• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.12
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• pp.1692-1697
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• 2012

We report a glycoside hydrolase (GH)-118 ${\beta}$-agarase from a strain of Agarivorans, in which we previously reported recombinant expression and characterization of the GH-50 ${\beta}$-agarase. The GH comprised an open reading frame of 1,437 base pairs, which encoded a protein of 52,580 daltons consisting of 478 amino acid residues. Assessment of the entire sequence showed that the enzyme had 97% nucleotide and 99% amino acid sequence similarities to those of GH-118 ${\beta}$-agarase from Pseudoalteromonas sp. CY24, which belongs to a different order within the same class. The gene corresponding to a mature protein of 440 amino acids was inserted, recombinantly expressed in Escherichia coli, and purified to homogeneity with affinity chromatography. It had maximal activity at $35^{\circ}C$ and pH 7.0 and had 208.1 units/mg in the presence of 300 mM NaCl and 1 mM $CaCl_2$. More than 80% activity was maintained after 2 h exposure to $35^{\circ}C$; however, < 40% activity remained at $45^{\circ}C$. The enzyme hydrolyzed agarose to yield neoagarooctaose as the main product. This enzyme could be useful for industrial production of functional neoagarooligosaccharides.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.1617-1627
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• 2017

Dietary approaches using structured lipids, including medium-chain fatty acids and diacylglycerols, have been adopted for the prevention of obesity-induced chronic inflammation. In an extension to previous studies, medium-chain fatty acid-diacylglycerol enriched dietary oil (MCDG) was prepared by interesterification of canola oil and medium-chain fatty acid-triacylglycerols. The consequent MCDG product was applied to RAW264.7 macrophages followed by the assessment of multiple inflammatory responses. Compared with conventionally used canola and olive oil controls, MCDG suppressed macrophage phagocytosis, as assessed by the uptake of microsphere beads. Furthermore, the production of IL-6 and $TNF-{\alpha}$, transcription of COX-2 and iNOS, and expression of CD80 on cell surfaces were downregulated by MCDG in LPS-stimulated macrophages. Subsequently, differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes were evaluated for proinflammatory cytokine production and lipid accumulation. IL-6 production was marginally affected and lipid accumulation was inhibited by MCDG. Taken together, these results suggest that MCDG has potential as an alternative oil for cooking in order to prevent obesity-induced inflammation.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.51-57
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• 2011

Milk and dairy products are nutritionally one of the most important food in human health and the quality of raw milk is significantly important to ensure safety of dairy products. However, milk and dairy products are commonly related with chemical and microbial contaminations. Therefore, rapid and reliable detection of hazardous (e.g. pathogenic bacteria, pesticides, antibiotics, microbial toxins) in milk and dairy products is essential to ensure human health and food safety. Conventional methods for detection of food hazardous are mostly time-consuming to yield a results. Recently, biosensors have been focused as its rapidity and high sensitivity to analyse chemical and microbial hazardous from a variety of foods and environments. This study reviewed the recent trends and applications of biosensors as rapid detection method of hazardous in milk and dairy products.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.161-165
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• 2010

A study was performed to assess the quality equivalence of commercially available Hwang-Ryun-Hae-Dok-Tang granules from various vendors in terms of the contents of characterizing compounds. 'Hwang-Ryun-Hae-Dok-Tang'(or 'Huanglian Jiedu Tang') is the complex medicinal herbal product which is composed of four different herbal drugs; Scutellariae Radix, Coptidis Rhizoma, Phellodendri Cortex and Gardeniae Fructus. Using a high performance liquid chromatography and direct analysis in real time mass spectrometer (DART-MS), five characterizing compounds such as baicalin, baicalein, berberine, palmatine, and geniposide were analyzed to compare the variance of the contents between the products from four different vendors. Although five characterizing compounds were all successfully detected from all the products, the contents of each compound were shown to have significant difference among vendors. For real time monitoring of characterizing compounds in medicinal herbal products, DART-MS can be successfully adopted as a powerful analytical tool.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.91-105
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• 2019

The paper aims to combine balance sheet analysis at the firm level with the International Monetary Fund's public debt sustainability assessment framework to assess state-owned enterprises' (SOE) leverage as a contingent liability to the public sector. Based on company data and the interest coverage ratio as a measure of debt at risk, aggregate baseline scenarios are projected to gauge the magnitude of SOE debt as a contingency. SOE's financial and debt ratios are first bootstrapped to generate firm-level distributions and then averaged into a fan chart of the economy-wide SOE contingent liability. Applied to the People's Republic of China as an example, the study finds that by the end of 2015 SOE leverage had grown to a substantial liability. However arbitrary the assumptions underlying these projections, it would appear that even if authorities had to mop up as much as 20% of SOE debt at risk gone bad, this would have been manageable at roughly 2.7% of the gross domestic product in 2016 or 5.5% by 2021. This projection framework is fully amenable to alternative assumptions and settings, which makes it a useful analytical tool to monitor contingent liabilities from non-financial corporate debt that have been building in emerging and advanced economies alike.

