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Background and aim Metabolic syndromes are prevalent worldwide and result in various complications including obesity, cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes. Betulinic acid (BA) is a naturally occurring triterpenoid that has anti-inflammatory properties. We hypothesized that treatment with BA may result in decreased body weight gain, adiposity and hepatic steatosis in a diet-induced mouse model of obesity. Methods and results Mice fed a high-fat diet and treated with BA showed less weight gain and tissue adiposity without any change in calorie intake. Gene expression profiling of mouse tissues and cell lines revealed that BA treatment increased expression of lipid oxidative genes and decreased that of lipogenesis-related genes. This modulation was mediated by increased AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) phosphorylation, which facilitates energy expenditure, lipid oxidation and thermogenic capacity and exerts protective effects against obesity and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Overall, BA markedly inhibited the development of obesity and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in mice fed a high-fat diet, and AMPK activation in various tissues and enhanced thermogenesis are two possible mechanisms underlying the antiobesity and antisteatogenic effects of BA. Conclusions The current findings suggest that treatment with BA is a potential dietary strategy for preventing obesity and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

We calculated the transition of edge pedestal properties in jϕ-α space for a KSTAR-like plasma and compared the results with those from the analytical transition model. The transition is from a critical equilibrium that is marginally stable to the peeling or the ballooning mode to another critical equilibrium when plasma parameters such as triangularity, elongation, and βp change. The transition should not be confused with the L-H transition. We have divided the transition into two. The first transition is when plasma parameters change for fixed pedestal width while the second transition is when the pedestal width changes for fixed plasma parameters. The direction of the first transition when triangularity or elongation increases is as such that jϕ decreases and α increases. The direction of the first transition with varying βp depends on the choice of how the temperature or the current density is modified. The direction of the second transition is determined from the stability condition of the new equilibrium after the first transition.

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Accurate detection of genomic fusions by high-throughput sequencing in clinical samples with inadequate tumor purity and formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue is an essential task in precise oncology. We developed the fusion detection algorithm Junction Location Identifier (JuLI) for optimization of high-depth clinical sequencing. Novel filtering steps were implemented to minimize false positives in the clinical setting. The algorithm was comprehensively validated using high-depth sequencing data from cancer cell lines and clinical samples and genome sequencing data from NA12878. JuLI showed improved performance mainly in positive predictive value over state-of-the-art fusion callers in cases with high-depth clinical sequencing and rescued a driver fusion from false negative in plasma cell-free DNA using joint calling.

Diaphanous-related formin 1 (DIA1), which assembles the unbranched actin microfilament and microtubule cytoskeleton, is encoded byHere, we report the first constitutively active mutant in the DID (p.A265S) of humans with only hearing loss and not blood cell abnormality through whole exome sequencing. The previously reported DAD mutants and our DID mutant (p.A265S) shared the finding of diminished autoinhibitory interaction, abnormally upregulated actin polymerisation activity and increased localisations at the plasma membrane. However, the obvious defect in the DIA1-driven assembly of cytoskeleton 'during cell division' was only from the DAD mutants, not from p.A265S, which did not show any blood cell abnormality. We also evaluated the five DID mutants in the hydrophobic pocket since four of these five additional mutants were predicted to critically disrupt interaction between the DID and DAD. These additional pathogenic DID mutants revealed varying degrees of defect in the DIA1-driven cytoskeleton assembly, including nearly normal phenotype during cell division as well as obvious impaired autoinhibition, again coinciding with our key observation in DIA1 mutant (p.A265S) in the DID.Here, we report the first mutant in the DID of humans with only hearing loss. The differential cell biological phenotypes of DIA1 during cell division appear to be potential determinants of the clinical severity of

Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of globus pallidus interna deep brain stimulation (GPi-DBS) for treating dystonia due to the GNAL mutation. Methods We provide the first report of a dystonia patient with a genetically confirmed GNAL mutation in the Korean population and reviewed the literature on patients with the GNAL mutation who underwent GPi-DBS. We compared the effectiveness of DBS in patients with the GNAL mutation compared to that in patients with DYT1 and DYT6 in a previous study. Results Patients with the GNAL mutation and those with DYT1 had higher early responder rates (GNAL, 5/5, 100%; DYT1, 7/7, 100%) than did patients with DYT6 (p = 0.047). The responder rates at late follow-up did not differ statistically among the three groups (p = 0.278). The decrease in the dystonia motor scale score in the GNAL group was 46.9% at early follow-up and 63.4% at late follow-up. Conclusion GPi-DBS would be an effective treatment option for dystonia patients with the GNAL mutation who are resistant to medication or botulinum toxin treatment.

