• Journal of Life Science
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.325-330
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• 2004

The RAD3 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is required for excision repair and is essential for cell viability. RAD3 encoded protein possesses a single stranded DNA-dependent ATPase and DNA and DNA-RNA helicase activities. To examine the extent of conservation of structure and function of RAD3 during eukaryotic evolution, the RAD3 homolog gene was isolated by screening of genomic DNA library. The isolated gene was designated as HRD3 (Homologue of RAD3 gene). The over-expressed HRD3 protein was estimated to be a 75 kDa in size which is in good agreement with the estimated by the nucleotide sequence of the cloned gene. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis showed that a number of other protein spots dramatically disappeared when the HRD3 protein was overexpressed. The overexpressed RAD3 protein showed a toxicity in E. coli host, suggesting that this protein may be involved in the inhibition of protein synthesis and/or degradation of host protein. To determine which part of HRD3 gene contributes to the toxicity in E. coli, various fusion plasmids containing a partial sequence of HRD3 and lac'Z gene were constructed. These results suggest that the C-terminal domain of HRD3 protein may be important for both toxic effect in E. coli and for its role in DNA repair in S. pombe.

• Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Korea Conference
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• 2002.04a
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• pp.62-72
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• 2002

This study has investigated the biosynthesis and function of the heavy metal binding peptides, the phytochelatins, in plants. PCs are synthesised enzymatically from glutathione by the enzyme PC synthase in the presence of heavy metal ions. Using Arabidopsis thaliana as a model organism cadmium-sensitive, phytochelatin-deficient mutants have been isolated and characterised in previous studies. The cadl mutants have wildtype levels of glutathione, are PC deficient and lack PC synthase activity. Thus, the CADl gene has been proposed to encode PC synthase. The CADl gene was isolated by a positional cloning strategy The gene was mapped and a candidate identified. Each of four cadl mutants had a single base pair change in the candidate gene and the cadmium-sensitive, cadl phenotype was complemented by the candidate gene. This demonstrated the CADl gene had been cloned. A homologous gene in the fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe was identified through database searches. A targeted-deletion mutation of this gene was constructed and the mutant, like cadl mutants of Arabidopsis, was cadmium-sensitive and PC-deficient. A comparison of the redicted amino acid sequences reveals a highly conserved N-terminal region Presumed to be the catalytic domain and a variable C-terminal region containing multiple Cys residues proposed to be involved in activation of the enzyme by metal ions. Similar genes were also identified in animal species. The Arabidopsis CADl/AtPCSl and S. pombe SpbPCS genes were expressed in E. coli and were shown to be sufficient for glutathione-dependent, heavy metal activate PC synthesis in vitro, thus demonstrating these genes encode PC synthase enzymes. Using RT-PCR, AtPCSl expression appeared to be independent of Cd exposure. However, at higher levels of Cd exposure a AtPCSl-CUS reporter gene construct appeared to be more highly expressed. Using the reporter gene construct, AtPCSl was expressed most tissues. Expression appeared to be greater in younger tissues and same higher levels of expression was observed in some regions, including carpels and the base of siliques. AtPCS2 was a functional gene encoding an active PC synthase. However, its Pattern of expression and the phenotype of a mutant (or antisense line) have not been determined. Assuming the gene is functional then it has clearly been maintained through evolution and must provide some selective advantage. This implies that, at least in some cells or tissue, it is likely to be the dominant PC synthase expressed. This remains to be determined

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.109-113
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• 2001

Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) has been shown to modulate transactivations by the peroxisome proliferator activated receptor (PPAR)$\gamma$ and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF$\kappa$B). In this study, the oxLDL signaling pathways involved with the NF$\kappa$B transactivation were investigated by utilizing a reporter construct driven by three upstream NF$\kappa$B binding sites, and various pharmacological inhibitors. OxLDL and its constituent lysophophatidylcholine (lysoPC) induced a rapid and transient increase of intracellular calcium and stimulated the NF-KB transactivation in resting RAW264.7 macrophage cells in an oxidation-dependent manner. The NF$\kappa$B activation by oxLDL or lysoPC was inhibited by protein kinase C inhibitors or an intracellular calcium chelator. Tyrosine kinase or PI3 kinase inhibitors did not block the NF$\kappa$B transactivation. Furthermore, the oxLDL-induced NF$\kappa$B activity was abolished by the PPAR$\gamma$ ligands. When the endocytosis of oxLDL was blocked by cytochalasin B, the NF$\kappa$B transactivation by oxLDL was synergistically increased, while PPAR transactivation was blocked. These results suggest that oxLDL activates NF-$\kappa$B in resting macrophages via protein kinase C- and/or calcium-dependent pathways, which does not involve the endocytic processing of oxLDL. The endocytosis-dependent PPAR$\gamma$ activation by oxLDL may function as an inactivation route of the oxLDL induced NF$\kappa$B signal. Short heterodimer partner (SHP), specifically expressed in liver and a limited number of other tissues, is an unusual orphan nuclear receptor that lacks the conventional DNA-binding domain. In this work, we found that SHP expression is abundant in murine macrophage cell line RAW 264.7 but suppressed by oxLDL and its constituent I3-HODE, a ligand for peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor y. Furthermore, SHP acted as a transcription coactivator of nuclear factor-$\kappa$B (NF$\kappa$B) and was essential for the previously described NF$\kappa$B transactivation by lysoPC, one of the oxLDL constituents. Accordingly, NF$\kappa$B, transcriptionally active in the beginning, became progressively inert in oxLDL-treated RAW 264.7 cells, as oxLDL decreased the SHP expression. Thus, SHP appears to be an important modulatory component to regulate the transcriptional activities of NF$\kappa$B in oxLDL-treated, resting macrophage cells.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.446-452
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• 1995

Lithium intercalates, $Li_xFeMoO_4Cl$ ($1{\leq}X{\leq}2$) prepared by electrochemical lithiation of $FeMoO_4Cl$ crystallizes in monoclinic structure for all x values as revealed by x-ray diffraction and galvanostatic discharge experiments. According to the x-ray photoelectron spectroscopic study, Fe(III) is at first reduced to Fe(II) upon lithium intercalation with the x domain of $0{\leq}X{\leq}1$, where the crystal symmetry is changed from tetragonal to monoclinic. On the other hand, Mo(VI) is reduced to lower valent state upon further lithium intercalation ($1{\leq}X{\leq}2$), where no crystal symmetry transformation and reduction of Fe(II) to lower valent state are observed. The Mo 3d spectrum for $Li_2FeMoO_4Cl$ appears as a complex shape, but can be deconvoluted into the three sets of the doublet on the basis of Gaussian function, those which correspond to Mo(VI), Mo(V) and Mo(IV) states, respectively. The mixed valent states of molybdenum after further lithiation may be due to a competitive reaction between the formation of Mo(V) and its disproportionation to Mo(IV) and Mo(VI).

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.58-66
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• 1998

Purpose : This paper introduces a new three dimensional magnetic Resonance Image classification which is based on Mar kov Random Field-Gibbs Random Field with a line model. Material and Methods : The performance of the Gibbs Classifier over a statistically heterogeneous image can be improved if the local stationary regions in the image are disassociated from each other through the mechanism of the interaction parameters defined at the local neighborhood level. This usually involves the construction of a line model for the image. In this paper we construct a line model for multisignature images based on the differential of the image which can provide an a priori estimate of the unobservable line field, which may lie in regions with significantly different statistics. the line model estimated from the original image data can in turn be used to alter the values of the interaction parameters of the Gibbs Classifier. Results : MRF-Gibbs classifier for volumetric MR images is developed under the condition that the domain of the image classification is $E^{3}$ space rather thatn the conventional $E^{2}$ space. Compared to context free classification, MRF-Gibbs classifier performed better in homogeneous and along boundaries since contextual information is used during the classification. Conclusion : We construct a line model for multisignature, multidimensional image and derive the interaction parameter for determining the energy function of MRF-Gibbs classifier.

• The Korean Journal of Zoology
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.352-361
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• 1996

The c-myc proto-onco9ene, one of the immediately early genes, is involved in ceflular proliferation and differentiation, and its biologleal function is regulated hy dimerization with a heterodimeric partner, myn. In the present study, gene expression patterns of c-myc and myn during mouse preimplantation embryo development were examined using a semi-quantitative reverse transcription-poiymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Myn transcripts were rather constitutively expressed throughout embryonic stages with a slight increase only at biastocyst stage. in contrast, expression of c-myc transcripts wm developmental stage-'pedfic. The c-myc transcripts were detected at 1-cell stage, declined abruptly at 2-cell stage and then increased gradually at blastocyst stage. To examine the possible role of myn during preimpiantation mouse embryo development, two myn antisense oligonucleotides spanning the tail of zipper dognain (myn2; 20-mer) and the second helix domain (myn3; 20-mer) were microinjected into the fertilized 1-cellembryos. Microinjection of myn2 and myn3 resulted in developmental tion at morula/biastocyst transition stage, leading to the fiagentation of embryos. Talien together, these results suggest that c-myc and its heterodimeric partner, myn, are differentially expressed In a developmental stage-dependent manner, and myn may play an important role in mouse preimpiantation embryo development.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.315-321
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• 2012

