• Journal of Life Science
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• v.32 no.8
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• pp.647-658
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• 2022

Particulate matter (PM) is known to be involved in the onset and progression of various diseases by promoting oxidative and inflammatory reactions as air pollutants containing various small particles that are harmful. In this study, the protective efficacy of herbal medicines was evaluated in human corneal epithelial cells (hCECs) to select natural products that can protect the eye, the primary organ directly exposed to external pollutants from PM. As a result, five candid ate herbal medicines [Cheonmundong, Asparagus Rhizome; Seokchangpo, Aciru Gramineri Rhizoma; Hwangryeon, Coptidis Rhizoma; Gamgug, Chrysanthemi Indici Flos; and Geumjanhwa (Marigold flower petals)] which showed inhibitory efficacy on PM_2.5-induced cytotoxicity, were selected from among 12 candidate herbal medicines. To evaluate the antioxidant activity of these candidate substances, the reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging ability was investigated, and it was found that the extracts of Seokchangpo, Cheonmundong and Hwangryeon showed a significant inhibitory effect on PM_2.5-induced ROS production, which was correlated with the preservation of mitochondrial activity. In addition, it was confirmed that they could block DNA damage caused by PM_2.5 through analysis of 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine generation and phosphorylated-H2A histone family member X (γ- H2AX) expression. Furthermore, the increase in inflammasome activity and inflammatory response in PM_2.5-treated hCECs was also canceled in the presence of these extracts. Although additional studies are needed, the results of this study will be used as primary data to find novel natural compounds that protect hCECs from PM.

• Clean Technology
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.278-284
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• 2022

This study presents an excellent planar heater based on low-dimensional composites. By optimizing the ratio of 1D carbon nanotubes (CNT) and 2D MXene (Ti₃C₂T_X), it is possible to create a planar heater that has superior electrical conductivity and high heat generation characteristics. Low-dimensional composites were prepared by mixing CNT paste and MXene solution with eco-friendly waterborne polyurethane (WPU). In order to find the optimal mixing ratio for the MXene-CNT-WPU composites, samples with MXene to CNT weight ratios of 3:1, 1:1, 1:3, 1:7, and 1:14 were investigated. In addition to these different weight ratios, 5 wt% WPU was equally applied to each sample. It was confirmed that the higher the weight ratio of CNT, the lower the sheet resistance and the higher the heating temperature. In particular, when the MXene-CNT-WPU planar heater was fabricated by mixing MXene and CNT at a weight ratio of 1:7 and 1:14, the heating temperature was higher than the heating temperature of a CNT-WPU planar heater. These characteristics are due to the optimized mixture of the 1D materials (CNT) and the 2D materials (MXene) causing the formation of a flat surface and a dense network structure. The low-dimensional composites manufactured with the optimized mixing ratios found in this study are expected to be applied in flexible electronic devices.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.1074-1081
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• 2021

Nitrous oxide (N₂O) is one of the six major greenhouse gases and is known to produce a greenhouse ef ect by absorbing infrared radiation in the atmosphere. In particular, its global warming potential (GWP) is 310 times higher than that of CO₂, making N₂O a global concern. Accordingly, strong environmental regulations are being proposed. N₂O reduction technology can be classified into concentration recovery, catalytic decomposition, and pyrolysis according to physical methods. This study intends to provide information on temperature conditions and reaction time required to reduce nitrogen oxides with cost. The high-temperature ranges selected for pyrolysis conditions were calculated at intervals of 100 K from 1073 K to 1373 K. Under temperatures of 1073 K and 1173 K, the N₂O reduction rate and nitrogen monoxide concentration were observed to be proportional to the residence time, and for 1273 K, the N₂O reduction rate decreased due to generation of the reverse reaction as the residence time increased. Particularly for 1373 K, the positive and reverse reactions for all residence times reached chemical equilibrium, resulting in a rather reduced reaction progression to N₂O reduction.

• Proceedings of the KSAR Conference
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• 2001.03a
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• pp.56-56
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• 2001

