• Title/Summary/Keyword: Molecular evolution

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Molecular Phylogeny and Divergence Time Estimation of the Soft Coral Dendronephthya gigantea (Alcyonacea: Nephtheidae)

  • Kim, Boa;Kong, So-Ra;Song, Jun-Im;Won, Yong-Jin
    • Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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    • v.24 no.3
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    • pp.327-332
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    • 2008
  • Soft coral Dendronephthya gigantea (Verrill, 1864) is a conspicuous species dominating shallow sea waters of Jejudo Island, Korea. Recently its whole mitochondrial genome sequencing was completed by us and the sequence information provided an opportunity to test the age of Octocorallia and time of evolutionary separation between some representative orders of the subclass Octocorallia. Molecular phylogenetic analyses based on 13 mitochondrial protein encoding genes revealed a polyphyletic relationship among octocorallians representing two orders (Alcyonacea and Gorgonacea) and four families (Alcyoniidae, Nephtheidae, Briareidae, and Gorgoniidae). Estimates of divergence times among octocorallians indicate that the first splitting might occur around end of or after Cretaceous period (50-79 million years ago (Ma)). The age is relatively young compared to the long history of stony sea corals (>240 Ma). Taken together our result suggests a possible relatively recent radiating evolution at least in the order Alcyonacea and Gorgonacea. Molecular dating and phylogenetic analysis based on much broader taxon sampling and many genes might give an insight into this interesting hypothesis.

Molecular gas and star formation in early-type galaxies

  • Bureau, Martin
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.36 no.2
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    • pp.65-65
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    • 2011
  • Early-type galaxies represent the end point of galaxy evolution and, despite pervasive residual star formation, are generally considered "red and dead", that is composed exclusively of old stars with no star formation. Here, their molecular gas content is constrained and discussed in relation to their evolution, supporting the continuing importance of minor mergers and/or cold gas accretion. First, as part of the Atlas3D survey, the first complete, large, volume-limited survey of CO in normal early-type galaxies is presented. At least of 23% of local early-types possess a substantial amount of molecular gas, the necessary ingredient for star formation, independent of mass and environment but dependent on the specific stellar angular momentum. Second, using CO synthesis imaging, the extent of the molecular gas is constrained and a variety of morphologies is revealed. The kinematics of the molecular gas and stars are often misaligned, implying an external gas origin in over a third of all systems, more than half in the field, while external gas accretion must be shot down in clusters. Third, many objects appear to be in the process of forming regular kpc-size decoupled disks, and a star formation sequence can be sketched by piecing together multi-wavelength information on the molecular gas, current star formation, and young stars. Fourth, early-type galaxies do not seem to systematically obey all our usual prejudices regarding star formation (e.g. Schmidt-Kennicutt law, far infrared-radio continuum correlation), suggesting a greater diversity in star formation processes than observed in disk galaxies and the possibility of "morphological quenching". Lastly, a first step toward constraining the physical properties of the molecular gas is taken, by modeling the line ratios of density- and opacity-sensitive molecules in a few objects. Taken together, these observations argue for the continuing importance of (minor) mergers and cold gas accretion in local early-types, and they provide a much greater understanding of the gas cycle in the galaxies harbouring most of the stellar mass. In the future, better dust masses and dust-to-gas mass ratios from Herschel should allow to place entirely independent constraints on the gas supply, while spatially-resolved high-density molecular gas tracers observed with ALMA will probe the interstellar medium and star formation laws locally in a regime entirely different from that normally probed in spiral galaxies.

