• BMB Reports
• /
• v.46 no.7
• /
• pp.364-369
• /
• 2013

Endothelin-1 (ET-1) plays an indispensable role in epidermal pigmentation in hyperpigmentary disorders due to a central role in melanogenesis. Nevertheless, precise mechanism involved in ET-1-induced hyperpigmentation is still undefined. Glycoprotein (transmembrane) non-metastatic melanoma protein b (GPNMB) is a key element in melanosome formation. Therefore, we speculated that GPNMB was correlated with ET-1-induced pigmentation. After culturing with ET-1, melanin synthesis was significantly up-regulated, accompanying with increased expression of GPNMB and microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF). Total number of melanosomes and melanin synthesis were sharply reduced via GPNMB-siRNA transfection, indicating ET-1-induced pigmentation by GPNMB-dependent manner. Furthermore, MITF-siRNA transfection strikingly inhibited GPNMB expression and the melanogenesis, and this suppression failed to be alleviated by ET-1 stimulation. All of these results demonstrated that ET-1 can trigger melanogenesis via the MITF-regulated GPNMB pathway. Taken together, these findings will provide a new explanation of how ET-1 induces hyperpigmentation, and possibly supply a new strategy for cosmetic studies.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.886-893
• /
• 2018

U.S. and the allies attacked chemical weapons sites in Syria in 2018, and verbal battles are carried out about the effectiveness of the air strike. Syria claimed 13 missiles were shot down, and Russia claimed 71 missiles were shot down while the U.S. released pictures of completely destroyed targets, only. It led controversy about the effectiveness of missile defense system. If there is a method to observe mission success rate of the air strike, it can not only improve combat awareness but also can be a good sales strategy in military industry. This paper describes effects and considerations of a Weapon Data Link(WDL) technology which can be used as a smoking gun of effectiveness. The paper describes WDL abilities such as In-Flight Track Update, Loiter, and Bomb Hit Indication etc., and presents examples of expected effectiveness of the WDL. In addition, this paper briefly summarizes operational consideration for better performance.

• Strategy21
• /
• s.31
• /
• pp.57-84
• /
• 2013

North Korea's continuous threats and provocative behaviors have aggravated tension on the Korean peninsula particularly with the recent nuclear weapons test. South Korea's best way to cope with this situation is to maintain the balance among three policy directions: dialogue, sanctions, and deterrence. Among the three, I argue that deterrence should be prioritized. There are different sources of deterrence such as military power, economic power, and diplomatic clouts. States can build deterrence capability independently. Alternatively, they may do so through relations with other states including alliances, bilateral relations, or multilateral relations in the international community. What South Korea needs most urgently is to maintain deterrence against North Korea's local provocations through the enhancement of independent military capability particularly by addressing the asymmetric vulnerability between militaries of the South and the North. Most of all, the South Korean government should recognize the seriousness of the negative consequences that North Korea's 'Nuclear shadow strategy' would bring about for the inter-Korea relations and security situations in Northeast Asia. Based on this understanding, it should develop an 'assertive deterrence strategy' that emphasizes 'multi-purpose, multi-stage, and tailored deterrence whose main idea lies in punitive retaliation.' This deterrence strategy requires a flexible targeting policy and a variety of retaliatory measures capable of taking out all targets in North Korea. At the same time, the force structures of the army, the air force, and the navy should be improved in a way that maximizes their deterrence capability. For example, the army should work on expanding the guided missile command and the special forces command and reforming the reserve forces. The navy and the air force should increase striking capabilities including air-to-ground, ship-to-ground, and submarine-to-ground strikes to a great extent. The marine corps can enhance its deterrence capability by changing the force structure from the stationary defense-oriented one that would have to suffer some degree of troop attrition at the early stage of hostilities to the one that focuses on 'counteroffensive landing operations.' The government should continue efforts for defense reform in order to obtain these capabilities while building the 'Korean-style triad system' that consists of advanced air, ground, and surface/ subsurface weapon systems. Besides these measures, South Korea should start to acquire a minimum level of nuclear potential within the legal boundary that the international law defines. For this, South Korea should withdraw from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. Moreover, it should obtain the right to process and enrich uranium through changing the U.S.-South Korea nuclear cooperation treaty. Whether or not we should be armed with nuclear weapons should not be understood in terms of "all or nothing." We should consider an 'in-between' option as the Japanese case proves. With regard to the wartime OPCON transition, we need to re-consider the timing of the transition as an effort to demonstrate the costliness of North Korea's provocative behaviors. If impossible, South Korea should take measures to make the Strategic Alliance 2015 serve as a persisting deterrence system against North Korea. As the last point, all the following governments of South Korea should keep in mind that continuing reconciliatory efforts should always be pursued along with other security policies toward North Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.8-16
• /
• 2014

