• Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
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• v.8 no.9
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• pp.169-178
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• 2018

The ice machine is the machine for making ice. As most of the companies that manufactures and sells the ice machine are small and medium-sized companies, they have been they have been experiencing the trouble for the after-sales service after selling the machine. The difficulties of the after-sales service are mostly caused by unnecessary customer service requests of the purchaser, which eventually leads to the unnecessary expenditure of the seller and the purchaser. However, financially, the poor ice machine manufacturers want to reduce this cost as much as possible. Furthermore, even if they want to sell their products overseas, they are hesitating because of the after-sales service. For this reason, the companies making the ice machine need a system which checks the status of the ice machine and takes the proper actions without the visiting service. Therefore, this paper introduces the remote control and operational status monitoring systems which can monitor the status of the ice machine in the remote area and control it as needed. Through the developed system, the company manufacturing the ice machine and the manager of the ice machine can understand the current status of the ice machine and respond against the ice machine's trouble, immediately. In addition, it can be expected to have great effects on cost reduction because the maintenance and management after selling can be efficiently performed.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.3B
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• pp.297-306
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• 2008

In order to determine the effects of lock gate expansion at the Lake Youngsan and Yeongam as well as increase in the width of the connecting channel of the two lakes on flood control downstream of the Youngsan River, an unsteady hydraulic flood routing was conducted by combining the Lake Youngsan and Yeongam as a single connected system. The coupled operation of the two lakes was found to have little effect when the widths of the lock gates and the connecting channel are set at the current level. It was also found that increasing the width of the connecting channel as well as the lock gate of the Lake Yeongam is an effective means of reducing the stage of the Lake Youngsan, whereas an increase in the width of the Lake Youngsan's lock gate had a relatively smaller effect. The extended width of the connecting channel leads to a rise in the stage of the Lake Yeongam. In order to reduce the elevated stage, The Lake Yeongam's lock gate must be expanded along with the Lake Yeongsan's lock gate. The analysis found that the stage of the Lake Yeongsan can be effectively controlled through adjustment of opening and shutting criteria of the connecting channel's lock gate, when diversion discharge between the lakes is increased as a result of expanding the width of the connecting channel.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.2D
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• pp.275-283
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• 2006

Recently, there are increasing needs to provide sufficient information on road signs for expanding cities and traffic networks. Improving efficiency of direction guidance information from road signs not only requires criteria for but also systematic approach to selecting place names that appear on road sings. As such, this paper looks at road direction information from existing road signs that leads to Suwon and investigates whether the current system of road sings provides efficient, systematic and continuous direction information for road users to easily reach their destination. In this paper, Suwon's city hall is set up as the final destination, which is linked from five other cities, Euiwang, Ansan, Hwaseong, Osan and Yongin. The paper attempts to find out whether there is continuity and suitable number of road signs for direction information by analyzing the road signs between these 5 cities and Suwon with respect to direction, direction advance notice and direction guidance. It is found that road users cannot easily find the needed information on their destination from the existing road signs and that continuity of selected place names that systematically appear on road signs is insufficiency. That is to say, the findings of the paper are that while it is easy for road users to find place names that are classified under land marks or the first-class selection of place names on road signs, it is difficult to obtain information from road signs on place names that are grouped under the second or third class. In addition, direction guidance on road signs is problematic, because the appearance frequency of road signs is not adequate and the continuity of road signs is not effective. Moreover, there is insufficient information on local direction guidance for immediate destinations on road signs with respect to turning left or right or going straight. Hence road signs in urban area need systematic improvement to find easily some destination.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.35 no.10
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• pp.1461-1478
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• 2022

The maintenance of poultry gut health is complex depending on the intricate balance among diet, the commensal microbiota, and the mucosa, including the gut epithelium and the superimposing mucus layer. Changes in microflora composition and abundance can confer beneficial or detrimental effects on fowl. Antibiotics have devastating impacts on altering the landscape of gut microbiota, which further leads to antibiotic resistance or spread the pathogenic populations. By eliciting the landscape of gut microbiota, strategies should be made to break down the regulatory signals of pathogenic bacteria. The optional strategy of conferring dietary fibers (DFs) can be used to counterbalance the gut microbiota. DFs are the non-starch carbohydrates indigestible by host endogenous enzymes but can be fermented by symbiotic microbiota to produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). This is one of the primary modes through which the gut microbiota interacts and communicate with the host. The majority of SCFAs are produced in the large intestine (particularly in the caecum), where they are taken up by the enterocytes or transported through portal vein circulation into the bloodstream. Recent shreds of evidence have elucidated that SCFAs affect the gut and modulate the tissues and organs either by activating G-protein-coupled receptors or affecting epigenetic modifications in the genome through inducing histone acetylase activities and inhibiting histone deacetylases. Thus, in this way, SCFAs vastly influence poultry health by promoting energy regulation, mucosal integrity, immune homeostasis, and immune maturation. In this review article, we will focus on DFs, which directly interact with gut microbes and lead to the production of SCFAs. Further, we will discuss the current molecular mechanisms of how SCFAs are generated, transported, and modulated the pro-and anti-inflammatory immune responses against pathogens and host physiology and gut health.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.91-97
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• 2019

