• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.51 no.8
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• pp.729-737
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• 2018

This study investigates the sediment processes the Improved-pneumatic-movable weir through laboratory experiments considering changing channel slopes. Experimental results show that the delta migrates towards the weir and the delta height increases as time passes. Moreover, as the delta approaches the weir, the delta migration speed decreases. As the dimensionless delta location increases, the effective height of dimensionless delta and the dimensionless reservoir capacity increases. Therefore, under the same slope conditions, the sediment deposition volume of the delta is small as the channel slope is mild. This means that the channel slope affects the development of the delta in the upstream of the Improved-pneumatic-movable weir. At the beginning of the experiment, the foreset slope is mild. However, the foreset slope of the delta increases with water depth as the delta migrates downstream. Moreover, as the slope is mild, the ratio of delta front length to delta height is close to 1, and the dimensionless delta height and the dimensionless delta migration speed decrease. As the delta height increases, the water depth, the velocity approaching to the weir and the delta migration speed decrease.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.15-31
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• 2024

The study primarily aims to examine the characteristics of the transition from natural landscape to modern agricultural landscape on the Daesan plain in Dong-myeon, Changwon-si, in the lower reaches of the Nakdong River. The periods covered in the transition include the late Joseon Dynasty, the early Japanese colonial period, and the late Japanese colonial period. The study concluded the following: It was found that the Daesan Plain used to function as a hydrophilic landscape before it formed into a rural landscape. This is characterized by the various water resources in the Plain, primarily by the Nakdong River, with its back marsh tributaries, the Junam Reservoir and Jucheon. To achieve its recent form, the Daesan Plain was subjected to human trial and error. Through installation of irrigation facilities such as embankments and sluices, the irregularly-shaped wetlands were transformed into large-scale farmlands while the same irrigation facilities underwent constant renovation to permanently stabilize the rural landscape. These processes of transformation were similarly a product of typical colonial expropriation. During the Japanese colonial period, Japanese capitalists initiated the construction of private farms which led to the national land development policy by the Governor-General of Korea. These landscape changes are indicative of resource capitalism depicted by the expansion of agricultural production value by the application of resource capital to undeveloped natural space for economic viability. As a result, the hierarchical structure was magnified resulting to the exacerbation of community and economic structural imbalances which presents an alternative yet related perspective to the evolution of landscapes during the Japanese colonial period. In addition, considering Daesan Plain's vulnerability to changing weather conditions, natural processes have also been a factor to its landscape transformation. Such occurrences endanger the sustainability of the area as when floods inundate cultivated lands and render them unstable, endangering residents, as well as the harvests. In conclusion, the Daesan Plain originally took the form of a hydrophilic landscape and started significantly evolving into a rural landscape since the Japanese colonial period. Human-induced land development and geophysical processes significantly impacted this transformation which also exemplifies the several ways of how undeveloped natural landscapes turn into mechanized and capitalized rural landscapes by colonial resource capitalism and development policies.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.41 no.8
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• pp.691-700
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• 2008

One suggested mechanism underlying copper (Cu) deficiency teratogenicity is a low availability of nitric oxide (NO), signaling molecule which is essential in developmental processes. Increased superoxide anions secondary to decreased activities of Cu-zinc superoxide dismutase (Cu-Zn SOD) in Cu deficiency can interact with NO to form peroxynitrite, which can nitrate proteins at tyrosine residues. In addition, peroxynitrite formation can limit NO bioavailability. We previously reported low NO availability and increased protein nitration in Cu deficient (Cu-) embryos. In the current study, we tested whether Cu deficiency alters downstream signaling of NO by assessing cyclic GMP (cGMP) and phosphorylated vasodilator-stimulating phosphoprotein (VASP) levels, and whether NO supplementation can affect these targets as well as protein nitration. Gestation day 8.5 embryos from Cu adequate (Cu+) or Cu- dams were collected and cultured in either Cu+ or Cu- media for 48 hr. A subset of embryos was cultured in Cu- media supplemented with a NO donor (DETA/NONOate; 20 ${\mu}M$) and/or Cu-Zn SOD. Cu-/Cu- embryos showed a higher incidence of embryonic and yolk sac abnormalities, low NO availability, blunted dose-response in NO concentrations to increasing doses of acetylcholine, low mRNA expression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), increased levels of 3-nitrotyrosine (3-NT) compared to Cu+/Cu+ controls. cGMP concentrations tended to be low in Cu-/Cu- embryos, and they were significantly lower in Cu-/Cu- yolk sacs than in controls. Levels of phosphorylated VASP at serine 239 (P-VASP) were similar in all groups. NO donor supplementation to the Cu- media ameliorated embryonic and yolk sac abnormalities, and resulted in increased levels of cGMP without altering levels of P-VASP and 3-NT. Taken together, these data support the concept that Cu deficiency limits NO availability and alters NO/cGMP-dependent signaling in Cu- embryos and yolk sacs, which contributes to Cu deficiency-induced abnormal development.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.6B
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• pp.551-560
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• 2009

