• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.696-703
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• 2015

We investigated the characteristics of embryonic and abnormal organ development in haploid olive flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus, by comparing egg development and histological sections in haploid and diploid individuals. After the mid-blastula transition, abnormal development was observed in haploid fish, including delayed epiboly and malformation of the germ ring and embryonic body. In haploid flounder, Kupffer’s vesicles are irregularly shaped and of variable size compared to diploids. The embryonic body of haploids was shorter and broader than that of diploids and the tail length and size were variable. Most haploid embryos failed to hatch and the few larvae that did, did not survive for more than 6 h. The histological analysis of haploid larvae revealed deformed development in diverse organs, including the eye, otic vesicles, notochord, and neural tube. These results may be related to an abnormality in the axial system of haploid larvae. This study confirmed that the abnormalities of haploid olive flounder were similar to the reported characteristics of haploid syndrome. The abnormalities are caused by delayed epiboly and involution and deformity of Kupffer’s vesicle during egg development.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.215-222
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• 2010

The market size of engineered nanoparticles is rapidly increasing due to the fast application of nanotechnologies into different industries and consumer products. The development of new technology and materials has improved human's quality of life, but it also entails the possibility of exposure to new materials. In this study, we compared the distribution in the body by the inflow of silver nanoparticles having another diameter and shape at 1 h or 24 h after injection via the tail vein. And, we compared the cell composition and cytokine concentration in BAL fluid, and histopathological changes. As results, discharge of silver nanoparticles having small diameter and sphere shape was more rapid than that of big diameter or plate shape. It is estimated that the toxicity in liver and lung was proportional to accumulation level. The persistence of inflammation was also longer in mice treated with plate shape. Consequently, we suggest that the first choice of silver nanoparticles having small diameter and sphere shape in applying is desirable.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.181-190
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• 2016

Improvements in disaster management has become a global necessity because the magnitude of disasters is intensifying in parallel with the increased disaster damage. The disaster risk in Korea is also increasing due to the emergence of new types of disaster; such as the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, the increase of complex disasters, and the heightened probability of a catastrophic event due to climate change. This paper aimed to identify the disaster loss-frequency relationship from 1948 to 2014 in Korea by using four types of variables. In addition, this paper found major disasters that resulted in the reformation of disaster response organizations, and inputted the deaths and economic loss attributed to those disasters into the disaster loss-frequency graph. The research result substantiated that the disaster loss-frequency relationship in Korea follows the Power Law and found the coefficients of each Power Function. Additionally, this paper found that most of the reformations of disaster response organizations happened after major disasters that concentrated societies attention and anger due to the high human and economic impact; such events are labelled as "focusing events." These focusing events, with the characteristics of a low probability and high impact, are located in the long tail of the Power Law Distribution. This paper suggests that the effective public policy for disaster response needs to be developed by paying attention to 'low probability and high impact' focusing events that are located in the long tail of the Power Law Distribution.

• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.119-146
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• 2005

This study applies extreme value theory to get extreme value-VAR for Korean Stock market and showed the usefulness of the approach. Block maxima model and POT model were used as extreme value models and tested which model was more appropriate through back testing. It was shown that the block maxima model was unstable as the variation of the estimate was very large depending on the confidence level and the magnitude of the estimates depended largely on the block size. This shows that block maxima model was not appropriate for Korean Stock market. On the other hand POT model was relatively stable even though extreme value VAR depended on the selection of the critical value. Back test also showed VAR showed a better result than delta VAR above 97.5% confidence level. POT model performs better the higher the confidence level, which suggests that POT model is useful as a risk management tool especially for VAR estimates with a confidence level higher than 99%. This study picks up the right tail and left tail of the return distribution and estimates the EVT-VAR for each, which reflects the asymmetry of the return distribution of the Korean Stock market.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.385-392
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• 2001

Environmental risk factors such as ionizing radiations, heavy metals, and pesticides can cause environmental disasters when they exist in excess. The increases in use of ionizing radiation and agricultural pesticide are somewhat related to the possibility of the disaster. The risk of radiation and pesticide was evaluated by means of the single cell gel electrophoresis (SCGE) assay on the human blood lymphocytes. The lymphocytes were irradiated with $0{\sim}2.0Gy$ of $^{60}Co$ gamma ray. Another groups of lymphocytes were exposed to various concentrations of parathion. Significantly increased tail moment, which was a marker of DNA strand breaks in SCGE assay, showed a clear dose- or concentration-response relationship. Parathion of a recommended concentration for agricultural use ($1mg {\ell}^{-1}$ ) has a strong cytotoxic effect on lymphocytes, which is equivalent to damage induced by 0.1 Gy of ${\gamma}$-ray. Furthermore, $2mg{\ell}^{-1}$ of parathion can give rise to DNA damage equivalent to that induced by 0.25 Gy at which the radiation-induced damage can start to develop into clinical symptoms. The comparative results of this study can provide an experimental basis and biological information for the prevention of environmental disaster.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.151-163
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• 2023

