• The Journal of Engineering Geology
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.217-246
• /
• 2018

During the selection and characterization of target formations in the Small-scale Offshore $CO_2$ Storage Demonstration Project in the Pohang Basin, we have carefully investigated the possibility of induced earthquakes and leakage of $CO_2$ during the injection, and have designed the storage processes to minimize these effects. However, people in Pohang city have a great concern on $CO_2$-injection-intrigued seismicity, since they have greatly suffered from the 5.4 magnitude earthquake on Nov. 15, 2017. The research team of the project performed an extensive self-investigation on the safety issues, especially on the possible $CO_2$ leakage from the target formation and induced earthquakes. The target formation is 10 km apart from the epicenter of the Pohang earthquake and the depth is also quite shallow, only 750 to 800 m from the sea bottom. The project performed a pilot injection in the target formation from Jan. 12 to Mar. 12, 2017, which implies that there are no direct correlation of the Pohang earthquake on Nov. 15, 2017. In addition, the $CO_2$ injection of the storage project does not fracture rock formations, instead, the supercritical $CO_2$ fluid replaces formation water in the pore space gradually. The self-investigation results show that there is almost no chance for the injection to induce significant earthquakes unless injection lasts for a very long time to build a very high pore pressure, which can be easily monitored. The amount of injected $CO_2$ in the project was around 100 metric-tonne that is irrelevant to the Pohang earthquake. The investigation result on long-term safety also shows that the induced earthquakes or the reactivation of existing faults can be prevented successfully when the injection pressure is controlled not to demage cap-rock formation nor exceed Coulomb stresses of existing faults. The project has been performing extensive studies on critical stress for fracturing neighboring formations, reactivation stress of existing faults, well-completion processes to minimize possible leakage, transport/leakage monitoring of injected $CO_2$, and operation procedures for ensuring the storage safety. These extensive studies showed that there will be little chance in $CO_2$ leakage that affects human life. In conclusion, the Small-scale Offshore $CO_2$ Storage Demonstration Project in the Pohang Basin would not cause any induced earthquakes nor signifiant $CO_2$ leakage that people can sense. The research team will give every effort to secure the safety of the storage site.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.89-99
• /
• 2004

Stretch-activated channels (SACs) responds to membrane stress with changes in open probability (Po). They play essential roles in regulation of cell volume and differentiation, vascular tone, and in hormonal secretion. SACs highly present in Xenopus oocytes and Ascidian oocytes are suggested to be involved in the regulation of pH and fluid transport to balance the osmotic pressure, but remain unclear in mammanlian oocytes. This study was investigated to find the presence of SACs in hamster oocytes and to examine their electrophysiological properties. To infer a role of SAC in relation to the development of early stage, we followed up to the stage of two-cell zygote with patch clamp techniques. Single channels were elicited by negative pressure (lower than ­15 cm$H_2O$). Interestingly, SACs were dependent on permeable cations such as $Na^+$ or $K^+$. As permeable cation removed from both sides across the membrane, SAC activity completely disappeared. When permeable cations present only in intracellular compartment, outward currents appeared at positive potentials. In contrast to this, inward currents occurred only at the negative voltage when permeable cation absent in cell interior. These result suggests that SAC carry cations through the nonselective cation channel (NSC channel). Taken together, we found that stretch activated channels present in hamster oocyte and the channel may carry cations through NSC channels. This stretch activated-NSC channels may play physiological role(s) in oocyte growth, maturation, fertilization and embryogenesis in fertilized oocytes to two-cell zygotes of hamster.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2008.10a
• /
• pp.107-108
• /
• 2008

The spectacular development of AMLCDs, been made possible by a-Si:H technology, still faces two major drawbacks due to the intrinsic structure of a-Si:H, namely a low mobility and most important a shift of the transfer characteristics of the TFTs when submitted to bias stress. This has lead to strong research in the crystallization of a-Si:H films by laser and furnace annealing to produce polycrystalline silicon TFTs. While these devices show improved mobility and stability, they suffer from uniformity over large areas and increased cost. In the last decade we have focused on microcrystalline silicon (${\mu}c$-Si:H) for bottom gate TFTs, which can hopefully meet all the requirements for mass production of large area AMOLED displays [1,2]. In this presentation we will focus on the transfer of a deposition process based on the use of $SiF_4$-Ar-$H_2$ mixtures from a small area research laboratory reactor into an industrial gen 1 AKT reactor. We will first discuss on the optimization of the process conditions leading to fully crystallized films without any amorphous incubation layer, suitable for bottom gate TFTS, as well as on the use of plasma diagnostics to increase the deposition rate up to 0.5 nm/s [3]. The use of silicon nanocrystals appears as an elegant way to circumvent the opposite requirements of a high deposition rate and a fully crystallized interface [4]. The optimized process conditions are transferred to large area substrates in an industrial environment, on which some process adjustment was required to reproduce the material properties achieved in the laboratory scale reactor. For optimized process conditions, the homogeneity of the optical and electronic properties of the ${\mu}c$-Si:H films deposited on $300{\times}400\;mm$ substrates was checked by a set of complementary techniques. Spectroscopic ellipsometry, Raman spectroscopy, dark conductivity, time resolved microwave conductivity and hydrogen evolution measurements allowed demonstrating an excellent homogeneity in the structure and transport properties of the films. On the basis of these results, optimized process conditions were applied to TFTs, for which both bottom gate and top gate structures were studied aiming to achieve characteristics suitable for driving AMOLED displays. Results on the homogeneity of the TFT characteristics over the large area substrates and stability will be presented, as well as their application as a backplane for an AMOLED display.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.529-541
• /
• 2003

