• Kosin Medical Journal
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.135-140
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• 2018

Endometriosis is an estrogen-dependent chronic inflammatory condition that affects women in their reproductive period and is associated with pelvic pain and infertility. Oxidative stress (OS) occurs when reactive oxygen stress (ROS) and anti-oxidants are in imbalance. OS is a potential factor involved in the pathophysiology of endometriosis. Iron-induced ROS may trigger a chain of events resulting in the development and progression of endometriosis. Endogenous ROS are correlated with increased cellular proliferation and ERK1/2 activation in human endometriotic cells. An oxidative environment leads to stimulation of the ERK and PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathways that facilitate endometriotic lesion progression through adhesion, angiogenesis, and proliferation. OS is also known to be involved in epigenetic mechanisms in endometriosis. We summarize the recent knowledge in our understanding of the role of oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of endometriosis.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.51.1-51.1
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• 2021

Spiral arms greatly affect gas flows and star formation in disk galaxies. We use local 3D simulations of vertically-stratified, self-gravitating, gaseous disks under a stellar spiral potential to study the effects of spiral arms on galactic star formation as well as formation of gaseous spurs/feathers. We adopt the TIGRESS framework to handle radiative heating and cooling, star formation, and ensuing supernova (SN) feedback. We find that more than 90% of star formation takes place inside spiral arms. The global star formation rate (SFR) in models with spiral arms is enhanced by less than a factor of 2 compared to the no-arm counterpart. This supports the picture that spiral arms do not trigger star formation but rather redistribute star-forming regions. Correlated SN feedback produces interarm feathers in both magnetized and unmagnetized models. These feathers live short, have parallel magnetic fields along their length, and are bounded by SN feedback in the lateral direction, in contrast to instability-induced feathers formed in our previous isothermal simulations.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.142-148
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• 2017

Drought stress is one of the important factors that restrict the expansion of Hevea brasiliensis cultivation to non-traditional regions experiencing extreme weather conditions. Plants respond to drought stress by triggering expression of several drought responsive genes including transcription factors which in turn trigger expression of various downstream signalling pathways and adaptive networks. Expression of such drought responsive genes may revert back to their original level upon re-watering. However, no reports are available on such phenomenon in Hevea and hence, this study was initiated. For this purpose, NAC transcription factor (NAC tf) was chosen as candidate gene. Its expression levels were monitored under intermittent drought as well as irrigated conditions in two clones (RRII 105 and RRIM 600) of H. brasiliensis with contrasting tolerance level. Copy number of NAC tf was found similar in both the clones. Expression of NAC tf was found highly up-regulated in RRIM 600 (a relatively drought tolerant clone) than in RRII 105 (a relatively drought susceptible clone) throughout the drought incidences which upon re-watering, reached back to its original levels in both the clones. The study indicated the existence of an association between expression of NAC tf and drought tolerance trait exhibited by the tolerant clone RRIM 600. The study also proves the influence of drought and re-watering on the leaf photosynthesis and expression of NAC tf in H. brasiliensis.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.6.1-6.10
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• 2021

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is expressed at elevated levels by most cancer cells, which can stimulate vascular endothelial cell growth, survival, proliferation as well as trigger angiogenesis modulated by VEGF and VEGFR (a tyrosine kinase receptor) signaling. The angiogenic effects of the VEGF family are thought to be primarily mediated through the interaction of VEGF with VEGFR-2. Targeting this signaling molecule and its receptor is a novel approach for blocking angiogenesis. In recent years virtual high throughput screening has emerged as a widely accepted powerful technique in the identification of novel and diverse leads. The high resolution X-ray structure of VEGF has paved the way to introduce new small molecular inhibitors by structure-based virtual screening. In this study using different alkaloid molecules as potential novel inhibitors of VEGF, we proposed three alkaloid candidates for inhibiting VEGF and VEGFR mediated angiogenesis. As these three alkaloid compounds exhibited high scoring functions, which also highlights their high binding ability, it is evident that these alkaloids can be taken to further drug development pipelines for use as novel lead compounds to design new and effective drugs against cancer.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.292-300
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• 2019