This paper describes a newly developed pollutant transport model named ARPTM which was designed to simulate the transport and characteristics of pollutant materials after an accidental spill in upstream of river system up to a given position in the downstream. In particular, the ARPTM incorporated ADCP data to compute longitudinal dispersion coefficient and advection velocity which are necessary to apply one-dimensional advection-dispersion equation. ARPTM was built on top of the geographic information system platforms to take advantage of the technology's capabilities to track geo-referenced processes and visualize the simulated results in conjunction with associated geographic layers such as digital maps. The ARPTM computes travel distance, time, and concentration of the pollutant cloud in the given flow path from the river network, after quickly finding path between the spill of the pollutant material and any concerned points in the downstream. ARPTM is closely connected with a recently developed GIS-based Arc River database that stores inputs and outputs of ARPTM. ARPTM thereby assembles measurements, modeling, and cyberinfrastructure components to create a useful cyber-tool for determining and visualizing the dynamics of the clouds of pollutants while dispersing in space and time. ARPTM is expected to be potentially used for building warning system for the transport of pollutant materials in a large basin.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.950-958
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• 2002

The combustion characteristics of a low NOx burner using reburning technology have been experimentally studied. The return burner usually has three distinct reaction zones which include the primary combustion zone, the reburn zone and the burnout zone by provided secondary air. NOx is mainly produced in a primary combustion zone and a certain portion of NOx can be converted to nitrogen in the rebury zone. In the burnout zone, the unburned mixtures are completely oxidated by supplying secondary air. Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) was used as main and reburn fuels. The experimental parameters investigated involve the main/reburn fuel ratio, the primary/secondary air ratio, and the injection location of rebury fuel and secondary air. When the amount of return fuel reaches to the 20-30% of the total fuel used, the overall NO reduction of 50% is achieved. The secondary air is injected by two different ways including vertical and parallel injection. The injector of secondary air is located at the downstream region of furnace for a vertical-injection mode, which is also placed at the inlet primary-air injection region for a parallel-injection mode. In case of the vertical injection of the secondary air flow, the NOx formation of stoichiometric condition at a primary combustion zone is nearly independent of the rebury conditions (locations, fuel/air ratios) while the NOx emission of the fuel-lean condition is considerably influenced by the reburn conditions. In case of the parallel injection of the secondary air, the NOx emission is sensitive to the air ratio rather than the fuel ratio and the reburning process often coupled with the multiple air-staging and fuel-staging combustion processes.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.267-274
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• 2001

Calpains are a family of cysteine proteases existing primarily in two forms designated by the $Ca^{2+}$ concentration needed for activation in vitro, $\mu$-calpain (calpain-I) and m-calpain (calpain-II). The physiologica1 roles of calpains remain unclear. Many groups have proposed a role for calpains In apoptosis, but their patterns of activation are not well characterized. Calpains have been implicated in neutrophil apoptosis, glucocorticoid-induced thymocyte apoptosis, as well as many other apoptotic pathways. Calpain activation in apoptosis is usually linked upstream or downstream to caspase activation, or in a parallel pathway alongside caspase activation. Calpains have been suggested to be involved in DNA fragmentation (via endonuclease activation), but also as effector proteases that cleave cellular proteins involved in DNA repair, membrane associated proteins and other homeostatic regulatory proteins. Recently, our laboratory demonstrated $\mu$-calpain activation in NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreducatse 1 (NQO1)-expressing cells after exposure to $\beta$-lapachone, a novel quinone and potential chemo- and radio-therapeutic agent. Increased cytosolic $Ca^{2+}$ in NQO1-expressing cells after $\beta$-lapachone exposures were shown to lead to $\mu$-calpain activation. In turn, $\mu$-calpain activation was important for substrate proteolysis and DNA fragmentation associated with apoptosis. Upon activation, $\mu$-calpain translocated to the nucleus where it could proteolytically cleave PARP and p53. We provided evidence that $\beta$-lapachone-induced, $\mu$-calpain stimulated, apoptosis did not involve any of the known caspases; known apoptotic caspases were not activated after $\beta$-lapachone treatment of NQO1-expressing cells, nor did caspase inhibitors have any effect on $\beta$-1apachone-induced cell death. Elucidation of processes by which $\beta$-1apachone-stimulated $\mu$-calpain activation and calpains ability to activate endonucleases and induce apoptosis independent of caspase activity will be needed to further develop/modulate $\beta$-lapachone for treatment of human cancers that over-express NQO1.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.16-23
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• 2020

