• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.307-313
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• 2011

Although lizards are important hosts for hard ticks (Ixodidae), very few studies have been conducted in South Korea. To determine whether or not hard ticks can infest lizards endemic to South Korea, we examined 77 lizards of four species (Eremias argus, Sincella vandenburghi, Takydromus amurensis, and Takydromus wolteri) that were collected at 22 different sites between April and October 2010. We confirmed that all four lizard species can be infested by Ixodes nipponensis larvae or nymphs. Of the 62 E. argus examined, we found an average of 12.5 larvae on two lizards and an average of one nymph on one lizard. We found seven nymphs on one S. vandenburghi. We found an average of two nymphs on two of the five T. amurensis and an average of one nymph on four of the nine T. wolteri. Ixodes nipponensis larvae and nymphs were found most frequently on the foreleg axillae (87.8%), followed by the forelegs (7.3%), the eyelids (2.4%), and the ears (2.4%) of the lizards. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of I. nipponensis infestations of lizards endemic to South Korea.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.352-358
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• 2006

We reconsidered the taxonomy of lizards in Korea on the basis of morphological characters of collected specimens and previously published data. A total of 138 specimens were used in this study, which were collected from April 1996 to October 2005, From the observations, we presented keys to classify Korean lizards. Also, we indicated sampling sites for each species on the Korean map. In addition, we added some remarks on the distribution of Gekko japonicus, the study of genus Scincella and the synonym of genus Takydromus. Especially, it was uncertain whether the southern Korean Peninsula is a natural habitat of Takydromus tachydromoides oldi which will be necessary in further study.

• BMB Reports
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.249-254
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• 2016

All living things share some common life processes, such as growth and reproduction, and have the ability to respond to their environment. However, each type of organism has its own specialized way of managing biological events. Genetic sequences determine phenotypic and physiological traits. Based on genetic information, comparative genomics has been used to delineate the differences and similarities between various genomes, and significant progress has been made in understanding regenerative biology by comparing the genomes of a variety of lower animal models of regeneration, such as planaria, zebra fish, and newts. However, the genome of lizards has been relatively ignored until recently, even though lizards have been studied as an excellent amniote model of tissue regeneration. Very recently, whole genome sequences of lizards have been uncovered, and several attempts have been made to find regeneration factors based on genetic information. In this article, recent advances in comparative analysis of the lizard genome are introduced, and their biological implications and putative applications for regenerative medicine and stem cell biology are discussed.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.620-625
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• 2013

Mammals such as dogs and cheetahs change their gait from trot to gallop as they run faster. However, lizards always trot for various speeds of running. When mammals run slowly with trot gait, their fore leg and hind leg generate the required force for acceleration or deceleration such that the yaw moments created by these forces cancel each other. On the other hand, when lizards run slowly, their fore legs and hind legs generate the forces for deceleration and acceleration, respectively. In this paper, the yaw motion of a lizard model is controlled by the movement of their waist and tail, and the reaction moment from the ground produced by the hind legs in simulation. The simulation uses the whole body dynamics of a lizard model, which consists of 4 links based on the Callisaurus draconoides. The results show that the simulated trotting of the model is similar to that of a real lizard when the movement of the model is optimized to minimize the reaction moment from the ground. It means that the body of a lizard moves in such a way that the reaction moment from the ground is minimized. This demonstrates our hypothesis on how lizards trot using body motion.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.22
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• pp.85-96
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• 1994

The purpose of this research is to find out the role of shaman's costume in Yakut Yukachir Goldi. The results are as follows: 1. Yakut shaman's costumes are decorated by their worship symbols made from metals-wild ducks crucian carps diving beetles and fishes. They believe that these costumes help shamans to travel the heaven underwater or underground systems to collect wanted infor-mation transforming them into the shape of decorated animals. 2. Yukachir shaman's costumes are decorated by symbolized cross medals in the shape of birds and human designed backbone which give shamans much power and many different kinds of medals and tassels representing all sorts and conditions of shaman's power. They consider their cstumes as feather and believe they give them new power and make them to fly anywhere they want. 3. Goldi shaman's costumes have paintings of animal guradians-leopards tigers bears birds snakes lizards and so on. Birds represents freedom of the spirit and eternity. snakes represents rebirth and immorality and lizards represents the trees of underground the earth and the lifetrees of the heaven. Shamans ascend through th holy tree to th heaven and to the world of underground in a comatose condition. Shaman costume itself plays the role of the spiritual safeguard. Wearing their costume shaman get all animal's supernatural authority and power. This makes the shaman to contact with the spirit and to travel the heaven and the under-ground world.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.668-674
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• 2012

