• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.149-156
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• 1999

Steroid hormone is known to cause the dynamic changes of mammalian uterus during reproductive cycle, which are modulated via hypothalamus-pituitary -gonad reproductive endocrine axis. Although there were so many studies about estrogenic regulation of uterine growth and differentiation. There is little information about the effect of estrogen on the expression of various transcription factors involved in gene expression. Thus the present study was designed to demonstrate E induced expression of c-fos, c-jun, hsp25 mRNA in rat uterus. Employing Northern blot analysis, we studied the temporal expressions of c-fos, c-jun, and hsp25 messenger RNAs (mRNAs) elicited by a single 17beta-estradiol (E) treatment in the uteri of bilaterally ovariectomized adult rats. c-fos, c-jun, and hsp25 mRNA levels were increased and peaked at 3h after E administration, and then c-fos and c-jun mRNA levels were rapidly decreased to basal control level while, increased hsp25 mRNA levels were sustained till 12h post E treatment. To test the estrogenic effect on the increase of c-fos, c-jun, and hsp25 mRNA levels, we also examined the effects of antiestrogen (tamoxifen). Pretreatment with tamoxifen effectively blocked the E-induced increase of c-fos, c-jun, and hsp25 mRNA levels at 3h post E treatment. Present results suggest that transient increase of c-fos and c-jun protooncogene mRNA at the early time and simultaneous expression of hsp25 mRNA contribute to the response of uterine tissues to E in adult female rats.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.54-64
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• 2012

Acrylonitrile was introduced in the emulsion SBR to increase compatibility between silica and rubber. AN-SBR/silica compounds showed faster vulcanization time and higher delta torque values than SBR 1721/silica compounds because interaction between nitrile group of AN-SBR and silanol group on the silica surface could make hydrogen bond that prevented adsorption of the accelerator on the silica surface, which improved the vulcanization reaction efficiency and enhanced the degree of crosslinking. AN-SBR/silica compound showed higher values in minimum torque than SBR 1721/silica compound during the vulcanization because AN-SBR has higher molecular weight than SBR 1721 in the raw material. When PEG was added to the SBR 1721 and AN-SBR compounds, vulcanization time was faster than SBR 1721 and AN-SBR compounds without PEG because PEG has a large number of ether linkages which show high compatibility with silanol group on the silica surface that prevented the adsorption of the accelerator and the ingredients on the silica surface, which improved the vulcanization reaction efficiency. In the mechanical properties, AN-SBR compounds showed higher modulus values at 100%, 300% than SBR 1721 compounds because interaction between nitrile group of AN-SBR and silanol group on the silica surface enhanced the degree of crosslinking. In the dynamic properties, AN-SBR compounds showed lower tan ${\delta}$ values at $0^{\circ}C$ than SBR 1721 compounds in accordance with the $T_g$ values. AN-SBR compounds showed lower tan ${\delta}$ values at $60^{\circ}C$ than SBR 1721 compounds because interaction between acrylonitrile and silica caused strong filler-rubber interaction that induced low energy dissipation by the filler-filler interaction.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.8
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• pp.1102-1116
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• 2012

During embryo implantation in pigs, the uterine endometrium undergoes dramatic morphological and functional changes accompanied with dynamic gene expression. Since the greatest amount of embryonic losses occur during this period, it is essential to understand the expression and function of genes in the uterine endometrium. Although many reports have studied gene expression in the uterine endometrium during the estrous cycle and pregnancy, the pattern of global gene expression in the uterine endometrium in response to the presence of a conceptus (embryo/fetus and associated extraembryonic membranes) has not been completely determined. To better understand the expression of pregnancy-specific genes in the endometrium during the implantation period, we analyzed global gene expression in the endometrium on day (D) 12 and D15 of pregnancy and the estrous cycle using a microarray technique in order to identify differentially expressed endometrial genes between D12 of pregnancy and D12 of the estrous cycle and between D15 of pregnancy and D15 of the estrous cycle. Results showed that the global pattern of gene expression varied with pregnancy status. Among 23,937 genes analyzed, 99 and 213 up-regulated genes and 92 and 231 down-regulated genes were identified as differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the uterine endometrium on D12 and D15 of pregnancy compared to D12 and D15 of the estrous cycle, respectively. Functional annotation clustering analysis showed that those DEGs included genes involved in immunity, steroidogenesis, cell-to-cell interaction, and tissue remodeling. These findings suggest that the implantation process regulates differential endometrial gene expression to support the establishment of pregnancy in pigs. Further analysis of the genes identified in this study will provide insight into the cellular and molecular bases of the implantation process in pigs.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.117-117
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• 1992

