• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.34 no.11
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• pp.757-764
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• 2012

The surface of graphite fiber fabric anode was modified with a hydrogel and a mixture of hydrogel and multiwall carbon nanotube, and their effectiveness were compared to the unmodified anodes in a batch microbial fuel cell (microbial fuel cells). The maximum power density of the MFC was determined by both performance of the anode and cathode. The maximum power density for the MFC with the anode modified with the mixture of hydrogel and multiwall carbon nanotube was $1,162mW/m^2$ which was 27.7% higher than that with the unmodified graphite fiber fabric anode. "The mixture of hydrogel and multiwall carbon nanotube is a good surface modifier for anode with high biological affinity and low activation losses."

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.399-405
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• 2010

Rosa rugosa has been used as a folk medicine with various pharmacological properties for a long time in Asia. Recently, it has been reported that the extract of fractions from different parts of Rosa rugosa have various pharmacological effects on diverse diseases including diabetes, inflammatory diseases and tumor. We investigated effects of fructus extracts of Rosa rugosa(RRF) and semen extracts of this herb(RRS) on macrophage to evaluate the possibilities as a biological response modifier. We showed increased effects on tumoricidal activity, phagocytic activity, TNF-$\alpha$ and NO production in RRF-treated groups without direct tumor cell cytotoxicity. RRS-treated groups increased direct tumor cell cytotoxicity at high dose without tumoricial activity except increasing of TNF-$\alpha$ release. These results provide further possibilities for the beneficial immunomodulating effects of RRF on immune system with relatively larger safety margin rather than RRS.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.51 no.8
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• pp.703-711
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• 2018

Water distribution system (WDS) pipe bursts are caused from excessive pressure, pipe aging, and ground shift from temperature change and earthquake. Prompt detection of and response to the failure event help prevent large-scale service interruption and catastrophic sinkhole generation. To that end, this study proposes a improved Western Electric Company (WECO) method to improve the detection effectiveness and efficiency of the original WECO method. The original WECO method is an univariate Statistical Process Control (SPC) technique used for identifying any non-random patterns in system output data. The improved WECO method multiples a threshold modifier (w) to each threshold of WECO sub-rules in order to control the sensitivity of anomaly detection in a water distribution network of interest. The Austin network was used to demonstrated the proposed method in which normal random and abnormal pipe flow data were generated. The best w value was identified from a sensitivity analysis, and the impact of measurement frequency (dt = 5, 10, 15 min etc.) was also investigated. The proposed method was compared to the original WECO method with respect to detection probability, false alarm rate, and averaged detection time. Finally, this study provides a set of guidelines on the use of the WECO method for real-life WDS pipe burst detection.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.762-768
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• 2004

Chromium has been known to be involved in the glucose metabolism, and hence the utilization of cellular glucose is impaired in the chromium deficiency. Chromium has been recognized as an essential nutrient since the finding of low-molecular-weight Cr-binding substance (LMWCr) as a biological modifier of insulin action. Clinical chromium deficiency associated with glucose intolerance that respond to the administration of chromium. The major impediment to the use of orally administered chromium is poor absorption of trivalent chromium in its inorganic form. Trivalent chromium is more available in yeast md, more recently, as chromium picolinate for oral absorption. The widespread use of these supplements has resulted in controversy regarding chromium's role as a nutrient, its use for treatment of insulin resistance, and its potential toxicity. Most recent evidence strongly supports tile conclusion that there is little fear of toxic reactions from chromium consumption. This report reviews the evidence for the potential toxicity of chromium supplements in contrast with its usefulness as a nutrient or therapeutic agent in the treatment or prevention of insulin resistance.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.272-277
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• 2010

The glass-ceramics containing bottom ash (B/A) which was a by-produced from an electrical power plant was fabricated and its crystalline phase, microstructure and mechanical properties were analyzed. At first, the glass was fabricated by adding modifier oxide $Li_2O$ to lower the melting temperature of coal bottom ash. The glass obtained was heat-treated by using a 2-stage process to crystallize, that is to say, to increase the degree of crystallization in the glass-ceramics, the first heat treatment for nucleation was performed followed by the secondary one for the growth of nucleates. The main crystalline phase formed in the glass-ceramics was ${\beta}$-spodumene and the secondary phase was $L_2SiO_3$. It was recognized that the degree of crystallization of glass-ceramics was increased with a holding time of the secondary heat treatment stage. In the case of the specimens hold up to 3 hour, the crystallization was not completed and the microstructures and morphologies of crystalline phase were not uniform. In the specimens of holding time over 9 hours, the cracks were generated inside of it, so its compressive strength would decrease due them. In conclusion, it was able to obtain the optimum condition to fabriate the glass-ceramics having the properties of high crystallization degree, uniform microstructures and morphologies and the high mechanical strength.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.713-721
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• 2020

