• Molecules and Cells
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.201-207
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• 2009

Silibinin is a polyphenolic flavonoid compound isolated from milk thistle (Silybum marianum), with known hepatoprotective, anticarcinogenic, and antioxidant effects. Herein, we show that silibinin inhibits receptor activator of $NF-{\kappa}B$ ligand (RANKL)-induced osteoclastogenesis from RAW264.7 cells as well as from bone marrow-derived monocyte/macrophage cells in a dose-dependent manner. Silibinin has no effect on the expression of RANKL or the soluble RANKL decoy receptor osteoprotegerin (OPG) in osteoblasts. However, we demonstrate that silibinin can block the activation of $NF-{\kappa}B$, c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), p38 mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase, and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) in osteoclast precursors in response to RANKL. Furthermore, silibinin attenuates the induction of nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) c1 and osteoclast-associated receptor (OSCAR) expression during RANKL-induced osteoclastogenesis. We demonstrate that silibinin can inhibit $TNF-{\alpha}$-induced osteoclastogenesis as well as the expression of NFATc1 and OSCAR. Taken together, our results indicate that silibinin has the potential to inhibit osteoclast formation by attenuating the downstream signaling cascades associated with RANKL and $TNF-{\alpha}$.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.7-13
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• 2007

The oxazole plays an important role in the binding of lexitropsin to the guanine-cytosine base pair from minor groove of DNA. The geometry optimization is performed with DFT calculations for the two possible conformations of the protonated oxazole. The proton affinities are calculated at B3LYP level of theory with 6-31G* basis set for the optimized geometry. It is found that the proton affinites of the conformations in which the oxazole nitrogen is the protonation center are greater than that of the conformations in which the oxazole oxygen is the protonation center. This result is in good agreement with molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) contour map. The proton affinities are also studied for various substituted oxazoles with the electron-donating and -withdrawing groups to estimate substitutent effect on the proton affinity at the hydrogen bonding site of the oxazoles. it is shown that the electron-donating substituents increase the proton affinity of oxazole, while the electron-withdrawing substituents decrease it.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.1507-1510
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• 2012

Quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with fat deposition traits in pigs are important gene positions in a chromosome that influence meat quality of pork. For QTL study, a three generation resource population was constructed from a cross between Korean native boars and Landrace sows. A total of 240 F2 animals from intercross of F1 were produced. 80 microsatellite markers covering chromosomes 1 to 10 were selected to genotype the resource population. Intervals between adjacent markers were approximately 19 cM. Linkage analysis was performed using CRIMAP software version 2.4 with a FIXED option to obtain the map distances. For QTL analysis, the public web-based software, QTL express (http://www.qtl.cap.ed.ac.uk) was used. Two significant and two suggestive QTL were identified on SSC 6, 7, and 8 as affecting body fat and IMF traits. For QTL affecting IMF, the most significant association was detected between marker sw71 and sw1881 on SSC 6, and a suggestive QTL was identified between sw268 and sw205 on SSC8. These QTL accounted for 26.58% and 12.31% of the phenotypic variance, respectively. A significant QTL affecting IMF was detected at position 105 cM between markers sw71 and sw1881 on SSC 6.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.60-67
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• 2008

An all-optical 4-bit Gray code to binary coded decimal (BCD) converter by means of commercially available numerical analysis tool (VPI) was demonstrated, for the first time to our knowledge. Circuit design approach was modified appropriately in order to fit the electrical method on an all-optical logic circuit based on a cross gain modulation (XGM) process so that signal degradation due to the non-ideal optical logic gates can be minimized. Without regenerations, Q-factor of around 4 was obtained for the most severely degraded output bit (least significant bit-LSB) with 2.5 Gbps clean input signals having 20 dB extinction ratio. While modifying the two-level simplification method and Karnaugh map method to design a Gray code to BCD converter, a general design concept was also founded (one-level simplification) in this research, not only for the Gray code to BCD converter but also for any general applications.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.35 no.11C
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• pp.940-947
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• 2010

Motion Compensated Frame Interpolation(MCFI) has been used to reduce motion jerkiness for dynamic scenes and motion blurriness for LCD-panel display as post processing for high quality display. However, MCFI that directly uses the motion information often suffers from annoying artifacts such as blockiness, ghost effects, and deformed structures. So in this paper, we propose a novel edge-based adaptively weighted vector median filter as post-processing. At first, the proposed method generates an edge direction map through a sobel mask and a weighted maximum frequent filter. And then, outlier MVs are removed by average of angle difference and replaced by a median MV of $3{\times}3$ window. Finally, weighted vector median filter adjusts the weighting values based on edge direction derived from spatial coherence between the edge direction continuity and motion vector. The results show that the performance of PSNR and SSIM are higher up to 0.5 ~ 1 dB and 0.4 ~ 0.8 %, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.62 no.2
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• pp.153-165
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• 2019

