• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.834-839
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• 2017

Propolis is a natural product collected from plants by honey bees product used extensively in traditional medicine for its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory and anti-cancer effects. Propolis exhibits a broad spectrum of biological activities because it is a complex mixture of natural substances. Ovarian cancer is the second most common newly diagnosed cancer from all cancers among women in Korea and the leading cause of death from gynecological malignancies. While most ovarian cancer patients initially respond to surgical debulking and chemotherapy, patients later succumb to the disease. Thus, there is an urgent need to test novel therapeutic agents to counteract the high mortality rate associated with ovarian cancer. In this study, we investigated the anti-cancer properties and the active mechanism of Australian propolis in human epithelial ovarian cancer A2780 cells. Our data revealed that propolis showed a cytotoxic activity in a dose-dependent manner. Flow cytometric analysis for cell cycle arrest and apoptosis using propidium iodide staning and annexin V-FITC indicated that propolis could induce cycle arrest in the G0/G1 phase and apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner on human epithelial ovarian cancer cells. These results suggest that the Australian propolis is potential alternative agent on ovarian cancer prevention and treatment.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.11
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• pp.1357-1368
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to investigate the anti-obesity and anti-inflammation effect of the cheonggukjang (a soybean paste fermented for only a few days) in diet induced obesity mice. Weight gain was significantly decreased in the mice fed cheonggukjang compared High Fat Diets (HFD). The HFD plus cheonggukjang (CGJ) were also effective in improving the lipid metabolism. The levels of plasma triglyceride, cholesterol, ALT, AST, leptin, glucose, and insulin were significantly lower in CGJ than HFD group (p<0.05). The adiponectin level of CGJ group was significantly increased compared to the HFD group (p<0.05). In the CGJ group, the mRNA expression of adipogenic genes in the liver and adipose tissues, which are transcription factors crucial for adipogenesis, were significantly suppressed (p<0.05). The number of $CD11b^+F4/80^+$ T cells, $Gr-1^{int}CD11b^{high}$ cells, and $Gr-1^{int}CD11b^{high}$ cells were significantly higher in HFD group than CGJ group (p<0.05). The size of adipocyte was significantly reduced in CGJ group compared to HFD group. In addition, the contents of liver lipid droplets were significantly downregulated in the CGJ mice than HFD mice (p<0.05). Collectively, these data suggest the novel function of cheonggukjang in modulating adipogenesis through an immune function-alteration involving downregulation of adipogenic transcription factors and macrophage activation.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.33 no.6C
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• pp.505-511
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• 2008

The global navigation satellite system (GNSS) is using a direct sequence/spread spectrum (DS/SS) modulation. In order to recover the information data, the DS/SS system first performs a two-step synchronization process: acquisition and tracking. The acquisition process adjusts the phase difference between the received and locally generated acquisition sequences within ${\pm}T_c/2$ or less, where $T_c$ is the chip period. The tracking process performs fine synchronization. In this paper, we focus on the tracking issue. The single delta delay locked loop($\Delta$-DLL) is the optimal tracking scheme for a GNSS in the absence of multipath signals, where $\Delta$ means the spacing between the early and late correlation time offset. In the multipath environments, however, the $\Delta$-DLL suffers from huge estimation bias(denoted by $\beta$) caused by distorted correlation values. Although some modified schemes such as a $\Delta$-DLL with a narrow $\Delta$ and a double delta DLL (${\Delta}^{(2)}$-DLL) were proposed to reduce the estimation bias, they cannot remove the estimation bias completely and need more accurate acquisition process. This paper proposes a novel tracking scheme that can dramatically reduce the estimation bias, using the maximum slope change among the correlation outputs.

