• Journal of KIISE:Databases
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.396-408
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• 2007

After the Human Genome Project finished the sequencing of a human DNA sequence, the concerns on protein functions are increasing. Since the structures of proteins are conserved in divergent evolution, their functions are determined by their structures rather than by their amino acid sequences. Therefore, if similarities between two protein structures are observed, we could expect them to have common biological functions. So far, a lot of researches on protein structure alignment have been performed. However, most of them use RMSD(Root Mean Square Deviation) as a similarity measure with which it is hard to judge the similarity level of two protein structures intuitively. In addition, they retrieve only one result having the highest alignment score with which it is hard to satisfy various users of different purpose. To overcome these limitations, we propose a novel protein structure alignment algorithm based on MRPD(Maximum of Residue Pair Distance) and SG (Similarity Graph). MRPD is more intuitive similarity measure by which fast tittering of unpromising pairs of protein pairs is possible, and SG is a compact representation method for multiple alignment results with which users can choose the most plausible one among various users' needs by providing multiple alignment results without compromising the time to align protein structures.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.353-360
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• 2011

The sequence data of the plastid DNA (trnL-F IGS, trnL intron, and trnH-psbA) and nuclear DNA (RNApol2_i23) markers were utilized to study phylogenetic relationships among the taxa in the Polygonatum odoratum complex (Ruscaceae). European P. odoratum individuals form a clade with a high bootstrap value, which is a sister to the clade of Korean P. odoratum var. odoratum, P. odoratum var. pluriflorum and P. robustum. The formation of the clade with P. odoratum var. odoratum, P. robustum, and one accession of P. odoratum var. pluriflorum indicates geological speciation in isolated populations in the islands following dispersal events from the mainlands. All data sets form two major clades, which are congruent with the subgroups divided by the basic chromosome numbers (x = 9 and x = 10). Although it is not easy to test the hypothesis of the decrease in the basic chromosome number due to scatter taxon sampling in this study, the molecular data strongly suggested that aneuploidy plays an important role in lineage diversification in the genus Polygonatum. The cytological data was not strongly supported by the cpDNA sequences. Further investigations of the cytological, morphological, and geographical characteristics with comprehensive sampling are desired to understand the evolution and lineage diversification in the genus.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.887-900
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• 2011

Teachers use explanations to communicate important scientific ideas to students. Consequently, all biology teachers should be evaluated to determine how effective they are at constructing and communicating biological explanations. Open response questions are required to detect pre-service biology teachers' abilities to communicate robust and accurate scientific explanations. Nevertheless, multiple-choice questions are typically preferred by educators because of the common drawbacks of using open-response instruments, such as scoring time, inter-rater scoring disagreements, and delayed feedback to test takers. This study aims to measure pre-service biology teachers' competence in building scientific explanations and to investigate how accurately multiple-choice questions predict the results of open-response questions. One hundred twenty four pre-service biology teachers participated in the study and were administered 20 multiple-choice items and three open-response items designed to measure the accuracy and quality of their explanations of evolutionary change. The results demonstrated that pre-service teachers displayed higher competence when tested with multiple choice items than when tested with open response items. Moreover, scores derived from multiple-choice items poorly predicted the scores derived from open-response items. Multiple-choice items were also found to be poor measures of the consistency, purity and abundance of conceptual elements in teachers' evolutionary explanations. Additionally, many teachers held mixed-models composed of both scientific and naive ideas, which were difficult to detect using multiple-choice formats. Overall, the study indicates that multiple-choice formats are poorly suited to measuring several aspects of biology teachers' knowledge of evolution, including their ability to generate scientific explanations. This study suggests that open-response items should be used in teacher education programs to assess pre-service teachers' explanatory competency prior to being permitted to teach science to children.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.729-737
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• 2016

