• BMB Reports
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• v.55 no.8
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• pp.395-400
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• 2022

Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) is a well-known Gramnegative opportunistic pathogen. Neutrophils play key roles in mediating host defense against P. aeruginosa infection. In this study, we identified a metabolite derived from P. aeruginosa that regulates neutrophil activities. Using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, a markedly increased level of 2-undecanone was identified in the peritoneal fluid of P. aeruginosa-infected mice. 2-Undecanone elicited the activation of neutrophils in a G_αi-phospholipase C pathway. However, 2-undecanone strongly inhibited responses to lipopolysaccharide and bactericidal activity of neutrophils against P. aeruginosa by inducing apoptosis. Our results demonstrate that 2-undecanone from P. aeruginosa limits the innate defense activity of neutrophils, suggesting that the production of inhibitory metabolites is a strategy of P. aeruginosa for escaping the host immune system.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.490-500
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• 2022

Aging is defined as physiological dysfunction of the body and a key risk factor for human diseases. During the aging process, cellular senescence occurs in response to various extrinsic and intrinsic factors such as radiation-induced DNA damage, the activation of oncogenes, and oxidative stress. These senescent cells accumulate in many tissues and exhibit diverse phenotypes, such as resistance to apoptosis, production of senescence-associated secretory phenotype, cellular flattening, and cellular hypertrophy. They also induce abnormal dysfunction of the microenvironment and damage neighboring cells, eventually causing harmful effects in the development of various chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. Thus, pharmacological interventions targeting senescent cells, called senotherapeutics, have been extensively studied. These senotherapeutics provide a novel strategy for extending the health span and improving age-related diseases. In this review, we discuss the current progress in understanding the molecular mechanisms of senotherapeutics and provide insights for developing senotherapeutics.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.210-218
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• 2023

The author presents a simple data-driven intraday technical indicator trading approach based on Genetic Programming (GP) for return forecasting in the Bitcoin market. We use five trend-following technical indicators as input to GP for developing trading rules. Using data on daily Bitcoin historical prices from January 2017 to February 2020, our principal results show that the combination of technical analysis indicators and Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, primarily GP, is a potential forecasting tool for Bitcoin prices, even outperforming the buy-and-hold strategy. Sensitivity analysis is employed to adjust the number and values of variables, activation functions, and fitness functions of the GP-based system to verify our approach's robustness.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.38B no.1
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• pp.72-79
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• 2013

In wireless sensor networks, the selective wakeup scheme is one of the energy saving mechanisms, that is used for an object detecting or tracking. Recently, many protocols are proposed using the selective wakeup scheme for the continuous objects tracking such as forest fires and poison gas. They predict the future shape of continuous objects and activate only sensors in the predicted boundary area of the objects. It works correctly in a uniformly deployed wireless sensor networks. However, it cannot be directly applied to a randomly deployed sensor networks with voids. When the predicted area is in the void area, the activation message cannot reach and the predicted area cannot be activated at the right time. It leads to many detection errors for continuous object. Moreover, if a sensor is once foiled in a activation control then the next activation control might be continuously failed. The detection errors can be result in serious harm to people. In this paper, we propose a chaining selective wakeup scheme for robust continuous object tracking in wireless sensor networks. In our protocol, we collect the information of a void area during the network configuration time; if the next boundary area is in the void area, we activate the chained area surrounding the void area with activation control message.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.390-398
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• 2017

In this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey for the purpose of finding a method of mobile sector ecosystem activation targeted at small and medium businesses (SMBs). Through the total of 204 responders consisting of business employees from each mobile sector, we analyzed the factors inhibiting the development of the mobile ecosystem and preventing the activation the mobile market, as well as conducting a diagnosis of the digital potential. This paper presented suggestions for searching for a systematic supporting strategy considering the short-term inhibitory factors (market structure improvement, financial support, etc.) and long-term orientation factors (personnel nurturing, strengthening of supporting role by governmental initiative) for the activation of the domestic mobile market. After measuring the digital potential, we found that domestic mobile SMBs have perceived the importance of the digital potential and have considered and readied themselves for the future market. The present survey found that if suitable digitalization can be accomplished for their firms' products and services, they have the ability and willingness to succeed in the market. However, they have a hard task ahead of them from adigital delivery perspective given the potential for digital disruptions.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.188-200
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• 2003

