• Title/Summary/Keyword: Harsh environments

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Immunological Characterization and Localization of the Alcohol-dehydrogenase in Streptococcus pneumoniae (폐렴구균 알코올탈수소효소의 세포 특이성 및 세포내 분포)

  • 권혁영;박연진;표석능;이동권
    • Korean Journal of Microbiology
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    • v.37 no.3
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    • pp.221-227
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    • 2001
  • Heat shock proteins serve as chaperone by preventing the aggregation of denatured proteins and promote survival of pathogens in harsh environments. In bacteria, ethanol shock induced the major chaperone GroEL and DnaK, but in Streptococcus pneumoniae, it induced neither GroEL nor DnaK but alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH). In this study, ADH gene encoding a 104-kDa (p104) protein was identified and characterized. The deduced amino acid sequence of pneumococcal ADH shows homology with other members of the ADH family, and particularly with Entamoeba histolytica ADH2 and E. coli ADH. S. pneumoniae adh is composed of 883 amino acids and its estimated isoelectric point is 6.09. Although ADH is conserved between S. pneumoniae and E. coli, immunoblot analysis employing antisera raised against pneumococcus ADH demonstrated no cross-reactivity with ADH analog in Eschericha coli, Staphylococcus aureus and human HeLa cells. Also secretion of ADH was demonstrated by subcellular fractionation and immunoblot analysis of proteins. These results suggest that S. pneumoniae ADH could be a highly feasible candidate for both diagnostic marker and vaccine.

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How do Citrus Crops Cope with Aluminum Toxicity?

  • Arunakumara, K.K.I.U.;Walpola, Buddhi Charana;Yoon, Min-Ho
    • Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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    • v.45 no.6
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    • pp.928-935
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    • 2012
  • World Agriculture faces daunting challenges in feeding the growing population today. Reduction in arable land extent due to numerous reasons threatens achievement of food and nutritional security. Under this back ground, agricultural use of acidic soils, which account for approximately 40 % of the world arable lands is of utmost important. However, due to aluminum (Al) toxicity and low available phosphorous (P) content, crop production in acidic soils is restricted. Citrus, in this context, gains worldwide recognition as a crop adapted to harsh environments. The present paper reviewed Al toxicity and possible toxicity alleviation tactics in citrus. As reported for many other crops, inhibition of root elongation, photosynthesis and growth is experienced in citrus also due to Al toxicity. Focusing at toxicity alleviation, interaction between boron (B) and Al as well as phosphorus and Al has been discussed intensively. Al toxicity in citrus could be alleviated by P through increasing immobilization of Al in roots and P level in shoots rather than through increasing organic acid secretion, which has been widely reported in other crops. Boron-induced changes in Al speciation and/or sub-cellular compartmentation has also been suggested in amelioration of root inhibition in citrus. Despite the species-dependent manner of response to Al toxicity, many commercially important citrus species can be grown successfully in acidic soils, provided toxicity alleviation Agro-biological tactics such as addition of phosphorous fertilizers are used properly.

Development of a GPS Receiver System for Satellite Launch Vehicles (위성발사체용 GPS 수신기 시스템의 개발)

  • Kwon, Byung-Moon;Moon, Ji-Hyeon;Shin, Yong-Sul;Choi, Hyung-Don;Cho, Gwang-Rae
    • Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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    • v.36 no.9
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    • pp.929-937
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    • 2008
  • A GPS receiver system utilized on satellite launch vehicles should operate normally under harsh environments as well as high-dynamic conditions. The GPS receiver system to use for range safety of KSLV(Korea Space Launch Vehicle)-I that is the first satellite launch vehicle developed by KARI(Korea Aerospace Research Institute) has been confirmed to survive under the environment of the launcher through extensive terrestrial tests including humidity, high and low temperatures, vacuum, sinusoidal and random vibrations, shocks, acceleration, EMI/EMC(Electromagnetic Interference/ Electromagnetic Compatibility), etc. Several performance tests have been also carried out in order to evaluate tracking capability and accuracy of the GPS receiver under high-dynamic conditions using a GPS signal simulator. Some lessons-learned during development of the GPS receiver system and its special characteristics compared with COTS(Commercial-Off-The-Shelf) GPS receiver systems are described in this paper.