• Proceedings of the Korea Database Society Conference
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.389-403
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• 2008

As the information of web dramatically increase, the existing web reveals more and more limitations in information search because web pages are designed only for human consumption by mixing content with presentation. In order to improve this situation, the Semantic Web comes on the stage by W3C. Semantic web is based on ontology that defines relationships between resources and it is enough to bring a significant advancement in web search. But to do this, the Semantic Web must provide a novel search and visualization methods which can make users instantly and intuitively understand why and how the results are retrieved because ontology has formal explicit descriptions of meaning. In this paper, we propose a semantic association-based search methodology that consists of how to find relevant information for a given user's query in the ontology, that is, a semantic network of resources and properties and how to provide proper visualization and navigation methods on the results. From this work, users can search the semantically associated resources for their query and also navigate such associations between resources.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.664-671
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• 2020

Background: Ginsenoside compound-Mc1 (Mc1) is a member of the deglycosylated ginsenosides obtained from ginseng extract. Although several ginsenosides have a cardioprotective effect, this has not been demonstrated in ginsenoside Mc1. Methods: We treated H9c2 cells with hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and ginsenoside Mc1 to evaluate the antioxidant effects of Mc1. The levels of antioxidant molecules, catalase, and superoxide dismutase 2 (SOD2) were measured, and cell viability was determined using the Bcl2-associated X protein (Bax):B-cell lymphoma-extra large ratio, a cytotoxicity assay, and flow cytometry. We generated mice with high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity using ginsenoside Mc1 and assessed their heart tissues to evaluate the antioxidant effect and the fibrosis-reducing capability of ginsenoside Mc1. Results: Ginsenoside Mc1 significantly increased the level of phosphorylated AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) in the H9c2 cells. The expression levels of catalase and SOD2 increased significantly after treatment with ginsenoside Mc1, resulting in a decrease in the production of H₂O₂-mediated reactive oxygen species. Treatment with ginsenoside Mc1 also significantly reduced the H₂O₂-mediated elevation of the Bax:Bcl2 ratio and the number of DNA-damaged cells, which was significantly attenuated by treatment with an AMPK inhibitor. Consistent with the in vitro data, ginsenoside Mc1 upregulated the levels of catalase and SOD2 and decreased the Bax:B-cell lymphoma-extra large ratio and caspase-3 activity in the heart tissues of HFD-induced obese mice, resulting in reduced collagen deposition. Conclusion: Ginsenoside Mc1 decreases oxidative stress and increases cell viability in H9c2 cells and the heart tissue isolated from HFD-fed mice via an AMPK-dependent mechanism, suggesting its potential as a novel therapeutic agent for oxidative stress-related cardiac diseases.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.191-197
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• 2011

In this paper, we have designed an integrated triplexer which is the basic component for a FTTH(Fiber To The Home) system which can transmit CATV and voice/data at the same time in a single fiber. The integrated triplexer can be fabricated with a novel technique of "Micro-Block Stacking (MBS)" method which automatically aligns the optical components in the optical beam pass using accurate ceramic holders. We analyze the displacement of the optical focus according to the tolerances of the component dimensions and the assembly process using code V simulator. For the transmitter, the most serious shift of the focal points is caused by the displacements of the LD spot. So the focal point moves up to $72{\mu}m$ from the center point for ${\pm}25{\mu}m$, ${\pm}25{\mu}m$, ${\pm}30{\mu}m$ displacements. For the receiver the most serious shift of the focal points is caused by the displacements of a 0.8mm ball lens (for the analog receiving part) and a micro ball lens (for the digital receiving part), and the focal point moves up to $55{\mu}$ for ${\pm}55{\mu}m$, ${\pm}5{\mu}m$, ${\pm}55{\mu}m$ micro ball lens displacements.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.36 no.11
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• pp.852-857
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• 2003

