• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.183-193
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• 2011

Migration and differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells are crucial for tissue regeneration in response to injury. Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) is a bioactive lipid that regulates a variety of biological processes, including proliferation, survival, differentiation and motility. In the present study, we determined the role of S1P in migration and differentiation of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs). S1P stimulated migration of BMSCs in a dose- and time-dependent manner, and pre-incubation of the cells with pertussis toxin completely abrogated S1P-induced migration, suggesting involvement of Gi-coupled receptors in S1P-induced cell migration. S1P elicited elevation of intracellular concentration of $Ca^{2+}$ ($[Ca^{2+}]_i$) and pretreatment with VPC23019, an antagonist of $S1P_1/S1P_3$, blocked S1P-induced migration and increase of $[Ca^{2+}]_i$. Small interfering RNA-mediated knockdown of endogenous $S1P_1$ attenuated S1P-induced migration of BMSCs. Furthermore, S1P treatment induced expression of $\alpha$-smooth muscle actin ($\alpha$-SMA), a smooth muscle marker, and pretreatment with VPC23019 abrogated S1P-induced $\alpha$-SMA expression. S1P induced phosphorylation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), and pretreatment of cells with SB202190, an inhibitor of p38 MAPK, or adenoviral overexpression of a dominant-negative mutant of the p38 MAPK blocked S1P-induced cell migration and $\alpha$-SMA expression. Taken together, these results suggest that S1P stimulates migration and smooth muscle differentiation of BMSCs through an $S1P_1$-p38 MAPK-dependent mechanism.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.269-276
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• 2010

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of residual nitrite contents, chitosan with different molecular weight and nitrite addition on emulsified sausage during cold storage. Six types of sausages were evaluated: control, 0.5% 50 kDa chitosan (T1), 0.5% 200 kDa chitosan (T2), 150 ppm nitrite (T3), 0.5% 50 kDa chitosan+150 ppm nitrite (T4), and 0.5% 200 kDa chitosan+150 ppm nitrite (T5). Each type of sausage was tested in triplicate and assigned to one of four storage periods: 0, 10, 20 and 30 days. As the storage time increased, the presence of chitosan and nitrite resulted in decreased residual nitrite value and increased pH (in control and T2), TBARS (thiobarbituric acid reactive substance) values, and total plate counts (TPC). Values for pH, TBARS, residual nitrite and total plate counts decreased significantly in response to the addition of chitosan and nitrite relative to the control (p<0.05). T5 was redder than the control (higher CIE$a^*$) at 30 d; however, no difference in the CIE $L^*$ and $b^*$ values was observed. T5 was significantly (p<0.05) more effective at delaying lipid oxidation when compared to the other treatment groups. T5 presented TPC that was significantly lower (p<0.05) than the other groups after three days of storage. In addition, the use of chitosan and nitrite in combination had much better antioxidant and antimicrobial effectiveness than other treatment groups. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that the addition of 0.5% 200 kDa chitosan and 150 ppm nitrite in combination with emulsified sausages tended to improve antioxidative and antimicrobial effects during storage when compared to other treatment groups.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.361-364
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• 2002

This study was performed to establish a simple and accurate method for the determination of oxygen that is a processing aid in various beverage. The quantitative determination of dissolved oxygen (DO) contents in 30 cases of samples were performed by traditional titration method and polarography. As a result of the study, the analysis of DO contents in fruit-extract beverages containing oxygen by titration method was time consuming and large sample volumes were needed. Besides, serious interferences with compounds such as hydroxylamine and nitric oxide were observed, leading to false response. Although the polarography is easily affected by $H_2S$, proteins, and various organic compounds, it is a simple and practical method that provides inexpensive and relatively rapid analysis. The polarography is best suited to the routine determination of DO in a large number of samples and it is expected that the polarography can directly be applied to the quality control of the beverages containing added oxygen. The analysis results of DO contents in various fruit-extract beverages with oxygen and without oxygen were as follows: 23.10 ppm to 32.60 ppm for various frutis extract beverages with oxygen, 0.70 pp to 2.54 ppm for mixed beverages without oxygen, 7.63 ppm to 8.28 ppm for drinking water.

