• Molecules and Cells
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.51-56
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• 2005

Excitation-contraction coupling (ECC) proteins in the human heart were characterized using human atrial tissues from different age groups. The samples were classified into one infant group (Group A: 0.2-7 years old) and three adult groups (Group B: 21-30; Group C: 41-49; Group D: 60-66). Whole homogenates (WH) of atrial tissues were assayed for ligand binding, $^{45}Ca^{2+}$ uptake and content of ECC proteins by Western blotting. Equilibrium [$^3H$]ryanodine binding to characterize the ryanodine receptor (RyR) of the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) showed that the maximal [$^3H$]ryanodine binding ($B_{max}$) to RyR was similar in all the age groups, but the dissociation constant ($k_d$) of ryanodine was higher in the infant group than the adult groups. Oxalate-supported $^{45}Ca^{2+}$ uptake into the SR, a function of the SR SERCA2a activity, was lower in the infant group than in the adult groups. Similarly, [$^3H$]PN200-110 binding, an index of dihydropyridine receptor (DHPR) density, was lower in the infant group. Expression of calsequestrin and triadin assessed by Western blotting was similar in the infant and adult groups, but junctin expression was considerably higher in the adult groups. These differences in key ECC proteins could underlie the different $Ca^{2+}$ handling properties and contractility of infant hearts.

• BMB Reports
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.723-730
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• 2007

Kinesin is an ATP-driven microtubule motor protein that plays important roles in control of microtubule dynamics, intracellular transport, cell division and signal transduction. The kinesin superfamily is composed of numerous members that are classified into 14 subfamilies. Animal kinesins have been well characterized. In contrast, plant kinesins have not yet to be characterized adequately. Here, a novel plant-specific kinesin gene, GhKCH2, has been cloned from cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) fibers and biochemically identified by prokaryotic expression, affinity purification, ATPase activity assay and microtubule-binding analysis. The putative motor domain of GhKCH2, $M_{396-734}$ corresponding to amino acids Q396-N734 was fused with 6$\times$His-tag, soluble-expressed in E. coli and affinity-purified in a large amount. The biochemical analysis demonstrated that the basal ATPase activity of $M_{396-734}$ is not activated by $Ca^{2+}$, but stimulated 30-fold max by microtubules. The enzymatic activation is microtubule-concentration-dependent, and the concentration of microtubules that corresponds to half-maximum activation was about 11 ${\mu}M$, much higher than that of other kinesins reported. The cosedimentation assay indicated that $M_{396-734}$ could bind to microtubules in vitro whenever the nucleotide AMP-PNP is present or absent. As a plant-specific microtubule-dependent kinesin with a lower microtubule-affinity and a nucleotide-independent microtubule-binding ability, cotton GhKCH2 might be involved in the function of microtubules during the deposition of cellulose microfibrils in fibers or the formation of cell wall.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.34 no.12C
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• pp.1167-1176
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• 2009

In This Paper, we introduce an efficient IFFT design technique named for transmitter of OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) system. In OFDM system, a cyclic prefix is inserted in forepart of OFDM symbol to prevent ICI(Inter-channel Interference) and ISI (Inter-symbol Interference). Attaching cyclic prefix causes delay in storing and copying IFFT result. The proposed IFFT removes this delay because its output is cyclic shifted by the length of cyclic prefix. So we can make a complete OFDM symbol by just copying the forepart of IFFT output to the end. In many cases, the length of cyclic prefix is 1/2n of FFT size, and this IFFT does not require additional hardware complexity and it does not cause any performance degradation.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.154-161
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• 2015

