• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.111-120
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• 2020

Purpose: Corosolic acid (CA), also known as 2α-hydroxyursolic acid, is present in numerous plants, and is reported to exhibit anti-cancer and anti-proliferative activities in various cancer cells such as osteosarcoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, lung adenocarcinoma, and colon cancer. However, the anti-cancer activity of CA on human breast cancer cells and the underlying mechanisms remain to be elucidated. The present study aimed to investigate the anticancer effects of CA in the human breast cancer cell line, MDA-MB-231. Methods: Cell viability, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, apoptosis marker protein expression, migration, invasion rate, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels were assessed by treating MDA-MB-231 cells to increasing concentrations of CA. Results: The results showed that CA significantly inhibited the cell proliferation of MDA-MB-231 cells in a dose-dependent manner. To assess the effect of CA on apoptosis, nuclei of MDA-MB-231 cells were stained with DAPI solution. Chromatin condensation, which indicates apoptosis, was observed to increase dose-dependently. In addition, western-blot analysis revealed elevated levels of the apoptosis marker proteins (Bax and cleaved caspase 3) subsequent to MDA-MB-231 exposure to CA. ROS production was also increased in the CA-induced apoptosis in MDA-MB-231 treated cells. Interestingly, CA exposure resulted in significantly decreased migration and invasion rates in the MDA-MB-231 cells. Data further revealed that exposure to CA markedly decreased the VEGF concentration, thereby contributing to a reduction in angiogenesis. Conclusion: Our results determined that exposure to CA induces anti-proliferation, apoptosis, and ROS production, and suppresses cell migration and invasion rate in MDA-MB-231 cells. Taken together, these results indicate the potential of CA to be applied as an effective chemotherapeutic agent for treating breast cancer.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.80-87
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• 2020

Landfill waste decomposition generates a dark effluent named, leachate which is characterized by high organic matter content. To minimize these polluting effects, it becomes necessary to develop an effective landfill leachate treatment process. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of an innovative approach based on air stripping, anaerobic digestion (AD) and aerobic activated sludge treatment. A reduction of 80% of ammonia and an increase of carbon to nitrogen ratio to 25 were obtained, which is a suitable ratio for AD. This latter AD was performed in fixed bed reactor with progressive loading rate that reached 2 and 3.2 g COD/L/d for the raw and diluted leachate (1:2), respectively. The anaerobic treatment led to significant removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biogas production, especially for the diluted leachate. The COD removal was of 78% for the raw leachate and a biogas production of 4 L/d with 70% methane content. The use of the diluted leachate led to 81% of COD removal and 7 L/d biogas with 75% methane content. It allowed a removal of 77% COD and more than 97% of the organic compounds present in the initial leachate sample.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.85-90
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• 1994

The Gellan-type polysaccharide produced by Pseudomonas elodea(ATCC 31461) is one of the new heteropolysaccharides, having useful properties as gelling, suspending, stabilizing, emulsifying and binding agents in aqueous systems. Medium compositions for growth stage and production stage are improved. The problems of low cell concentration and poor productivity in highly viscous fermentation were attributed to inadequate mixing accompanied by insufficient oxygen transfer. During continuous culture, cell growth and polysaccharide production were greatly affected by the apparent viscosity, and they showed oscillation behavior, i.e. as the product concentration increases, cell concentration decreases. With improved culture conditions, the productivity of continuous culture increased up to 0.6g/$\ell$/hr(6-fold that of batch culture ) at dilution rate, D=$0.14hr^{-1}$.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 1988

