• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.37-47
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• 2024

FUN14 domain-containing protein 1 (FUNDC1), an outer mitochondrial membrane protein, contributes to removal of damaged mitochondria through mitophagy. In this study, to elucidate the role of the FUNDC1 in the amyloid beta peptide (A_β)-induced neuropathy, changes in the degree of mitochondrial dysfunction and cell injury caused by A_β treatment were examined in the HT-22 neuronal cells in which the FUNDC1 expression was transiently silenced or overexpressed. We found that A_β treatment causes a time-dependent decrease of the FUNDC1 expression. In the A_β-treated cells, there were a drop in MTT reduction ability, depletion of cellular ATP, disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential, stimulation of cellular ROS production, and increased mitochondrial Ca²⁺ load. Activation of caspase-3 and induction of apoptotic cell death were also observed. Transient silencing of the FUNDC1 expression by transfection with the FUNDC1 small interfering RNA per se caused mitochondrial dysfunction and apoptotic cell death like the effect of A_β treatment. Conversely, in cells in which the FUNDC1 was transiently overexpressed by FUNDC1-Myc transfection, overexpression itself had no effect on the mitochondrial functional integrity and cell survival but showed a significant prevention effect against mitochondrial and cell injury caused by A_β treatment. Overall, these results suggest that the FUNDC1 is importantly involved in the A_β-induced mitochondrial dysfunction and cell injury in the HT-22 neuronal cells.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.457-466
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• 2023

Background: During hot environment work tasks with whole-body enclosed anti-bioaerosol suit, the combined effect of heavy sweating and exhaled hot humid air may cause the N95 medical respirator to saturate with water/sweat (i.e., water-blocking). Methods: 32 young male subjects with different body mass indexes (BMI) in whole-body protection (N95 medical respirator + one-piece protective suit + head covering + protective face screen + gloves + shoe covers) were asked to simulate waste collecting from each isolated room in a seven-story building at 27-28℃, and the weight, inhalation resistance (R_f), and aerosol penetration of the respirator before worn and after water-blocking were analyzed. Results: All subjects reported water-blocking asphyxia of the N95 respirators within 36-67 min of the task. When water-blocking occurred, the R_f and 10-200 nm total aerosol penetration (P_t) of the respirators reached up to 1270-1810 Pa and 17.3-23.3%, respectively, which were 10 and 8 times of that before wearing. The most penetration particle size of the respirators increased from 49-65 nm before worn to 115-154 nm under water-blocking condition, and the corresponding maximum size-dependent aerosol penetration increased from 2.5-3.5% to 20-27%. With the increase of BMI, the water-blocking occurrence time firstly increased then reduced, while the R_f, P_t, and absorbed water all increased significantly. Conclusions: This study reveals respirator water-blocking and its serious negative impacts on respiratory protection. When performing moderate-to-high-load tasks with whole-body protection in a hot environment, it is recommended that respirator be replaced with a new one at least every hour to avoid water-blocking asphyxia.

• Dementia and Neurocognitive Disorders
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.22-29
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• 2024

Background and Purpose: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by a progressive decline in cognition and performance of daily activities. Recent studies have attempted to establish the relationship between AD and sleep. It is believed that patients with AD pathology show altered sleep characteristics years before clinical symptoms appear. This study evaluated the differences in sleep characteristics between cognitively asymptomatic patients with and without some amyloid burden. Methods: Sleep characteristics of 76 subjects aged 60 years or older who were diagnosed with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) but not mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or AD were measured using Fitbit^® Alta HR, a wristwatch-shaped wearable device. Amyloid deposition was evaluated using brain amyloid plaque load (BAPL) and global standardized uptake value ratio (SUVR) from fluorine-18 florbetaben positron emission tomography. Each component of measured sleep characteristics was analyzed for statistically significant differences between the amyloid-positive group and the amyloid-negative group. Results: Of the 76 subjects included in this study, 49 (64.5%) were female. The average age of the subjects was 70.72±6.09 years when the study started. 15 subjects were classified as amyloid-positive based on BAPL. The average global SUVR was 1.598±0.263 in the amyloid-positive group and 1.187±0.100 in the amyloid-negative group. Time spent in slow-wave sleep (SWS) was significantly lower in the amyloid-positive group (39.4±13.1 minutes) than in the amyloid-negative group (49.5±13.1 minutes) (p=0.009). Conclusions: This study showed that SWS is different between the elderly SCD population with and without amyloid positivity. How SWS affects AD pathology requires further research.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.458-464
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• 2024