The exogenous gene transfer by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) procedure has been recently used to produce transgenic mice and pigs. Sperm-mediated DNA transfer has the potential to markedly simplify the generation of transgenic animals. This method may serve as an alternative to the pronucleus injection of DNA for the production of transgenic pigs. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the expression of transgene after co-injection of spermatozoon or sperm head with green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene into in vitro matured porcine oocytes. Spermatozoon and sperm head, that was obtained by sonication, were treated with 0.03% Triton X-100 to remove the membrane. They were preincubated with linearized pEGFP-N1 for 1 min, and then embryos cultured NCSU23 medium for 2.5 days after co-injected of sperm and DNA. We monitored expression of GFP in embryos under epifluorescent microscope. The remove of sperm membrane did not alter the developmental competence of embryos after ICSI. At 7 days following injection, the rates of blastocysts following injection of intact sperm (15.0%), and of sperm with disrupted membrane (14.2%) were higher than that following IVF (10.0%). Porcine oocytes injected with sperm which co-cultured with DNA concentration of 1, 0.1, and 0.01 ng were 60, 65.7 and 75% and 18.5, 37.4 and 22.2% for rates of cleavage and GFP expression, respectively. In vitro matured porcine oocytes injected with sperm and isolated sperm head resulted in 69 and 59.7% of cleavage rates, respectively The rates of embryo GFP expressed did not significantly different between sperm (20.4%) and sperm head (20.0%) injection. The transgenic embryos with the clusters of positive blastomeres were observed under fluorescent microscope. Most of embryos expressed GFP gene showed mosaicism. They showed GFP expression at 1/4, 2/4 and 3/4 of blastomeres at the 4-cell stage. Among these 4-cell embryos, the expression rate of 1/4 blastomere group (54.6%) was higher than the other groups (15.3-30.7%). These results indicate that membrane disrupted sperm could attach with exogenous DNA, and that this procedure may be useful to introduce foreign gene into porcine oocytes. Therefore, our data suggest that the ICSI car be a useful tool to efficiently produce transgenic pig as well as other mammals.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.140-154
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• 2023

Purpose: Deodeok (Codonopsis lanceolata) is generally used in conventional medicines and is considered to have remedial properties to cure several diseases. However, application of the C. lanceolata bud as a novel food ingredient has not been fully explored. Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) is associated with the production of oxidative damage that results in mutagenesis, carcinogenesis, and cell death. This study examines the neuroprotective effect of C. lanceolate bud extracts (CLBE) on H₂O₂-stimulated apoptosis in SH-SY5Y cells. Methods: C. lanceolata bud of length 10 to 15 cm was collected and extracted using 70% ethanol. Cytotoxicity was evaluated by the EZ-cytox reagent, measurement of lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) release and reactive oxygen species (ROS). The morphological changes of the nuclei were determined using the Hoechst 33258 dye. Enzyme activities were analyzed using the caspase activity assay kit. Related protein expressions were quantified by the Western blot immunoassay in H₂O₂-stimulated SH-SY5Y cells. Results: Cell viability, LDH release and ROS generation, demonstrated neuroprotective effects of CLBE in H₂O₂-stimulated SH-SY5Y cells. The occurrence of apoptosis in H₂O₂-stimulated cells was confirmed by caspase activity, which was increased in H₂O₂-stimulated SH-SY5Y cells compared to the unexposed group. Pretreatment of CLBE was observed to inhibit the H₂O₂-stimulated apoptosis. In addition, exposure to CLBE resulted in increased expression of the Bcl-2 (B cell lymphoma 2) protein and decreased expression of the Bax (Bcl2 associated X) protein. Conclusion: This study shows that exposure to CLBE alleviates the H₂O₂-stimulated neuronal damage in SH-SY5Y cells. Our results indicate the potential application of CLBE in neurodegenerative disease therapy or prevention.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Developmental Biology Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.84-84
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• 2003

DNA methylation is involved in epigenetic processes such as X-chromosome inactivation, imprinting and silencing of transposons. DNA methylation is a highly plastic and critical component of mammalian development The DNA methyltransferases (Dnmts) are responsible for the generation of genomic methylation patterns, which lead to transcriptional silencing. The maintenance DNA methyltransferase enzyme, Dnmt 1, and the de novo methyltransferase, Dnmt3a and Dnmt3b, are indispensable for development because mice homozygous for the targeted disruption of any of these genes are not viable. The occurrence of DNA methylation is not random, and it can result in gene silencing The mechanisms underlying these processes are poorly understood. It is well established that DNA methylation and histone deacetylation operate along a common mechanistic pathway to repress transcription through the action of methyl-binding domain proteins (MBDs), which are components of, or recruit, histone deacetylase (HDAC) complexes to methylated DNA. As a basis for future studies on the role of the DNA-methyl-transferase in porcine development, we have isolated and characterized a partial cDNA coding for the porcine Dnmt1. Total RNA of testis, lung and ovary was isolated with TRlzol according to the manufacture's specifications. 5 ug of total RNA was reverse transcribed with Super Script II in the presence of porcine Dnmt 1 specific primers. Standard PCRs were performed in a total volume of 50 ul with cDNA as template. Two DNA fragmenets in different position were produced about 700bp, 1500bp and were cloned into pCR II-TOPO according to the manufacture's specification. Assembly of all sequences resulted in a cDNA from 158bp of 5'to 4861bp of 3'compare with the known human maintenance methyltransferase. Now, we are cloning the unknown Dnmt 1 region by 5'-RACE method and expression of Dnmt 1 in tissues from adult porcine animals.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.17-29
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• 2009