Yukmijihwang-tang has been widely used as an and-aging herbal medicine for hundred years in Asian countries. Numerous studies show that Yukmijihwangtang has anti-oxidative effect both in vivo and in vitro. It has been reported that Moutan Cortex Radicis extract (MCR) was the most effective herb in Yukmijihwang-tang on undifferentiated PC12 cells upon oxidative-stressed with hydrogen peroxide. The purpose of this study is to; 1) evaluate the recovery of neuronal damage by assessing the anti-oxidant effect of MCR on PC12 cells differentiated with nerve growth factor (NGF), 2) identify candidate genes responsible for anti-oxidative effect on differentiated PC12 cells by oligonucleotide chip microarray. PC12 cells, which were differentiated by treating with NGF, were treated without or with hydrogen peroxide in the presence or absence of various concentration of MCR. Cell survival was determined by using MTS assay. Measurement of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation was determined using the H2DCFDA assay The viability of cells treated with MCR was significantly recovered from stressed PC12 cell. In addition, wide rage of concentrations of MCR shows dose-dependent inhibitory effect on ROS production in oxidative-stressed cells. Total RNAs of cells without treatment(Control group), only treated with H₂O₂ (stressed group) and treated with both H₂O₂ and of MCR (MCR group) were isolated, and cDNAs was synthesized using oligoT7(dT) primer. The fragmented cRNAs, synthesized from cDNAs, were applied to Affymetrix GeneChip Rat Neurobiology U34 Array. mRNA of Calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II delta subunit(CaMKII), neuron glucose transporter (GLUT3) and myelin/oligodendrocyte glycoprotein(MOG) were downregulated in Stressed group comparing to Control group. P2X2-5 receptor (P2X2R-5), P2X2-4 receptor (P2X2R-4), c-fos, 25 kDa synaptosomal attachment protein(SNAP-25a) and GLUT3 were downregulated, whereas A2 adenosine receptor (A2AR), cathechol-O-methyltransferase(COMT), glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1), EST223333, heme oxygenase (HO), VGF, UI-R-CO-ja-a-07-0-Ul.s1 and macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) were upregulated in MCA group comparing to Control group. Expression of Putative potassium channel subunit protein (ACK4), P2X2A-5, P2X2A-4, Interferon-gamma inducing factor isoform alpha precursor (IL-18α), EST199031, P2XR, P2X2 purinoceptor isoform e (P2X2R-e), Precursor interleukin 18 (IL-18) were downregulated, whereas MOO, EST223333, GLUT-1, MIF, Neuronatin alpha, UI-R-C0-ja-a-07-0-Ul.s1, A2. adenosine receptor, COMT, neuron-specific enolase (NSE), HO, VGF, A rat novel protein which is expressed with nerve injury (E12625) were upregulated in MCR group comparing to Stressed group. The results suggest that decreased viability and AOS production of PC12 cell by H₂O₂ may be, at lease, mediated by impaired glucose transporter expression. It is implicated that the MCR treatment protect PC12 cell from oxidative stress via following mechanisms; improving glucose transport into the cell, enhancing expression of anti-oxidative genes and protecting from dopamine cytotoxicity by increment of COMT and MIF expression. The list of differentially expressed genes may implicate further insight on the action and mechanism behind the anti-oxidative effects of herbal extract Moutan Cortex Radicis.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.27 no.10
• /
• pp.1191-1198
• /
• 2017