This study proposes a fault-tolerant caching system to address the issue of caching content imbalance caused by the dynamic departure and participation of cache servers in a heterogeneous cache server network, and validates it in both real and virtual environments. With the increase of large-scale media content requiring various types and resolutions, the necessity of cache servers as key components to reduce response time to user requests and alleviate network load has been growing. In particular, research on heterogeneous cache server networks utilizing edge computing and low-power devices has been actively conducted recently. However, in such environments, the irregular departure and participation of cache servers can occur frequently, leading to content imbalance among the cache servers deployed in the network, which can degrade the performance of the cache server network. The fault-tolerant caching algorithm proposed in this study ensures stable service quality by maintaining balance among media contents even when cache servers depart. Experimental results confirmed that the proposed algorithm effectively maintains content distribution despite the departure of cache servers. Additionally, we built a network composed of seven heterogeneous cache servers to verify the practicality of the proposed caching system and demonstrated its performance and scalability through a large-scale cache server network in a virtual environment.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.215-235
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• 1996

The thermal analysis by mathematical model simulation makes it possible to reasonably predict heating and/or cooling requirements of certain greenhouses located under various geographical and climatic environment. It is another advantages of model simulation technique to be able to make it possible to select appropriate heating system, to set up energy utilization strategy, to schedule seasonal crop pattern, as well as to determine new greenhouse ranges. In this study, the control pattern for greenhouse microclimate is categorized as cooling and heating. Dynamic model was adopted to simulate heating requirements and/or energy conservation effectiveness such as energy saving by night-time thermal curtain, estimation of Heating Degree-Hours(HDH), long time prediction of greenhouse thermal behavior, etc. On the other hand, the cooling effects of ventilation, shading, and pad ||||&|||| fan system were partly analyzed by static model. By the experimental work with small size model greenhouse of 1.2m$\times$2.4m, it was found that cooling the greenhouse by spraying cold water directly on greenhouse cover surface or by recirculating cold water through heat exchangers would be effective in greenhouse summer cooling. The mathematical model developed for greenhouse model simulation is highly applicable because it can reflects various climatic factors like temperature, humidity, beam and diffuse solar radiation, wind velocity, etc. This model was closely verified by various weather data obtained through long period greenhouse experiment. Most of the materials relating with greenhouse heating or cooling components were obtained from model greenhouse simulated mathematically by using typical year(1987) data of Jinju Gyeongnam. But some of the materials relating with greenhouse cooling was obtained by performing model experiments which include analyzing cooling effect of water sprayed directly on greenhouse roof surface. The results are summarized as follows : 1. The heating requirements of model greenhouse were highly related with the minimum temperature set for given greenhouse. The setting temperature at night-time is much more influential on heating energy requirement than that at day-time. Therefore It is highly recommended that night- time setting temperature should be carefully determined and controlled. 2. The HDH data obtained by conventional method were estimated on the basis of considerably long term average weather temperature together with the standard base temperature(usually 18.3$^{\circ}C$). This kind of data can merely be used as a relative comparison criteria about heating load, but is not applicable in the calculation of greenhouse heating requirements because of the limited consideration of climatic factors and inappropriate base temperature. By comparing the HDM data with the results of simulation, it is found that the heating system design by HDH data will probably overshoot the actual heating requirement. 3. The energy saving effect of night-time thermal curtain as well as estimated heating requirement is found to be sensitively related with weather condition: Thermal curtain adopted for simulation showed high effectiveness in energy saving which amounts to more than 50% of annual heating requirement. 