• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.9
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• pp.1563-1572
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• 2018

Gold nanoparticles (AuNP) and their conjugates have been gaining a great deal of recognition in the medical field. Meanwhile, extended-spectrum ${\beta}$-lactamases (ESBL)-producing bacteria are also demonstrating a challenging problem for health care. The aim of this study was the biosynthesis of AuNP using Rosa damascenes petal extract and conjugation of ceftriaxone antibiotic (Cef-AuNP) in inhibiting ESBL-producing bacteria and study of in vitro anticancer activity. Characterization of the synthesized AuNP and Cef-AuNP was studied. ESBL-producing strains, Acinetobacter baumannii ACI1 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa PSE4 were used for testing the efficacy of Cef-AuNP. The cells of MCF-7 breast cancer were treated with previous AuNP and Cef-AuNP at different time intervals. Cytotoxicity effects of apoptosis and its molecular mechanism were evaluated. Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy established the formation of AuNP and Cef-AuNP. Transmission electron microscope demonstrated that the formed nanoparticles were of different shapes with sizes of 15~35 nm and conjugation was established by a slight increase in size. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of Cef-AuNP against tested strains were obtained as 3.6 and $4{\mu}g/ml$, respectively. Cef-AuNP demonstrated a decrease in the MIC of ceftriaxone down to more than 27 folds on the studied strains. The biosynthesized AuNP displayed apoptotic and time-dependent cytotoxic effects in the cells of MCF-7 at a concentration of $0.1{\mu}g/ml$ medium. The Cef-AuNP have low significant effects on MCF-7 cells. These results enhance the conjugating utility in old unresponsive ceftriaxone with AuNP to restore its efficiency against otherwise resistant bacterial pathogens. Additionally, AuNP may be used as an alternative chemotherapeutic treatment of MCF-7 cancer cells.

• KIISE Transactions on Computing Practices
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• v.23 no.8
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• pp.459-465
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• 2017

Although the performance of computer hardware is increasing due to the development of manycore technologies, software lacking a proportional increase in throughput. Functional languages can be a viable alternative to improve the performance of parallel programs since such languages have an inherent parallelism in evaluating pure expressions without side-effects. Specifically, Haskell is notably popular for parallel programming because it provides easy-to-use parallel constructs based on monads. However, the scalability of parallel programs in Haskell tends to fluctuate as the number of cores increases, and the garbage collector is suspected to be the source of this fluctuations because it affects both the space and the time needed to execute the programs. This paper uses the tuning tool, GC-Tune, to improve the scalability of the performance. Our experiment was conducted with a parallel plagiarism detection program, and the scalability improved. Specifically, the fluctuation range of the speedup was narrowed down by 39% compared to the original execution of the program without any tuning.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.23
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• pp.10299-10306
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• 2015

The esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is thought to develop through a multi-stage process. Epigenetic gene silencing constitutes an alternative or complementary mechanism to mutational events in tumorigenesis. Posttranscriptional regulation of human leukocyte antigen class I (HLA-I) and antigen processing machinery (APM) proteins expression may be associated with novel epigenetic modifications in cancer development. In the present study, we determined the expression levels of HLA-I antigen and APM components by immunohistochemistry. Then by a bisulfite-sequencing PCR (BSP) approach, we identified target CpG islands methylated at the gene promoter region of APM family genes in a ESCC cell line (ECa109), and further quantitative analysis of CpG site specific methylation of these genes in cases of Kazakh primary ESCCs with corresponding non-cancerous esophageal tissues using the Sequenom MassARRAY platform. Here we showed that the development of ESCCs was accompanied by partial or total loss of protein expression of HLA-B, TAP2, LMP7, tapasin and ERp57. The results demonstrated that although no statistical significance was found of global target CpG fragment methylation level sof HLA-B, TAP2, tapasin and ERp57 genes between ESCC and corresponding non-cancerous esophageal tissues, there was significant differences in the methylation level of several single sites between the two groups. Of thesse only the global methylation level of LMP7 gene target fragments was statistically higher ($0.0517{\pm}0.0357$) in Kazakh esophageal cancer than in neighboring normal tissues ($0.0380{\pm}0.0214$, p<0.05). Our results suggest that multiple CpG sites, but not methylation of every site leads to down regulation or deletion of gene expression. Only some of them result in genetic transcription, and silencing of HLA-B, ERp57, and LMP7 expression through hypermethylation of the promoters or other mechanisms may contribute to mechanisms of tumor escape from immune surveillance in Kazakh esophageal carcinogenesis.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.151-160
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to deduce improvement plan through analysis of the type and characteristics of traffic accidents caused by elderly drivers, and to establish the traffic safety policies for the elderly drivers. The analyzed result of road traffic accident situation are as follows. Firstly, Traffic accidents caused by elderly drivers were frequent on local roads of poor traffic safety facilities such as lighting. Secondly, The most frequent time zone of Traffic accidents caused by elderly drivers was 18:00 to 20:00, this time zone was mainly darkened. Thirdly, Traffic accidents are often caused by lack of attention occurred by no implementation of safe driving. Institutional Improvement of cosideration for elderly drivers and Traffic Safety Facilities maintenance considering regional particularities is needed for reducing traffic accidents and the safety of our society. Their driving skills of elderly drivers should test themselves constantly, and elderly drivers must hold down driving yourself using the alternative transportation.

