• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.207-213
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• 2009

Starch serves not only as an energy source for plants, animals, and humans but also as an environmentally friendly alternative for fossil fuels. Progress in understanding of starch biosynthesis, and the isolation of many genes involved in this process have enabled the genetic modification of crops in a rational manner to produce novel starches with improved functionality. Starch is composed of two glucose polymers, amylose and amylopectin. The amylose and amylopectin ratio in starch affects its physical and physicochemical properties. Alteration in starch structure can be achieved by modifying genes encoding the enzymes responsible for starch biosynthesis and starch hydrolysis. Here, we describe recent findings concerning the starch modification in sweetpotato. Sweetpotato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam] ranks seventh in annual production among food crops in the world as an important starch source. To develop transgenic sweetpotato plants with modifying starch composition, we constructed transformation vectors overexpressing granule bound starch synthase I and inhibiting amylopectin synthesis genes such as starch branching enzyme and isoamylase under the control of 35S promoter, respectively. Transformation of sweetpotato (cv. Yulmi) is in progress.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.155-171
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• 2020

Fermented products, including sausages, provide several health benefits, particularly when probiotics are used in the fermentation process. This study aimed to examine the cytotoxicity (against Caco-2 and MCF-7 cell lines), antihypertensive activity via angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition, antioxidant capacity, antidiabetic activity via α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibition, proteolysis rate, and oxidative degradation of fermented camel and beef sausages in vitro by the novel probiotic Lactococcus lactis KX881782 isolated from camel milk. Moreover, camel and beef sausages fermented with commercial starter culture alone were compared to those fermented with commercial starter culture combined with L. lactis. The degree of hydrolysis, antioxidant capacity, cytotoxicity against Caco-2 and MCF-7, α-amylase, α-glucosidase, and ACE inhibitory activities were higher (p<0.05) in fermented camel sausages than beef sausages. In contrast, the water and lipid peroxidation activity were lower (p<0.05) in camel sausages than beef sausages. L. lactis enhanced the health benefits of the fermented camel sausages. These results suggest that camel sausage fermented with the novel probiotic L. lactis KX881782 could be a promising functional food that relatively provides several health benefits to consumers compared with fermented beef sausage.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.177-183
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• 2014

Alumina-silica composite coating layers were prepared by electrophoretic deposition (EPD) of plate-shaped alumina particles dispersed in a sol-gel binder, which was prepared by hydrolysis and the condensation reaction of methyltrimethoxysilane in the presence of colloidal silica. The microstructure and the electrical and thermal properties of the coatings were compared according to the EPD process parameter: voltage, time and the content of the plate-shaped alumina particles. The electrical insulation property of the coatings was measured by a voltage test. The coatings were prepared by EPD of the sol-gel binder with 5-30 wt% plate alumina particles on parallel electrodes at a distance of 2 cm for 1-10 min under an applied voltage of 10-30 V. The coatings experienced increased breakdown voltage with increasing thickness. However, the higher the thickness was, the smaller the breakdown voltage strength was. A breakdown voltage as high as 4.6 kV was observed with a $400{\mu}m$ thickness, and a breakdown voltage strength as high as 27 kV/mm was achieved for the sample under a $100{\mu}m$ thickness.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.358-364
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• 1999

The effect of hydrogen peroxide on pretreatment of oakwood was investigated. Reaction temperature was $170^{\circ}C$ and reaction solutions used in pretreatment were aqueous ammonia, sulfuric acid and pure water. When 10% ammonia solution was used, the extents of delignification and hemicellulose recovery were 55% and 26%, respectively. These values were significantly higher as delinigfication and lower as hemicellulose recovery than those of acid hydrolysis. To overcome this problem, hydrogen peroxide was added into ammonia solution stream to increase hemicellulose recovery. But delignification and hemicellulose recovery were not increased as much as hydrogen peroxide loading was increased. And as hydrogen peroxide loading was increased, the decomposition of sugars solubilized from hemicellulose and cellulose were increased. So there were significant differences between the total amount in solid residue and liquid hydrolyzate, and the total amount in the original biomass. It was found that hydrogen peroxide added was reacted with substrate packed mostly in the front part of reactor. In order to increase hemicellulose recovery, it was necessary to treat with acidic solution than with alkali solution. Effect of hydrogen peroxide was higher in water than acid solution.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.1114-1123
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• 2015

Bushing is the key link to connect outer and inner insulating systems and also the essential electric accessory in electric power system, especially in the high voltage engineering (AC 1000kV, DC 800kV). This paper presented the experimental research of thermal aging characteristic of oil-paper insulation used in bushing. A thermally accelerated aging experiment at 90℃ was performed. The bushing models containing five layers of paper were sealed into the aging vessels and further aged for 250 days. Then several important parameters associated with the aging were observed and evaluated. The results showed that the degree of polymerization (DP) of papers gradually decreased. The DP values of outermost layer and middle layer fit well into the second-order kinematic model and first-order kinematic model, respectively. Less deterioration speed of the inter-layer paper than outer layer was confirmed by the variation of DP. Hydrolysis was considered as the main cause to this phenomenon. In addition, the logarithm of the furfural concentrations in insulation oil was found to have good linear relationship with DP of papers. Interestingly, when the aging time is about 250 days and DP is 419, the aging process reaches an inflection point at which the DP approaches the leveling off degree of polymerization (LODP) value. Both tanδ and acid number of oils increased, while surface and volume resistivity of papers decreased. The obtained results demonstrated that thermal aging and moisture absorbed in papers brought great influence to the degradation of insulating paper, leading to rapid decrease of DP and increase of the tanδ. Thus, the bushing should be avoided from damp and real-time monitoring to the variation of tanδ and DP values of paper is an effective way to evaluate the insulation status of bushing.

