• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.39 no.4
• /
• pp.389-399
• /
• 2014

Purpose: This study was aimed at developing a tractor-driving simulator for the safety training of agricultural tractor operators. Methods: The developed simulator consists of five principal components: mock operator control devices, a data acquisition and processing device, a motion platform, a visual system that displays a computer model of the tractor, a motion platform, and a virtual environment. The control devices of a real tractor cabin were successfully converted into mock operator control devices in which sensors were used for relevant measurements. A 3D computer model of the tractor was also implemented using 3ds Max, tractor dynamics, and the physics of Unity 3D. The visual system consisted of two graphic cards and four monitors for the simultaneous display of the four different sides of a 3D object to the operator. The motion platform was designed with two rotational degrees of freedom to reduce cost, and inverse kinematics was used to calculate the required motor positions and to rotate the platform. The generated virtual environment consisted of roads, traffic signals, buildings, rice paddies, and fields. Results: The effectiveness of the simulator was evaluated by a performance test survey administered to 128 agricultural machinery instructors, 116 of whom considered the simulator as having potential for improving safety training. Conclusions: From the study results, it is concluded that the developed simulator can be effectively used for the safety training of agricultural tractor operators.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
• /
• v.39 no.2
• /
• pp.58-67
• /
• 2012

Objective: Previously, we identified that transketolase (Tkt), an important enzyme in the pentose phosphate pathway, is highly expressed at 2 hours of spontaneous maturation in oocytes. Therefore, this study was performed to determine the function of Tkt in meiotic cell cycle regulation, especially at the point of germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD). Methods: We evaluated the loss-of-function of Tkt by microinjecting Tkt double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) into germinal vesicle-stage oocytes, and the oocytes were cultured in vitro to evaluate phenotypic changes during oocyte maturation. In addition to maturation rates, meiotic spindle and chromosome rearrangements, and changes in expression of other enzymes in the pentose phosphate pathway were determined after Tkt RNA interference (RNAi). Results: Despite the complete and specific knockdown of Tkt expression, GVBD occurred and meiosis was arrested at the metaphase I (MI) stage. The arrested oocytes exhibited spindle loss, chromosomal aggregation, and declined maturation promoting factor and mitogen-activated protein kinase activities. The modified expression of two enzymes in the pentose phosphate pathway, Prps1 and Rbks, after Tkt RNAi and decreased maturation rates were amended when ribose-5-phosphate was supplemented in the culture medium, suggesting that the Tkt and pentose phosphate pathway are important for the maturation process. Conclusion: We concluded that Tkt and its associated pentose phosphate pathway play an important role in the MI-MII transition of the oocytes' meiotic cell cycle, but not in the process of GVBD.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.3 no.3
• /
• pp.209-220
• /
• 2000

The Strouhal number is an important nondimensional number which is explanatory of aerodynamic instability phenomena. It takes on the different characteristic constant value depending upon the cross-sectional shape of the body being enveloped by the flow. A number of investigations into this subject, especially on the drag test, surface pressure test and hot-wire test, have been carried out under the fixed state of the body in the past. However, almost no investigations concerning the determination of the St on wind-induced vibration of the body have been reported in the past even though the aerodynamic behavior of the body is very important because the construction of wind-sensitive structures is recently on the sharp increase. Based on a series of wind tunnel tests, this paper addresses a new method to determine the Strouhal number of rectangular cylinder in the uniform flow. The central idea of the proposed method is that the Strouhal number can be obtained directly by the aerodynamic behaviors of the body through wind-induced vibration test. The validity of proposed method is evaluated by comparing with the results obtained by previous studies in three B/Ds at attack angle $0^{\circ}$ and a square cylinder with various attack angles. The values and trends of the proposed Strouhal numbers are in good agreements with values of previous studies. And also, the Strouhal numbers of B/D=1.5 and 2.0 with various attack angles are obtained by the proposed method and verified by other method. This proposed method is as good as any other previous methods to obtain the Strouhal number.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.530-539
• /
• 2016

