• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.1433-1436
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• 2008

Flagellate bacteria such as Escherichia coli or Serratia marcescens possess a remarkable motility system based on a reversible rotary motor. We have employed S. marcescens as microactuators in low Reynolds number fluidic environments to move a larger engineering element around. Microstructures fabricated using conventional microfabrication techniques are blotted on the swarm plate, which leaves a bacterial monolayer on the surface of the microstructure. We have investigated microstructures powered by bacteria to determine how cell orientation on the microstructure surface relates to the swarming patterns as well as how the orientation is affected by the blotting process. This study will help to refine directional control of bacterial transporters by exploiting bacterial sensory mechanisms.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.35 no.8B
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• pp.1197-1203
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• 2010

A strength of BitTorrent, which is widely used for file sharing today, is due to its peer selection mechanism which is designed to encourage peers to contribute data. In the peer selection phase in BitTorrent, peers to upload the file in a swarm are selected by determining which peers upload the most to themselves. However, the number of peers to upload (i.e., number of unchoked peers) is fixed to four in its peer selection mechanism of BitTorrent, which yields inefficiency because the situation of the swarm may vary frequently (e.g., number of peers in the swarm, download rates, and upload rates). In this paper, we analyze the swarming system performance when the number of unchoked in BitTorrents is not static, but dynamic. For empirical investigation, we established a testbed in Seoul National University by modifying an open-source BitTorrent client, which is popular. Through our experiments, we show that an adaptive mechanism to adjust the number of unchoked peers considering the situation of the swarm is needed to improve the performance of BitTorrent.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.492-498
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• 2007

GacS and GacA proteins form a two component signal transduction system in bacteria. Here, Tn5 transposon gacS and gacA (Gac) mutants of Pseudomonas sp. KL28, an alkylphenol degrader, were isolated by selecting for smooth colonies of strain KL28. The mutants exhibited reduced ability to migrate on a solid surface. This surface motility does not require the action of flagella unlike the well-studied swarming motility of other Pseudomonas sp. The Gac mutants also showed reduced levels of biofilm and pellicle formation in liquid culture. In addition, compared to the wild type KL28 strain, these mutants were more resistant to high concentrations of m-cresol but were more sensitive to $H_2O_2$, which are characteristics that they share with an rpoS mutant. These results indicate that the Gac regulatory cascade in strain KL28 positively controls wrinkling morphology, biofilm formation, surface translocation and $H_2O_2$ resistance, which are important traits for its capacity to survive in particular niches.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.172-180
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• 2019

Infections with Pseudomonas aeruginosa are difficult to treat not only because it is often associated with multidrug-resistant infections but also it is able to form biofilm. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antibiofilm and anti-Quorum Sensing (QS) activities of Thymbra capitata essential oils (EOs) against Beta Lactamase (BL) producing P. aeruginosa and the reference strain P. aeruginosa 10145. GC/MS analysis showed that thymol (23.25%) is the most dominant compound in T. capitata EOs. The MICs of T. capitata EOs against P. aeruginosa (BL) and P. aeruginosa 10145 were 1.11%. At sub MIC (0.041, 0.014 and 0.0046%), the EOs of T. capitata remarkably inhibited the biofilm formation of both strains tested and complete inhibition of the biofilm formation was reported at 0.041%. The EOs of T. capitata were found to inhibit the swarming motility, aggregation ability and hydrophobic ability of P. aeruginosa (BL) and P. aeruginosa 10145. Interestingly, the EOs of T. capitata reduce the production of three secreted virulence factors that regulated by QS system including pyocyanin, rhamnolipids and LasA protease. The potent antibiofilm and anti-QS activities of T. capitata EOs can propose it as a new antibacterial agent to control pseudomonas infections.

• BMB Reports
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• v.55 no.10
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• pp.473-480
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• 2022

Neutrophils, the most abundant innate immune cells, play essential roles in the innate immune system. As key innate immune cells, neutrophils detect intrusion of pathogens and initiate immune cascades with their functions; swarming (arresting), cytokine production, degranulation, phagocytosis, and projection of neutrophil extracellular trap. Because of their short lifespan and consumption during immune response, neutrophils need to be generated consistently, and generation of newborn neutrophils (granulopoiesis) should fulfill the environmental/systemic demands for training in cases of infection. Accumulating evidence suggests that neutrophils also play important roles in the regulation of adaptive immunity. Neutrophil-mediated immune responses end with apoptosis of the cells, and proper phagocytosis of the apoptotic body (efferocytosis) is crucial for initial and post resolution by producing tolerogenic innate/adaptive immune cells. However, inflammatory cues can impair these cascades, resulting in systemic immune activation; necrotic/pyroptotic neutrophil bodies can aggravate the excessive inflammation, increasing inflammatory macrophage and dendritic cell activation and subsequent T_H1/T_H17 responses contributing to the regulation of the pathogenesis of autoimmune disease. In this review, we briefly introduce recent studies of neutrophil function as players of immune response.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.102-107
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• 2021

