• The Korean Journal of Physiology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.39-49
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• 1990

It has been reported that bombesin induces contraction of the smooth muscle of the gastrointestinal tract. Thus, the present investigation was undertaken to see an influence of bombesin on electrical activity of the gastric smooth muscle, since electrical activity is associated with contractile activity in the smooth muscle of the stomach. Smooth muscle strips $(5\;{\times}\;1.5\;cm)$ that included the corpus and antrum were prepared from the ventral and dorsal portion of the feline stomach along the greater curvature. Circular muscle strips $(1\;{\times}\;0.3\;cm)$ of the corpus were also obtained. Electrical activity of the corpus and antrum of the muscle strip was monophasically recorded by using Ag-AgCl capillary electrodes placed on the circular muscle layer. Contractile activity of the circular muscle strip was also recorded. The recordings were performed in Krebs-Ringer solution that was continuously aerated with $O_{2}$ containing 5% $Co_{2}$, and kept at $36^{\circ}C$. Dose-related responses of electrical activity and contractility to bombesin was studied after frequency of slow waves and contraction of each strip reached to a steady state. An action of $D-leu^{13}-{\psi}\;(CH_{2}NH)-D-leu^{14}-bombesin,\;D-pro^{2}-D-trp^{7,9}-substance\;P$, tetrodotoxin, hexamethonium, atropine, phentolamine or propranolol on the effect of bombesin was also observed. 1) Bombesin increased frequency of slow waves and contractions dose-dependently at concentrations from $10^{-9}\;M\;to\;3\;{\times}\;10^{-8}\;M$. 2) The bombesin analogue at a concentration of $3\;{\times}\;10^{-7}\;M$ antagonized the effect of bombesin on frequency of slow waves. 3) The effect of bombesin on frequency of slow waves was inhibited by tetrodotoxin $(10^{-6}\;M)$ and hexamethonium $(10^{-3}\;M)$ but unaffected by atropine $(10^{-6}\;M)$, phentolamine $(10^{-5}\;M)$ and propranolol $(10^{-5}\;M)$. 4) The effect of bombesin on frequency of slow waves was blocked by the substance P analogue at a concentration of $10^{-5}\;M$. 5) Substance P at a concentration of $10^{-5}\;M$ failed to change frequency of slow waves. It is concluded from the above results that bombesin increases the frequency of slow waves as well as contractions of the smooth muscle strip from the feline stomach, and the effect of bombesin might be mediated by non-cholinergic or non-adrenergic mechanism at neuromuscular junction. However, enteric nerves that have substance P as a neurotransmitter do not appear to participate in the action of bombesin on frequency of slow waves.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.109-118
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• 1999

Recently, transport parameters of conservative solutes such as KCl in a porous medium have been successfully determined using time domain reflectometry (TDR) . This study was initiated to Investigate the applicability of TDR technique to monitoring the fate of a heavy metal ion in a sandy soil and the distribution of its concentration along travel distance with time. A column test was conducted in a laboratory that consists of monitoring both resident and flux concentrations of $ZnCl_2$in a sandy soil under a breakthrough condition. A tracer of $ZnCl_2$(10 g/L) was injected onto the top surface of the sample as pulse type as soon as a steady-state condition was achieved. Time-series measurements of resistance and electrical conductivity were performed at 10 cm and 20 cm of distances from the inlet boundary by horizontal-positioning of parallel TDR metallic rods and using an EC-meter for the effluent exiting the bottom boundary respectively. In addition. Zn ions of the effluent were analyzed by ICP-AES. Since the mode and position of concentration detected by TDR and effluent were different, comparison between ICP analysis and TDR-detected concentration was made by predicting flux concentration using CDE model accommodating a decay constant with the transport parameters obtained from the resident concentrations. The experimental results showed that the resident concentration resulted in earlier and higher peak than the flux concentration obtained by EC-meter, implying the homogeneity of the packed sandy soil. A close agreement was found between the predicted from the transport parameters obtained by TDR and the measured $ZnCl_2$concentration. This indicates that TDR technique can also be applied to monitoring heavy metal concentrations in the soil once that a decay constant is obtained for a given soil.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.374-381
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• 2015

