• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.348-358
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• 2007

Metallothionein, a cysteine-rich stress response protein that is naturally induced by a variety of immunologic stressors, has been shown to suppress autoimmune disorders through mechanisms not yet fully defined. In the present study, we examined the underlying mechanisms by which metallothionein might mediate such regulation of autoimmunity. $Na\ddot{i}ve\;CD4^+$ T cells from metallothionein-deficient mice differentiated to produce significantly less IL-10, $TGF-{\gamma}$, and repressor of GATA, but more $IFN-{\gamma}$ and T-bet, when compared with those from wild-type mice. The levels of IL-4 and GATA-3 production were not different between the two groups of mice. Conversely, treatment with exogenous metallothionein during the priming phase drove $na\ddot{i}ve$ wild-type $CD4^+\;T$ cells to differentiate into cells producing more IL-10 and $TGF-{\beta}$, but less $IFN-{\gamma}$ than untreated cells. Metallothionein-primed cells were hyporesponsive to restimulation, and suppressive to T cell proliferation in an IL-10-dependent manner. Lymphocytes from metallothionein-deficient mice displayed significantly elevated levels of AP-1 and JNK activities in response to stimulation compared with those from wild-type controls. Importantly, transgenic mice overexpressing metallothionein exhibited significantly reduced susceptibility to collagen-induced arthritis and enhanced IL-10 level in the serum, relative to their nontransgenic littermates. Taken together, these data suggest that metallothionein is able to promote the generation of IL-10-and $TGF-{\beta}$-producing type 1 regulatory T-like cells by downregulating JNK-dependent AP-1 activity. Thus, metallothionein may play an important role in the regulation of Th1-dependent autoimmune arthritis, and may represent both a potential target for therapeutic manipulation and a critical element in the diagnostic assessment of disease potential.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.990-999
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• 2012

The microbial biosynthesis of fatty acid of lipid metabolism, which can be used as precursors for the production of fuels of chemicals from renewable carbon sources, has attracted significant attention in recent years. The regulation of fatty acid biosynthesis pathways has been mainly studied in a model prokaryote, Escherichia coli. During the recent period, global regulation of fatty acid metabolic pathways has been demonstrated in another model prokaryote, Bacillus subtilis, as well as in Streptococcus pneumonia. The goal of this study was to increase the production of long-chain fatty acids by developing recombinant E. coli strains that were improved by an elongation cycle of fatty acid synthesis (FAS). The fabB, fabG, fabZ, and fabI genes, all homologous of E. coli, were induced to improve the enzymatic activities for the purpose of overexpressing components of the elongation cycle in the FAS pathway through metabolic engineering. The ${\beta}$-oxoacyl-ACP synthase enzyme catalyzed the addition of acyl-ACP to malonyl-ACP to generate ${\beta}$-oxoacyl-ACP. The enzyme encoded by the fabG gene converted ${\beta}$-oxoacyl-ACP to ${\beta}$-hydroxyacyl-ACP, the fabZ catalyzed the dehydration of ${\beta}$-3-hydroxyacyl-ACP to trans-2-acyl-ACP, and the fabI gene converted trans-2-acyl-ACP to acyl-ACP for long-chain fatty acids. In vivo productivity of total lipids and fatty acids was analyzed to confirm the changes and effects of the inserted genes in E. coli. As a result, lipid was increased 2.16-fold higher and hexadecanoic acid was produced 2.77-fold higher in E. coli JES1030, one of the developed recombinants through this study, than those from the wild-type E. coli.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.897-900
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• 2008

Various sequences of pH change were applied in a batch bioreactor to investigate pH shock effects on geldanamycin production by Streptomyces hygroscopicus subsp. duamyceticus JCM4427. In the control culture where the pH was not controlled, the maximum geldanamycin concentration was 414 mg/l. With the pHS1 mode of pH shock, that is, an abrupt pH change from pH 6.5 to pH 5.0 and then being maintained at around pH 5.0 afterward, 768 mg/l of geldanamycin was produced. With pHS2, in which the pH was changed sequentially from pH 6.7 to pH 5.0 and then back to pH 6.0, 429 mg/l of geldanamycin was produced. With pHS3 having a sequential pH change from pH 6.0 to pH 4.0 and then back to pH 6.5 followed by the third pH shock to pH 5.5, no geldanamycin production was observed. Considering that the productivity with pHS1 was about two-fold of that of the control culture with no pH control, we concluded that a more sophisticated manipulation of pH would further promote geldanamycin production.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.440-445
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• 2000

The techniques for manipulation of various micro-tools were essential for particle isolation and chemical analysis of micro-size particles. This report described the detailed techniques for the preparation and handling of several micro-tools. Presence of uranium particles in smeared filter paper were identified by using the solid track detector. The uranium particles were isolated using the micro-tools under the stereomicroscope and then transferred to the filament of TIMS for the determination of isotope ratios.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.247-251
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• 2009