Studies on species compostion, promary production of benthic algal assemblage were carried out along a channel of the salt marsh near Inch'on, Kyonggi Bay, Korea. Possible biological, physical and KDICical factors controlling the aglal assemblage were also examined. The oveall diatoms were encountered one hundred and thirty-seven taxa, of which the dominant species were Paralia sulcata and Cymatosira belgica. These two species accounted for 32.6% relative abundance throughout the study period. Diatom taxa had no clear seasonal pattern in abundance analysis. But at the algal blooming period in spring, euglenoids occurred with a high abundance. The chlorophyll a content of benthic algae showed definite seasonal pattern. The algal biomass of the appeared to influence the spatial fluctuation in the algal biomass of the channel was regulated primarily by water content of sediment. Grazing by zoobenthos apperaed to influence the spatial fluctuation in the algal biomass of the sediment surface. The algal photosynthesis was measured in the laboratory with oxygen method. Photo-synthetic rate was independent of the temperature under the lower irradiance. The gross production from March to November was estimated to be 190g C/m2 at the channel slope. Photosynthetic efficiency was 0.37% on the basis of the photosyntherically active radiation for the study period.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.144-154
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• 2005

The use of ozone gained acceptance in the production of ultrapure water because of its powerful oxidizing ability. Ozone is currently used to deactivate microorganisms and remove organic contaminants. However, interest also exists in using radical species, which arc stronger oxidants than ozone, in such processes. One means of producing radical species is by corona discharge. This work investigates the use of a novel pulseless corona-discharge system for the removal of organic substances in ultrapure water production. The method combines corona discharge with electrohydrodynamic spraying of oxygen, forming microbubbles. Experimental results show that pulseless corona discharge effectively removes organics, such as phenol and methylene blue, in deionized water. The corona-discharge method is demonstrated to be comparable to the direct use of ozone at a high-applied voltage. The results also show that a minimum applied voltage exists for operation of the corona-discharge method. In this work, the minimum applied voltage is approximately 4.5 kV. The kinetic rate or phenol degradation in the reactor is modeled. Modeling results show that the dominant species of the pulseless corona-discharge reactor are hydroxyl radical and aqueous electron. Several radical species produced in the pulseless corona-discharge process are identified experimentally. The. major species are hydroxyl radical, atomic hydrogen species, and ozone.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.475-482
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• 2021

Prodigiosins, which are natural tripyrrole red pigments and synthetic derivatives, reportedly have multiple biological effects mainly on various types of cancer cells. However, the effects of bacterial prodigiosin on non-cancerous HaCaT human skin keratinocytes have not been reported. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the functional activities of prodigiosin derived from cultures of the bacterium Hahella chejuensis in HaCaT cells. Cell viability, the cell proliferation rate, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in vitro were assayed following treatment of HaCaT cells with prodigiosin. Prodigiosin did not cause cytotoxicity and notably increased proliferation of HaCaT cells. Furthermore, prodigiosin reduced ultraviolet (UV) irradiation-induced ROS production and the inflammatory response in HaCaT cells. More importantly, prodigiosin reduced matrix metalloproteinase-9 expression and increased collagen synthesis in UV-irradiated HaCaT cells, demonstrating that it elicits anti-aging effects. In conclusion, our results reveal that H. chejuensis-derived prodigiosin is a potential natural product to develop functional cosmetic ingredients.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.37-45
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• 2019

To study the effect of nicorandil pretreatment on ketone body metabolism and Acetyl-CoA acetyltransferase (ACAT1) activity in hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R)-induced cardiomyocytes. In our study, we applied H9c2 cardiomyocytes cell line to evaluate the cardioprotective effects of nicorandil. We detected mitochondrial viability, cellular apoptosis, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and calcium overloading in H9c2 cells that exposed to H/R-induced cytotoxicity. Then we evaluated whether nicorandil possibly regulated ketone body, mainly ${\beta}$-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) and acetoacetate (ACAC), metabolism by regulating ACAT1 and Succinyl-CoA:3-ketoacid coenzyme A transferase 1 (OXCT1) protein and gene expressions. Nicorandil protected H9c2 cardiomyocytes against H/R-induced cytotoxicity dose-dependently by mitochondria-mediated anti-apoptosis pathway. Nicorandil significantly decreased cellular apoptotic rate and enhanced the ratio of Bcl-2/Bax expressions. Further, nicorandil decreased the production of ROS and alleviated calcium overloading in H/R-induced H9c2 cells. In crucial, nicorandil upregulated ACAT1 and OXCT1 protein expressions and either of their gene expressions, contributing to increased production of cellular BHB and ACAC. Nicorandil alleviated cardiomyocytes H/R-induced cytotoxicity through upregulating ACAT1/OXCT1 activity and ketone body metabolism, which might be a potential mechanism for emerging study of nicorandil and other $K_{ATP}$ channel openers.