Adipogenesis as a model system is needed to understand the molecular mechanisms of human adipocyte biology and the pathogenesis of obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic syndromes. Many relevant studies have been conducted with a focus on gene expression regulation and intracellular signaling relating to Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein alpha (C/EBPα), which are master adipogenic transcription factors. However, epigenome regulation of adipogenesis by epigenomic modifiers or histone mutations is not fully understood. Histone methylation is one of the major epigenetic modifications on gene expression in mammals, and histone H3 lysine methylation (H3Kme) in particular implicates cell differentiation during various tissue and organ development. During adipogenesis, cell type-specific enhancers are marked by histone H3K4me1 with the active enhancer mark H3K27ac. Mixed-lineage leukemia 4 (MLL4) is a major H3K4 mono-methyltransferase on the adipogenic enhancers of PPARγ and C/EBPα loci. Thus, MLL4 is an important epigenomic modifier for adipogenesis. The repressive mark H3K27me3 is mediated by the enzymatic subunit Enhancer zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) of the polycomb repressive complex 2. EZH2-mediated H3K27 tri-methylation on the Wnt gene increases adipogenesis because WNT signaling is a negative regulator of adipogenesis. This review summarizes current knowledge about the epigenomic regulation of adipogenesis by histone H3 lysine methylation which fundamentally regulates gene expression.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.169-175
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• 2006

A unicellular algae, Chlorella vulgaris(CV), was used as a biological response modifier. The effect of CV on forced swimming test and blood biochemical parameters related to fatigue was investigated. Blood urea nitrogen(BUN); creatine kinase(CK); lactic dehydrogenase(LDH); glucose(Glc); total protein(TP); and albumin were determined. CV was orally administered to mice in the range of 0.05 to 0.15 g/kg/day. A forced swimming test results on 3 and 7 day after administration of CV, showed that immobility time was decreased in the CV-administered group(0.15 g/kg). In addition, the contents of BUN in the blood serum were decreased in CV-fed group. The contents of CK and LDH were tended to decrease, but not statistically significant. The plasma Glc level was increased in CV-fed groups(0.05 and 0.1 g/kg) compared to control group. It had no effect on the elevation of TP and albumin level. The results indicate that CV could improve physical stamina.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.3195-3201
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• 2015

Objectives: To investigate the effects of betaine on HeLa cell growth and apoptosis and molecular mechanisms. Materials and Methods: Concentrations of 0.1, 1.0, 5.0, 20.0, 100.0 mg/ml of betaine were used to evaluate the anticancer efficacy for HeLa cells respectively, and MCF-10A was also detected as a normal diploid cell control. Results: We found that proliferation of HeLa cells was inhibited significantly upon exposure to increasing betaine levels with the MTT test (p<0.05). The percentage of S phase cells in the low dose groups (<5mg/ml) were distinctly higher than in high dose groups, and the rates of Sub-G1 phase were the opposite (p<0.01); A high concentration of betaine (>5.0mg/ml) significantly promoted the apoptosis of HeLa cells (p<0.01). SOD activities of the low dose groups were slightly higher than the control group (p<0.05) and there were obvious synchronicity and correlation among the expression of promoting apoptosis genes Bax, P53, Caspase 3 and apoptosis suppression gene Bcl-2. In response to an apoptosis-inducing stimulus, p53 and cyclin D1 could be activated with blockage of the cell cycle at G1/S or S/G2 checkpoints. Conclusions: Our data showed that betaine could promote HeLa cells proliferation in vitro at low concentrations. In contrast, high concentrations could significantly inhibit cell growth and migration, and induce apoptosis of HeLa cells through caspase 3 signaling and further promoted necrosis. This might imply that betaine exhibits tumoricidal effects and acts as a biological response modifier in cancer treatment by inducing apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in a dose and time-dependent manner.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.71-77
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• 2001

Unsaturated polyester(UP) resin is one of the major thermosetting resins. It is very useful as the matrix resin of the composite material because of its low viscosity. The polymer resin, however, has several drawbacks; The volume shrinkage occurs during the crosslinking reaction of the UP resin with styrene monomer and the resulting polymer is weak to the alkali and also brittle. The mechanical properties of UP resin can be improved by blending various materials. In this study, polyurethane(PU) was used as a modifier in order to enhance the toughness of the UP resin. The goal of the research is to study the effect of the polyol molecular weight as a PU soft segment and the PU contents on the toughness of PU-modified UP resins. UP/PU polymer network may occur through the reaction between isocyanate group in the methyldiisocyanate(MDI) and hydroxyl group in the UP molecules. The maximum toughness value was shown at 2 wt% of the PU content. This effect results from the incorporation of the PU segment into the UP resin.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.1104-1109
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• 2003

Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to investigate the effects of the processing parameters on supercritical $CO_2\;(SC-CO_2)$. extraction of total carotenoids and ${\beta}$-cyptoxanthin from Citrus unshiu press cake. The parameters tested were $SC-CO_2$ pressure, dynamic extraction time, and concentration of ethanol added as the modifier to $CO_2$. Experimental data correlated well with the processing parameters (p<0.01), and there was a high statistically significant multiple regression relationship for the extraction of total carotenoids and ${\beta}-cyrptoxanthin$ ($R^2=0.9789$ and 0.9796, respectively). The optimal processing conditions were extraction pressure 33.4 and 37.3 MPa, extraction time 39.6 and 41.0 min, ethanol concentration 18.6 and 17.0% for total carotenoids and ${\beta}-cryptozanthin$, respectively. Maximum extraction yields predicted by RSM were 61.1 and 95.8% ppm, respectively. The extraction yield of total carotenoids increased asymptotically with the increase of the extraction pressure. It increased in proportion to extraction time and concentration of the cosolvent. The extraction yield of ${\beta}-cryptoxanthin$ increased with extraction pressure, extraction time, and concentration of the cosolvent. The extraction time and the concentration of the cosolvent, and the interaction between extraction time and the concentration of the cosolvent significantly affected the extraction yields of carotenoids from C. unshiu press cake.