In this work, ²²²Rn activity, major dissolved ions, and microbial community in ground- and surface waters were investigated to characterize groundwater inflow to the stream located in an urban area, Daejeon, Korea. The measured ²²²Rn activities in groundwater and stream water ranged from 136 to 231 Bq L^-1 and 0.3 to 48.8 Bq L^-1, respectively. The spatial distributions of ²²²Rn activity in the stream strongly suggested groundwater inflow to the stream. The change of geochemical composition of the stream water indicated the effect of groundwater discharge became more pronounced as the stream flows downstream. Furthermore, microbial community composition of the stream water had good similarity to that of groundwater, which is another evidence of groundwater discharge. Although groundwater inflow could not be estimated quantitatively in this study, the results can provide useful information to understand interactions between groundwater and surface water, and determine hydrological processes governing groundwater recharge and hydrogeological cycles of dissolved substances such as nutrients and trace metals.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.1549-1560
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• 2009

In the TDMA PON system, the DBA is essential for ONUs to send data efficiently to the upstream. In this paper, we implement a DBA processor for the G-PON OLT with downstream and upstream rate, 2.5 and 1.25 Gbps, respectively, The processor collects bandwidth request messages from ONUs at every cycle time and allocates properly bandwidth to each Alloc-ID with considering priority and fairness for traffics. In the proposed DBA algorithm, one cycle time consists of multiple G-PON frames ($m{\times}125{\mu}s$) for high link efficiency. In particular, the link efficiency is higher because the algorithm adopts a method that an additional overhead is eliminated when an allocated bandwidth is laid between two G-PON frames for an ONU. This enables that the processor flexibly allocates the bandwidth from zero to the maximum link capacity for an ONU. The proposed DBA processor is implemented with the FPGA and shows bandwidth allocating processes for ONUs with logic analyzer.

• BMB Reports
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.59-70
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• 2012

Carbon catabolite repression (CCR) is a key regulatory system found in most microorganisms that ensures preferential utilization of energy-efficient carbon sources. CCR helps microorganisms obtain a proper balance between their metabolic capacity and the maximum sugar uptake capability. It also constrains the deregulated utilization of a preferred cognate substrate, enabling microorganisms to survive and dominate in natural environments. On the other side of the same coin lies the tenacious bottleneck in microbial production of bioproducts that employs a combination of carbon sources in varied proportion, such as lignocellulose-derived sugar mixtures. Preferential sugar uptake combined with the transcriptional and/or enzymatic exclusion of less preferred sugars turns out one of the major barriers in increasing the yield and productivity of fermentation process. Accumulation of the unused substrate also complicates the downstream processes used to extract the desired product. To overcome this difficulty and to develop tailor-made strains for specific metabolic engineering goals, quantitative and systemic understanding of the molecular interaction map behind CCR is a prerequisite. Here we comparatively review the universal and strain-specific features of CCR circuitry and discuss the recent efforts in developing synthetic cell factories devoid of CCR particularly for lignocellulose-based biorefinery.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.148-153
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• 2006

While the underlying molecular mechanism remains to be elucidated, recent studies suggest that polar auxin transport is a key controlling factor in triggering differential growth responses to gravity. Identification of regulatory components in auxin-mediated differential cell expansion would improve our understanding of the gravitropic response. In this study, we identify a mutant designated aux1-like(later changed to aux1), an allele of the aux1 mutant that exhibits a severely disrupted root gravitropic response, but no defects in developmental processes. In Arabidopsis, AUX1 encodes an auxin influx carrier. Since in-depth characterization of the gravitropic response caused by mutations in this gene has been performed previously, we focused on identifying the downstream genes that were differentially expressed compared to wild-type plants. Consistent with the mutant phenotype, the transcription of the auxin-responsive genes IAA17 and GH3 were altered in aux1 plants treated with IAA, 2, 4-D and NAA. In addition, we identified two expansin genes EXP10 and EXPL3 that exhibited different expression in wild-type and mutant plants.