• Mycobiology
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.301-307
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• 2019

The $11{\alpha}$-hydroxylation of $16{\alpha}$, 17-epoxyprogesterone (EP) catalyzed by Rhizopus nigricans is crucial for the steroid industry. However, lower conversion rate of the biohydroxylation restricts its potential industrial application. The $11{\alpha}$-steroid hydroxylase CYP509C12 from R. oryzae were reported to play a crucial role in the $11{\alpha}$-hydroxylation in recombinant fission yeast. In the present study, the CYP509C12 of R. oryzae (RoCYP) was introduced into R. nigricans using the liposome-mediated mycelial transformation. Heterologous expression of RoCYP resulted in increased fungal growth and improved intracellular reactive oxygen species content in R. nigricans. The $H_2O_2$ levels in RoCYP transformants were approximately 2-folder that of the R. nigricans wild type (RnWT) strain, with the superoxide dismutase activities increased approximately 45% and catalase activities decreased approximately 68%. Furthermore, the $11{\alpha}$-hydroxylation rates of EP in RoCYP transformants (C4, C6 and C9) were 39.7%, 38.3% and 38.7%, which were 12.1%, 8.2% and 9.4% higher than the rate of the RnWT strain, respectively. This paper investigated the effect of heterologous expression of RoCYP in R. nigricans, providing an effective genetic method to construct the engineered strains for steroid industry.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.17-26
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• 2020

It is clear that monocrystalline Silicon (Si) ingots are the key raw material for semiconductors devices. In the present industries markets, most of monocrystalline Silicon (Si) ingots are made by Czochralski Process due to their advantages with low production cost and the big crystal diameters in comparison with other manufacturing process such as Float-Zone technique. However, the disadvantage of Czochralski Process is the presence of impurities such as oxygen or carbon from the quartz and graphite crucible which later will resulted in defects and then lowering the efficiency of Si wafer. The heat transfer plays an important role in the formation of Si ingots. However, the heat transfer generates convection in Si molten state which induces the defects in Si crystal. In this study, a crystal growth simulation software was used to optimize the Si crystal growth process. The furnace and system design were modified. The results showed the melt-crystal interface shape can affect the Si crystal growth rate and defect points. In this study, the defect points and desired interface shape were controlled by specific crystal growth rate condition.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.25-35
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• 1990

In the Xanthan gum fermentation by Xanthomonas campestris there are problems of the large energy consumption by long fermentation time, the mass transfer of oxygen and nutrients by high viscous fermentation broth. In this study, the media optimization and the fed batch fermentation were carried out to decrease fermentation time and increase Xanthan gum yield. The $O_2$ uptake rate (OUR) and $CO_2$ evolution rate(CER) which were obtained from the analysis of fermentation exit gas using a gas chromatograph were investigated. As a result, the fermentation time decreased at optimal assimilable nitrogen concentration but increased at poor or rich assimilable nitrogen concentration, the Xanthan gum biosynthesis was stimulated under the limited condition of assimilable nitrogen source and the optimum fermentation medium was obtained as follow; Glucose=30g / l, Peptone=8.0g / l, $K_2HPO_4=2.0g/l$, $MgS0_47H_2O=10g/l$, Sodium acetate=20g/l, Sodium pyruvate=0.5g/1. As the agitation speed and nitrogen concentration increased, the $O_2$ uptake rate and $CO_2$ evolution rate increased. The OUR and CER were 37.3mmol $O_2/\;l$ hr and 20.2 mmol $CO_2/\;L$ hr at peptone 11g / l and agitation speed 990RPM, respectively. In fed batch fermentation, the final concentration of Xanthan gum was enhanced up to 29g / l.