Anti-Inflammatory Activity of Questinol Isolated from Marine-Derived Fungus Eurotium amstelodami in Lipopolysaccharide-Stimulated RAW 264.7 Macrophages

( Xiu Dong Yang ),( Min Cheol Kang ),( Yong Li ),( Eun A Kim ),( Sung Myung Kang ),( You Jin Jeon ) 한국미생물 · 생명공학회 2014 Journal of microbiology and biotechnology Vol.24 No.10

In the present study, an anthraquinone derivative, questinol was successfully isolated from the broth extract of the marine-derived fungus Eurotium amstelodami for the first time. The structure of questinol was determined based on the analysis of the MS and NMR spectral data as well as comparison of those data with the published data. Moreover, the anti-inflammatory effect of questinol in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells was investigated. The results showed that questinol did not exhibit cytotoxicity in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells up to 200 μM. Questinol could significantly inhibit NO and PGE2 production at indicated concentrations. Questinol was also found to inhibit the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6. Furthermore, the western blot analysis showed that questinol suppressed the expression level of iNOS in a dose-dependent manner. However, questinol could slightly inhibit the expression of COX-2 at the concentration of 200 μM. Therefore, our study suggests that questinol might be selected as a promising agent for the prevention and therapy of inflammatory disease.

Noise-reduction Function and its Affecting Factors of Plant Communities

( Xiu-hua Song ),( Qian-qian Wu ),( Dong-ming Yu ),( Piao Yong-ji ),( Tae-dong Cho ) 한국환경과학회 2016 한국환경과학회지 Vol.25 No.10

In this study, we investigated the relationship between noise reduction and the community structure of nine groups of typical plant communities as well as the reduction in noise at different frequencies. The semantic differential method was adopted to explore the perception of noise reduction. The results indicated that there was a significantly positive correlation between noise reduction and coverage , a significantly negative correlation between noise reduction and bifurcate height, and a negative correlation between noise reduction and bare rate. However, there was no significant correlation between noise reduction and height, diameter at breast height, or crown width. The reduction of middle-frequency noise was better than that of low- and high-frequency noise. The indicators "quiet" and "calm" showed that plant communities could reduce the noise perceived by humans. However, overly dense woodland caused nervousness, fear, depression, and other negative effects. Relatively open environments and those with large forest gaps obtained the highest evaluation.

Studies on Genetic Diversity of Buckwheat Germplasms

Gao, Xiu-Dong,Kim, Jae-Hak,Park, Cheol-Ho,Hong, Soon-Kwan The Plant Resources Society of Korea 2010 한국자원식물학회지 Vol.23 No.3

Many research results have indicated that many kinds of useful ingredients are rich in buckwheat, which have high nutritional values and medicinal properties, so, buckwheat has been cultivated around Asia and Europe. In this paper, genetic diversity of common and tartary buckwheat germplasms were studied based on morphological and molecular markers in order to provide useful information for conservation and utilization of buckwheat genetic resources. The length, width, thick, value and weight of the seed of the common and tartary buckwheat were measured and analyzed by the statistics methods. The result has shown that there are morphological variation both in common buckwheat and tartary buckwheat seeds collected from different regions. It also has shown that the morphological variation of tartary seeds was significantly correlated to geographical regions. The nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacers (ITS) of the tartary buckwheat collected from different countries were cloned, sequenced and statistically analyzed. The data showed that ITS sequences were informative to analyze the phylogeny of the tartary buckwheat and the data also showed that the genetic distances varied among different tartary buckwheat seeds collected from different countries.

Determination of Protein, Fat, Starch, and Amino Acids in Foxtail Millet [Setaria italica (L.) Beauv.] by Fourier Transform Near-Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy

Xiu-Shi Yang,Li-Li Wang,Xian-Rong Zhou,Shaomin Shuang,Zhi-Hua Zhu,Nan Li,Yan Li,Fang Liu,San-Cai Liu,Ping Lu,Guixing Ren,Chuan Dong 한국식품과학회 2013 Food Science and Biotechnology Vol.22 No.6

Quantitative detection of protein, fat, starch,and amino acids in foxtail millet using Fourier transformnear-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was investigated. Foxtail millet samples (n=259) were analyzed using NIRS. Spectral data were linearized with data from chemicalanalyses. Calibration models were established using apartial least-squares (PLS) algorithm with cross-validation. Optimized models were tested using external validation setsamples with coefficients of determination in the externalvalidation (R2val) of >0.90. Residual predictive deviation(RPD) values were nearly equal to or >2.5 for crudeprotein, alanine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, isoleucine,leucine, and serine. However, for glycine, histidine,phenylalanine, proline, threonine, tyrosine, and valine, theR2val values were >0.83 and RPD values were nearly equalto or >2.0. For crude fat, total starch, arginine, and lysine,the R2val values were >0.70 and RPD values were >1.5. NIRS is a rapid determination tool for foxtail milletbreeding, and for quality control.

