• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.33-44
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• 2015

The generation of artificial gametes is a real challenge for the scientific community today. In vitro development of human eggs and sperm will pave the way for the understanding of the complex process of human gametogenesis and will provide with human gametes for the study of infertility and the onset of some inherited disorders. However, the great promise of artificial gametes resides in their future application on reproductive treatments for all these people wishing to have genetically related children and for which gamete donation is now their unique option of parenthood. This is the case of infertile patients devoid of suitable gametes, same sex couples, singles and those fertile couples in a high risk of transmitting serious diseases to their progeny. In the search of the best method to obtain artificial gametes, many researchers have successfully obtained human germ cell-like cells from stem cells at different stages of differentiation. In the near future, this field will evolve to new methods providing not only viable but also functional and safe artificial germ cells. These artificial sperm and eggs should be able to recapitulate all the genetic and epigenetic processes needed for the correct gametogenesis, fertilization and embryogenesis leading to the birth of a healthy and fertile newborn.

• Journal of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Probes
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.16-21
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• 2018

Organoboron compounds and their derivatives are synthetically versatile building blocks because they are readily available, stable, and highly useful for potential organic transformations. Arylboronic esters are of particular interest due to their well-established synthetic methods: transition metal catalyzed borylations of aryl halides. However, the use of aryl halides as an electrophile has one serious disadvantage: formation of toxic halogenated byproducts. A promising alternative substrate to aryl halides would be phenol derivatives such as aryl ethers, esters, carbamates and sulfonates. The phenol derivatives involve several advantages: their abundance, relatively low toxicity and versatile synthetic application. However, utilization of the aryl methyl ether, which is one of the simplest phenol derivatives, remains as a challenge, as C-OMe bond activation requires high activation energy and methoxides are not good leaving groups. Nevertheless, there have been a significant recent progress on ipso-borylation of aryl methyl ether including Martin's nickel catalysis. Here, we review the current advance on the borylation of carbon-oxygen bonds of unactivated C-OMe bond in aromatic compounds.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.22-27
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• 2006

As the regulation and assessment program for safety of passengers become stringent, automakers are required to develop lighter and safer vehicles. In order to fulfill both requirements which conflict with each other, automobile and steel companies have proposed the application of AHSS(Advance High Strength Steel) such as DP, TRIP and martensite steel. ULSAB-AVC model is one of the most remarkable reactions to offer solutions with the use of steel for the challenge to improve simultaneously the fuel efficiency, passenger safety, vehicle performance and affordability. This paper is concerned with the crash analysis of ULSAB-AVC model according to the US-SINCAP in order to compare the effectiveness between the model with AHSS and that with conventional steels. The crashworthiness is investigated by comparing the deformed shape of the cabin room, the energy absorption characteristics and the intrusion velocity of a car.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.691-704
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• 2014

Reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls are commonly used for building structures to resist seismic loading. While the RC shear walls can have a high load-carrying capacity, they tend to fail in a brittle mode under shear, accompanied by forming large diagonal cracks and bond splitting between concrete and steel reinforcement. Improving seismic performance of shear walls has remained a challenge for researchers all over the world. Engineered Cementitious Composite (ECC), featuring incredible ductility under tension, can be a promising material to replace concrete in shear walls with improved performance. Currently, the application of ECC to large structures is limited due to the lack of the proper constitutive models especially under shear. In this paper, a new Cyclic Softening Membrane Model for reinforced ECC is proposed. The model was built upon the Cyclic Softening Membrane Model for reinforced concrete by (Hsu and Mo 2010). The model was then implemented in the OpenSees program to perform analysis on several cases of shear walls under seismic loading. The seismic response of reinforced ECC compared with RC shear walls under monotonic and cyclic loading, their difference in pinching effect and energy dissipation capacity were studied. The modeling results revealed that reinforced ECC shear walls can have superior seismic performance to traditional RC shear walls.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.775-778
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• 2010

Purpose: Reconstruction of soft tissue defects with osteomyelitis in the lower third of the leg represents a challenge to plastic surgeons. Moreover, it is more arduous in multimorbid patients. One excellent option for reconstruction of these defects is to use a delayed distally based sural flap. Methods: We successfully used delayed distally based sural flap with a two-step procedure. During the first operation, radical debridement and elevation of flap were performed. The raised flap was fixed again at the donor site. The delay period ranged from seven to ten days. Between August 2008 and July 2009, we underwent operations for five patients using this technique. The size of flap varied from $10{\times}6\;cm$ to $12{\times}14\;cm$. Results: All flaps successfully survived. Partial skin loss of the grafted site was seen in two patients but no further surgical procedure was required for wound healing. Complaints of hypoesthesia on the lateral part of the foot was observed. In a three month follow-up period, hypoesthesia was resolved spontaneously. Conclusion: Delayed procedure improves the viability of distally based sural flap in high risk, critically multimorbid patients. We recommend that, if a two-stage operative approach is required, the delayed procedure should be considered.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.37-43
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• 2010

