• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.577-581
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• 2009

Interactions between the surface and capsid proteins of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) are critical for the assembly of virus particles. In this study, we developed a cell-based method to visualize the interactions between the capsid and surface proteins of HBV. Capsid-GFP, a capsid protein fused to a green fluorescence protein (GFP), forms nucleocapsid-like structures in the cytoplasm of mammalian cells. It relocates to the plasma membranes in cells expressing PH-PreS, a fusion protein consisting of the PreS region of the HBV surface protein and the PH domain of PLC-$\gamma$. Membrane localization of the capsid-GFP in these cells is prevented by an inhibitory peptide that blocks the interaction between the capsid and surface proteins. This dynamic localization of capsid-GFP is applicable for screening compounds that may potentially inhibit or prevent the assembly process of HBV particles.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2006.11b
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• pp.1253-1258
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• 2006

As a global effort to conservate the environment, life cycle assessment(LCA) which considers the environmental impact through the life cycle of a product, from acquiring of resources to scrapping, has been actively applied. The LCA is a tool to calculate quantitatively the environmental impacts caused by products or services through their life cycles. Eco-efficiency need that express value of environmental impact provision EMU and develops in two forms according to use target of Eco-efficiency as a tool that environmental impact of EMU. It is a strategic instrument which assists stakeholders to understand which products, processes or services to target with future investments and which are not by comparing economic and ecological values. The results stand for aggregated information on economical value and environmental impact. Also, In this method, it is important to derive EPI(Environmental Performance Index) and SPI(Service Performance Index) from the sources available. The following is used as one of Eco-efficiency tools to achieve the target performance of processes, products and services for designer or projector. According to the eco-efficiency methodology for EMU developed in this study, the user definition and the DB design were carried out as a basic design of eco-efficiency S/W.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.90-97
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• 2016

The major structural proteins of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) are derived from ORFs 4, 5, and 6. They have been considered very important to arouse the humoral and cellular immune responses against PRRSV infection and proposed to be the excellent candidate proteins in the design of PRRS bioengineering vaccine. However, the PRRSV structural proteins are produced in low levels in the infected cells because it forms insoluble protein and possesses several transmembrane regions. To overcome this problem, we fused the ORF4, ORF5, and ORF6 with SUMO (small ubiquitin-related modifier). The resulting fusion protein SUMO-ORF4, -ORF5, and -ORF6 were highly expressed in Bm5 cells. The level of protein expression using the Bombyx mori larvae was higher than that using Bm5 cells. In addition, fusion to SUMOstar, which is not processed by native SUMO proteases, significantly enhanced protein expression levels compared to SUMO fusion. This study demonstrated that SUMO or SUMOstar, when fused with PRRSV structural proteins, was able to promote its soluble expression. This may be a better method to produce PRRSV structural proteins for vaccine development.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.640-648
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• 2006

The distribution and status of naturalized plants in Jeju Island were investigated in this study. As results, the naturalized plants in Jeju Island were total of 254 taxa including 47 families, 161 genera, 248 species and 6 varieties. By the growth habits, annuals held the most percentage including 107 taxa (42.13%). Seventy nine taxa (31.1%) were appeared to have erect type in growth forms and 203 taxa (79.9%) are non-clonal growth form in disseminule forms by radicoid. The most of dormancy form in life form were therophytes as 150 taxa (59%), and following as 53 taxa (20.9%) for hemicryptophytes, and 26 taxa(10.2%) for geophytes. Among the naturalized plants, 115 taxa (36.7%) were originated from Europe, 69 taxa (22%) from Asia and 59 taxa (18.8%) from North America. Twenty eight percent of them were introduced as feeds or mixed seeds of imported cereals.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-43
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• 2012

