• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.67-72
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• 2014

Minimal broth containing nicotine as a sole carbon source (MB/N) was used to isolate novel nicotine-degrading bacterial strains from tobacco plants and field soils. Comparative analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequence, phenotypic test and morphological tests showed that the position of these isolates were in the genus Arthrobacter of the family Micrococcaceae. The highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of the isolate NU11 and NU15 to type strains in the genus Arthrobacter were Arthrobacter equi (98.2%) which was presumably a novel strain and Arthrobacter nicotinovorans (99.8%), respectively. Both strain NU11 and NU15 showed rod shaped, Gram-positive characteristics and catalase activity, but did not show oxidase activity. The novel strain NU11 was found to degrade efficiently nicotine in MB/N medium by the analysis of UV absorption spectra and could be used as an organism in bioremediation technique.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.42 no.12
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• pp.850-857
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• 2019

The Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, has multiple multidrug efflux pumps. MexT, a LysR-type transcriptional regulator, functions as a transcriptional activator of the MexEF-OprN efflux system. MexT consists of an N-terminal DNA-binding domain and a C-terminal regulatory domain (RD). Little is known regarding MexT ligands and its mechanism of activation. We elucidated the crystal structure of the MexT RD at 2.0 Å resolution. The structure comprised two protomer chains in a dimeric arrangement. MexT possessed an arginine-rich region and a hydrophobic patch lined by a variable loop, both of which are putative ligand-binding sites. The three-dimensional structure of MexT provided clues to the interacting ligand structure. A DNase I footprinting assay of full-length MexT identified two MexT-binding sequence in the mexEF-oprN promoter. Our findings enhance the understanding of the regulation of MexT-dependent activation of efflux pumps.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.17-23
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• 2011

The focus of this study was to clarify the relation between the nitric oxide (NO) production and cytokine expression including tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$ (TNF) and interleukin-6 (IL-6), and also investigated the effect of G-NANA (N-acylneuraminic acid isolates from glycomacropeptide) or S-NANA (Synthetic N-acylneuraminic acid) on LPS stimuli from RAW264.7 cell. The NANA is the predominant sialic acid found in mammalian cells and G-NANA is isolation of GMP (GMP is a valuable bioactive peptide with a varying degree of glycosylation including sialic acid). The lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of Gram-negative bacteria induces the expression of cytokines and potent inducers of inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-${\alpha}$ and IL-6. In this experiment, upon stimulation with increasing concentrations of chitosan, the LPS-stimulated TNF-${\alpha}$ and IL-6 secretion was significantly recovered with in the incubation media of RAW264.7 cells. Consistently, RT-PCR with mRNA and immunoblot analysis with anti-cytokine antiserum including TNF-${\alpha}$ and IL-6 showed that the amount of TNF-${\alpha}$ and IL-6 secretion in the incubation media recovered with the concentration of chitosan. The LPS-stimulated NO secretion was significantly recovered with in the 6 and 12 h incubation media of RAW264.7 cells, too. The recovery effect of G-NANA on IL-6 and NO secretion may be induced via the stimulus of TNF-${\alpha}$ in RAW264.7 cell. These results once again suggest that G-NANA may have the anti-inflammatory effect via the stimulus of TNF-${\alpha}$ in the LPS-stimulated inflammation in RAW264.7 cells.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.51-57
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• 2015

The etiology of periodontal disease is multifactorial. Exogenous stimuli such as bacterial pathogens can interact with toll-like receptors to activate intracellular calcium signaling in gingival epithelium and other tissues. The triggering of calcium signaling induces the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-8 as part of the inflammatory response; however, the exact mechanism of calcium signaling induced by bacterial toxins when gingival epithelial cells are exposed to pathogens is unclear. Here, we investigate calcium signaling induced by bacteria and expression of inflammatory cytokines in human gingival epithelial cells. We found that peptidoglycan, a constituent of grampositive bacteria and an agonist of toll-like receptor 2, increases intracellular calcium in a concentration-dependent manner. Peptidoglycan-induced calcium signaling was abolished by treatment with blockers of phospholipase C (U73122), inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors, indicating the release of calcium from intracellular calcium stores. Peptidoglycan-mediated interleukin-8 expression was blocked by U73122 and 1,2-bis(2-aminophenoxy)ethane-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid tetrakis (acetoxymethyl ester). Moreover, interleukin-8 expression was induced by thapsigargin, a selective inhibitor of the sarco/endoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase, when thapsigargin was treated alone or co-treated with peptidoglycan. These results suggest that the gram-positive bacterial toxin peptidoglycan induces calcium signaling via the phospholipase C/inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate pathway, and that increased interleukin-8 expression is mediated by intracellular calcium levels in human gingival epithelial cells.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.213-226
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• 2005

