• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.1-27
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• 2006

Recent migration is led by skilled labor, This paper performes a cross-country analysis to find the determinants of skilled migration using recently released Doquier and Marfouk(2005) data as dependent variable and economic indicators of nations as independent variables. Regression results show that the skilled migration to OECD countries are driven not only by income motive but also by structural factors, such as industrial structure and life expectancy, which have broader meanings in development. It is noteworthy that structural factors of a nation become more important as its income level rises. English seems to have positive effect on skilled migration. Some region-specific factors, proximity to USA of Caribbean countries and political instability of Gold Coast countreis, for example, are found. Middle-income countries seem to be the most vulnerable to the possible risk of brain drain.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.367-371
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• 2001

The chromosome 7-linked long QT syndrome (LQT2) is caused by mutations in the human ether-a- go-go-related gene (HERG) that encodes the rapidly activating delayed rectifier $K^+$ current, $I_{Kr},$ in cardiac myocytes. Different types of mutations have been identified in various locations of HERG channel. One of the mechanisms for the loss of normal channel function is due to membrane trafficking of channel protein. The decreased channel function in some deletion mutants appears to be due to loss of coupling with wild type HERG to form the functional channel as the tetramer. Most of missense mutants with few exceptions could interact with wild type HERG to form functional tetramer and caused dominant negative suppression with co-injection with wild type HERG showing variable effects on current amplitude, voltage dependence, and kinetics of activation and inactivation. Two missense mutants at pore regions of HERG found in Japanese LQT2 (A614V and V630L) showed accentuated inward rectification due to a negative shift in steady-state inactivation and fast inactivation. One mutation in S4 region (R534C) produced a negative shift in current activation, indicating the S4 serving as the voltage sensor and accelerated deactivation. The C-terminus mutation, S818L, could not express the current by mutant alone and did not show dominant negative suppression with co-injection of equal amount of wild type cRNA. Co-injection of excess amount of mutant with wild type produced dominant negative suppression with a shift in voltage dependent activation. Therefore, multiple mechanisms are involved in different mutations and functional abnormality in LQT2. Further characterization with the interactions between various mutants in HERG and the regulatory subunits of the channels (MiRP1 and minK) is to be clarified.

• The Journal of Korean Society of Virology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.29-37
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• 2000

The aim of this study was to investigate viral etiology in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or nested reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR), and characterize the enteroviral RNA presented in the clinical specimens. Twenty-eight paraffin-embedded heart tissue samples were assayed to detect cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex virus type 1, type 2, parvovirus, adenovirus, and enterovirus (EV) with each specific primer. Of these 28 patients (mean age: 27, M: 24, F: 4), 26 were histologically diagnosed as DCM and 2 as myocardial infarction (MI). Nested RT-PCR detected enteroviral RNA in 7 (26.9%) of 26 patients with DCM, and none of patients with MI. And none of DNA viruses tested were detected from the samples. Amplified products were also genotyped by single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP). Three subtypes can be differentiated from 7 clinical specimens. Furthermore, direct sequence analysis was performed to determine whether genetic variation of EV is present in the explanted heart tissues from patients with DCM. Although most of the sequences among the wild isolates have the greatest similarity to those of coxsackievirus B3, there are specific regions of variable sequences (no 490 - no 510). The data suggest that enterovirus may be a major viral pathogen for the DCM in Korea and nucleotide sequence data indicate that coxsackievirus B3 may be a leading etiologic agent of DCM.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.253-258
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• 2015

Toxoplasma gondii, an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite of the phylum Apicomplexa, can infect all warm-blooded vertebrates, including humans, livestock, and marine mammals. The aim of this study was to investigate whether superoxide dismutase (SOD) of T. gondii can be used as a new marker for genetic study or a potential vaccine candidate. The partial genome region of the SOD gene was amplified and sequenced from 10 different T. gondii isolates from different parts of the world, and all the sequences were examined by PCR-RFLP, sequence analysis, and phylogenetic reconstruction. The results showed that partial SOD gene sequences ranged from 1,702 bp to 1,712 bp and A + T contents varied from 50.1% to 51.1% among all examined isolates. Sequence alignment analysis identified total 43 variable nucleotide positions, and these results showed that 97.5% sequence similarity of SOD gene among all examined isolates. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that these SOD sequences were not an effective molecular marker for differential identification of T. gondii strains. The research demonstrated existence of low sequence variation in the SOD gene among T. gondii strains of different genotypes from different hosts and geographical regions.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.42 no.12
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• pp.850-857
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• 2019

The Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, has multiple multidrug efflux pumps. MexT, a LysR-type transcriptional regulator, functions as a transcriptional activator of the MexEF-OprN efflux system. MexT consists of an N-terminal DNA-binding domain and a C-terminal regulatory domain (RD). Little is known regarding MexT ligands and its mechanism of activation. We elucidated the crystal structure of the MexT RD at 2.0 Å resolution. The structure comprised two protomer chains in a dimeric arrangement. MexT possessed an arginine-rich region and a hydrophobic patch lined by a variable loop, both of which are putative ligand-binding sites. The three-dimensional structure of MexT provided clues to the interacting ligand structure. A DNase I footprinting assay of full-length MexT identified two MexT-binding sequence in the mexEF-oprN promoter. Our findings enhance the understanding of the regulation of MexT-dependent activation of efflux pumps.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.33-39
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• 2001