• Journal of KIISE:Databases
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.742-757
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• 2001

Since database management systems(DBMSS) have limited lock resources, transactions requesting locks beyond the limit mutt be aborted. In the worst carte, if such transactions are aborted repeatedly, the DBMS can become paralyzed, i.e., transaction execute but cannot commit. Lock escalation is considered a solution to this problem. However, existing lock escalation methods do not provide a complete solution. In this paper, we prognose a new lock escalation method, adaptive lock escalation, that selves most of the problems. First, we propose a general model for lock escalation and present the concept of the unescalatable look, which is the major cause making the transactions to abort. Second, we propose the notions of semi lock escalation, lock blocking, and selective relief as the mechanisms to control the number of unescalatable locks. We then propose the adaptive lock escalation method using these notions. Adaptive lock escalation reduces needless aborts and guarantees that the DBMS is not paralyzed under excessive lock requests. It also allows graceful degradation of performance under those circumstances. Third, through extensive simulation, we show that adaptive lock escalation outperforms existing lock escalation methods. The results show that, compared to the existing methods, adaptive lock escalation reduces the number of aborts and the average response time, and increases the throughput to a great extent. Especially, it is shown that the number of concurrent transactions can be increased more than 16 ~256 fold. The contribution of this paper is significant in that it has formally analysed the role of lock escalation in lock resource management and identified the detailed underlying mechanisms. Existing lock escalation methods rely on users or system administrator to handle the problems of excessive lock requests. In contrast, adaptive lock escalation releases the users of this responsibility by providing graceful degradation and preventing system paralysis through automatic control of unescalatable locks Thus adaptive lock escalation can contribute to developing self-tuning: DBMSS that draw a lot of attention these days.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.52-61
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• 2006

Background: Korean ginseng (KG) has been used as a general tonic, and for voiding dysfunction for a long time in oriental society. However, scientific basic studies on the use of KG, have been rare, especially for voiding and erectile dysfunction. This study was performed to investigate the effects of KG on voiding and erectile function by examining the effects of total saponin (TS) on the bladder, urethral and penile cavernosal smooth muscle. Materials and methods: To examine the effects of TS, NewZeland white rabbits were used to obtain tissue strips from the smooth muscle of the bladder, proximal urethra and corpus cavernosum. Adult Sprague Dawley rats were used to examine the changes in urodynamic findings and penile erection after administration of TS. Results: In proximal urethral strips, the rate of relaxation of the proximal urethra was increased from $9.0{\pm}2.9$ to $33.7{\pm}4.8%$ in a dose-dependent manner when the concentration of TS was added accumulatively from 0.25 mg/ml to 4.0 mg/ml (p<0.05). However, no significant response was observed in the bladder strips within these concentration ranges. For the corpus cavernosal strips, the rate of relaxation ranged from $5.8{\pm}2.1$ to $36.7{\pm}5.8%$, increasing in a dose-dependent manner when TS was increased from 1.0 mg/ml to 4.0 mg/ml (p<0.05). After administration of 0.1 ml of TS (32 mg/ml) in the rat, the bladder pressure was $37.5{\pm}8.5$ mmHg at $52.1{\pm}7.0$ sec. during isovolumetric bladder contraction, showing no significant differences from $35.7{\pm}7.8mmHg$ and $50.7{\pm}7.2$ sec, respectively, before treatment. However, when 0.1 ml of TS (32 mg/ml) was administered, the relative reduction of urethral pressure was $6.9{\pm}0.5mmHg$ at $62{\pm}7.5$ sec, which was significantly higher compared to $4.6{\pm}1.1mmHg$ at $45{\pm}10$ sec before treatment (p<0.05). For the cavernosal injection study, the change in intracavernosal pressure (${\Delta}ICP$) was examined after administering 0.1 ml of TS. The cumulative additions of TS at concentrations from 0.5 mg/ml to 32 mg/ml increased ${\Delta}ICP$ from $1.3{\pm}0.5$ to $21.3{\pm}7.8mmHg$ in a dose-dependent manner (p<0.05). The duration of tumescence was from $0.3{\pm}0.1$ to $5.2{\pm}0.2$ min, showing dose-dependent increase (p<0.05). Furthermore, the cumulative addition of TS at concentrations from 0.5 mg/ml upto 32 mg/ml did not cause any significant change in systemic blood pressure. Conclusion: These results suggest that ginseng improves voiding functions, which is mainly achieved by TS relaxing the proximal urethra, the most important part of the bladder outlet function. In addition, ginseng safely induced a penile erection hemodynamically by relaxing the corpus cavernosum.

