• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.68-76
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• 2002

In this study, we have investigated the geochemical behavior and fate of heavy metals in acid rock drainage (ARD). The ARD was collected from the area of the former Dongrae pyrophyllite mine. The Dongrae Creek waters were strongly acidic (pH : 2.3~4.2) and contained high concentrations of $SO_4$, Al, Fe, Mn, Pb, Cu, Zn, and Cd, due to the influence of ARD generated from weathering of pyrite-rich pyrophyllite ores. However, the water quality gradually improved as the water flows downstream. In view of the change of mole fractions of dissolved Fe, Al and Mn, the generated ARD was initially both Fe- and AA-ich but progressively evolved to more Al-rich toward the confluence with the uncontaminated Suyoung River. As the AR3 (pH 2.3) mixed with the uncontaminated waters (pH 6.5), the pH increased up to 4.2, which caused precipitation of $SO_4$-rich Fe hydroxysulfate as a red-colored, massive ferricrete precipitate throughout the Dongrae Creek. Accompanying the precipitation of ferricrete, the Dongrae Creek water progressively changed to more Al-rich toward downstream sites. At the mouth of the Dongrae Creek, it (pH 3.4) mixed with the Suyoung River (pH 6.9), where pH increased to 5.7, causing precipitation of Al hydroxysulfate (white precipitates). Neutralization of the ARD-contaminated waters in the laboratory caused the successive formation of Fe precipitates at pH<3.5 and Al precipitates at higher pH (4~6). Manganese compounds were precipitated at pH>6. The removal of trace metals was dependent on the precipitation of these compounds, which acted as sorbents. The pHs for 50% sorption ($pH_{50}$) in Fe-rich and Al-rich waters were respectively 3.2 and 4.5 for Pb, 4.5 and 5.8 for Cu, 5.2 and 7.4 for Cd, and 5.8 and 7.0 for Zn. This indicates that the trace metals were sorbed preferentially with increasing pH in the general order of Pb, Cu, Cd, and Zn and that the sorption of trace metals in Al-rich water occurred at higher pH than those in Fe-rich water. The results of this study demonstrated that the partitioning of trace metals in ARD is not only a function of pH, but also depends on the chemical composition of the water.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.197-206
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• 2007

P2X receptors are membrane-bound ion channels that conduct $Na^+,\;K^+$, and $Ca^{2+}$ in response to ATP and its analogs. There are seven subunits identified so far ($P2X_1-P2X_7$). $P2X_2$ receptors are known to be expressed in a wide range of organs including brains and adrenal grands. PC12 cells are originated from adrenal grand and differentiated by nerve growth factor or pituitary adenylate cyclase activating poly peptide (PACAP). Previous studies indicate that $P2X_2$ receptor activation in PC12 cells couples to $Ca^{2+}-dependent$ release of catecholamine and ATP. It is known that acidic pH potentiates ATP currents at $P2X_2$ receptors. This leads to a hypothesis that $P2X_2$ receptors may play an important role in PC12 cell differentiation, one of the characteristics of which is neurite outgrowth, induced by the hormones under lower pH. In the present study, we isolated several clones which potentiate neurite outgrowth by PACAP in acidic pH (6.8), but not in alkaline pH (7.6). RT-PCR and electrophysiology data indicate that these clones express only functional $P2X_2$ receptors in the absence or presence of PACAP for 3 days. Potentiation of neurite outgrowth resulted from PACAP (100 nM) in acidic pH is inhibited by the two P2X receptor antagonists, suramin and PPADS ($100\;{\mu}M)$ each), and exogenous exprerssion of ATP-binding mutant $P2X_2$ receptor subunit ($P2X_2[K69A]$). However, acid sensing ion channels (ASICs) are not involved in PACAP-induced neurite outgrowth potentiation in lower pH since treatments of an inhibitor of ASICs, amyloride ($10\;{\mu}M$), did not give any effects to neurite extension. The vesicular proton pump ($H^+-ATPase$) inhibitor, bafilomycin (100 nM), reduced neurite extension indicating that ATP release resulted from $P2X_2$ receptor activation in PC12 cells is needed for neurite outgrowth. These were confirmed by activation of mitogen activated protein kinases, such as ERKs and p38. These results suggest roles of ATP and $P2X_2$ receptors in hormone-induced cell differentiation or neuronal synaptogenesis in local acidic environments.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.403-407
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• 1997