4. The ventilation performances doting warm seasons are mainly influenced by air exchange rate even though there are some variations depending on greenhouse structural difference, weather and cropping conditions. For air exchanges above 1 volume per minute, the reduction rate of temperature rise on both types of considered greenhouse becomes modest with the additional increase of ventilation capacity. Therefore the desirable ventilation capacity is assumed to be 1 air change per minute, which is the recommended ventilation rate in common greenhouse. 5. In glass covered greenhouse with full production, under clear weather of 50% RH, and continuous 1 air change per minute, the temperature drop in 50% shaded greenhouse and pad ＆ fan systemed greenhouse is 2.6$^{\circ}C$ and.6.1$^{\circ}C$ respectively. The temperature in control greenhouse under continuous air change at this time was 36.6$^{\circ}C$ which was 5.3$^{\circ}C$ above ambient temperature. As a result the greenhouse temperature can be maintained 3$^{\circ}C$ below ambient temperature. But when RH is 80%, it was impossible to drop greenhouse temperature below ambient temperature because possible temperature reduction by pad ||||&|||| fan system at this time is not more than 2.4$^{\circ}C$. 6. During 3 months of hot summer season if the greenhouse is assumed to be cooled only when greenhouse temperature rise above 27$^{\circ}C$, the relationship between RH of ambient air and greenhouse temperature drop($\Delta$T) was formulated as follows : $\Delta$T= -0.077RH＋7.7 7. Time dependent cooling effects performed by operation of each or combination of ventilation, 50% shading, pad ＆ fan of 80% efficiency, were continuously predicted for one typical summer day long. When the greenhouse was cooled only by 1 air change per minute, greenhouse air temperature was 5$^{\circ}C$ above outdoor temperature. Either method alone can not drop greenhouse air temperature below outdoor temperature even under the fully cropped situations. But when both systems were operated together, greenhouse air temperature can be controlled to about 2.0-2.3$^{\circ}C$ below ambient temperature. 8. When the cool water of 6.5-8.5$^{\circ}C$ was sprayed on greenhouse roof surface with the water flow rate of 1.3 liter/min per unit greenhouse floor area, greenhouse air temperature could be dropped down to 16.5-18.$0^{\circ}C$, whlch is about 1$0^{\circ}C$ below the ambient temperature of 26.5-28.$0^{\circ}C$ at that time. The most important thing in cooling greenhouse air effectively with water spray may be obtaining plenty of cool water source like ground water itself or cold water produced by heat-pump. Future work is focused on not only analyzing the feasibility of heat pump operation but also finding the relationships between greenhouse air temperature(T$_{g}$ ), spraying water temperature(T$_{w}$ ), water flow rate(Q), and ambient temperature(T$_{o}$).

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.312-316
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• 2014

Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare the fracture toughness of currently available resin cements for zirconia restorations and evaluate the effect of water storage on fracture toughness of those resin cements. Materials and methods: Single-edge notched specimens ($3mm{\times}6mm{\times}25mm$) were prepared from three currently available dual cure resin cements for zirconia restorations (Panavia F 2.0, Clearfil SA luting and Zirconite). Each resin cement was divided into four groups: immersed in distilled water at $37^{\circ}C$ for 1 (Control group), 30, 90, or 180 days (n=5). Specimens were loaded in three point bending at a cross-head speed of 0.1 mm/s. The maximum load at specimen failure was recorded and the fracture toughness ($K_{IC}$) was calculated. Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and multiple comparison $Scheff{\acute{e}}$ test (${\alpha}$=.05). Results: In control group, the mean $K_{IC}$ was $3.41{\pm}0.64MN{\cdot}m^{-1.5}$ for Panavia F, 2.0, $3.07{\pm}0.41MN{\cdot}m^{-1.5}$ for Zirconite, $2.58{\pm}0.30MN{\cdot}m^{-1.5}$ for Clearfil SA luting respectively, but statistical analysis revealed no significant difference between them. Although a gradual decrease of $K_{IC}$ in Panavia F 2.0 and gradual increases of KIC in Clearfil SA luting and Zirconite were observed with storage time, there were no significant differences between immersion time for each cement. Conclusion: The resin cements for zirconia restorations exhibit much higher $K_{IC}$ values than conventional resin cements. The fracture toughness of resin cement for zirconia restoration would not be affected by water storage.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Inherited Metabolic disease
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.86-92
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• 2016