To estimate the effect of rainfall on soil respiration, soil $CO_2$ efflux was measured with a manipulation of rainfall interception at a broad-leaved deciduous forest in western Japan from 20 February to 19 November 2001. The diurnal patterns of soil respiration observed at the intercepted subplot ($F_c$) were quite similar to those of soil temperature at 0.2 m depth with a maximum around midnight and a minimum from noon to early afternoon. Such diurnal patterns have not been observed in the previous studies at the same study site under natural conditions (which manifested no clear diurnal variations). Furthermore, the magnitudes of $F_c$ showed substantial differences (e.g., ~50% reduction under water-limited conditions) compared to those of the potential soil respiration under natural conditions ($F_{cal}$). These findings demonstrate that rainfall events not only affected the magnitude of soil $CO_2$ efflux but also modified the vertical structure of soil temperature, thereby altering diurnal patterns of soil respiration.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.41-46
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• 2011

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the causes of accidents related to the 3 phase 170 kV gas insulated switchgear of a power system collected from accident sites to secure data for the prevention of similar accidents and provide important points of view regarding diagnosis for the prevention of accidents involving gas insulated switchgears. The analysis results of the causes of accidents involving gas insulated switchgears showed deformation of the manipulation lever installed at the S-phase, disconnection of the insulation rod connection, melting of the upper conductor, a damaged tulip, damage to the lower spacer and the spacer at the breaker, etc. It is believed from this result that the potential for accidents has expanded due to accumulated energy as a result of repeated deterioration. The carbonization depth of a GIS was formed near the screw (T2, T3) used to secure the lower pole of the S-phase tulip. It is not known what has caused the screws to be extruded and melted. However, it is thought that an unbalanced electromagnetic force, micro-discharge, surface discharge, etc., have occurred at that point. In addition, even though 16 years have passed since its installation, there was no installation defect, act of arson, accidental fire, etc. General periodical inspection and diagnosis failed to find the factors causing the accidents. As a system contained in a closed metal container, it has a high risk factor. Therefore, it is necessary to design, install and operate a GIS in accordance with the standard operational procedure (SOP). In addition, it is necessary to apply conversion technology for periodical SF6 gas analysis and precision safety diagnosis. It is expected that tracking and managing these changes in characteristics by recording the results on the history card will provide a significant accident prevention effect.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.1239-1244
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• 2013

In the field of clinical medicine and research, the analysis of such as protein and DNA at the molecular level and even at the cell level are necessary for disease diagnosis and treatment. In many cases, a real time image of samples is needed for the accurate analysis and manipulation of samples since experimental samples are degenerated with time. In this research, a three-dimensional fluorescence microscope device was developed for taking images of protein and DNA inside a single cell and the server-client based image analysis system was made for an integrated management of the real-time images taken from the microscope device. The system consists of a fluorescent measurement device, the associated software and a client program on smartphone. The developed system allows doctors or experimental managers to receive and look at the real-time experimental images taken from the samples of patients anywhere in the emergency, to analyze results and to instantly diagnose the disease and to transfer the results to the patients. As a result, the system is able to be utilized in the implementation of ubiquitous health as well.

• Journal of KIISE:Computing Practices and Letters
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.226-230
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• 2007

In the conventional desktop PC environment, keyboard and mouse are used to process the user input and monitor displays the visual information as an output device. In order to manipulate the digital information, we move the virtual cursor to select the desired graphical icon on the monitor The cursor represents the relative motion of the physical mouse on the desk. This desktop metaphor does not provide intuitive interface through human sensation. In this paper, we introduce a novel tangible interface which allows the user to interact with computers using a physical tool called "Smartpuck". SmartPuck system bridges the gap between analog perception and response in human being and digital information on the computer. The system consists of table display based on a PDP, SmartPuck equipped with rotational part and button for the user's intuitive and tactile input, and a sensing system to track the position of SmartPuck. Finally, we will show examples working with the system.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.10 no.8
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• pp.1970-1976
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• 2009

It is more emphasized on the software architecture recently, as the scale of a software becomes huge and the need of the software management becomes more dynamic. Software architecture is a representation of structures of software framework just like the blueprint of building architecture. In order to describe software components and their relationships accurately and entirely, software architecture is documented in some different views, by using of modeling tools. UML(Unified Modeling Language) is a software modeling tool recently used for documentation of software and as well as software architecture. Nevertheless, what we have to agree with is that UML is not easy to use and its standard changed continuously. And also the documentation with UML is found some burden because of its difficulties in learning and using. This inconvenience enforces us to purchase and use commercial tool for UML. The study introduces the architecture views refined from 4+1 Views for architecture design and shows how to represent architecture views for software architecture. Especially, we simplifies UML diagrams for the purpose of focusing on architecture views and facile manipulation. At the end, we add the evaluation on the refined architecture views as well as refined UML diagram.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartA
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• v.16A no.2
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• pp.89-100
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• 2009

With the advance in digital technologies and the increasing prevalence of high quality multimedia contents, there is a growing user demand for multimedia devices, such as mobile phones, digital TV, PMP, digital camcoders, digital cameras. Such devices provide various services associated with multimedia file manipulation, including multimedia contents playback, multimedia file editing, etc. Conventional file systems exhibit a performance-related drawback that requires considerable amount of time and disk I/Os in order to store large-sized edited multimedia files. This paper proposes a fast, efficient writing technique for large-sized edited multimedia files by using data block sharing with adjustment of inode block pointers. Our experiments show that the proposed scheme not only improves write performance of the Ext3 file system on average by 16 times with various types of edited multimedia files, but also reduces consumed disk space dramatically through the data block sharing.