• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.403-410
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• 2017

Background: Prenyltransferases catalyze the sequential addition of isopentenyl diphosphate units to allylic prenyl diphosphate acceptors and are classified as either trans-prenyltransferases (TPTs) or cis-prenyltransferases (CPTs). The functions of CPTs have been well characterized in bacteria, yeast, and mammals compared to plants. The characterization of CPTs also has been less studied than TPTs. In the present study, molecular cloning and functional characterization of a CPT from a medicinal plant, Panax ginseng Mayer were addressed. Methods: Gene expression patterns of PgCPT1 were analyzed by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. In planta transformation was generated by floral dipping using Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Yeast transformation was performed by lithium acetate and heat-shock for $rer2{\Delta}$ complementation and yeast-two-hybrid assay. Results: The ginseng genome contains at least one family of three putative CPT genes. PgCPT1 is expressed in all organs, but more predominantly in the leaves. Overexpression of PgCPT1 did not show any plant growth defect, and its protein can complement yeast mutant $rer2{\Delta}$ via possible protein-protein interaction with PgCPTL2. Conclusion: Partial complementation of the yeast dolichol biosynthesis mutant $rer2{\Delta}$ suggested that PgCPT1 is involved in dolichol biosynthesis. Direct protein interaction between PgCPT1 and a human Nogo-B receptor homolog suggests that PgCPT1 requires an accessory component for proper function.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.10 no.7
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• pp.1740-1749
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• 2009

As mobile devices evolve and digital convergence trend is here to stay, mobile phones are built with multiple functions including cameras, MP3s, TVs and game consoles. As a consequence, such multi-functional mobile phones come to spend more power, facilitating development of next-generation ultra-capacity lithium ion battery. In addition, environmental regulations and rising oil prices cause demand for hybrid cars to keep rising. Accordingly, more and more attention is being paid to medium and large batteries and more efforts are being made to realize lower battery prices, higher outputs and stability. This study presented a patent technology related to the lithium ion battery packing that allows reducing processes related, increasing productivity and recycling parts other than the body. The lithium ion battery pack to which protection circuits are elastically attached provides short circuit protection for the circuit and the body and makes electric connection of the circuit and the body easier.

• Current Applied Physics
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.1465-1472
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• 2018

The magnetic and optical properties of Ce-doped ZnO systems have been widely demonstrated, but the effects of different strains of Ce-doped ZnO systems remain unclear. To solve these problems, this study identified the effects of biaxial strain on the electronic structure, absorption spectrum, and magnetic properties of Ce-doped ZnO systems by using a generalized gradient approximation + U (GGA + U) method with plane wave pseudopotential. Under unstrained conditions, the formation energy decreased, the system became stable, and the doping process became easy with the increase in the distances between two Ce atoms. The band gap of the systems with different strains became narrower than that of undoped ZnO without strain, and the absorption spectra showed a red shift. The band gap narrowed, and the red shift became weak with the increase of compressive strain. By contrast, the band gap widened, and the red shift became significant with the increase of tensile strain. The red shift was significant when the tensile strain was 3%. The systems with -1%, 0%, and 1% strains were ferromagnetic. For the first time, the magnetic moment of the system with -1% strain was found to be the largest, and the system showed the greatest beneficial value for diluted magnetic semiconductors. The systems with -3%, -2%, 2%, and 3% strains were non-magnetic, and they had no value for diluted magnetic semiconductors. The ferromagnetism of the system with -1% strain was mainly caused by the hybrid coupling of Ce-4f, Ce-5d, and O-2p orbits. This finding was consistent with Zener's Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida theory. The results can serve as a reference for the design and preparation of new diluted magnetic semiconductors and optical functional materials.

