• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.474-481
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• 1990

We have experienced 44 cases of coarctation of aorta in the age of infancy and children from April 1986 to September 1989 at Seoul National University Children`s hospital. Patients were thirty males and fourteen females, and their age ranged from one month to ten years[mean 23.84 $\pm$33.06 months] with thirty-two infant cases. In the infantile age, congestive heart failure was the most common chief complaint[18/32], and above that age, frequent upper respiratory infection was most common[8/12]. We experienced thirteen cases of isolated COA, twenty-two cases of COA with VSD, eight cases of COA with VSD, eight cases of COA with intracardiac complex anomalies and one case of COA with atrial septal defect. The associated intracardiac complex anomalies were three Taussig-Bing type double outlet right ventricle, one single ventricle, one transposition of great arteries, one atrioventricular septal defect, one hypoplastic aortic arch with left heart hypoplasia, and one Tetralogy of Fallot. Operative techniques of COA were twenty-three subclavian flap arterioplasty, 12 resection and end to end anastomosis, eight onlay patch angioplasty, and I direct angioplasty after resection of web. Among the cases with other cardiac anomalies, staged operation was done in twenty-nine patients, and single stage total correction was performed only in three patients. There were seven operative mortality[15.9%], all being in infantile age group, and among fourteen cases associated with large VSD[Qp/Qs>2.0, mean pulmonary arterial pressure>50mmHg], four patients were died, but there was no mortality in patients with small VSD. With above results, we are intended to discuss about the interval between staged operation, the fate of VSD after coarctoplasty in case of COA with VSD, causes of death, complications etc.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.202-212
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• 2014

ClC-1 is a member of a large family of voltage-gated chloride channels, abundantly expressed in human skeletal muscle. Mutations in ClC-1 are associated with myotonia congenita (MC) and result in loss of regulation of membrane excitability in skeletal muscle. We studied the electrophysiological characteristics of six mutants found among Korean MC patients, using patch clamp methods in HEK293 cells. Here, we found that the autosomal dominant mutants S189C and P480S displayed reduced chloride conductances compared to WT. Autosomal recessive mutant M128I did not show a typical rapid deactivation of Cl- currents. While sporadic mutant G523D displayed sustained activation of $Cl^-$ currents in the whole cell traces, the other sporadic mutants, M373L and M609K, demonstrated rapid deactivations. $V_{1/2}$ of these mutants was shifted to more depolarizing potentials. In order to identify potential effects on gating processes, slow and fast gating was analyzed for each mutant. We show that slow gating of the mutants tends to be shifted toward more positive potentials in comparison to WT. Collectively, these six mutants found among Korean patients demonstrated modifications of channel gating behaviors and reduced chloride conductances that likely contribute to the physiologic changes of MC.

• Journal of Korean Medicine for Obesity Research
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.10-18
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• 2018

Objectives: Metabolic syndrome is correlated with increased cardiovascular risk and characterized by several factors, including visceral obesity, hypertension, insulin resistance, and dyslipidemia. Several members of a large family of nonselective cation entry channels, e.g., transient receptor potential (TRP) melastatin 7 (TRPM7) channels have been associated with the development of cardiovascular diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Dangkwisoo-san, ginger and curcumin on TRPM7 channel. Methods: Human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells stably transfected with the TRPM7 expression vectors were maintained in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS), 1% penicillin/streptomycin, $5{\mu}g/mL$ blasticidin, and 0.4 mg/mL zeocin in a humidified 20% $O_2$/10% $CO_2$ atmosphere at $37^{\circ}C$. Whole-cell patch clamp recordings were obtained using an Axopatch 700B amplifier and pClamp v.10.4 software, and signals were digitalized at 5 kHz using Digidata 1422A. Results: Dangkwisoo-san extract (100, 200, 300, 400, and $500{\mu}g/mL$) inhibited the outward and inward TRPM7 whole-cell currents at dose dependent manner and the half maximal inhibitory concentration $(IC)_{50}$ of Dangkwisoo-san was $218.3{\mu}g/mL$. Also, ginger extract (100, 200, 300, 400, and $500{\mu}g/mL$) inhibited the outward and inward of TRPM7 whole-cell currents in a dose dependent manner and the $IC_{50}$ of ginger was $877.2{\mu}g/mL$. However, curcumin had no effects on TRPM7 whole-cell currents. Conclusions: These results suggest that both Dangkwisoo-san and ginger have good roles to inhibit the TRPM7 channel, suggesting that Dangkwisoo-san and ginger are considered one of the candidate agents for the treatment of metabolic syndrome such as cardiovascular disease.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.308-316
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• 2018

