• BMB Reports
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.586-596
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• 2004

The folding of ervatamin C was investigated in the presence of various fluorinated and non-fluorinated organic solvents. The differences in the unfolding of the protein in the presence of various organic solvents and the stabilities of O-states were interpreted. At pH 2.0, non-fluorinated alkyl alcohols induced a switch from the native $\alpha$-helix to a $\beta$-sheet, contrary to the $\beta$-sheet to $\alpha$-helix conversion observed for many proteins. The magnitude of ellipticity at 215 nm, used as a measure of $\beta$-content, was found to be dependent on the concentration of the alcohol. Under similar conditions of pH, fluorinated alcohol enhanced the intrinsic a-helicity of the protein molecule, whereas the addition of acetonitrile reduced the helical content. Ervatamin C exhibited high stability towards GuHCl induced unfolding in different O-states. Whereas the thermal unfolding of O-states was non-cooperative, contrary to the cooperativity seen in the absence of the organic solvents under similar conditions. Moreover, the differential scanning calorimetry endotherms of the protein acquired at pH 2.0 were deconvoluted into two distinct peaks, suggesting two cooperative transitions. With increase in pH, the shape of the thermogram changed markedly to exhibit a major and a minor transition. The appearance of two distinct peaks in the DSC together with the non-cooperative thermal transition of the protein in O-states indicates that the molecular structure of ervatamin C consists of two domains with different stabilities.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.29-40
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• 2017

This work employed density functional theory to investigate the structural and ferroelectric properties of the Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) phase of lead titanate, $Pb_2TiO_4$, as well as its phase transitions with epitaxial strain. A wealth of novel structural instabilities, which are absent in the host $PbTiO_3$ material, were identified in the RP phase through phonon soft-mode analysis. Our calculations showed that the ground state of $Pb_2TiO_4$ is antiferroelectric, distinct from the dominant ferroelectric phase in the corresponding host material. In addition, applied epitaxial strain was found to play a key role in the interactions among the instabilities. The induction of a sequence of antiferroelectric and antiferrodistortive (AFD) phase transitions by epitaxial strain was demonstrated, in which the ferroic instability and AFD distortion were cooperative rather than competitive, as is the case in the host $PbTiO_3$. The RP phase in conjunction with strain engineering thus represents a new approach to creating ferroic orders and modifying the interplay among structural instabilities in the same constituent materials, enabling us to tailor the functionality of perovskite oxides for novel device applications.

• BMB Reports
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.143-154
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• 2002

The structural and functional aspects of ervatamin B were studied in solution. Ervatamin B belongs to the $\alpha+\beta$ class of proteins. The intrinsic fluorescence emission maximum of the enzyme was at 350 nm under neutral conditions, and at 355 nm under denaturing conditions. Between pH 1.0-2.5 the enzyme exists in a partially unfolded state with minimum or no tertiary structure, and no proteolytic activity. At still lower pH, the enzyme regains substantial secondary structure, which is predominantly $\beta$-sheet conformation and shows a strong binding to 8-anilino-1-napthalene-sulfonic acid (ANS). In the presence of salt, the enzyme attains a similar state directly from the native state. Under neutral conditions, the enzyme was stable in urea, while the guanidine hydrochloride (GuHCl) induced equilibrium unfolding was cooperative. The GuHCl induced unfolding transition curves at pH 3.0 and 4.0 were non-coincidental, indicating the presence of intermediates in the unfolding pathway. This was substantiated by strong ANS binding that was observed at low concentrations of GuHCl at both pH 3.0 and 4.0. The urea induced transition curves at pH 3.0 were, however, coincidental, but non-cooperative. This indicates that the different structural units of the enzyme unfold in steps through intermediates. This observation is further supported by two emission maxima in ANS binding assay during urea denaturation. Hence, denaturant induced equilibrium unfolding pathway of ervatamin B, which differs from the acid induced unfolding pathway, is not a simple two-state transition but involves intermediates which probably accumulate at different stages of protein folding and hence adds a new dimension to the unfolding pathway of plant proteases of the papain superfamily.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems Conference
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• 1995.10a
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• pp.124-140
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• 1995