This objective of this study is to investigate how false brome, Brachypodium sylvaticum newly invasive plant in the Northwest region in USA is distributed and spread at an experimental forest, H.J. Andrews Forest. I checked out the distribution of false brome at diverse habitat including roads, junctions between roads, streams and tributaries from the roads and stream in H.J. Andrews Forest. False brome were distributed along roads and streams in the Andrews Forest, and invaded into interiors between road and stream networks. This study showed that the invasion of false brome can be accelerated by road and streams networks over years and exotic plants like false brome can have a possibility to establish in a conserved area of H.J. Andrews Forest.

The temperature dependence of magnetization, magnetic anisotropy, coercive field and the magnetodielectric coefficient of Cr2O3 (undoped) and Fe0.4Cr1.6O3 (doped) was experimentally investigated. Test data shows that the presence of Fe ions at the interstitial spaces of the Cr2O3 crystal lattice decreases the Neel Temperature by ∼80 K when compared to the undoped Cr2O3. Also both the doped and undoped samples display maxima in magnetic anisotropy and magnetodielectric coefficient as a function of temperature. The maxima for the Fe doped samples occurs at a temperature approximately 80 K below the temperature measured for the Cr2O3 samples, i.e. similar to the shift observed in the Neel Temperature. These results suggest that Neel Temperature, magnetic anisotropy, and the magnetodielectric coefficients are physically interrelated through competing principal exchange interactions and may provide a useful approach to search for new multiferroic materials.

In this paper, generation of a constellation diagram, data to light intensity mapping, and light intensity to data demapping are introduced for the visible light communication (VLC) systems. We propose a new constellation diagram and modulation scheme named generalized color modulation (GCM) based on light color space which can be uniquely applied to modulate the light signals used to deliver data information regardless of target colors of VLC signals. At first, we describe the generation of a constellation in a light color space considering the target color of VLC signals. Then we represent the data symbols as constellation points, resulting in every data symbol having a specific position and corresponding color in the light color space. After that, we determine the position of received signal points in the light color space at the receiver by manipulating the intensities of received signals from the photo detectors. Finally, we convert these received points to data symbols by matching them to the constellation points generated by the receiver. We consider both single color and multiple colors scenarios and investigate two cases to obtain the color information at the receiver. Simulation results show that our proposed scheme can be applied to the development of a more efficient VLC system.

ZnO buffer layer was prepared as electron selective layers (ESL) for photo-induced electron transport and hole blocking in inverted organic solar cells (IOSCs) by sol-gel process. The effects of thickness and surface roughness of ZnO ESL on the performance of IOSCs were investigated. Power Conversion Efficiency (PCE) of the IOSC strongly varied as a function of ZnO film thickness and surface roughness, in particular, when the film thickness was

The Republic of Korea and the State of Illinois are jointly exploring shared opportunities for smart grid development and deployment that can support local community sustainability initiatives and bring the promised benefits to citizens of both Korea and Illinois. In this article, the authors highlight local community sustainability and economic development initiatives in Illinois that can be supported by smart grid systems, and the authors discuss opportunities inherent in the design and verification of the Korea Smart Power Grid for communities planning to implement smart grid solutions.

Recent genomic studies have revealed that chromosomal structures are formed by a hierarchy of organizing processes ranging from gene associations, including interactions among enhancers and promoters, to topologically associating domain formations. Gene associations identified by these studies can be characterized by microscopic analyses. Fission yeast is a model organism, in which gene associations have been broadly mapped across the genome, although many of those associations have not been further examined by cell biological approaches. To address the technically challenging process of the visualization of associating gene loci in the fission yeast nuclei, we provide, in detail, an IF-FISH procedure that allows for covisualizing both gene loci and nuclear structural markers such as the nuclear membrane and nucleolus.