• BMB Reports
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.205-210
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• 2011

Insulin has antiapoptotic activity in various cell types. However, the signaling pathways underlying the antiapoptotic activity of insulin is not yet known. This study was conducted to determine if cAMP affects the antiapoptotic activity of insulin and the activity of PI3K and ERK in CHO cells expressing human insulin receptors (CHO-IR). Insulin-stimulated ERK activity was completely suppressed by cAMP-elevating agents like as pertussis toxin (Ptx) and cholera toxin (Ctx) after 4 h treatment. Insulin-stimulated PKB/Akt activity was not affected at all. Ptx treatment together with insulin increased the number of apoptotic cells and the degree of DNA fragmentation. Ctx or 8-br-cAMP treatment also increased the number of apoptotic cells and stimulated the cleavage of caspase-3 and the hydrolysis of PARP. Taken together, cAMP antagonizes the antiapoptotic activity of insulin and the main target molecule of cAMP in this process is likely ERK, not PI3K-dependent PKB/Akt.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.166-171
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• 2004

In this study, we introduced enzymatic pretreatment method, together with ozone treatment for sludge digestion. We optimized the amount of enzyme and ozone, respectively for the successful sludge pretreatment. As a result, we found that as more enzyme is used, higher sludge hydrolysis efficiency was obtained. When we treated sludge by ozone ranging from 0.01g $O_3$/g SS to 0.04 g $O_3$/g SS without enzyme treatment, 0.04 g $O_3$/g SS showed the highest increase of SCOD. Meanwhile, when protease was used together with the same ozone dosage ranges, 0.03g $O_3$/g SS ozonation resulted in the highest increase of SCOD. The sludge pretreatment was optimized by controlling the amount of enzyme and ozone.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.519-524
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• 1992

purified rapeseed(Brassica napus var. Youngsan) protein was hydrolyzed by pronase. The hyrolysate protein was investigated for the some physicochemical and functional properties. UV and intrinsic fluorescence spectra of the hydrolysate showed the maximum absorption at 274nm and 360nm respectively. Intensity of yellow color decreased in the process of hydrolysis and the surface hydrophobicity decreased up to fourfold. The main bands of hydrolysate by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis(SDS-PAGE) were observed at 14,000 to 12,000 dalton molecular weight. Solubilities of hydrolyzed protein increased by 10~15% compared to those of unhydrolyzed protein at acidic pH. In the hydrolysate, while absorption of both water and oil, foam expansion and emulsion stability were increased, absolute viscosity, heat coagulation, calcium coagulation, foam stability and emulsion activity were decreased.

• Korean Membrane Journal
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.58-66
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• 2006

The ${\beta}-glucosidase$ from olive fruit is of particular interest compared to the ones from other sources because it has shown to have high specifity to convert the oleuropein into dialdehydes, which have antibacterial activity and are of high interest for their application in the food and pharmaceutical fields. The enzyme is not yet commercially available and advanced clean and safe technologies for its purification able to maintain the functional stability are foreseen. The purification of this protein from fruit extracts has been already tempted by electrophoresis but either enzyme deactivation or high background with unclear profiles occurred. In this work, fruit extracts obtained from the ripening stage that showed the highest enzyme activity have been processed by diafiltration and ultrafiltration. Asymmetric membranes made of polyamide or polysulphone having 50 and 30 kDa molecular weight cut-off, respectively, were tested for the diafiltration process. Ultrafiltration membranes made of polyethersulfone with 4 kDa molecular weight cut-off were used to concentrate the dia-filtered permeate solutions. The efficiency of the separation processes was evaluated byenzyme activity tests using the hydrolysis of p-D-nitrophenyl-${\beta}$-D-glucopyranoside (pNPGlc) as reaction model. Qualitative and quantitative electrophoresis were applied to analyze the composition of protein solution before and after the membrane separation; in addition dot blot and western blot analyses were applied to verify the presence of ${\beta}-glucosidase$ in the processed fractions. The overall results showed that the ${\beta}-glucosidase$ functional stability was preserved during the membrane operations and the removal of 20 kDa proteins allowed to increase the specific activity of the enzyme of about 52% compared to the one present in the initial fruit extract.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.97-104
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• 2004

Water-sludge bacteria were screened to find a lipase enantioselectively hydrolyzing itraconazole precursor, which is well known as the starting material of antifungal drug agents. A bacterial strain was isolated and identified as Acinetobacter junii SY-01. After the strain was cultivated, the enzyme was purified 39.4-fold using ultrafiltration and gel filtration through a Sephadex G-100 chromatographic column and the activity yield was 34.9%. The molecular weight of the enzyme was about 40 kDa, as measured by SDS-PAGE, and the optimum pH was 7.0- 9.0 and stable at pH 6.0- 9.0. The optimum temperature was 45- $5^{\circ}C$, and 73% of the enzymes activity remained after incubation at 70% for 1 h. Enzyme activity was enhanced by gall powder, sodium deoxycholate, a cationic detergent Tween 80, and a non-ionic detergent Triton X-100, but was markedly inhibited by metal ions such as $Hg^{2＋},Cu^{2＋},Ni^{2＋}/,Ca^{2＋}$, and an anionic-surfactant sodium dodecylsulfate. The $K_{m}$ values for (R)- and (S)-enantiomers of the itraconazole precursor were 0.385 and 21.83 mM, respectively, and the $V_{max} values ($\mu$Mㆍmin^{-1}.)$ were 6.73 and 6.49, respectively. The acetyl group among the different acyl moieties of itraconazole precursor showed the highest enantioselectivity for the hydrolysis by the Acinetobacter junii SY-01 lipase, and the lipase from Acinetobacter junii SY-01 displayed better enantioselectivity than that of commercially available lipases and esterases.