The welding quality by Gas Tungsten Arc Welding shows very high level, but the welding speed is lower than that of gas metal arc welding. Also, the welding quality by automatic GTAW is variable as the arc characteristics is changed by the consumption of electrode tip. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relation between the properties of tungsten electrode tip and the various arc characteristics at high current region. In this study, the high welding current 200A was applied to the repeated arc start test and long term arcing test using the $\phi$3.2 tungsten electrodes with cone angle 30$^{\circ}$, 45$^{\circ}$, 60$^{\circ}$sharp tip, and 60$^{\circ}$surface polished (S.P.) sharp tip. It was confirmed that the maximum arc pressure by the initial electrode condition was highest in 45$^{\circ}$sharp tip, and the next in 60$^{\circ}$sharp tip, the last was in 30$^{\circ}$sharp tip and 60$^{\circ}$S.P.. But, the maximum arc pressure after the repeated arc start test and long term arcing test was decreased considerably. But, the maximum arc pressure was highest also in 45$^{\circ}$ sharp tip after the tests, the next was in 30$^{\circ}$sharp tip, and the last was in 60$^{\circ}$sharp tip and 60$^{\circ}$S.P.. The arc start characteristics was the most excellent in 60$^{\circ}$S.P., By long term arcing test, the lanthania included in tungsten electrode was extinguished at tip surface preferentially, therefore the arc characteristics of electrode tip got worse.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.614-626
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• 2006

Using the data of three environmental monitoring sites in Pohang area(KME112, KME113, and KME114), statistical forecasting models of the daily maximum and mean values of PM10 have been developed. Since the distributions of the daily maximum and mean PM10 values are skewed, which are similar to the Weibull distribution, these values were log-transformed to increase prediction accuracy by approximating the normal distribution. Three statistical forecasting models, which are regression, neural networks(NN) and support vector regression(SVR), were built using the log-transformed response variables, i.e., log(max(PM10)) or log(mean (PM10)). Also, the forecasting models were validated by the measure of RMSE, CORR, and IOA for the model comparison and accuracy. The improvement rate of IOA before and after the log-transformation in the daily maximum PM10 prediction was 12.7% for the regression and 22.5% for NN. In particular, 42.7% was improved for SVR method. In the case of the daily mean PM10 prediction, IOA value was improved by 5.1% for regression, 6.5% for NN, and 6.3% for SVR method. As a conclusion, SVR method was found to be performed better than the other methods in the point of the model accuracy and fitness views.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.14-30
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• 2013

The purpose of this research is to identify the differences in appearance satisfaction, self-esteem and the feeling of happiness according to the demographic variables of teenagers. The conclusion of this research indicate that appearance satisfaction has significant impacts on the self-esteem and the feelings of happiness for adolescence. Teenage students who attend vocational schools get more Allowances than students who attend general high schools, and those who have parents with lower education level also get more Allowances. But the higher the economic standard and grades the students have, the more self-esteem and the feelings of happiness they possess. Thus, the students who attend general high schools have higher self-esteems and feelings of happiness than those in vocational schools. Additionally, the students who have higher economic standards and parents with better'- education levels show more appearance satisfactions for their face, skin and body. Therefore, the level of appearance satisfaction according to the types of school, economic standards, amount of Allowances and parents' education level is an important variable, which can also affect the self-esteem and the feelings of happiness. Teenagers' appearance satisfaction have a significant impact for determining the level of self-esteem and the feeling of happiness.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.470-474
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• 2003

DNA sequence information on small-subunit rRNA gene (16S rDNA) obtained from food-poisoning bacterial culture was used to investigate the presence of bacterial pathogens in food. By reverse dot blot detection method, presence of food-poisoning bacteria could be confirmed on hybridization of digoxigenin-labeled 16S rDNA Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) primer product and biotin-labeled specific oligonucleotide probe. Escherichia coli, Bacillus cereus. and Salmonella sp. were used as the representative food-poisoning bacterial microorganisms. An oligonucleotide probe, based on the variable region of 16S rRNA gene, was used as the specific probe. These tools may be more useful than classic biochemical method for rapid identification of contaminated food.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.403-409
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• 2008

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is very interesting power source due to high power density, simple construction and operation at low temperature. But it has problems such as high cost, improvement of performance, effect of temperature and initial start at low temperature. These problems can be approached to be solved by using experiment and mathematical method which are general principles for analysis and optimization of control system for heat and hydrogen detecting management. In this paper, insulation vessel and control system for stable operation of fuel cell at low temperature were developed for experiment. The constant temperature capability and the heating time at sub-zero temperatures with insulation control system were studied by using a heating bar of 60W class. PEMFC stack which was made by 4 cells with $50\;mc^2$ active area in each cell is a thermal source. Times which take to reach constant temperature by the state of insulation vacuum were measured at variable environment temperatures. The test was performed at two conditions: heating mode and cooling mode. Constant temperature capability was better at lower environment temperature and vacuum pressure. The results of this experiment could be used as basis data about stable operation of fuel cell stack in low temperature zone.