The merit of fuzzy rule based systems stems from their capability of encoding qualitative knowledge of experts into quantitative rules. Recent advancement in automatic tuning or self-organization of fuzzy rules from experimental data further enhances their power, allowing the integration of the top-down encoding of knowledge with the bottom-up learning of rules. In this paper, methods of self-organizing fuzzy rules and of performing defuzzification and inference is presented based on a multi-resolution radial basis function network. The network learns an arbitrary input-output mapping from sample distribution as the union of hyper-ellipsoidal clusters of various locations, sizes and shapes. The hyper-ellipsoidal clusters, representing fuzzy rules, are self-organized based of global competition in such a way as to ensute uniform mapping errors. The cooperative interpolation among the multiple clusters associated with a mapping allows the network to perform a bidirectional many-to-many mapping, representing a particular from of defuzzification. Finally, an inference engine is constructed for the network to search for an optimal chain of rules or situation transitions under the constraint of transition feasibilities imposed by the learned mapping. Applications of the proposed network to skill acquisition are shown.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.166-172
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• 2006

This is a short review article of our recent studies on the ATP-induced, allosteric conformational transition of the chaperonin GroEL complex by solution X-ray scattering. We used synchrotron X-ray scattering with a two-dimensional, charge-coupled, device-based X-ray detector to study (1) the specificity of the chaperonin GroEL for its ligand that induced the allosteric transition, and (2) the identification of the allosteric transition of GroEL in its complicated kinetics induced by ATP. Due to the dramatically increased sensitivity of the X-ray scattering technique based on the use of the two dimensional X-ray detector and synchrotron radiation, different allosteric conformational states of GroEL populated under different conditions were clearly distinguished from each other. It was concluded that solution X-ray scattering is an extremely powerful tool for investigating the equilibrium and kinetics of cooperative conformational transitions of oligomeric protein complex, especially when combined with other spectroscopic techniques such as fluorescence spectroscopy.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.61-66
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• 2008

Cyclic AMP receptor protein (CRP) is allosterically activated by cAMP and functions as a global transcription regulator in enteric bacteria. Structural information on CRP in the absence of cAMP (apo-CRP) is essential to fully understand its allosteric behavior. In this study we demonstrated interdomain interactions in apo-CRP, using a comparative thermodynamic approach to the intact protein and its isolated domains, which were prepared either by limited proteolysis or using recombinant DNA. Thermal denaturation of the intact apo-CRP, monitored by differential scanning calorimetry, revealed an apparently single cooperative transition with a slight asymmetry. Combined with circular dichroism and fluorescence analysis, the thermal denaturation of apo-CRP could be interpreted as a coupled process involving two individual transitions, each attributable to a structural domain. When isolated individually, both of the domains exhibited significantly altered thermal behavior, thus pointing to the existence of non-covalent interdomain interactions in the intact apo-CRP. These observations suggest that the allosteric conformational change of CRP upon binding to cAMP is achieved by perturbing or modifying pre-existing interdomain interactions. They also underline the effectiveness of a comparative approach using calorimetric and structural probes for studying the thermodynamics of a protein.

• BMB Reports
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.155-164
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• 2002

