodology of Architectural Integrated Design Education based on 'Material Organization' (현대건축의 '물질조직화' 개념을 활용한 통합설계교육방법론 연구)

  • Kim, Jung Soo
    • Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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    • v.18 no.12
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    • pp.735-743
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    • 2017
  • This study examined a methodology of architectural integrated design education from the design methodology of architects in 1990s, particularly FOA, who thought of architecture as a material organization. Their design method starts from a prototype, which is a technical and material mediator, and processes a number of materials as specific information into an architectural organization. This method is used in the architectural design studio so that the students can integrate the knowledge leant from other classes into architectural proposals. Three case studies show they can successfully organize their proposals with structural and functional materials, which suggests that the FOA's design methodology is a potential solution for architectural integrated design education.

Effects of Superficial and Deep Thermotherapy with Hot-pack and Ultrasound on Flexibility on Hamstring Muscles (표면 열치료와 심부 열치료가 뒤넙다리근 유연성에 미치는 영향)

  • Kang, Sang-Hee;Hwang, Su-Jin
    • Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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    • v.24 no.2
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    • pp.45-52
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    • 2017
  • Purpose : Most of the moderns have been spent sedentary life style in front of desk or on the chairs, so that their hamstring muscles are shorted commonly and the shortness of hamstring muscles are caused to some problems in functional activities. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of thermotherapy with hot-pack and ultrasound on the tightness of hamstring muscles in individuals with hamstring tightness. Method : Twenty-eight persons with hamstring tightness participated in this study. They were randomly assigned to three exercise groups: stretching group(n=10), hot-pack group(n=9), and ultrasound group(n=9). Before experiment, this study measured the angle of hip flexion using a inclinometer in all participants. Stretching group conducted actively stretching on their shorted leg for 30 seconds, 3 times, and rest for 10 seconds between each exercises. Hot-pack group have applied hot-pack($70{\sim}75^{\circ}C$) on shorted hamstring muscles for 20 minutes before stretching exercise. Ultrasound group have applied therapeutic ultrasound(1 MHz and 1.5W/cm2) on shorted hamstring muscles for 10 minutes before stretching exercise. All data was analysed using one-way repeated ANOVA. Result : The results revealed that ultrasound therapy before stretching is more effective to the flexibility on hamstring muscles than hot-pack before stretching and stretching only. Conclusion : The results of this study show that thermotherapy with therapeutic ultrasound will be effective on the shortness of hamstring muscles before stretching exercise.