Purpose: The $BH_4$ loading test is an important test that distinguishes PKU from $BH_4$ deficiency and identifies the $BH_4$ reactivity of PKU patients. Phenylalanine and $BH_4$ loading tests are useful methods that can shorten the length of hospital stay while improving patients' convenience. However, sufficient research on the dose of phenylalanine loading and $BH_4$ administration time after the loading has not been carried out. The present study investigates the effectiveness of the existing phenylalanine loading method by analyzing the medical records of six patients who underwent the $BH_4$ loading test after taking 100 mg/kg of phenylalanine patients. Methods: The medical records of six patients who underwent the $BH_4$ load test after taking 100 mg/kg of phenylalanine were examined out of 207 patients who were followed up in the Genetic Metabolic Clinic in Soonchunhyang University Hospital. All of the six patients had a low phenylalanine diet. First, they were taking 100 mg/kg of phenylalanine. 3 hours later, 20 mg/kg of $BH_4$ were loaded. The phenylalanine levels in the blood were continuously measured at 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, and 24 hours by setting the time the $BH_4$ was loaded as the basal. Results: The average of the highest phenylalanine concentrations of six patients was $20.0{\pm}11.70mg/dL$. One reached the highest concentration seven hours after taking phenylalanine; another reached it five hours after that, and the remaining three reached it four hours after that. Only one patient reached the highest concentration within three hours. The phenylalanine levels of four out of six patients (66%) rose above $400{\mu}mol/L$ after being loaded with phenylalanine. The phenylalanine levels of the remaining two were 6.1 mg/dL ($366{\mu}mol/L$) and 5 mg/dL ($300{\mu}mol/L$), respectively. Conclusion: One of six patients (16%) reached the highest concentration three hours after taking 100 mg/kg of phenylalanine and four patients (66%) reached $400{\mu}mol/L$ or higher phenylalanine levels. There were patients whose phenylalanine levels did not rise above $400{\mu}mol/L$ using a commonly known test method; moreover, this method had the disadvantage of reaching the highest concentration after more than three hours. Therefore, it is considered that taking 200 mg/kg or more of phenylalanine and performing $BH_4$ loading four to six hours after taking phenylalanine are helpful in proper diagnosis.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.11
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• pp.69-99
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• 1984