Immunometabolism, defined as the interaction of metabolic pathways with the immune system, influences the pathogenesis of metabolic diseases. Metformin and carbon monoxide (CO) are two pharmacological agents known to ameliorate metabolic disorders. There are notable similarities and differences in the reported effects of metformin and CO on immunometabolism. Metformin, an anti-diabetes drug, has positive effects on metabolism and can exert anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer effects via adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK)-dependent and AMPK-independent mechanisms. CO, an endogenous product of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), can exert anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects at low concentration. CO can confer cytoprotection in metabolic disorders and cancer via selective activation of the protein kinase R-like endoplasmic reticulum (ER) kinase (PERK) pathway. Both metformin and CO can induce mitochondrial stress to produce a mild elevation of mitochondrial ROS (mtROS) by distinct mechanisms. Metformin inhibits complex I of the mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC), while CO inhibits ETC complex IV. Both metformin and CO can differentially induce several protein factors, including fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) and sestrin2 (SESN2), which maintain metabolic homeostasis; nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), a master regulator of the antioxidant response; and REDD1, which exhibits an anticancer effect. However, metformin and CO regulate these effects via different pathways. Metformin stimulates p53- and AMPK-dependent pathways whereas CO can selectively trigger the PERK-dependent signaling pathway. Although further studies are needed to identify the mechanistic differences between metformin and CO, pharmacological application of these agents may represent useful strategies to ameliorate metabolic diseases associated with altered immunometabolism.

• KIPS Transactions on Computer and Communication Systems
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.419-428
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• 2022

Since in-place updates for pages are not allowed in flash memory, all new page writes should be written in an out-of-place manner. The old overwritten pages are invalidated. Such invalidated pages eventually trigger the costly garbage collection process. Since the garbage collection causes numerous read and write operations, it is one of the flash memory's major performance issues. In 2R, it modified the garbage collection algorithm, which applies the I/O characteristics of the On-Line Transaction Process workload to improve the Write Amplification Factor. However, this algorithm has a region pollution problem. Therefore, in this paper, we developed 2R++ that additionally separates pages with long access intervals to solve the region pollution problem. 2R++ introduces an extra bit per block to separate warm pages based on a second chance mechanism. Prevents warm pages from being misidentified as cold pages to solve region pollution problem. We conducted the experiments on TPC-C and Linkbench to make the performance comparison. The experiment showed that 2R++ achieved a Write Amplification Factor improvement of 57.8% and 13.8% compared to 2R, respectively.

• Journal of National Security and Military Science
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• s.5
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• pp.241-280
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• 2007

