• Proceedings of the Microbiological Society of Korea Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.83-85
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• 2007

Deep-sea bacteria are adapted to extreme environments, such as high pressures and cold temperatures. We have isolated many piezophiles which grow well even under high pressures from deep-sea sediment. Shewanella violacea DSS12 and Moritella japonica DSK1 have the ability to grow at up to 70 MPa, and those bacteria have unique mechanisms of gene expression in response to high pressure conditions. The combination of gene expression systems in piezophiles, like the high pressure-dependent promoters and GFP reporter gene, may reveal highly fluorescent cells when exposed to high hydrostatic pressure conditions. It is predicted that a novel bio-sensing system can be made to probe high pressure environments using living bacteria. First, gene transformation into our piezophiles, strains DSS12 and DSK1, were examined. Eschericha coli S17-1 was used for bacterial conjugation with those piezophiles. As a result, the broad host range vector, pKT231, and the shuttle vector, pTH10, were successfully introduced to DSS12 and DSK1, respectively. Next, The pressure regulated promoters from DSS12 and DSK1 were cloned into proper vectors and combined with GFP as a reporter gene downstream of each promoter. The transformants of DSK1 and DSS12 with the recombinant pTH10 and pKT231 plasmid, which has cadA and glnA promoters (each of them is a pressure regulated promoter from DSK1 and DSS12, respectively) and GFP, were grown under high pressure and gene expression of GFP promoted by 50 MPa pressure was confirmed. This is a critical point to create a pressure-sensing bacteria, as the "High Pressure Glow Cells", which will indicate the level of environmental pressure using fluorescence of GFP as a reporter gene.

• Journal of Photoscience
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.45-48
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• 2002

Microbial rhodopsins, photoactive 7-transmembrane helix proteins that use retinal as their chromophore, were observed initially in the Archaea and appeared to be restricted to extreme halophilic environments. Our understanding of the abundance and diversity of this family has been radically transformed by findings over the past three years. Genome sequencing of cultivated microbes as well as environmental genomics have unexpectedly revealed archaeal rhodopsin homologs in the other two domains of life as well, namely Bacteria and Eucarya. Organisms containing these homologs inhabit such diverse environments as salt flats, soil, freshwater, and surface and deep ocean waters, and they comprise a broad phylogenetic range of microbial life, including haloarchaea, proteobacteria, cyanobacteria, fungi, and algae. Analysis of the new microbial rhodopsins and their expression and structural and functional characterization reveal that they fulfill both ion transport and sensory functions in various organisms, and use a variety of signaling mechanisms. We have obtained the first crystallographic structure for a photosensory member of this family, the phototaxis receptor sensory rhodopsin II (SRII, also known as phoborhodopsin) that mediates blue-light avoidance by the haloarchaeon Natronobacterium pharaonis. The structure obtained from x-ray diffraction of 3D crystals prepared in a cubic lipid phase reveals key features responsible for its spectral tuning and its sensory function. The mechanism of SRII signaling fits a unified model for transport and signaling in this widespread family of phototransducers.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.321-334
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• 2021

'Marine mammals-based observations' refers to data acquisition activities from marine mammals by instrumenting CTD (Conductivity-Temperature-Depth) sensors on them for recording vertical profiles of ocean variables such as temperature and salinity during animal diving. It is a novel data collecting platform that significantly improves our abilities in observing extreme environments such as the Southern Ocean with low cost compared to the other conventional methods. Furthermore, the system continues to create valuable information until sensors are detached, expanding data coverage in both space and time. Owing to these practical advantages, the marine mammals-based observations become popular to investigate ocean circulation changes in the Southern Ocean. Although these merits may bring us more opportunities to understand ocean changes, the data should be carefully qualified before we interpret it incorporating shipboard/autonomous vehicles/moored CTD data. In particular, we need to pay more attention to salinity correction due to the usage of an unpumped-CTD sensor tagged on marine mammals. In this article, we introduce quality control methods for the marine mammals-based CTD profiles that have been developed in recent studies. In addition, we discuss strategies of quality control specifically for the seal-tagging CTD profiles, successfully having been obtained near Terra Nova Bay, Ross Sea, Antarctica since February 2021. It is the Korea Polar Research Institute's research initiative of animal-borne instruments monitoring in the region. We anticipate that this initiative would facilitate collaborative efforts among Polar physical oceanographers and even marine mammal behavior researchers to understand better rapid changes in marine environments in the warming world.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.9
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• pp.1110-1119
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• 2022

Fe-S clusters are versatile and essential cofactors that participate in multiple and fundamental biological processes. In Escherichia coli, the biogenesis of these cofactors requires either the housekeeping Isc pathway, or the stress-induced Suf pathway which plays a general role under conditions of oxidative stress or iron limitation. In the present work, the Fe-S cluster assembly Isc and Suf systems of acidophilic Bacteria and Archaea, which thrive in highly oxidative environments, were studied. This analysis revealed that acidophilic microorganisms have a complete set of genes encoding for a single system (either Suf or Isc). In acidophilic Proteobacteria and Nitrospirae, a complete set of isc genes (iscRSUAX-hscBA-fdx), but not genes coding for the Suf system, was detected. The activity of the Isc system was studied in Leptospirillum sp. CF-1 (Nitrospirae). RT-PCR experiments showed that eight candidate genes were co-transcribed and conform the isc operon in this strain. Additionally, RT-qPCR assays showed that the expression of the iscS gene was significantly up-regulated in cells exposed to oxidative stress imposed by 260 mM Fe₂(SO₄)₃ for 1 h or iron starvation for 3 h. The activity of cysteine desulfurase (IscS) in CF-1 cell extracts was also upregulated under such conditions. Thus, the Isc system from Leptospirillum sp. CF-1 seems to play an active role in stressful environments. These results contribute to a better understanding of the distribution and role of Fe-S cluster protein biogenesis systems in organisms that thrive in extreme environmental conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.27 no.4_2
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• pp.943-951
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• 2024