Natural selection is the core idea of evolution that pre-service biology teachers need to understand to solve diverse biological problem. This study aims to investigate the level of Korean pre-service biology teachers' understanding of natural selection by comparing their knowledge with their Chinese, American, and German biology major undergraduate counterparts. In particular, this study focuses on two conceptual components of natural selection (i.e., ecology and genetics). This study used a total 1226 pre-service biology teachers and biology majors' data. The instrument measuring the understanding of natural selection concepts was Conceptual Inventory of Natural Selection, which consists of ten ecology concept items and ten genetics concept items. The Rasch model analysis, multivariate analysis of variance, and univariate analysis of variance were used for the statistical tests. The result reveals that the level of Korean pre-service biology teachers' understanding of natural selection were similar with Chinese undergraduates' understanding and significantly lower than American and German undergraduates.' In the first year student data, the level of genetics concept of Korean pre-service biology teachers were significantly lower than Chinese and German students. In the fourth year student data, the level of ecology concept of Korean pre-service biology teachers were significantly lower than American and German students. Based on these results, the ecology concept education and balanced natural selection concept education are discussed.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.173-192
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• 1998

This study was made as a part of the benethic fauna of Geojedo Island. The material was obtained from 17 localities (Fig. 1) along the coastal sea of Geojedo Island and it's adjacent waters during the years 1995-1998. This paper includes 38 species from a limited area of the southern part of Korea and includes 13 previously known species by Rho(1975-1991). Of these Didemnum (D.) pardum, Symplegma oceania, and Styela coriacea, are new to the Korean fauna, and 22 species are newly added to the fauna of Geojedo Island. We provided taxonomic notes and brief notes on the ascidian fauna, and the biogeographical distribution of Geojedo island. Its ascidian fauna are characterized by a high percentage of 18(47.4%) warm-water species and the extreme scarcity of eight(21.1%) boreal-water forms. This result may be attributable to the fact that Geojedo island and its adajacent waters are located under the influence of the warm Kuroshio Current.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.91-91
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• 2013

Imagine a world where we could biomanufacture hybrid nanomaterials having atomic-scale resolution over functionality and architecture. Toward this vision, a fundamental challenge in materials science is how to design and synthesize protein-like material that can be fully self-assembled and exhibit information-specific process. In an ongoing effort to extend the fundamental understanding of protein structure to non-natural systems, we have designed a class of short peptides to fold like proteins and assemble into defined nanostructures. In this talk, I will talk about new strategies to drive the self-assembled structures designing sequence of peptide. I will also discuss about the specific interaction between proteins and inorganics that can be used for the development of new hybrid solar energy devices. Splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen is one of the promising pathways for solar to energy convertsion and storage system. The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) has been regarded as a major bottleneck in the overall water splitting process due to the slow transfer rate of four electrons and the high activation energy barrier for O-O bond formation. In nature, there is a water oxidation complex (WOC) in photosystem II (PSII) comprised of the earthabundant elements Mn and Ca. The WOC in photosystem II, in the form of a cubical CaMn4O5 cluster, efficiently catalyzes water oxidation under neutral conditions with extremely low overpotential (~160 mV) and a high TOF number. The cluster is stabilized by a surrounding redox-active peptide ligand, and undergo successive changes in oxidation state by PCET (proton-coupled electron transfer) reaction with the peptide ligand. It is fundamental challenge to achieve a level of structural complexity and functionality that rivals that seen in the cubane Mn4CaO5 cluster and surrounding peptide in nature. In this presentation, I will present a new strategy to mimic the natural photosystem. The approach is based on the atomically defined assembly based on the short redox-active peptide sequences. Additionally, I will show a newly identified manganese based compound that is very close to manganese clusters in photosystem II.

• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.131
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• pp.131-163
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• 2014

This Paper aims to elaborate on the origin of thinking mind. And this is a cooperative project between philosophy and neuroscience and brain science. I have written this paper in admiration for the achievements of twentieth century neuroscience and brain science, and out of desire to assist the subject in future. Much of the history of modern philosophy, from Descartes and Kant forward, consists of failed models of brain. As Edward O. Wilson precisely said, the shortcoming is not the fault of the philosophers, who have doggedly pushed their methods to the limit, but a straightforward consequence of the biological evolution of the brain. Guiding that investigation down pathways that will illuminate brain research is a task of neuroscience and brain science. Investigating logical relations among concepts is a philosophical task. If we are to understand the neural structures and dynamics that make perception, thought, intentional behaviour possible, clarity about these concepts and categories and their relations is essential. Hence our joint venture of philosophy and science. Sure, it is human beings that perceives, not parts of its brain. And it is human beings that who think and reason, not their brain. But the brain and its activities make it possible for human beings-not for it-to perceive and think, to feel emotions, and to form and pursue projects. Thus We try to investigate and reveal the origin of thinking mind as follow: 1) The difference between chimpanzee and human beings 2) brain and mind 3) the origin of thinking 4) the wisdom of nature.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.129-142
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• 2022

