• Journal of Life Science
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.1132-1139
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• 2008

A CpG island is a short stretch of DNA in which the frequency of the CG dinucleotide is higher than other regions. CpG islands are present in the promoters and exonic regions of approximately $30{\sim}60$% of mammalian genes so they are useful markers for genes in organisms containing 5-methylcytosine in their genomes. Recent evidence supports the notion that the hypermethylation of CpG island, by silencing tumor suppressor genes, plays a major causal role in cancer, which has been described in almost every tumor types. In this respect, CpG island search by computational methods is very helpful for cancer research and computational promoter and gene predictions. I therefore developed a window program (called CpGi) on the basis of CpG island criteria defined by D. Takai and P. A. Jones. The program 'CpGi' was implemented in Visual C++ 6.0 and can determine the locations of CpG islands using diverse parameters (%GC, Obs (CpG)/Exp (CpG), window size, step size, gap value, # of CpG, length) specified by user. The analysis result of CpGi provides a graphical map of CpG islands and G+C% plot, where more detailed information on CpG island can be obtained through pop-up window. Two human contigs, i.e. AP00524 (from chromosome 22) and NT_029490.3 (from chromosome 21), were used to compare the performance of CpGi and two other public programs for the accuracy of search results. The two other programs used in the performance comparison are Emboss-CpGPlot and CpG Island Searcher that are web-based public CpG island search programs. The comparison result showed that CpGi is on a level with or outperforms Emboss-CpGPlot and CpG Island Searcher. Having a simple and easy-to-use user interface, CpGi would be a very useful tool for genome analysis and CpG island research. To obtain a copy of CpGi for academic use only, contact corresponding author.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.445-455
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• 2005

Purpose: We developed an animal SPECT system using clinical Philips ARGUS scintillation camera and pinhole collimator with specially manufactured small apertures. In this study, we evaluated the physical characteristics of this system and biological feasibility for animal experiments. Materials and Methods: Rotating station for small animals using a step motor and operating software were developed. Pinhole inserts with small apertures (diameter of 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 mm) were manufactured and physical parameters including planar spatial resolution and sensitivity and reconstructed resolution were measured for some apertures. In order to measure the size of the usable field of view according to the distance from the focal point, manufactured multiple line sources separated with the same distance were scanned and numbers of lines within the field of view were counted. Using a Tc-99m line source with 0.5 mm diameter and 12 mm length placed in the exact center of field of view, planar spatial resolution according to the distance was measured. Calibration factor to obtain FWHM values in 'mm' unit was calculated from the planar image of two separated line sources. Te-99m point source with i mm diameter was used for the measurement of system sensitivity. In addition, SPECT data of micro phantom with cold and hot line inserts and rat brain after intravenous injection of [I-123]FP-CIT were acquired and reconstructed using filtered back protection reconstruction algorithm for pinhole collimator. Results: Size of usable field of view was proportional to the distance from the focal point and their relationship could be fitted into a linear equation (y=1.4x+0.5, x: distance). System sensitivity and planar spatial resolution at 3 cm measured using 1.0 mm aperture was 71 cps/MBq and 1.24 mm, respectively. In the SPECT image of rat brain with [I-123]FP-CIT acquired using 1.0 mm aperture, the distribution of dopamine transporter in the striatum was well identified in each hemisphere. Conclusion: We verified that this new animal SPECT system with the Phlilps ARGUS scanner and small apertures had sufficient performance for small animal imaging.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.24
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• pp.33-51
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to analyze the variation of muscle function and gait ability according to regular spinal stabilization exercise program for private security guards and the conclusion as follows. First, it increased lumbar extension strength and lumbar flexion strength both exercise and non exercise group according to the variation of muscle function with the spinal stabilization exercise program. There was significant difference between exercise and non exercise group after the program but not before the program. Second, it appeared the functional vanishment of lumbar extensor before the program both exercise and non exercise group according to the variation of muscle function with the spinal stabilization exercise program for lumbar flexor extensor ratio. Third, it analyzed for the spinal stabilization with 8 ways according to the variation of muscle function with the spinal stabilization exercise program for the change of the spinal stabilization. The spinal stabilizaton increased each angle for the execise group but decreased or not changed for non exercise group. Fourth, it used 10m gait test for the speed and step length according to the variation of muscle function with the spinal stabilization exercise program. It appeared the increasement of gait ability for exercise group and there was significant difference between exercise and non exercise group. In conclusion, there was a positive effect for lumbar extension strength, lumbar flexion strength, lumbar flexor extensor ratio, spinal stabilization, and gait ability with regular spinal stabilization exercise program. This means that spinal stabilization exercise program give positive effect to the decrease of back pain and the development of muscular strength for private security guard, also will help to recover and return to work more faster. Also, it seems that the exercise prescription program may be applicable to prevent or to improve the function for private security guard.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.65-70
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• 2010