• Journal of health informatics and statistics
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.318-328
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• 2018

Objectives: People are living longer, but often with diseases or chronic conditions. As a consequence, interest in resolving insurance blind spots is growing. This study provides substandard risk-relevant statistics to help substandard risks who are likely to fall in insurance blind spots obtain insurance coverage, such as the reimbursement of medical costs, as well as to stimulate insurance product development. Methods: This study uses National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) cohort data to determine the relevant statistics. The incidence rates of severe diseases are derived and compared against standard risks to establish a set of relative risk factors. These incidence rates of standard and substandard risks are then compared. Results: Currently, an individual's cancer history is used in the underwriting process for simplified issue insurance. However, underwriting focusing on hospitalization and procedures related to serious illnesses could lower premiums for substandard risks. Moreover, the statistical results could be used to expand the coverage of health insurance products. Conclusions: This study's relative risk factors can be used to derive simplified issue premium rates for substandard risks. They can also be used to implement discount and loading schemes for medical reimbursement insurance and help insurance companies implement proactive risk management.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.525-536
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• 2021

Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the Turkish adaptation of the COVID Stress Scale (CSS) on the basis of determining the stress caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, and to test its validity and reliability. Methods: The English CSS was translated into Turkish using forward and backward translation. Data were collected online from 360 participants. Construct validity was evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and content validity. Pearson product-moment correlation, Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient, and test-retest methods were used to evaluate reliability. Results: The Turkish version of the CSS has 36 items consistent with the original scale and has five factors: COVID danger and contamination, socioeconomic consequences of COVID, COVID xenophobia, traumatic stress due to COVID, and compulsive checking for COVID. The construct validity of the Turkish version of the CSS was verified by the adjusted goodness of fit index > .85, and comparative fit index > .95. The content validity index of each item was 91%. The corrected item-total correlations of the scale ranged from .51 to .89. Internal consistency was reliable, with a Cronbach's α of .93. Conclusion: The Turkish version of the CSS is valid and reliable. It can be used as a measurement tool for the assessment of COVID-related stress.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.71-77
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• 2017

As the automobile industry has shifted to software, the Automotive SPICE standard has been established to ensure efficient product development process and quality. In the assessment model, the HIS Scope is the minimum standard for small and medium automotive electric companies to meet OEM requirements. However, in order to achieve the HIS Scope, the output of each process stage that meets the verification criteria of Automotive SPICE must be created. In particular, the test phase takes a lot of resources, which is a big burden for small and medium-sized companies. In this paper, we propose a methodology for creating test cases of software integration test phase based on UML sequence diagram, which is a software design phase of Automotive SPICE HIS Scope, by applying behavior model based testing method. We also propose a tool chain for automating the creation process. This will reduce the resources required to create a test case.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.17-32
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• 2019

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of pesticide-related accident on prices and sales of eggs and the perception of food safety accidents among consumers. For this, we analyzed the impact of the pesticide incident on consumers' purchases by separating large discount stores and eco-friendly specialty stores with econometrics methods. In addition, the value changes for each egg certification were analyzed after the accident. Perception of food safety accidents was conducted through a survey to investigate the awareness of the pesticide-related accidents, changes in purchases, and the causes of the pesticide accidents. Furthermore, the risk analysis was conducted. This results show the importance of trust and communication in food safety accidents between distributors, consumers and concerned authorities. Also, after the accident, consumers' interest and premium exist in the breeding process such as animal welfare, not only in the final product. Therefore in order to actively respond to food safety accidents such as pesticides-related accident, response and improvement are necessary considering various aspects such as risk assessment, risk management, and risk communication.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.222-227
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• 2019

Quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance (qNMR) is a well-established method adopted by international pharmacopoeia for quantitative and purity analyses. Emodin is a type of anthraquinone, well known as the main active component of Fabaceae, Polygonaceae and Rhamnaceae. Purity analysis of emodin is usually performed by using the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-UV method. However, it cannot detect impurities such as salts, volatile matter, and trace elements. Using the qNMR method, it is possible to determine the compound content as well as the nature of the impurities. Several experimental parameters were optimized for the quantification, such as relaxation delay, spectral width, number of scans, temperature, pulse width, and acquisition time. The method was validated, and the results of the qNMR method were compared with those obtained by the HPLC and mass balance analysis methods. The qNMR method is specific, rapid, simple, and therefore, a valuable and reliable method for the purity analysis of emodin.