• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.290-299
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• 2017

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Spirulina is a known a functional food related to lipid profiles, immune functions, and antioxidant capacity. Circulating monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) level is associated with inflammation markers. Single nucleotide polymorphism in the MCP-1 promoter region -2518 have been identified and shown to affect gene transcription. Gene variation may also impact functional food supplementary effects. The current study investigated the interaction of MCP-1 -2518 polymorphism with spirulina supplements on anti-inflammatory capacity in Korean elderly. SUBJECTS/METHODS: After genotyping, healthy elderly subjects (n = 78) were included in a randomized, double blind, and placebo controlled study. Baseline characteristic, body composition, and dietary intake were measured twice (baseline vs. week 16). For 16 weeks, subjects consumed 8 g either spirulina or placebo daily. Plasma MCP-1, interleukin (IL) -2, IL-6, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-${\alpha}$, complement (C) 3, immunoglobulin (Ig) G, and Ig A concentrations and lymphocyte proliferation rate (LPR) were analyzed as inflammatory markers. RESULTS: In the placebo group with A/A genotype, MCP-1 level was significantly increased, but the spirulina group with A/A genotype was unchanged. IL-2 was significantly increased only in subjects with spirulina supplementation. TNF-${\alpha}$ was significantly reduced in subjects with the G carrier. C3 was significantly increased in the placebo group, particularly when A/A increased more than G, but not when spirulina was ingested. LPR was significantly different only in subjects with A/A genotype; there was a significant increase in phytohemagglutinin and lipopolysaccharide induced LPR in the spirulina group. CONCLUSION: In healthy Korean elderly, spirulina supplementation may influence different inflammatory markers by the MCP-1 genotype. These results may be useful for customized dietary guidelines to improve immune function in Koreans.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.10
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• pp.3423-3426
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• 2012

Dielectric measurement on binary mixtures of Allyl chloride (ALC) with 2-Pentanone (2-PE) and 2-Hexanone (2-HE) has been carried out over the entire concentration range using Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) technique at various temperatures in microwave frequency range of 10 MHz to 10 GHz. The static dielectric constant, excess static dielectric constant (${\varepsilon}^E_S$), effective Kirkwood correlation factor ($g^{eff}$) of binary mixtures over entire concentration range were determined to study the effect of increasing alkyl group of ketones on hetero molecular interaction. It was found that magnitude of excess static dielectric constant of mixtures increases with increase of alky group of ketones. The study reveals that the dipole moment of Allyl chloride in mixture have antiparallelism tendency where as 2-pentanone and 2-hexanone have parallelism tendency. Excess static dielectric constant is also fitted to Redlich-Kister equation to get information about rates of multimers formation.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.199-204
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• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) induced by Snail transcription factor and Snail-transfected in vivo tumors with histopathological features. Materials and methods: We induced in vivo xenografted tumorigenesis in the oral vestibules of nude mice by a Snail transfected HaCaT cell line and investigated morphological and immunohistochemical features in Snail expressive tumors. Results: We identified tumor masses in 14 out of 15 nude mice in the HaCaT-Snail cell inoculation group, but no tumors were present in any of the HaCaT cell inoculation group. Induced tumors showed features of poorly differentiated carcinoma with invasion to neighboring muscles and bones. The HaCaT-Snail tumors showed decreased expressions of E-cadherin and cytokeratin, but showed increased expressions of vimentin and N-cadherin. Discussion: The Snail transfected xenograft can improve productivity of malignant tumors, show various histopathological features including invasive growth, and aid in the investigation of tumor progression and the interaction with surrounding tissues.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.333-343
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• 2020

