• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.28.1-28.13
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• 2023

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a clinical syndrome characterized by the onset and evolution of cognitive impairments, often considered a transitional stage to Alzheimer's disease (AD). The genetic traits of MCI patients who experience a rapid progression to AD can enhance early diagnosis capabilities and facilitate drug discovery for AD. While a genome-wide association study (GWAS) is a standard tool for identifying single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) related to a disease, it fails to detect SNPs with small effect sizes due to stringent control for multiple testing. Additionally, the method does not consider the group structures of SNPs, such as genes or linkage disequilibrium blocks, which can provide valuable insights into the genetic architecture. To address the limitations, we propose a Bayesian bi-level variable selection method that detects SNPs associated with time of conversion from MCI to AD. Our approach integrates group inclusion indicators into an accelerated failure time model to identify important SNP groups. Additionally, we employ data augmentation techniques to impute censored time values using a predictive posterior. We adapt Dirichlet-Laplace shrinkage priors to incorporate the group structure for SNP-level variable selection. In the simulation study, our method outperformed other competing methods regarding variable selection. The analysis of Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) data revealed several genes directly or indirectly related to AD, whereas a classical GWAS did not identify any significant SNPs.

• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.55-63
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• 1985

Phosphate, ammonia, glucosamine, glucose, pyruvate, succinate, fumarate, malate and acetate were examined for their ability to control the heat-stable enterotoxin (ST) production in succinate salts medium or in M9 medium. The results obtained were summerized as follows. 1. When the initial phosphate concentration was adjusted to 1.0mM, ST production was decreased to 80u/ml or less. But when the initial phosphate concentration was adjusted to 64mM or 100mM, enterotoxin production was 320u/ml. 2. When the initial ammonia concentration in the medium was adjusted to 1.0mM, no ST production and cell growth were observed. But when ammonia concentration was adjusted to 10mM, 19mM, 38mM or 76mM, enterotoxin production was 320u/ml. 3. Among carbon sources, glucosamine, glucose, pyruvate, succinate, fumarate, malate and acetate, acetate supported the highest specific production (928 unit/O.D.) of heat-stable enterotoxin. From this results, we could assume that heat-stable enterotoxin production is controlled by stringent control mechanism. 4. When the pH of the succinate salts medium was kept between 6.2 to 6.5, no heat-stable enterotoxin production was observed, but when the pH of the medium was kept between pH 6.2 to 6.5, 267 unit/O.D. of heat-stable enterotoxin was produced. 5. Glucose inhibited the heat-stable enterotoxin production and the mechanism was assumed due to its capacity to lower the pH of the medium during catabolysis and its high metabolic energy.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.99-107
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• 2009

This paper reviews the current status of mercury research on exposure and contamination, mercury emissions, emission limits and control technologies, long-range transport and deposition research, and mercury management policy in Korea. According to a monitoring of the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Health and Welfare, blood mercury levels among Koreans are $5{\sim}8$ times higher than those of U.S. and Germany. The most dominant source of exposure to mercury is through dietary intake. Emissions of mercury from coal-fired power plants are estimated 8.93 ton/year in 2004. Emissions of mercury from other important sources, such as waste incineration, steel and cement manufacturing and non-ferrous metal smelting operations are to be further investigated. A study on long-range transport of mercury suggests that the dry deposition flux over the Yellow Sea was much greater than those for other oceans. As a whole, the amounts of wet depositions of nitrogen and sulfur were 1.9 and 1.5 times larger than the amounts of dry depositions in each species, respectively. Substantial influence from China caused by high emissions in East China and westerly wind was possibly suggested. However, the influence from nitrogen emission in Korea was also confirmed. Korean Government has already adopted stringent emission limits on mercury for incinerators and boilers in 2005. However, emission limits for coal-fired power plants and non-ferrous metal smelters are rather relaxed. As the above mentioned two sources can be two most important sources of mercury emissions, control strategy for those sources are to be considered.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2004