The infection behaviour of Colletotrichum orbiculare was observed using a transmission electron microscope (TEM) in the leaves of cucumber plants preinoculated with plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) Serratia marcescens (90-166) or Pseudomonas fluorescens (89B61) after inoculation with the anthracnose pathogen. Moreover, the structural defence mechanisms mediated by pretreating DL-3-amino butyric acid or amino salicylic acid was compared with those mediated by these two PGPR. In untreated plants broadly spread intercellular/intracellular hyphae were found in leaf tissues. The cytoplasm of fungal hyphae appeared intact and the electron densities of intercellular and intracellular hyphae were not high even at 5 days after fungal inoculation, indicating lack of defence responses. However, in the leaves of plants preinoculated with both PGPR active defence responses were observed, i.e. sheath formation at penetration sites, and accumulations of endoplasmic reticula or of numerous vesicles around intracellular hyphae. Furthermore, the electron densities of most intracellular and intercellular hyphae were higher than those of untreated control plants. In the leaves of plants pretreated with both chemicals, the hyphae of the pathogen were rarely observed at 5 days after challenge inoculation. Similar to the case of PGPR-pretreated plants, the most intercellular and intracellular hyphae in plant tissues were electron dense. However, no active defence responses were observed in leaf tissues. Moreover, in some cases, hyphal growth was restricted to the epidermal cell layer, and in particular, was not observed to develop in mesophyll cells of the plants. These results suggest that the mechanisms of systemic-ally induced resistance are differently expressed by preinoculating with PGPR or by pretreating with chemicals.

A 3-D finite element model combined with a volume tracking method is presented in this work to simulate the mold filling for casting processes. Especially, the analysis involves an adaptive grid method that is created under a criterion of element categorization of filling states and locations in the total region at each time step. By using an adaptive grid wherein the elements, finer than those in internal and external regions, are distributed at the surface region through refinement and coarsening procedures, a more efficient analysis of transient fluid flow with free surface is achieved. Adaptive grid based on VOF method is developed in tetrahedral and hexahedral elements. Through a 3-D analysis of the benchmark test of the casting process using two types of elements, the efficiency of the proposed adaptive grid method is verified.

Two fluorine-doped diamond-like carbon (F-DLC) stamps with sub-100 nm line patterns were fabricated using a direct etching method. These were applied successfully to ultraviolet (UV) nanoimprint lithography without requiring an anti-adhesion layer coating. Tests were performed to determine the optimum fluorine concentration for the F-DLC stamps. The ideal stamp material consisted of 25 at.% F-DLC with a contact angle of 85°, UV transmittance of 16.4-26.8%, and hardness of 4.5 GPa. The O(2) plasma etch rate of the DLC was increased considerably by the fluorine doping, making it comparable to the etch rate of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). Thus, only PMMA was used as the etch mask in the fabrication of the stamps.

This study was conducted to perform for comparative analysis of the cleaning efficiency on 3 kinds of cleaning liquid state, 3 steps of cleaning temperature and 6 steps of cleaning time (2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, 15 minute). 3 kinds of cleaning liquid state are the non fluidized bed, liquid fluidized bed and liquid/solid fluidized bed. UV spectrophotometer was used in estimation of cleaning efficiency, which it is experimental equipment using the absorptiometric analysis method. Cleaning efficiency by cleaning time was increase from 2.5 minutes to 15 minutes, liquid/siolid fluidized bed was indicated the highest cleaning efficiency among the 3 kinds of cleaning liquid state and of cleaning temperature at liquid/solid fluidized bed was indicated the highest cleaning efficiency as 98% among the 3 steps of cleaning temperature.

In this paper, a novel device structure (Si1 − x Ge x /Si/Si1 − x Ge x hetero-structure), which is named as “center-channel (CC) double-gate (DG) MOSFET,” is proposed. Device performance of the proposed FET structure was investigated with our two-dimensional quantum-mechanical simulator which produces a self-consistent solution of Poisson–Schrodinger equations and the current continuity equation. The CC operation of CC-NMOS is confirmed from the electron density distribution and the band lineups as well as the lowest energy wave function. Current–voltage characteristics including the trans-conductance (G m) of CC-MOSFET are carefully compared with those of the conventional DG-NMOS to evaluate the distinct feature of the proposed FET structure. Our simulation revealed that the proposed FET demonstrates the enhanced (about (∼1.6 × ) current drive and 60% G m. Finally, the short-channel effects of CC and DG MOSFET, both of which demonstrate excellent sub-threshold behaviors and open the possibility of device...

