• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.101-110
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• 2009

The regulation of gene expression plays an important role in cell cycle controls. In this study, a novel $mas2^+$ (mitosis associated protein) gene, a homolog of human SMARCAD1 was isolated and characterized from a fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe (S. pombe) using gene-specific polymerase chain reaction. The isolated gene contained a complete open reading frame capable of encoding 922 amino acid residues with a typical promoter, as judged by nucleotide sequence analysis. It was also found that an SNF2 domain is located, which is involved in the chromosome remodeling. The quantitative analysis of the $mas2^+$ transcript against $adh1^+$ showed that the expression level of $mas2^+$ is high before septum formation in S. pombe. When $mas2^+$ null mutant cells were grown at 27 and $35^{\circ}C$, the cytokinesis of $mas2^+$ null mutant was greatly delayed and a large number of multi-septate and mis-segregated cells were produced. In addition, the number of multi-septate cells significantly increased. When cells were cultured in YES rich medium to increase proliferation, the abnormal phenotypes $mas2^+$ null mutant dramatically increased. These phenotypes could be rescued by an over-expression of the mast gene. The Mas2 protein localized in the nuclei of S. pombe, as evidenced by Mas2-EGFP signals. These results suggest that the $mas2^+$ is homologous to human SMARCAD1 gene and involved in septum formation and chromosome remodeling control.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.521-526
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• 1997

We isolated a mouse nck cDNA from the thymus cDNA expression library. The cDNA encodes a 377 amino acid protein and displays 97% amino acid sequence identity to human oncogenic protein nck, which is composed almost exclusivelv of three src homology 3 (SH3) domains and one SH2 domain. The sequence analysis also showed that the isolated cDNA is the mouse counterpart of the human nck and different from the mouse grb4, which has been reported to be highly similar to the human nck and, therefore considered as a mouse nck, Northern blot analysis showed that the transcript of the gene was 1.8 kb and was highly expressed in the testis, thymus, and brain but moderately in the liver and lymph node. Western blot analysis showed that the size of the protein was about 47 kDa. Overexpression of the mouse Nck transformed a mouse fibroblast cell line, NIH3T3. The results clearly indicate that normal nck gene has transforming ability and provide an argument against a suggested possibility that the transforming ability of the human nck gene is due to a mutation(s) in the gene.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.1058-1071
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• 1999

Although healthy lifestyles have been proved as an effective way of improving higher well-beings for individuals. researches on health-promoting behaviors of minority elderly with a specific ethnic heritage have been sparsely tried. This study was designed to explore health-promoting lifestyle patterns of Korean immigrant elderly living in Seattle, USA and its relationships with two associated perceptual variables, self-esteem and perceived health status. One hundred ten Korean immigrant elderly were recruited from two senior centers and interviewed with a structured questionnaire. Data were collected from October 1998 to January 1999, and analyzed using SPSS program through which t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson Correlation Coefficients were tested. As the results, the mean HPLP score of the Korean immigrant elderly was 2.54 (SD ＝ .36), showing significant differences by education (F ＝ 3.61, P ＝ .016), economic status (F ＝ 3.01, P ＝ .034), and current health status (F ＝ 3.69, p ＝ .008). In self-esteem, two socioeconomic variables showed statistical association with self-esteem : marital status (t ＝ 2.47, P ＝ .015) and living situation (F ＝ 4.03, p ＝ .021). The HPLP subscales that showed higher mean scores were nutrition (M ＝ 3.01, SD ＝ .52) and interpersonal support (M ＝ 2.65, SD ＝ .47) while lower mean scores were detected in the domain of exercise (M ＝ 1.92, SD ＝ .74) and stress management (M ＝ 2.26, SD ＝ .47). Perceived health status revealed significant positive correlation with health-promoting lifestyle patterns (r ＝ .19, P ＝ .043) and self-esteem (r ＝ .32, P ＝ .001) in the present study. It is concluded that engagement in health-promoting lifestyle patterns should be actively encouraged to enhance personal health of Korean immigrant elderly. Developing health promotion programs focused on exercise and stress management is also imperatively suggested not only for better health practices of Korean immigrant elderly population but also for enhancing their level of well-beings and life satisfaction.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.101-107
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• 2008