Medium-chain fatty acids (MCFA) are composed of 8-12 carbon atoms, and are found in coconut, cuphea, and palm kernel oil. MCFA were introduced into clinical nutrition in the 1950s for dietary treatment of malabsorption syndromes because of their rapid absorption and solubility. Recently, MCFA have been applied to Gastrointestinal Permeation Enhancement Technology (GIPET), which is one of the most important parts in drug delivery system in therapeutics. Therefore, to accumulate the MCFA in seed oil of rapeseed, much effort has been conducted by classical or molecular breeding. Laurate can be successfully accumulated up to 60 mol% in the seed oil of rapeseed by the expression of bay thioesterase (Uc FatB1) alone or crossed with a line over-expressing the coconut lysophosphatidic acid acyltransferase (LPAAT) under the control of a napin seed-storage protein promoter. Also, caprylate and caprate were obtained 7 mol% and 29 mol%, respectively, from plants over-expressing of the medium-chain specific thioesterase (Ch FatB2) alone or together with the chain-length-specific condensing enzyme (Ch KASIV). Despite the success of some research in utilizing parallel classical and molecular breeding to produce MCFA, commercially available seed oils have for the most part, not been realized. Recent research in the field of developing MCFA-enriched transgenic plants has established that there is no single rate-limiting step in the production of the target fatty acids. The purpose of this article is to review some of the recent progress in understanding the mechanism and regulation of MCFA production in seed oil of rapeseed.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.101-122
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• 1997

A spiting reinforcement system is composed of a series of radially installed reinforcing spites along the perimeter of the tunnel opening ahead of excavation. The reinforcing spill network is extended into the in-situ soil mass both radially and longitudinally The sailing reinforcement system has been successfully used for the construction of underground openings to reinforce weak rock formations on several occasions. The application of this spiting reinforcement system is currently extended to soft ground tunneling in limited occasions because of lack of reliable analysis and design methods. A method of threetimensional limit equilibrium stability analysis of the smile-reinforced shallow tunnel in soft ground is presented. The shape of the potential failure wedge for the case of smile-reinforced shallow tunnel is assumed on the basis of the results of three dimensional finite element analyses. A criterion to differentiate the spill-reinforced shallow tunnel from the smile-reinforced deep tunnel is also formulated, where the tunnel depth, soil type, geometry of the tunnel and reinforcing spites, together with soil arching effects, are considered. To examine the suitability of the proposed method of threedimensional stability analysis in practice, overall stability of the spill-reinforced shallow tunnel at facing is evaluated, and the predicted safety factors are compared with results from twotimensional analyses. Using the proposed method of threetimensional limit equilibrium stability analysis of the smile-reinforced shallow tunnel in soft ground, a parametric study is also made to investigate the effects of various design parameters such as tunnel depth, smile length and wadial spill spacing. With slight modifications the analytical method of threeiimensional stability analysis proposed may also be extended for the analysis and design of steel pipe reinforced multi -step grouting technique frequently used as a supplementary reinforcing method in soft ground tunnel construction.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.50 no.7
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• pp.122-130
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• 2013