A dramatic development in the new technology of copying materials has presented us with massive problems on reconciling the conflicts between copyright owners and potential users of copyrighted materials. The adaptation to this changing condition led some countries to revise their copyright laws such as in the U. S. in 1976 and in Korea in 1984 for merging with the international or universal copyright conventions in the future. Copyright defined as exclusive rights given to copyright owners aims to secure a fair return for an author's creative labor and to stimulate artistic creativity for the general public good. The exclusive rights on copyrightable matters, generally for reproduction, preparation of derivative works, public distribution, public performance, and public display, are limited by fair use for scholarship and criticism and by library reproduction for its preservation and interlibrary loan. These limitations on the exclusive rights are concerned with all aspects of library services and cause a great burden on librarian's daily duty to provide balance between the rights of creators and the needs of library patrons. The fair use as one of the limitations on it has been coupled with enormous growth of a new technology and extended from xerography to online database systems. The implementation of the fair use and library reprography in Korean law to the local practices is examined on the basis of the new American copyright act of 1976. Under the draft revision of Korean law, librarians will face many potential problems as summarized below. 1. Because the new provision of 'life time plus 50 years' will tie up substantial bodies of material longer than the old law, until that date librarians would need permissions from the owners and should pay attention to the author's death date. 2. Because the copyright can be sold, distributed, given to the heirs, donated, as a whole or a part, librarians should chase down the heirs and other second owners. In case of a derivative work, this is a real problem. 3. Since a work has its protection from the moment of its creation, the coverage of copyrightable matter would be extended to the published or the unpublished works and librarian's work load would be heavier. Without copyright registration, no one can be certain that a work is in the public domain. Therefore, librarians will need to check with an authority. 4. For implementation of limitations on exclusive rights, fair use and library reproduction for interlibrary loan, there can be no substantial aggregate use and there can be no systematic distribution of multicopies. Therefore, librarians should not substitute reproductions for subscriptions or purchases. 5. For the interlibrary loan by photocopying, librarians should understand the procedure of royalty payment. 6. Compulsory licenses should be understood by librarians. 7. Because the draft revision of Korean law is a reciprocal treaty, librarians should take care of other countries' copyright law to protect foreign authors from Korean law. In order to solve the above problems, some suggestions are presented below. 1. That copyright clearinghouse or central agency as a centralized royalty payment mechanism be established. 2. That the Korean Library Association establish a committee on copyright. 3. That the Korean Library Association propose guidelines for each occasion, e.g. for interlibrary loan, books and periodicals and music, etc. 4. That the Korean government establish a copyright office or an official organization for copyright control other than the copyright committee already organized by the government. 5. That the Korean Library Association establish educational programs on copyright for librarians through seminars or articles written in its magazines. 6. That individual libraries provide librarian's copyright kits. 7. That school libraries distribute subject bibliographies on copyright law to teachers. However, librarians should keep in mind that limitations on exclusive rights are not for an exemption from library reprography but as a convenient access to library resources.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.89-97
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• 2010