The movie Lolita is directed by the famous director Stanley Kubrick in the United Kingdom in 1962. Due to the movie theme, it produced a great social dispute at that year. Lolita was Stanley Kubrick's first independently produced film. It tells the story of the abnormal love between Professor Humbert from Europe and his stepdaughter Lolita. Throughout the film, it shocked people by feeling honourable and aesthetic although the theme is about commit incest. The director also completely shown the social reality of the United States in a black humor irony method. By the meantime, the lush tragic feature of the film also strongly infects the audience. Current studies on the movie Lolita mainly focus on the following aspects: firstly, the black humor techniques of director Kubrick's movies, secondly, the parody techniques of the movie, and thirdly, the differences between the original novel Lolita and the adapted movie. In the American society where consumerism constitutes the mainstream, instead of sticking to traditional moral concepts, people pursue material enjoyment. Based on the consumerism theory, this paper analyzes the social reality revealed by the movie Lolita, presents such typical characteristics of the consumerist society as hedonism and broken family relations, and explains how the consumerist society leads to Lolita's tragic life.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.417-431
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• 2024

The fundamental period of vibration is one of the most critical parameters in the analysis and design of structures, as it depends on the distribution of stiffness and mass within the structure. Therefore, building codes propose empirical equations based on the observed periods of actual buildings during seismic events and ambient vibration tests. However, despite the fact that infill walls increase the stiffness and mass of the structure, causing significant changes in the fundamental period, most of these equations do not account for the presence of infills walls in the structure. Typically, these equations are dependent on both the structural system type and building height. The different values between the empirical and analytical periods are due to the elimination of non-structural effects in the analytical methods. Therefore, the presence of non-structural elements, such as infill panels, should be carefully considered. Another critical factor influencing the fundamental period is the effect of Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI). Most seismic building design codes generally consider SSI to be beneficial to the structural system under seismic loading, as it increases the fundamental period and leads to higher damping of the system. Recent case studies and postseismic observations suggest that SSI can have detrimental effects, and neglecting its impact could lead to unsafe design, especially for structures located on soft soil. The current research focuses on investigating the effect of infill panels on the fundamental period of moment-resisting and eccentrically braced steel frames while considering the influence of soil-structure interaction. To achieve this, the effects of building height, infill wall stiffness, infill openings and soil structure interactions were studied using 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18-story 3-D frames. These frames were modeled and analyzed using SeismoStruct software. The calculated values of the fundamental period were then compared with those obtained from the proposed equation in the seismic code. The results indicate that changing the number of stories and the soil type significantly affects the fundamental period of structures. Moreover, as the percentage of infill openings increases, the fundamental period of the structure increases almost linearly. Additionally, soil-structure interaction strongly affects the fundamental periods of structures, especially for more flexible soils. This effect is more pronounced when the infill wall stiffness is higher. In conclusion, new equations are proposed for predicting the fundamental periods of Moment Resisting Frame (MRF) and Eccentrically Braced Frame (EBF) buildings. These equations are functions of various parameters, including building height, modulus of elasticity, infill wall thickness, infill wall percentage, and soil types.

