• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.116-124
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• 2019

Background: Ginsenosides are known as the principal pharmacological active constituents in Panax medicinal plants such as Asian ginseng, American ginseng, and Notoginseng. Some ginsenosides, especially the 20(R) isomers, are found in trace amounts in natural sources and are difficult to chemically synthesize. The present study provides an approach to produce such trace ginsenosides applying biotransformation through Escherichia coli modified with relevant genes. Methods: Seven uridine diphosphate glycosyltransferase (UGT) genes originating from Panax notoginseng, Medicago sativa, and Bacillus subtilis were synthesized or cloned and constructed into pETM6, an ePathBrick vector, which were then introduced into E. coli BL21star (DE3) separately. 20(R)-Protopanaxadiol (PPD), 20(R)-protopanaxatriol (PPT), and 20(R)-type ginsenosides were used as substrates for biotransformation with recombinant E. coli modified with those UGT genes. Results: E. coli engineered with $GT95^{syn}$ selectively transfers a glucose moiety to the C20 hydroxyl of 20(R)-PPD and 20(R)-PPT to produce 20(R)-CK and 20(R)-F1, respectively. GTK1- and GTC1-modified E. coli glycosylated the C3-OH of 20(R)-PPD to form 20(R)-Rh2. Moreover, E. coli containing $p2GT95^{syn}K1$, a recreated two-step glycosylation pathway via the ePathBrich, implemented the successive glycosylation at C20-OH and C3-OH of 20(R)-PPD and yielded 20(R)-F2 in the biotransformation broth. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that rare 20(R)-ginsenosides can be produced through E. coli engineered with UTG genes.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.59-69
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to examine the variation of pitch contour observed in the reading of Korean sentences produced by Chinese Korean-learners. In the reading context, Korean sentence intonation can be described by considering accentual phrases' pitch pattern and intonational phrases' boundary tone. But when APs and IPs connect to each other to form sentences, another aspect of speech production must be considered, that is declination of pitch contour. So, in order to examine how Chinese speakers produce Korean sentence intonation, we have analysed the sentences' pitch contours produced by fourteen Chinese speakers differing in proficiency, and compared them to pitch contours produced by six Korean native speakers. The results show that Chinese speakers tend to decline the pitch contour in shorter sentences, but for longer sentences, the declination was not observed. Moreover, even though Chinese speakers produced sentences with declination, internal tonal modulation differs from native speakers.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.11
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• pp.1769-1776
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• 2019

Ethyl (S)-3-hydroxy-3-(2-thienyl) propanoate ((S)-HEES) acts as a key chiral intermediate for the blockbuster antidepressant drug duloxetine, which can be achieved via the stereoselective bioreduction of ethyl 3-oxo-3-(2-thienyl) propanoate (KEES) that contains a 3-oxoacyl structure. The sequences of the short-chain dehydrogenase/reductases from Chryseobacterium sp. CA49 were analyzed, and the putative 3-oxoacyl-acyl-carrier-protein reductase, ChKRED12, was able to stereoselectively catalyze the NADPH-dependent reduction to produce (S)-HEES. The reductase activity of ChKRED12 towards other substrates with 3-oxoacyl structure were confirmed with excellent stereoselectivity (>99% enantiomeric excess) in most cases. When coupled with a cofactor recycling system using glucose dehydrogenase, the ChKRED12 was able to catalyze the complete conversion of 100 g/l KEES within 12 h, yielding the enantiopure product with >99% ee, showing a remarkable potential to produce (S)-HEES.

• Mycobiology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.90-96
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• 2017

Different endophytes isolated from the seeds of Sophora flavescens were tested for their ability to produce matrine production. Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to optimize the medium components for the endophytic fungus. Results indicated that endophyte Aspergillus terreus had the ability to produce matrine. The single factor tests demonstrated that potato starch was the best carbon source and the combination of peptone and $NH_4NO_3$ was the optimal nitrogen source for A. terreus. The model of RSM predicted to gain the maximal matrine production at $20.67{\mu}g/L$, when the potato starch was 160.68 g/L, peptone was 24.96 g/L and $NH_4NO_3$ was 2.11 g/L. When cultured in the optimal medium, the matrine yield was an average of $20.63{\pm}0.11{\mu}g/L$, which was consistent with the model prediction. This study offered an alternative source for the matrine production by endophytic fungus fermentation and may have far-reaching prospect and value.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.111-117
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to investigate how Chinese learners of Korean produce Korean plain plosives differently in a reading passage and isolated sentences. There are several studies on Korean plosives produced by Chinese speakers, but the study comparing the production of reading passage and isolated sentences are rare. For these purposes, ten Chinese speakers' VOT values of Korean plain plosives were measured using Speech Analyzer. The results show that there is no significant difference between the plain plosive production of a reading passage and that of isolated sentences. In the further studies, the measurement of pitch with VOT is needed.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.15-22
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• 2018