In this study, a sequential multiscale homogenization method to characterize the effective thermal conductivity of nano particulate polymer nanocomposites is proposed through a molecular dynamics(MD) simulations and a finite element-based homogenization method. The thermal conductivity of the nanocomposites embedding different-sized nanoparticles at a fixed volume fraction of 5.8% are obtained from MD simulations. Due to the Kapitza thermal resistance, the thermal conductivity of the nanocomposites decreases as the size of the embedded nanoparticle decreases. In order to describe the nanoparticle size effect using the homogenization method with accuracy, the Kapitza interface in which the temperature discontinuity condition appears and the effective interphase zone formed by highly densified matrix polymer are modeled as independent phases that constitutes the nanocomposites microstructure, thus, the overall nanocomposites domain is modeled as a four-phase structure consists of the nanoparticle, Kapitza interface, effective interphase, and polymer matrix. The thermal conductivity of the effective interphase is inversely predicted from the thermal conductivity of the nanocomposites through the multiscale homogenization method, then, exponentially fitted to a function of the particle radius. Using the multiscale homogenization method, the thermal conductivities of the nanocomposites at various particle radii and volume fractions are obtained, and parametric studies are conducted to examine the effect of the effective interphase on the overall thermal conductivity of the nanocomposites.

• Journal of the Korea Computer Graphics Society
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.1-10
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• 2010

In this paper, we propose a novel noiseless method of BRDF rendering on a GPU in real-time. Illumination at a surface point is formulated as an integral of BRDF producted with incident radiance over the hemi-sphere domain. The most popular method to compute the integral is the Monte Carlo method, which needs a large number of samples to achieve good image quality. But, it leads to increase of rendering time. Otherwise, a small number of sample points cause serious image noise. The main contribution of our work is a new importance sampling scheme producing a set of incoming ray samples varying continuously with respect to the eye ray. An incoming ray is importance-based sampled at different latitude angles of the eye ray, and then the ray samples are linearly connected to form a curve, called a thread. These threads give continuously moving incident rays for eye ray change, so they do not make image noise. Since even a small number of threads can achieve a plausible quality and also can be precomputed before rendering, they enable real-time BRDF rendering on the GPU.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.16 no.4 s.95
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• pp.380-388
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• 2005

This paper presents analysis results of the effects of RF filter characteristics on the system performance of impulse radio. The impulse radio system transmits modulated pulses having very short time duration and information can be extracted in receiver side based on cross-correlation between received and transmitted pulses. Accordingly, the pulse distortion due to in-band group delay variation can cause serious system performance degradation. In general, RF bandpass filters inevitably cause group delay difference to the signal passing through the filter which is proportional to its skirt characteristic due to its resonance phenomenon. For time as well as frequency domain analysis, small signal scattering parameter $S_{21}$ and its Fourier transform are used to characterize output pulse waveform under the condition that the input and output ports are matched. The output pulse waveform of the filter is predicted based on convolution integral between input pulse and filter transfer function, and resulting BER performances in the BPM and PPM based impulse radio system are calculated.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.699-712
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• 1996

Field scale experiments using an automated 144-channel TDR system were conducted which monitored the movement of solute through unsaturated loamy soils. The experiments were carried out on two different field plots of 0.54 ha to study the vertical movement of solute plume created by applying a square pulse of $CaCl_2$ as a tracer. The residence concentration was monitored at 24 locations on a transect and 5 depths per location by horizontally-positioning 50 cm long triple wire TDR probes to study the heterogeneity of solute travel times and the governing transport concept at field scale. This paper describes details of experimental methodology and calibration aspects of the TDR system. Three different calibration methods for estimation of solute concentration from TDR-measured bulk soil electrical conductivity were used for each field site. Data analysis of mean breakthrough curves (BTCs) and parameters estimated using the convection-dispersion model (CDE) and the convective-lognormal transfer function model (CLT) reveals that the automated TDR system is a viable technique to study the field scale solute transport providing a normal distribution of resident concentration in a high resolution of time series, and that calibration method does not significantly affect both the shape of BTC and the parameters related to the peak travel time. Among the calibration methods, the simple linear model (SLM), a modified version of Rhoades' model, appears to be promising in the calibration of horizontally-positioned TDR probes at field condition.