This paper discusses the containment control problem for multi-agent systems with input saturations. The goal of the containment control is to obtain swarming behavior by driving follower agents into the convex hull which is spanned by multiple leader agents. This paper considers multiple leader agents moving at the same constant speed. Then, to solve the containment problem for moving leaders, we propose a PI-based distributed control algorithm. We next analyze the convergence of follower agents to the desired positions. Specifically, we apply the integral-type Lyapunov function to take into account the saturation nonlinearity. Then, based on Lasalle's Invariance Principle, we show that the asymptotic convergence of error states to zero for any positive constant gains. Finally, numerical examples with the static and moving leaders are provided to validate the theoretical results.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.284-291
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• 2021

In this paper, we study the consensus problem for multi-agent systems with input saturations. The goal of consensus is to achieve a swarming behavior of multi-agent systems by reaching the agreement through information exchange. This paper considers agents modeled by first-order dynamics with input saturations. In order to guarantee the global convergence of the agents, it is assumed that the agents are stable. Moreover, considering the disturbances, we propose the PI based duplex control method to achieve the consensus. The proposed P controller and I controller are composed of different information network. Then, we investigate the conditions of the information networks and the control gains of P, I controllers to achieve the consensus applying the Lyapunov stability theorem and the Lasalle's Invariance Principle. Finally, we conduct the simulations to validate the theoretical results.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.2159-2170
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• 2016

Many plant-pathogenic bacteria are dependent on quorum sensing (QS) to evoke disease. In this study, the population of QS and quorum quenching (QQ) bacteria was analyzed in a consecutive monoculture system of Pseudostellaria heterophylla. The isolated QS strains were identified as Serratia marcescens with SwrIR-type QS system and exhibited a significant increase over the years of monoculture. Only one QQ strain was isolated from newly planted soil sample and was identified as Bacillus thuringiensis, which secreted lactonase to degrade QS signal molecules. Inoculation of S. marcescens to P. heterophylla root could rapidly cause wilt disease, which was alleviated by B. thuringiensis. Furthermore, the expression of lactonase encoded by the aiiA gene in S. marcescens resulted in reduction of its pathogenicity, implying that the toxic effect of S. marcescens on the seedlings was QS-regulated. Meanwhile, excess lactonase in S. marcescens led to reduction in antibacterial substances, exoenzymes, and swarming motility, which might contribute to pathogensis on the seedlings. Root exudates and root tuber extracts of P. heterophylla significantly promoted the growth of S. marcescens, whereas a slight increase of B. thuringiensis was observed in both samples. These results demonstrated that QS-regulated behaviors in S. marcescens mediated by root exudates played an important role in replanting diseases of P. heterophylla.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.857-862
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• 2021

Recently, rapid climate change has had a significant impact on the bee ecosystem. The decrease in the number of bees and the change in the flowering period have a huge impact on the harvesting of beekeepers. Accordingly, attention is focused on smart beekeeping, which introduces IoT technology to beekeeping. According to the characteristics of beekeeping, it is impossible to continuously observe the beehive in the hive with the naked eye, and the condition of the hive is mostly dependent on knowledge from experience. Although a system that can measure partly through sensors such as temperature/humidity change inside the hive and measurement of the amount of CO2 is applied, there is no research on measuring the movement path and amount of movement of bees inside the beehive. Part of the migration of honeybees inside the hive can provide basic information to predict the most important cleavage time in beekeeping. In this study, we propose a device that detects the movement path of bees and measures and records data entering and exiting the hive in real time. The device proposed in this study was developed according to the honeycomb standard of the existing beehive so that beekeeping farms could use it. The development method used a photodetector that can detect the movement of bees to configure 16 movement paths and to detect the movement of bees in real time. If the measured honeybee movement status is utilized, the problem of directly observing the colony with the naked eye in order not to miss the swarming time can be solved.