• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.123-127
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• 2017

Synonymous sites are generally considered to be functionally neutral. However, there are recent contradictory findings suggesting that synonymous alleles might have functional roles in various molecular aspects. For instance, a recent study demonstrated that synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms have a similar effect size as nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms in human disease association studies. Researchers have recognized synonymous codon usage bias (SCUB) in the genomes of almost all species and have investigated whether SCUB is due to random nucleotide compositional bias or to natural selection of any functional exposure generated by synonymous mutations. One of the most prominent observations on the non-neutrality of synonymous codons is the correlation between SCUB and levels of gene expression, such that highly expressed genes tend to have a higher preference toward so-called optimal codons than lowly expressed genes. In relation, it is known that amounts of cognate tRNAs that bind to optimal codons are significantly higher than the amounts of cognate tRNAs that bind to non-optimal codons in genomes. In the present paper, we review various functions that synonymous codons might have other than regulating expression levels.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.114-120
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• 2014

Bone mineral density (BMD) is one of the quantitative traits that are genetically inherited and affected by various factors. Over the past years, genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have searched for many genetic loci that influence BMD. A recent meta-analysis of 17 GWASs for BMD of the femoral neck and lumbar spine is the largest GWAS for BMD to date and offers 64 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 56 associated loci. We investigated these BMD loci in a Korean population called Korea Association REsource (KARE) to identify their validity in an independent study. The KARE population contains genotypes from 8,842 individuals, and their BMD levels were measured at the distal radius (BMD-RT) and midshaft tibia (BMD-TT). Thirteen genomic loci among 56 loci were significantly associated with BMD variations, and 3 loci were involved in known biological pathways related to BMD. In order to find putative functional variants, nearby SNPs in relation to linkage equilibrium were annotated, and their possible functional effects were predicted. These findings reveal that tens of variants, not a single factor, may contribute to the genetic architecture of BMD; have an important role regardless of ethnic group; and may highlight the importance of a replication study in GWASs to validate genuine loci for BMD variation.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.19-24
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• 2004

The purposes of this study were to analyze gait patterns of patients with chronic lumboscaral radiculopathy and to investigate gait parameters which can reflect a functional deficit in relation to the level of lumbosacral radiculopathy. The study population consisted of 25 patients of chronic lumbosacral radiculopathy and 25 healthy control subjects. Conventional physical examinations and three-dimensional gait analyses were performed on all participants. The data were analyzed using an independent sample t-test. The results were as follows: (1) In the patients' group, cadence, walking velocity, stride length and double support time were less than in the control group (p<.05). (2) In the patients' group, maximum flexion of hip, maximum flexion of loading response, maximum flexion of swing phase on the knee and maximum plantar flexion of pre-swing were less than the control group (p<.05). Using three-dimensional gait analysis, we could identify specific gait parameters to reflect a functional deficit related to the level of lumbosacral radiculopathy.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06c
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• pp.333-338
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• 2001

Fault tree is a widely used methodology for analyzing product reliability. The fault trees are usually constructed using the experiences of expert reliability engineers in top-down approaches and have different structures according to each expert's subjectivity. In this work it is tried to find a general method for the fault tree construction based on the function tree that is the result of product function deployment. Based on the function tree, the method has the advantage of resulting an objective fault tree since the faults are defined as the opposite concept of functions. The fault tree construction of this work consists of the following steps: 1) definition of product primary function with the viewpoints of product operation and configuration, 2) construction of functional relation chart using a grouping algorithm, 3) abstraction of functional block diagram according to operation sequences and configuration of a product, 4) construction of function tree for each viewpoint, and 5) construction of fault tree by matching the function tree and simplification of the result.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.91-101
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• 1987

The present experiment was carried out, in the rabbit and cat, in order to explore functional interrelationship between the vestibular semicircular canals and extraocular muscles, which are involved in the vestibulooculomotor reflex as the receptor and effector organ respectively. Semicircular canals were subjected to electrical stimulation, lymphatic fluid flow or acute freezing, and responses of the extraocular muscles were recorded in terms of changes in electromyographic activity and isometric tension. Electrical stimulation of a unilateral canal elicited contraction of the superio-medial muscle group (superior oblique, superior rectus and medial rectus muscles) in the ipsilateral eye and the inferio-lateral muscle group (inferior oblique, inferior rectus and lateral rectus muscles) in the contralateral eye. Thus a simple and distinct axiom was found in the pattern of the reflex-response of the extraocular muscles. Inhibition of the unilateral canals elicited the extraocular muscle responses contrary to those observed by excitation of the canal. Based on the present experimental results, it was demonstrated that the functional interrelations between the semicircular canals and extraocular muscles are rather equivalent in the frontal eyed cats (with binocular vision) and lateral eyed rabbits (with monocular vision). Therefore the previous thesis that the vestibuloocular relations vary from species to species awaits experimental reevaluation.