• Korean Journal of Dental Materials
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.187-195
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• 2017

TheraCal LC, a new light-cured, resin-modified calcium silicate-filled base/liner material, has been introduced as a pulpotomy agent. The aim of this study was to evaluate the capacity of hard tissue formation and pulpal response after pulpotomy with TheraCal LC. Twenty-two 9-week-old male rats were anesthetized, cavities were prepared in maxillary first molars and pulps were capped with formocresol (FC), mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA), and TheraCal LC. Specimens obtained from rats were scanned using a high-resolution micro CT system. The specimens were prepared and evaluated histologically, and immunofluorescence assay was performed to assess the dentin matrix protein-1 (DMP-1) expression. On micro CT analysis, the MTA and TheraCal LC groups showed thicker hard tissue formation than the FC group. On hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining, MTA and TheraCal LC groups showed dentine bridge formation with vital pulp beneath the materials. On immunofluorescence analysis, DMP-1 was highly expressed in the TheraCal LC group compared to the FC group. TheraCal LC showed similar capacity to form hard tissue as MTA when it was used as a pulpotomy agent. Because of its good manipulation and faster setting time compared to MTA, TheraCal LC could be considered as a good alternative to MTA.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.325-331
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• 2015

Skin is exposed to sunlight or artificial indoor light on a daily. The reached solar light on the earth surface consist of 50% visible light and 45% infrared (IR) except for ultra violet (UV). The negative effects of UV including UVB and UVA have been steadily investigated within the last decades. However, little is known about the effects of visible or IR light. In this study, we irradiated human dermal fibroblasts using light emitting diode (LED) to investigate the optimal parameter for enhancing cell growth and collagen synthesis. We found that red of 630 nm and green of 520 nm enhance the cell proliferation, but irradiation with purple and blue light exerts toxic effects. To examine the response of irradiation time and light intensity on the fibroblasts, cells were exposed to red or green light with intensities from 0.05 to $0.75mW/cm^2$. Procollagen secretion was increased of 1.4 fold by 10 min irradiation, while 30 min treatment decreased the collagen synthesis of dermal fibroblasts. Treatment with red of $0.3mW/cm^2$ and green of 0.15 and $0.3mW/cm^2$ resulted in enhancement of collagen mRNA. Lastly, we investigated the combinatorial effect of red and green light on dermal fibroblasts. The sequential irradiation of red and green light is an efficient way for the purpose of the increase in the number of fibroblasts than single light treatment. On the other hand, the exposure of red light alone was more effective method for enhancing of collagen secretion. Our study showed that specific light parameters accelerated cell proliferation, gene expression and collagen secretion on human dermal fibroblasts. In conclusion, we demonstrate that light exposure with specific parameter has beneficial effects on the function of dermal fibroblasts, and suggests the possibility of its cosmetically and clinical application.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.97-105
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• 2011

