• BMB Reports
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.39-44
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• 2018

Exchange protein directly activated by cAMP (Epac) 2a-knockout (KO) mice exhibit accelerated diet-induced obesity and are resistant to leptin-mediated adipostatic signaling from the hypothalamus to adipose tissue, with sustained food intake. However, the impact of Epac2a deficiency on hypothalamic regulation of sympathetic nervous activity (SNA) has not been elucidated. This study was performed to elucidate the response of Epac2a-KO mice to dexamethasone-induced muscle atrophy and acute cold stress. Compared to age-matched wild-type mice, Epac2a-KO mice showed higher energy expenditures and expression of myogenin and uncoupling protein-1 in skeletal muscle (SM) and brown adipose tissue (BAT), respectively. Epac2a-KO mice exhibited greater endurance to dexamethasone and cold stress. In wild-type mice, exogenous leptin mimicked the responses observed in Epac2a-KO mice. This suggests that leptin-mediated hypothalamic signaling toward SNA appears to be intact in these mice. Hence, the potentiated responses of SM and BAT may be due to their high plasma leptin levels.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.241-263
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• 2010

KoFlux is a Korean network of micrometeorological tower sites that use eddy covariance methods to monitor the cycles of energy, water, and carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and the key terrestrial ecosystems in Korea. KoFlux embraces the mission of AsiaFlux, i.e. to bring Asia's key ecosystems under observation to ensure quality and sustainability of life on earth. The main purposes of KoFlux are to provide (1) an infrastructure to monitor, compile, archive and distribute data for the science community and (2) a forum and short courses for the application and distribution of knowledge and data between scientists including practitioners. The KoFlux community pursues the vision of AsiaFlux, i.e., "thinking community, learning frontiers" by creating information and knowledge of ecosystem science on carbon, water and energy exchanges in key terrestrial ecosystems in Asia, by promoting multidisciplinary cooperations and integration of scientific researches and practices, and by providing the local communities with sustainable ecosystem services. Currently, KoFlux has seven sites in key terrestrial ecosystems (i.e., five sites in Korea and two sites in the Arctic and Antarctic). KoFlux has systemized a standardized data processing based on scrutiny of the data observed from these ecosystems and synthesized the processed data for constructing database for further uses with open access. Through publications, workshops, and training courses on a regular basis, KoFlux has provided an agora for building networks, exchanging information among flux measurement and modelling experts, and educating scientists in flux measurement and data analysis. Despite such persistent initiatives, the collaborative networking is still limited within the KoFlux community. In order to break the walls between different disciplines and boost up partnership and ownership of the network, KoFlux will be housed in the National Center for Agro-Meteorology (NCAM) at Seoul National University in 2011 and provide several core services of NCAM. Such concerted efforts will facilitate the augmentation of the current monitoring network, the education of the next-generation scientists, and the provision of sustainable ecosystem services to our society.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.145-153
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• 2001

Two new species of the genus Burmoniscus, B. siamenis and B. phanganensis, are described from Ko Samui and Ko Pha Ngan, Thailand. B. siamenis is similar to B. mauritiensis (Taiti and Ferrara, 1983) in color pattern and the shape of telson, but distinguished by the shape of pereonite 7 with obtuse postero-lateral angle and the peculiar shape of male pleopod 2 endopod with truncated apex. B. phanganensis is close to B. ocellatus Verhoeff, 1928) in the shape of pereonite 7 and telson, but easily distinguished by the peculiar shape of male pleopod 1 endopod with two rows of denticles on caudal surface.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.117-137
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• 2019

In the Big Data era, data science has become popular with the production of numerous data in various domains, and the power of data has become a competitive power. There is a growing interest in unstructured data, which accounts for more than 80% of the world's data. Along with the everyday use of social media, most of the unstructured data is in the form of text data and plays an important role in various areas such as marketing, finance, and distribution. However, text mining using social media is difficult to access and difficult to use compared to data mining using numerical data. Thus, this study aims to develop Korean Natural Language Application (KoALA) as an integrated application for easy and handy social media text mining without relying on programming language or high-level hardware or solution. KoALA is a specialized application for social media text mining. It is an integrated application that can analyze both Korean and English. KoALA handles the entire process from data collection to preprocessing, analysis and visualization. This paper describes the process of designing, implementing, and applying KoALA applications using the design science methodology. Lastly, we will discuss practical use of KoALA through a block-chain business case. Through this paper, we hope to popularize social media text mining and utilize it for practical and academic use in various domains.

• Mycobiology
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.143-153
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• 2019

Several buellioid specimens were collected from South Korea during field surveys and two new species are described based on morphology, chemistry, and molecular phylogeny. Buellia boseongensis sp. nov. is similar to B. polyspora but differs in having a UV + orange thallus and cryptolecanorine apothecia. Sculptolumina coreana sp. nov., resembles S. japonica, but differs in having a smooth entire continuous thallus, which reacts K-, a narrower excipulum, thicker epihymenium, narrower subhymenium, and in containing secondary metabolites other than flavo-obscurin and myeloconone. A key to the buellioid lichens reported from Korea is also presented.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.18-33
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• 2018