Preventing or reducing the damage impact of lateral soil movements on piled foundations is highly dependent on understanding the behavior of passive piles. For this reason, a detailed experimental study is carried out, aimed to examine the influence of soil density, the depth of moving layer and pile spacing on the behavior of a 2×2 free-standing pile group subjected to a uniform profile of lateral soil movement. Results from 8 model tests comprise bending moment, shear force, soil reaction and deformations measured along the pile shaft using strain gauges and others probing tools were performed. It is found that soil density and the depth of moving layer have an opposite impact regarding the ultimate response of piles. A pile group embedded in dense sand requires less soil displacement to reach the ultimate soil reaction compared to those embedded in medium and loose sands. On the other hand, the larger the moving depth, the larger amount of lateral soil movement needs to develop the pile group its ultimate deformations. Furthermore, the group factor and the effect of pile spacing were highly related to the soil-structure interaction resulted from the transferring process of forces between pile rows with the existing of the rigid pile cap.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.21-34
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• 2014

The majority of early embryonic mortality in pregnancy occurs during the peri-implantation stage, suggesting that this period is important for conceptus viability and the establishment of pregnancy. Successful establishment of pregnancy in all mammalian species depends on the orchestrated molecular events that transpire at the conceptus-uterine interface during the peri-implantation period. This maternal-conceptus interaction is especially crucial in pigs because in them non-invasive epitheliochorial placentation occurs, in which the pre-implantation phase is prolonged. During the pre-implantation period, conceptus survival and the establishment of pregnancy are known to depend on the developing conceptus receiving an adequate supply of histotroph, which contains a wide range of nutrients and growth factors. Evidence links growth factors including epidermal growth factor (EGF), insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and colony-stimulating factor 2 (CSF2) to embryogenesis or implantation in various mammalian species; however, in the case of pig, little is known about such functions of these growth factors, especially their regulatory mechanisms at the maternal-conceptus interface. Our research group has presented evidence for promising growth factors affecting cellular activities of primary porcine trophectoderm (pTr) cells, and we have identified potential intracellular signaling pathways responsible for the activities induced by these factors. Therefore, this review focuses on promising growth factors at the maternal-conceptus interface regulating the development of the porcine conceptus and playing pivotal roles in implantation events during early pregnancy in pigs.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.166-174
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• 2008

As the use of virtual environment for decision-making interior or architectural design has been increasingly broaden, the choice of media form-physical, objective properties of a display medium-became and important issue to take into consideration. This research deals with the effects and differences between two types of media for a virtual environment; wall projection screen(120") and PC monitor(17"). In addition, efficient adoption of the two media forms was also proposed in this research. A total of 90 subjects participated in pre-designed three experimental groups(A group: experiment with a wall projection screen, B group: experiment with PC monitor, C group: both) and answer the seating preferences, the presence inventory, and the decision confidence using a simulated virtual restaurant environment. The results are as follows: (1) seating preferences for the tables located in frequent traffic area and near other spaces such as restroom and th kitchen are significantly different by the media form. While there is no significant difference found in seating preferences for most tables except high traffic areas near entrances between the two media. This result demonstrates the effects of media type or screen size on user perception for the areas near structural or interior design elements. (2) The presence measure in this research consist of in this research consist of four factors: 'spatial presence,' 'object presence,' 'positive effects,' and 'the factor of negative effects. 'The mean values of the items involving engagement or interaction in the spatial presence factor and the object presence factor are significantly different by the media form. A higher sense of presence of presence was observed in the wall projection screen. (3) PC monitor condition was shown to provide a higher level of decision confidence. Based on the research finding, conclusions and implications are discussed.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.6.1-6.10
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• 2021

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is expressed at elevated levels by most cancer cells, which can stimulate vascular endothelial cell growth, survival, proliferation as well as trigger angiogenesis modulated by VEGF and VEGFR (a tyrosine kinase receptor) signaling. The angiogenic effects of the VEGF family are thought to be primarily mediated through the interaction of VEGF with VEGFR-2. Targeting this signaling molecule and its receptor is a novel approach for blocking angiogenesis. In recent years virtual high throughput screening has emerged as a widely accepted powerful technique in the identification of novel and diverse leads. The high resolution X-ray structure of VEGF has paved the way to introduce new small molecular inhibitors by structure-based virtual screening. In this study using different alkaloid molecules as potential novel inhibitors of VEGF, we proposed three alkaloid candidates for inhibiting VEGF and VEGFR mediated angiogenesis. As these three alkaloid compounds exhibited high scoring functions, which also highlights their high binding ability, it is evident that these alkaloids can be taken to further drug development pipelines for use as novel lead compounds to design new and effective drugs against cancer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Embryo Transfer Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.113-113
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• 2002

