• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.16-24
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• 2016

A new strain of Pseudomonas sp. was isolated from mercury (Hg)-contaminated sites in Taiwan. This bacterium removed more than 80% of Hg present in the culture medium at 12 h incubation and was chosen for further analysis of the molecular mechanisms of Hg tolerance/removal abilities in this Pseudomonas sp. We used RNA-seq, one of the next-generation sequencing methods, to investigate the transcriptomic responses of the Pseudomonas sp. exposed to 60 mg/L of Hg²⁺. We de novo assembled 4,963 contigs, of which 10,533 up-regulated genes and 5,451 down-regulated genes were found to be regulated by Hg. The 40 genes most altered in expression levels were associated with tolerance to Hg stress and metabolism. Functional analysis showed that some Hg-tolerant genes were related to the mer operon, sulfate uptake and assimilation, the enzymatic antioxidant system, the HSP gene family, chaperones, and metal transporters. The transcriptome were analyzed further with Gene Ontology (GO) and Cluster of Orthologous Groups (COGs) of proteins and showed diverse biological functions and metabolic pathways under Hg stress.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.32 no.E
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• pp.67-73
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• 1990

Many distress mechanisms in pavement are known to be caused by the poor mechanical properties of bituminous concretes. Among many mechanical properties, tensile strength is one of the more important indicates that represent the resistance of pavement to traffic loading. However, there has been no relationship established between the strength and distress mechanisms. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate a correlation between the tensile strength value and the intensity of distress in bituminous concrete. Distress data were collected from an extensive field investigation over 77km of a four-lane highway in South Carolina, USA, and from laboratory prepared specimens in two phases of study. Strength data were obtained from a total of more than 400 field cores taken from the same highway and from 640marshall specimens of surface course mixture prepared in the laboratory. These data were analyzed using statistical test techniques. It was found from statistical analyses that the tensile strength of bituminous concrete had a strong relation with the pavement condition in the field. In the analysis of rutting and stripping, low strength concrete showed a higher distress rate in the mixture, and mixtures under distress in the field showed obviously reduced strength values. Stripping was found to be the most significant distress mechanism that was correlated with low strength bituminous concrete. Rutting appeared more frequently in a low strength pavement section of the highway as a sign of failure due to traffic loading.

• Journal of Computing Science and Engineering
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.187-197
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• 2013

Security has long been a challenging problem in wireless networks, mainly due to its broadcast nature of communication. This opens up simple yet effective measures to thwart useful communications between legitimate radios. Spread spectrum technologies, such as direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS), have been developed as effective countermeasures against, for example, jamming attacks. This paper surveys previous research on securing a DSSS channel even further, using physical layer attributes-keyless DSSS mechanisms, and watermarked DSSS (WDSSS) schemes. The former has been motivated by the fact that it is still an open question to establish and share the secret spread sequence between the transmitter and the receiver without being noticed by adversaries. The basic idea of the latter is to exploit the redundancy inherent in DSSS's spreading process to embed watermark information. It can be considered a counter measure (authentication) for an intelligent attacker who obtains the spread sequence to generate fake messages. This paper also presents and evaluates an adaptive DSSS scheme that takes both jam resistance and communication efficiency into account.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.17-24
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• 2014

Gastric cancer is highly invasive, aggressively malignant, and amongst the most prevalent of all forms of cancer. Despite improved management strategies, early stage diagnosis of gastric cancer and accurate prognostic assessment is still lacking. Several recent reports have indicated that the pathogenesis of gastric cancer involves complex molecular mechanisms and multiple genetic and epigenetic alterations in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. Functional inactivation of the tumor suppressor protein PTEN (Phosphatase and Tensin Homolog) has been detected in multiple cases of gastric cancer, and already shown to be closely linked to the development, progression and prognosis of the disease. Inactivation of PTEN can be attributed to gene mutation, loss of heterozygosity, promoter hypermethylation, microRNA- mediated regulation of gene expression, and post-translational phosphorylation. PTEN is also involved in mechanisms regulating tumor resistance to chemotherapy. This review provides a comprehensive analysis of PTEN and its roles in gastric cancer, and emphasizes its potential benefits in early diagnosis and gene therapy-based treatment strategies.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.1771-1781
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• 2018

The emergence of multidrug-resistant microorganisms, as well as fungal infectious diseases that further threaten health, especially in immunodeficient populations, is a major global problem. The development of new antifungal agents in clinical trials is inferior to the incidence of drug resistance, and the available antifungal agents are restricted. Their mechanisms aim at certain characteristics of the fungus in order to avoid biological similarities with the host. Synthesis of the cell wall and ergosterol are mainly targeted in clinical use. The need for new approaches to antifungal therapeutic agents or development alternatives has increased. This review explores new perspectives on mechanisms to effectively combat fungal infections and effective antifungal activity. The clinical drug have a common feature that ultimately causes caspase-dependent cell death. The drugs-induced cell death pathway is associated with mitochondrial dysfunction, including mitochondrial membrane depolarization and cytochrome c release. This mechanism of action also reveals antimicrobial peptides, the primary effector molecules of innate systems, to highlight new alternatives. Furthermore, drug combination therapy is suggested as another strategy to combat fungal infection. The proposal for a new approach to antifungal agents is not only important from a basic scientific point of view, but will also assist in the selection of molecules for combination therapy.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.33-38
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• 2005