To treat wastewater efficiently by a one-step process of nitrogen removal, a new bacterial strain producing $N_2$ gas from ${NH_4}^+$ under an aerobic condition was isolated and identified. The cell was motile and a Gram-negative rod, and usually occurred in pairs. By 16S-rDNA analysis, the isolated strain was identified as Enterobacter asburiae with 96% similarity. The isolate showed that the capacity of $N_2$ production under an oxic condition was approximately three times higher than that under an anoxic condition. Thus, the consumption of ${NH_4}^+$ by the isolate was significantly different in the metabolism of $N_2$ production under the two different environmental conditions. The optimal conditions of the immobilized isolate for $N_2$ production were found to be pH 7.0, $30^{\circ}C$ and C/N ratio 5, respectively. Under all the optimum reaction conditions, $N_2$ production by the immobilized isolate resulted in reduction of ORP with both the consumption of DO and the drop of pH. The removal efficiencies of $COD_{Cr}$, and TN were 56.1 and 60.9%, respectively. The removal rates of $COD_{Cr}$, and TN were the highest for the first 2.5 hrs with the removal $COD_{Cr}/TN$ ratios of 32.1, and afterwards the rates decreased as reaction proceeded. For application of the immobilized isolate to a practical process of ammonium removal, a continuous operation was executed with a synthetic medium of a low C/N ratio. The continuous bioreactor system exhibited a satisfactory performance at 12.1 hrs of HRT, in which the effluent concentrations of ${NH_4}^+$-N was measured to be 15.4 mg/L with its removal efficiency of 56.0%. The maximum removal rate of ${NH_4}^+$-N reached 1.6 mg ${NH_4}^+$-N/L/hr at 12.1 hrs of HRT(with N loading rate of $0.08\;Kg-N/m^3$-carrier/d). As a result, the application of the immobilized isolate appears a viable alternative to the nitrification-denitrification processes.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.133-138
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• 2008

Fire can affect microbial community structure of soil through altered environmental conditions, nutrient availability, and biotic source for microbial re-colonization. We examined the influence of fire on chemical properties and soil enzyme activities of soil for 10 months. We also characterized the soil microbial community structure through ester-linked fatty acid analysis(EL-FAME). For this study, we established five burned plots(1*1 m) and 5 unburned plots outside the margin of fire. Soil was sampled three soil cores in a each plots and composited for analysis at 1, 3, 5, 8, and 10 month after fire. The fire caused an increase in soil pH, exchangeable Ca, and Mg, organic matter, available $P_2O_5$ compared to unburned sites. The content of $NH_4-N$ in burned site was significantly higher than that of unburned site and this effect continued for 8 months after fire. There was no difference of $NO_3-N$ content in soil between burned and unburned site. Fire caused no change in acid phosphatase and arylsulfatase activities but $\beta$-glucosidase and alkaline phosphatase activities in burned site were increased compared to unburned site. Microbial biomass as estimated by total concentration of EL-FAMEs in burned sites was significantly higher than that of unburned sites at one month after fire. Burned site decreased the EL-FAMEs indicative of gram-positive bacteria and tended to increase the fatty acid associated with gram-negative bacteria at one and three months after fire. The sum of EL-FAME compound $18:2{\omega}6,9c$ and $18:1{\omega}9c$ as served fungal biomarkers was decreased in burned site compared to unburned site.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.97-107
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• 2020

This study aims to conduct a comprehensive meta-study from the perspective of content analysis to explore trends in Korean academic research on the sharing economy by using the big data analytics. Comprehensive meta-analysis methodology can examine the entire set of research results historically and wholly to illuminate the tendency or properties of the overall research trend. Academic research related to the sharing economy first appeared in the year in which Professor Lawrence Lessig introduced the concept of the sharing economy to the world in 2008, but research began in earnest in 2013. In particular, between 2006 and 2008, research improved dramatically. In order to grasp the overall flow of domestic academic research of trends, 8 years of papers from 2013 to the present have been selected as target analysis papers, focusing on titles, keywords, and abstracts using database of electronic journals. Big data analysis was performed in the order of cleaning, analysis, and visualization of the collected data to derive research trends and insights by year and type of literature. We used Python3.7 and Textom analysis tools for data preprocessing, text mining, and metrics frequency analysis for key word extraction, and N-gram chart, centrality and social network analysis and CONCOR clustering visualization based on UCINET6/NetDraw, Textom program, the keywords clustered into 8 groups were used to derive the typologies of each research trend. The outcomes of this study will provide useful theoretical insights and guideline to future studies.