Medium components for maximum activity of NAD$^{+}$-dependent formate dehydrogenase (EC 1.2.1.2; FDH) were optimized with a methanol-assimilating yeast Hansenula sp. MS-364, preserved by our laboratory. The maximum activity of the enzyme was obtained when the strain was cultivated at 30$circ$C for 24 hours in a medium containing methanol 3%(v/v), yeast extract 0.8%(w/v), K$_{2}$HPO$_{4}$, 0.1%(w/v), KH$_{2}$PO$_{4}$ 0.1%(W/V), MgSO$_{4}$, 7H$_{2}$O 0.05%(w/v), and the pH of the culture broth was adjusted at 5.0.

• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.173-178
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• 1995

동물계에서 항바이러스와관련된 dsRNA 의존성 인산화 효소(PKR)의 유전자를 식물체에서 발현시킬 경우 PKR에 의한 단백질합성 및 식물바이러스의 증식조절 가능성에 대한 기초자료를 확보하기 위하여 사람에서 분리된 PKR cDNA를 Agrobacterium 방법에 의하여 연초식물체(Nicotiana tabacum cv. Xanthi-nc)로 형질전환시켰다. HindIII/PstI처리에 의해 얻어지는 약 1.8kb의 phPKR cDNA절편을 일련의 유전자 조작 방법을 통하여 식물발현벡터인 pBI121에 도입하여, p12168을 재조합하였다. 이를 A. tumefaciens LBA 4404에 형질전환시켜 연초식물체형질 전환에 이용하였다. 2mg/l BA와 0.5mg/l NAA가 포함되고 100$\mu\textrm{g}$/ml의 kanamycin이 첨가된 MS배지에서 shooting시킨 후 phytohormone이 첨가되지 않은 MS배지상에서 rooting을 시켜 형질전환 연초식물체를 얻었으며, 형질전환식물체는 정상식물체와 유사한 생육양상을 나타내었다. 형질전환식물체의 유전자도입은 hPKR cDNA의 전사부여는 RT-PCR 방법에 의하여 확인되었다.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.305-312
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• 2003

The effect of addition of ethanol and/or organic acid on slowing down the fermentation of Mul-kimchi was tested by measuring the changes in pH, acidity and counting the number of microorganisms in kimchi fermentation, and sensory evaluation were carried out. The addition of 0~5％ ethanol to kimchi delayed the decrease of pH and the delaying effect during kimchi fermentation was dependent on the ethanol concentration used. The pH of kimchi without ethanol decreased from 5.7 to 4.13, however, the pH of the kimchi added with 5％ ethanol only from 5.8 to 5.14. The increase of acidity in kimchi with 5％ ethanol was only 0.5~0.6％, while that without ethanol was 0.7~0.8％. Among the organic acids tested, adipic acid was found to be most effective on the prevention of kimchi souring. The Mul-kimchi added 2％ ethanol together with 0.1％ organic acid showed similar effect to that of organic acid alone in the change of pH and acidity. By the sensory evaluation, Mul-kimchi with 0.1％ adipic acid and 2％ ethanol was selected the most desirable one except control without any addition. And the numbers of total microbes, lactic bacteria and yeast count, showed the most effective inhibition in Mul-kimchi with 0.1％ adipic acid and 2％ ethanol.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.556-564
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• 2008

Response surface methodology was used to monitor the optimization of fermentation conditions for red ginseng wine. A central composite design was applied to investigate the effects of independent variables, fermentation temperature ($X_1$), fermentation time ($X_2$) and initial pH ($X_3$) on dependent variables, physicochemical characteristics and effective ingredients. Alcohol and total sugar content were significantly affected both by fermentation temperature and time. Crude saponin content was greatly affected by fermentation time, and pH was significantly affected by initial pH. Fermentation time and initial pH had a greater effect on ginsenoside content than fermentation temperature. Ginsenoside content increased along with fermentation time and initial pH. We elicited a regression formula for each variable, and superimposed the total optimum points of fermentation conditions for physicochemical characteristics and the effective constituents. The predicted values at the optimum fermentation conditions were at $21{\sim}27^{\circ}C$ for $15{\sim}20$ day in initial pH $4.6{\sim}5.2$.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.169-179
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• 1994