• Journal of Haehwa Medicine
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.107-112
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• 2005

Peripheral axons in vertebrate animals can regenerate after nerve injury and accomplish its functional recovery. Numerous studies have revealed that diverse molecular factors are induced during axonal regeneration and their potential roles in axonal regeneration have been studied. Examples is N-CAM, L1, P0, nerve growth factors, GAP-43 and so forth. However, most of the studies on axonal regeneration have been primarily focused on axon fiber regrowth and elucidating molecular factors, and relatively less is known about functional recovery. Also, specific drugs or drug components used in the oriental medicine in relation to nerve fiber regeneration have not been known. And thus, in the present, a study on the effect of Samul-tang components and Samul-tang extracts to regeneration of peripheral axon fiber is underway by immunofluorescence staining. Therefore, this prior application of Samul-tang with documents consideration is reported with a plea for further investigation.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.65-88
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• 2017

The main purposes of this study are to appraise the family-centered case-management (FCCM) practices in terms of building the community networking efforts, and to propose the practical improvement suggestions to overcome the barriers in practicing the current Healthy Families Policy, FCCM. The blended methodology was employed by collecting the quantitative and qualitative data sets including an staff's on-line survey, in-depth interviews(site case studies), and FGIs. As results, the authors found, despite the building and maintaining functional community networks was the essential and critical condition for the FCCM policy deliveries, many staffs have faced hardships in FCCM practices such as building a new network or finding an available and apt network within their communities. The lack of previous experiences in case-management exaggerated the functional difficulties thus, the new staffs were more prone than the staffs with 2 or more years experiences to the misunderstanding about the missions and tasks related to FCCM. Authors suggested that various on-the-job-training should be provided to eliminate those obstacles to build and/or maintain the community network for FCCM. Also, it is necessary for the each institution's director or managers to understand the FCCM and its relation to community networking, and to support FCCM staff members.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.75
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• pp.71-94
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• 2017

The Rotterdam Rules is the first international maritime carriage of goods Convention that acknowledge electronic records of contracts of carriage. The Rules have developed separate chapter in relation to electronic transport records' issuing, transfer, etc. This paper aims to evaluate Rotterdam Rules' contribution to the use of electronic transport records. To achieve the aims firstly this paper have examined the related articles of Rotterdam Rules, Secondly in practical aspects, this paper explores the opportunities and obstacles which could be happened in practical procedures, applicable to transport industry, shipper and holder of electronic transport records. Findings could be summarized as follows, first the Rules shows high acceptability to whom it may involved in transport industry by simplify the contents of the Rules to avoid conflict with each countries' national laws. The Rules acknowledge the functional equivalence between paper and electronic transport records in specific provisions. This could be important development to facilitate the use of electronic transport records. But the Rules have not mentioned liability limit of transport industry when the problems arise from issuing, tele-transmission, transfer of the records. And the secure of the functional equivalence between paper and electronic transport records also could be remained in uncertain regime due to different stance of each national laws.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2016

Damage in the periphery or spinal cord induces maladaptive plastic changes along the somatosensory nervous system from the periphery to the cortex, often leading to chronic pain. Although the role of neural circuit remodeling and structural synaptic plasticity in the 'pain matrix' cortices in chronic pain has been thought as a secondary epiphenomenon to altered nociceptive signaling in the spinal cord, progress in whole brain imaging studies on human patients and animal models has suggested a possibility that plastic changes in cortical neural circuits may actively contribute to chronic pain symptoms. Furthermore, recent development in two-photon microscopy and fluorescence labeling techniques have enabled us to longitudinally trace the structural and functional changes in local circuits, single neurons and even individual synapses in the brain of living animals. These technical advances has started to reveal that cortical structural remodeling following tissue or nerve damage could rapidly occur within days, which are temporally correlated with functional plasticity of cortical circuits as well as the development and maintenance of chronic pain behavior, thereby modifying the previous concept that it takes much longer periods (e.g. months or years). In this review, we discuss the relation of neural circuit plasticity in the 'pain matrix' cortices, such as the anterior cingulate cortex, prefrontal cortex and primary somatosensory cortex, with chronic pain. We also introduce how to apply long-term in vivo two-photon imaging approaches for the study of pathophysiological mechanisms of chronic pain.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.257-265
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• 2004

Numerical analysis, as EAM(Embedded Atom Method), in the atomic level is necessary to analyze the relation between the hydrogen and hydrogen absorption metals. EAM established on density functional theory was developed as a new means for calculating various properties and phenomena of realistic metal systems. In this study, we had constructed the EAM program from constitutive formulae and parameters of the hydrogen, nickel and palladium for the purpose of predicting the expansion behavior on hydrogen absorbing. In result, not only the ground state properties of metals but also lattice constants and the volume expansion ratio of metal hydrides show good agreement with Daw's data and experiment data.