• Journal of KIISE:Databases
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.283-303
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• 2007

Recently, the study of efficient way to store and retrieve enormous music data is becoming the one of important issues in the multimedia database. Most general method of MIR (Music Information Retrieval) includes a text-based approach using text information to search a desired music. However, if users did not remember the keyword about the music, it can not give them correct answers. Moreover, since these types of systems are implemented only for exact matching between the query and music data, it can not mine any information on similar music data. Thus, these systems are inappropriate to achieve similarity matching of music data. In order to solve the problem, we propose an Efficient Query-By-Humming System (EQBHS) with a content-based indexing method that efficiently retrieve and store music when a user inquires with his incorrect humming. For the purpose of accelerating query processing in EQBHS, we design indices for significant melodies, which are 1) frequent melodies occurring many times in a single music, on the assumption that users are to hum what they can easily remember and 2) melodies partitioned by rests. In addition, we propose an error tolerated mapping method from a note to a character to make searching efficient, and the frequent melody extraction algorithm. We verified the assumption for frequent melodies by making up questions and compared the performance of the proposed EQBHS with N-gram by executing various experiments with a number of music data.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.115-121
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• 1989

A comparative slaughter feeding experiment with steer calves weighing 280 kg and a concurrent digestion trial with wether lambs was conducted to study the energy value of rice straw as influenced by ammonia treatment and mixing with alfalfa hay. Steers were ad libitum fed one of nine completely mixed experimental diets: basal (high concentrate); 25 or 50% of untreated rice straw (URS) or ammoniated (plastic covered bales, 4.6% $NH_3$ by weight) rice straw (ARS) proportionately replacing part of the basal; a 50:50 % mixture of URS or ARS and alfalfa replacing a proportion of the basal at 25 and 50%. Digestibility of the nine complete diets (pelleted to prevent sorting) was determined with four ad libitum fed lambs. Ammoniation increased crude protein level (from 3.6 to 10.8%) and in vitro dry matter digestibility of the rice straw by 15%. The improvement in DE, NEm and NEg by ammoniation of rice straw was 20, 52 and 117%, respectively. Ammoniation of rice straw fed as 50% of the diet improved gains over the diet containing 50% URS, but no significant influence on animal performance was observed when rice straw was fed at the 25% level. Each 10% addition of URS to basal diet decreased empty body gain of steers by 116 gram per day compared with a decrease of 70 gram per day when rice straw had been ammoniated. There was no beneficial effect of ammoniation when the roughage component of the diet was a 50:50 mixture of rice straw and alfalfa. Ammoniation of straw and inclusion of alfalfa generally increased the concentration of total volatile fatty acids in rumen fluid. Ammoniation resulted in reduced concentrations of acetic and propionic acid, but increased concentration of butyric acid. Digestibility of URS was improved by mixing with alfalfa. However, alfalfa hay did not influence digestibility of ARS. Diets in which ARS replaced the basal mixture at 25 and 50% had higher NEm and NEg values than comparable URS diets. The same pattern was observed in the straw: alfalfa mixtures, but differences between URS and ARS were significant only for the 50% roughage diets.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.525-535
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• 2017

The purpose of this study aims to examine consumer perception and current status of water park. The Naver and Daum were used for data collection channels and the keyword 'water park' was used for data retrieval. The data analysis period was limited to the study period from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2016 for a total of two years. First, as a result of the frequency analysis, hidden cameras, Lotte water park, arrests, suspects, gimhae were in top 5 in 2015, Lotte water park, swimming, summer, opening, admission ticket were in top 5 in 2016. Second, as a result of the connection degree central analysis, hidden camera, arrest, suspect, female, shower room were in top 5 in 2015, swimming, Lotte water park, summer and One Mount, admission ticket were in top 5 in 2016. Third, as a result of the N-GRAM network graph, the water park/hidden camera, the hidden camera/hidden camera, the suspect/arrest, the Gimhae/Lotte water park, water park/suspect were in top 5 in 2015, and One Mount/water park, Gimhae/Lotte water park, water park/admission ticket, water park/water park, water park/opening were in top 5 in 2016. Fourth, as a result of the CONCOR analysis, three groups in 2015 and two groups in 2016 were formed.