Effects of Chlorine Addition to TiO2 Nanorods-Based Perovskite Solar Cells

Dong Zhao,Rendong Wang,Pengfei Wang,Shutao Li,Zhao Li,Meiling Sun,Yunyan Liu,Junshan Xiu 성균관대학교(자연과학캠퍼스) 성균나노과학기술원 2019 NANO Vol.14 No.6

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanorods (NR) structure and Chlorine substitution is beneficial to the extraction and diffusion of electrons in perovskite solar cells (PSCs). In this work, different concentrations of PbCl2 in perovskite are integrated with TiO2 (NR) to fabricate PSCs. The total thickness of perovskite absorber layer and electron transport layer (ETL) is about 850 nm, and the PSCs exhibit excellent performance. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) test reveal that moderate PbCl2 additive improves the perovskite film morphology and crystal quality of perovskite films. Optimal perovskite films with high crystallinity and uniform surface were prepared by adding 3 mol% PbCl2 into perovskite precursor solution, the crystal boundary and defect states are greatly reduced, thus reducing the electrons and holes recombination. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) enhancement of the device with this optimal molar ratio of PbCl2 is over 24% compared with the device without PbCl2.

Flavor Components Comparison between the Neck Meat of Donkey, Swine, Bovine, and Sheep

Xiu Li,Issoufou Amadou,Guang-Yun Zhou,Li-Yan Qian,Jian-Ling Zhang,Dong-Liang Wang,Xiang-Rong Cheng 한국축산식품학회 2020 한국축산식품학회지 Vol.40 No.4

Donkey in China is well known for its draft purpose and transportation; however, donkey meat has attracted more and more consumers in recent years, yet it lacks sufficient information on its flavor components compared to other main meats. Therefore, in this study, volatile flavor compounds in neck meat of donkey, swine, bovine, and sheep were classified by electronic nose, then confirmed and quantified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography were used to quantify free fatty acid, amino acid, and flavor nucleotide. A total of 73 volatile compounds were identified, and aldehydes were identified as the characteristic flavor compounds in neck meat of donkey, bovine, swine and sheep in proportion of 76.39%, 46.62%, 31.64%, and 35.83%, respectively. Particularly, hexanal was the most abundant volatile flavor. Compared with other neck meat, much higher unsaturated free fatty acids were present in donkeys. Furthermore, neck meat of donkeys showed essential amino acid with highest content. Thus, special flavor and nutrition in donkey neck meat make it probably a candidate for consumers in other regions besides Asia.

Semantic Differential Analysis of the Soundscape in Urban Park

( Xiu Hua Song ),( Tae Dong Cho ),( Yong Ji Piao ) 한국환경과학회 2012 한국환경과학회지 Vol.21 No.9

In this study, soundscape was analyzed through physical measurement and social surveys. The results showed that, soundscape components were related to functional partitions and tourist activities, at the same time influenced by ambient noise. The sound pressure levels showed daily regular changes. Semantic differential analysis showed that the evaluation of the soundscape in urban park was rather complicated. It was still possible to identify major factors including relaxation, spatiality and environment. The results provided theoretical basis for improving urban park soundscape, and called attention to this problem.

Construction of a Novel Mitochondria-Associated Gene Model for Assessing ESCC Immune Microenvironment and Predicting Survival

Xiu Wang,Zhenhu Zhang,Yamin Shi,Wenjuan Zhang,Chongyi Su,Dong Wang The Korean Society for Microbiology and Biotechnol 2024 Journal of microbiology and biotechnology Vol.34 No.5

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is among the most common malignant tumors of the digestive tract, with the sixth highest fatality rate worldwide. The ESCC-related dataset, GSE20347, was downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, and weighted gene co-expression network analysis was performed to identify genes that are highly correlated with ESCC. A total of 91 transcriptome expression profiles and their corresponding clinical information were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. A mitochondria-associated risk (MAR) model was constructed using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator Cox regression analysis and validated using GSE161533. The tumor microenvironment and drug sensitivity were explored using the MAR model. Finally, in vitro experiments were performed to analyze the effects of hub genes on the proliferation and invasion abilities of ESCC cells. To confirm the predictive ability of the MAR model, we constructed a prognostic model and assessed its predictive accuracy. The MAR model revealed substantial differences in immune infiltration and tumor microenvironment characteristics between high- and low-risk populations and a substantial correlation between the risk scores and some common immunological checkpoints. AZD1332 and AZD7762 were more effective for patients in the low-risk group, whereas Entinostat, Nilotinib, Ruxolutinib, and Wnt.c59 were more effective for patients in the high-risk group. Knockdown of TYMS significantly inhibited the proliferation and invasive ability of ESCC cells in vitro. Overall, our MAR model provides stable and reliable results and may be used as a prognostic biomarker for personalized treatment of patients with ESCC.