Background: Conventional treatment for mesothelioma is largely ineffective. We evaluated the novel approach of adenoviral gene transfection of PTEN gene in mesothelioma cancer cell lines, inflammatory and epithelial subtype, which are sensitive to adenoviral p53. Material and Method: Binary adenoviral PTEN and LacZ (Ad/GT-LacZ and Ad/GV16) vectors were used for transduction of the mesothelioma cell lines, REN (p53 sensitive). Protein levels were determined by Western blotting assay. Apoptosis was assessed by fluorescence-activated cell sorter analysis of subdiploid populations. Cell viability was determined with the XTT assay. Statistical analysis was performed with analysis of variance and the Student t test. Result: 72 hours after the treatment of adenoviral PTEN gene, cell killing were 32.9% for REN compared to control cell (2.5%) at MOI of 20. Also we observed the over-expression of proapoptotic protein, bax and decreased expression of bcl-2 protein in REN cells. But the expression of BCL-xl, Bak, Bad proteins were not altered. Conclusion: Adenovirus Pten-mediated overexpression of the Bax gene induces apoptosis and decreased cellular viability in p53-sensitive mesothelioma cells. These data suggest that the transfection of PTEN gene may represent a alternative gene therapy strategy to treat mesothelioma.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.49-56
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• 1999

In many continuous speech recognition systems based on HMMs, decision tree-based state tying has been used for not only improving the robustness and accuracy of context dependent acoustic modeling but also synthesizing unseen models. To construct the phonetic decision tree, standard method performs one-level pruning using just single Gaussian triphone models. In this paper, two novel approaches, two-level decision tree and multi-mixture decision tree, are proposed to get better performance through more accurate acoustic modeling. Two-level decision tree performs two level pruning for the state tying and the mixture weight tying. Using the second level, the tied states can have different mixture weights based on the similarities in their phonetic contexts. In the second approach, phonetic decision tree continues to be updated with training sequence, mixture splitting and re-estimation. Multi-mixture Gaussian as well as single Gaussian models are used to construct the multi-mixture decision tree. Continuous speech recognition experiment using these approaches on BN-96 and WSJ5k data showed a reduction in word error rate comparing to the standard decision tree based system given similar number of tied states.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.305-311
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• 1993

Marine organisms were investigated to identify the marine actinomycetes that produced noble bioactive compounds. Microorganism counts range from $2.1{\times}10^3\;to\;1.2{\times}10\;CFU/g$ of marine organisms. Actinomycetes constituted 0.01 to $0.5\%$ of culturable microbial community. We identified the marine actinomycetes that produced novel bioactive compounds. During the course of screening for bioactives from the marine microorganisms, we found that the strain in sponge had antimicrobial activities. From the morphological, cultural and various physiological characteristics, this strain was identified for Actinomycetes No. 101. The optimal compositions of culture medium for Actinomycetes No. 101 were starch 30g/l as carbon source, casamino acid 10g/l as nitrogen source. The optimal pH of medium and fermentation temperature were $6.5{\sim}7.0$ and $30^{\circ}C$, respectively. Fermentation has been conducted in the marine broth at $30^{\circ}C$ for 72 hour. The yield of fermentation got about 3g as dry weight(per liter of broth). The distribution of antimicrobial activity of Actinomycetes No. 101 was screened by paper disc. The extract of cultured cell and broth inhibited the growth of Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis, but the inhibition action was week against yeast and mold.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.75-83
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• 2008

This studies were designed to elucidate whether inhibitors of topoisomerase regulate function and activity of topoisomerase, and gene expression in HL-60 human leukemia cells. HL-60 cells were treated with 10-hydroxycamptothecin or doxorubicin, total RNA was isolated, and expressed genes were investigated with human oligonucleotide microarray containing 10K gene, respectively. Expression profiles of the human leukemia HL-60 cells treated with 10-hydroxycamptothecin (10-CIT) or doxorubicin associated with signal transduction,. cell adhesion, cell cycle, cell growth, cell proliferation, cell differentiation, transcription and immune response, especially genes related with transcription and cell growth. In HL-60 cells treated with 10-CPT, the expression of topoisomerase III${\alpha}$, III${\beta}$ and I gene from oligo chip microarray analysis were increased over, but the expression of topoisomerase II${\alpha}$ and II${\beta}$ gene were decreased over. In contrast, the expression of topoisomerase II${\alpha}$ and II${\beta}$ gene were increased over in HL-60 cells treated with doxorubicin, whereas the expression of topoisomerase III${\alpha}$ and III${\beta}$ mRNA remained no significant change. These results suggest that these data may be useful for novel therapeutic markers.