• International Journal of Stem Cells
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.326-341
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• 2023

Background and Objectives: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease that leads to the progressive destruction of articular cartilage. Current clinical therapeutic strategies are moderately effective at relieving OA-associated pain but cannot induce chondrocyte differentiation or achieve cartilage regeneration. We investigated the ability of wedelolactone, a biologically active natural product that occurs in Eclipta alba (false daisy), to promote chondrogenic differentiation. Methods and Results: Real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, immunohistochemical staining, and immunofluorescence staining assays were used to evaluate the effects of wedelolactone on the chondrogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). RNA sequencing, microRNA (miRNA) sequencing, and isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation analyses were performed to explore the mechanism by which wedelolactone promotes the chondrogenic differentiation of MSCs. We found that wedelolactone facilitates the chondrogenic differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived MSCs and rat bone-marrow MSCs. Moreover, the forkhead box O (FOXO) signaling pathway was upregulated by wedelolactone during chondrogenic differentiation, and a FOXO1 inhibitor attenuated the effect of wedelolactone on chondrocyte differentiation. We determined that wedelolactone reduces enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2)-mediated histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation of the promoter region of FOXO1 to upregulate its transcription. Additionally, we found that wedelolactone represses miR-1271-5p expression, and that miR-1271-5p post-transcriptionally suppresses the expression of FOXO1 that is dependent on the binding of miR-1271-5p to the FOXO1 3'-untranscribed region. Conclusions: These results indicate that wedelolactone suppresses the activity of EZH2 to facilitate the chondrogenic differentiation of MSCs by activating the FOXO1 signaling pathway. Wedelolactone may therefore improve cartilage regeneration in diseases characterized by inflammatory tissue destruction, such as OA.

• Proceedings of the Korea Environmental Mutagen Society Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.34-63
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• 2003

Occupational and environmental exposure to manganese continue to represent a realistic public health problem in both developed and developing countries. Increased utility of MMT as a replacement for lead in gasoline creates a new source of environmental exposure to manganese. It is, therefore, imperative that further attention be directed at molecular neurotoxicology of manganese. A Need for a more complete understanding of manganese functions both in health and disease, and for a better defined role of manganese in iron metabolism is well substantiated. The in-depth studies in this area should provide novel information on the potential public health risk associated with manganese exposure. It will also explore novel mechanism(s) of manganese-induced neurotoxicity from the angle of Mn-Fe interaction at both systemic and cellular levels. More importantly, the result of these studies will offer clues to the etiology of IPD and its associated abnormal iron and energy metabolism. To achieve these goals, however, a number of outstanding questions remain to be resolved. First, one must understand what species of manganese in the biological matrices plays critical role in the induction of neurotoxicity, Mn(II) or Mn(III)? In our own studies with aconitase, Cpx-I, and Cpx-II, manganese was added to the buffers as the divalent salt, i.e., $MnCl_2$. While it is quite reasonable to suggest that the effect on aconitase and/or Cpx-I activites was associated with the divalent species of manganese, the experimental design does not preclude the possibility that a manganese species of higher oxidation state, such as Mn(III), is required for the induction of these effects. The ionic radius of Mn(III) is 65 ppm, which is similar to the ionic size to Fe(III) (65 ppm at the high spin state) in aconitase (Nieboer and Fletcher, 1996; Sneed et al., 1953). Thus it is plausible that the higher oxidation state of manganese optimally fits into the geometric space of aconitase, serving as the active species in this enzymatic reaction. In the current literature, most of the studies on manganese toxicity have used Mn(II) as $MnCl_2$ rather than Mn(III). The obvious advantage of Mn(II) is its good water solubility, which allows effortless preparation in either in vivo or in vitro investigation, whereas almost all of the Mn(III) salt products on the comparison between two valent manganese species nearly infeasible. Thus a more intimate collaboration with physiochemists to develop a better way to study Mn(III) species in biological matrices is pressingly needed. Second, In spite of the special affinity of manganese for mitochondria and its similar chemical properties to iron, there is a sound reason to postulate that manganese may act as an iron surrogate in certain iron-requiring enzymes. It is, therefore, imperative to design the physiochemical studies to determine whether manganese can indeed exchange with iron in proteins, and to understand how manganese interacts with tertiary structure of proteins. The studies on binding properties (such as affinity constant, dissociation parameter, etc.) of manganese and iron to key enzymes associated with iron and energy regulation would add additional information to our knowledge of Mn-Fe neurotoxicity. Third, manganese exposure, either in vivo or in vitro, promotes cellular overload of iron. It is still unclear, however, how exactly manganese interacts with cellular iron regulatory processes and what is the mechanism underlying this cellular iron overload. As discussed above, the binding of IRP-I to TfR mRNA leads to the expression of TfR, thereby increasing cellular iron uptake. The sequence encoding TfR mRNA, in particular IRE fragments, has been well-documented in literature. It is therefore possible to use molecular technique to elaborate whether manganese cytotoxicity influences the mRNA expression of iron regulatory proteins and how manganese exposure alters the binding activity of IPRs to TfR mRNA. Finally, the current manganese investigation has largely focused on the issues ranging from disposition/toxicity study to the characterization of clinical symptoms. Much less has been done regarding the risk assessment of environmenta/occupational exposure. One of the unsolved, pressing puzzles is the lack of reliable biomarker(s) for manganese-induced neurologic lesions in long-term, low-level exposure situation. Lack of such a diagnostic means renders it impossible to assess the human health risk and long-term social impact associated with potentially elevated manganese in environment. The biochemical interaction between manganese and iron, particularly the ensuing subtle changes of certain relevant proteins, provides the opportunity to identify and develop such a specific biomarker for manganese-induced neuronal damage. By learning the molecular mechanism of cytotoxicity, one will be able to find a better way for prediction and treatment of manganese-initiated neurodegenerative diseases.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.51
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• pp.181-201
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• 2018