Background: Genus Sasa, dwarf bamboos, are considered to be species that lower biodiversity in the temperate forests of East Asia. Although they have a long interval, they, the monocarpic species, have a unique characteristic of large-scale synchronized flowering. Therefore, once they have flowered and then declined, it may be an opportunity for suppressed surrounding species. A previous study reported that Sasa borealis showed specialized flowering nationwide with a peak in 2015. However, this was based on data from a social network service and field survey at Mt. Jeombong. Therefore, we investigated S. borealis in the forests of five national parks in order to determine whether this rare synchronized flowering occurred nationwide, as well as its spatial distribution. Results: We found a total of 436 patches under the closed canopy of Quercus mongolica-dominated deciduous forests in the surveyed transects from the five national parks. Of these patches, 75% occupied a whole slope area, resulting in an enormous area. The patch area tended to be larger in the southern parks. Half (219 patches) of the patches flowered massively. Among them, 76% bloomed in 2015, which was consistent with the results of the previous report. The flowering rate varied from park to park with that of Mt. Seorak being the highest. The culms of the flowering patches were significantly taller (F = 93.640, p < 0.000) and thicker (F = 61.172, p < 0.000). Following the event, the culms of the flowering patches declined, providing a good opportunity for the suppressed plant species. The concurrent massive flowering of the mature patches was believed to be triggered by some stress such as a spring drought. Conclusion: We confirmed that the rare synchronized flowering of S. borealis occurred with a peak in 2015 nationwide. In addition, we explored that S. borealis not only monopolized an enormous area, but also dominated the floors of the late-successional Q. mongolica-dominated deciduous forests. This presents a major problem for Korean forests. As it declined simultaneously after flowering, there are both possibilities of forest regeneration or resettlement of S. borealis by massively produced seeds.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.178-182
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• 2019

This is the first report of Brachirus annularis (Pleuronectiformes: Soleidae) from Korea. A specimen of B. annularis (229.0 mm standard length) was firstly collected by drift gill net at a fishing ground locating between Jejudo and Geomundo Islands, the southern coast of Korea on 31 March, 2019. This species was characterized by having five large, deep colored patches on the ocular side of body, each patch outlined by dark brown ring, united dorsal and anal fins jointed with caudal fin, and short pectoral fin. We add this species to the Korean fish fauna and propose its new Korean names, "Eol-luk-seo-dae-sok" and "Eol-luk-seo-dae" for the genus and species, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Medicine for Obesity Research
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.57-63
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• 2018

Objectives: Metabolic syndrome is defined by a cluster of major cardiovascular risk factors: obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and arterial hypertension. Several members of a large family of nonselective cation entry channels, e.g., transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4) channels have been associated with the development of dyslipidemia and hypertension. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Leejung-tang (Lizhong-tang), Rikkunshito, and Bojungikgi-tang (Buzhongyiqi-tang) on TRPV4 channel. Methods: Human embryonic kidney 293 cells stably transfected with the TRPV4 expression vectors were maintained in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum, 1% penicillin/streptomycin, $5{\mu}g/mL$ blasticidin, and 0.4 mg/mL zeocin in a humidified 20% $O_2/10%$ $CO_2$ atmosphere at $37^{\circ}C$. Whole-cell patch clamp recordings were obtained using an Axopatch 700B amplifier and pClamp v.10.4 software (Molecular Devices, San Jose, CA, USA), and signals were digitalized at 5 kHz using Digidata 1422A. Results: Leejung-tang and Rikkunshito (10, 30 and 50 mg/mL) had no effects on the TRPV4 whole-cell currents at dose dependent manner. However, Bojungikgi-tang (10, 30, and 50 mg/mL) inhibited the TRPV4 whole-cell currents in a dose dependent manner and the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of Bojungikgi-tang was 18.2 mg/mL. Conclusions: These results suggest that Bojungikgi-tang plays an important roles to inhibit the TRPV4 channel, suggesting that Bojungikgi-tang is considered one of the candidate agents for the treatment of metabolic syndrome such as dyslipidemia and hypertension.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.460-469
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• 2019

Bacterial ${\alpha}-type$ carbonic anhydrase (${\alpha}-CA$) is a zinc metalloenzyme that catalyzes the reversible and extremely rapid interconversion of carbon dioxide to bicarbonate. In this study, we report the first crystal structure of a hyperthermostable ${\alpha}-CA$ from Persephonella marina EX-H1 (pmCA) in the absence and presence of competitive inhibitor, acetazolamide. The structure reveals a compactly folded pmCA homodimer in which each monomer consists of a 10-stranded ${\beta}-sheet$ in the center. The catalytic zinc ion is coordinated by three highly conserved histidine residues with an exchangeable fourth ligand (a water molecule, a bicarbonate anion, or the sulfonamide group of acetazolamide). Together with an intramolecular disulfide bond, extensive interfacial networks of hydrogen bonds, ionic and hydrophobic interactions stabilize the dimeric structure and are likely responsible for the high thermal stability. We also identified novel binding sites for calcium ions at the crystallographic interface, which serve as molecular glue linking negatively charged and otherwise repulsive surfaces. Furthermore, this large negatively charged patch appears to further increase the thermostability at alkaline pH range via favorable charge-charge interactions between pmCA and solvent molecules. These findings may assist development of novel ${\alpha}-CAs$ with improved thermal and/or alkaline stability for applications such as $CO_2$ capture and sequestration.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.881-895
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• 2023