The stimulatory effect of EGF and FSH on oocyte maturation have been reported in various mammalian species. And some reports presented FSH enhanced the effect of EGF on oocyte maturation. But, the interaction between EGF and FSH on nuclear maturation of mammalian oocytes is not fully understood. We observed the effect of EGF and FSH on nuclear maturation during in vitro maturation of mouse oocytes. Also, we examined the interaction between EGF and FSH on nuclear maturation of mouse oocytes using the EGFR inhibitor or FSH inhibitor. Germinal vesicle (GV) stage oocytes were obtained from 3-4weeks PMSG primed BCFI hybrid mice and cultured in TCM-199 medium with 0.4%PVP supplemented with/without EGF (1ng/ml), FSH (1ug/ml), EGFR specific tyrosine kinase inhibitors: Tyrphostin AG 1478 (500nM), MAP kinase kinase inhibitor : U0126 (20uM) or PD 98059 (100uM) for 14-l5hr. Rapid staining method were used for the assessment of nuclear maturation. Nuclear maturation rates of EGF indjor FSH-treated group were significantly higher than those of control group. Treatment of EGFR inhibitor significantly block the nuclear maturation of GV oocyte in EGF-treated group, but it did not block those of GV oocyte in FSH-treated or FSH and EGF-treated group. Treatment of FSH inhibitor(U0126, PD98059) significantly block the nuclear maturation of EGF-treated group, FSH-treated and FSH and EGF-treated group. These results show that EGF has a stimulatory effect as well as different action pathway with FSH on in-vitro maturation of mouse oocyte in vitro. Therefore, further studies will be needed to find the signaling pathway of EGF associated with nuclear maturation.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.585-590
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• 2009

The cure behaviors, dielectric characteristics and fracture toughness of diglycidylether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA)/poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) blend system were investigated. The degree of conversion for the DGEBA/PET blend system was measured using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The cure kinetics were investigated by measuring the cure activation energies ($E_a$) with dynamic differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The dielectric characteristic was examined by dielectric analysis (DEA). The mechanical properties were investigated by measuring the critical stress intensity factor ($K_{IC}$), critical strain energy release rate ($G_{IC}$), and impact strength test. As a result, DGEBAIPET was successfully blended. The Ea of the blend system was increased with increasing PET content to a maximum at 10 phr PET. The dielectric constant was decreased with increasing PET content. The mechanical properties of the blend system were also superior to those of the neat DGEBA. These results were attributed to the increased cross-linking density of the blend system, resulting from the interaction between the epoxy group of DGEBA and the carboxyl group of PET.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.171-179
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• 2023

To investigate the effects of type of exercise on inflammatory factor and vascular endothelial growth factor in middle aged women, we recruited 18 people middle-aged women and they divided into 3 groups (N=6, resistance exercise group, 40-60% of 1RM, N=6 aerobic exercise group, 60-70% of VO2max, N=6, flexibility exercise group, 10-60 sec/sets). The data were compared to the effect of exercise between 50 ~ 60 minutes per a day, 3 day times per week on the body composition, inflammatory factor, vascular endothelial growth factor and vascular compliance in middle aged women. First, in regards to inflammatory factors between groups, a significant difference (p<.05) was identified in the effects of CRP and IL-6 in terms of time (T). Second, regarding vascular endothelial growth factors between groups based on the type of exercise, a significant difference (p<.05) was found in the effects of VEGF's time (T) and the interaction between time and group (TxG). In conclusion, All types of exercise could partially improve inflammatory factors and vascular endothelial growth factors.