The wild silkworm, Antheraea mylitta Drury (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) is a polyphagous silk producing insect that feeds on Terminalia arjuna, T. tomentosa and Shorea robusta and is distributed in the forest belts in different states of India. Phenotypically distinct populations of the A. mylitta are called "eco-race" or "ecotypes". Genetic improvement of this wild silkworm has not progressed much due to lack of adequate information on the factors that control the expression of most of the economically important traits. Considering the amazing technological advances taking place in molecular biology, it is envisaged that it is now possible to take greater control on these intractable traits if a combination of genetic, molecular and bioinformatics tools are used. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) mapping is one such approach that has extensively been used in both animal and plant system to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for a number of economically important traits. LD mapping has a number of advantages over conventional biparental linkage mapping. Therefore, LD mapping is considered more efficient for gene discovery to meet the challenge of connecting sequence diversity with heritable phenotypic differences. However, care must be taken to avoid detection of spurious associations which may occur due to population structure and variety interrelationships. In this review, we discuss how LD mapping is suitable for the dissection of complex traits in wild silkworms (Antheraea mylitta).

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.32-37
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• 2012

Chemokine receptor antagonists have potential applications in field of drug discovery. Although the chemokine receptors are G-protein-coupled receptors, their cognate ligands are small proteins (8 to 12 kDa), and so inhibiting the ligand/receptor interaction has been challenging. The application of structure-based in-silico methods to drug discovery is still considered a major challenge, especially when the x-ray structure of the target protein is unknown. Such is the case with human CCR2 and CCR5, the most important members of the chemokine receptor family and also a potential drug target. Herein, we review the success stories of combined receptor modeling/mutagenesis approach to probe the allosteric nature of chemokine receptor binding by small molecule antagonists for CCR2 and CCR5 using Rhodopsin as template. We also urged the importance of recently available ${\beta}2$-andrenergic receptor as an alternate template to guide mutagenesis. The results demonstrate the usefulness and robustness of in-silico 3D models. These models could also be useful for the design of novel and potent CCR2 and CCR5 antagonists using structure based drug design.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.101-111
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• 2021

To improve the potential of single chamber microbial fuel cells (SCMFCs) as an applicable technology, the main challenge is a practical application for larger scales bioenergy production from potent exoelectrogenic microorganism with real dairy wastewater. To increase power generation, three individual MFCs were together operated in series best under the fed batch condition for 15 days. The volume of MFC 1 and MFC 2 is "300 mL" and MFC 3 is "500 mL" respectively. The individual MFCs 1, MFC 2 and MFC 3 gives an open circuit voltage of 0.60 V, 0.66 V and 0.55 V and result in total working voltage when connected in series of 1.745V, which lead an LED to glow. The maximum power densities obtained from MFC 1, MFC 2 and MFC 3 are 62 mW/㎡, 50 mW/㎡ and 45 mW/㎡ (normalized to the surface area of the anodic electrode, which was 50 ㎠ for all three MFCs), and corresponding to current densities of 141 mA/㎡, 155 mA/㎡ and 123 mA/㎡, respectively. Therefore this work suggests the cheapest way to connect microbial fuel cells in series to gain power with the lowest operating cost and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal.

• Journal of Information Processing Systems
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.151-162
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• 2021

Quantum information has passed the theoretical research period and has entered the realization step for its application to the information and communications technology (ICT) sector. Currently, quantum information has the advantage of being safer and faster than conventional digital computers. Thus, a lot of research is being done. The amount of big data that one needs to deal with is expected to grow exponentially. It is also a new business model that can change the landscape of the existing computing. Just as the IT sector has faced many challenges in the past, we need to be prepared for change brought about by Quantum. We would like to look at studies on quantum communication, quantum sensing, and quantum computing based on quantum information and see the technology levels of each country and company. Based on this, we present the vision and challenge for quantum information in the future. Our work is significant since the time for first-time study challengers is reduced by discussing the fundamentals of quantum information and summarizing the current situation.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.4-14
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• 2005

CarboKorea and HydroKorea are the domestic projects aiming to improve our understanding of carbon and water cycles in a typical Korean forest located in a complex terrain with a watershed connected to large rivers. The ultimate goal is to provide a nowcasting of these cycles for the whole Peninsula. The basic strategy to achieve such goal is through the inter- and multi-disciplinary studies that synthesize the in-situ field observation, modeling and remote sensing technology. The challenge is the fact that natural ecosystems are nonlinear and heterogeneous with a wide range of spatio-temporal scales causing the variations of mass and energy exchanges from a leaf to landscape scales. Our paradigm now shifts from temporal variation at a point to spatial patterns and from spatial homogeneity to complexity of water and carbon at multiple scales. Yet, a large portion of our knowledge about land-atmosphere interactions has been established based on tower observations, indicating that the development of scaling logics holds the key to the success of CarboKorea and HydroKorea. Here, we review the pioneering work of FIFE (First ISLSCP Field Experiment) on scaling issues in a temperate grassland and discuss the lessons from it for the application to Gwangneung forest site.