• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.236-242
• /
• 2008

Invertase (${\beta}$-D-fructofuranosidase; EC 3.2.1.26) catalyzes the conversion of sucrose into glucose and fructose and is involved in an array of important processes, including phloem unloading, carbon partitioning, the response to pathogens, and the control of cell differentiation and development. Its importance may have caused the invertases to evolve into a multigene family whose members are regulated by a variety of different mechanisms, such as pH, sucrose levels, and inhibitor proteins. Although putative invertase inhibitors in the Arabidopsis genome are easy to locate, few studies have been conducted to elucidate their individual functions in vivo in plant growth and development because of their high redundancy. In this study we assessed the functional role of the putative invertase inhibitors in Arabidopsis by generating transgenic plants harboring a putative invertase inhibitor gene under the control of the CaMV35S promoter. A transgenic plant that expressed high levels of the putative invertase inhibitor transcript when grown under normal conditions was chosen for the current study. To our surprise, the stability of the invertase inhibitor transcripts was shown to be down-regulated by the phytohormone ABA (abscisic acid). It is well established that ABA enhances invertase activity in vivo but the underlying mechanisms are still poorly understood. Our results thus suggest that one way ABA regulates invertase activity is by down-regulating its inhibitor.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.317-324
• /
• 2014

It is very well known that the conventional polyamide (PA) thin film composite (TFC) reverse osmosis (RO) membranes have excellent permselective properties, but their chlorine tolerance is not good enough. In this study, to improve such chlorine tolerance, microporous membranes containing hydrophilic functional groups such as -COOH were used as a support to prepare PA TFC RO membranes, employing the conventional interfacial polymerization method. Meta-phenylene diamine (MPD) and 2,6-diamine toluene (2,6-DAT) were used as diamine monomers and tri-mesoyl chloride (TMC) as an acid monomer. The membranes prepared were characterized using various instrumental analytical methods and permeation test set-up. The flux obtained from the membranes prepared so was more than $1.0m^3/m^2day$ at 800 psi of operating pressure, while the salt rejection was over 99.0%. The chlorine tolerance of them was also found to be better than that of the membrane prepared by using conventional polysulfone support without hydrophilic functional groups.

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.211-222
• /
• 2018

Cloud droplet activation process is well described by $K{\ddot{o}}hler$ theory and several parameterizations based on $K{\ddot{o}}hler$ theory are used in a wide range of models to represent this process. Here, we test the two different method of calculating the solute effect in the $K{\ddot{o}}hler$ equation, i.e., osmotic coefficient method (OSM) and ${\kappa}-K{\ddot{o}}hler$ method (KK). To do that, each method is implemented in the cloud droplet activation parameterization module of WRF-CHEM (Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry) model. It is assumed that aerosols are composed of five major components (i.e., sulfate, organic matter, black carbon, mineral dust, and sea salt). Both methods calculate similar representative hygroscopicity parameter values of 0.2~0.3 over the land, and 0.6~0.7 over the ocean, which are close to estimated values in previous studies. Simulated precipitation, and meteorological variables (i.e., specific heat and temperature) show good agreement with reanalysis. Spatial patterns of precipitation and liquid water path from model results and satellite data show similarity in general, but on regional scale spatial patterns and intensity show some discrepancy. However, meteorological variables, precipitation, and liquid water path do not show significant differences between OSM and KK simulations. So we suggest that the relatively simple KK method can be a good alternative to the OSM method that requires various information of density, molecular weight and dissociation number of each individual species in calculating the solute effect.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.11 no.5
• /
• pp.464-469
• /
• 2001

A gene, dnaK2, encoding a distinct member of the HSP70 family of molecular chaperones is isolated from the halotolerant cyanobactrium Aphanothece halophytica. The dnak2 gene encodes a molecular wight of 68 kDa polypeptide with predicted 616 amino acid residues. The DnaK2 protein has a structural characteristic of bacterial DnaK homologues and shows high similarity to other HSP70/Dank proteins. The danK2 transcripts are hardly detectable at 28$^{\circ}C$ and strongly induced upon heat stress. It is also found that dnaK2 transcript is increased by high-salinity stress even in the absence of heat stress. These results suggest that the DnaK2 protein plays an important role in protecting A. halophytica against damage caused by salt stress at well as heat stress.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.97-103
• /
• 2010

In this paper, we propose a new digital watermarking technique. The main idea of the proposed algorithm relies on the assumption that any real number can be expressed as a summation of the exponential form with base of 2 and if only consider the first few summations some numbers can be expressed in the same form. Therefore, we can be sure that some amount of changes does not affect the first few summations. The algorithm decomposes a host image in wavelet domain and intensity of the significant wavelet coefficient is expressed in exponential form with base of 2. Multiple barcode watermarks are then embedded by modifying the parity of the exponent. The proposed scheme is semi-blind and also offers either objective or subjective deteew su as well. From extracted watermarks, more accurate watermark is obtained by merging technique as a final watermark. As a simulation result, the proposed algorithm could resist most cases of salt and pepper noise, Gaussian noise and JPEG compression.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.371-378
• /
• 2011

Concrete is affected by various deterioration factors, such as $CO_2$ and chloride ions from the sea, which cause carbonation and salt attack on concrete. These deterioration phenomena cause steel corrosion in RC structures. Although a great deal of research has been carried out in this area thus far, it is difficult to know the point at which corrosion will occur to a reinforced bar. As the diffusion of deterioration factors depends on the water content in concrete, it is imperative to assess the condition of absorbed water content. A mass measuring method was applied to calculate the absorbed water diffusion coefficient, as well as non-linear finite element method(FEM) analysis. As a result, it was found that W/C and unit water content in concrete mixture affect the diffusion coefficient decision.