Occurrences of coastal dredged materials are ever increasing due to port construction, navigational course maintenance and dredging of polluted coastal sediments. Ocean dumping of the coastal dredged materials has become virtually prohibited as London Treaty will be enacted as of the year 2012. It will be necessary to treat and recycle the dredged materials that may carry organic pollutants and heavy metals in a reasonable and effective process: collection of the dredged materials, liquid and solid separation, and treatment of organic compounds and heavy metals. In this study we have developed a continuous bioreactor system that can treat a mixture of silt and particulate organic matter using a microbial consortium (BM-S-1). The steady-state operation conditions were: pH (7.4-7.5), temperature ($16^{\circ}C$), DO (7.5-7.9), and salt concentration (3.4-3.7%). The treatment efficiencies of SCOD, T-N and T-P of the mixture were 95-96%, 92-99%, and 79-97%. The system was also effective in removal of heavy metals such as Zn, Ni, and Cr. Levels of MLSS during three months operation period were 11,000-19,000 mg/L. Interestingly, there was little sludge generated during this period of operation. The augmented microbial consortium seemed to be quite active in the removal of the organic component (30%) present in the dredged material in association with indigenous bacteria. The dominant phyla in the treatment processes were Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes while dominant genii were Marinobacterium, Flaviramulus, Formosa, Alteromonadaceae_uc, Flavobacteriaceae_uc. These results will contribute to a development of a successful bioremediation technology for various coastal and river sediments with a high content of organic matter, inorganic nutrients and heavy metals, leading to a successful reuse of the polluted dredged sediments.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.1218-1225
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• 2009

Difractose anhydrides (DFAs) is studied as a sweetener for diabetics because of its structural property. DFAs have four types: DFA I, III, IV (degradation of levan) and V (degradation of inulin). Especially, DFA IV has been shown to enhance the absorption of calcium in experiments using rats. Levan fructotransferase is an enzyme for producing di-d-fructose-2,6':6,2-dianhydride (DFA IV). To identify structural characterization, we purified wild-type and mutants (D63A, D195N and N85S) of levan fructotransferase (LFTase) from Microbacterium sp. AL-210. These proteins were purified to apparent homogeneity by Ni-NTA affinity column, Q-sepharose ion exchange and gel filtration chromatography and detected by SDS-PAGE. They were also analyzed by circular dichroism (CD) measurements, JNET secondary structure prediction, activity measurements at various temperatures, and pH analysis. The optimum pH for the enzyme-catalyzed reaction was pH 7.5 and optimum temperature was observed at $55^{\circ}C$. Along with wild-type LFTase, mutants were analyzed by CD measurement, fluorescence analysis and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). N85S showed less $\alpha$-helix and more $\beta$ strand than others. Also, N85S showed almost the same curve as wild-type in their steady-state fluorescence spectra, whereas mutant D63A and D195N showed higher intensity than wild-type. The amino acid sequence of wild-type LFTase was compared to the sequences of exo-inulinase from Aspergillus awamori, a plant fructan 1-exohydrolase from Cichorium intybus, and Thermotogo maritime (Tm) invertase and showed a high identity with Exo-inulinase from Aspergillus awamori.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.15 no.1 s.68
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• pp.38-44
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• 2005

Infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a major health problem worldwide. Although a tremendous amount has been known about HBV, there have been obstacles in the study of HBV due to the narrow host range of HBV limited to humans and primates. In the present study, we investigated the susceptibility to HBV infection of mouse hepatoma cell line, Hepa-1c1c7. In addition, based on that human hepatocytes infected by HBV increase the expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-a, the inducibility of TNF-a expression by HBV in the cells was determined. HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) secretion was measured by the microparticle enzyme immunoassay and steady state mRNA expression was analyzed by quantitative competitive RT-PCR. Transient transfection of Hepa-1c1c7 cells with HBV expression vector resulted in a dose-dependent induction of TNF-a expression. Infection of Hepa-1c1c7 cells with the serum of HBV carrier also increased TNF-a mRNA expression. Both in the transfected and infected cells, HBV mRNA was expressed and significant HBsAg secretion was detected. There was no significant variation in $\beta-actin$ mRNA expression by HBV. These results demonstrate that HBV is infectious to Hepa-lc1c7 in vitro and the viral infection induces TNF-a expression, which suggests that Hepa-lc1c7, a mouse hepatoma cell line, may be a possible model system for analysis of various molecular aspects of HBV infection.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.207-220
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• 2012