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Hydrogen Evolution from Biomass-Derived Carbohydrates by Clostridia (Clostridia에 의한 Biomass 구성당으로부터의 수소생성)

  • Bae, Moo;Yi, Hye-Joo
    • Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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    • v.18 no.1
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    • pp.6-11
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    • 1990
  • Hydrogen evolution from biomass-derived carbohydrates by some Clostridia and optimal culture conditions for hydrogen evolution were investigated. Among the organisms tested, Clostridium butyricum was efficient hydrogen producer with starch, xylan, pectin, cellobiose and xylose. In batch fermentation of Cl. butyricum, optimal conditions for hydrogen evolution were achieved at pH 7.0-8.5, 10-50 mM phosphate, and 2% (w/v) glucose. Total amount of molecular hydrogen evolved by the organism slightly increased at the presence of acetate (<150 mM) or butyrate (<20 mM) in the initial fermentation medium. Especially, in case of more than the above concentration of butyrate, growth and hydrogen evolution were dramatically inhibited. In the conditions were described here, 70 mmole of molecular hydrogen per mg of DCW was produced with 1%(w/v) glucose by the organism.

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MULTISCALE MODELING OF RADIATION EFFECTS ON MATERIALS: PRESSURE VESSEL EMBRITTLEMENT

  • Kwon, Jun-Hyun;Lee, Gyeong-Geun;Shin, Chan-Sun
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.41 no.1
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    • pp.11-20
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    • 2009
  • Radiation effects on materials are inherently multiscale phenomena in view of the fact that various processes spanning a broad range of time and length scales are involved. A multiscale modeling approach to embrittlement of pressure vessel steels is presented here. The approach includes an investigation of the mechanisms of defect accumulation, microstructure evolution and the corresponding effects on mechanical properties. An understanding of these phenomena is required to predict the behavior of structural materials under irradiation. We used molecular dynamics (MD) simulations at an atomic scale to study the evolution of high-energy displacement cascade reactions. The MD simulations yield quantitative information on primary damage. Using a database of displacement cascades generated by the MD simulations, we can estimate the accumulation of defects over diffusional length and time scales by applying kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. The evolution of the local microstructure under irradiation is responsible for changes in the physical and mechanical properties of materials. Mechanical property changes in irradiated materials are modeled by dislocation dynamics simulations, which simulate a collective motion of dislocations that interact with the defects. In this paper, we present a multi scale modeling methodology that describes reactor pressure vessel embrittlement in a light water reactor environment.

Effects of neutron irradiation on densities and elastic properties of aggregate-forming minerals in concrete

  • Weiping Zhang;Hui Liu;Yong Zhou;Kaixing Liao;Ying Huang
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.55 no.6
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    • pp.2147-2157
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    • 2023
  • The aggregate-forming minerals in concrete undergo volume swelling and microstructure change under neutron irradiation, leading to degradation of physical and mechanical properties of the aggregates and concrete. A comprehensive investigation of volume change and elastic property variation of major aggregate-forming minerals is still lacking, so molecular dynamics simulations have been employed in this paper to improve the understanding of the degradation mechanisms. The results demonstrated that the densities of the selected aggregate-forming minerals of similar atomic structure and chemical composition vary in a similar trend with deposited energy due to the similar amorphization mechanism. The elastic tensors of all silicate minerals are almost isotropic after saturated irradiation, while those of irradiated carbonate minerals remain anisotropic. Moreover, the elastic modulus ratio versus density ratio of irradiated minerals is roughly following the density-modulus scaling relationship. These findings could further provide basis for predicting the volume and elastic properties of irradiated concrete aggregates in nuclear facilities.

Evolution of avian infectious bronchitis virus: Genetic drift and recombination

  • Lee, Chang-Won
    • Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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    • v.25 no.1
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    • pp.97-103
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    • 2002
  • Infectious bronchitis(IB) is a viral disease in which continued evolution of the virus is of paramount importance for annual endemics and epidemics in chickens. Since the isolation of IB viruses(IBVs) in the 1930s, over 50 serotypes or variants have been reported worldwide. Continuing evolution is most prominent in the suface glycoproteins of IBV but also occurs in other parts of the genome. This genetic variability results from accumulation of molecular changes that can occur by a number of different mechanisms including genetic drift (point mutations) and genetic shift(RNA recombination). GA98 is a new serotype of IBV identified recently in the United States. In this paper, the evolutionary trend of IBV will be discussed using GA98 serotype as a model.