• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.286-290
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• 2005

Oxytocin (OT)-related peptide, isotocin was purified from the brain extract of conger eel (Conger myriaster) using reverse-phase, ion-exchange and size exclusion high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The sequence of the peptide, with a molecular weight of 967.30 Da, was determined as Cys-Tyr-Ile-Ser-Asn­Cys-Pro-Ile-Gly-$NH_2$, where the Cys between 1st and 6th residues made an intramolecular disulfide bridge by the automated amino acid sequence analysis and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. The sequence was confirmed by identical elution with the purified and synthetic peptide using the HPLC system. As a result of homology investigation, the primary structure of this peptide was the same as that of OT -superfamily member, isotocin. The synthetic peptide showed a contractile activity at a minimal effective concentration of $10^{-7}M$ on the intestinal smooth muscle of goldfish (Carassius auratus).

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.494-500
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• 2016

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Evidence indicates that berry anthocyanins are anti-atherogenic, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory. However, berries differ vastly in their anthocyanin composition and thus potentially in their biological and metabolic effects. The present study compared hypolipidemic, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties of blueberry (BB), blackberry (BK), and blackcurrant (BC) in a diet-induced obesity (DIO) mouse model. MATERIALS/METHODS: Male C57BL/6J mice were fed a high fat (HF; 35% fat, w/w) control diet or a HF diet supplemented with freeze-dried 5% BB, 6.3% BK or 5.7% BC for 12 weeks (10 mice/group) to achieve the same total anthocyanin content in each diet. Plasma lipids, antioxidant status and pro-inflammatory cytokines were measured. The expression of genes involved in antioxidant defense, inflammation, and lipid metabolism was determined in the liver, epididymal adipose tissue, proximal intestine, and skeletal muscle. Histological analysis was performed to identify crown-like structure (CLS) in epididymal fat pads to determine macrophage infiltration. RESULTS: No differences were noted between the control and any berry-fed groups in plasma levels of liver enzymes, insulin, glucose, ferric reducing antioxidant power, superoxide dismutase, and tumor necrosis factor ${\alpha}$. However, BK significantly lowered plasma triglyceride compared with the HF control and other berries, whereas BC significantly reduced F4/80 mRNA and the number of CLS in the epididymal fat pad, indicative of less macrophage infiltration. CONCLUSIONS: The present study provides evidence that BB, BK and BC with varying anthocyanin composition differentially affect plasma lipids and adipose macrophage infiltration in DIO mice, but with no differences in their antioxidant capacity and anti-inflammatory potential.

• Journal of Dental Rehabilitation and Applied Science
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.107-112
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• 2001

The prosthodontic treatment of severely resorbed edentulous patients has been one of the frustrating areas due to extensive loss of tissues. The integrated neuromuscular balance among tongue, lip, and cheek is compromised. The retention, stability, and support are the three major factors to influence the clinical outcome. Fish described a denture as having three surface, with each surface playing an independent and important role in the over all fit, stability, and comfort of the denture. He recommended that the polished surface should be a series of inclines so that pressure from muscular activity will retain dentures. Within the denture space there is an area that has been termed the neutral zone. The neutral zone is that area in the mouth where, during function, the forces of the tongue pressing outward are neutralized by the forces of the cheeks and lips pressing inward. According to Jacobson and Krol, neuromuscular control interacts to provide retention and the relationship of polished surface of denture base to the surrounding muscular structure of orofacial capsule facilitates the stability and retention. This neutral zone concept has been demonstrated with various modification by a number of authors. The theory used to develop the denture base contours is based on the belief that the muscle should functionally mold not only the border but the entire polished surface. Lott and Walsh reported the clinical success on complete mandibular dentures with application of neutral zone concept. A number of studies demonstrated that denture stability and retention are more dependent on correct position of the teeth and correct contour of external surfaces of the denture in a severely resorbed alveolar ridge. This article presents a prosthodontic approach to treatment of a edentulous patient using neutral zone technique to improve the retention and stability of the prosthesis.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.67-79
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• 2008