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.68-75
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• 2022

The breathable film refers to a high-functional film that allows gas and water vapor to pass through very fine and sophisticated pores but not liquid. In this research, the breathable film was prepared based on linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) and CaCO₃ particles by extrude method. The LLDPE composite film containing CaCO₃ particles had excellent mechanical properties and functionalties. The drawing is a technologically simple and excellent method for improving the mechanical properties of composite films. In this work, the effects of draw ratio on morphology, crystallinity, pore size distribution, mechanical properties, and water vapor permeability of the films were examined. The results revealed that both surface morphology and breathability were affected by the influence of chain orientation and crystal growth with increasing the draw ratio. The mechanical properties were improved with increasing the draw ratio.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.850-858
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• 2022

To deploy Gate Recurrent Units (GRU) on resource-constrained embedded devices, this paper presents a reconfigurable FPGA-based GRU accelerator that enables structured compression. Firstly, a dense GRU model is significantly reduced in size by hybrid quantization and structured top-k pruning. Secondly, the energy consumption on external memory access is greatly reduced by the proposed reuse computing pattern. Finally, the accelerator can handle a structured sparse model that benefits from the algorithm-hardware co-design workflows. Moreover, inference tasks can be flexibly performed using all functional dimensions, sequence length, and number of layers. Implemented on the Intel DE1-SoC FPGA, the proposed accelerator achieves 45.01 GOPs in a structured sparse GRU network without batching. Compared to the implementation of CPU and GPU, low-cost FPGA accelerator achieves 57 and 30x improvements in latency, 300 and 23.44x improvements in energy efficiency, respectively. Thus, the proposed accelerator is utilized as an early study of real-time embedded applications, demonstrating the potential for further development in the future.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.52-65
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• 2022

Purpose: This study was conducted to develop a scale to measure spiritual distress in cancer patients. Methods: A total of 69 preliminary items for the spiritaul distress assessment tool (SDAT) were compiled, based on a literature review, selection of empirically relevant items through concept analysis of hybrid models, confirmation of content validity by experts, cognitive interviews, and a pretest. Self-administered questionnaires were collected between April 1 and July 31, 2018, from 225 cancer patients at four medical institutions and one nursing home. The data were analyzed using item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, convergent and discriminant validity, and Pearson correlation for criterion validity. Reliability was tested by Cronbash's α coefficient. Results: The final version of the SDAT consisted of 20 items. Five-factors, loss of peace, burden of family, avoidance of confronting death, guilt and remorse, regret for not being able to apololgize and forgive were extracted, and showed 62.8% of total variance. The factors were confirmed through convergent and discriminant validity. Criterion validity was confirmed by functional assessment chronic illness therapy spiritual well-being scale 12 (FACIT-Sp12). The overall Cronbach's α was .91, and the coefficients of each subscale ranged from .78~.83. Conclusion: The SDAT for cancer patients is valid and reliable. It is suggested that the tool can be used to measure spiritual distress in cancer patients.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.151-157
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• 2022

Background: We investigated surgical outcomes after the surgical repair of cor triatriatum sinister (CTS). Methods: Thirty-two consecutive patients who underwent surgical repair of CTS from 1993 through 2020 were included in this study. The morphological characteristics, clinical features, and surgical outcomes were described and analyzed. Results: The median age and body weight at operation were 9 months (interquartile range [IQR], 3-238 months) and 7.5 kg (IQR, 5.8-49.6 kg), respectively. There were 16 males (50%). According to the modified Lucas classification, type IA (classical CTS) was most common (n=20, 62.5%). Atrial septal defect was associated in 22 patients (68.8%) and anomalous pulmonary venous return in 8 patients (25%). Pulmonary hypertension was preoperatively suspected with a high probability in 18 patients (56.3%). There was 1 early death (3.1%) after emergent membrane excision and hybrid palliation in a high-risk hypoplastic left heart syndrome patient. There were no late deaths. The overall survival rate was 96.9% at 15 years post-repair. No early survivors required reoperation during follow-up. Most survivors (31 of 32 patients, 96.9%) were in New York Heart Association functional class I at a median follow-up of 74 months (IQR, 39-195 months). At the latest echocardiography performed at a median of 42 months (IQR, 6-112 months) after repair, no residual lesion was observed except in 1 patient who had moderate pulmonary hypertension (mean pulmonary arterial pressure of 36 mm Hg). Conclusion: Surgical repair of cor triatriatum could be performed safely and effectively with an extremely low risk of recurrence.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.147-165
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to examine various types and characteristics of masks and to consider what meanings they have in the recent fashion world. To this end, this study attempts to reflect on the internal meaning of masks exhibited in fashion designers' collections rather than functional meanings. It has an implication; in that it tries to help understand the expressive needs for variety and freshness pursued by modern fashion and use the unique design development to understand the internal meanings of masks. It, therefore, examines the existing domestic and foreign literature and data about masks from a theoretical perspective, and also attempts to draw findings from the data of fashion collections which have been held since the 2000s, as well as from literature research based on books about fashion and various other media. The meanings of masks in the field of fashion are as follows: First, they express identity, by criticizing the couture fashion, through the fashion. Second, they present a new concept of body, showing an illogical and ambiguous identity in which both feminine and masculine images coexist. Third, they are media externally communicating insights about human beings' inner world, through which various messages are transferred to modern people who are attached to external appearances, and the identities possessed by designers are revealed by the masks. Fourth, they ask about a boundary between gender and sexuality, as a means to make us concentrate on the important social issue, while expressing various and new identities, like the hybrid identity. In other words, they can be found to be used as effective media in communicating fashion massages intended by fashion experimental and creative designers.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.49-57
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• 2022

During electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) analysis of proteins, the addition of supercharging agents allows for adjusting the maximal charge state, affecting the charge state distribution, and increases the number of ions reaching the detector thus, improving signal detection. We postulate that in di-substituted arene isomers, molecules with higher polarizability values should generate greater interactions and hence elicit higher signal intensities. Polarizability is an electronic parameter which has been demonstrated to predict many chemical interactions. Many properties can be predicted based on charge polarization. Molecular polarizability is a vital descriptor for explaining intermolecular interactions. We employed DFT (density functional/Hartree-Fock hybrid model, B3LYP)-derived descriptors and computed molecular polarizability for ten disubstituted arene reagents, each set made up of three (ortho, meta, para) isomers, with reported use as supercharging reagents during ESI experiments. The atomic electronic inputs were ionization potential (IP), electron affinity (EA), electronegativity (𝛘), hardness (η), chemical potential (µ), and dipole moment (D). We determined that the para isomers showed the highest polarizability values in nine of the ten sets. There was no difference between the ortho and meta isomers. Polarizability also increased with increasing complexity of the substituents on the benzene ring. Polarizability correlated positively with IP, EA, 𝛘, η, and D but correlated negatively with chemical potential. This DFT study predicts that the para isomers of di-substituted arene isomers should elicit the strongest ESI responses. An experimental comparison of the three isomers, especially of larger supercharging molecules, could be carried out to establish this premise.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.23.1-23.16
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• 2021

Chemokines are key factors that influence the migration and maintenance of relevant immune cells into an infected tissue or a tumor microenvironment. Therefore, it is believed that the controlled administration of chemokines in the tumor microenvironment may be an effective immunotherapy against cancer. Previous studies have shown that CCL3, also known as macrophage inflammatory protein 1-alpha, facilitates the recruitment of dendritic cells (DCs) for the presentation of tumor Ags and promotes T cell activation. Here, we investigated the role of CCL3 in regulating the tumor microenvironment using a syngeneic mouse tumor model. We observed that MC38 tumors overexpressing CCL3 (CCL3-OE) showed rapid regression compared with the wild type MC38 tumors. Additionally, these CCL3-OE tumors showed an increase in the proliferative and functional tumor-infiltrating T cells. Furthermore, PD-1 immune checkpoint blockade accelerated tumor regression in the CCL3-OE tumor microenvironment. Next, we generated a modified CCL3 protein for pre-clinical use by fusing recombinant CCL3 (rCCL3) with a non-cytolytic hybrid Fc (HyFc). Administering a controlled dose of rCCL3-HyFc via subcutaneous injections near tumors was effective in tumor regression and improved survival along with activated myeloid cells and augmented T cell responses. Furthermore, combination therapy of rCCL3-HyFc with PD-1 blockade exhibited prominent effect to tumor regression. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that appropriate concentrations of CCL3 in the tumor microenvironment would be an effective adjuvant to promote anti-tumor immune responses, and suggest that administering a long-lasting form of CCL3 in combination with PD-1 blockers can have clinical applications in cancer immunotherapy.