Bacterial light-oxygen-voltage-sensing photoreceptor-derived flavin mononucleotide (FMN)-based fluorescent proteins act as a promising distinct class of fluorescent proteins utilized for various biomedical and biotechnological applications. The key property of its independency towards oxygen for its chromophore maturation has greatly helped this protein to outperform the other fluorescent proteins such as GFP and DsRed for anaerobic applications. Here, we describe the feasibility of FMN-containing fluorescent protein FbFP as a metal-sensing probe by measuring the fluorescence emission changes of a protein with respect to the concentration of metal ions. In the present study, we demonstrated the mercury-sensing ability of FbFP protein and the possible amino acids responsible for metal binding. A ratiometric approach was employed here in order to exploit the fluorescence changes observed at two different emission maxima with respect to Hg²⁺ at micromolar concentration. The engineered variant FbFP_C56I showed high sensitivity towards Hg²⁺ and followed a good linear relationship from 0.1 to 3 μM of Hg²⁺. Thus, further engineering with a rational approach would enable the FbFP to be developed as a novel and highly selective and sensitive biosensor for other toxic heavy metal ions as well.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.27 no.6
• /
• pp.1098-1105
• /
• 2017

Vesicular stomatitis virus G glycoprotein (VSV-G) has been widely used for pseudotyping retroviral, lentiviral, and artificial viral vectors. The objective of this study was to establish a potential approach for large-scale production of VSV-G. To this end, VSV-G was cloned with an N-terminal His-tag into Pichia pastoris expression vector pPIC3.5K. Three clones ($Mut^s$) containing the VSV-G expression cassette were identified by PCR. All clones proliferated normally in expansion medium, whereas the proliferation was reduced significantly under induction conditions. VSV-G protein was detected in cell lysates by western blot analysis, and the highest expression level was observed at 96 h post induction. VSV-G could also be obtained from the condition medium of yeast protoplasts. Furthermore, VSV-G could be incorporated into Ad293 cells and was able to induce cell fusion, leading to the transfer of cytoplasmic protein. Finally, VSV-G-mediated DNA transfection was assayed by flow cytometry and luciferase measurement. Incubation of VSV-G lysate with the pGL3-control DNA complex increased the luciferase activity in Ad293 and HeLa cells by about 3-fold. Likewise, incubation of VSV-G lysate with the pCMV-DsRed DNA complex improved the transfection efficiency into Ad293 by 10% and into HeLa cells by about 1-fold. In conclusion, these results demonstrate that VSV-G could be produced from P. pastoris with biofunctionalities, demonstrating that large-scale production of the viral glycoprotein is feasible.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
• /
• v.27 no.6
• /
• pp.243-249
• /
• 2007

The effect of Re addition and solidification rate on the directional solidification behavior of Ni-Al model alloy has been investigated. Directional solidification (DS) were carried out using the modified Bridgman furnace with various solidification rates. The solid/liquid interface during directional solidification was preserved by quenching the specimen after the desired volume fraction of original liquid was solidified. The equilibrium partition coefficients of Al and Re Were estimated by measuring the compositions at the quenched solid/liquid interface. Then, the effect of Re addition on the elemental segregation behavior was carefully analyzed. The differential scanning calorimetry results showed that the Re addition results in increased ${\gamma}'$ solvus and freezing range of the alloy. It was also shown that the primary dendrite arm spacing gradually decreases with increasing the Re content, while the secondary dendrite arm spacing appears to be independent on the Re content. The compositional analyses clearly revealed that the segregation of Al increased with increasing the Re content and solidification rate, while that of Re was found to be independent on the solidification rate in the range of $10{\sim}100{\mu}m/s$ due to its sluggish diffusion rate in the Ni solid solution.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.21 no.10
• /
• pp.1036-1042
• /
• 2011