Heating and hot water supply energy consumption of medium and multi boiler systems applied to military officer housing are compared with in-situ experiment and TRNSYS dynamic simulation program. In a multiple boiler system, small capacity boilers are connected in parallel to meet the required capacity. For handling partial loads, medium capacity boiler relies on on-off control, while multi boiler adopts PI control. Since multi boiler has higher efficiency and better control strategy, the results show that energy consumption can be reduced significantly with the multi boiler system.

• Biomedical Science Letters
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.447-453
• /
• 2005

A total of 108 strains of MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) clinical isolates was collected from $121^{st}$ general hospital (U.S. military hospital), Korean healthcare facility from January to March in 2005 and Wonju Christian hospital in 1999. Antimicrobial susceptibility test by Vitek System and MIC test using oxacillin and cephalothin stripes by E-test were executed. PCR based detection of mecA gene was performed on the all of MRSA clinical isolates, too. MRSA clinical isolates were characterized with antimicrobial resistance patterns, PCR based detection of mecA gene and validation of the multiplex PCR strategy of SCCmec among clinical isolates.

• Journal of the military operations research society of Korea
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.147-159
• /
• 1989

This paper presents a formalized methodology for conducting cost-effectiveness analysis on the ROK Navy's maritime patrol aircraft. The methodology involves a Delphi method application for determining the group of appraisal variables as well as their weight values in the area of aircraft effectiveness analysis, Life-cycle costing was employed to produce cost in terms of present worth values of all costs that occur over the common 20-year life cycle. A wide range of experts was selected so that their opinions could be effectively collected and synthesized to form the framework of the effectiveness model. Such a model development strategy provides easy acceptance of the analysis result and assure fairness of the analysis.

• Journal of the military operations research society of Korea
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.107-121
• /
• 2005

In this study, a new fictitious play (FP) procedure is presented to solve two-person zero-sum (TPZS) Blotto games. The FP solution procedure solves TPZS games by assuming that the two players take turns selecting optimal responses to the opponent's strategy observed so far. It is known that FP converges to an optimal solution, and it may be the only realistic approach to solve large games. The algorithm uses dynamic programming (DP) to solve FP subproblems. Efficiency is obtained by limiting the growth of the DP state space. Blotto games are frequently used to solve simple missile defense problems. While it may be unlikely that the models presented in this paper can be used directly to solve realistic offense and defense problems, it is hoped that they will provide insight into the basic structure of optimal and near-optimal solutions to these important, large games, and provide a foundation for solution of more realistic, and more complex, problem

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.33-42
• /
• 2008

Many advanced countries including the U.S. consider defense standardization as a critical task for the efficient acquisition and effective operation of weapon systems and have implemented the appropriate standardization policy by synchronizing the defense acquisition strategies and nation standardization policy with defense standardization. It is required to develop the long-term defense standardization policy that can cope with the future domestic and international defense environmental changes. Therefore, it is an inevitable task to investigate the standardization trends and strategy in the domestic and international perspectives. The study aims to provide the vision of defense standardization policy, act/regulation, organization/personnel, education/training and information system.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
• /
• v.9 no.1 s.24
• /
• pp.80-88
• /
• 2006

The purpose of this thesis is to research and propose a practical Information Security Technical Architecture on Primary Defense Information Infrastructure with regard to requirement of information security. The scope of this research is limited to national defense information master plan & security rule, and U.S. DoD's IATF is used to plan a detailed structure. The result of this research can be used as a guide book for providing security for Army IT infrastructure now and in the future as well as to devise a plan for research and development in information protection technology.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.569-576
• /
• 2014

There were overwhelming high-frequency electromagnetic noises in 200kW-class hybrid electric vehicle(HEV) although EMC control strategy had been applied to cope with the electromagnetic noises during the development of HEV. This paper investigates the characteristics of the conducted and radiated emission noises, the source and path of noises, and the effects of EMI on the electronics. Finally the design concept of noise control is proposed.