This study researches the effects of common features on a no-choice option with respect to regulatory focus theory. The primary interest is in three factors and their interrelationship: common features, no-choice option, and regulatory focus. Prior studies have compiled vast body of research in these areas. First, the "common features effect" has been observed bymany noted marketing researchers. Tversky (1972) proposed the seminal theory, the EBA model: elimination by aspect. According to this theory, consumers are prone to focus only on unique features during comparison processing, thereby dismissing any common features as redundant information. Recently, however, more provocative ideas have attacked the EBA model by asserting that common features really do affect consumer judgment. Chernev (1997) first reported that adding common features mitigates the choice gap because of the increasing perception of similarity among alternatives. Later, however, Chernev (2001) published a critically developed study against his prior perspective with the proposition that common features may be a cognitive load to consumers, and thus consumers are possible that they are prone to prefer the heuristic processing to the systematic processing. This tends to bring one question to the forefront: Do "common features" affect consumer choice? If so, what are the concrete effects? This study tries to answer the question with respect to the "no-choice" option and regulatory focus. Second, some researchers hold that the no-choice option is another best alternative of consumers, who are likely to avoid having to choose in the context of knotty trade-off settings or mental conflicts. Hope for the future also may increase the no-choice option in the context of optimism or the expectancy of a more satisfactory alternative appearing later. Other issues reported in this domain are time pressure, consumer confidence, and alternative numbers (Dhar and Nowlis 1999; Lin and Wu 2005; Zakay and Tsal 1993). This study casts the no-choice option in yet another perspective: the interactive effects between common features and regulatory focus. Third, "regulatory focus theory" is a very popular theme in recent marketing research. It suggests that consumers have two focal goals facing each other: promotion vs. prevention. A promotion focus deals with the concepts of hope, inspiration, achievement, or gain, whereas prevention focus involves duty, responsibility, safety, or loss-aversion. Thus, while consumers with a promotion focus tend to take risks for gain, the same does not hold true for a prevention focus. Regulatory focus theory predicts consumers' emotions, creativity, attitudes, memory, performance, and judgment, as documented in a vast field of marketing and psychology articles. The perspective of the current study in exploring consumer choice and common features is a somewhat creative viewpoint in the area of regulatory focus. These reviews inspire this study of the interaction possibility between regulatory focus and common features with a no-choice option. Specifically, adding common features rather than omitting them may increase the no-choice option ratio in the choice setting only to prevention-focused consumers, but vice versa to promotion-focused consumers. The reasoning is that when prevention-focused consumers come in contact with common features, they may perceive higher similarity among the alternatives. This conflict among similar options would increase the no-choice ratio. Promotion-focused consumers, however, are possible that they perceive common features as a cue of confirmation bias. And thus their confirmation processing would make their prior preference more robust, then the no-choice ratio may shrink. This logic is verified in two experiments. The first is a $2{\times}2$ between-subject design (whether common features or not X regulatory focus) using a digital cameras as the relevant stimulus-a product very familiar to young subjects. Specifically, the regulatory focus variable is median split through a measure of eleven items. Common features included zoom, weight, memory, and battery, whereas the other two attributes (pixel and price) were unique features. Results supported our hypothesis that adding common features enhanced the no-choice ratio only to prevention-focus consumers, not to those with a promotion focus. These results confirm our hypothesis - the interactive effects between a regulatory focus and the common features. Prior research had suggested that including common features had a effect on consumer choice, but this study shows that common features affect choice by consumer segmentation. The second experiment was used to replicate the results of the first experiment. This experimental study is equal to the prior except only two - priming manipulation and another stimulus. For the promotion focus condition, subjects had to write an essay using words such as profit, inspiration, pleasure, achievement, development, hedonic, change, pursuit, etc. For prevention, however, they had to use the words persistence, safety, protection, aversion, loss, responsibility, stability etc. The room for rent had common features (sunshine, facility, ventilation) and unique features (distance time and building state). These attributes implied various levels and valence for replication of the prior experiment. Our hypothesis was supported repeatedly in the results, and the interaction effects were significant between regulatory focus and common features. Thus, these studies showed the dual effects of common features on consumer choice for a no-choice option. Adding common features may enhance or mitigate no-choice, contradictory as it may sound. Under a prevention focus, adding common features is likely to enhance the no-choice ratio because of increasing mental conflict; under the promotion focus, it is prone to shrink the ratio perhaps because of a "confirmation bias." The research has practical and theoretical implications for marketers, who may need to consider common features carefully in a practical display context according to consumer segmentation (i.e., promotion vs. prevention focus.) Theoretically, the results suggest some meaningful moderator variable between common features and no-choice in that the effect on no-choice option is partly dependent on a regulatory focus. This variable corresponds not only to a chronic perspective but also a situational perspective in our hypothesis domain. Finally, in light of some shortcomings in the research, such as overlooked attribute importance, low ratio of no-choice, or the external validity issue, we hope it influences future studies to explore the little-known world of the "no-choice option."

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.353-360
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• 2017

In this study, the design and performance test of the air to water heat pump capable of producing hot water for greenhouse heating by using the surplus solar heat inside the greenhouse and the air heat outside greenhouse as the selective heat source were conducted. The heat storage operations using the surplus solar heat and the outside air heat were designed to be switched according to the setting temperature of the greenhouse in consideration of the optimum temperature range of the crop. In the developed system, it was possible to automatically control the switching of heat storage operation, heating and ventilation by setting 12 reference temperatures on the control panel. In the selective heat storage operation with the surplus solar heat and outside air heat, the temperature of thermal storage tank was controlled variably from $35^{\circ}C$ to $52^{\circ}C$ according to the heat storage rate and heating load. The heat storage operation times using the surplus solar heat and outside air heat were 23.1% and 30.7% of the experimental time respectively and the heat pump pause time was 46.2%. COP(coefficient of performance) of the heat pump of the heat storage operation using the surplus solar heat and outside air heat were 3.83 and 2.77 respectively and was 3.24 for whole selective heat storage operation. For the comparative experiment, the heat storage operation using the outside air heat only was performed under the condition that the temperature of the thermal storage tank was controlled constantly from 50 to $52^{\circ}C$, and COP was analyzed to be 2.33. As a result, it was confirmed that the COP of the heat storage operation using the surplus solar heat and outside air heat as selective heat source and the variable temperature control of the thermal storage tank was 39% higher than that of the general heat storage operation using the outside air heat only and the constant temperature control of the thermal storage tank.