• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.911-917
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• 2022

As valuable antibiotics, microbial natural products have been in use for decades in various fields. Among them are polyene compounds including nystatin, amphotericin, and nystatin-like Pseudonocardia polyenes (NPPs). Polyene macrolides are known to possess various biological effects, such as antifungal and antiviral activities. NPP A1, which is produced by Pseudonocardia autotrophica, contains a unique disaccharide moiety in the tetraene macrolide backbone. NPP B1, with a heptane structure and improved antifungal activity, was then developed via genetic manipulation of the NPP A1 biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC). Here, we generated a Streptomyces artificial chromosomal DNA library to isolate a large-sized NPP B1 BGC. The NPP B1 BGC was successfully isolated from P. autotrophica chromosome through the construction and screening of a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library, even though the isolated 140-kb BAC clone (named pNPPB1s) lacked approximately 8 kb of the right-end portion of the NPP B1 BGC. The additional introduction of the pNPPB1s as well as co-expression of the 32-kb portion including the missing 8 kb led to a 7.3-fold increase in the production level of NPP B1 in P. autotrophica. The qRT-PCR confirmed that the transcription level of NPP B1 BGC was significantly increased in the P. autotrophica strain containing two copies of the NPP B1 BGCs. Interestingly, the NPP B1 exhibited a previously unidentified SARS-CoV-2 RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) inhibition activity in vitro. These results suggest that the Streptomyces BAC cloning of a large-sized, natural product BGC is a valuable approach for titer improvement and biological activity screening of natural products in actinomycetes.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.86-93
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• 2023

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the potential toxicity of a recently developed and clinically used No-Pain pharmacopuncture (NPP) solution. We also assessed the lethal dose of the NPP agent following a single intramuscular injection in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. Methods: Animals were divided into two groups: the NPP test material group and the normal saline control group. A single intramuscular injection of the NPP agent (1.0 mL/animal) was administered to rats of the NPP test material group. The control group rats received the same volume of normal saline. Both female and male rats were included in each group. All rats were monitored for clinical signs and body weight changes for 14 days after administration of the test substance or saline. At the end of the observation period, a gross necropsy was conducted and localized tolerance at the injection site was analyzed. Results: No mortality was observed in the NPP test material and control groups. Moreover, no test substance-related effects were observed on clinical signs, body weight, necropsy findings, and localized tolerance at the injection site. Conclusion: The approximate lethal dose of the NPP agent is greater than 1.0 mL/animal under the conditions used in this study. Additional toxicity evaluations and clinical studies are needed to confirm the safety of NPP use in clinical practice.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.696-697
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• 2015

Cost, schedule, and quality are the three major performance indicators for any construction project. Under the globalized competition in the nuclear industry, researchers and practitioners have also explored a systemized and integrated management system for cost, schedule, and quality. In order to address this issue, the concept of earned value management system (EVMS) has been often utilized. However, implementing EVMS for a mega-project of nuclear power plant (NPP) construction requires extensive overhead efforts. Though previous studies proposed structures and methods for effective NPP EVMS, there has been no legitimate study for data collection strategy for practical implementation. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to develop an effective data collection strategy for NPP EVMS. Firstly, the barriers to practical NPP EVMS were identified based on literature review and expert interviews. Strategies for data collection were then developed based on different phases of project life cycle. This study focuses on the 'life-cycle integrated progress management system' for NPP construction from an owner's perspective Therefore, results of this study can be used as a guide for preparing request for proposals (RFP) of an NPP owner organization.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.366-372
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• 2023

Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the genotoxicity of a recently developed no-pain pharmacopuncture (NPP) targeting muscle relaxation and analgesia using the micronucleus test. Methods: To evaluate the potential of NPP extracts to induce micronuclei in rat bone marrow cells, a micronucleus test was performed using male Sprague-Dawley rats. The test substance NPP was administered intramuscularly at concentrations of 0.25, 0.5, and 1 mL/animal. Saline was used as the negative control and cyclophosphamide as the positive control. Results: No NPP treatment-related deaths or abnormal changes in general appearance were observed at any dose level during the experimental period. No statistically significant differences in body weight were observed in any of the NPP dose groups compared to the saline negative control group. NPP did not cause a significant increase in the incidence of micronucleated polychromatic erythrocytes (PCEs) and PCEs or in the ratio of PCE-to-total erythrocytes. Conclusion: The NPP extract did not exhibit genotoxic in Sprague-Dawley rat bone marrow cells under the conditions of this study. Further toxicity studies of the NPP extract are required.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.169-179
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• 2000