This study was conducted to find out biological response of bivalves exposed to tributyltin chloride(TBTCl). The results of the study confirmed that TBTCl induce the reduction of oxygen consumption rateand histopathological feature in the gill structure of equilateral venus, Gomphina veneriformis. The experi-mental groups consisted of a control and 3 TBTCl exposure groups (0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 yg TBTCl L') and theexperimental period was 36 weeks. For histological analysis, gill tissues were fixed in Bouin's fluid andthen stained H-E stain, AB-PAS (PH 2.5) reaction and Masson's trichrome stain after having serially sec-tioned the tissue by paraffin method at thickness of 4-6 (an. The oxygen consumption rate was not signifi-cantly different between the control and exposure groups at 4 weeks, but in all exposure groups at 28 weeks,it was significantly different to the control. Gill of G. veneriformis had demibranch that attached two sheetsof lamellae and a lamella was composed of numerous filaments, numbering 25 on average. The frontal fila-ment zone had three types of cilia; frontal, latero-frontal and lateral depending on locations while the lateralcilia were the longest and largest in number. The mucous cells observed in filaments were more abundant in(542c) in AB-PAS (PH 2.5) reaction. Gill exposed to TBTCl was extended hemolymph sinus and increased hemocytes at 4 weeks, and then it showed increases of mucous cells and partially disappearance of frontalcilia. In the group of 0.8 yg TBTCl L' at 12 weeks, hypertrophy of frontal and latero-frontal epithelia wasobserved. Also it observed m decrease of mucous cell containing weekly acid mucosubstance and appearedpartially destruction muscle fiber bundle, In the groups of 0.4 and 0.6 ug TBTCl L' at 36 weeks, it appearedpartially modification of epithelia and in 0.8 us TBTCl L' group, observed filaments that come out chiti-nous rod from disappearance of frontal and latero-frontal epithelia.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.924-942
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• 2020

The facial expression is diverse and various among persons due to the impact of the psychology factor. Whilst the facial action is comparatively steady because of the fixedness of the anatomic structure. Therefore, to improve performance of the action unit recognition will facilitate the facial expression recognition and provide profound basis for the mental state analysis, etc. However, it still a challenge job and recognition accuracy rate is limited, because the muscle movements around the face are tiny and the facial actions are not obvious accordingly. Taking account of the moving of muscles impact each other when person express their emotion, we propose to make full use of co-occurrence relationship among action units (AUs) in this paper. Considering the dynamic characteristic of AUs as well, we adopt the 3D Convolutional Neural Network(3DCNN) as base framework and proposed to recognize multiple action units around brows, nose and mouth specially contributing in the emotion expression with putting their co-occurrence relationships as constrain. The experiments have been conducted on a typical public dataset CASME and its variant CASME2 dataset. The experiment results show that our proposed AU co-occurrence constraint 3DCNN based AU recognition approach outperforms current approaches and demonstrate the effectiveness of taking use of AUs relationship in AU recognition.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.529-539
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• 1998

The effects of membrane surface charge originated from lipid head groups on ion channels were tested by analyzing the activity of single large conductance $Ca^{2+}-activated\;K^+$ (maxi K) channel from rat skeletal muscle. The conductances and open-state probability ($P_o$) of single maxi K channels were compared in three types of planar lipid bilayers formed from a neutral phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) or two negatively-charged phospholipids, phosphatidylserine (PS) and phosphatidylinositol (PI). Under symmetrical KCl concentrations $(3{\sim}1,000\;mM)$, single channel conductances of maxi K channels in charged membranes were $1.1{\sim}1.7$ times larger than those in PE membranes, and the differences were more pronounced at the lower ionic strength. The average slope conductances at 100 mM KCl were $251{\pm}9.9$, $360{\pm}8.7$ and $356{\pm}12.4$ $(mean{\pm}SEM)$ pS in PE, PS and PI membranes respectively. The potentials at which $P_o$ was 1/2, appeared to have shifted left by 40 mV along voltage axis in the membranes formed with PS or PI. Such shift was consistently seen at pCa 5, 4.5, 4 and 3.5. Estimation of the effect of surface charge from these data indicated that maxi K channels sensed the surface potentials at a distance of $8{\sim}9\;{\AA}$ from the membrane surface. In addition, similar insulation distance ($7{\sim}9\;{\AA}$) of channel mouth from the bilayer surface charge was predicted by a 3-barrier-2-site model of energy profile for the permeation of $K^+$ ions. In conclusion, despite the differences in structure and fluidity of phospholipids in bilayers, the activities of maxi K channels in two charged membranes composed of PS or PI were strikingly similar and larger than those in bilayers of PE. These results suggest that the enhancement of conductance and $P_o$ of maxi channels is mostly due to negative charges in the phospholipid head groups.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.97-108
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• 2010

Background : The location of acupoints on rat, which may differ from that of human body due to anatomical structure, is defined variously among researchers, which may cause the problem of low repeatability and objectivity. Design : The measurement of hind limb consist of measuring the distance between knee joint and tibia tubercle in order to set the knee joint as common criteria. Based on it, the three mostly referred location of ST36 were represented with the knee joint as a datum point and compared. The electroacupuncture stimulation was administrated after the abdominal pain was induced by acetic acid. And the analgesic activity of each ST36 acupoint was evaluated by measuring the number of writhing reflex, in order to observe the differences of treatment effect in accordance with the location of ST36 acupoints. Results : The result of measurement confirmed the differences in the acupoint location of ST36 among researchers. The writhing reflex test using the acetic acid-induced abdominal pain stimulated with electroacupuncture of 100Hz showed that there were statistically significant differences in the analgesic effect between control group and three ST36 groups (P<0.05). However there were no differences observed among three mostly referred location of ST36 acupoints (P>0.05). Conclusions : We recommend "the point located 6.5 mm below the knee joint at the anterior tibial muscle" as a standard ST36 acupoint location qualified by the WHO Standard Acupuncture Point Locations in 2008.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.565-570
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• 2010