A new eddy covariance-based flux tower has been established since June 2016 in a dry direct-seeding rice paddy field in southwestern Korea - Haenam Paddy field KoFlux site (HPK). To assess the competitiveness of direct-seeding agricultural technique in the context of climate-smart agriculture, we have been monitoring the $CO_2$, $CH_4$ and energy fluxes continuously. In this communication, we (1) introduce the HPK site and (2) explain the structure and processes of the HPK-specific data processing and quality control. The latter consists of 10-steps data processing and quality control procedures following the KoFlux standardized protocol and explained each step in layman's term. The final data produced during the data processing were stored in NCAM-DAPS (National Center for AgroMeteorology-Data Acquisition and Processing System, http://daps.ncam.kr). We hope that the introduction of new HPK KoFlux site would serve as a platform to facilitate transdisciplinary efforts in the research and education associated with climate-smart agriculture toward sustainability.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.140-149
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• 2018

The $TIS21^{/BTG2/PC3}$ gene belongs to the antiproliferative gene (APRO) family and exhibits tumor suppressive activity. However, here we report that TIS21 controls lipid metabolism, rather than cell proliferation, under fasting condition. Using microarray analysis, whole gene expression changes were investigated in liver of TIS21 knockout (TIS21-KO) mice after 20 h fasting and compared with wild type (WT). Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha ($PPAR{\alpha}$) target gene expression was almost absent in contrast to increased lipid synthesis in the TIS21-KO mice compared to WT mice. Immunohistochemistry with hematoxylin and eosin staining revealed that lipid deposition was focal in the TIS21-KO liver as opposed to the diffuse and homogeneous pattern in the WT liver after 24 h starvation. In addition, cathepsin E expression was over 10 times higher in the TIS21-KO liver than that in the WT, as opposed to the significant reduction of thioltransferase in both adult and fetal livers. At present, we cannot account for the role of cathepsin E. However, downregulation of glutaredoxin 2 thioltransferase expression might affect hypoxic damage in the TIS21-KO liver. We suggest that the $TIS21^{/BTG2}$ gene might be essential to maintain energy metabolism and reducing power in the liver under fasting condition.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.25 no.4 s.83
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• pp.369-376
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• 1997

These researches were carried out for improvement of medium for mycelial growth of Hericium erinaceus isolate KU-1. It grew well at pH 4 and $25^{\circ}C$. Glucose and sucrose were favorable carbon sources for mycelial growth. As nitrogen sources, ammonium acetate and arginine enhanced mycelial growth. Optimum C/N ratio was 200. Based On the results, the following recipe is suggested for synthetic medium for the mycelial growth: glucose 18.02 g, arginine 2.613 g, ammonium acetate 2.313 g, $CaCl_2\;0.33\;g$, $KH_2PO_4\;8.5\;g$, $MgSO_4{\cdot}7H_2O\;2.0\;g$, $FeSO_4{\cdot}7H_2O\;0.02\;g$, $ZnSO_4{cdot}7H_2O\;0.02\;g$, $MnSO_4{\cdot}7H_2O\;0.02\;g$, water 1 liter. This medium was superior for the mycelial growth to other conventional media such as Yeast malt extract agar (YMA), Park medium, Potato dextrose agar (PDA), Malt extract agar, Czapek-dox agar, Macaya-lizano medium and Yeast extract agar. This new synthetic medium is designated as Ko medium.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.153-159
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• 2009

We investigated whether deficiency of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) could prevent isoproterenol-induced cardiac hypertrophy in iNOS knockout (KO) mice. Isoproterenol was continuously infused subcutaneously (15 mg/kg/day) using an osmotic minipump. Isoproterenol reduced body weight and fat mass in both iNOS KO and wild-type mice compared with saline-infused wild-type mice. Isoproterenol increased the heart weight in both iNOS KO and wild-type mice but there was no difference between iNOS KO and wild-type mice. Posterior wall thickness of left ventricle showed the same tendency with heart weight. Protein level of iNOS in the left ventricle was increased in isoproterenol-infused wild-type mice. The gene expression of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and transforming growth factor-${\beta}$ (TGF-${\beta}$) in isoproterenol-infused wild-type was measured at 2, 4, 24, and 48-hour and isoproterenol increased both IL-6 (2, 4, 24, and 48-hour) and TGF-${\beta}$ (4 and 24-hour). Isoproterenol infusion for 7 days increased the mRNA level of IL-6 and TGF-${\beta}$ in iNOS KO mice, whereas the gene expression in wild-type mice was not increased. Phosphorylated form of extracellular signal-regulated kinases (pERK) was also increased by isoproterenol at 2 and 4-hour but was not increased at 7 days after infusion in wild-type mice. However, the increased pERK level in iNOS KO mice was maintained even at 7 days after isoproterenol infusion. These results suggest that deficiency of iNOS does not prevent isoproterenol-induced cardiac hypertrophy and may have potentially harmful effects on cardiac hypertrophy.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.105-112
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• 2012

Genetic resource conservation of indigenous species is important to conserve terrestrial, aquatic and avian species throughout the world. The native Korean Oge (KO) chickens are important and protected indigenous avian species in Korea. This KO breed is very popular in Korea because of its external appearances of blackish color. The characterization of morphology and growth performances of KO were performed since 1980s, however the information is still not sufficient for breed selection. In this study, we compared various growth performances including body growth, tibia length, shank length, chest width, chest grith and length of tail feather between male and female chickens of KO and widely known White Leghorn (WL) breeds at 1 week, 2 weeks, 5 weeks, 10 weeks, and 24 weeks. We observed differences on various growth performances at different aged groups between KO and WL chickens. This study may help for the selection of chicken breeds based on age, body growth and meat production.