The requirements for harsh environment electronic controllers in automotive applications have been steadily becoming more and more stringent. Electronic substrate technologists have been responding to this challenge effectively in an effort to meet the performance, reliability and cost requirements. An effect of the plasma cleaning at the ECM(Engine Control Module) alumina substrate and the intermetallic compound layer between Sn-37wt%Pb solder and pad joints after reflow soldering has been studied. Organic residual carbon layer was removed by the substrate plasma cleaning. So the interfacial adhesive strength was enhanced. As a result of AFM measurement, conductor pad roughness were increased from 304 nm to 330 nm. $Cu_6/Sn_5$ formed during initial reflow process at the interface between TiWN/Cu pad and solder grew by the succeeding reflow process, so the grains became coarse. A cellular-shaped $Ag_3Sn$ was observed at the interface between Ag-Pd conductor pad and solder. The diameters of the $Ag_3Sn$ grains ranged from about 0.1∼0.6 $\mu\textrm{m}$. And a needle-shaped was also observed at the inside of the solder.

• 한국환경농학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.07a
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• pp.220-227
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• 2009

For last about 10 years, the Republic of Korea experienced 3 times of outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) from 10 December 2003 to 30 April 2004 (a total number of 19 outbreaks), 22 November 2006 to 6 March 2007 (a total number of 7 outbreaks), and 1 April 2008 to 12 May 2008 (a total number of 33 outbreaks). Among the totally 59 outbreaks, the infected premises included 35 chicken farms, 17 duck farms, 1 quail farm, and 6 farms rearing mixed species. Control measures were applied according to the HPAI standard operation procedure including depopulation of all infected and suspected flocks, movement restrictions, and disinfection of the infected farms within a 500-meter radius. Including movement restrictions, stringent control measures were additionally applied to two designated zones: the protection zone was an area within a 3-kilometer radius of the outbreak farm, and the surveillance zone was an area between a 3- to 10-kilometer radius of the outbreak farm. Farms with dangerous contacts and/or all of poultry within the protection zone was subjected to preemptive culling. Epidemiological investigations were also carried out including trace-back and trace-forward investigations to identify possible sources of spread and dangerous contact farms. Investigation teams conducted on-site examination of farm premises and facilities, interview with farm owner and staff, and review of records. Genetic and pathogenic characteristics of the virus isolates, and the results of the various surveillance activities were also analyzed. HPAI surveillance conducted in Korea includes passive surveillance of investigating notified cases, and active surveillance of testing high risk groups and areas. HPAI is a notifiable disease in Korea and all suspect cases must be reported to the veterinary authorities. Cases reported for other poultry diseases that require differential diagnosis are also tested for HPAI. Active surveillance includes annual testing of breeder duck farms, broiler duck farms and wild bird surveillance, which is concentrated during the autumn and winter. Surveillance activities conducted prior to the outbreaks have shown no evidence of HPAI infection in Korea.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.309-316
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• 2014

A large particle accelerator requires an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) system of average pressure under $1{\times}10^{-7}$ Pa for mitigating the impact of beam scattering from the residual gas molecules. The surface inside the beam ducts should be controlled with an extremely low thermal outgassing rate under $1{\times}10^{-9}Pa{\cdot}m^3/(s{\cdot}m^2)$ for the sake of the insufficient pumping speed. To fulfil the requirements, the aluminum alloys were adopted as the materials of the beam ducts for large accelerator that thanks to the good features of higher thermal conductivity, non-radioactivity, non-magnetism, precise machining capability, et al. To put the aluminum into the large accelerator vacuum systems, several key technologies have been developed will be introduced. The concepts contain the precise computer numerical control (CNC) machining process for the large aluminum ducts and parts in pure alcohol and in an oil-free environment, surface cleaning with ozonized water, stringent welding process control manually or automatically to form a large sector of aluminum ducts, ex-situ baking process to reach UHV and sealed for transportation and installation, UHV pumping with the sputtering ion pumps and the non-evaporable getters (NEG), et al. The developed UHV technologies have been applied to the 3 GeV Taiwan Photon Source (TPS) and revealed good results as the expectation. The problems of leakage encountered during the assembling were most associated with the vacuum baking which result in the consequent trouble shootings and more times of baking. Then the installation of the well-sealed UHV systems is recommended.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.1604-1613
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• 2018

Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) is a probiotic commonly used in fermented dairy products. In this study, RNA-sequencing was performed to unravel the effects of acid stress on LGG. The transcriptomic data revealed that the exposure of LGG to acid at pH 4.5 (resembling the final pH of fermented dairy products) for 1 h or 24 h provoked a stringent-type transcriptomic response wherein stress response- and glycolysis-related genes were upregulated, whereas genes involved in gluconeogenesis, amino acid metabolism, and nucleotide metabolism were suppressed. Notably, the pilus-specific adhesion genes, spaC, and spaF were significantly upregulated upon exposure to acid-stress. The transcriptomic results were further confirmed via quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis. Moreover, acid-stressed LGG demonstrated an enhanced mucin-binding ability in vitro, with 1 log more LGG cells (p < 0.05) bound to a mucin layer in a 96-well culture plate as compared to the control. The enhanced intestinal binding ability of acid-stressed LGG was confirmed in an animal study, wherein significantly more viable LGG cells (${\geq}2log\;CFU/g$) were observed in the ileum, caecum, and colon of acid-stressed LGG-treated mice as compared with a non-acid-stressed LGG-treated control group. To our knowledge, this is the first report showing that acid stress enhanced the intestine-binding ability of LGG through the induction of pili-related genes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2013.04a
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• pp.390-394
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• 2013

Observation satellites carrying high precision optical payload require extremely stringent pointing stability that may be violated in the presence of the disturbances corning from reaction wheels, cryocoolers or other actuating components onboard the satellite. The most common method to protect the sensitive payloads from external disturbances is implementation of vibration isolator. In this paper development of a single axis active vibration isolator using electromagnet and its performance in isolating micro-vibration is presented. The main components of the developed isolator are membrane structure providing the isolator with the required stiffness and an electromagnet for active control. The performance test results show that additional damping can be achieved by active control without degrading isolation performance in high frequency region and that the developed isolator can effectively isolate micro-vibration.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.6 s.86
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• pp.847-858
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• 2007

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is an important intracellular organelle for folding and maturation of newly synthesized transmembrane and secretory proteins. The ER provides stringent quality control systems to ensure that only correctly folded proteins exit the ER and unfolded or misfolded proteins are retained and ultimately degraded. The ER has evolved stress response both signaling pathways the unfolded protein response (UPR) to cope with the accmulation of unfolded or misfolded proteins and ER overload response (EOR). Accumulating evidence suggests that, in addition to responsibility for protein processing, ER is also an important signaling compartment and a sensor of cellular stress. In this respect, production of bio-functional recombinant-proteins requires efficient functioning of the ER secretory pathway in host cells. This review briefly summarizes our understanding of the ER signaling developed in the recent years to help of the secretion capacities of recombinant cells.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.13-19
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• 2008

Among the various prime movers for combined heat and power (CHP) system, the CNG engine is the most commonly used power generation equipment of which power is less than 1MW. The 300 kW class CNG engine for CHP can meet stringent emission regulations with the adoption of stoichiometric air-fuel ratio control and three way catalyst. As the thermal efficiency of the stoichiometric ratio engine is lower than that of lean burn engine, it is necessary to operate the stoichiometric engine at its minimum spark advance for the best torque (MBT). However, knock control should be introduced for the engine under high intake air temperature conditions because MBT operating conditions are generally very close to those of knock occurrence. In this study, engine performances and knocking characteristics were experimentally investigated for the CNG engine that needs to be operated at higher intake air temperature conditions than normal conditions.