• Molecules and Cells
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-4
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• 2008

A gene's influence on an organism's Darwinian fitness ultimately determines whether it will be lost, maintained or modified by natural selection, yet biologists have few gene expression systems in which to measure whole-organism gene function. In the Department of Molecular Ecology at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology we are training "molecularly enabled field biologists" to use transformed plants silenced in the expression of environmentally regulated genes and the plant's native habitats as "laboratories." Research done in these natural laboratories will, we hope, increase our understanding of the function of genes at the level of the organism. Examples of the role of threonine deaminase and RNA-directed RNA polymerases illustrate the process.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2013

Autophagy is a fundamental cellular process in eukaryotic cells for maintaining homeostasis by degrading cellular proteins and organelles. Recently, the roles of autophagy have been expanded to immune systems, which in turn modulate innate immune responses. More specifically, autophagy acts as a direct effector for protection against pathogens, as well as a modulator of pathogen recognition and downstream signaling in innate immune responses. In addition, autophagy controls autoimmunity and inflammatory disorders by negative regulation of immune signaling. In this review, we focus on recent advances in the role of autophagy in innate immune systems.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.115-121
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• 2009

Natural killer (NK) cells play key roles in innate and adaptive immune defenses. NK cell responses are mediated by two major mechanisms: the direct cytolysis of target cells, and immune regulation by production of various cytokines. Many previous reports show that the complex NK cell activation process requires de novo gene expression regulated at both transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. Specialized un-translated regions (UTR) of mRNAs are the main mechanisms of post-transcriptional regulation. Analysis of posttranscriptional regulation is needed to clearly understand NK cell biology and, furthermore, harness the power of NK cells for therapeutic aims. This review summarizes the current understanding of mRNA metabolism during NK cell activation, focusing primarily on post-transcriptional regulation.

• The Journal of Art Theory & Practice
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• no.8
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• pp.185-215
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• 2009

In Malaysia, figurative painting has increasingly become a means for artists to pose questions about presumptions of power and assumptions of history. The body, its potentially breached boundaries and defenses, forms an integral component of the battle for political influence. The degree of control over one's own and other people's bodies has become a measuring stick to determine the power of potential political leaders. Anxiety about boundaries and access to powerful bodies is intertwined with the questions of who has the right to hold power; the relevance of moral bodies and of what comprises an ideal self or selves. These questions are raised in intriguing ways in contemporary Malaysian art. While eschewing a direct take on current politics, Malaysian artists have increasingly turned to the body to address issues in Malaysian history, culture and the distribution of power. This paper will explore some works by three artists in particular, Wong Hoy Cheong, Nadiah Bamadhaj and Ahmad Fuad Osman use the figure to problematise dominant narratives in Malaysian history. Their work variously challenge political, racial and gender hierarchies and in so doing, reveal them as social constructions.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.481-487
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• 2007

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) induce innate immune responses that are essential for host defenses against invading microbial pathogens, thus leading to the activation of adaptive immune responses. In general, TLRs have two major downstream signaling pathways: the MyD88- and TRIF-dependent pathways, which lead to the activation of $NF-{\kappa}B$ and IRF3. Numerous studies have demonstrated that certain phytochemicals possessing anti-inflammatory effects inhibit $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation induced by pro-inflammatory stimuli, including lipopolysaccharides and $TNF{\alpha}$. However, the direct molecular targets for such anti-inflammatory phytochemicals have not been fully identified. Identifying the direct targets of phytochemicals within the TLR pathways is important because the activation of TLRs by pro-inflammatory stimuli can induce inflammatory responses that are the key etiological conditions in the development of many chronic inflammatory diseases. In this paper we discuss the molecular targets of resveratrol, (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), and curcumin in the TLR signaling pathways. Resveratrol specifically inhibited the TRIF pathway in TLR3 and TLR4 signaling, by targetting TBK1 and RIP1 in the TRIF complex. Furthermore, EGCG suppressed the activation of IRF3 by targetting TBK1 in the TRIF-dependent signaling pathways. In contrast, the molecular target of curcumin within the TLR signaling pathways is the receptor itself, in addition to $IKK{\beta}$. Together, certain dietary phytochemicals can modulate TLR-derived signaling and inflammatory target gene expression, and in turn, alter susceptibility to microbial infection and chronic inflammatory diseases.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.704-711
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• 2016