Pubilc utility industries including the electric utility industry are facing a new stream of privatization com-petition with the private sector and deregulation. The necewssity to solve now and in the future power supply and demand problems has been increasing through the sophisticated generation expansion plan(GEP) approach con-sidering not only KEPCo's supply-side resources but also outside resources such as non-utility generation(NUG) demand-side management (DSM). Under the environmental situation in the current electric utility industry a new approach is needed to acquire multiple resources competitively. This study presents the development of a modified electric generation expansion analysis system(EGEAS) model with avoided cost based on the existing EGEAS model which is a dynamic program to develope an optimal generation expansion plan for the electric utility. We are trying to find optimal GEP in Korea's case using our modified model and observe the difference for the level of reliabilities such as the reserve margin(RM) loss of load probability(LOLP) and expected unserved energy percent(EUEP) between the existing EGEAS model and our model. In addition we are trying to calculate avoided cost for NUG resources which is a criterion to evaluate herem and test possibility of connection calculation of avoided cost with GEP implementation using our modified model. The results of our case study are as follows. First we were able to find that the generation expansion plan and reliability measures were largely influenced by capacity size and loading status of NUG resources, Second we were able to find that avoided cost which are criteria to evaluate NUG resources could be calculated by using our modified EGEAS model with avoided cost. We also note that avoided costs were calculated by our model in connection with generation expansion plans.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.363-363
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• 2014

Ruthenium (Ru) has attractive material properties due to its promising characteristics such as a low resistivity ($7.1{\mu}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ in the bulk), a high work function of 4.7 eV, and feasibility for the dry etch process. These properties make Ru films appropriate for various applications in the state-of-art semiconductor device technologies. Thus, it has been widely investigated as an electrode for capacitor in the dynamic random access memory (DRAM), a metal gate for metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET), and a seed layer for Cu metallization. Due to the continuous shrinkage of microelectronic devices, better deposition processes for Ru thin films are critically required with excellent step coverages in high aspect ratio (AR) structures. In these respects, atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a viable solution for preparing Ru thin films because it enables atomic-scale control of the film thickness with excellent conformality. A recent investigation reported that the nucleation of ALD-Ru film was enhanced considerably by using a zero-valent metallorganic precursor, compared to the utilization of precursors with higher metal valences. In this study, we will present our research results on the synthesis and characterization of novel ruthenium complexes. The ruthenium compounds were easy synthesized by the reaction of ruthenium halide with appropriate organic ligands in protic solvent, and characterized by NMR, elemental analysis and thermogravimetric analysis. The molecular structures of the complexes were studied by single crystal diffraction. ALD of Ru film was demonstrated using the new Ru metallorganic precursor and O2 as the Ru source and reactant, respectively, at the deposition temperatures of $300-350^{\circ}C$. Self-limited reaction behavior was observed as increasing Ru precursor and O2 pulse time, suggesting that newly developed Ru precursor is applicable for ALD process. Detailed discussions on the chemical and structural properties of Ru thin films as well as its growth behavior using new Ru precursor will be also presented.

• Journal of KIISE:Databases
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.119-132
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• 2007

In molecular biology, approximate subsequence search is one of the most important operations. In this paper, we propose an accurate and efficient method for approximate subsequence search in large DNA databases. The proposed method basically adopts a binary trie as its primary structure and stores all the window subsequences extracted from a DNA sequence. For approximate subsequence search, it traverses the binary trie in a breadth-first fashion and retrieves all the matched subsequences from the traversed path within the trie by a dynamic programming technique. However, the proposed method stores only window subsequences of the pre-determined length, and thus suffers from large post-processing time in case of long query sequences. To overcome this problem, we divide a query sequence into shorter pieces, perform searching for those subsequences, and then merge their results. To verify the superiority of the proposed method, we conducted performance evaluation via a series of experiments. The results reveal that the proposed method, which requires smaller storage space, achieves 4 to 17 times improvement in performance over the suffix tree based method. Even when the length of a query sequence is large, our method is more than an order of magnitude faster than the suffix tree based method and the Smith-Waterman algorithm.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.601-606
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• 2015