This paper considers the simulation-based installation and operation safety analysis of installation and operation machinery of USBL as underwater equipment in operation environments. The simulation model of this mechanical system was developed using flexible multibody dynamics simulation technology. Operation and environmental conditions were applied using dynamic forces model considering ocean environments. The developed simulation model was used to evaluate operation safety through eigenvalue analysis, dynamic forces analysis, and structural analysis. As the analysis results, the operation safety was very low in extreme operation condition due to increase of dynamic loads by VIV effect. It was not a problem because safety factor had more than 2.0 in this case. However, the operation safety should be further strengthened because the USBL and LARS was installed and utilized in unmanned vessel with automatic controls. In order to improve safety by avoiding VIV frequency, we redesigned the USBL pole.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.31 no.7
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• pp.569-576
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• 2014

Sensor node means a device to include sensor, amplifier, and data acquisition (DAQ) equipment. The sensor converts physical signals to electric signals and weak signals from the sensor can be amplified through the amplifier. DAQ equipment converts analog signal to digital signal and collects converted digital signal. Since the sensor node is sensitive to the environment so that selection of mounting position and fixture design of sensor are applied differently depending on the characteristics of a target. This study is about designing and manufacturing sensor node to be used in a machine tool. The environment of machine tool is very severe due to noise, temperature fluctuation, and dust, etc. Hence, the sensor and amplifier must be designed and manufactured by considering the environmental issues. The designed and manufactured sensor node was tested for the reliability and effectiveness of the developed sensor nodes in the study.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.122-122
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• 2012

The exterior structures of natural organisms have continuously evolved by controlling wettability, such as the Namib Desert beetle, whose back has hydrophilic/hydrophobic contrast for water harvesting by mist condensation in dry desert environments, and some plant leaves that have hierarchical micro/nanostructures to collect or repel liquid water. In this work, we have provided a method for wettability contrast on metals by both nano-flake or needle patterns and tuning of the surface energy. Metals including steel alloys and aluminum were provided with hierarchical micro/nanostructures of metaloxides induced by fluorination and a subsequent catalytic reaction of fluorine ions on metal surfaces in water with various ranges from room to boiling temperature of water. Then, a hydrophobic material was deposited on the structured surfaces, rendering superhydrophobicity. Plasma oxidization induces the formation of superhydrophilic surfaces on selective regions surrounded by superhydrophobic surfaces. We show that wettability contrast surfaces align liquid water within patterned hydrophilic regions during the condensation process. Furthermore, this method could have a greater potential to align other liquids or living cells.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.345-350
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• 2014

A special usage impeller pump for ballast water treatment is part of an offshore plant's structure. It has to maintain a high corrosion resistance in an extreme environment, in which it can contact several kinds of aqueous solutions. The duplex stainless steel used in such severe environments is known to have corrosion resistance and excellent mechanical properties. This study estimated the performance of an impeller pump system designed using duplex stainless steel through a computational fluid dynamics analysis. As a result, it was determined that the pressure drop increases and the impeller performance is lowered if the equivalent roughness is enlarged. The surface precision of the duplex stainless steel must be consistently maintained. If thisis the case, it was determined that the existing STS steel can be substituted for the Duplex stainless steel.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.36 no.11
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• pp.73-90
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• 1998

During the period of 1950s and 1960s extreme changes in political, economic, social and cultural environments had a great influence on family ethics, since the western civilization had been introduced to this nation in late 19th century. This paper studied the family ethics during the above periods by interviewing elders(average age 77) who had couple relations at that time focusing the followings. During the period, ① what is the view of family? ② what are the actual sapects and characteristics of married couple ethics? ③ what are the actual aspects and characteristics of the ethics between parents and their children? The results of this study are as follows; ① The indispensable requisite of the parents is a son who functions as the tool for enhancing social position of their family rather than succession of them. The nuclear family is regraded ideal, but the concept of nuclear family of them is far different from that of western. ② The married couples accepts the given couple relations in the name of bringing up their children. The ideal image of wife is traditional wifely virtues and that of husband is ability of making money. ③ The parents emphasize education and success of their children for enhancing the social position of their family, while they still require some degree of moral standards to their children. The parents believe that the best filial piety is making good lives of their children's own, which is somewhat different from the traditional filial piety norm.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.85-90
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• 2007

This paper presents the growth conditions and characteristics of polycrystalline 3C-SiC (silicon carbide) thin films for M/NEMS applications related to harsh environments. The growth of the 3C-SiC thin film on the oxided Si wafers was carried out by APCVD using HMDS (hexamethyildisilane: $Si_{2}(CH_{3})_{6})$ precursor. Each samples were analyzed by XRD (X-ray diffraction), FT-IR (fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy), RHEED (reflection high energy electron diffraction), GDS (glow discharge spectrometer), XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy), SEM (scanning electron microscope) and TEM (tunneling electro microscope). Moreover, the electrical properties of the grown 3C-SiC thin film were evaluated by Hall effect. From these results, the grown 3C-SiC thin film is very good crystalline quality, surface like mirror and low defect. Therefore, the 3C-SiC thin film is suitable for extreme environment, Bio and RF M/NEMS applications in conjunction with Si fabrication technology.