Background: Immunization of dendritic cells (DCs) pulsed with tumor antigen can activate tumor-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) that are responsible for protection and regression. In this study, we examined whether the uptake of necrotic tumor cells could modulate DC phenotypes and whether the immunization of necrotic tumor cell-loaded DCs could elicit efficient tumor specific immune responses followed by a regression of established tumor burdens. Methods: We prepared necrotic tumor cell-pulsed DCs for the therapeutic vaccination and investigated their phenotypic characteristics, the immune responses induced by these DCs, and therapeutic vaccine efficacy against colon carcinoma in vivo. Several parameters including phagocytosis of tumor cells, surface antigen expression, chemokine receptor expression, IL-12 production, and NK as well as CTL activation were assessed to characterize the immune response. Results: DCs derived from mouse bone marrow efficiently phagocytosed necrotic tumor cells and after the uptake, they produced remarkably increased levels of IL-12. A decreased CCR1 and increased CCR7 expression on DCs was also observed after the tumor uptake, suggesting that antigen uptake could induce DC maturation. Furthermore, co-culturing of DCs with NK cells in vitro enhanced IL-12 production in DCs and IFN-${\gamma}$ production in NK cells, which was significantly dependent on IL-12 production and cell-to-cell contact. Immunization of necrotic tumor cell-loaded DCs induced cytotoxic T lymphocytes as well as NK activation, and protected mice against subsequent tumor challenge. In addition, intratumoral or contra-lateral immunization of these DCs not only inhibited the growth of established tumors, but also eradicated tumors in more than 60% of tumor-bearing mice. Conclusion: Our data indicate that production of IL-12, chemokine receptor expression and NK as well as CTL activation may serve as major parameters in assessing the effect of tumor cell-pulsed DC vaccine. Therefore, DCs loaded with necrotic tumor cells offer a rational strategy to treat tumors and eventually lead to prolonged survival.

• BMB Reports
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.196-201
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• 2023

Renal fibrosis is the final manifestation of chronic kidney disease (CKD) regardless of etiology. Hypoxia-inducible factor-2 alpha (HIF-2α) is an important regulator of chronic hypoxia, and the late-stage renal tubular HIF-2α activation exerts protective effects against renal fibrosis. However, its specific role in progressive renal fibrosis remains unclear. Here, we investigated the effects of the long-term tubular activation of HIF-2α on renal function and fibrosis, using in vivo and in vitro models of renal fibrosis. Progressive renal fibrosis was induced in renal tubular epithelial cells (TECs) of tetracycline-controlled HIF-2α transgenic (Tg) mice and wild-type (WT) controls through a 6-week adenine diet. Tg mice were maintained on doxycycline (DOX) for the diet period to induce Tg HIF-2α expression. Primary TECs isolated from Tg mice were treated with DOX (5 ㎍/ml), transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) (10 ng/ml), and a combination of both for 24, 48, and 72 hr. Blood was collected to analyze creatinine (Cr) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels. Pathological changes in the kidney tissues were observed using hematoxylin and eosin, Masson's trichrome, and Sirius Red staining. Meanwhile, the expression of fibronectin, E-cadherin and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and the phosphorylation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) was observed using western blotting. Our data showed that serum Cr and BUN levels were significantly lower in Tg mice than in WT mice following the adenine diet. Moreover, the protein levels of fibronectin and E-cadherin and the phosphorylation of p38 MAPK were markedly reduced in the kidneys of adenine-fed Tg mice. These results were accompanied by attenuated fibrosis in Tg mice following adenine administration. Consistent with these findings, HIF-2α overexpression significantly decreased the expression of fibronectin in TECs, whereas an increase in α-SMA protein levels was observed after TGF-β1 stimulation for 72 hr. Taken together, these results indicate that long-term HIF-2α activation in CKD may inhibit the progression of renal fibrosis and improve renal function, suggesting that long-term renal HIF-2α activation may be used as a novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of CKD.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.19-40
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• 2019