A novel process has successfully been developed by overcoming major difficulties through the elimination of number of process steps involved in the Classical Transesterification reaction during the preparation of Fatty Acid Methyl/Ethyl Ester (FAME.FAEE) called biodiesel. The Classical process with cost intensive process steps such as the utilization of excess alcohol, needing downstream distillation for the recovery and reutilization of excess alcohol/cosolvent, unrecoverable homogenous catalyst which consumes vast quantity of fresh distilled water during the purification of the product and downstream waste water treatment before its safe disposal to the surface water body. The Novel Process FAME/FAEE is produced from any vegetable oil irrespective of edible or inedible variety using sonication energy. The novelty of the finding is the use of only theoretical quantity of alcohol along with a co-solvent and reduced quantity of homogeneous catalyst. Under this condition neither the homogeneous catalyst goes to the FAME layer nor is the distillation needed. The same ester also has been prepared in high pressure high temperature reactor without using catalyst at sub critical temperature. The quality of prepared biodiesel without involving any purification step meets the ASTM standards. Blended Biodiesel with Common Diesel Fuel (CDF) and FAME is prepared, characterized and used as fuel in the Kirloskar make CI Engines. The evaluation of the engine performance result of pure CDF, B05 biodiesel, B10 biodiesel of all types of biodiesel prepared by using the feedstock of Soybean (Glycine max) and Karanja (Pongamia pinnate) oil along with their mixed oil provides useful information such as brake power, brake thermal efficiency, brake specific fuel consumption, etc, and established it as ideal fuel for unmodified CI engine.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.30-35
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• 2017

The effects of the crystallographic orientation and sample thickness on the magnetic levitation forces (F) and trapped magnetic field (B) of single grain YBCO bulk superconductors were examined. Single grain YBCO samples with a (001), (110) or (100) surface were used as the test samples. The samples used for the force-distance (F-d) measurement were cooled at 77 K without a magnetic field (zero field cooling, ZFC), whereas the samples used for the B measurement were cooled under the external magnetic field of a Nd-B-Fe permanent magnet (field cooling, FC). It was found that F and B of the (001) surface were higher than those of the (110) or (100) surface, which is attributed to the higher critical current density ($J_c$) of the (001) surface. For the (001) samples with t=5-18 mm, the maximum magnetic levitation forces ($F_{max}s$) of the ZFC samples were larger than 40 N. About 80% of the applied magnetic field was trapped in the FC samples. However, the F and B decreased rapidly as t decreased below 5 mm. There exists a critical sample thickness (t=5 mm for the experimental condition of this study) for maintaining the large levitation/trapping properties, which is dependent on the material properties and magnitude of the external magnetic fields.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartB
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• v.16B no.4
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• pp.327-331
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• 2009

In fuzzy logic, aggregating uncertainties is generally achieved by means of operators such as t-norms and t-conorms. However, existing aggregation operators have some disadvantages as follows : First, they are situation-independent. Thus, they may not be properly applied to dynamic aggregation process. Second, they do not give an intuitional sense to decision making process. To solve these problems, we propose a new $\varepsilon$-AMDA (Aggregation based on the fuzzy Multidimensional Decision Analysis) algorithm to reflect degrees of strength for option i (i = 1, 2, ..., n) in the decision making process. The $\varepsilon$-AMDA algorithm makes adaptive aggregation results between min (the most weakness for an option) and max (the most strength for an option) according to the values of the parameter representing degrees of strength for an option. In this respect, it may be applied to dynamic aggregation process. In addition, it provides a mechanism of the fuzzy multidimensional decision analysis for decision making, and gives an intuitional sense to decision making process. Thus, the proposed method aids the decision maker to get a suitable decision according to the degrees of strength for options (or alternatives).

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.53.2-53.2
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• 2015

We present preliminary results from a series of observations toward G108.8-00.8, which is one of Planck Cold Clumps and a promising candidate of massive prestellar cores. In the integrated intensity map of SCUBA 850 micron dust continuum emission, highly fragmented structures appear. These are distributed along one long filamentary structure seen in the CO 1-0 and 13CO 1-0 integrated intensity maps obtained with the PMO 13.7 m telescope. The northern part of the filament is divided into two parts, as seen in the CO 2-1, 13CO 2-1, and C18O 2-1 integrated intensity maps obtained with the CSO 10 m telescope. The observations of HCO+ 1-0, N2H+ 1-0, and HCN 1-0 with the IRAM 30 m telescope focus on the northern part of the CSO maps, which show a head-tail structure. NH3 (1,1) also shows similar distribution with IRAM maps. The depletion factors, derived by the comparison between the dust continuum and C18O 2-1 emission, varies from 1.5 to 6 over the region, suggesting different evolutionary status of each component. To study the chemical and physical environments of G108.8-00.8, more detailed analysis is in progress.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.239-244
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• 2017