This paper examines the American Civil Liberties Union(ACLU)'s recent legal challenge on patents held by Myriad Genetics on two genes (BRCA1 and BRCA2) associated with a high risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Instead of analyzing the ACLU's objections to the BRCA patents in terms of its legal technicalities and normative ethical principles, this paper seeks to situate this legal case in the broader historical context of the shifting understanding of the relationship between private ownership, economic development, and the public interest in academic sciences. This paper first briefly chronicles a series of scientific developments and key legal decisions involving patenting of life forms, including genetically engineered micro-organisms animals and biological materials of human origins like cell cultures and genes, that led to the US Patent and Trademark Office(USPTO)'s official guidelines on human gene patenting in 2001. At another level, this paper analyzes the expansion of the scope of intellectual property rights in the life sciences in terms of shifting economic and legal assumptions about public knowledge and its role for economic development in the 1970s. I then show how these economic, legal, and ethical ideas that linked private ownership and the public interest have been challenged from the 1990s, calling for revisions in intellectual property laws regarding a wide array of life forms. The tragedy of the anticommons in human gene patenting, according to ACLU, has severely undermined creative scientific activities, medical innovations, access to health care and rights to life among cancer patient groups. ACLU's objection to human gene patenting on several US-constitutional grounds in turn suggests issues regarding intellectual property are critically linked to vital issues pertinent to the creative communities in arts and sciences, such as free exchange of ideas, censorship and monopoly, and free expression and piracy etc.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.367-381
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• 2003

Dispersal polymorphism in insects Is a kind of adaptive strategy of the life history together with the diapause, consisting of the “long-winged or alate forms” of migratory phase and the “short-winged or apterous forms” of stationary phase. Dispersal polymorphism is a polymorphism related with the flight capability, and has three categories ; the wing polymorphisms, flight muscle polymorphisms, and flight behavior variations. Phase variation is another type of dispersal polymorphism varying in morphology, physiology and wing forms in response to the density of the population. The dispersal migration is a very adaptive trait that enables a species to keep pace with the changing mosaic of its habitat, but requires some costs. In general, wing reduction has a positive effect on the reproductive potential such as earlier reproduction and larger fecundity The dispersal polymorphism is a kind of optimization in the evolutionary strategies of the life history in insects; a trade-off between the advantages and disadvantages of migration. Wing polymorphism is a phenotypically plastic trait. Wing form changes with the environmental conditions even though the species is the same. Various environmental factors have an effect on the dispersal polymorphisms. Density dependent dispersal polymorphism plays an important role In population dynamics, but it is not a simple function of the density; the individuals of a population may be different in response to the density resulting different outcomes in the population biology, and the detailed information on the genotypic variation of the individuals in the population is the fundamental importance in the prediction of the population performances in a given environment. In conclusion, the studies on the dispersal polymorphisms are a complicated field in relation with both physiology and ecology, and studies on the ecological and quantitative genetics have indeed contributed to understanding of its important nature. But the final factors of evolution; the mechanisms of natural selections, might be revealed through the studies on the population biology.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.37-48
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• 2007

Forest vegetation types and growth characteristics of Seongin-bong at Ulleung Island in Korea were studied by using importance values, distributions of diameter classes, and annual growth analysis. Vegetation types were classified into 7 groups. The number of existing woody plant and herbaceous plant species varied from 17 to 21 species per $100m^2$. In case of life-forms importance values, woody and herbs showed average values of 47% and 53% across 5 groups. But in Tsuga sieboldii-Pinus parviflora and Fague engleriana- Taxus cuspidata var. latifolia groups, woody importance values were 68% and 54%, respectively. Diameter classes in most stand types were regularly distributed and showed continuous growth in annual diameter growth. from these results, this site is expected to maintain a stable vegetation structure continuously. F. engleriana, which forms major species in this site, showed 0.46-0.62 cm in annual average diameter growth. The annual average diameter growth of broad-leaved tree species was 0.2-0.6 cm, while the growth rate of T. sieboldii and P. parviflora was 0.38 cm and that of T. cuspidata var, latifolia was below 0.1 cm.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.267-281
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• 1993