Ports have been facing the adverse impacts of the global recession. In terms of imports, with a vast consumption hinterland, the Incheon Port has developed as the metropolitan's gateway. Additionally, the port's exports to China has been increasing due to a consistent increase in the demand of cold chain foods in the country. Considering the short distance between the Incheon Port and the ports in Northern China, the Incheon Port can serve as a logistics hub and a distribution center for exporting processed foodstuffs to China. The establishment of a cold chain logistics system at the Incheon Port will prove to be a robust strategy. After reviewing studies and interviews from various departments, this study suggested strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) facing the Incheon Port, based on a SWOT analysis; it also recommended competitive strategies for the port. Additionally, the study used the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to identify important factors such as the infrastructural, operational, cost, and technology factors. This study identified the infrastructural factor to be highly critical to the activation of the Incheon Port's cold chain system. Based on the results, the study proposed policies and strategy directions.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.740-746
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• 2005

In this article, we report the tandem mass spectrometry investigations for the electron capture efficiencies of the protons belonging to the different locations (generations) in a poly(propylene imine) dendrimer with three layers of a repeat unit (named as the third generation dendrimer). The employed tandem mass spectrometry methods include SORI-CAD (sustained off-resonance irradiation collisional activation dissociation) and ECD(electron capture dissociation) mass spectrometry. We obtained SORI-CAD spectra for the dendrimer ions in the different charge states, ranging from 2+ to 4+. The analysis of fragmentation sites provides the information as to where the protons are distributed among various generations of the dendrimer. Based upon this, a new strategy to study the electron capture efficiencies of the protons is utilized to examine a new type of triplycharged ions by SORI-CAD, i.e., the 3+ ions generated from the charge reduction of the native 4+ ions by ECD: (M+4H)$^{4+}\;+\;e^-\;{\rightarrow}$ (M+4H)$^{3+\bullet}$ ${\rightarrow}\;({H^{\bullet}}_{ejected}$) + (M+3H)$^{3+}\;\rightarrow$ CAD. Interestingly, comparison of these four SORICAD spectra indicates that the proton distribution in the charge-reduced 3+ ions is very close to that in the native 4+ ions. It further suggests that in this synthetic polymer ($\sim$1.7 kDa) with an artificial architecture, the electron capture efficiencies of the protons are actually insensitive to where they are located in the molecule. This is somewhat contradictory to common expectations that the protons in the inner generations may not be well exposed to the incoming electron irradiation as much as the outer ones are, thus may be less efficient for electron capture. This finding may carry some implications for the case of medium sized peptide ions with similar masses, which are known to show no obvious site-specific fragmentations in ECD MS.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.115-123
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• 2018

This study aims to analyze the importance of activating factors in the companies operating in the free trade zone of Pyeongtaek Port by using hierarchical analytical decision making method and suggest implications according to the analysis results. As a result of analyzing the importance of the five factors, it was found that most of the companies in the free trade zone of Pyeongtaek Port were aware of the infrastructure factor (0.330), finance and budget (0.223), organization and operation (0.188), manpower (0.119) in order of importance. In detail, the expansion of the route was recognized as the most important improvement. and Manufacturing companies were judged to be a more important factor in improving the entry conditions of manufacturers and strengthening the distribution of value added. In logistics companies, the importance of manpower is higher than manufacturing companies. The implications for the results of the analysis are diversification of route in Pyeongtaek Port, improvement of the infrastructure near the free trade zone, and The need for institutional improvements. Also, in the future, we suggest the necessity of activation research for non - residents.