This study explored the 2022 drought over the Nakdong River watershed. Here, we developed a bivariate regional frequency analysis method to evaluate the risk of hydrological drought. Currently, natural streamflow data are generally limited to accurately estimating the drought frequency. Under this circumstance, the existing at site frequency analysis can be problematic in estimating the drought risk. On the other hand, a regional frequency analysis could provide a more reliable estimation of the joint return periods of drought variables by pooling available streamflow data over the entire watershed. More specifically, the Copula-based regional frequency analysis model was proposed to effectively take into account the tail dependencies between drought variables. The results confirmed that the regional frequency analysis model showed better performance in model fit by comparing the goodness-of-fit measures with the at-site frequency analysis model. We find that the estimated joint return period of the 2022 drought in the Nakdong River basin is about eight years. In the case of the Nam river Dam, the joint return period was approximately 20 years, which can be regarded as a relatively severe drought over the last three decades.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2010

Xenotransplantation of pig organs is complicated by the existence of polytropic replication-competent porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERV) capable of infecting human cells. Two classes of infectious human-tropic replication-competent PERVs (PERV-A and PERV-B) and one class of ecotropic PERV-C are known. The potential for recombination between ecotropic PERV-C and human-tropic PERVs adds another level of infectious risk. A recombinant PERV-A/C (PERV-A14/220) virus is 500-fold more infectious than PERV-A. Two determinants of this high infectivity was identified; one was isoleucine-to-valine substitution at position 140 in RBD (receptor binding domain), and the other lies within the PRR (proline rich region) of the envelope protein. To examine whether the effects of the cytoplasmic tail of the PERV-C Env on fusogenesity also influences infectivity, we constructed a pseudotype retroviral vectors containing MoMLV core protein and PERV envelopes. Pseudotyping experiments with the PERV envelope glycoproteins indicated that recombinant PERV-A/C virus is 10-fold more infectious than PERV-A by lacZ staining. This result supports the suggestion that viral transduction of PERV-A/C is enhanced by a membrane-proximal cytoplasmic amphiphilic ${\alpha}$-helix in PERV-C Env tail.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.13-18
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• 2008

Excessive alcohol consumption is associated with increased risks of many diseases including cancer. Individuals who regularly consume excessive quantities of alcohol have a greater risk of developing head and neck cancers such as esophageal, pharyngeal and oral cavity cancers if they are deficient in ALDH2 expression compared to normal populations. We evaluated lipid peroxidation in Aldh2 +/+ and Aldh2 -/- mice after they had been subjected to acute ethanol exposure. Malondialdehyde(MDA) level in liver tissue was evaluated as a biomarker of oxidative lipid peroxidation. Although the ethanol treatment did not increase the hepatic MDA level both in Aldh2 +/+ mice and in Aldh2 -/- mice, the MDA level was significant higher in the Aldh2 -/- mice than in the Aldh2 +/+ group. The MDA level was also significantly correlated with olive tail moment in blood and the level of 8-OHdG in liver tissue. This is a strong evidence to support our hypothesis that oxidative stress is more intense in Aldh2 -/- mice than in Aldh2 +/+ mice. Our results suggest that ALDH2-deficient individuals may be more susceptible than wild-type ALDH2 individuals to ethanol-mediated liver disease, including cancer.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.448-453
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• 2010

Drug-induced long QT syndrome is known to be associated with the onset of torsades de pointes (TdP), resulting in a fatal ventricular arrhythmia. QT interval prolongation can result from blocking the human ether-a-go-go-related gene (hERG) channel, which is important for the repolarization of cardiac action potential. Nicardipine, a Ca-channel blocker and antihypertensive agent, has been reported to increase the risk of occasional serious ventricular arrhythmias. We studied the effects of nicardipine on hERG $K^+$ channels expressed in HEK293 cells and Xenopus oocytes. The cardiac electrophysiological effect of nicardipine was also investigated in this study. Our results revealed that nicardipine dose-dependently decreased the tail current of the hERG channel expressed in HEK293 cells with an $IC_{50}$ of 0.43 ${\mu}M$. On the other hand, nicardipine did not affect hERG channel trafficking. Taken together, nicardipine inhibits the hERG channel by the mechanism of short-term channel blocking. Two S6 domain mutations, Y652A and F656A, partially attenuated (Y652A) or abolished (F656A) the hERG current blockade, suggesting that nicardipine blocks the hERG channel at the pore of the channel.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.1-12
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• 2010

The individual differences in disease development and susceptibility have been researched primarily on the subject of genes, environment or the interaction between genes and the environment respectively. However, there have been limitations in explaining complex diseases, and the differences in health and diseases in monozygotic and dizygotic twins. Fortunately, thanks to active research on the relationship between genes and the environment, and epigenetics, there has been much progress in the understanding of body's reactions and changes. Epigenetics is referred to as a study of gene expression through the interactions of DNA methylation, chromatin's histone and the change of structure in tail, RNA editing without any change in DNA sequence. In this paper, we introduce the basic concepts and mechanisms of epigenetics. The result of the epigenetics is heritable ; can regulate gene expressions ; is reversible ; and has many variable forms depending on cell types. The influences of epigenetics occur throughout life, but it is mainly determined in utero during early pregnancies. Diseases occur or the risk rises if these influences continue after birth until adult life when problems occur in excess/lack of nutrition, environmental plasticity, or already inputted data. Therefore, there is a need for change and innovation, especially in interest and investment in health education for young women near pregnancies and correct treatment of epigenetic-related diseases.