Studies on hypoxia-signaling pathways have revealed novel Fe(II) and $\alpha$-ketoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases that hydroxylate prolyl or asparaginyl residues of a transactivator, Hypoxia-Inducible $Factor-\alpha(HIF-\alpha)$ protein. The recognition of these unprecedented dioxygenases has led to open a new paradigm that the hydroxylation mediates an instant post-translational modification of a protein in response to the changes in cellular concentrations of oxygen, reducing agents, or $\alpha$-ketoglutarate. Activity of $HIF-\alpha$ is repressed by two hydroxylases. One is $HIF-\alpha$ specific prolyl-hydroxylases, referred as prolyl-hydroxylase domain(PHD). The other is $HIF-\alpha$ specific asparaginyl-hydroxylase, referred as factor-inhibiting HIF-1(FIH-1). The facts (i) that many dioxygenases commonly use molecular oxygen and reducing agents during detoxification of xenobiotics, (ii) that detoxification reaction produces radicals and reactive oxygen species, and (iii) that activities of both PHD and FIH-1 are regulated by the changes in the balance between oxygen species and reducing agents, imply the possibility that the activity of $HIF-\alpha$ can be increased during detoxification process. The importance of $HIF-\alpha$ in cancer and ischemic diseases has been emphasized since its target genes mediate various hypoxic responses including angiogenesis, erythropoiesis, glycolysis, pH balance, metastasis, invasion and cell survival. Therefore, activators of PHDs and FIH-1 can be potential anticancer drugs which could reduce the activity of HIF, whereas inhibitors, for preventing ischemic diseases. This review highlights these novel dioxygenases, PHDs and FIH-1 as specific target against not only cancers but also ischemic diseases.

• The Journal of Korean Association of Computer Education
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.79-89
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• 2013

Over the past 10 years, STEAM education uprises to address student's low interest in and self-concept in comparison with their academic achievement in science, reacquaintance to enter schools of natural sciences or engineering. However, There is a paucity of empirical evidence revealing values and necessities of STEAM education in school. The purpose of this investigation is to develop steam education program making and using hands on sensor to experience new technology in school, to apply the program to 110 fourth graders, and to study the effect of the program. Pre- and post-test was used to measure level of student's scientific interest and attitude, scientific problem solving ability, scientific creative problem solving ability, personality test for children, satisfaction of school life. In conclusion, the result show that STEAM education improve every domain of the measurements.

• BMB Reports
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.537-543
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• 2001

In the present study, an in vitro ELISA system to assess the interaction between Src homology (SH)2 domains and phosphotyrosine that contain peptides was established using purified GST-conjugated SH2 proteins and synthetic biotinylated phosphotyrosine that contain oligopeptides. The SH2 domains bound the relevant phosphopeptides that were immobilized in the streptavidin-coated microtiter plate in a highly specific and dose-dependent manner. The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-, T antigen (T Ag)-, and platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR)-derived phosphopeptides interacted with the growth factor receptor binding protein (Grb)2/SH2, Lck/SH2, and phosphatidyl inositol 3-kinase (PI3K) p85/SH2, respectively. No cross-reactions were observed. Competitive inhibition experiments showed that a short phosphopeptide of only four amino acids was long enough to determine the binding specificity. Optimal concentrations of the GST-SH2 fusion protein and phosphopeptide in this new ELISA system for screening the binding blockers were chosen at 2nM and 500nM, respectively. When two candidate compounds were tested in our ELISA system, they specifically inhibited the Lck/SH2 and/or p85/SH2 binding to the relevant phosphopeptides. Our results indicate that this ELISA system could be used as an easy screening method for the discovery of specific binding blockers of protein-protein interactions via SH2 domains.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.59 no.1
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• pp.57-70
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• 2017