Stressed vowels in English are usually produced using longer duration, higher pitch, and greater intensity than unstressed vowels. However, many English as a foreign language (EFL) learners have difficulty producing English lexical stress because their mother tongues do not have such features. In order to investigate if certain non-native English speakers (Korean, Japanese, and Taiwanese-Chinese native speakers) are able to produce English lexical stress in a native-like manner, speech samples were extracted from the L2 learners' corpus known as AESOP (the Asian English Speech cOrpus Project). Sixteen disyllabic words were analyzed in terms of the ratio of duration, pitch, and intensity. The results demonstrate that non-native English speakers are able to produce English stress in a similar way to native English speakers, and all speakers (both native and non-native) show a tendency to use duration as the strongest cue in producing stress. The results also show that the duration ratio of native English speakers was significantly higher than that of non-native speakers, indicating that native speakers produce a bigger difference in duration between stressed and unstressed vowels.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.121-128
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• 2013

In Korean, wh-question and indefinite yes-no questions have the same morphemic and syntactic structure. In speech, however, these two types of questions are distinguished by a prosodic difference. In this study, we examined if Chinese Korean leaners can distinguish between these two types of questions in production and if they can correctly perceive the different meaning of a question based on the prosodic information. For this purpose, we analysed two types of interrogative sentences produced by 5 native speakers and 15 Chinese Korean language leaners. The results show that the 5 Korean native speakers produce two types of questions by a salient prosodic difference, i.e., difference of prosodic structure, different pitch range of wh-phrase and indefinite phrase, and different boundary tone. However, for the 15 Chinese speakers, the two types of questions were not distinguished by the same prosodic features but in the perception analysis they were able to distinguish between the two types of questions easily.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.341-350
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• 2015

This study explored the determinant variables influence of Chinese consumers' purchase intention towards products featured in Korean TV dramas vis-$\grave{a}$-vis product placement (PPL). We invited 248 Chinese adult consumers who had watched Korean TV dramas in last twelve months to participate in this survey. Data analyses were conducted by Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ reliability test, confirmatory factor analysis, t -test, analysis of variance and hierarchical multiple regression with SPSS ver. 21.0 and AMOS ver. 21.0. We chose PPL effects, product quality perceptions, and product trust as main independent variables. The empirical analysis results demonstrate that female (versus male) and frequency of (or longer time) watching dramas resulted in higher perceived consumer PPL effects, product quality, trust and purchase intention. The positive effects of the product quality and product trust on purchase intentions were confirmed. There are additional mediation effects of product quality perceptions and trust on the relationship between consumer demographic characteristics (gender), TV drama watching conditions (frequency and time) and purchase intention. This research can help Korean corporations produce effective advertising by indicating how PPL affects Chinese consumer consumption behavior. The results are useful for the Chinese government and consumer organizations to improve the domestic consumption environment by developing effective TV drama PPL policies.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.6 no.S1
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• pp.160-165
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• 1997

Yttria stabilized zirconia coating is an attractive material for several engineering applications. In order to produce coatings with consistent and reliable performance it is important to understand the influence of spraying parameters on the coating properties and optimize the spraying parameters. In this paper the low pressure plasma spray(LPPS) deposition of as-received zirconia powder has been investigated using simple one-factor-at-a-time approach. The deposition efficiency was chosen to evaluate the melting characteristics of the as-received zirconia powder. The results obtained indicated that the deposition efficiency of zirconia powder is very sensitive to the spraying parameters such as plasma gas flow rate and ranges from 24% to 57% The microstructure and the phase composition of zirconia coating deposited with the different plasma spraying parameters were also examined by SEM and XRD respectively. The relationship between deposition efficiency and the microstructure of zirconia coating was discussed.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.1547-1556
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• 2009

A novel thermostable $\alpha$-glucosidase (TtGluA) from Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis MB4 was successfully expressed in E. coli and characterized. The TtgluA gene contained 2,253 bp, which encodes 750 amino acids. The native TtGluA was a trimer with monomer molecular mass of 89 kDa shown by SDS-PAGE. The purified recombinant enzyme showed hydrolytic activity on maltooligosaccharides, p-nitrophenyl-$\alpha$-D-glucopyranide, and dextrin with an exotype cleavage manner. TtGluA showed preference for short-chain maltooligosaccharides and the highest specific activity for maltose of 3.26 units/mg. Maximal activity was observed at $60^{\circ}C$ and pH 5.5. The half-life was 2 h at $60^{\circ}C$. The enzyme showed good tolerance to urea and SDS but was inhibited by Tris. When maltose with the concentration over 50 mM was used as substrate, TtGluA was also capable of catalyzing transglycosylation to produce $\alpha$-1,4-linked maltotriose and $\alpha$-1,6-linked isomaltooligosaccharides. More importantly, TtGluA showed exclusive regiospecificity with high yield to produce $\alpha$-1,6-linked isomaltooligosaccharides when the reaction time extended to more than 10 h.