Hutchinson (1961) proposed that the large number of species in most plankton communities is remarkable in review of the competitive exclusion principle, which suggests that in homogeneous, well-mixed environments species that compete for the same resources cannot coexist. The principle of competitive exclusion would lead us to conclude that only a few species could coexist in such circumstances. Nevertheless, numerous competing species in most natural habitats are able to coexist, while generally only few resources (niches) limit these communities. It is coined “the paradox of plankton” by Hutchinson. We reviewed some literature of the proposed solutions and give a brief overview of the mechanisms proposed so far. The proposed mechanisms that we discuss mainly include spatial and temporal heterogeneity in physical and biological environment, externally imposed or self-generated spatial segregation, horizontal mesoscale turbulence of ocean characterized by coherent vortices, oscillation and chaos generated by several internal and external causes, stable coexistence and compensatory dynamic under fluctuating temperature in resource competition, and finally the role of toxin-producing phytoplankton in maintaining the coexistence and biodiversity of the overall plankton populations. Especially we sited Roy and Chattopadhyay’s reviews and their toxin-producing hypothesis by phytoplankton. This review may be some information to study plankton communities and effect to put the solutions to the paradox that have been proposed over the years into perspective.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.137-145
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• 2014

We present a design sensitivity analysis(DSA) method for multiscale problems based on bridging scale decomposition. In this paper, we utilize a bridging scale method for the coupled system analysis. Since the analysis of full MD systems requires huge amount of computational costs, a coupled system of MD-level and continuum-level simulation is usually preferred. The information exchange between the MD and continuum levels is taken place at the MD-continuum boundary. In the bridging scale method, a generalized Langevin equation(GLE) is introduced for the reduced MD system and the GLE force using a time history kernel is applied at the boundary atoms in the MD system. Therefore, we can separately analyze the MD and continuum level simulations, which can accelerate the computing process. Once the simulation of coupled problems is successful, the need for the DSA is naturally arising for the optimization of macro-scale design, where the macro scale performance of the system is maximized considering the micro scale effects. The finite difference sensitivity is impractical for the gradient based optimization of large scale problems due to the restriction of computing costs but the analytical sensitivity for the coupled system is always accurate. In this study, we derive the analytical design sensitivity to verify the accuracy and applicability to the design optimization of the coupled system.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.122-131
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• 2010

This paper introduces the concept of a virtual ecosystem and reports the following three mathematical approaches that could be widely used to construct such an ecosystem, along with examples: (1) a molecular dynamics simulation approach for animal flocking behavior, (2) a stochastic lattice model approach for termite colony behavior, and (3) a rule-based cellular automata approach for biofilm growth. The ecosystem considered in this study consists of artificial organisms and their environment. Each organism in the ecosystem is an agent that interacts autonomously with the dynamic environment, including the other organisms within it. The three types of model were successful to account for each corresponding ecosystem. In order to accurately mimic a natural ecosystem, a virtual ecosystem needs to take many ecological variables into account. However, doing so is likely to introduce excess complexity and nonlinearity in the analysis of the virtual ecosystem's dynamics. Nonetheless, the development of a virtual ecosystem is important, because it can provide possible explanations for various phenomena such as environmental disturbances and disasters, and can also give insights into ecological functions from an individual to a community level from a synthetic viewpoint. As an example of how lower and higher levels in an ecosystem can be connected, this paper also briefly discusses the application of the second model to the simulation of a termite ecosystem and the influence of climate change on the termite ecosystem.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.738-746
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• 2011

We manufactured rice-whole soybean curd by a microbial transglutaminase (MTGase) with a mixture of hydrolyzed rice and micronized whole soybean powder (MWSP) and analyzed its rheological properties, including texture, viscoelasticity, protein cross-linking, and surface structure. A 40% rice suspension digested with a Termamyl enzyme at $85^{\circ}C$ for 20 min showed a 9.0% reducing sugar and a consistency of $1.27\;Pa{\cdot}s^n$, resulting in a great reduction in consistency. A MWSP suspension with 22% solid content was transformed into a typical tofu texture. MWSP curd fortified with 7.5% rice showed enhanced texture properties, with a hardness of 639.6 dyne/$cm^2$, and a springiness of 0.96. In a MWSP suspension (18~22% w/v) treated with 5% MTGase, viscoelasticity increased dependently with MWSP concentration, and a 22% MWSP indicated a G' value of 5.1 Pa and a G'' value of 9.0 Pa. Furthermore, soybean proteins present in the 22% MWSP curd largely disappeared or formed polymers with a high molecular weight by MTGase reaction within 30 min. MWSP (22%) fortified with 7.5% rice showed similar polymerization patterns on SDS-PAGE. The surface structure of the rice-MWSP curds was more dense and homogeneous network due to the addition of hydrolyzed rice. However, the surface structure of all rice-MWSP curds became rough and showed a non-homogeneous network after cold storage.