This paper proposes a developmental procedure of a real-time thermal error compensator for a high-speed machine tool (HSMT). A vertical-type HSMT having a slant column with lightweight moving slides is used to investigate thermal characteristics. Since spindle speed is very fast in the HSMT, a large amount of thermal drift error occurs within a few minutes of operation. Owing to tooling problems of the high-speed spindle, axial offset errors also appear on the machined surfaces. If-then rules and thermal mode approaches are applied to remove defects of the machined surfaces. An infinite impulse response filter is used to compensate for surface roughness of the machine surface. A personal-computer-based error compensation scheme has been developed for the real-time thermal error compensation. Compensation interval of the developed compensator is selected to satisfy correction requirement of thermal errors of the HSMT. Experimental results confirm the validity of the developed compensator and show that the accuracy of machined surface is dramatically improved.

Polycrystalline samples of Nd ( Sr 2-y Ba y)( Cu 3-x Mo x) O z (0 ≤ y ≤ 0.5, 0.1 ≤ x ≤ 0.3) with tetragonal structure were synthesized and investigated by powder X-ray diffraction, electrical resistivity, magnetic susceptibility and thermoelectric power measurements. Contrary to the absence of superconductivity of the Ba-free samples, superconductivity can be achieved by partially substituting Ba for Sr in semiconducting NdSr 2( Cu 3-x Mo x) O z (0.15 ≤ x ≤ 0.3). Thermoelectric power measurements reveal that all the samples are in the underdoped state and the partial substitution of Ba for Sr results in an increase of the carrier density on the superconducting layers.

The formulation of a nonlinear composite shell element is presented for the solution of stability problems of composite plates and shells. The formulation of the geometrical stiffness presented here is exactly defined on the midsurface and is efficient for analyzing stability problems of thin and thick laminated plates and shells by incorporating bending moment and transverse shear resultant forces. The composite element is free of both membrane and shear locking behaviour by using the assumed natural strain method such that the element performs very well as thin shells. The transverse shear stiffness is defined by an equilibrium approach instead of using the shear correction factor. The proposed formulation is computationally efficient and the test results showed good agreement. In addition the effect of the viscoelastic material is investigated on the postbuckling behaviour of laminated composite shells.

SUMMARY Quasi-conforming formulations of 4-node stress-resultant shell elements are presented. The element formulations use interrelated displacement-rotation interpolations. The formulation also includes drilling degrees of freedom, which improves membrane behavior and allows the modeling of stiened plates and shells. The proposed treatment for bending provides very good results in the 4-node shell element. The stiness matrices for the present elements are explicitly expressed and the stresses are taken accurately at the nodal points. Compared to elements using Gauss integration, where the stresses are most accurate at the integration points, the extrapolation procedure needed for post-processing is eliminated in the present shell element. A lot of numerical tests were carried out for the validation of the present 4-node shell element and the results are in good agreement with references. Copyright ? 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A floristic survey was conducted in turf-dominated fields on some waste landfills in South Korea, to quantify the degree of plant invasion in those degraded lands. The dominant species, except turf (Zoysia japonica), were Conyza canadensis, Setaria viridis, Digitaria sanguinalis and Aster tripolium. Mean species number declined linearly with distance from the edge of the turf stands. Biomass of each species ranged between 0.1 g and 122.6 g, decreasing linearly with distance from the edge of the stand and declining exponentially with turf coverage. Mean soil moisture storage and organic matter content were 12.59 per cent and 5.81 per cent, respectively. Sum of relative cover, frequency and biomass of all species with environmental variables (distance from the stand edge, turf cover, soil moisture storage, soil organic matter content and the ratio of species number of exotic plants to that of native plants) were ordinated by DCA (detrended correspondence analysis). The first axis of the DCA was positively correlated with distance from the stand edge and turf cover and the second axis of the DCA was negatively correlated with soil organic matter content. Highly and lowly invasive species were indicated from DCA results. From analysis of dispersal type, barochore and anemochore were the most widespread of other dispersal types but it was suggested that anthropochore played an important role in plant invasion in these degraded wastelands. Establishment of an edge transition zone, enhancement of turf cover and reduction in traffic is recommended as management options for turf fields. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS) is a rare disease with a genetic predisposition. Few studies have evaluated the disease in the Asian population. We studied a Korean pediatric cohort to delineate the clinical characteristics and genotypes.A multicenter cohort of 51 Korean children with aHUS was screened for mutations using targeted exome sequencing covering 46 complement related genes. Anti-complement-factor-H autoantibody (anti-CFH) titers were measured. Multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification assay was performed to detect deletions in the complement factor-H related protein genes (CFHR) in the patients as well as in 100 healthy Korean controls. We grouped the patients according to etiology and compared the clinical features using Mann-Whitney U-test and chi-squared test.Fifteen patients (group A, 29.7%) had anti-CFH, and mutations were detected in 11 (group B, 21.6%), including one with combined mutations. The remaining 25 (group C, 49.0%) were negative for both. The prevalence of anti-CFH was higher than the worldwide level. Group A had a higher onset age than group B, although the difference was not significant. Group B had the worst renal outcome. Gene frequencies of homozygous CFHR1 deletion were 73.3%, 2.7% and 1% in group A, group B + C and the control, respectively.The incidence of anti-CFH in the present Korean aHUS cohort was high. Clinical outcomes largely conformed to the previous reports. Although the sample size was limited, this cohort provides a reassessment of clinicogenetic features of aHUS in Korean children.

