• Title/Summary/Keyword: brain structure

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Tau mis-splicing in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders

  • Park, Sun Ah;Ahn, Sang Il;Gallo, Jean-Marc
    • BMB Reports
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    • v.49 no.8
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    • pp.405-413
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    • 2016
  • Tau proteins, which stabilize the structure and regulate the dynamics of microtubules, also play important roles in axonal transport and signal transduction. Tau proteins are missorted, aggregated, and found as tau inclusions under many pathological conditions associated with neurodegenerative disorders, which are collectively known as tauopathies. In the adult human brain, tau protein can be expressed in six isoforms due to alternative splicing. The aberrant splicing of tau pre-mRNA has been consistently identified in a variety of tauopathies but is not restricted to these types of disorders as it is also present in patients with non-tau proteinopathies and RNAopathies. Tau mis-splicing results in isoform-specific impairments in normal physiological function and enhanced recruitment of excessive tau isoforms into the pathological process. A variety of factors are involved in the complex set of mechanisms underlying tau mis-splicing, but variation in the cis-element, methylation of the MAPT gene, genetic polymorphisms, the quantity and activity of spliceosomal proteins, and the patency of other RNA-binding proteins, are related to aberrant splicing. Currently, there is a lack of appropriate therapeutic strategies aimed at correcting the tau mis-splicing process in patients with neurodegenerative disorders. Thus, a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between tau mis-splicing and neurodegenerative disorders will aid in the development of efficient therapeutic strategies for patients with a tauopathy or other, related neurodegenerative disorders.

Classification, Structure, and Bioactive Functions of Oligosaccharides in Milk

  • Mijan, Mohammad Al;Lee, Yun-Kyung;Kwak, Hae-Soo
    • Food Science of Animal Resources
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    • v.31 no.5
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    • pp.631-640
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    • 2011
  • Milk oligosaccharides are the complex mixture of six monosaccharides namely, D-glucose, D-galactose, N-acetyl-glucosamine, N-acetyl-galactosamine, L-fucose, and N-acetyl-neuraminic acid. The mixture is categorized as neutral and acidic classes. Previously, 25 oligosaccharides in bovine milk and 115 oligosaccharides in human milk have been characterized. Because human intestine lacks the enzyme to hydrolyze the oligosaccharide structures, these substances can reach the colon without degradation and are known to have many health beneficial functions. It has been shown that this fraction of carbohydrate can increase the bifidobacterial population in the intestine and colon, resulting in a significant reduction of pathogenic bacteria. The role of milk oligosaccharides as a barrier against pathogens binding to the cell surface has recently been demonstrated. Milk oligosaccharides have the potential to produce immuno-modulation effects. It is also well known that oligosaccharides in milk have a significant influence on intestinal mineral absorption and in the formation of the brain and central nervous system. Due to its structural resemblance, bovine milk is considered to be the most potential source of oligosaccharides to produce the same effect of oligosaccharides present in human milk. This review describes the characteristics and potential health benefits of milk oligosaccharides as well as the prospects of oligosaccharides in bovine milk for use in functional foods.

Molecular Cloning and Tissue-specific Expression of the Melanocortin 4 Receptor Gene from Olive Flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus

  • Lee, Hye-Jung;Kim, Jong-Myoung
    • Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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    • v.13 no.4
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    • pp.263-271
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    • 2010
  • G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) constitute the largest superfamily of cell membrane receptors, mediating diverse signal-transduction pathways. The melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) has been of interest for its physiological role and size, one of the smallest among the GPCRs, which makes it a good model system for the structural study of GPCRs. To study the molecular structure and tissue-specific expression of MC4R in olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus), the full-length MC4R gene was obtained using PCR amplification of genomic DNA as well as cDNA synthesis. Sequence analysis of the gene indicates that 978 bp of the MC4R gene encodes 325 amino acids without introns. Sequence alignment with the MC4Rs from other fish shows the highest degree of identity (96%) between Paralichthys olivaceous and Verasper moseri, followed by Takifugu rubripes and Tetraodon nigroviridis (89%). RNA was isolated from various tissues to examine the tissue distribution of MC4R by using RT-PCR. The results showed major expression of MC4R in the liver, brain, and eye, which is consistent with the expression pattern in other fish belonging to the order Pleuronectiformes.

