• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• 제8권2호
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• pp.140-146
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• 2019

Andrew Niccols's movie Gattaca (1997) inspired the formulation of the "Gattaca Argument" concerning the negative outcome of biotechnology, which has since been critiqued especially in the context of transhumanism and posthumanism. According this argument the development of genetic enhancement will produce a genetic discrimination and lead us to serious form of inequality. However, in particular transhumanists deny that here are reasons to worry and advocating instead the transformation of human condition in terms of genetic enhancement. Moreover, they question that genetic enhancement will necessarily lead to social inequality. In what follows, we will reexamine the Gattaca Argument and its critiques based on the movie in order to reassess the role the movie plays in the subsequent scholarly discussion. We will argue that existing critiques fall short of capturing the problem posed in the movie - the problem of the inhumane. Based on a hermeneutic approach to the movie we will both reconstruct the arguments and evaluate the transhuman counterarguments in terms of modern history of philosophical ideas.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제29권8호
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• pp.1075-1082
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• 2016

Modern livestock production became highly intensive and large scaled to increase production efficiency. This production environment could add stressors affecting the health and growth of animals. Major stressors can include environment (air quality and temperature), nutrition, and infection. These stressors can reduce growth performance and alter immune systems at systemic and local levels including the gastrointestinal tract. Heat stress increases the permeability, oxidative stress, and inflammatory responses in the gut. Nutritional stress from fasting, antinutritional compounds, and toxins induces the leakage and destruction of the tight junction proteins in the gut. Fasting is shown to suppress pro-inflammatory cytokines, whereas deoxynivalenol increases the recruitment of intestinal pro-inflammatory cytokines and the level of lymphocytes in the gut. Pathogenic and viral infections such as Enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus can lead to loosening the intestinal epithelial barrier. On the other hand, supplementation of Lactobacillus or Saccharaomyces reduced infectious stress by ETEC. It was noted that major stressors altered the permeability of intestinal barriers and profiles of genes and proteins of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in mucosal system in pigs. However, it is not sufficient to fully explain the mechanism of the gut immune system in pigs under stress conditions. Correlation and interaction of gut and systemic immune system under major stressors should be better defined to overcome aforementioned obstacles.

• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• 제44권4호
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• pp.144-151
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• 2019

Alopecia has emerged as one of the biggest interests in modern society. Many studies have focused on the treatment of alopecia, such as transplantation of hair follicles or inhibition of the androgen pathway. Hair growth is achieved through proper proliferation of the components such as keratinocytes and dermal papilla cells (DPCs), movement, and interaction between the two cells. The present study examined the effect of the hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway, which is an important and fundamental signal in the cell, on the morphology and the viability of human keratinocytes and DPCs. Upregulation of Hh signaling caused a morphological change and an increase in epithelium-mesenchymal transition-related gene expression but reduced the viability of keratinocytes, while the alteration of Hh signaling did not cause any change in DPCs. The results show the possibility that the regulation of Hh signaling can be applied for the treatment of alopecia.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• 제6권3호
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• pp.116-124
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• 2003

Isolation and cloning of seven-band grouper (Epinephelus septemfasciatus) growth hormone cDNA from pituitary gland revealed an open reading frame of 612 bp coding for a pre-growth hormone of 204 amino acids with a 17 amino acid putative signal peptide. Deduced amino acid sequence showed that there was one possible N-glycosylation site at $Asn^{l84}$ and four cysteine residues $(Cys^{52},\;Cys^{160},\;Cys^{177},\;Cys^{185})$ on t e same positions as in some other species where they were involved in the stabilization of the tertiary structure. The seven-band grouper growth hormone (sbgGH) presented a $99.5\%$ amino acid sequence identity with the growth hormone of Epinephelus coioides and contained the conserved hormone domain region. Comparison of growth hormone sequences from evolutionarily diverse species revealed 25 amino acid residues conserved in jawless fishes to modern mammals. It also revealed an evolutionary trend to retain the same polypeptide sequence even in the distantly related animals while allowing alterations to occur in polypeptides of the closely related species. In order to create a recombinant system to produce high levels of the growth hormone, it was expressed in Escherichia coli (BL21) cells. The gel analysis revealed theoretically expected molecular weights for both mature and pre-sbgGHs.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• 제44권1호
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• pp.33-43
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• 2020