An experiment was conducted to measure the effect of crude phytase supplementation on the growing performance, blood concentrations of some minerals and tibia characteristics of broiler chickens. Day-old 240 male broiler chickens (Avian) were randomly allotted to four treatments. There were six replicates per treatment, and ten chicks per replicate. Treatments consisted of two levels of crude phytase (0 and 600U/kg) made from Aspergillus ficuum and two levels of non-phytate P (0.45 and 0.35% NPP for the starter period, and 0.35 and 0.25% NPP for the grower period), making the experiment 2$\times$2 factorial. The starter period was from hatch to 21 d of age, and grower period was from 22 to 35 d of age. Feed intake and weight gain of chicks fed diet containing phytase were higher(P〈0.05) than those of chicks fed diets without phytase, however, no differences was found in feed/gain. mortality, and nutrient availabilities regarding the phytase supplementation. Chickens fed diets with low NPP and phytase excreted lower P than did birds fed diets containing normal NPP without phytase. The level of NPP and phytase did not affect N excretion. The Ca availability was increased by feeding low NPP diet. Dietary phytase increased the availabilities of P and Mg, but decreased those of Fe and Zn. There was interactions between dietary NPP level and phytase addition on mineral availability. Tibia was lighter and shorter in low NPP groups, and heavier in phytase treated groups. The tibial contents of Ca, P and Mg decreased in low NPP treated groups, but increased in phytase treated groups. The ash content of tibia of chickens fed diet with phytase was higher than that of birds fed diets without phytase. These data suggest that the crude phytase supplementation to broiler diets containing low NPP level improves growth performance and mineral availability and, reduces fecal P excretion.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.192-205
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• 2020

Seismic design practices and seismic response analyses of civil structures and nuclear power plants (NPPs) have conventionally used the peak ground acceleration (PGA) or spectral acceleration (S_a) as an intensity measure (IM) of an earthquake. However, there are many other earthquake IMs that were proposed by various researchers. The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation between seismic responses of NPP components and 23 earthquake IMs and identify the best IMs for correlating with damage of NPP structures. Particularly, low- and high-frequency ground motion records are separately accounted in correlation analyses. An advanced power reactor NPP in Korea, APR1400, is selected for numerical analyses where containment and auxiliary buildings are modeled using SAP2000. Floor displacements and accelerations are monitored for the non- and base-isolated NPP structures while shear deformations of the base isolator are additionally monitored for the base-isolated NPP. A series of Pearson's correlation coefficients are calculated to recognize the correlation between each of the 23 earthquake IMs and responses of NPP structures. The numerical results demonstrate that there is a significant difference in the correlation between earthquake IMs and seismic responses of non-isolated NPP structures considering low- and high-frequency ground motion groups. Meanwhile, a trivial discrepancy of the correlation is observed in the case of the base-isolated NPP subjected to the two groups of ground motions. Moreover, a selection of PGA or S_a for seismic response analyses of NPP structures in the high-frequency seismic regions may not be the best option. Additionally, a set of fragility curves are thereafter developed for the base-isolated NPP based on the shear deformation of lead rubber bearing (LRB) with respect to the strongly correlated IMs. The results reveal that the probability of damage to the structure is higher for low-frequency earthquakes compared with that of high-frequency ground motions.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.719-725
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• 2003