Modern image inpainting techniques based on deep learning have achieved remarkable performance, and more and more people are working on repairing more complex and larger missing areas, although this is still challenging, especially for facial image inpainting. For a face image with a huge missing area, there are very few valid pixels available; however, people have an ability to imagine the complete picture in their mind according to their subjective will. It is important to simulate this capability while maintaining the identity features of the face as much as possible. To achieve this goal, we propose a three-stage network model, which we refer to as the identity and structure feature refinement network (ISFRNet). ISFRNet is based on 1) a pre-trained pSp-styleGAN model that generates an extremely realistic face image with rich structural features; 2) a shallow structured network with a small receptive field; and 3) a modified U-net with two encoders and a decoder, which has a large receptive field. We choose structural similarity index (SSIM), peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), L1 Loss and learned perceptual image patch similarity (LPIPS) to evaluate our model. When the missing region is 20%-40%, the above four metric scores of our model are 28.12, 0.942, 0.015 and 0.090, respectively. When the lost area is between 40% and 60%, the metric scores are 23.31, 0.840, 0.053 and 0.177, respectively. Our inpainting network not only guarantees excellent face identity feature recovery but also exhibits state-of-the-art performance compared to other multi-stage refinement models.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.450-456
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• 2016

Rhizoctonia leaf blight (large patch) has become a serious problem in Korean lawn grass, which is extremely hard to treat and develops mostly from the roots of lawn grass to wither it away. Rhizoctonia leaf blight (large patch) is caused by Rhizoctonia solani AG2-2 (IV). To develop zoysia japonica with strong disease tolerance against this pathogenic bacterium, ${\beta}-1,3-glucanase$ was cloned from zoysia japonica, which is one of the PR-Proteins known to play a critical role in plant defense reaction. ${\beta}-1,3-glucanase$ is known to be generated within the cells when plant tissues have a hypersensitive reaction due to virus or bacterium infection and secreted outside the cells to play mainly the function of resistance against pathogenic bacteria in the space between the cells. This study utilized the commonly preserved part in the sequence of corn, wheat, barley, and rice which had been researched for their disease tolerance among the ${\beta}-1,3-glucanase$ monocotyledonous plants. Based on the part, degenerate PCR was performed to find out the sequence and full-length cDNA was cloned. E.coli over-expression was conducted in this study to mass purify target protein and implement in vitro activation measurement and antibacterial test. In addition, to interpret the functions of ZjGlu1 gene, each gene-incorporating plant transformation vectors were produced to make lawn grass transformant. Based on ZjGlu1 protein, antibacterial activity test was conducted on 9 strains. As a result, R. cerealis, F. culmorum, R.solani AG-1 (1B), and T. atroviride were found to have antibacterial activity. The gene-specific expression amount in each organ showed no huge difference in the organs based upon the transformant and against 18s gene expression amount.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.180-186
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• 2001

Bone marrow cell proliferating arabinogalactan-like polysaccharide (ALR-3IIa-1-1) has been purified from rhizomes of Atractylodes lancea DC. In order to characterize the essential structure of ALR-3IIa-1-1 for expression of the activity, sequential enzymatic digestion using ego-$\alpha$-L-arabinofurasidase (AFase) and ego-$\beta$-D-(1longrightarrow3)-galactanase (GNase) was employed. After ALR-3IIa-1-1 was digested with the AFase, the GNase digestion cleaved only 10% and 23% of 3-linked and 3,6-branched galactose, respectively, from arabinose-trimmed ALR-3IIa-1-1 (AT-ALR-3IIa-1-1), and gave small amounts of intermediate size (AT-G-2) and shorter oligosaccharides (AT-G-3) fractions in addition to a large amount of the GNase resistant fraction (AT-G-1). When AT-G-1 was redigested gradually with the AFase and GNase, it released trace amounts of oligosaccharides in addition to a large amount of the resistant fraction. When the final enzyme-resistant fraction from AT-G-1 was digested simultaneously with both AFase and GNase, the resistant fraction was significantly degraded into two long fragments (3AT-3G-1 and 2). The mixture of digestion products from the first GNase digestion of AT-ALR-3IIa-1-1 showed a significantly decreased bone marrow cell proliferation activity to about 30% of the activity of ALR-3IIa-1-1, but the GNase resistant fraction (AT-7-1) still had significant activity. Although the second gradual enzymatic digestion of AT-G-1 showed a marginal decrease in activity, the resulting fragments (3AT-3G-1 and 2) by the final simultaneous enzymatic digestion lost most of the activity. Component sugar, methylation and FAB-MS analyses indicated that the digestion products (AT-G-21 AT-G-31 2AT-2G-2 and 2AT-2G-3) released from AT-ALR-3IIa-1-1 by the sequential enzymatic digestion contained galactose-containing oligosaccharides mainly comprising 6-linked galactose, that some of which were partially arabinosylated, and these oligosaccharides were attached to $\beta$-D-(1longrightarrow3)-galactan backbone in its non-reducing terminal side as side chains.