Ginseng is popularly known to be the king of ancient medicines and is used widely in most of the traditional medicinal compositions due to its various pharmaceutical properties. Numerous studies are being focused on this plant's curative effects to discover their potential health benefits in most human diseases, including cancer- the most life-threatening disease worldwide. Modern pharmacological research has focused mainly on ginsenosides, the major bioactive compounds of ginseng, because of their multiple therapeutic applications. Various issues on ginseng plant development, physiological processes, and agricultural issues have also been studied widely through state-of-the-art, high-throughput sequencing technologies. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the number of publications on ginseng has rapidly increased, with a recent count of more than 6,000 articles and reviews focusing notably on ginseng. Owing to the implementation of various technologies and continuous efforts, the ginseng plant genomes have been decoded effectively in recent years. Therefore, this review focuses mainly on the cellular biomolecular sequences in ginseng plants from the perspective of the central molecular dogma, with an emphasis on genomes, transcriptomes, and proteomes, together with a few other related studies.

• 식품과학과 산업
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• 제49권4호
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• pp.3-18
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• 2016

반세기 전만해도 식량의 생산과 공급은 농수산업에 의해 이루어 졌다. 그러나 지금은 전체 식량의 자급도가 50% 미만으로 떨어졌고, 상대적으로 식품산업이 모자라는 식량을 전 세계에서 구입하여 가공해서 식품을 공급하고 있다. 따라서 식품산업은 농수산업과 함께 5천만 국민의 식량을 공급하는 식량산업으로 역할과 책임을 감당하고 있다. 식품산업의 발전을 이끌어가는 식품과학기술은 이 나라의 식량안보를 책임지는 과학기술로서의 사명을 감당해야 한다. 앞으로 예견되는 세계 식량위기에 대해 식품과학기술이 각별한 관심과 준비를 해야 하는 이유이다. 생명공학 신품종(GMO)에 대한 소비자들의 부정적인 인식을 불식시키고 안전한 식품으로 사용되도록 식품학계가 노력해야 한다. 핵물질과 방사선조사를 구분하지 못하는 소비자 교육 홍보도 식품학계가 나서야할 과제이다. 쌀의 소비확대를 위해 가공기술을 개발하고 현대의 생활방식에 맞는 제품들을 생산해 내는 일도 중요하다. 유통기한에 대한 오해를 풀어주고 상미기한과 소비기한을 병기하여 음식물 쓰레기 발생량을 줄이는 제도개선도 시급히 요구되고 있다. 우리나라 식품과학계는 그 동안 식품 제조가공에 필요한 과학기술을 연구하고 산업에 적용하는 방법들을 개발하여 우리나라 식품산업을 세계적인 수준으로 끌어올리는데 중추적인 역할을 했다. 이제 앞으로 예견되는 세계 식량위기에 대해서도 우리나라 식품학계가 선도적인 역할을 하리라고 믿는다. 새로운 과학기술을 쉽게 수용하지 못하는 소비자들에게 신기술에 대한 확신과 신뢰를 심어주는 일이 무엇보다 시급하다.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• 제61권4호
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• pp.305-314
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• 2018

'New Breeding Techniques (NBTs)' have been one of hot issues, since their future will be affected profoundly by national as well as international regulatory landscapes. In this review, we compare characteristics of NBTs with conventional and genetic modification, and analyze genetically modified organism (GMO) regulatory systems in the context of possible regulation of NBTs. NBTs are very heterogeneous in terms of principles, methodologies, and final products. As Living Modified Organisms (LMO) is defined in the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CPB) as an organism containing novel combination of genetic materials obtained by the use of modern biotechnology, CPB as well as other national legislations locate itself somewhere in the middle between product-based and process-based regulations. It is also noted that jurisdictions with regulatory systems more oriented to product-based one tend to be more productive and decide or may decide to exempt site-directed nucleases-1 from GMO regulation. In this context, Korean legislations are reviewed to clarify the commons and differences in GMO definitions. Act on Transboundary Movement of LMO Act, Food Sanitation Act and Agricultural and Fishery Products Quality Control Act are three major acts to regulate GMOs. It is noted that there are differences in the definition of LMO or GM food/products especially between the LMO Act and the Food Sanitation Act. Such differences may cause conflicts between Acts when policy-decision regarding the regulation of NBTs is made. Therefore, it is necessary to reorganize legislations before policies regarding the regulation of any techniques from biotechnology are made.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제12권7호
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• pp.1162-1169
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• 1999