In this study, we evaluated daily root zone soil moisture dynamics and agricultural drought using a near-surface soil moisture data assimilation scheme with Soil Moisture Active & Passive (SMAP, $3km{\times}3km$) soil moisture footprints under different hydro-climate conditions. Satellite-based LANDSAT and MODIS image footprints were converted to spatially-distributed soil moisture estimates based on the regression model, and the converted soil moisture distributions were used for assessing uncertainties and applicability of SMAP data at fields. In order to overcome drawbacks of the discontinuity of SMAP data at the spatio-temporal scales, the data assimilation was applied to SMAP for estimating daily soil moisture dynamics at the spatial domain. Then, daily soil moisture values were used to estimate weekly agricultural drought based on the Soil Moisture Deficit Index (SMDI). The Yongdam-dam and Soyan river-dam watersheds were selected for validating our proposed approach. As a results, the MODIS/SMAP soil moisture values were relatively overestimated compared to those of the TDR-based measurements and LANDSAT data. When we applied the data assimilation scheme to SMAP, uncertainties were highly reduced compared to the TDR measurements. The estimated daily root zone soil moisture dynamics and agricultural drought from SMAP showed the variability at the sptio-temporal scales indicating that soil moisture values are influenced by not only the precipitation, but also the land surface characteristics. These findings can be useful for establishing efficient water management plans in hydrology and agricultural drought.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.280-288
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• 2012

Targeted degradation of proteins through ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis is an important control mechanism in various cellular processes. The process of ubiquitin conjugation is achieved by three enzyme complexes, among which the ubiquitin ligase complex (E3) is in charge of substrate specificity. The SCF (SKP1-CUL1-F-box) family portrays the largest and the most characterized member of the E3 ligases. For each SCF complex, the ubiquitination target is recognized by the F-box protein subunit, which interacts with the substrate through a unique C-terminal domain. We have characterized a novel F-box protein CFL-1 that represents a single LRR-type F-box (FBXL) in the Caenorhabditis elegans genome. CFL-1 is highly homologous to FBXL20 and FBXL2 of mammals, which are known to regulate synaptic vesicle release and cell cycle, respectively. A green fluorescence protein (GFP)-reporter gene fused to the cfl-1 promoter showed restricted expression around the amphid and the anus. Modulation of CFL-1 activity by RNAi affected the time interval between defecations. RNAi-treated worms also exhibited reduced tendency to form dauer when exposed to daumone. The potential involvement of CFL-1 in the control of defecation and pheromone response adds to the ever expanding list of cellular processes controlled by ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis in C. elegans. We suggest that CFL-1, as a single LRR-type F-box protein in C. elegans, may portray a prototype gene exerting diverse functions that are allocated among multiple FBXLs in higher organisms.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.221-228
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• 2011

Rodent malaria parasites, such as Plasmodium berghei, are practical and useful model organisms for human malaria research because of their analogies to the human malaria in terms of structure, physiology, and life cycle. Exploiting the available genetic sequence information, we constructed a cDNA library from the erythrocytic stages of P. berghei and analyzed the expressed sequence tag (EST). A total of 10,040 ESTs were generated and assembled into 2,462 clusters. These EST clusters were compared against public protein databases and 48 putative new transcripts, most of which were hypothetical proteins with unknown function, were identified. Genes encoding ribosomal or membrane proteins and purine nucleotide phosphorylases were highly abundant clusters in P. berghei. Protein domain analyses and the Gene Ontology functional categorization revealed translation/protein folding, metabolism, protein degradation, and multiple family of variant antigens to be mainly prevalent. The presently-collected ESTs and its bioinformatic analysis will be useful resources to identify for drug target and vaccine candidates and validate gene predictions of P. berghei.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.73-83
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• 2019

Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) is a highly contagious trans-boundary viral disease caused by FMD virus, which causes huge economic losses. FMDV infects cloven hoofed (two-toed) mammals such as cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and various wildlife species. To control the FMDV, it is necessary to understand the life cycle and the pathogenesis of FMDV in host. Especially, the protein-protein interaction between FMDV and host will help to understand the survival cycle of viruses in host cell and establish new therapeutic strategies. However, the computational approach for protein-protein interaction between FMDV and pig hosts have not been applied to studies of the onset mechanism of FMDV. In the present work, we have performed the prediction of the pig's proteins which interact with FMDV based on RNA-Seq data, protein sequence, and structure information. After identifying the virus-host interaction, we looked for meaningful pathways and anticipated changes in the host caused by infection with FMDV. A total of 78 proteins of pig were predicted as interacting with FMDV. The 156 interactions include 94 interactions predicted by sequence-based method and the 62 interactions predicted by structure-based method using domain information. The protein interaction network contained integrin as well as STYK1, VTCN1, IDO1, CDH3, SLA-DQB1, FER, and FGFR2 which were related to the up-regulation of inflammation and the down-regulation of cell adhesion and host defense systems such as macrophage and leukocytes. These results provide clues to the knowledge and mechanism of how FMDV affects the host cell.