An experiment was conducted to study the requirement of calcium (Ca) and non-phytin phosphorus (NPP) in commercial broilers during starter phase. Seven hundred and twenty day-old Vencob male broiler chicks were randomly distributed into 144 stainless steel battery brooders, 5 birds in each. Four levels each of Ca (6, 7, 8, and 9 g/kg) and NPP (3, 3.5, 4, and 4.5 g/kg diet) were fed in a factorial design in a corn-soya basal diet. Levels of dicalcium phosphate and oyster shell grit were adjusted to obtain the desired levels of Ca and NPP. Each diet was fed ad libidum to chicks in 9 battery brooders from one d to 21 d of age. Body weight gain and feed intake were depressed (p<0.01) by increasing the dietary Ca level (8 and 9 g/kg) at lower levels of NPP (3 and 3.5 g/kg diet). The growth depression observed at lower NPP level was alleviated by reducing the Ca content to 6 g/kg diet. The tibia ash content and tibia breaking strength increased with increase in both Ca (>6 g/kg) and NPP (>3 g/kg) levels. The leg abnormality score decreased (p<0.01) with increase in NPP content in the diet at all levels of Ca tested. The serum Ca and inorganic P levels were increased with increase in the level of the respective mineral in the diet, but the serum concentration of Ca and P were inversely related to the level of NPP and Ca, respectively /kg diet. In general, the excretion of macro minerals (Ca, and P), and micro minerals {zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), and copper (Cu)} was significantly lower at lower levels of Ca and NPP tested (6 and 3 g/kg diet, respectively). The mineral excretion increased with increase in dietary Ca and NPP levels, more conspicuously at the disproportionate ratio of these minerals (>2:1, Ca and NPP). Similarly, the retention of Zn, Mn, and Fe in liver was significantly higher (p<0.01) at lower levels of Ca and NPP tested. Results from this study indicate that the commercial broilers do not require more than 3 g NPP and 6g Ca/kg diet during starter phase (up to 21 d of age) for optimum weight gain, feed efficiency and utilization of Ca, P, Zn, Mn, Fe and Cu. However, the requirements of these minerals for optimum bone mineralization were higher than the levels suggested above.

• Korean System Dynamics Review
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.63-84
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• 2001

There are many activities to improve Nuclear Power Plant(NPP) performance and safety such as equipment improvement, redundancy and the like. Since public perception about NPP safety affects nuclear policy of site selection. Recent researches for NPP safety are including not only technical approaches but also social ones. In. this contexture, the purpose of this study is to develope cuassal loop digaram for assessment of organizational and human factors in NPP safety. Through real data from interview with NPP employees we develope causal loop diagram which can explain the relations of cause and effect among variables, and depict social system for organizational and human factors in NPP safety.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.8
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• pp.1372-1386
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• 2018

Despite recent advances in multi-hazard analysis, the complexity and inherent nature of such problems make quantification of the landslide effect in a probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) of NPPs challenging. Therefore, in this paper, a practical approach was presented for performing an earthquake-induced landslide PSA for NPPs subject to seismic hazard. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, it was applied to Korean typical NPP in Korea as a numerical example. The assessment result revealed the quantitative probabilistic effects of peripheral slope failure and subsequent run-out effect on the risk of core damage frequency (CDF) of a NPP during the earthquake event. Parametric studies were conducted to demonstrate how parameters for slope, and physical relation between the slope and NPP, changed the CDF risk of the NPP. Finally, based on these results, the effective strategies were suggested to mitigate the CDF risk to the NPP resulting from the vulnerabilities inherent in adjacent slopes. The proposed approach can be expected to provide an effective framework for performing the earthquake-induced landslide PSA and decision support to increase NPP safety.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.824-829
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• 2000

A five wk feeding experiment was conducted with day-old one thousand broiler chicks (Arbor Acres) to determine the effects of microbial phytase (Natuphos$^{(R)}$) supplemented to low nonphytate P (NPP) corn-soy diets. Five pens of 50 mixed sex birds each were randomly assigned to each of the four dietary treatments: T1, control diet containing normal NPP level; T2, T1-0.1% NPP+600 U of phytase/kg diet; T3, T1 - 0.2% NPP+600 U of phytase/kg diet; and T4, T1 - 0.3% NPP+600 U of phytase/kg diet. T1, T2, and T3 showed similar growth rate, feed intake, and feed efficiency, indicating that NPP level in broiler diets could be reduced by approximately 0.2% by the microbial phytase supplementation. But T4 showed significantly (p<0.05) lower weight gain than others. The phytase supplementation improved P availability resulting in low P excretion. Weight and girth of metatarsal bone were increased by phytase supplementation at low NPP diet treatments but ash contents were not significantly different. It can be concluded that NPP level of corn-soy broiler diets can be safely lowered by approximately 0.2 % by supplementing 600 U of microbial phytase/kg diet. With the adjusted level of NPP and phytase supplementation, P excretion could be reduced by 50%.