A wide diversity of liquid fertilizers and composts produced from the livestock manure in Korea is commonly applied to agricultural lands as an alternative of chemical fertilizers. However, their effects on the crop production and environmental impacts are still vague. The current study was investigated the property changes of paddy soils in sandy loam and silty loam treated with 1) control (no treatment), 2) chemicals, 3) storage liquid fertilizer and 4) SCB liquid fertilizer located in Gyeong-gi province, Korea. The chemical properties of soils in sandy loam and silty loam before the treatment were similar with the ones in the average paddy fields in Korea. Contrary to this, the amount of available phosphorus in sandy loam was higher than the one in the average paddy fields. The number of living organisms in sandy loam and silty loam treated with storage liquid fertilizer and SCB liquid fertilizer were higher than the ones in sandy loam and silty loam with no-treatment and chemicals. Significant difference (P<0.05) among the treatments and no-treatment was observed in sandy loam rather than in silty loam. The amounts of heavy metals were the highest in both sandy loam and silty loam treated with storage liquid fertilizer and SCB liquid fertilizer. The comparison of heavy metals showed that the ones in silty loam were little bit higher than sandy loam. The leaf lengths and dry weights of rices were increased over time, however, no significant difference was observed among each treament. In addition, the rice yield in sandy loam treated with SCB liquid fertilizer was higher than the ones in sandy loam. The highest rice yield was obtained from sandy loam treated with chemicals, but there was no significant difference between storage liquid fertilizer and SCB liquid fertilizer. While the rate of nutrient absorption by rices was the highest in sandy loam and silty loam treated with chemicals, there was no significant difference in sandy loam and silty loam treated with livestock liquid manure.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.205-212
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• 2021

The skin fibroblasts of different origins showed different expression levels of MMP-1 in response to TNF-α treatment or UV irradiation. We hypothesized that this is caused by polymorphism in the MMP-1 promoter region. To elucidate it, first of all, we analyzed and classified the genotype of the -1607 site of the MMP-1 promoter in 23 commercially available primary fibroblasts, and then we examined the expression of MMP-1 by TNF-α or UVB stimulation for each classified genotype. As a result of the analysis, fibroblasts with 6 1G/1G genotypes, 10 1G/2G genotypes, and 7 2G/2G genotypes were identified. Hs68 and Detroit 551 cell lines were confirmed to have 1G/2G genotypes. In the 1G/1G genotype, MMP-1 was expressed twice as high as that of the control group by TNF-α treatment, and was hardly expressed by UV light. In the case of the 1G/2G genotype, MMP-1 was expressed 2.45 fold higher by TNF-α treatment, and 1.4 fold by UV light than the control. In the case of the 2G/2G genotype, MMP-1 was expressed 1.35 fold by TNF-α treatment, and was highly expressed by 2.5 fold by ultraviolet rays compared to control. It can be estimated that MMP-1 expression is better induced in the 1G genotype by TNF-α and in the 2G genotype by UV light. In addition, it can be presumed that MMP-1 expression is increased by creating a site where the Ets transcription factor can bind by another G inserted at the -1607 position. These studies have not been conducted at all in fibroblasts in relation to skin aging, so it is an area that needs to be further studied in the future. In conclusion, since the skin is an organ that is affected by both intrinsic aging and photoaging at the same time, when analyzing the expression of MMP-1 as a target for improving skin aging, it is necessary to select cells with a genotype suitable for the experimental conditions of the study.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.73-89
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• 2021

The handysize bulk carriers are capable of transporting a variety of cargo that cannot be transported by mid-large size ship, and the spot chartering market is active, and it is a market that is independent of mid-large size market, and is more risky due to market conditions and charterage variability. In this study, Granger causality test, the Impulse Response Function(IRF) and Forecast Error Variance Decomposition(FEVD) were performed using monthly time series data. As a result of Granger causality test, coal price for coke making, Japan steel plate commodity price, hot rolled steel sheet price, fleet volume and bunker price have causality to Baltic Handysize Index(BHSI) and charterage. After confirming the appropriate lag and stability of the Vector Autoregressive model(VAR), IRF and FEVD were analyzed. As a result of IRF, the three variables of coal price for coke making, hot rolled steel sheet price and bunker price were found to have significant at both upper and lower limit of the confidence interval. Among them, the impulse of hot rolled steel sheet price was found to have the most significant effect. As a result of FEVD, the explanatory power that affects BHSI and charterage is the same in the order of hot rolled steel sheet price, coal price for coke making, bunker price, Japan steel plate price, and fleet volume. It was found that it gradually increased, affecting BHSI by 30% and charterage by 26%. In order to differentiate from previous studies and to find out the effect of short term lag, analysis was performed using monthly price data of major cargoes for Handysize bulk carriers, and meaningful results were derived that can predict monthly market conditions. This study can be helpful in predicting the short term market conditions for shipping companies that operate Handysize bulk carriers and concerned parties in the handysize chartering market.