• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.17 no.3 s.83
• /
• pp.396-401
• /
• 2007

This research investigated whether exposure of diesel exhaust particulate (DEP) and particulate metter (PM) effect on intercellular. adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) expression in asthma-induced Balb/c and IL-10 knock out (KO) mouse. Mouse was sensitized with intraperitoneal injection with ovalbumin, followed by challenges with intranasal ovalbumin. After induction of asthma mouse placed in the inhalation chamber and exposed to DEP and PM (10 $mg/m^3$). The evidences of pulmonary inflammation were assessed by immunohistochemical stain and westen blot against ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 in the lung tissue. In the immunohistochemical stain, positive reactions for ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 were much stronger in asthma-induced groups and asthma-induced group with DEP or PM than control groups. Although mild positive reactions were appeared in asthma-induced IL-10 KO mice groups, positive reactions were very strong in the asthma-induced group with DEP or PM. In Western blot, expression of VCAM-1 was increased in asthma-induced group with DEP or PM than asthma-induced groups. In the IL-10 KO mouse, ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 expression were increased in asthma-induced group with DEP or PM than asthma-induced groups. DEP and PM exposure have additive effects on the aggravation of inflammatory signs in the asthma-induced murine model. These results suggest that inhalation of DEP and PM in asthmatic patients may aggravate clinical symptoms.

• Experimental and Molecular Medicine
• /
• v.50 no.11
• /
• pp.5.1-5.14
• /
• 2018

Oxidative stress-induced mitochondrial dysfunction is implicated in the pathogenesis of intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD). Sirtuin 3 (SIRT3), a sirtuin family protein located in mitochondria, is essential for mitochondrial homeostasis; however, the role of SIRT3 in the process of IVDD has remained elusive. Here, we explored the expression of SIRT3 in IVDD in vivo and in vitro; we also explored the role of SIRT3 in senescence, apoptosis, and mitochondrial homeostasis under oxidative stress. We subsequently activated SIRT3 using honokiol to evaluate its therapeutic potential for IVDD. We assessed SIRT3 expression in degenerative nucleus pulposus (NP) tissues and oxidative stress-induced nucleus pulposus cells (NPCs). SIRT3 was knocked down by lentivirus and activated by honokiol to determine its role in oxidative stress-induced NPCs. The mechanism by which honokiol affected SIRT3 regulation was investigated in vitro, and the therapeutic potential of honokiol was assessed in vitro and in vivo. We found that the expression of SIRT3 decreased with IVDD, and SIRT3 knockdown reduced the tolerance of NPCs to oxidative stress. Honokiol ($10{\mu}M$) improved the viability of NPCs under oxidative stress and promoted their properties of anti-oxidation, mitochondrial dynamics and mitophagy in a SIRT3-dependent manner. Furthermore, honokiol activated SIRT3 through the AMPK-PGC-$1{\alpha}$ signaling pathway. Moreover, honokiol treatment ameliorated IVDD in rats. Our study indicated that SIRT3 is involved in IVDD and showed the potential of the SIRT3 agonist honokiol for the treatment of IVDD.

• Experimental and Molecular Medicine
• /
• v.50 no.11
• /
• pp.13.1-13.15
• /
• 2018

Wound healing is delayed in diabetic patients. Increased apoptosis and endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) dysfunction are implicated in delayed diabetic wound healing. Melatonin, a major secretory product of the pineal gland, promotes diabetic wound healing; however, its mechanism of action remains unclear. Here, EPCs were isolated from the bone marrow of mice. Treatment of EPCs with melatonin alleviated advanced glycation end product (AGE)-induced apoptosis and cellular dysfunction. We further examined autophagy flux after melatonin treatment and found increased light chain 3 (LC3) and p62 protein levels in AGE-treated EPCs. However, lysosome-associated membrane protein 2 expression was decreased, indicating that autophagy flux was impaired in EPCs treated with AGEs. We then evaluated autophagy flux after melatonin treatment and found that melatonin increased the LC3 levels, but attenuated the accumulation of p62, suggesting a stimulatory effect of melatonin on autophagy flux. Blockage of autophagy flux by chloroquine partially abolished the protective effects of melatonin, indicating that autophagy flux is involved in the protective effects of melatonin. Furthermore, we found that the AMPK/mTOR signaling pathway is involved in autophagy flux stimulation by melatonin. An in vivo study also illustrated that melatonin treatment ameliorated impaired wound healing in a streptozotocin-induced diabetic wound healing model. Thus, our study shows that melatonin protects EPCs against apoptosis and dysfunction via autophagy flux stimulation and ameliorates impaired wound healing in vivo, providing insight into its mechanism of action in diabetic wound healing.

• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
• /
• v.142
• /
• pp.265-294
• /
• 2017

In the early days of human history, the governing groups of rulers needed to justify their rule. The cause of rule became the ruling ideology. In China, the backbone of the ruling ideology was originally referred to as 'Di(帝)' or 'Shangdi(上帝)', who was later replaced by 'Tian(天)', Heaven. So there was a claim that Heaven gave the cause of the rule. This idea is the 'Tianming (天命)' idea. When the Zhou(周) Dynasty took control of the central government, the 'Tianming' idea had had a relatively sophisticated form. It was the 'Zhouli(周禮)' that organized the systematic order of the Zhou Dynasty. After this system collapsed, those who recognized 'Zhouli' as a desirable social system considered the collapse of 'Zhouli' as a situation of turbulent age. It was Qin(秦) State that unified all of the states of the period. However, after the unification, the Qin Dynasty fell sharply. The next dynasty was the Han(漢) Dynasty. The new ruling powers of the Han Dynasty needed to justify their regime. That means that it was necessary to establish the ruling ideology of the Han Dynasty. The representative of the ruling ideology of the Han Dynasty was Dongzhongshu, whose thought was based on Confucianism. His thought was related to "Chunqiugongyangzhuan(春秋公羊傳)", an interpretation of "Chunqiu(春秋)". This interpretation perspective is based on the idea of religious Heaven. Dongzhongshu thought that there were co-communions between Heaven and humans. His thought has the meaning of political theology in which rulers hold the basis of the rulers' sovereignty.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.19 no.10
• /
• pp.685-697
• /
• 2019

The study aimed to analyze the structure of China's passenger railway network in the years of 2008, 2013, and 2018, respectively. At the same time, it tried to investigate its derivative impact on the patterns of Chinese urban network. The analytical tool was based on the NetMiner4.0. In order to measure network characteristics of China's passenger railway network, it primarily focused on the degree centrality, betweenness centrality, and closeness centrality. First of all, the higher degree centralities, with a few exceptions, were observed in BeiJing, ShangHai, GuangZhou, WuHan, XiAn, ChengDu, HaErBin, and ShenYang over a decade. In contrast, the higher betweenness centralities were recorded in cities of higher development potential including WuLuMuQi, GuiYang, ShenYang, and KunMing. The closeness centrality analyses confirmed the fact that most metropoles like BeiJing, ShangHai, and GuangZhou kept the highest train accessibility during the same research period. At the same time, the opening up of a new stretch of high speed railway network has consecutively strengthened connectivity between BeiJing and TianJin. Owing to unprecedented development of railway traffic and its extensive operations, this study believes that Chinese major cities, without interruption, would pursue a series of urban policy alternatives geared towards railway stations-oriented networking and competitively try to extend their network ranges.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.8-16
• /
• 2001

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects on plant growth, soil chemical properties and microbial flora with microbial fertilizer to chinese cabbage cultivation. The plant growth was promoted and the yield increased by application of Tian Li Bao(TLB) microbial fertilizer as compared with the control. However, yield a littler decreased in case of the reduced amount of urea application as a top dressing and half of compost chicken manure as a basial fertilizer even if treated with TLB microbial fertilizer. Organic matter and total nitrogen contents decreased as compared to those in the control, and total nitrogen ranged in 0.76~1.44% in the treatments at harvesting time, and decreased with application of TLB microbial fertilizer compared to that of the control. The available phosphorus content in the field before experiment was 559ppm, but it was 755ppm and 653 in the control and treatments at harvesting time, respectively. Therefore, it was shown that phosphorus content in the treatment was lower than that of the control. On the other hand, total nitrogen, phosphorous and K ranged from 2.62 to 2.94%, from 1.48 to 1.55% and from 3.60 to 4.38% in plants after harvest, respectively. There were no significant differences among the treatments. For the soil microbial flora, the population of bacteria in the treatments decreased with application of microbial fertilizer as compared with the control over all cultivation periods. It was shown that the population of pseudomonas spp. was over 3 times higher than that of the control after harvesting. The population of actinomycetes didn't show difference among the treatments, but high density of fungi after harvesting were observed in the treatments.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.53 no.10
• /
• pp.3217-3228
• /
• 2021

Flow blockage of the fuel assembly in the lead-based fast reactor (LFR) may produce critical local spots, which will result in cladding failure and threaten reactor safety. In this study, the flow blockage characteristics were analyzed with the sub-channel analysis method, and the circumferentially-varied method was employed for considering the non-uniform distribution of circumferential temperature. The developed sub-channel analysis code SACOS-PB was validated by a heat transfer experiment in a blocked 19-rod bundle cooled by lead-bismuth eutectic. The deviations between the predicted coolant temperature and experimental values are within ±5%, including small and large flow blockage scenarios. And the temperature distributions of the fuel rod could be better simulated by the circumferentially-varied method for the small blockage scenario. Based on the validated code, the analysis of blockage characteristics was conducted. It could be seen from the temperature and flow distributions that a large blockage accident is more destructive compared with a small one. The sensitivity analysis shows that the closer the blockage location is to the exit, the more dangerous the accident is. Similarly, a larger blockage length will lead to a more serious case. And a higher exit temperature will be generated resulting from a higher peak coolant temperature of the blocked region. This work could provide a reference for the future design and development of the LFR.