To find antitumor components from higher fungi, the mycelia of Collybia confluens (Pers. ex Fr.) Kummer were cultured in artificial media. For efficient production of the mycelia, the influences of various modifications of culture conditions were examined. A water-soluble protein-bound polysaccharide fraction, Fr. A, was obtained from the mycelia by hot water extraction. When Fr. A was purified and fractionated by DEAE-cellulose and Sepbadex G-200 gel filtration chromatographies into four fractions which were designated B, C, C-I and C-II. The tumor inhibition ratios of these fractions ranged from 46% to 75% against the solid forms of sarcoma 180 in ICR mice at doses of 20 and 50 mg/kg/day when given intraperitoneally. Especially, Fr. C which was named Collyban(CB) exhibited a marked life-prolonging effect of the mice against ascitic forms of sarcoma 180 at a dose of 50 mg via i.p. administration. To extend spectra of the antitumor activities and eliminate the effects of allograft rejection, the characterization of antitumor effects of CB was performed in syngeneic host-tumor systems. It did not show any antitumor activity against L1210 murine leukemia in $CD_2Fl$ mice but prolonged their life span against ascitic forms of $MM_{46}$ carcinoma in $C_3H/He$ mice. Also it exhibited antitumor activity against human cervical cancer HeLa cells that were xenografted into nude mice having BALB/c genetic backgrounds by the i.p. injection at a dose of 100 mg/kg/day. In order to characterize the antitumor components, CB was examined by chemical analysis. It was acidic protein-bound polysaccharides composed of 31% polysaccharide, 27% protein and 3% hexosamine. CB was fractionated into two fractions, Fr. C-I(M.W.: 500 Kd) and Fr. C-II(M.W.:30 and 8 Kd) by Sephadex G-200 gel filtration chromatography.

• BMB Reports
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• v.42 no.9
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• pp.586-592
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• 2009

The bactenecin is an antibacterial peptide with an intramolecular disulfide bond. We recently found that homodimeric bactenecin exhibits more potent antibacterial activity than the monomeric form and retains its activity at physiological conditions. Here we assess the difference in the modes of antibiotic action of homodimeric and monomeric bactenecins. Both monomeric and dimeric bactenecins almost completely killed both Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli within 10-30 min at concentrations of $8-16\;{\mu}M$. However, exposure to liposomes elicited an increase in the fluorescence quantum yield from a tryptophan-containing monomeric analog, while the homodimeric analog showed a significant reduction in fluorescence intensity. Moreover, unlike the monomer, the homodimer displayed apparent membrane-lytic activity enabling release of various sized dyes from liposomes, and rapidly and fully depolarized the S. aureus membrane. Together, our results suggest that homodimeric bactenecin forms pores in the bacterial membrane, while monomeric one penetrates through the membrane to target intracellular molecules/organelles.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.413-459
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• 2008

The Law has intervened to define rare circumstances in which a person should choose continuing life in United States. On the one hand, the law has traditionally acted to preservelife and to respect the sanctity of life. On the other hand, one's control over one's own body, and the right to determine what kind of medical care one will receive, is equally well respected and historically grounded. The competent patients have the right to forgo life-sustaining treatment, courts in United States have left many unanswered questions about the nature of that right. The right to choose to forgo life-sustaining treatment is a manifestation of a patient's autonomy interest. In United States, The Karen Quilan case gave rise to legislative activity in the host of state capitals, and several states had adopted statutes that formally recognized some forms of written directives describing some circumstances in which certain kinds of medical care could be terminated. These statues were sometimes dominated 'living will' acts, sometimes 'right to die' acts and ocasionally 'natural death' acts. Today virtually every state has produced a living will statue. In Korea, courts do not permit a terminally ill person to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment. Living wills apply in case of terminal illness owing to a defect in legislation. Now In Korea, these lively dispute of legal policy on the preconditions and concrete procedure of living will act and natural death act. Through the legislation of living will act and natural death act, we should prepare some circumstances to respect patient's autonomy on the right to die. We should frame the cultural standard to make a decision of forgoing life-sustainin1g treatment under the discreet procedure.