Fretting is the oscillatory motion with very small amplitudes, which usually occurs between two solid surfaces in contact. Fretting wear is the removal of material from contacting surfaces through fretting action. Fretting wear of steam generator tubes in nuclear power plant becomes a serious problem in recent years. The materials for the tubes usually are Inconel 690 (I-690) and Inconel 600 (I-600). In this paper, fretting wear tests for I-690 and I-600 were performed under various applied loads in water at room temperature. Results showed that the fretting wear loss of I-690 and I-600 tubes was largely influenced by stick-slip. The fretting wear mechanisms were the abrasive wear in slip regime and the delamination wear in stick regime. Also, I-690 had somewhat better wear resistance than I-600.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.153-162
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• 2014

We show that carbon nanotube sensors with gold particles on the single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) network operate as Schottky barrier transistors, in which transistor action occurs primarily by varying the resistance of Au-SWNT junction rather than the channel conductance modulation. Transistor characteristics are calculated for the statistically simplified geometries, and the sensing mechanisms are analyzed by comparing the simulation results of the MOSFET model and Schottky junction model with the experimental data. We demonstrated that the semiconductor MOSFET effect cannot explain the experimental phenomena such as the very low limit of detection (LOD) and the logarithmic dependence of sensitivity to the DNA concentration. By building an asymmetric concentric-electrode model which consists of serially-connected segments of CNTFETs and Schottky diodes, we found that for a proper explanation of the experimental data, the work function shifts should be ~ 0.1 eV for 100 pM DNA concentration and ~ 0.4 eV for $100{\mu}M$.

• BMB Reports
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.133-141
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• 2020

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a member of the ErbB family (EGFR, ErbB2, ErbB3 and ErbB4), plays a crucial role in regulating various cellular responses such as proliferation, differentiation, and survival. As a result, aberrant activation of EGFR, mostly mediated through different classes of genomic alterations occurring within EGFR, is closely associated with the pathogenesis of numerous human cancers including lung adenocarcinoma, glioblastoma, and colorectal cancer. Thus, specific suppression of oncogenic activity of mutant EGFR with its targeted drugs has been routinely used in the clinic as a very effective anti-cancer strategy in treating a subset of tumors driven by such oncogenic EGFR mutants. However, the clinical efficacy of EGFR-targeted therapy does not last long due to several resistance mechanisms that emerge in the patients following the drug treatment. Thus, there is an urgent need for the development of novel therapeutic tactics specifically targeting mutant EGFR with the focus on the unique biological features of various mutant EGFR. Regarding this point, our review specifically emphasizes the recent findings about distinct requirements of receptor dimerization and autophosphorylation, which are critical steps for enzymatic activation of EGFR and signaling cascades, respectively, among wildtype and mutant EGFR and further discuss their clinical significance. In addition, the molecular mechanisms regulating EGFR dimerization and enzymatic activity by a key negative feedback inhibitor Mig6 as well as the clinical use for developing potential novel drugs targeting it are described in this review.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.1-29
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• 2020

Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by high blood sugar levels over a prolonged period. Diabetes has been found to show many acute complications such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, chronic kidney disease, foot ulcer and damage to eyes. Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng) has been traditionally known to normalize the functional deficiencies of the lung, spleen and stomach, and thus improve the secretion of body fluids, thereby quenching thirst, suggesting it to be effective in the treatment of diabetes. Experimental studies (in vitro and in vivo) have recently shown that Korean ginseng and its extracts exhibit antidiabetic effects, and also insulin secretion and sensitizing effects related to blood glucose control. Moreover, clinical trials on antidiabetic effects of Korean ginseng have been reported to show blood glucose control, improvement of insulin resistance, reduction of postprandial blood glucose level and improvement of serum lipids (TG, TC, LDL-C). These will be critically examined by means of in vitro studies, cell experiment, animal models and human trials with a focus on understanding of molecular mechanisms.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.188-193
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• 2000

A more accurate life prediction for gas turbine blade takes into account the material behavior under the complex thermo-mechanical fatigue(TMF) cycles normally encountered in turbine operation. An experimental program has been carried out to address the thermo-mechanical fatigue life of the IN738LC nickel-base superalloy. In the first phase of the study, out-of-phase and in-phase TMF experiments have been performed on uncoated and coated materials. In the temperature range investigated. the deposition of NiCrAlY air plasma sprayed coating did not affect the fatigue resistance. In the second phase of the study, a physically-base life prediction model that takes into account of the contribution of different damage mechanisms has been applied. This model was able to reflect the temperature and strain rate dependences of isothermal cycling fatigue lives, and the strain-temperature history effect on the thermo-mechanical fatigue lives.