The effect of extracellular and intracellular pH on vascular tone and $^{45}Ca$ uptake were investigated in aortic strips and dispersed single aortic smooth muscle cells of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and aged-matched Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY). The contraction produced by a change of extracellular pH (pHo) in the range of $6.5{\sim}8.3$ was estimated by comparison with the level of vascular tone at pH 7.4. Contraction was induced below pHo 6.5 in WKY, pHo 7.1 in SHR, and over pHo 8.0 on both strains. The amplitude of contraction induced by high pHo (over pHo 7.7) was similar in SHR and WKY, but that induced by low pHo (below pHo 7.1) in SHR was greater than that in WKY. Either high pHo- or low pHo-induced contractions in WKY and SHR were not induced in the Ca-free Tyrode's solution and were induced by the addition of Ca. $^{45}Ca$ uptake increased progressively as pHo was increased from 6.8 to 8.1 in the single aortic smooth muscle cells of WKY and SHR. $NH_4Cl$ induced a gradually developing contraction in a dose-dependent manner $(5\;mM{\sim}30\;mM)$ and the removal of $NH_4Cl$ induced transient contraction was followed by profound relaxation in the aortic rings of both strains. The contractions induced by $NH_4Cl$ or by the removal of $NH_4Cl$ in SHR were significantly greater than that in WKY. These contractions were not induced in Ca-free Tyrode's solution. $^{45}Ca$ uptake was increased by $NH_4Cl$ (20 mM) and was not changed by the removal of $NH_4Cl$ (20 mM) in the aortic strips of WKY and SHR. As a summary of above results, the vascular tone of SHR was more sensitive to the change pHi and pHo than that of WKY. The contractions induced by change of extracellular or intracellular pH depended on extracellular Ca in the aorta of SHR nnd WKY. However, the Ca uptake was in accord with the changes of contraction but increase in contraction by low pH was not accompanied by an increase in Ca uptake in both strains.

• Proceedings of the KOSOMBE Conference
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• v.1995 no.05
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• pp.223-226
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• 1995

Polymers have been developed and applied in many biomedical areas as well as engineering and industrial fields. The first essential to achieve successful development and applications is that properties of such polymer materials would be investigated. In many cases, such investigations are accomplished by observing polymeric behavior arising from the environmental changes such as pH, temperature, and ionic concentration. It has long been known that NMR is extremely sensitive to many biochemical and physical changes occurring in the polymer samples. In the present study we focus our study on NMR Microimaging, which is one of the important NMR applications, to characterize the swelling effect by observing the time dependent spatial variations of polymer specimens. For the samples three kinds of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) specimens are prepared with different degrees of cross linking density. $^1H$ NMR microimages are acquired as a function of time to visualize the swelling behavior as well as volumetric changes occurring in the specimens. From the acquired time dependent images, the swelling process is exploited.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.91-99
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• 1989

The concentrations of hydroxide, carbonate and oxalate for Y(III), Ba(II) and Cu(II) ions in an aqueous solution have been theoretically calcuated with respect to pH and their solubility diagram could be obtained. The optimum pH ofr oxalate coprecipitates at room temperature was estimated as<4, which was not influenced by carbonates and hydroxides in H2O solvent. The yield is dependent on the concentration of added oxalic acid, but the concentration of oxalic acid was fixed as 0.1M in this calculation for simplicity.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.418-422
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• 2015

In the course of screening for novel cell cycle inhibitors and apoptotic inducers, CR389, elucidated as 5-(1H-benzoimidazol-2-yl)-1H-pyridin-2-one, was generated as a new hit compound. Flow cytometric analysis and western blots of PA-1 cells treated with $60{\mu}M$ CR389 revealed an appreciable cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase through direct inhibition of the CDK1 complex. In addition, activation of p53 via phosphorylation at Ser15 and subsequent up-regulation of p21^CIP1 showed that CR389 also induces p53-dependent-p21^CIP1-mediated cell cycle arrest. Furthermore, apoptotic induction in $60{\mu}M$ CR389-treated PA-1 cells is associated with the release of cytochrome c from mitochondria through up-regulation of the proapoptotic Bax protein, which results in the activation of procaspase-9 and -3, and the cleavage of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP). Accordingly, CR389 seems to have multiple mechanisms of antiproliferative activity through p53-mediated pathways against human ovarian cancer cells. Therefore, we conclude that CR389 is a candidate therapeutic agent for the treatment of human ovarian cancer via the activation of p53.