• The Korean Journal of Malacology
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.17-26
• /
• 2004

In present study, attempts were made to preserve abalone (Haliotis discus hannai) sperm in liquid form at low temperature, to evaluate the effect of various diluents in short-term storage on sperm, and cryopreservation procedures were optimized for the cryoprotectants and freezing rates, as well as the motility, survival rate, and the ultrastructural changes of sperm after short-term storage and cryopreservation were observed. The abalone sperm reached maximum motility until about 4 min after activation. The motility was constant for about 16 min, after which it dropped gradually, and about 50 min later all motility ceased. In Hanks' balanced salt solution (HBSS, 300 and 400 mOsmol/kg) and 150, 250 and 350 mOsmol/k artificial seawater (ASW), the sperm was immotile. After 100% ASW was added, motility of those sperm, which are in 300, 400 mOsmol/kg HBSS, 250, 350 mOsmol/kg ASW, could be again restored incompletely. Sperm motility can be maintained for 20 days of cold storage only in ASW of 850 and 1200 mOsmol/kg. A high motility index of 3.5-4.5 was observed for the first 8 days in 850 and 950 mOsmol/kg ASW. In other diluents sperm motility was constant less than 10 days, and the motility index was obviously lower than that of sperm in 850 and 1200 mOsmol/kg ASW. After 20 days of cold storage, survival rates of 10.2%-20.7% were obtained in ASW and 300 mOsmol/kg HBSS, and that in 400 HBSS (65.3%) was significantly higher than others. The constant period of sperm motility stored in 850 mOsmol/kg ASW was obviously longer than that in 1200 mOsmol/kg ASW after 6 days of storage. The sperm plunged into liquid nitrogen all died except that sperm using 15% glycerol as cryoprotectant restored 10.4% of motility. The highest motility index (3.4) was obtained with 5% glycerol and freezing procedure: $-50^{\circ}C$/min from $20^{\circ}C$ to $-80^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
• /
• v.37 no.3
• /
• pp.283-288
• /
• 2011

Since minerals are in ionic forms in aqueous phase (like deep sea water), it is very hard to incorporate concentrated minerals in gel like cosmetic formulations which are generally composed of carbomer or acrylates polymer. In this study, we invented a salt-resistant network formulation made of silicon copolyol. It was found that the network formulation traps minerals (especially from marine) in a mesh-like silicone copolyol structure. Since the mineral-containing formulation makes a very thin film on the skin, minerals could be easily absorbed into stratum corneum. In 6 weeks in vivo test, it was found that the novel mineral formulation increased the amounts of amino acids, major components of natural moisturizing factors (NMFs), as well as levels of minerals. It was also found that the moisture contents and the brightness of the skin increased.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.35 no.3
• /
• pp.68-74
• /
• 2017

Characteristics of dissimilar metal welds between alloy steel ASTM A387 Gr. 91 and carbon steel ASTM A516 Gr.70 made with Flux cored arc welding(FCAW) have been evaluated in terms of microstructure, mechanical strength, chemical analysis by EDS as well as corrosion test. Three heat inputs of 15.0, 22.5, 30.0kJ/cm were employed to make joints of dissimilar metals with E71T-1C wire. Post-weld heat treatment was carried out at $750^{\circ}C$ for 2.5 h. Based on microstructural examination, Intragranular polygonal ferrite and grainboundary ferrite were formed only in first layer of weld metal. Another layers consisted of acicular ferrite and $Widmannst{\ddot{a}}tten$ ferrite. The amount of acicular ferrite was increased with decreasing heat input and layer. Heat affected zone of alloy steel showed the highest hardness due to the formation of tempered martensite and lower bainite. Lower and upper bainite were formed in heat affected zone of carbon steel. Tensile strengths of dissimilar metal welds decreased with increasing heat inputs. Dissimilar metal welds showed a good hot cracking resistance due to the low HCS index below 4. The salt spray test of dissimilar metals welds showed that the weight loss rate by corrosion below 170 hours was decreased with increasing heat inputs due to the increase of the amount of acicular ferrite.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.199-213
• /
• 2017

Chloride penetration is among the main causes of corrosion initiation in reinforced concrete (RC) structures producing premature degradations. Weather and exposure conditions directly affect chloride ingress mechanisms and therefore the operational service life and safety of RC structures. Consequently, comprehensive chloride ingress models are useful tools to estimate corrosion initiation risks and minimize maintenance costs for RC structures placed under chloride-contaminated environments. This paper first presents a coupled thermo-hydro-chemical model for predicting chloride penetration into concrete that accounts for realistic weather conditions. This complete numerical model takes into account multiple factors affecting chloride ingress such as diffusion, convection, chloride binding, ionic interaction, and concrete aging. Since the complete model could be computationally expensive for long-term assessment, this study also proposes model simplifications in order to reduce the computational cost. Long-term chloride assessments of complete and reduced models are compared for three locations in France (Brest, Strasbourg and Nice) characterized by different weather and exposure conditions (tidal zone, de-icing salts and salt spray). The comparative study indicates that the reduced model is computationally efficient and accurate for long-term chloride ingress modeling in comparison to the complete one. Given that long-term assessment requires larger climate databases, this research also studies how climate models may affect chloride ingress assessment. The results indicate that the selection of climate models as well as the considered training periods introduce significant errors for mid- and long- term chloride ingress assessment.