The cartoon industry in Korea has continued to decline due to the contraction of published comics market and decrease in the number of comic books rental stores until the 2000s when it rapidly started to experience qualitative changes and quantitative growth due to the emergence of webtoon. The market size of webtoon industry, valued at 420 billion won in 2015, is expected to grow to 880.5 billion won by 2018. Notably, most cartoonists who draw cartoon strips are using digital devices and producing scripts in data, thereby overcoming the geographical, spatial and physical limitation of contents. As a result, a favorable environment for the creation of local ecosystems is generated. While the infrastructures of human resources are steadily growing by region, cartoon industries that are supported by the government policy have shown good performance combined with factors of creative infrastructures in local areas such as webtoon experience centers, webtoon campuses and webtoon creation centers, etc. Nevertheless, it is true that cartoon infrastructures are substantially based on a capital area which leads to an imbalanced structure of cartoon industry. To see the statistics, companies of offline cartoon business in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province make up 87%, except for distribution industry. In addition, companies of online cartoon business which are situated outside of Seoul and Gyeonggi Province form merely 7.5%. Studies and research on local webtoon are inadequate. The existing studies on local webtoon usually focus on its industrial and economic values, mentioning the word "local" only sometimes. Therefore, this study looked into the current status of local webtoon of the present time for the current state of local cartoon ecosystem, middle and long-term support from the government, and an alternative in the future. Main challenges include the expansion of opportunities to enjoy cartoon cultures, the independence of cartoon infrastructure, and the settlement of regionally specialized cartoon cultures. It means that, in order to enable the cartoon ecosystem to settle down in local areas, it is vital to utilize and link basic infrastructures. Furthermore, it is necessary to consider independence and autonomy beyond the limited support by the government. Finally, webtoon should be designated as a culture, which can be a new direction of the development of local webtoon. Furthermore, desirable models should be continuously researched and studied, which are suitable for each region and connect them with regional tourism, culture and art industry. It will allow the webtoon industry to soft land in the industry. Local webtoon, which is a growth engine of regions and main contents of the fourth industrial revolution, is expected to be a momentum for the decentralization of power and reindustrialization of regions.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.138-149
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• 2008

Rapid accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for the past century leads to acidify the surface ocean and contributes to the global warming as it forms acid in the ocean and it is a green house gas. In order to curb the green house gas emissions, in particular carbon dioxide, various multilateral agreements and programs have been established including UN Convention of Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol for the last decades. Also a number of geo-engineering projects to manipulate the radiation balance of the earth have been proposed both from the science and industrial community worldwide. One of them is ocean fertilization to sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through the photosynthesis of phytoplankton in the sea. Deliberate fertilization of the ocean with iron or nitrogen to large areas of the ocean has been proposed by commercial sector recently. Unfortunately the environmental consequences of the large scale ocean iron fertilization are not known and the current scientific information is still not sufcient to predict. In 2007, the joint meeting of parties of the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, 1972 and 1996 Protocol (London Convention/Protocol) has started considering the purposes and circumstances of proposed large-scale ocean iron fertilization operations and examined whether these activities are compatible with the aims of the Convention and Protocol and explore the need, and the potential mechanisms for regulation of such operations. The aim of this paper is to review the current development on the commercial ocean fertilization activities and management regimes in the potential ocean fertilization activities in the territorial sea, exclusive economic zone, and high seas, respectively, and further to have a view on the emerging international management regime to be London Convention/Protocol in conjunction with a support from the United Nations General Assembly through The United Nations Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea.