• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.766-770
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• 2013

Several upstream activators required for proper activation of brlA are involved in the development, vegetative growth, toxin production, and pathogenesis of Aspergillus fumigatus. In this study, we characterized the roles of two upstream developmental regulators, A. fumigatus flbB (AfuflbB) and flbE (AfuflbE), in toxin production and virulence. The deletion of AfuflbB and AfuflbE resulted in reduction of the expression of AfulaeA. Moreover, only about 8% to 10% of fumagillin was produced in the two mutants compared with that of wild type, and ${\Delta}AfuflbB$ strain produced 85% of gliotoxin compared with wild type, whereas none was produced by ${\Delta}AfuflbB$. Flow-cytometric analysis revealed decreased necrotic and apoptotic polymorphonuclear leukocytes cell death after exposure to supernatants from ${\Delta}AfuflbB$ and ${\Delta}AfuflbB$ strains compared with the wild type. These results indicate that FlbB and FlbE are necessary for the proper laeA expression, toxin production, and virulence of A. fumigatus.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.289-296
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• 2020

BACKGROUND: There is a need for a revolutionary method to overcome the problem of biochar, which has relatively low adsorption capacity for existing anion pollutants, along with collectively recycling fallen leaves, a kind of forest by-product. Therefore, the objective of this study was to prepare iron-decorated biochar derived from fallen leaves (Fe-FLB), and to evaluate their adsorption properties to Congo red (CR) as anionic dye. METHODS AND RESULTS: The adsorption properties of CR by fallen leaves biochar (FLB) and Fe-FLB were performed under various conditions such as initial CR concentration, reaction time, pH and dosage with isotherm and kinetic models. In this study, Fe-FLB prepared through iron impregnation and pyrolysis of fallen leaves contained 56.9% carbon and 6.3% iron. Congo red adsorption by FLB and Fe-FLB was well described by Langmuir model and pseudo second order model and the maximum adsorption capacities of FLB and Fe-FLB were 1.1 mg/g and 25.6 mg/g, respectively. In particular, it was found that the adsorption of CR was occurred by chemical adsorption process by the outer boundary layer of Fe-FLB. CONCLUSION: Overall, the production of Fe-FLB using fallen leaves and using it as an anion adsorbent is considered to be a way to overcome the problem of biochar with relatively low anion adsorption in addition to the reduction effect of waste.

• 한국균학회소식:학술대회논문집
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• 2014.10a
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• pp.15-15
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• 2014

Fusarium graminearum (teleomorph Gibberella zeae) is an important plant pathogen that causes head blight of major cereal crops such as wheat, barley, and rice, as well as causing ear and stalk rot on maize worldwide. Plant diseases caused by this fungus lead to severe yield losses and accumulation of harmful mycotoxins in infected cereals [1]. Fungi utilize spore production as a mean to rapidly avoid unfavorable environmental conditions and to amplify their population. Spores are produced sexually and asexually and their production is precisely controlled. Upstream developmental activators consist of fluffy genes have been known to orchestrate early induction of condiogenesis in a model filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans. To understand the molecular mechanisms underlying conidiogenesis in F. graminearum, we characterized functions of the F. graminearum fluffy gene homologs [2]. We found that FlbD is conserved regulatory function for conidiogenesis in both A. nidulans and F. graminearum among five fluffy gene homologs. flbD deletion abolished conidia and perithecia production, suggesting that FlbD have global roles in hyphal differentiation processes in F. graminearum. We further identified and functionally characterized the ortholog of AbaA, which is involved in differentiation from vegetative hyphae to conidia and known to be absent in F. graminearum [3]. Deletion of abaA did not affect vegetative growth, sexual development, or virulence, but conidium production was completely abolished and thin hyphae grew from abnormally shaped phialides in abaA deletion mutants. Overexpression of abaA resulted in pleiotropic defects such as impaired sexual and asexual development, retarded conidium germination, and reduced trichothecene production. AbaA localized to the nuclei of phialides and terminal cells of mature conidia. Successful interspecies complementation using A. nidulans AbaA and the conserved AbaA-WetA pathway demonstrated that the molecular mechanisms responsible for AbaA activity are conserved in F. graminearum as they are in A. nidulans. F. graminearum ortholog of Aspergillus nidulans wetA has been shown to be involved in conidiogenesis and conidium maturation [4]. Deletion of F. graminearum wetA did not alter mycelial growth, sexual development, or virulence, but the wetA deletion mutants produced longer conidia with fewer septa, and the conidia were sensitive to acute stresses, such as oxidative stress and heat stress. Furthermore, the survival rate of aged conidia from the F. graminearum wetA deletion mutants was reduced. The wetA deletion resulted in vigorous generation of single-celled conidia through autophagy-dependent microcycle conidiation, indicating that WetA functions to maintain conidia dormancy by suppressing microcycle conidiation in F. graminearum. In A. nidulans, FlbB physically interacts with FlbD and FlbE, and the resulting FlbB/FlbE and FlbB/FlbD complexes induce the expression of flbD and brlA, respectively. BrlA is an activator of the AbaA-WetA pathway. AbaA and WetA are required for phialide formation and conidia maturation, respectively [5]. In F. graminearum, the AbaA-WetA pathway is similar to that of A. nidulans, except a brlA ortholog does not exist. Amongst the fluffy genes, only fgflbD has a conserved role for regulation of the AbaA-WetA pathway.

• Mycobiology
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.145-148
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• 2013

Vegetative growth signaling of the opportunistic human pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus is mediated by GpaA ($G{\alpha}$). FlbA is a regulator of G protein signaling, which attenuates GpaA-mediated growth signaling in this fungus. The flbA deletion (${\Delta}flbA$) and the constitutively active GpaA ($GpaA^{Q204L}$) mutants exhibit enhanced proliferation, precocious autolysis, and reduced asexual sporulation. In this study, we demonstrate that both mutants also show enhanced tolerance against $H_2O_2$ and their radial growth was approximately 1.6 fold higher than that of wild type (WT) in medium with 10 mM $H_2O_2$. We performed quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) for examination of mRNA levels of three catalase encoding genes (catA, cat1, and cat2) in WT and the two mutants. According to the results, while levels of spore-specific catA mRNA were comparable among the three strains, cat1 and cat2 mRNA levels were significantly higher in the two mutants than in WT. In particular, the ${\Delta}flbA$ mutant showed significantly enhanced and prolonged expression of cat1 and precocious expression of cat2. In accordance with this result, activity of the Cat1 protein in the ${\Delta}flbA$ mutant was higher than that of $gpaA^{Q204L}$ and WT strains. For activity of the Cat2 protein, both mutants began to show enhanced activity at 48 and 72 hr of growth compared to WT. These results lead to the conclusion that GpaA activates expression and activity of cat1 and cat2, whereas FlbA plays an antagonistic role in control of catalases, leading to balanced responses to neutralizing the toxicity of reactive oxygen species.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.245-255
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• 2017

There are a number of pieces of evidences that suggest a link between marine diatoms and microorganisms, but knowledge about related microbial communities is greatly lacking. The present study investigated the microbial community structures related to the growth of the marine diatom Cyclotella meneghiniana. We collected free-living bacteria (FLB) and particle-associated bacteria (PAB) at each growth stage (e.g., lag, exponential, stationary and death) of the diatom, and analyzed their bacterial 16S rDNA using pyrosequencing. Metagenomics analysis showed that community structures of FLB and PAB differed considerably with the progress of growth stages. FLB showed higher diversity than PAB, but variation in the different growth stages of C. meneghiniana was more evident in PAB. The proportion of the genus Hoeflea, belonging to the order Rhizobiales, was dominant in both FLB and PAB, and it gradually increased with the growth of C. meneghiniana. However, Enhydrobacter clade tended to considerably decrease in PAB. In addition, Marinobacter decreased steadily in FLB, but first increased and then decreased in PAB. These results suggest that Hoeflea, Enhydrobacter, and Marinobacter may be closely related to the growth of diatom C. meneghiniana.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1996.05b
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• pp.622-627
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• 1996

Detailed analysis of Feedwater Line Break (FLB) event for the fuel failure point of view are lack because the event was characterized as the increase in reactor coolant system (RCS) pressure. Up to now, the potential of the rapid system heatup case has been emphasized and comprehensively studied. The cooldown effects of FLB event is considered to be bounded by the Steam Line Break (SLB) event since the cooldown effect of SLB event is larger than that of the FLB event. This analysis provides a new possible path which can cause the fuel failure. The new path means that the fuel failure can occur under the heatup scenario because the Pressurizer Safety Valves (PSVs) open before the reactor trips. The 1000 MWe typical C-E plant FLB event assuming Loss of Offsite Power (LOOP) at the turbine trip has been analyzed as an example and the results show less than 1% of the fuel failure. The result is well within the acceptance criteria. In addition to that, a study was accomplished to prevent the fuel failure for the heatup scenario case as an example. It is found that giving the proper pressure gap between High Pressurizer Pressure Trip (HPPT) analysis setpoint and the minimum PSV opening pressure could prevent the fuel failure.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.4177-4185
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• 2012

LEDs are becoming the most suitable candidate replacing traditional fluorescent lamps because of its eco-friendly characteristics. LEDs are also actively used to design green building system and to make outdoor billboard as a back-light system due to its high energy efficiency. In this paper, we have developed AC direct driver for $12{\times}12$ FLB(flexible LED board) and LED flat light without SMPS. It has LID-PC-R101B driver IC that can support the high power factor and be composed of LED switching circuit in group. Also, an elaborate system designs can guarantee a high luminous efficiency, a high reliability and a low power consumption. The proposed FLB has the ultra slim shape of $450{\times}450$ mm, width of 4 mm and weight of 280 g. In the end, we have developed a prototype of FLB for billboard and flat light for room lighting with AC direct driver iposrder to verify the performance of the proposed system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.10-21
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• 1987

Uncertainty analysis of the FLB accident is performed for KNU-1 using the response surface methodology and Monte Carlo simulation. The FLB analyses using the RELAP4/Mod6 were performed a number of times to generate the data base for the uncertainty analysis, along with the EM calculation for comparison purpose. Two kinds of input sets are utilized for response surface method to investigate and compare the effects of the uncertainty of input variables on the RCS peak pressure following a FLB. The first set is composed of six major plant operational parameters and the second set is composed of five major modelling parameters. It is found through the analysis of results that the uncertainties of modelling parameters have more influence on the RCS peak pressure than the uncertainties of plant operational parameters and that the extra margin of 9% of peak pressure is gained. And one of the assumptions of EM calculation, which is usually accepted as conservative is found to be erroneous, that is, the initial core inlet temperature is found to act negatively on the RCS pressure following a FLB.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea CI
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.86-95
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• 2009

Efficient DAG scheduling is critical for achieving high performance in heterogeneous computing environments. Finding an optimal solution to the problem of scheduling an application modeled by a directed acyclic graph(DAG) onto a set of heterogeneous machines is known to be an NP-complete problem. In this paper we propose a new list scheduling algorithm, called the Heterogeneous Rank-Path Scheduling(HRPS) algorithm, to exploit all of a program's available parallelism in distributed heterogeneous computing system. The primary goal of HRPS is to minimize the schedule length of applications. The performance of the algorithm has been observed by its application to some practical DAGs, and by comparing it with other existing scheduling algorithm such as CPOP, HCPT and FLB in term of the schedule length. The comparison studies show that HRPS significantly outperform CPOP, HCPT and FLB in schedule length.

• ALGAE
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.111-126
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• 2023

Mixotrophic dinoflagellates act as primary producers, prey, and predators in marine planktonic food webs, whereas exclusively autotrophic dinoflagellates are primary producers and prey. Species of the dinoflagellate genus Scrippsiella are commonly found in marine ecosystems and sometimes cause harmful red tides. Among the 28 formally described Scrippsiella species, S. acuminata has been found to be mixotrophic and two unidentified species have been found to be mixotrophic. To determine whether the other species in this genus are similarly mixotrophic, the mixotrophic ability of S. donghaiensis SDGJ1703, S. lachrymosa SLBS1703, S. masanensis SSMS0908, S. plana SSSH1009A, and S. ramonii VGO1053 was explored using 15 potential prey items, including 2-㎛ fluorescently labeled microspheres (FLM) and heterotrophic bacteria (FLB), the cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp., and various microalgal prey species. The ability of S. acuminata to feed on FLM and FLB was also investigated. We found that S. donghaiensis, S. lachrymosa, S. masanensis, S. plana, and S. ramonii did not feed on any potential prey tested in this study, indicating a lack of mixotrophy. However, S. acuminata fed on both FLM and FLB, confirming its mixotrophic ability. These results lowered the proportion of mixotrophic species relative to the total number of tested Scrippsiella species for mixotrophy from 100% to 29-38%. Owing to its mixotrophic ability, S. acuminata occupies an ecological niche that is distinct from that of S. donghaiensis, S. lachrymosa, S. masanensis, S. plana, and S. ramonii.