Vesicles and organelles are transported along microtubule and delivered to appropriate compartments in cells. The intracellular transport process is mediated by molecular motor proteins, kinesin, and dynein. Kinesin is a plus-end-directed molecular motor protein that moves the various cargoes along microtubule tracks. Kinesin 1 is first isolated from squid axoplasm is a dimer of two heavy chains (KHCs, also called KIF5s), each of which is associated with the light chain (KLC). KIF5s interact with many different binding proteins through their carboxyl (C)-terminal tail region, but their binding proteins have yet to be specified. To identify the interacting proteins for KIF5A, we performed the yeast two-hybrid screening and found a specific interaction with Ras-GTPase-activating protein (GAP) Src homology3 (SH3)-domain-binding protein 2 (G3BP2), which is involved in stress granule formation and mRNA-protein (mRNP) localization. G3BP2 bound to the C-terminal 73 amino acids of KIF5A but did not interact with the KIF5B, nor the KIF5C in the yeast two-hybrid assay. The arginine-glycine-glycine (RGG)/Gly-rich region domain of G3BP2 is a minimal binding domain for interaction with KIF5A. However, G3BP1 did not interact with KIF5A. When co-expressed in HEK-293T cells, G3BP2 co-localized with KIF5A and was co-immunoprecipitated with KIF5A. These results indicate that G3BP2, which was originally identified as a Ras-GAP SH3 domain-binding protein, is a protein that interacts with KIF5A.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.23 no.5
• /
• pp.431-438
• /
• 2009

The main purpose of this research is to prepare and provide basic materials for the propagational strategy of eelgrass by investigating on the morphological adaptation of Korean Zostera marina to ocean currents. An eelgrass plant mainly consists of rhizome, leaf sheath, leaves and roots. The rhizome is the horizontal stem of the plant that serves as the backbone from which the leaves and roots emerge. The leaf sheath is the bundle at the base of the leaves that holds the leaves together, protecting the meristem, the primary growth point of the shoot. Leaves originate from a meristem which is protected by a sheath at the actively growing end of the rhizome. As the shoot grows, the rhizome elongates, moving across or within the sediment, forming roots as it progresses. The aggregated leaves from the leaf sheath are found to have two cell layers on one side and multiple layers of airy tissues called aerenchyma on the other. The aerenchyma tissues are developed in multi-layered cell structures surrounding the veins which are formed in the leaf sheath. Generative shoots are made of rhizomes, which are circular or ovoidal, stem, and spathe and spadix. The transverse section of rhizome and the stem and central floral axis is found to be circular, ovoid and in the shape of convex respectively, and the vascular bundle, which is a part of transport system, has one large tube in the center and two small tubes on both sides. The layers of collenchyma cells numbered from 12 to 15 in the stem, and from 7 to 12 in the rhizome. The seed coat is composed of sclereids, small bundles of sclerenchyma tissues, which prevent the influx of sea water from the outside and help endure the environmental stress. In conclusion, alternative multi-layer structure in circular, convex type aggregated leaf base are interpreted to morphological adaption as doing tolerable elastic structure through movement of seawater. The generative shoots develop long slim stem and branches in circular or ovoidal shapes to minimize the adverse impacts of sea current, which can be interpreted as the plant's morphological adaptation to its environment.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
• /
• v.37 no.4
• /
• pp.517-528
• /
• 2010

Rice seed maturation and germination involve drastic changes in water and nutrient transport, in which tonoplast aquaporins may play an important role. In the present study, gene expression profiles of 10 tonoplast intrinsic proteins (TIP) from rice were investigated by RT-PCR during seed development and germination. OsTIP3;1 and OsTIP3;2 were specifically expressed in mature seeds. Their transcript level rapidly decreased after onset of seed germination and gene expression was induced by ABA treatment. In contrast, expression of OsTIP2;1 and OsTIP4;3 was not seed specific as transcripts were found in vegetative tissues as well. Their respective transcript levels decreased at an early stage of seed development, whereas they increased at a later stage of seed germination and elongation of embryonic roots and shoots. When seed germination was inhibited by various stress conditions and ABA, expression of OsTIP2;1 and OsTIP4;3 was completely suppressed. In contrast, the expression level of OsTIP2;2 rapidly increased after seed imbibition and the transcript level was maintained under conditions inhibiting seed germination. These results implicate that tissue specific and developmental transcriptional regulation of OsTIPs in rice seeds depends on their specific function. In addition, OsTIPs can be discriminated by different potential phosphorylation and methylation sites in their protein structures. OsTIP3;1 and OsTIP3;2 possess unique phosphorylation signatures at their N-terminal domain, loop B and loop E, respectively. OsTIP2;1 and OsTIP4;3 have a potential methylation site at their Nterminal domain. This suggests that activity of specific tonoplast aquaporins may be regulated by post-translational modification as well as by transcriptional control.