Tomatoes are considered as one of the main components of daily meals in most households. Thus, it is important to invest in studies enhancing their yield and nutritional value. The study evaluated the effect of wood vinegar (WV) on tomato under greenhouse conditions. Data on fruit number, fruit weight, and plant height were recorded. Total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant activity of tomato were determined using the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent and 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assay, respectively. FRR-CF+500x-WV significantly increased the fruit number (86.11%) and fruit weight (81.78%) over the control. Results were comparable to HRR-CF+250x-WV, indicating that conventional fertilizer and WV may have synergistic effect on each other. TPC and scavenging effect on DPPH radical was improved by 250x-WV application. The increase in the phenolic compounds can be attributed to WV as a direct source or as a factor triggering the plants to produce more secondary metabolites with the purpose of increasing natural defenses. The significant effect obtained by applying the full recommended rate of conventional fertilizer on the carotenoid content was due to the availability of the major nutrients needed by the plant. Correlation analysis showed that carotenoids have negative correlation with TPC and DPPH. However, TPC and DPPH showed that these are positively correlated with each other. Tomatoes are excellent source of antioxidants associated with the reduction of some human diseases and improved health. The results provided evidence that WV alone and/or its combination with conventional fertilizers has favorable effects on the quality of tomato.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.42 no.7
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• pp.503-511
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• 2019

As sessile organisms, plants have developed sophisticated system to defend themselves against microbial attack. Since plants do not have specialized immune cells, all plant cells appear to have the innate ability to recognize pathogens and turn on an appropriate defense response. The plant innate immune system has two major branches: PAMPs (pathogen associated molecular patterns)-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI). The ability to discriminate between self and non-self is a fundamental feature of living organisms, and it is a prerequisite for the activation of plant defenses specific to microbial infection. Arabidopsis cells express receptors that detect extracellular molecules or structures of the microbes, which are called collectively PAMPs and activate PTI. However, nucleotidebinding site leucine-rich repeats (NB-LRR) proteins mediated ETI is induced by direct or indirect recognition of effector molecules encoded by avr genes. In Arabidopsis, plasmamembrane localized multifunctional protein RIN4 (RPM1-interacting protein 4) plays important role in both PTI and ETI. Previous studies have suggested that RIN4 functions as a negative regulator of PTI. In addition, many different bacterial effector proteins modify RIN4 to destabilize plant immunity and several NB-LRR proteins, including RPM1 (resistance to Pseudomonas syringae pv. maculicola 1), RPS2 (resistance to P. syringae 2) guard RIN4. This review summarizes the current studies that have described signaling mechanism of RIN4 function, modification of RIN4 by bacterial effectors and different interacting partner of RIN4 in defense related pathway. In addition, the emerging role of the RIN4 in plant physiology and intercellular signaling as it presents in exosomes will be discussed.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.94-103
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• 2017

As automatic hacking tools and techniques have been improved, the number of new vulnerabilities has increased. The CVE registered from 2010 to 2015 numbered about 80,000, and it is expected that more vulnerabilities will be reported. In most cases, patching a vulnerability depends on the developers' capability, and most patching techniques are based on manual analysis, which requires nine months, on average. The techniques are composed of finding the vulnerability, conducting the analysis based on the source code, and writing new code for the patch. Zero-day is critical because the time gap between the first discovery and taking action is too long, as mentioned. To solve the problem, techniques for automatically detecting and analyzing software (SW) vulnerabilities have been proposed recently. Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC) held in 2016 was the first competition to create automatic defensive systems capable of reasoning over flaws in binary and formulating patches without experts' direct analysis. Darktrace and Cylance are similar projects for managing SW automatically with artificial intelligence and machine learning. Though many foreign commercial institutions and academies run their projects for automatic binary analysis, the domestic level of technology is much lower. This paper is to study developing automatic detection of SW vulnerabilities and defenses against them. We analyzed and compared relative works and tools as additional elements, and optimal techniques for automatic analysis are suggested.

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.304-311
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• 2022

Although the SEAD(suppression to enemy air defenses) mission is a strategically important task in modern warfare, the high risk of direct exposure to enemy air defense assets forces to use of unmanned aerial vehicles. this paper proposes a path planning algorithm for SEAD mission for an unmanned aerial vehicle and a method for calculating the mission effectiveness on the planned path. Based on the RRT-based path planning algorithm, a low-altitude ingress/egress flight path that can consider the enemy's short-range air defense threat was generated. The Dubins path-based Intercept path planning technique was used to generate a path that is the shortest path while avoiding the enemy's short-range anti-aircraft threat as much as possible. The ingress/intercept/egress paths were connected in order. In addition, mission effectiveness consisting of fuel consumption, the survival probability, the time required to perform the mission, and the target destruction probability was calculated based on the generated path. The proposed techniques were verified through a scenario.