• Molecules and Cells
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.100-108
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• 2014

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) is an intracellular pathogen that has evolved to survive in the phagosome of macrophages. The periplasmic copper-binding protein CueP was initially known to confer copper resistance to S. Typhimurium. Crystal structure and biochemical studies on CueP revealed a putative copper binding site surrounded by the conserved cysteine and histidine residues. A recent study reported that CueP supplies copper ions to periplasmic Cu,Zn-superoxide dismutase (SodCII) at a low copper concentration and thus enables the sustained SodCII activity in the periplasm. In this study, we investigated the role of CueP in copper resistance at a high copper concentration. We observed that the survival of a cueP-deleted strain of Salmonella in macrophage phagosome was significantly reduced. Subsequent biochemical experiments revealed that CueP specifically mediates the reduction of copper ion using electrons released during the formation of the disulfide bond. We observed that the copper ion-mediated Fenton reaction in the presence of hydrogen peroxide was blocked by CueP. This study provides insight into how CueP confers copper resistance to S. Typhimurium in copper-rich environments such as the phagosome of macrophages.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.428-437
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• 2009

The Performance research about EEG-BCI algorithm in BCI-naive subjects is very important for evaluating the applicability to the public. We analyzed the result of the performance evaluation experiment about the EEG-BCI algorithm in BCI-naive subjects on three different aspects. The EEG-BCI algorithm used in this paper is composed of the common spatial pattern(CSP) and the least square linear classifier. CSP is used for obtaining the characteristic of event related desynchronization, and the least square linear classifier classifies the motor imagery EEG data of the left hand or right hand. The performance evaluation experiments about EEG-BCI algorithm is conducted for 40 men and women whose age are 23.87${\pm}$2.47. The performance evaluation about EEG-BCI algorithm in BCI-naive subjects is analyzed in terms of the accuracy, the relation between the information transfer rate and the accuracy, and the performance changes when the different types of cue were used in the training session and testing session. On the result of experiment, BCI-naive group has about 20% subjects whose accuracy exceed 0.7. And this results of the accuracy were not effected significantly by the types of cue. The Information transfer rate is in the inverse proportion to the accuracy. And the accuracy shows the severe deterioration when the motor imagery is less then 2 seconds.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.75-84
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• 2019

Addicts pay more attention to addiction-related cues, such as substance or behavior. And increased attention to these cues is associated with craving. Methamphetamine is the most abused drug among domestic drug offenders, with continually increasing rates of recidivism. Of the total number of reported drug offenders in the last three years, 21.1 percent have been women. Even so, research on female drug offenders is inadequate, rendering policies and fundamental data for the development of psychotherapy programs insufficient. The present study intended to investigate whether female methamphetamine addicts displayed an attention bias towards drug cues. A dot probe task was conducted on 22 female methamphetamine addicts (addiction group) and 22 non-addicts (control group). The task allowed the correct response rates and correct reaction times of the participants to be calculated according to the positioning of the drug and neutral cues. The analysis results revealed that the control group displayed no difference in correct reaction rates and correct reaction times between the drug or neutral cues. While, the addiction group showed lower correct response rate and slower response time for drug cues in comparison to neutral cues. The results of this study are significant in that it identified the attention bias characteristics toward drug cues of female methamphetamine addicts who were disconnected from drugs.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.39-52
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• 2009

Objectives : Cue reactivity is a key factor that modulates motivational goal-directed behavior associated with compulsive drug-taking and relapse. We investigated whether acupuncture attenuated the skin conductance response and the heart rate response to smoking-related visual cues in smokers. Methods : Twenty-nine smokers were treated with real acupuncture (RA) or sham acupuncture (SA). The stress response inventory was measured on the 5th day after quitting smoking. The skin conductance response and the heart rate were measured to evaluate the autonomic changes to the smoking related visual cues on the same day. Results : The sympathetic alterations in skin conductance and the heart rate induced by the smoking-related visual cues were significantly lower in the RA group, as compared to the SA group. The stress response inventory, such as somatization and frustration, in the RA group was significantly lower than that of the SA group. Conclusions : Acupuncture ameliorated the stress symptoms as well as the sympathetic activation to smoking cues during withdrawal. These findings indicate that acupuncture might be a useful tool in smoking cessation by inhibiting smoking cues-induced autonomic responses.