• BMB Reports
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.221-226
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• 2014

Drug-resistance and imbalance of apoptotic regulation limit chemotherapy clinical application for the human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treatment. The reactivation of p53 is an attractive therapeutic strategy in cancer with disrupted-p53 function. Nutlin-3, a MDM2 antagonist, has antitumor activity in various cancers. The post-translational modifications of p53 are a hot topic, but there are some controversy ideas about the function of phospho-$Ser^{392}$-p53 protein in cancer cell lines in response to Nutlin-3. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between Nutlin-3 and phospho-$Ser^{392}$-p53 protein expression levels in SMMC-7721 (wild-type TP53) and HuH-7 cells (mutant TP53). We demonstrated that Nutlin-3 induced apoptosis through down-regulation phospho-$Ser^{392}$-p53 in two HCC cells. The result suggests that inhibition of p53 phosphorylation on $Ser^{392}$ presents an alternative for HCC chemotherapy.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.15-25
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• 1993

In order to promote the efficient use of composite materials, effort is currently being directed at the development of design criteria for composite structures. Insofar as design against buckling is concerned, it is well known that, for metal shells, a key step is the definition of 'knockdown' factors on the elastic critical buckling stress accounting mainly for the influence of initial geometric imperfections. At present, the imperfection sensitivity of composite shells has not been explored in detail. Due to the large number of parameters influencing buckling response (considerably larger than for isotropic shells), a very large number of tests would be needed to quantify imperfection sensitivity experimentally. An alternative approach is to use validated numerical models for this task. Thus, the objective of this paper is to outline the underlying theory used in developing a composite shell element and to present results from a validation exercise and subsequently from a parametric study on axially loaded glass fibre-reinforced plastic (GFRP) curved panels using finite element modelling. Both eigenvalue and incremental analyses are performed, the latter including the effect of initial geometric imperfection shape and amplitude, and the results are used to estimate 'knockdown' factors for such panels.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.63-74
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• 2018

Objectives: Periodontitis is an inflammatory disease with the destruction of periodontal ligament, alveolar bone loss and inflammation of gingva, leading to teeth loss. Eclipta prostrata L. (Ecliptae Herba) has been used to treat the inflammatory disease as a Korean traditional medicine. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of E. prostrata L. on periodontitis. Methods: E. prostrata L. was extracted with water and lyophilized. The aqueous extract of E. prostrata L. (EP) was topically applied to the periodontal lesion for 2 weeks. To induce the periodontitis, a 3-0 nylon ligature was placed around the cervix of the lower first molar in rat. Rats were divided into 3 groups (n = 7); NL group (non-ligatured and non-treated), L group (ligatured and vehicle-treated) and EP group (ligatured and EP-treated). After sacrifice, the mandibles was dissected and stained with methylene blue solution to analyze the alveolar bone loss. The expression of MMP-9 was determined in gingival tissues. To confirm the effect of EP on recovery of gingiva, mRNA expressions of type I pro-collagen and MMP-9 levels were investigated in LPS-treated HS68 fibroblast cells. In addition, inflammatory mediators were evaluated in LPS-treated RAW264.7 cells. Results: Alveolar bone loss was significantly inhibited by EP treatment. The mRNA expression of MMP-9 was attenuated in rats treated with EP. In addition, treatment with EP increased the expression of type I pro-collagen, while the expression of MMP-9 was decreased in LPS-stimulated HS68 fibroblast cells. Furthermore, EP down-regulated the LPS-induced IL-6, $TNF-{\alpha}$, COX-2 and iNOS production in RAW264.7 cells. Conclusions: These results suggest that EP have ameliorative effects on periodontitis through inhibiting alveolar bone loss and modulating the inflammatory mediators. Therefore, E. prostrata L. may be an alternative on patients with periodontitis.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.853-859
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• 2009