How does the presence of an AGN influence the total SFR estimates of galaxies and change their distribution with respect to the Galaxy Main Sequence? To contribute to solving this question, we study a sample of 1133 sources detected in the North Ecliptic Pole field (NEP) by AKARI and Herschel. We create a multi-wavelength dataset for these galaxies and we fit their multi-wavelength Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) using the whole spectral regime (from 0.1 to $500{\mu}m$). We perform the fit using three procedures: LePhare and two optimised codes for identifying AGN tracers from the SED analysis. In this work we present an overview of the comparison between the estimates of the Infrared bolometric luminosities (between 8 and $1000{\mu}m$) and the AGN fractions obtained exploiting these different procedures. In particular, by estimating the AGN contribution in four different wavelength ranges ($5-40{\mu}m$, $10-20{\mu}m$, $20-40{\mu}m$ and $8-1000{\mu}m$) we show how the presence of an AGN affects the PAH emission by suppressing the ratio $\frac{L_{8{\mu}m}}{L_{4.5{\mu}m}}$ as a function of the considered wavelength range.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.213-217
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• 2017

The recent updates of the North Ecliptic Pole deep ($0.5deg^2$, NEP-Deep) multi-wavelength survey covering from X-ray to radio-wave is presented. The NEP-Deep provides us with several thousands of $15{\mu}m$ or $18{\mu}m$ selected galaxies, which is the largest sample ever made at these wavelengths. A continuous filter coverage in the mid-infrared wavelength (7, 9, 11, 15, 18, and 24 µm) is unique and vital to diagnose the contributions from starbursts and AGNs in the galaxies out to z=2. The new goal of the project is to resolve the nature of the cosmic star formation history at the violent epoch (e.g. z=1-2), and to find a clue to understand its decline from z=1 to present universe by utilizing the unique power of the multiwavelength survey. The progress in this context is briefly mentioned.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.9
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• pp.1555-1563
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• 2008

A novel $\alpha$-amylase ($\alpha$-1,4-$\alpha$-D-glucan glucanohydrolase, E.C. 3.2.1.1), ScAmy43, was found in the culture medium of the phytopathogenic fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum grown on oats flour. Purified to homogeneity, ScAmy43 appeared as a 43 kDa monomeric enzyme, as estimated by SDS-PAGE and Superdex 75 gel filtration. The MALDI peptide mass fingerprint of ScAmy43 tryptic digest as well as internal sequence analyses indicate that the enzyme has an original primary structure when compared with other fungal a-amylases. However, the sequence of the 12 N-terminal residues is homologous with those of Aspergillus awamori and Aspergillus kawachii amylases, suggesting that the new enzyme belongs to the same GH13 glycosyl hydrolase family. Assayed with soluble starch as substrate, this enzyme displayed optimal activity at pH 4 and $55^{\circ}C$ with an apparent $K_m$ value of 1.66 mg/ml and $V_{max}$ of 0.1${\mu}mol$glucose $min^{-1}$ $ml^{-1}$. ScAmy43 activity was strongly inhibited by $Cu^{2+}$, $Mn^{2+}$, and $Ba^{2+}$, moderately by $Fe^{2+}$, and was only weakly affected by $Ca^{2+}$ addition. However, since EDTA and EGTA did not inhibit ScAmy43 activity, this enzyme is probably not a metalloprotein. DTT and $\beta$-mercaptoethanol strongly increased the enzyme activity. Starting with soluble starch as substrate, the end products were mainly maltotriose, suggesting for this enzyme an endo action.