There are around 7,500 manure tanks to treat the manures from pigs in Korea. In the tank, there are too much sediments deposited on the base and wall, which causes low efficiency of stock capacity and manure fermentation. In order to minimize sediments and to ferment manure effectively, we developed a 2-fluid jet mixer for mixing sediments in liquid livestock manure tank. For developing the prototype, we tested a factorial experimental system with various nozzles, and simulated CFD models with two kinds of nozzle arrangement. From the results of factorial experiment and CFD simulation, we concluded the dia. ratio of primary : secondary nozzle should be 1:2 and the nozzles should be arranged at the same distances toward to the circumferential direction. With this results, we manufactured a 2-fluid jet mixer which is consists of four 2-phase nozzles, centrifugal slurry pump and root's type air blower. And, we carried out the performance test of the prototype in the round shaped liquid manure tank in the farm. The performance test results showed that the uniformity of TS (Total Solid) and VS (Volatile Solid) was raised from 21.3 g/L, 13.3 g/L In steady state to TS and VS to 23.0 g/L, 14.1 g/L in the mixing operation. Therefore, we could conclude that the prototype of 2-fluid mixer could make the solid material which could be sediments in the tank not to be deposited in the tank and to be contacted to air bubbles which could enhance the efficiency of the fermentation of livestock manure.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.94-101
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• 1989

Transport properties of 2DEG at AlGaAs/GaAs interface such as average electron energy, flight distance, each valley occupancy ratio, average electron velocity for various fields are investigated by MONTE-CARLO method. As the electric field increases, more electrons transit drastically from (000) valley to (000) upper valley. This phenomenon shows the nonstationary effect such as velocity overshoot. The duration of the transient decreases from about 1.4 psec for electric field E = 7KV/cm to about 0.7 psec for 12KV/cm. The average electron velocity during transient transport in 2DEG is about 8 times the steady-state velocity for E = 12KV/cm at room temperature. In comparison with bulk GaAs the peak velocity in the 2DEG is higher than that in even pure bulk GaAs at electric field E = 7 KV/cm. On the basis of the fact that the electrons in the 2DEG have larger peak velocity and shorter transient time of velocity than those in the bulk GaAs, it is suggested that the device with 2DEG may obtain higher mobility than that with bulk GaAs.

• Atmosphere
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.293-305
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• 2013

Nonhydrostatic effects on convectively forced mesoscale flows in two dimensions are numerically investigated using a nondimensional model. An elevated heating that represents convective heating due to deep cumulus convection is specified in a uniform basic flow with constant stability, and numerical experiments are performed with different values of the nonlinearity factor and nonhydrostaticity factor. The simulation result in a linear system is first compared to the analytic solution. The simulated vertical velocity field is very similar to the analytic one, confirming the high accuracy of nondimensional model's solutions. When the nonhydrostaticity factor is small, alternating regions of upward and downward motion above the heating top appear. On the other hand, when the nonhydrostaticity factor is relatively large, alternating updraft and downdraft cells appear downwind of the main updraft region. These features according to the nonhydrostaticity factor appear in both linear and nonlinear flow systems. The location of the maximum vertical velocity in the main updraft region differs depending on the degrees of nonlinearity and nonhydrostaticity. Using the Taylor-Goldstein equation in a linear, steady-state, invscid system, it is analyzed that evanescent waves exist for a given nonhydrostaticity factor. The critical wavelength of an evanescent wave is given by ${\lambda}_c=2{\pi}{\beta}$, where ${\beta}$ is the nonhydrostaticity factor. Waves whose wavelengths are smaller than the critical wavelength become evanescent. The alternating updraft and downdraft cells are formed by the superposition of evanescent waves and horizontally propagating parts of propagating waves. Simulation results show that the horizontal length of the updraft and downdraft cells is the half of the critical wavelength (${\pi}{\beta}$) in a linear flow system and larger than ${\pi}{\beta}$ in a weakly nonlinear flow system.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.83 no.3
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• pp.410-423
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• 1994

Seasonal and diurnal changes of stomatal diffusive resistance(S.D.R.) and transpiration rate(T.R.) were investigated for determining the ecophysiological water relations of economic tree species subjected to chronic water stress or exogenous abscisic acid treatment. Four species of oaks including Quercus serrata, Q. mongolica. Q. acutissima, and Q. variabilis were used as the experimental materials and also Fraxinus rhynchophylla was studied together with oaks. Stomatal diffusive resistances were repeatedly measured on the containerized 1-0 year seedlings subjected to two kinds of soil moisture regime (wet and dry) in June, August, and September by LI-1600 Steady State Porometer of LI-Cor, Inc.. Exogenous abscisic acid (ABA) solutions of 0.5 mM and 0.05 mM in July and August, respectively, were absorbed into shoots cut from the containerized seedlings for determining their effects on stomatal behavior and transpiration. Most of measurements in stomatal diffusive resistance maintained about 5 s/cm in the morning after sunrise despite of different treatments. But the values fluctuated frequently to high level above 20 s/cm through the afternoon until sunset in the seedlings subjected to dry soil moisture regime. Despite of various treatments and environmental conditions, stomatal diffusive resistances of Q. variabilis were more stable than those of Q. serrata or Q. acutissima. Their values of F. rhynchophylla changed more irregularly in comparison with those of oak species. Exogenous abscisic acid absorbed into shoots cut from seedlings increased stomatal diffusive resistance obviously in most of the species studied. The stomatal responses to abscisic acid treatment were more sensitive in July especially in Q. serrata than in Q. variabilis and Q. acutissima. But the effects of ABA treatment were presented more remarkably in Q. acutissima in August. The responses to abscisic acid were not certain in F. rhynchophylla because of their various fluctuation patterns.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.42 no.7
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• pp.579-589
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• 2009

Hwang River in South Korea, has experienced channel adjustments due to dam construction. Hapcheon main dam and re-regulation dam. The reach below the re-regulation dam (45 km long) changed in flow regime, channel width, bed material distribution, vegetation expansion, and island formation after dam construction. The re-regulation dam dramatically reduced annual peak flow from 654.7 $m^3$/s to 126.3 $m^3$/s and trapped the annual 591 thousand $m^3$ of sediment load formerly delivered from the upper watershed since the completion of the dam in 1989. An analysis of a time series of aerial photographs taken in 1982, 1993, and 2004 showed that non-vegetated active channel width narrowed an average of 152 m (47% of 1982) and non-vegetated active channel area decreased an average of 6.6 km2 (44% of 1982) between 1982 and 2004, with most narrowing and decreasing occurring after dam construction. The effects of daily pulses of water from peak hydropower generation and sudden sluice gate operations are investigated downstream of Hapcheon Dam in South Korea. The study reach is 45 km long from the Hapcheon re-regulation Dam to the confluence with the Nakdong River. An analysis of a time series of aerial photographs taken in 1982, 1993, and 2004 showed that the non-vegetated active channel width narrowed an average of 152 m (47% reduction since 1982). The non-vegetated active channel area also decreased an average of 6.6 $km^2$ (44% reduction since 1982) between 1982 and 2004, with most changes occurring after dam construction. The average median bed material size increased from 1.07 mm in 1983 to 5.72 mm in 2003, and the bed slope of the reach decreased from 0.000943 in 1983 to 0.000847 in 2003. The riverbed vertical degradation is approximately 2.6 m for a distance of 20 km below the re-regulation dam. It is expected from the result of the unsteady sediment transport numerical model (GSTAR-1D) steady simulations that the thalweg elevation will reach a stable condition around 2020. The model also confirms the theoretical prediction that sediment transport rates from daily pulses and flood peaks are 21 % and 15 % higher than their respective averages.