Gallbladder Tuberculosis: CT Findings with Histopathologic Correlation

Xiu-Fang Xu,Ri-Sheng Yu,Ling-Ling Qiu,Jian Shen,Fei Dong,Ying Chen 대한영상의학회 2011 Korean Journal of Radiology Vol.12 No.2

Objective: We wanted to describe the computed tomography (CT) fi ndings of gallbladder tuberculosis (TB) and to correlate them with pathologic fi ndings. Materials and Methods: There were seven patients (M:F = 3:4; mean age, 46.3 years; age range, 32 to 78 years) in whom gallbladder TB was eventually diagnosed. All of them underwent cross-sectional imaging with CT, a pathologic examination and a retrospective review. CT imaging evaluation was done in each case, including the fi ndings of a mass versus nodule, wall thickening (uniform or irregular) and the enhancement patterns (homogeneous or heterogeneous). Results: All the cases of gallbladder TB revealed the following three different CT fi ndings: micronodular lesion of the gallbladder wall (n = 1), a thickened wall (n = 4) and a gallbladder mass (n = 2). There were three cases of homogeneous enhancement of the lesions, including homogeneous enhancement with nodular lesion, homogeneous uniform thickness enhancement and homogeneous thickness enhancement in one case each, and these cases pathology showed tuberculous granuloma with a little caseating necrosis in one case and tuberculous granuloma with rich fi brous tissue, but little or no evident caseating necrosis in two cases. Four cases of heterogeneous enhancement of the lesions, including heterogeneous uniform-thickness enhancement in two cases, heterogeneous enhancement with a local mass lesion in one case and heterogeneous enhancement with a mass that replaced the gallbladder in one case; in these cases, pathology showed tuberculous granuloma with marked caseation or liquefaction necrosis in three cases and tuberculous granuloma by fi brous and calcifi cations accompanied by caseating necrosis in one case. Among the seven cases of gallbladder TB, six cases were accompanied by abdominal extra-gallbladder TB, including abdominal lymph node TB in fi ve cases and hepatic TB in four cases. Conclusion: Gallbladder TB has various CT manifestations, and the enhanced CT findings are well matched with pathological features. An irregularly thickened gallbladder wall or a gallbladder wall mass with multiple-focus necrosis or calcifi cations accompanied by the typical CT fi ndings of abdominal extra-gallbladder TB should suggest the diagnosis of gallbladder TB.

Microbial Floral Dynamics of Chinese Traditional Soybean Paste (Doujiang) and Commercial Soybean Paste

( Xiu Zhi Gao ),( Hui Liu ),( Xin Xin Yi ),( Yi Qian Liu ),( Xiao Dong Wang ),( Wen Sheng Xu ),( Qi Gen Tong ),( Zong Jun Cui ) 한국미생물 · 생명공학회 2013 Journal of microbiology and biotechnology Vol.23 No.12

Traditional soybean paste from Shandong Liangshan and Tianyuan Jiangyuan commercial soybean paste were chosen for analysis and comparison of their bacterial and fungal dynamics using denaturing gel gradient electrophoresis and 16S rRNA gene clone libraries. The bacterial diversity results showed that more than 20 types of bacteria were present in traditional Shandong soybean paste during its fermentation process, whereas only six types of bacteria were present in the commercial soybean paste. The predominant bacteria in the Shandong soybean paste were most closely related to Leuconostoc spp., an uncultured bacterium, Lactococcus lactis, Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus spp., and Citrobacter freundii. The predominant bacteria in the Tianyuan Jiangyuan soybean paste were most closely related to an uncultured bacterium, Bacillus licheniformis, and an uncultured Leuconostoc spp. The fungal diversity results showed that 10 types of fungi were present in the Shandong soybean paste during the fermentation process, with the predominant fungi being most closely related to Geotrichum spp., an uncultured fungal clone, Aspergillus oryzae, and yeast species. The predominant fungus in the commercial soybean paste was Aspergillus oryzae.