This study was conducted to find the sexual size dimorphism(SSD) in morphometric characters of three species, Eremias argus, Takydromus amurensis and T. wolteri in lacertid lizard from Korea. Six external traits, snout-vent length, tail length, head length, head width, forelimb length and hind-limb length were focused to compare two sexes among the each three lizards. Student's t-test was used to compare the adult SVL between the sexes for each species. For the other parts of the body, a one-way analysis of covariance(ANCOVA) with SVL as the covariate was used. In all these species, males have longer tail and head than females like general lacertid lizard. In addition, male E. arugus have broader head and longer forelimbs and hind-limbs than conspecific females. Likewise, male T. wolteri have broader head than females. In the three lacertid lizards from Korea, snout-vent length did not significantly differ between the sexes. To understand the causes for SSD in SVL, ecological information, such as the presence/absence of male-male combat and the correlation between the SVL of female and litter size, is required. Therefore, further ecological study on the three species of lacertid lizard from Korea will make it possible to explain the reason SSD is not found in SVL.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.1023-1029
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• 2013

Water running animals such as basilisk lizards have an advantage of high-speed movement and high power efficiency on water; so researchers in robotic fields have been interested in the water running locomotion. This paper presents prototype-design and experimental study on the fourand six-legged water running robot. Based on the previously proposed quadruped water running robot, we assemble a hexapedal water running robot. The legs of the water running robot are designed based on four-bar parallel link for repeated motion along to pre-defined path. Stability performance of the quadruped and hexapedal water running robot are investigated by experiments on rolling criterion. As a result, hexapedal robot performs better stability than quadruped robot. Based on the hexapedal robot design, we are planning to optimize the position of legs and operating frequency.

• Advances in Traditional Medicine
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.8-27
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• 2000

Components of extracellular matrix and the matrix-degrading enzymes are some of the key regulators of tumor metastasis and angiogenesis. Hyaluronic acid (HA), a matrix glycosaminoglycan, is known to promote tumor adhesion and migration, and its small fragments are angiogenic. Until now, we have compared levels of hyaluronidase, an enzyme that degrade HA, in normal adult prostate, benign prostate hyperplasia and prostate cancer tissues and in conditioned media from epithelial explant cultures, using a substrate (HA)-gel assay and ELISA-like assay (Kim et al., unpublished results). The present review described an overall characterization of hyaluronidases and its application to human diseases. The hyaluronidases are a family of enzymes that have, until recently, deed thorough explication. The substrate for these enzymes, hyaluronan, is becoming increasingly important, recognized now as a major participant in basic processes such as cell motility, wound healing, embryogenesis, and implicated in cancer progression. And in those lower life forms that torment human beings, hyaluronidase is associated with mechanisms of entry and spread, e.g. as a virulence factor for bacteria, for tissue dissection in gas gangrene, as a means of treponema spread in syphilis, and for penetration of skin and gut by nematode parasites. Hyaluronidase also comprises a component of the venom of a wide variety of organisms, including bees, wasps, hornets, spiders, scorpions, sh, snakes and lizards. Of particular interest is the homology between some of these venom hyaluronidases and the enzyme found in the plasma membrane of mammalian spermatozoa, attesting to the ancient nature of the conserved sequence, a 36% identity in a 300 amino acid stretch of the enzyme protein. Clearly, hyaluronidase is of biological interest, being involved in the pathophysiology of so many important' human disorders. Greater effort should be made in studying this family of enzymes that have, until recently, been overlooked. Also, oriental medical application of the hyaluronidase will be discussed with respect to inhibition and suppression of inflammation and malignacy.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.149-154
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• 2017

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common type of non-hodgkin lymphoma. Advances in the chemotherapeutic treatment of this disease have improved the outcomes of DLBCL; nonetheless, many patients still die of DLBCL, and therefore, a better understanding of this disease and identification of novel therapeutic targets are urgently required. In a recent gene expression profiling study, PDE (phosphodiesterase) 4B was found to be overexpressed in chemotherapy-resistant tumors. The major function of PDE4B is to inactivate the second messenger cyclic 3',5' monophosphate (cAMP) by catalyzing the hydrolysis of cAMP to 5'AMP. It is known that cAMP induces cell cycle arrest and/or apoptosis in B cells, and PDE4B abolishes cAMP's effect on B cells. However, the mechanism by which PDE4B is overexpressed remains unclear. Here, we show that the aberrant expression of miRNA may be associated with the overexpression of this gene. The PDE4B 3' untranslated region (UTR) has three functional binding sites of miR-23b, as confirmed by luciferase reporter assays. Interestingly, miR-23b-binding sites were evolutionarily conserved from humans to lizards, implying the critical role of PDE4B-miR-23b interaction in cellular physiology. The ectopic expression of miR-2 3b repressed PDE4B mRNA levels and enhanced intracellular cAMP concentrations. Additionally, miR-23b expression inhibited cell proliferation and survival of DLBCL cells only in the presence of forskolin, an activator of adenylyl cyclase, suggesting that miR-23b's effect is via the downregulation of PDE4B. These results together suggest that miR-23b could be a therapeutic target for overcoming drug resistance by repressing PDE4B in DLBCL.