This work proposes a 12b 100MS/s 45nm CMOS four-step pipeline ADC for high-speed digital communication systems requiring high resolution, low power, and small size. The input SHA employs a gate-bootstrapping circuit to sample wide-band input signals with an accuracy of 12 bits or more. The input SHA and MDACs adopt two-stage op-amps with a gain-boosting technique to achieve the required DC gain and high signal swing range. In addition, cascode and Miller frequency-compensation techniques are selectively used for wide bandwidth and stable signal settling. The cascode current mirror minimizes current mismatch by channel length modulation and supply variation. The finger width of current mirrors and amplifiers is laid out in the same size to reduce device mismatch. The proposed supply- and temperature-insensitive current and voltage references are implemented on chip with optional off-chip reference voltages for various system applications. The prototype ADC in a 45nm CMOS demonstrates the measured DNL and INL within 0.88LSB and 1.46LSB, respectively. The ADC shows a maximum SNDR of 61.0dB and a maximum SFDR of 74.9dB at 100MS/s, respectively. The ADC with an active die area of $0.43mm^2$ consumes 29.8mW at 100MS/s and a 1.1V supply.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.75-88
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• 2005

Ameloblastoma is the most commonly occurring odontogenic tumor in oral cavity. Although most are benign epithelial neoplasm, they are generally considered to be locally aggressive and destructive, exhibiting a high rate of recurrence. The biological behavior of this neoplasm is a slowly growing, locally invasive tumor without metastasis, therefore malignant neoplasm, changed its histological appearance to carcinoma or showed distant metastasis, is only defined clinically. In this study, we identified the differentially expressed genes(DEGs) in stages under benign or malignant ameloblastoma compared with normal patient using ordered differential display(ODD) reverse transcription(RT)-PCR and $GeneFishing^{TM}$ technology. ODD RT-PCR is rather effective when the investigation of samples containing very small amounts of total RNA must be accomplished. ODD RT-PCR used the means of amplification with anchored T-primer and adaptor specific primer. bearing definite two bases at their 3' ends and so this method could display differential 3'-expressed sequence taqs(ESTs) patterns without using full-length cDNAs. Compared with standard differential display, ODD RT-PCR is more simple and have enough sensitivity to search for molecular markers by comparing gene expression profiles, However, this method required much effort and skill to perform. $GeneFishing^{TM}$ modified from DD-PCR is an improved method for detecting differentially expressed genes in two or more related samples. This two step RT-PCR method uses a constant reverse primer(anchor ACP-T) to prime the RT reaction and arbitrary primer pairs(annealing control primers, ACPs) during PCR. Because of high annealing specificity of ACPs than ODD RT-PCR, the application of $GeneFishing^{TM}$ to DEG discovery generates reproducible, authentic, and long(100bp to 2kb) PCR products that are detectable on agarose gels. Consequently, various DEGs observed differential expression levels on agarose gels were isolated from normal, benign, and malignant tissues using these methods. The expression patterns of the some isolated DEGs through ODD RT-PCR and $GeneFishing^{TM}$ were confirmed by Northern blot analysis and RT-PCR. The results showed that these identified DEGs were implicated in ameloblastoma neoplasm processes. Therefore, the identified DEGs will be further studied in order to be applied in candidate selection for marker as an early diagnosis during ameloblastoma neoplasm processes.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.167-173
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• 2005

Three different cDNAS for cinnamate 4-hydroxylase (C4H) which are involved in the second step of the general phenylpropanoid pathway were isolated and designated as pc4h1 (1,755 bp), pc4h2 (1,655 bp), and pc4h3 (1,316 bp), respectively. The nucleotide sequence analysis revealed that both pc4h1 and pc4h2 clones encode polypeptides of 505 amino acids frame but pc4h3 clone was truncated at the 5'-end of coding region. The alignment of the deduced amino acid sequences showed that PC4H1 and PC4H2 are highly homologous (95.8% identical) with each other and contain three conserved domains which are typical in cytochrome P450 monooxygenase: proline-rich region, threonine-containing binding pocket for the oxygen molecule, and heme binding region. In addition, result of the phylogenic tree analysis revealed that both pepper C4Hs belong to Class 1. pc4h2 transcription was strongly induced in wounded fruit (400%) and root (200%) relative to its very low basal level but not in leaf or stem tissue. In case of pc4h1, the basal level of transcription was higher than pc4h2 but induction by wounding was lower in fruit and root while leaf and stem tissues did not respond to wounding. The basal level of pc4h3 transcripts was not, if any, detectable and response to wounding was not observed.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.171-176
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• 2002