A Study on Some Problems and the Need for Reform of the Rule of Warranty in English Law of Marine Insurance (영국 해상보험법 상 담보법원칙의 문제점 및 개혁 필요성)

  • Shin, Gun-Hoon
    • THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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    • v.43
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    • pp.239-273
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    • 2009
  • Marine insurance contracts, which intended to provide indemnity against marine risks upon the payment of a premium, originated in Northern Italy in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. The law and practice of Italian merchants were later introduced into England through Lombard merchants. It is, therefore, quite exact that English and Continental marine insurance law have common root. Nevertheless, some significant divergences between English and Continental marine insurance systems occurred since the late 17th century, mainly due to different approaches adopted by English courts. The rule of warranty in English marine insurance was established in the second part of the 18th century by Lord Mansfield, who laid the foundations of the modern English law of marine insurance and developed different approaches, especially in the field of warranty in marine insurance law. Since the age of Lord Mansfield, English marine insurance law has developed a unique rule on warranty. Bearing in mind the realities of the 18th century, it could easily be understood why Lord Mansfield afforded such a strict legal character to marine warranties. At that time, the 'promise' given by the assured, played an important role for the insurer to assess the scope of the risk. Legal environments, however, have changed dramatically since the times of Lord Mansfield. Of course, it is still important that the assured keep his promises to the insurer under the insurance contract, which is based upon utmost good faith. Nevertheless, the remedy of automatic discharge from liability, regardless of existence of a casual link between the breach and loss seems harsh in the realities of the 21st century. After examining the warranty regime adopted by the German and Norwegian hull clauses, it is fair to say that they provide a more equitable approaches for the assured than does English law. Therefore, this article suggests that English warranty regime needs overall reform and it is time to reform.

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Sliding Mode Control Based on 3-Loop of a Pneumatic Motor (공압모터의 3-루프 기반 슬라이딩 모드 제어)

  • Kim, Geun-Mook
    • Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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    • v.15 no.11
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    • pp.6446-6451
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    • 2014
  • Pneumatic motors are quite attractive for many applications because of their competitive price, light-weight, easy assembly, safety in hazardous areas as well as other features, such as a good force/weight ratio and operation in exceptionally harsh environments. In contrast to these advantages, pneumatic motors have limited use in applications, particularly those requiring a fast and precise response. These undesirable characteristics are due to the high compressibility of air and from the nonlinearities in pneumatic systems. This paper presents the sliding mode controller based on 3-loop(SMCB3L), which increases the load stiffness to control the rotation angle of a pneumatic motor. The characteristics for the step responses and load disturbances of the proposed controller were compared with the conventional PID controller. The experimental results showed that a properly designed SMCB3L is capable of high positioning accuracy within ${\pm}0.05mm$. Furthermore, the load stiffness of the SMCB3L can be improved 3.5 fold compared to that of PID controllers.

Corrosion Fatigue Crack Propagation Behaviour of TMCP Steel Plate at Ballast Tank of Ship Structure under the Condition of Cathodic Overprotection (선체구조 Ballast Tank 고장력 TMCP강판의 과방식중 부식피로균열 전파거동)

  • Kim, Won-Beom
    • Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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    • v.13 no.6
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    • pp.2465-2471
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    • 2012
  • For the steel structures those are used in harsh sea environments, corrosion fatigue is a challenging issue in connection with design life. In this research, in order to investigate the influence of cathodic overprotection on the corrosion fatigue crack propagation behavior, corrosion fatigue crack propagation test under the condition of -950mV vs SCE was conducted by using of high tensile TMCP steel plate and the relationships between da/dN-${\Delta}K$ were obtained. At this test, when ${\Delta}K$ is low, the crack propagation rates were accelerated compared to those of seawater condition, however, when ${\Delta}K$ is high, the crack propagation rates were lower than those of seawater condition. As the cause for the acceleration and deceleration of corrosion fatigue crack propagation rates under the condition of cathodic overprotection, the role of hydrogen and calcareous deposits are discussed.