Genomic Organization, Tissue Distribution and Developmental Expression of Glyceraldehyde 3-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Isoforms in Mud Loach Misgurnus mizolepis

  • Lee, Sang Yoon;Kim, Dong Soo;Nam, Yoon Kwon
    • Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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    • v.16 no.4
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    • pp.291-301
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    • 2013
  • The genomic organization, tissue distribution, and developmental expression of two paralogous GAPDH isoforms were characterized in the mud loach Misgurnus mizolepis (Cypriniformes). The mud loach gapdh isoform genes (mlgapdh-1 and mlgapdh-2) had different exon-intron organizations: 12 exons in mlgapdh-1 (spanning to 4.88 kb) and 11 in mlgapdh-2 (11.78 kb), including a non-translated exon 1 in each isoform. Southern blot hybridization suggested that the mud loach might possess the two copies of mlgapdh-1 and a single copy of mlgapdh-2. The mlgapdh-1 transcript levels are high in tissues requiring high energy flow, such as skeletal muscle and heart, whereas mlgapdh-2 is expressed abundantly in the brain. Both isoforms are differentially regulated during embryonic and larval development, during which their expression is upregulated with the progress of development. Lipopolysaccharide challenge preferentially induced mlgapdh-2 transcripts in the liver. Therefore, the two isoforms have diversified functionally; mlgapdh-1 is associated more closely with energy metabolism, while mlgapdh-2 is related more to stress/immune responses, in the mud loach.

An Automatic Algorithm for Vessel Segmentation in X-Ray Angiogram using Random Forest (랜덤 포레스트를 이용한 X-선 혈관조영영상에서의 혈관 자동 영역화 알고리즘)

  • Jung, Sunghee;Lee, Soochahn;Shim, Hackjoon;Jung, Ho Yub;Heo, Yong Seok;Chang, Hyuk-Jae
    • Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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    • v.36 no.4
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    • pp.79-85
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    • 2015
  • The purpose of this study is to develop an automatic algorithm for vessel segmentation in X-Ray angiogram using Random Forest (RF). The proposed algorithm is composed of the following steps: First, the multiscale hessian-based filtering is performed in order to enhance the vessel structure. Second, eigenvalues and eigenvectors of hessian matrix are used to learn the RF classifier as feature vectors. Finally, we can get the result through the trained RF. We evaluated the similarity between the result of proposed algorithm and the manual segmentation using 349 frames, and compared with the results of the following two methods: Frangi et al. and Krissian et al. According to the experimental results, the proposed algorithm showed high similarity compared to other two methods.

Ginsenoside Rg12, a new dammarane-type triterpene saponin from Panax ginseng root

  • Lee, Dong Gu;Lee, Jaemin;Cho, Ik-Hyun;Kim, Hak-Jae;Lee, Sang-Won;Kim, Young-Ock;Park, Chun-Gun;Lee, Sanghyun
    • Journal of Ginseng Research
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    • v.41 no.4
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    • pp.531-533
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    • 2017
  • Background: Panax ginseng has been used as Korean medicine for various diseases. It has antioxidant, hypotensive, sedative, analgesic, and endocrine activities. Dammarane-type triterpenes from the plant have various beneficial effects. Methods: A dammarane-type triterpene saponin was isolated from P. ginseng root through chromatography such as repeated column chromatography and medium pressure liquid chromatography. Results and conclusion: New dammarane-type triterpene saponin was isolated for the first time from nature. The structure was elucidated as ginsenoside Rg12 (1) based on spectral data. There may be good materials from P. ginseng for the development of industrial applications such as nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, and cosmeceutical purposes.

A Design of Super Value based Flexible KEB Reasoning System (Super Value 기반의 유연한 KEB 추론 시스템의 설계)

  • Shim, JeongYon
    • Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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    • v.50 no.5
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    • pp.137-143
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    • 2013
  • In recent years there have been many efforts for changing from machine oriented technology to human oriented technology gradually. In the research of Intelligent system, the previous simple learning and reasoning methods are also changing to human like processing, namely the direction of implementing humanity. Especially as Neuro Engineering research is getting active, the studies on application of brain function are increasing in the engineering aspects. In this paper, we defined Super Value as a concept which reflect the higher value of 'viewpoint' and proposed flexible KEB(Knowledge-Emotion Binding) System. The system has a hierarchical structure which consists of Main level and Super level for flexibility and it is designed for having the function of extracting KEB Threads by Reasoning mechanism.