Modern livestock production facilities face both challenges and opportunities with respect to sustainable manure management practices. Nutrient recycling is constrained by the size of modern livestock operations, the low nutrient density of liquid manures, and the spatial and temporal variability of manure nutrient concentrations. These constraints can and must be addressed or farmers will be increasingly drawn to nutrient wasting strategies such as anaerobic lagoons, wetlands, and other systems designed to treat and discharge nutrients to the environment. Intentional discharge of nutrients is difficult to justify in a sustainable agricultural production system, since replacing those nutrients through chemical fertilization requires considerable expenditure of energy. In contrast, there are several currently viable technologies which provide the homogenization and stabilization needed to successfully compete against chemical fertilizers, including composting, pelletization, and anaerobic digestion. Some of these technologies, particularly anaerobic digestion and composting, also open up increased opportunities to market the energy and nutrients in manure to non-agricultural uses. Future advances in biotechnology are likely to demonstrate additional options to transform manure into fuels, chemicals, and other non-agricultural products.

• 한국식품조리과학회지
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• 제32권2호
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• pp.157-167
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• 2016

Purpose: The objective of this study was to investigate the quality characteristics of pork and beef meat according to species (pork: modern genotype pork, Korean native black pork; beef: Holstein, Korean native cattle) and cuts (pork: shoulder, ham, loin; beef: loin, tenderness, round). Methods: The moisture content, protein content, fat content, ash content, fatty acid compositions pH, whater holding capacity, cooking loss, shear force, color, and sensory characteristics were measured in triplicate. Results: The moisture content, pH, cooking loss, and shear force of modern genotype pork were significantly higher than the Korean native black pork; in addition, the moisture content of loin was significantly higher than shoulder and ham. The fatty acid compositions for different parts of pork showed no significant differences. Among the sensory characteristics, the parameters of pork were not significantly different. The moisture content of Holstein was significantly higher than Korean native cattle. The fatty acid composition of beef could not confirm the specific differences. Water holding capacity of Korean native cattle was higher than Holstein, while cooking loss of Korean native cattle was lower than Holstein. Overall acceptability scores of Korean native cattle was higher than Holstein. Conclusion: The study results of several parameters in selected raw meat samples provide useful information for developing new strategies to improve the quality of meat products consumption.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• 제39권1호
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• pp.29-37
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• 2015

Background: Panax ginseng (i.e., ginseng) root is extensively used in traditional oriental medicine. It is a modern pharmaceutical reagent for preventing various human diseases such as cancer. Ginsenosidesd-the major active components of ginsengd-exhibit immunomodulatory effects. However, the mechanism and function underlying such effects are not fully elucidated, especially in human monocytes and dendritic cells (DCs). Methods: We investigated the immunomodulatory effect of ginsenosides from Panax ginseng root on $CD14^+$ monocytes purified from human adult peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and on their differentiation into DCs that affect $CD4^+$ T cell activity. Results: After treatment with ginsenoside fractions, monocyte levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-${\alpha}$, interleukin (IL)-6, and IL-10 increased through phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)1/2 and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), but not p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK). After treatment with ginsenoside fractions, TNF-${\alpha}$ production and phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and JNK decreased in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-sensitized monocytes.We confirmed that DCs derived from $CD14^+$ monocytes in the presence of ginsenoside fractions (Gin-DCs) contained decreased levels of the costimulatory molecules CD80 and CD86. The expression of these costimulatory molecules decreased in LPS-treated DCs exposed to ginsenoside fractions, compared to their expression in LPS-treated DCs in the absence of ginsenoside fractions. Furthermore, LPS-treated Gin-DCs could not induce proliferation and interferon gamma (IFN-${\gamma}$) production by $CD4^+$ T cells with the coculture of Gin-DCs with $CD4^+$ T cells. Conclusion: These results suggest that ginsenoside fractions from the ginseng root suppress cytokine production and maturation of LPS-treated DCs and downregulate $CD4^+$ T cells.