Ricinus communis, belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae, has been known as medicinal plants for treatment of inflammation, tumors, antidiabetic, hepatoprotective and laxative. Compared to many pharmacological studies, the effect of R. communis extract on regulating adipogenesis as therapeutic drug for treating obesity has not been reported. R. communis extract (RCE) was investigated to determine its effects on the adipogenesis by monitoring the status of Wnt/β-catenin signaling and factors involving the differentiation of adipocytes. The differentiation of 3T3-L1 cells monitored by Oil Red O staining was inhibited in concentration dependent manner by RCE. The luciferase activity of HEK 293-TOP cells containing pTOPFlash with Tcf4 response element-luciferase gene was increased approximately 2-folds by the treatment of RCE at concentrations of 100 μg/mL compared to the control. Activation of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway by RCE was further confirmed by immunocytochemical analysis which shows an increment of nuclear localization of β-catenin. In addition, safety of RCE was verified through performing neural stem cell morphology assay. Among the identified flavonoids in RCE, isoquercitrin was the most abundant. Therefore, these results indicate that the adipocyte differentiation was significantly reduced by isoquercitrin in R. communis. In this study, RCE suppresses the adipogenesis of 3T3-L1 cells via the activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling.

The perturbation of the steady state of reactive oxygen species due to biotic and abiotic stresses in a plant could lead to protein denaturation through the modification of amino acid residues, including the oxidation of methionine residues. Methionine sulfoxide reductases (MSRs) catalyze the reduction of methionine sulfoxide back to the methionine residue. To assess the role of this enzyme, we generated transgenic rice using a pepper CaMSRB2 gene under the control of the rice Rab21 promoter with/without a selection marker, the bar gene. A drought resistance test on transgenic plants showed that CaMSRB2 confers drought tolerance to rice, as evidenced by less oxidative stress symptoms and a strengthened PSII quantum yield under stress conditions, and increased survival rate and chlorophyll index after the re-watering. The results from immunoblotting using a methionine sulfoxide antibody and nano-LC-MS/MS spectrometry suggest that porphobilinogen deaminase (PBGD), which is involved in chlorophyll synthesis, is a putative target of CaMSRB2. The oxidized methionine content of PBGD expressed in E. coli increased in the presence of H2O2, and the Met-95 and Met-227 residues of PBGD were reduced by CaMSRB2 in the presence of dithiothreitol. An expression profiling analysis of the overexpression lines also suggested that photosystems are less severely affected by drought stress. Our results indicate that CaMSRB2 might play an important functional role in chloroplasts for conferring drought stress tolerance in rice

소매화원중 택배·탁송 유통 경험이 있는 대상자를 선정하여 설문조사한 결과 운송 배달 수단으로서의 택배 서비스가 차지하는 부분이 더욱 커질 것으로 나타났다. 현재 택배업체와 탁송 직원은 신속한 배송이 중요한 업무이지만, 화훼류와 같은 물품에 대해서는 특별한 취급 방법이 추가로 요구되는 것을 알 수 있었다. 따라서 현재 일반 택배업체는 구조적으로 화훼류 유통에 최적이지 않다는 것과, 택배회사의 직원 교육이나 택배 차량의 시설 개선보다는, 화훼류 전문 택배업체 지정의 필요성을 알 수 있었다.

The use of the internet to facilitate commerce among companies promises vast benefits. Lots of e-marketplaces are building for several industries such as chemistry, airplane, and automobile industries. This study provides the new B2B EC business model for the shipping industry which concerns relatively massive fixed assets to be fully utilized. To be successful the proposed model gives participants useful information. To do this the expert system is constructed with the hybrid prediction system of neural network (NN) and memory based reasoning (MBR) with self-organizing map (SOM) and knowledge augmentation technique using qualitative reasoning (QR). The expert system supports participants useful information coping with dynamic market environment. with this shipping companies are induced to participate in the proposed e-marketplace and helped for exchanges easily. Also participants would utilize their assets fully through B2B exchanges.