The structural aspects of ervatamin B have been studied in different types of alcohol. This alcohol did not affect the structure or activity of ervatamin B under neutral conditions. At a low pH (3.0), different kinds of alcohol have different effects. Interestingly, at a certain concentration of non-fluorinated, aliphatic, monohydric alcohol, a conformational switch from the predominantly $\alpha$-helical to $\beta$-sheeted state is observed with a complete loss of tertiary structure and proteolytic activity. This is contrary to the observation that alcohol induces mostly the $\alpha$helical structure in proteins. The O-state of ervatamin B in 50% methanol at pH 3.0 has enhanced the stability towards GuHCl denaturation and shows a biphasic transition. This suggests the presence of two structural parts with different stabilities that unfold in steps. The thermal unfolding of ervatamin B in the O-state is also biphasic, which confirms the presence of two domains in the enzyme structure that unfold sequentially. The differential stabilization of the structural parts may also be a reflection of the differential stabilization of local conformations in methanol. Thermal unfolding of ervatamin B in the absence of alcohol is cooperative, both at neutral and low pH, and can be fitted to a two state model. However, at pH 2.0 the calorimetric profiles show two peaks, which indicates the presence of two structural domains in the enzyme with different thermal stabilities that are denatured more or less independently. With an increase in pH to 3.0 and 4.0, the shape of the DSC profiles change, and the two peaks converge to a predominant single peak. However, the ratio of van't Hoff enthalpy to calorimetric enthalpy is approximated to 2.0, indicating non-cooperativity in thermal unfolding.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.49-91
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• 2022

Recent years have witnessed renewed interest in Africa and public diplomacy has emerged as the vital tool being used to cultivate these relations. China has been leading in pursuing stronger economic partnership with Africa while middle powers such as Korea are also intensifying engagement with the continent. While previous studies have analyzed the implications of China's activities in Africa on advanced powers, none has examined them from the paradigm of middle powers. This study fills this gap by assessing China's activities in Africa, their economic engagement and implications for Korea's interest in Africa. The analysis is qualitative based on secondary data from various sources and literature. The study shows that China's public diplomacy strategy involves a high degree of innovation and has evolved to encompass new tools and audiences. China has institutionalized a cooperative model that permeates many aspects of governance institutions in Africa, enabling it to strengthen their relations. This could also be helping China to adjust faster leadership transitions in Africa. Whereas the US is still the most influential country in Africa, China is influential in economic policies and has outstripped the US in infrastructure diplomacy. This could be because African policy makers align more with China's economic model than the US' mainstream economics. Chinese aid to Africa has been diversified to social sectors that are more responsive to the needs of Africa. Trade and investment relations between China and Africa have deepened, but so does trade imbalance since 2010. China mainly imports natural resources and raw materials from Africa. But this product portfolio is not different from Korea and the US. China's energetic insertion in Africa using various strategies has significant implications for countries with ambitions in Africa. Korea can achieve its ambitions in Africa by focusing resources in areas it can leverage its core strengths-such as education and vocational training, environmental policy and development cooperation.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.37-52
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• 2015

The recent global trends display expansion and growing solidity in both cooperative collaboration between industry, education, and research and R&D network systems. A greater support for the network and cooperative research sector would open greater possibilities for the evolution of new scholar and industrial fields and the development of new theories evoked from synergized educational research. Similarly, the national need for a strategy that can most efficiently and effectively support R&D network that are established through the government's R&D project research is on the rise. Despite the growing urgency, due to the habitual dependency on simple individual personal information data regarding R&D industry participants and generalized statistical data references, the policies concerning network system are disappointing and inadequate. Accordingly, analyses of the relationships involved for each subject who is participating in the R&D industry was conducted and on the foundation of an educational-industrial-research network system, possible changes within and of the network that may arise were predicted. To predict the R&D network transitions, Common Neighbor and Jaccard's Coefficient models were designated as the basic foundational models, upon which a new prediction model was proposed to address the limitations of the two aforementioned former models and to increase the accuracy of Link Prediction, with which a comparative analysis was made between the two models. Through the effective predictions regarding R&D network changes and transitions, such study result serves as a stepping-stone for an establishment of a prospective strategy that supports a desirable educational-industrial-research network and proposes a measure to promote the national policy to one that can effectively and efficiently sponsor integrated R&D industries. Though both weighted applications of Common Neighbor and Jaccard's Coefficient models provided positive outcomes, improved accuracy was comparatively more prevalent in the weighted Common Neighbor. An un-weighted Common Neighbor model predicted 650 out of 4,136 whereas a weighted Common Neighbor model predicted 50 more results at a total of 700 predictions. While the Jaccard's model demonstrated slight performance improvements in numeric terms, the differences were found to be insignificant.