• Animal Bioscience
• /
• v.34 no.12
• /
• pp.1940-1950
• /
• 2021

Objective: The objective of this study was to explore the effects of maize straw treated with calcium oxide (CaO) and various moisture, on the composition and molecular structure of the fiber, and gas production by fermentation in an in vitro rumen environment. Methods: The experiment used 4×3 Factorial treatment. Maize straws were treated with 4 concentrations of CaO (0%, 3%, 5%, and 7% of dry straw weight) and 3 moisture contents (40%, 50%, and 60%). Scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy were employed to measure the surface texture, secondary molecular structure of carbohydrate, and calcium (Ca) content of the maize straw, respectively. The correlation of secondary molecular structures and fiber components of maize straw were analyzed by CORR procedure of SAS 9.2. In vitro rumen fermentation was performed for 6, 12, 24, 48, and 72 h to measure gas production. Results: Overall, the moisture factor had no obvious effect on the experimental results. Neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber, acid detergent lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose contents decreased (p<0.05) with increasing concentrations of CaO treatment. Surface and secondary molecular structure of maize straw were affected by various CaO and moisture treatments. NDF had positive correlation (p<0.01) with Cell-H (H, height), Cell-A (A, area), CHO-2-H. Hemicellulose had positive correlation (p<0.01) with Lignin-H, Lignin-A, Cell-H, Cell-A. Ca content of maize straw increased as the concentration of CaO was increased (p<0.01). Gas production was highest in the group treated with 7% CaO. Conclusion: CaO can adhere to the surface of the maize straw, and then improve the digestibility of the maize straw in ruminants by modifying the structure of lignocellulose and facilitating the maize straw for microbial degradation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.53 no.6
• /
• pp.1834-1845
• /
• 2021

Liquid lead-bismuth cooled fast reactor is one of the most promising reactor types among the fourth-generation nuclear energy systems. The flow and heat transfer characteristics of lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) are completely different from ordinary fluids due to its special thermal properties, causing that the traditional Reynolds analogy is no longer recommended and appropriate. More accurate turbulence flow and heat transfer model for the liquid metal lead-bismuth should be developed and applied in CFD simulation. In this paper, a specific CFD solver for simulating the flow and heat transfer of liquid lead-bismuth based on the k - 𝜀 - k_𝜃 - 𝜀_𝜃 model was developed based on the open source platform OpenFOAM. Then the advantage of proposed model was demonstrated and validated against a set of experimental data. Finally, the simulation of LBE turbulent flow and heat transfer in a 7-pin wire-wrapped rod bundle with the k - 𝜀 - k_𝜃 - 𝜀_𝜃 model was carried out. The influence of wire on the flow and heat transfer characteristics and the three-dimensional distribution of key thermal hydraulic parameters such as temperature, cross-flow velocity and Nusselt number were studied and presented. Compared with the traditional SED model with a constant Pr_t = 1.5 or 2.0, the k - 𝜀 - k_𝜃 - 𝜀_𝜃 model is more accurate on predicting the turbulence flow and heat transfer of liquid lead-bismuth. The average relative error of the k - 𝜀 - k_𝜃 - 𝜀_𝜃 model is reduced by 11.1% at most under the simulation conditions in this paper. This work is meaningful for the thermal hydraulic analysis and structure design of fuel assembly in the liquid lead-bismuth cooled fast reactor.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.32 no.9
• /
• pp.1381-1388
• /
• 2019

Objective: The aims of this study were to reveal the magnitude of the differences in protein structures at a cellular level as well as protein utilization and availability among soybean meal (SBM), canola meal (CM), and rapeseed meal (RSM) as feedstocks in China. Methods: Experiments were designed to compare the three different types of feedstocks in terms of: i) protein chemical profiles; ii) protein fractions partitioned according to Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Protein System; iii) protein molecular structures and protein second structures; iv) special protein compounds-amino acid (AA); v) total digestible protein and energy values; vi) in situ rumen protein degradability and intestinal digestibility. The protein second structures were measured using FT/IR molecular spectroscopy technique. A summary chemical approach in National Research Council (NRC) model was applied to analyze truly digestible protein. Results: The results showed significant differences in both protein nutritional profiles and protein structure parameters in terms of ${\alpha}-helix$, ${\beta}-sheet$ spectral intensity and their ratio, and amide I, amide II spectral intensity and their ratio among SBM, CM, and RSM. SBM had higher crude protein (CP) and AA content than CM and RSM. For dry matter (DM), SBM, and CM had a higher DM content compared with RSM (p<0.05), whereas no statistical significance was found between SBM and CM (p = 0.28). Effective degradability of CP and DM did not demonstrate significant differences among the three groups (p>0.05). Intestinal digestibility of rumen undegradable protein measured by three-step in vitro method showed that there was significant difference (p = 0.05) among SBM, CM, and RSM, which SBM was the highest and RSM was the lowest with CM in between. NRC modeling results showed that digestible CP content in SBM was significantly higher than that of CM and RSM (p<0.05). Conclusion: This study suggested that SBM and CM contained similar protein value and availability for dairy cattle, while RSM had the lowest protein quality and utilization.