• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.91-99
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• 1997

In general, there are various approaches available in literature to model discontinuous rock masses and engineers are often confused which one to use for designing structures in rock masses. Modelling rock masses can be classified mainly into two approaches. One is discrete modelling of intact rock and discontinuities and the other is the equivalent continuum modelling. In this study five models are selected ;(1) Crack tensor model, (2) Equivalent volume defect model, (3) Damage model, (4) Micro - structure model (Parallel model and Series model), and (5) Homogenization model. Most of these models are mainly concerned with how to define additional strain due to discontinuities over the representative elementary volume (REV) and how to relate the stress field of discontinuities to that acting on the REV. The characteristics of these models are clarified by comparing with results of some laboratory tests.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.713-725
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• 2018

Lower termites require symbiotic microbes in their gut. The microbial communities in the termites must adapt to the termite temperature. Reticulitermes speratus KMT001 from Bukhan Mountain in Seoul may require a special symbiotic microorganisms for growth in low temperature Korean habitat. A metagenomics analysis showed a dramatic change in the symbiotic bacterial flora in the gut of R. speratus KMT001 in response to low temperatures of $4^{\circ}C$ or $10^{\circ}C$. Elusimicrobia, which are endosymbionts of flagellate protists, is the dominant phylum in the termite gut at ${\geq}15^{\circ}C$ but its population decreased drastically at low temperature. Four representative bacterial strains isolated from R. speratus KMT001 in a previous study produced maximum ${\beta}$-glucosidase levels within the temperature range of $10^{\circ}C-30^{\circ}C$. Elizabethkingia sp. BM10 produced ${\beta}$-glucosidase specifically at $10^{\circ}C$. This strain supported the existence of symbiotic bacteria for the low temperature habitat of the termite. This identified bacterium will be a resource for studying low temperature adaptation of termites, studying the gene expression at low temperatures, and developing an industrial cellulase at low temperature.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.1061-1065
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• 2001

The antibacterial effects of water extracts of Scutellariate Radix (a dried root of Scutellaria baicalensis GEORGI) and its major flavonoid components, Baicalin and Baicalein, on Salmonella typhimurium, a representative enteric pathogen, were studied. Through a Kriby-Bauer disc analysis, the growth-inhibition activity of Scutellariae Radix against. S. typhimurium was found to be compatible with commercial antibiotics, such as ampicillin, chloramphenicol, and streptomycin. In contrast, the growth of a nonpathogenic E. coli strain was unaffercted by Scutellariae Radix. To examine the effect of polyphosphate kinase (ppk), a putative virulence factor, on the antibacterial activity of Scutellariae Radix, the growth profile of a ppk mutant of S. typhimurium was investigated in a tryptic soy broth containing different concentrations of water extracts of Scutellariae Radix. The ppk mutant was able to grow in 6 mg/ml of water extracts of Scutellariae Radix, whereas in 6 mg/ml of water extracts of Scutellariae Radix, whereas the wild-type could not, implying that the inactivation of ppk made S. typhimurium more resistant to the antibacterial activity of Scutellariae Radix. No enhanced resistance was observed in a ppk mutant of S. typhimurium complemented with a ppk expression vector. The attenuation of the virulence by ppk inactivation was also observed in a virulence assay using BLAB/c mice. Neither Baicalin nor Baicalein exhibited any growth-inhibition activity against S. typhimurium. The water extracts of Scutellariae Radix stimulated the transcription of ppk, especially in the early growth-stage of S. typhimurium.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.155-158
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• 2003

In early 2002, over 200 people in the city of Pusan. Korea suffered from paratyphoid fever resulting from Salmonella Paratyphi A Infection. Antimicrobial susceptibility tests and Xbal pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFCE) were conducted to 54 Salmonella Paratyphi A isolated from humans during the period of 1998 to 2002. Most of the isolates ($83\%$) were only nalidixic acid-resistant and $78\%$ were X 1 PFGE patterns. Also, we measured the MIC of ciprofloxacin and screened gyrA mutation(5) using allele- specific PCR and restriction fragment length polymorphism (AS-PCR-RFLP). The representative 5 isolates in 2002 and 1 isolate in 2000 were $1{\mu}g/ml$ of MIC and had mutation at the 83rd codon in gyrA. These data suggest that the outbreak in the early 2002 might have been due to dissemination of the strain present In 2000. Also, decreased susceptibility to ciprofloxacin was partly due to the mutation at the 83rd codon in gyrA.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.3-10
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• 2014

The Japan National Committee for the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and UICC-Asia Regional Office (ARO) organized an international session as part of the official program of the 72nd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Cancer Association to discuss the topic "What is cost-effectiveness in cancer treatment?" Healthcare economics are an international concern and a key issue for the UICC. The presenters and participants discussed the question of how limited medical resources can be best used to support life, which is a question that applies to both developing and industrialized countries, given that cancer treatment is putting medical systems under increasing strain. The emergence of advanced yet hugely expensive drugs has prompted discussion on methodologies for Health Technology Assessment (HTA) that seek to quantify cost and effect. The session benefited from the participation of various stakeholders, including representatives of industry, government and academia and three speakers from the Republic of Korea, an Asian country where discussion on HTA methodologies is already advanced. In addition, the session was joined by a representative of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) of the United Kingdom, which has pioneered the concept of cost-effectiveness in a medical context. The aim of the session was to advance and deepen understanding of the issue of cost-effectiveness as viewed from medical care systems in different regions.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.21-28
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• 2011

Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) has been a major causative agent of food-borne human disease due to consumption of contaminated eggs and poultry meat. To prevent SE infection in poultry, and therefore minimize human infections, vaccination with either killed or live SE vaccine is suggested. We evaluated a newly developed killed bacterin using a representative SE isolate in Korea. Among pool of SE isolates, two highly virulent isolates (the one isolate from chicken, the other from human) were selected by measuring mortality in mouse and chickens administered. The chickens were injected intramuscularly with killed vaccine and were challenged with highly virulent SE strain 3 week after vaccination. The recovered colony count (cfu/g) of spleen and cecal content in the vaccinated groups was reduced compared with those of the unvaccinated control group. The antibody level in the vaccinated groups was higher at 3 week post vaccination. These results indicate that vaccination with killed vaccine was effective in preventing the infection of virulent SE. Further study for a large number of layers should be needed for the effect of egg production, SE shedding in feces, persistence of antibody level.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.23-28
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• 2010

Reliable dynamic analysis is essential in order to properly maintain structures so that structural hazards may be minimized. The finite element method (FEM) is proven to be an affective approximate method of structural analysis if proper element types and meshes are chosen. When the method is applied to dynamics analyzed in time domain, the meshes may need to be modified at each time step. As many meshes need to be generated, adaptive mesh generation schemes have become an important part in complex time domain dynamic finite element analyses of structures. In this paper, an adaptive mesh generation scheme for dynamic finite element analyses of structures is described. The concept of representative strain value is used for error estimates and the refinements of meshes use combinations of the h-method (node movement) and the r-method (element division). The validity of the scheme is shown through a cantilever beam example under a concentrated load with varying values. The example shows reasonable accuracy and efficient computing time. Furthermore, the study shows the potential for the scheme's effective use in complex structural dynamic problems such as those under seismic or erratic wind loads.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.314-322
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• 2020

Interplay between histone acetylation and deacetylation is one of the key components in epigenetic regulation of transcription. Here we report the requirement of MoHDA1-mediated histone deacetylation during asexual development and pathogenesis for the rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae. Structural similarity and phylogenetic analysis suggested that MoHDA1 is an ortholog of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Hda1, which is a representative member of class II histone deacetylases. Targeted deletion of MoHDA1 caused a little decrease in radial growth and large reduction in asexual sporulation. Comparison of acetylation levels for H3K9 and H3K14 showed that lack of MoHDA1 gene led to significant increase in H3K9 and H3K14 acetylation level, compared to the wild-type and complementation strain, confirming that it is a bona fide histone deacetylase. Expression analysis on some of the key genes involved in asexual reproduction under sporulation-promoting condition showed almost no differences among strains, except for MoCON6 gene, which was up-regulated more than 6-fold in the mutant than wild-type. Although the deletion mutant displayed little defects in germination and subsequent appressorium formation, the mutant was compromised in its ability to cause disease. Wound-inoculation showed that the mutant is impaired in invasive growth as well. We found that the mutant was defective in appressorium-mediated penetration of host, but did not lose the ability to grow on the media containing H₂O₂. Taken together, our data suggest that MoHDA1-dependent histone deacetylation is important for efficient asexual development and infection of host plants in M. oryzae.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.168-173
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• 2014

The aim of this study was to evaluate the anti-helicobacter activity of the ethanol extract of Sohamhyoongtang (Coptidis Rhizoma, Pinelliae Tuber and Trichosanthis Semen) and Coptidis Rhizoma total alkaloids, which is one of the components of Sohamhyoongtang. Crude ethanol extract of Sohamhyoongtang (ESHHT) and Coptidis Rhizoma total alkaloids (CRTA) were used for this experiment. Five different types of H. pylori (including H. pylori 26695) were used as test strain. To determine anti-helicobacter activity, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined by agar dilution method. The effect of ESHHT and CRTA on the gene expression of H. pylori was investigated by quantitative realtime-PCR (qRT-PCR). MICs of ESHHT against five H. pylori strains were $250{\sim}500{\mu}g/ml$ and MICs of CRTA against five H. pylori strains were $50{\sim}200{\mu}g/ml$. Four representative virulence genes of H. pylori, cagA, ureA, ureB and ureI were tested as target genes for qRT-PCR. According to the qRT-PCR results, both ESHHT and CRTA markedly repressed the expression of cagA gene of H. pylori 26695 (6.91 and 20 folds respecively). These results showed that the ESHHT and CRTA demonstrated antihelicobacter properties, suggesting their potential use in gastritis or duodenal ulcer.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.377-388
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• 2010

The flexural behavior of composite HSB600 and HSB800 I-girders under a positive moment was investigated using the material non-linear moment-curvature analysis method. Three representative composite sections with different ductility properties were selected as the baseline sections in this study. Using these baseline sections, the moment-curvature program was verified by comparing the flexural strength and the moment-curvature curve obtained from the program with those obtained using the non-linear FE analysis of ABAQUS. In the FE analysis, the composite girders were modeled three-dimensionally with flanges, the web, and the concrete slab as thin shell elements, and initial imperfections and residual stresses were imposed on the FE model. In the moment-curvature and FE analyses, the 28-day compressive strength of the concrete slab was assumed to be 30-50 MPa, and the HSB600 and HSB800 steels were modeled as elasto-plastic strain-hardening materials, with the concrete as the CEB-FIP model. The effects of the ductility ratio of the composite girder, the type of steel, the compressive strength of the concrete deck, and the location of the plastic neutral axis on the flexural characteristics were analyzed.