The exopolysaccharide botryosphaeran ($EPS_{GLC}$; a ($1{\rightarrow}3$)($1{\rightarrow}6$)-${\beta}$-D-glucan from Botryosphaeria rhodina MAMB-05) was sulfonated to produce a water-soluble fraction ($EPS_{GLC}$-S) using pyridine and chlorosulfonic acid in formamid. This procedure was then repeated twice to produce another fraction ($EPS_{GLC}$-RS) with a higher degree of substitution (DS, 1.64). The purity of each botryosphaeran sample (unsulfonated and sulfonated) was assessed by gel filtration chromatography (Sepharose CL-4B), where each polysaccharide was eluted as a single symmetrical peak. The structures of the sulfonated and re-sulfonated botryosphaerans were investigated using ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis), Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR), and $^{13}C$ nuclear magnetic resonance ($^{13}C$ NMR) spectroscopies. $EPS_{GLC}$ and $EPS_{GLC}$-RS were also assayed for anticoagulation activity, and $EPS_{GLC}$-RS was identified as an anticoagulant.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.139-151
• /
• 2017

This paper presents an overview of deep space orbit determination software (DSODS), as well as validation and verification results on its event prediction capabilities. DSODS was developed in the MATLAB object-oriented programming environment to support the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) mission. DSODS has three major capabilities: celestial event prediction for spacecraft, orbit determination with deep space network (DSN) tracking data, and DSN tracking data simulation. To achieve its functionality requirements, DSODS consists of four modules: orbit propagation (OP), event prediction (EP), data simulation (DS), and orbit determination (OD) modules. This paper explains the highest-level data flows between modules in event prediction, orbit determination, and tracking data simulation processes. Furthermore, to address the event prediction capability of DSODS, this paper introduces OP and EP modules. The role of the OP module is to handle time and coordinate system conversions, to propagate spacecraft trajectories, and to handle the ephemerides of spacecraft and celestial bodies. Currently, the OP module utilizes the General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT) as a third-party software component for high-fidelity deep space propagation, as well as time and coordinate system conversions. The role of the EP module is to predict celestial events, including eclipses, and ground station visibilities, and this paper presents the functionality requirements of the EP module. The validation and verification results show that, for most cases, event prediction errors were less than 10 millisec when compared with flight proven mission analysis tools such as GMAT and Systems Tool Kit (STK). Thus, we conclude that DSODS is capable of predicting events for the KPLO in real mission applications.

• The Transactions of the Korea Information Processing Society
• /
• v.5 no.6
• /
• pp.1390-1403
• /
• 1998

Database sharing system (DSS) refers to a system for high performance transaction processing. In DSS, the processing nodes are locally coupled via a high speed network and share a common database at the disk level. Each node has a local memory, a separate copy of operating system, and a DB'\fS. To reduce the number of disk accesses, the node caches database pages in its local memory buffer. However, since multiple nodes may be simultaneously cached a page, cache consistency must be cnsured so that every node can always access the'latest version of pages. In this paper, we propose efficient cache consistency schemes in DSS, where the database is logically partitioned using primary copy authority to reduce locking overhead, The proposed schemes can improve performance by reducing the disk access overhead and the message overhead due to maintaining cache consistency, Furthermore, they can show good performance when database workloads are varied dynamically.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.31 no.6
• /
• pp.567-575
• /
• 2017

It is not cost effective to raise the density of catch basins in preparation for heavy rainfall in terms of construction and maintenance. Our researchers have developed the new catch basin for increasing interception capacity of runoff with internal filtration structure. To compare interception capacity of an existing catch basin with the invented catch basin, a hydraulic experiment device with 4% of road gradients and 0.2% of road gradients was constructed. For runoff conditions of 4.4 l/s, 6.7 l/s and 10.4 l/s, capability of runoff and separation capability of debris (sand and leaves) were evaluated. As the main experimental results, the effectiveness of the developed catch basin has been verified with an increase in interception rate of approximately 22% for the runoff of 6.7 l/s as heavy rainfall. However, the results of invented catch basin showed only 4.5% of settlement rate of debris regarding sand. Therefore, the authors proposed an improved tilted screen structure additionally. After reviewing the performance of improved catch basin, application of the invented catch basin is expected to drain runoff effectively when it is applied to the faulty road drainage section.