Nardostachys chinensis has been used widely as a traditional medicine for the treatment of diverse diseases. The dried plant was extracted with 85% methanol extract (NC). We investigated the antioxidant properties of NC on the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryhydrazyl (DPPH) radical, superoxide anion and nitric oxide radical scavenging capacity under in vitro assays. NC showed potent antioxidant activity, compared to ascorbic acid. In macrophages, nitric oxide is released as an inflammatory mediator and has been proposed to be an important modulator of many pathophysiological conditions in inflammation. In the present study, it was also investigated that the inhibition effects on NO and the mechanism of down-regulation of immune response by NC in IFN-IFN-$\gamma$/LPS-stimulated mouse (C57BL/6) peritoneal macrophages. Extracts of NC suppressed NO production and the expression of iNOS and COX-2. The present results indicate that NC has an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and therefore may be beneficial in diseases which related to oxidative stress-mediated chronic inflammatory disorders.

• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.58-66
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• 2009

The 2-year rodent carcinogenicity test involves long-term, repetitive dosing of animals that is both time consuming and expensive. Alternative approaches have been attempted using specific transgenic or knockout mice or toxicogenomics to predict carcinogenicity without conducting a 2-year rodent test. In addition, toxicogenomic analysis of carcinogen-treated animals could also enhance our understanding of molecular mechanisms and aid in the diagnosis of acute toxicity induced by carcinogens. Therefore, we investigated transcription profiles after administering the carcinogens 4,4-dimethylformamide (DMF) and 4-biphenylamine (ABP). BALB/c male mice were treated once with DMF (650 mg/kg i.p.) or ABP (120 mg/kg p.o.). Standard blood biochemistry and histological changes were observed. Gene expression profiles in the livers of mice treated with either vehicle or the carcinogens were analyzed using the Affymetrix $GeneChip^{(R)}$ assay. In all, 1,474 differentially expressed genes in DMF- or ABP-treated mice were identified as being either up- or down-regulated over 1.5-fold (P< 0.01), and these genes were analyzed using hierarchical clustering and Ingenuity Pathways Analysis. Of these, 107 genes were consistently regulated in both carcinogen-treated groups. Genes associated with cancer were upregulated (Por, S100a10, Tes, Ctcf, Ddx21, Eapp, Nel, and Pa2g4) or downregulated (Cbs and Gch1). Toxicological function analysis also identified genes involved in organ toxicity, including hepatotoxicity. These data may help to identify molecular markers for acute hepatotoxicity induced by carcinogens.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.246-253
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• 2014

Liquid natural gas is stored and transported inside cargo tank which is made of specially designed cryogenic materials such as 9% Ni steel, Al5083-O alloy and SUS304 and so on. The materials have to keep excellent ductile characteristics under the cryogenic environment, down to -163oC, in order to avoid the catastrophic sudden brittle fracture during the operation condition. High manganese steel is considered to be the promising alternative material that can replace the commonly used materials mentioned above owing to its cost effectiveness. In line with this industrial need, the mechanical properties of the high manganese steel under both room and cryogenic environment were investigated in this study focused on its tensile and fatigue behavior. In terms of the tensile strength, the ultimate tensile strength of the base material of the high manganese steel was comparable to the existing cryogenic materials, but it turned out to be undermatched one when welding is involved in. The fatigue strength of the high manganese steel under room temperature was as good as other cryogenic materials, but under cryogenic environment, slightly less than others though better than Al 5083-O alloy.