There has been an increase in the investigation of deep sea sediments with a consequent increase in the amount of energy required to undertake these investigations. The geotechnical characteristics of Ulleung Basin sediment are explored by using depressurized specimens following methane production tests carried out on pressured core samples obtained at 2,100 m water depth and 110 m below sea floor. Geotechnical index tests, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscope are conducted to identify the geotechnical index parameters, clay mineralogy, chemical composition, and microstructure of the sediments. Compressibility, and elastic and electromagnetic wave parameters are investigated for two samples by using a multi sensing instrumented oedometer cell. The strength chatracteristics are obtained by the direct shear tests. The dominant clay minerals are mostly kaolinite, illite, chlorite, and calcite. The SEM shows a well-developed flocculated structure of the microfossil. Void ratio, electrical resistivity, real permittivity, conductivity, and shear wave velocity show bi-linear behavior with the effective vertical stress: as the vertical effective stress increases. The friction angle obtained by the direct shear test is about $21^{\circ}$, which is similar to the value observed in the Ulleung Basin sediments. This study shows that the understanding of the behavior acting on the diatomaceous marine sediment is important because it often maintains the useful energy resources such as gas hydrate and so will be the new engineering field in the next generation.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.67-75
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• 2008

It is interesting to note that distinct element method has been used extensively to model the response of micro and discontinuous behavior in geomechanics. Impressive advances related to response of distinct particles have been conducted and there were difficulties in considering fluid effect simultaneously. Current distinct element methods are progressively developed to solve particle-fluid coupling focused on fluid flow through soil, rock or porous medium. In this research, numerical simulations of fluid injection into particulate materials were conducted to observe cavity initiation and propagation using distinct element method. After generation of initial particles and wall elements, confining stress was applied by servo-control method. The fluid scheme solves the continuity and Navior-Stokes equations numerically, then derives pressure and velocity vectors for fixed grid by considering the existence of particles within the fluid cell. Fluid was injected as 7-step into the assembly in the x-direction from the inlet located at the center of the left boundary under confining stress condition, $0.1MP{\alpha}\;and\;0.5MP{\alpha}$, respectively. For each simulation, movement of particles, flow rate, fluid velocity, pressure history, wall stress including cavity initiation and propagation by interaction of flulid-paricles were analyzed.

• Journal of Cadastre & Land InformatiX
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.53-66
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• 2023

Recently, there has been a significant interest in the development of autonomous driving simulation environment based on digital twin. In the development of such digital twin-based simulation environment, many researches has been conducted not only performance and functionality validation of autonomous driving, but also generation of virtual training data for deep learning. However, such digital twin-based autonomous driving simulation system has the problem of requiring a significant amount of time and cost for the system development and the data construction. Therefore, in this research, we aim to propose a method for rapidly designing and implementing a digital twin-based autonomous driving simulation system, using only the existing 3D models and high-definition map. Specifically, we propose a method for integrating 3D model of FBX and NGII HD Map for the Busan EDC area into CARLA, and a method for adding and modifying CARLA functions. The results of this research show that it is possible to rapidly design and implement the simulation system at a low cost by using the existing 3D models and NGII HD map. Also, the results show that our system can support various functions such as simulation scenario configuration, user-defined driving, and real-time simulation of traffic light states. We expect that usability of the system will be significantly improved when it is applied to broader geographical area in the future.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.111-121
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• 1987

Lipie peroxide formation, antiperoxidative s system and body adaptability for handling lipid p peroxide were examined in the first and second g generations of rats fed fish oil. Mackerel oil(MO) was used and four other dietary oils and fat, i.e. soybean oil(SO), perilla oil(PO), rapeseed oil(RO) and beef tallow(BT) were also employed to compare the effect of fish oil. Synthetic diets containing these five dietary fats at the level of 1O%(w/w), were given to the correspond­m ing groups of male and female rats weighing about 70 grams. After 34 days of feeding, male a and female rats were mated and their offsprings were raised throughout suckling (17, 26 days) and weanling (39 days) periods. Liver lipid pero­x xide level was highest in MO group of both first (mother rats after lactation) and second genera­t tions of 17 and 26 days old, but not of 39 days old. During suckling period, liver lipid peroxide level was well matched to total unsaturation of dietary fat. Brain lipid peroxide levels were not different among five groups. Liver $alpha$-tocopherol a and reduced glutathione (GSH) levels were lowest in MO fed first generation. In second generation, $alpha$-tocopherol level was also low in MO group, although the effect was less pronoun­c ced, but GSH level was not different from other groups. Oxidized glutathione (GSSG) level did not consistently vary by change in dietary fat. Glutathione peroxidase activity increased as young rats grew up to 39 days. Superoxide d dismutase activity change was insignificant by a age, but was shown as lowest in MO group. At the age of 26 and 39 days, liver glutatione peroxidase activity was increased as was level of lipid peroxide, suggesting that this is the one of the mechanisms responsible for body adapta­b bility for protection against the accumulation of lipid peroxide.