On the Handling of Node Failures: Energy-Efficient Job Allocation Algorithm for Real-time Sensor Networks

  • Karimi, Hamid;Kargahi, Mehdi;Yazdani, Nasser
    • Journal of Information Processing Systems
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    • v.6 no.3
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    • pp.413-434
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    • 2010
  • Wireless sensor networks are usually characterized by dense deployment of energy constrained nodes. Due to the usage of a large number of sensor nodes in uncontrolled hostile or harsh environments, node failure is a common event in these systems. Another common reason for node failure is the exhaustion of their energy resources and node inactivation. Such failures can have adverse effects on the quality of the real-time services in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). To avoid such degradations, it is necessary that the failures be recovered in a proper manner to sustain network operation. In this paper we present a dynamic Energy efficient Real-Time Job Allocation (ERTJA) algorithm for handling node failures in a cluster of sensor nodes with the consideration of communication energy and time overheads besides the nodes' characteristics. ERTJA relies on the computation power of cluster members for handling a node failure. It also tries to minimize the energy consumption of the cluster by minimum activation of the sleeping nodes. The resulting system can then guarantee the Quality of Service (QoS) of the cluster application. Further, when the number of sleeping nodes is limited, the proposed algorithm uses the idle times of the active nodes to engage a graceful QoS degradation in the cluster. Simulation results show significant performance improvements of ERTJA in terms of the energy conservation and the probability of meeting deadlines compared with the other studied algorithms.

Improved Image Restoration Algorithm about Vehicle Camera for Corresponding of Harsh Conditions (가혹한 조건에 대응하기 위한 차량용 카메라의 개선된 영상복원 알고리즘)

  • Jang, Young-Min;Cho, Sang-Bock;Lee, Jong-Hwa
    • Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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    • v.51 no.2
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    • pp.114-123
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    • 2014
  • Vehicle Black Box (Event Data Recorder EDR) only recognizes the general surrounding environments of load. In addition, general EDR is difficult to recognize the images of a sudden illumination change. It appears that the lens is being a severe distortion. Therefore, general EDR does not provide the clues of the circumstances of the accident. To solve this problem, we estimate the value of Normalized Luminance Descriptor(NLD) and Normalized Contrast Descriptor(NCD). Illumination change is corrected using Normalized Image Quality(NIQ). Second, we are corrected lens distortion using model of Field Of View(FOV) based on designed method of fisheye lens. As a result, we propose integration algorithm of two methods that correct distortions of images using each Gamma Correction and Lens Correction in parallel.

Biotechnological Potential of Korean Marine Microalgal Strains and Its Future Prospectives

  • Hong, Ji Won;Kang, Nam Seon;Jang, Hyeong Seok;Kim, Hyung June;An, Yong Rock;Yoon, Moongeun;Kim, Hyung Seop
    • Ocean and Polar Research
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    • v.41 no.4
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    • pp.289-309
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    • 2019
  • Marine microalgae have long been used as food additives and feeds for juvenile fish and invertebrates as their nutritional content is beneficial for humans and marine aquaculture species. Recently, they have also been recognized as a promising source for cosmeceutical, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical products as well as biofuels. Marine microalgae of various species are rich in multiple anti-oxidant phytochemicals and their bioactive components have been employed in cosmetics and dietary supplements. Oil contents in certain groups of marine microalgae are extraordinarily rich and abundant and therefore have been commercialized as omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acid supplements and mass production of microalgae-based biodiesels has been demonstrated by diverse research groups. Numerous natural products from marine microalgae with significant biological activities are reported yearly and this is attributed to their unique adaptive abilities to the great diversity of marine habitats and harsh conditions of marine environments. Previously unknown toxin compounds from red tide-forming dinoflagellates have also been identified which opens up potential applications in the blue biotechnology sector. This review paper provides a brief overview of the biotechnological potentials of Korean marine microalgae. We hope that this review will provide guidance for future marine biotechnology R&D strategies and the various marine microalgae-based industries in Korea.

Numerical Simulation of a Gun-launched Projectile Considering Rifled-gun Tube (포신의 강선을 고려한 포 발사 해석)

  • Joo, Geunsu;Huh, Hoon;Jung, Yeong Hyuk;Kim, Ju Yeong;Seo, Songwon
    • Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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    • v.41 no.9
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    • pp.877-885
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    • 2017
  • This paper is concerned with numerical simulation of a gun-launched projectile considering a rifled gun-tube. Gun-launched conditions induce dynamic behaviors, such as high pressure and high speed rotation. A projectile and its internal electronic components may be damaged in such harsh environments. Hence, it is necessary to perform numerical simulation of a gun-launched projectile to predict its dynamic behaviors and stability. In this work, preceding research studies on gun-launched projectiles are investigated, and the simulation method is developed to rotate the projectile through between its rotating band and a rifled-gun tube. The proposed method is verified by comparison with experimental results, and the dynamic behaviors and stability of the projectile are evaluated under gun-launched conditions.