Nutrition dictates nearly all biological processes and determines Darwinian fitness in all living organisms, including insects. Research on insect nutrition has a long history in the field of insect physiology and the importance of understanding insect nutrition has become increasingly apparent with the growing need for producing insects as food and feed. Nevertheless, it is only in recent years that we have witnessed a major breakthrough in our knowledge of insect nutrition. The multivariate, interactive, and dynamic nature of nutrition has long hampered our complete understanding of insect nutrition. However, the challenge posed by such nutritional complexity has been overcome with the advent of the Nutritional Geometry, which is an integrative and multidimensional framework that enabled us to model complex interactions between multiple nutrients. In this review, we introduce the basic concepts and principles of the Nutritional Geometry and describe how this innovative framework has revolutionized the field of insect nutrition and has placed nutrition in the centre of the interface between physiology, ecology, and evolution. We close this review by discussing potentially fertile research areas that can benefit tremendously from the application of this powerful nutritional paradigm in the future.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.99-111
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• 2022

Akey factor in evolution is reproduction, which is also a major concern in medicine. Evolutionists have proposed many theories and hypotheses to explain the low fertility rates of modern industrial societies, which are contrary to maximization of biological fitness. Given that childbirth is the most significant factor affecting reproductive fitness, it is likely that a variety of psychological modules related to childbirth behavior and intention evolved over time. Several evolutionary psychological modules have been proposed in relation to reproduction, including sexual desire, status-seeking, a need for nurturing, and the desire for children. Previously adaptive psychological modules may now be expressed maladaptively due to the discrepancy between the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness (EEA) and the environment of modern industrial society. Several evolutionary ecological factors influence childbirth intention in modern society, including individual personality factors, childhood life history experiences, and socioecological factors throughout reproductive life. By focusing on mental, social, and ecological factors, this review examines several hypothetical models relating to evolutionary psychological factors and childbirth decisions in modern industrial society, as well as a possible explanation for the low birth rate.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.36 no.10
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• pp.1517-1529
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• 2023

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the phylogenetic and expression analysis of the angiopoietin-like (ANGPTL) gene family and their role in lipid metabolism in pigs. Methods: In this study, the amino acid sequence analysis, phylogenetic analysis, and chromosome adjacent gene analysis were performed to identify the ANGPTL gene family in pigs. According to the body weight data from 60 Jinhua pigs, different tissues of 6 pigs with average body weight were used to determine the expression profile of ANGPTL1-8. The ileum, subcutaneous fat, and liver of 8 pigs with distinct fatness were selected to analyze the gene expression of ANGPTL3, ANGPTL4, and ANGPTL8. Results: The sequence length of ANGPTLs in pigs was between 1,186 and 1,991 bp, and the pig ANGPTL family members shared common features with human homologous genes, including the high similarity of the amino acid sequence and chromosome flanking genes. Amino acid sequence analysis showed that ANGPTL1-7 had a highly conserved domain except for ANGPTL8. Phylogenetic analysis showed that each ANGPTL homologous gene shared a common origin. Quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis showed that ANGPTL family members had different expression patterns in different tissues. ANGPTL3 and ANGPTL8 were mainly expressed in the liver, while ANGPTL4 was expressed in many other tissues, such as the intestine and subcutaneous fat. The expression levels of ANGPTL3 in the liver and ANGPTL4 in the liver, intestine and subcutaneous fat of Jinhua pigs with low propensity for adipogenesis were significantly higher than those of high propensity for adipogenesis. Conclusion: These results increase our knowledge about the biological role of the ANGPTL family in this important economic species, it will also help to better understand the role of ANGPTL3, ANGPTL4, and ANGPTL8 in lipid metabolism of pigs, and provide innovative ideas for developing strategies to improve meat quality of pigs.