Objective : Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a very serious health problem, usually caused by a trauma and accompanied by elevated levels of inflammation indicators. Stem cell-based therapy is promising some valuable strategies for its functional recovery. Nestin-positive progenitor and/or stem cells (SC) isolated from pancreatic islets (PI) show mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) characteristics. For this reason, we aimed to analyze the effects of rat pancreatic islet derived stem cell (rPI-SC) delivery on functional recovery, as well as the levels of inflammation factors following SCI. Methods : rPI-SCs were isolated, cultured and their MSC characteristics were determined through flow cytometry and immunofluorescence analysis. The experimental rat population was divided into three groups : 1) laminectomy & trauma, 2) laminectomy & trauma & phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), and 3) laminectomy+trauma+SCs. Green fluorescent protein (GFP) labelled rPI-SCs were transplanted into the injured rat spinal cord. Their motilities were evaluated with Basso, Beattie and Bresnahan (BBB) Score. After 4-weeks, spinal cord sections were analyzed for GFP labeled SCs and stained for vimentin, $S100{\beta}$, brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), 2',3'-cyclic-nucleotide 3'-phosphodiesterase (CNPase), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and proinflammatory (interleukin [IL]-6, transforming growth factor $[TGF]-{\beta}$, macrophage inflammatory protein [MIP]-2, myeloperoxidase [MPO]) and anti-inflammatory (IL-1 receptor antagonis) factors. Results : rPI-SCs were revealed to display MSC characteristics and express neural and glial cell markers including BDNF, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), fibronectin, microtubule associated protein-2a,b (MAP2a,b), ${\beta}3$-tubulin and nestin as well as anti-inflammatory prostaglandin E2 receptor, EP3. The BBB scores showed significant motor recovery in group 3. GFP-labelled cells were localized on the injury site. In addition, decreased proinflammatory factor levels and increased intensity of anti-inflammatory factors were determined. Conclusion : Transplantation of PI-SCs might be an effective strategy to improve functional recovery following spinal cord trauma.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.5_1
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• pp.545-557
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• 2022

This study used high-resolution satellite images and supervised classification technique based on machine learning method in order to detect the areas affected by wildfires in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) where direct access is difficult. Sentinel-2 A/B was used for high-resolution satellite images. Land cover map was calculated based on the SVM supervised classification technique. In order to find the optimal combination to classify the DMZ wildfire damage area, supervised classification according to various kernel and band combinations in the SVM was performed and the accuracy was evaluated through the error matrix. Verification was performed by comparing the results of the wildfire detection based on satellite image and data by the wildfire statistical annual report in 2020 and 2021. Also, wildfire damage areas was detected for which there is no current data in 2022. This is to quickly determine reliable results.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.3B
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• pp.241-251
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• 2006

This study analyzed the topographical characteristics by extracting property factors of stream (stream order, number of stream, stream length, mean stream length) and property factors of basin (basin area, basin length, total stream length, total number of stream, basin mean width, form factor, maximum stream order, basin density, stream frequency, relief ratio, mean elevation, mean, slope, maximum elevation) from DEM (digital elevation model) and stream network generated by 1:5,000 NGIS (national geographical information system) data for the Bukhan-river basin. In addition, topographical factors for upper, mid stream and lower stream were analyzed and the mutuality of the factors by linear and nonlinear regression curve was identified.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.135-146
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• 2011

The objective of the present research was to map QTLs associated with agronomic traits such as days from sowing to flowering, plant height, yield and leaf-related traits in a population of recombinant inbred lines (RILs) of sunflower (Helianthus annuus). Two field experiments were conducted with well-irrigated and partially irrigated conditions in randomized complete block design with three replications. A map with 304 AFLP and 191 SSR markers with a mean density of 1 marker per 3.7 cM was used to identify QTLs related to the studied traits. The difference among RILs was significant for all studied traits in both conditions. Three to seven QTLs were found for each studied trait in both conditions. The percentage of phenotypic variance ($R^2$) explained by QTLs ranged from 4 to 49%. Three to six QTLs were found for each yield-related trait in both conditions. The most important QTL for grain yield per plant on linkage group 13 (GYP-P-13-1) under partial-irrigated condition controls 49% of phenotypic variance ($R^2$). The most important QTL for 1,000-grain weight (TGW-P-11-1) was identified on linkage group 11. Favorable alleles for this QTL come from RHA266. The major QTL for days from sowing to flowering (DSF-P-14-1) were observed on linkage group 14 and explained 38% of the phenotypic variance. The positive alleles for this QTL come from RHA266. The major QTL for HD (HD-P-13-1) was also identified on linkage group 13 and explained 37% of the phenotypic variance. Both parents (PAC2 and RHA266) contributed to QTLs controlling leaf-related traits in both conditions. Common QTL for leaf area at flowering (LAF-P-12-1, LAF-W-12-1) was detected in linkage group 12. The results emphasise the importance of the role of linkage groups 2, 10 and 13 for studied traits. Genomic regions on the linkage groups 9 and 12 are specific for QTLs of leaf-related traits in sunflower.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.952-957
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• 2008

We evaluated the effects of various factors (e.g., serum, inhibitors of protein synthesis, and cytoskeleton and protein kinases) on early PMA-induced THP-1 cell adhesion using an adhesion assay with Sulforhodamine B (SRB) staining, which was used to assess the proliferation of the attached cells. THP-1 cell adhesion to a plastic substrate was detected 1 hr after exposure to Phorbol 12-Myristate 13-Acetate (PMA) and peaked after 18 hr. At concentrations > 25 nM PMA, the level of adhesion did not change. Based on our preliminary results, we used 25 nM PMA and 5 hr of culture as standard assay conditions. Early PMA-induced cell adhesion was not affected by the presence of serum or PD 98059 in the culture medium, but was affected by the addition of PKC inhibitors and cycloheximide. In the presence of actin inhibitor with PMA, the cell adhesion increased when comparing with PMA treatment only. Thus, early PMA-induced adhesion of THP-1 cells does not require serum in the culture medium, MAP-kinase activation, or actin polymerization, but does require de novo protein synthesis and PKC activation. Our SRB-based cell adhesion assay may be used to screen other PKC inhibitors.