Background: Blood-foreign interaction cause activation of coagulation and inflammatory process that may lead to multiorgan dysfunction and determine the surgical outcomes. Of the methods for assessing the biocompatibility, the platelet adhesion study is considered as the most valuable evaluation step in blood-foreign interaction. As the most studies have used in-vitro or ex-vivo conditions, we have developed a technique of quantification for platelet adhesion on the blood contact surface by using in-vivo injection of radioactive platelets. Material and Method: A coupled bypass circuit was designed to connect the proximal and descending thoracic aorta in 6 piglets(20∼25 Kg). One side of the circuit tube was consisted of a heparin coated PVC tube(10mm in ID, n=6, Experimental group), and the other, a non-heparin coated PVC tube(10mm in ID, n=6, Control group). After cannulation, the blood was circulated through the circuit for 2 hours. Platelet concentrate was prepared from homologous pig blood 24 hours before the experiment. The platelet concentrate was incubated with Tc-99m-HMPAO for 30 min and then centrifuged for 10 min. The supernatant was discarded and the radio-labeling efficacy was measured. The radio-labeled platelet concentrate was mixed with the autologous plasma to make the volume 5 ml, and the mixture was injected intravenously into the experimental animal. After 2 hour circulation, 5 pieces of the specimen(10mm in length each) were obtained from each PVC tube. The radioisotopes were counted with a gamma counter(Cobra ll, Packard, USA), and the ratio of radioisotope count was compared between the control and experimental group. Result: The radioisotope count number was 537.3221.1 Ci/min in the control group and 311.1 184.5 Ci/min in the experimental group(p=0.0104). The ratio between the groups was 1 to 0.58 (p=0.004). Conclusion: In vivo quantification using technetium-99m-HMPAO labeled platelets is simple and reproducible in evaluating platelet adhesion on a foreign surface. We suggest this technique to be a useful tool for blood compatibility test.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.1017-1027
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• 1995

This study was attempted to investigate physicochemical properties, molecular structural properties of native and acid-treated chestnut starch and chestnut starch gel. The amylose content was 18.9% and X-ray diffraction pattern showed Cb type. Swelling power was increased abruptly in the range of $65^{\circ}C{\sim}75^{\circ}C$ but increased slowly after that and solubility was increased abruptly until $70^{\circ}C$ but increased slowly after that. In amylograms which have different heating temperatures, cooling viscosity at $50^{\circ}C$ was reduced as heating temperature was increased. In molecular structural properties of amylose, ${\lambda}_{max}$ was 640 nm, ${\beta}-amylolysis$ limit was 84.2% and the degree of polymerization was 951 and in those of amylopectin, ${\lambda}_{max}$ was 570 nm, ${\beta}-amylolysis$ limit was 58.2%, the degree of polymerization was 1371 and average chain length was 22.6. In gel chromatography elution profiles of starch and amylose, 4.0% and 11.5% of low molecular weight-molecules($<5{\times}10^5$) were leached out. In gel chromatography elution profiles of soluble starch, the higher heating temperature was, the more high molecular weight-starches were leached out. The elution profiles after debranching amylopectin with pullulanase showed 2.2 of the ratio of peakIII(DP 10-15) to peakII(DP 35-45). Acid hydrolysis extent of 2.2 N HCI-treated starch at $35^{\circ}C$ for 10 days was 96% and hydrolysis rate showed two step pattern which had border line at 4 days. In elution profiles of acid treated chestnut starch, amylopectin peak was disappeared compeletly after 6 hrs and converted short chains of DP 10-15. Amylose content was increased until 6 hrs but decreased after that. Hardness of starch gel made at $75^{\circ}C$ of heating temperature and cohesiveness of starch gel made at $85^{\circ}C$ of heating temperature were the highest. Retrogradation rate of starch gels were relatively high, especially for the starch gel made at $75^{\circ}C$ of heating temperature.