This study examines the relationship of the industry-specific factors that effect innovation of manufacturing technology and the market share within the defense industry. Since the establishment of the basic defense industry framework in 1973, there were numerous interactions of the industry-specific factors of the defense industry structure with the technological innovation and market organization of the defense industry. During last three decades, the domestic defense industry has achieved the considerable level but the framework of the basic system has not developed much in areas of the military science and the defense manufacturing technology. Industry-specific factors were formed in the process and appeared in a variety of behavioral characteristics as subsystems. Currently, there IS a growing trend where the management of defense industry is gradually deteriorating due to limitation of the domestic industry-specific factor (e.g. defense technologies, amount of demand, etc.). If there is a prominent imbalance of the industry-specific factors. it can trigger the potential problem of conflict, lack of cooperation and control, slowing the growth of the manufacturing technology thereby diminishing the market and deteriorating the defense supply/demand relationship. In a research conducted by Joe S. Bain, Bain analyzed the relationship of the traditional industrial organization where industry-specific factor(S) not only impacts the conductor(C). And, conductor(C) influences the shaping of the performance(P) of relationship of the traditional industrial organization. Consequently, the researcher has identified the demand monopoly, barriers to entry, and market competition with comparison of defense industry issues. These defense issues were three industry-specific factors identified, which are 1) The demand monopoly and The entry barriers to new market competition, 2) the industrial technical factor to a production technical competitiveness and a market sharing competitiveness, 3) the probability factor to revolution for military affairs(RMA) and a R&D production. According to baseline with these factors, the following research model is established from the special companies group(Group A), the systematization companies group(Group B), and the general companies group(Group 0. The hypothesis is that if there are more industry-specific factors, then there will be more relationships of defense industry relation statutes. This research is an empirical study on the relationship that the industry specific factors effects the innovation of manufacturing technology and the shaping of the market in the defense industry. Moreover, the existing models to evaluate the industry specific factors of the defense industry IS much to be desired with the controlled statistical analysis of the result. It is vital to study on current situation with suggesting alternative strategy to the efficient strategy. The descriptive analysis approach analysis is conducted with SPSSWIN to conduct reliability test, factor analysis, correlation analysis, cross-tabulation analysis, one-way ANOVA, and multiple regression analysis. However, there were some limitations of the survey such as the rigidity of concept about the technical factors and various market management factors. The wishes is that the decision-maker could be utilized these defence industrial factors to formulate efficient defence policy and strategy in the future.

• BMB Reports
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.128-133
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• 2016

Astrocytes play a critical role in normal brain functions and maintaining the brain microenvironment, and defects in astrocytogenesis during neurodevelopment could give rise to severe mental illness and psychiatric disorders. During neuro-embryogenesis, astrocytogenesis involves astrocytic differentiation of neural precursor cells (NPCs) induced by signals from ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) or pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating peptide (PACAP). However, in contrast to the CNTF signaling pathway, the exact mechanism underlying astrocytic differentiation induced by PACAP is unknown. In the present study, we aimed to verify a signaling pathway specific to PACAP-induced astrocytogenesis, using exchange protein directly activated by cAMP2 (Epac2)-knockout mice. We found that PACAP could trigger astrocytic differentiation of NPCs via Epac2 activation and an increase in the intracellular calcium concentration via a calcium ion influx. Taken together, we concluded that astrocytogenesis stimulated by PACAP occurs through a novel signaling pathway independent from CNTF-JAK/STAT signaling, that is the well-known pathway of astrocytogenesis.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.12
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• pp.43-52
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• 2020

This paper examines how macroeconomic variables, such as interest rate differences, inflation, exchange rates, economic growth and external debt growth, affect capital flight in the ASEAN-8 countries. We apply a panel data model with fixed effect estimation for the data for eight countries from the period 1994 to 2018. We use the residual approach used by the World Bank to measure the value of capital flight. The results show that the interest rate differences, exchange rates, economic growth and foreign debt growth had a positive and significant effect on outward capital flight. A further implication of this finding is that the interest rate differences, exchange rate, economic growth and foreign debt growth are factors that trigger an increase in capital outflow in the ASEAN-8 countries. Nonetheless, inflation rate is not considered to be the main factor influencing capital flight, as average inflation in the ASEAN-8 countries remains relatively stable. This paper will be beneficial for policymakers in the ASEAN-8 countries and encourage them to constantly pay attention to these four variables, as they significantly influence capital flight, whereas they can disregard the impact of the inflation variable that is not significant in influencing capital flight.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.191-201
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• 2013

Landslide in Korea occurs generally in summer, and rainfall is a major factor to trigger landslides. This study evaluates the applicability of radar rainfall to estimate landslide occurs locally in mountainous area. Temporal changes in spatial distribution of rainfall is analyzed using radar data, and the characteristics of rainfall in landslide area during the landslide occurred in Inje, July 2006. This study shows radar rainfall field can estimate local landslides more precisely than the rainfall data from ground gauges.