Purpose: Due to the closed and humid condition of the perineal area, wound problems occurring at this site are sometimes complicated, especially following postoperative radiation therapy. Moreover, the anal sphincter is a very important functional structure but reconstruction of the anal sphincter after severe trauma poses a challenging problem to plastic surgeons. In this article, we demonstrate the usefulness of the pedicled gracilis flap in the reconstruction of the perineal area. Methods: From September 2008 to November 2009, 6 patients, 4 males and 2 females, underwent surgery of the perineal area. The age of the patients ranged from 21 to 62 years (mean age was 48). The mean follow up period was 14 months. In 4 cases, the patient presented with wound problems after postoperative radiation therapy for anal cancer. In 2 cases, the patient presented with traumatic sphincter damage. Only the gracilis muscle was used in the 4 cases and a musculocutaneous flap was used in the 2 cases involving skin defects, respectively. Results: Among the 6 patients, 1 patient underwent hematoma evacuation of the donor site, and 1 patient presented with prolapse of the vaginal mucosa which recovered spontaneously. There were no report of other complications and there were no wound recurrences. Minimal incontinence was observed in all patients who underwent sphincter reconstruction, but all were satisfied with the overall results. Conclusion: The gracilis flap is useful in the reconstruction of the perineal area, such as in cases of radiotherapy induced wound problems and sphincter damage following severe trauma, due to its easy accessibility, rich vascularity, and minimal donor site morbidity.

• BMB Reports
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.106-112
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• 1997

The effect of cryopreservation on extracellular matrix was studied with the ultimate objective of permiting a prediction of the tendency of aorta conduit tissue to calcify following transplantation. Cryopreserved and fresh porcine aorta conduit tissues were extracted using guanidine-hydrochloride (Gdn-HCl) followed by sequential digestion of the tissues with collagenase, elastase, and papain. Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) of the proteoglycans (PGs) were isolated and quantitated. Gdn-HCl extracted about 61% and 62% of the total GAG (proteoqlycan) material from cryopreserved and fresh tissues, respectively. Collagenasesolubilized proteoglycans from Gdn-HCl extracted tissue represented 20% and 13%, respectively, of the total GAGs present in cryopreserved and fresh tissues. Subsequent elastase hydrolysis of collagenase-digested tissue released about 11% of total GAGs from cryopreserved tissue and 16% from fresh tissue. The remaining 8%, from cryopreserved tissue, and 9%, from fresh tissue, of the total GAGs were obtained after using a papain hydrolysis. There was essentially no difference between fresh and cryopreserved tissues in the relative distribution of proteoglycans in the extracts and digestions except in the initial digestion step where more proteoglycans were obtained from collagenase solubilization of cryopreserved tissue than fresh tissue (p<0.05). The histologic status of the fresh and cryopreserved porcine aortic conduit did not differ markedly. The normal tissue architecture was not affected markedly by the cryopreservation procedure as neither alteration of elastic structure, fibrous proteins nor alteration of nuclear distribution or smooth muscle cell morphology was detected. Quantitative tissue mineral studies revealed that the mean calcium content of the cryopreserved aorta conduit tissue $(165{\pm}3\;{\mu}g/g\;wet\;tissue)$ was higher than that of the fresh tissue $(105{\pm}4\;{\mu}g/g\;wet\;tissue)$ $(p<0.05)$. The mean phosphorus content was $703{\pm}35\;{\mu}g$ wet tissue from cryopreserved tissue and $720{\pm}26\;{\mu}g$ wet tissue from fresh tissue. The study indicates that there is no significant alteration in the distribution of PGs in properly cryopreserved tissue, but the total calcium level appears to be increased in tissue cryopreserved by the cryopreservation process used in this study.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.61-66
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to introduce the method of palate repair that combines minimal hard palate dissection and radical retropositiong of levator musculature, which was presented by Sommerlad. As this method presents, additional use of the operating microscope enables atraumatic and radical dissection, and it might provide more improved speech function to the patients. A total of 17 patients with cleft palate underwent Sommerlad's method from December 2003 to August 2004. The mean follow-up period was 4.5 months. The use of a microscope provided high quality variable magnification and good illumination at the operating field. Repair was carried out through incisions at the margins of cleft with mucoperiosteal flap elevation. Muscles were rearranged and repaired properly. It was unable to evaluate the improvement of speech because the patients were too young to learn meaningful speech. Average operating time including anesthetic induction time, V-tube insertion and recovery from anesthesia was 2 hours 45 minutes which was not quite different from conventional method's operating time. Oronasal fistula developed in 2 patients of them. One of them was healed spontaneously. As meticulous and radical muscle dissection was possible with Sommerlad's method, we could minimize the trauma to the muscular and neurovascluar structure. In addition, we expect better faculty of speech as a result of this method although longer follow-up time was unavailable.