Review on Discrete, Appraisal, and Dimensional Models of Emotion (정서의 심리적 모델: 개별 정서 모델, 평가 모델, 차원 모델을 중심으로)

  • Sohn, Jin-Hun
    • Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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    • v.30 no.1
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    • pp.179-186
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    • 2011
  • Objective: This study is to review three representative psychological perspectives that explain scientific construct of emotion, that are the discrete emotion model, appraisal model, and dimensional model. Background: To develop emotion sensitive interface is the fusion area of emotion and scientific technology, it is necessary to have a balanced mixture of both the scientific theory of emotion and practical engineering technology. Extensional theories of the emotional structure can provide engineers with relevant knowledge in functional application of the systems. Method: To achieve this purpose, firstly, literature review on the basic emotion model and the circuit model of discrete emotion model as well as representative theories was done. Secondly, review on the classical and modern theories of the appraisal model emphasizing cognitive appraisal in emotion provoking events was conducted. Lastly, a review on dimensional theories describing emotion by dimensions and representative theories was conducted. Results: The paper compared the three models based on the prime points of the each model. In addition, this paper also made a comment on a need for a comprehensive model an alternative to each model, which is componential model by Scherer(2001) describing numerous emotional aspects. Conclusion: However, this review suggests a need for an evolved comprehensive model taking consideration of social context effect and discrete neural circuit while pinpointing the limitation of componential model. Application: Insight obtained by extensive scientific research in human emotion can be valuable in development of emotion sensitive interface and emotion recognition technology.

The Coupling Effects of Excitatory and Inhibitory Connections Between Chaotic Neurons Having Gaussian-shaped Refractory Function With Hysteresis

  • Park, Changkyu;Lee, Ju-Jang
    • 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 1998.10a
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    • pp.356-361
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    • 1998
  • Neural Networks, modeled succinctly from the real nervous system of a living body, can be categorized into two folds; artificial neural network(ANN) and biological neural network(BNN). While the former has been developed to solve practical problems using function approximation capability, pattern classification) clustering algorithm, etc, the latter has been focused on verifying the information processing capability to which brain research gives an impetus, by mimicking real biological systems. However, BNN suffers Iron severe nonlinearities dealt with. A bridge between two neural networks is chaotic neural network(CNN), which simply delineate the real nor-vous system and comprises almost all the ANN structures by selecting parameters. Main research theme of this area is to develop an explanation tool to clarify the information processing mechanism in biological systems and its extension to engineering applications. The CNN has a Gaussian-shaped refractory function with hysteresis effect and the chaotic responses of it have been observed fur a wide range of parameter space. Through the examination of the coupling effects of excitatory and inhibitory connections, the secrets of information processing and memory structure will appear.

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Aesthetic treatment of frontal sinus fractures and their complications (미용적인 측면을 고려한 전두동 골절과 합병증의 치료)

  • Kim, Kwang Seog;Hwang, Jae Ha
    • Journal of the Korean Medical Association
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    • v.61 no.12
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    • pp.732-739
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    • 2018
  • The frontal sinus is a functionally important structure. It serves as a cushioning buffer to protect the brain in cases of facial trauma. Fractures of the frontal sinus can lead to aesthetic problems by causing a visible depression in the center of the forehead. The goals of frontal sinus fracture treatment have been to protect intracranial structures and to prevent early and late complications, even with invasive methods. Recently, however, the goals have shifted to preservation of nasofrontal outflow tract function through close observation and the utilization of endoscopic procedures. Excellent cosmetic results can be achieved through minimally invasive surgery. This shift in goals took place due to the ease of diagnosis and treatment of early and late complications. Therefore, patients with a frontal sinus fracture should be followed up continuously to ensure that complications are detected promptly. Herein, the authors describe the methods and current trends of frontal sinus fracture treatment.