A feeding trial of three dietary protein levels (30, 40 and 50%) and two dietary energy levels (19 and 21 MJ kg−1 diet) factorial design with three replications was conducted to investigate the proper dietary protein and energy levels for the growth of juvenile masu salmon (Oncorhynchus masou Brevoort). Fish, average weight 21.9 g, were fed the experimental diets for 10 weeks. Weight gain and feed efficiency ratio of fish improved as dietary protein and energy levels increased (P

Estimation of confidence limits and intervals for the two- and three-parameter Weibull distributions are presented based on the methods of moment (MOM), probability weighted moments (PWM), and maximum likelihood (ML). The asymptotic variances of the MOM, PWM, and ML quantile estimators are derived as a function of the sample size, return period, and parameters. Such variances can be used for estimating the confidence limits and confidence intervals of the population quantiles. Except for the two-parameter Weibull model, the formulas obtained do not have simple forms but can be evaluated numerically. Simulation experiments were performed to verify the applicability of the derived confidence intervals of quantiles. The results show that overall, the ML method for estimating the confidence limits performs better than the other two methods in terms of bias and mean square error. This is specially so for γ≥0.5 even for small sample sizes (e.g. N=10). However, the drawback of the ML method for determining the confidence limits is that it requires that the shape parameter be bigger than 2. The Weibull model based on the MOM, ML, and PWM estimation methods was applied to fit the distribution of annual 7-day low flows and 6-h maximum annual rainfall data. The results showed that the differences in the estimated quantiles based on the three methods are not large, generally are less than 10%. However, the differences between the confidence limits and confidence intervals obtained by the three estimation methods may be more significant. For instance, for the 7-day low flows the ratio between the estimated confidence interval to the estimated quantile based on ML is about 17% for T≥2 while it is about 30% for estimation based on MOM and PWM methods. In addition, the analysis of the rainfall data using the three-parameter Weibull showed that while ML parameters can be estimated, the corresponding confidence limits and intervals could not be found because the shape parameter was smaller than 2.

Eleven soybean cultivars with different levels of susceptibility to virulent isolate SG915 ofCalonectria ilicicola were examined for reaction to metabolites produced by the isolate. When the culture filtrate from isolate SG915 was applied to trifoliates from 11 cultivars, cvs. ‘Cajun’ and ‘Asgrow 7986’ exhibited reduced wilting severity. However, there was no correlation between sensitivity to culture filtrate and susceptibility to the fungal isolate. Wilting severity on cv. ‘Riverside 699’ was greatest when trifoliates were treated with culture filtrates from isolates SG915 (highly virulent) and C31 (less virulent). The dilution end-point for culture filtrates of virulent isolate SG915 was determined to be 1:8. Nonautoclaved culture filtrates caused complete wilt of soybean trifoliates after 36 h, but autoclaved culture filtrates demonstrated a reduced ability to wilt leaves. Electrolyte leakage from treated leaf tissues increased over time regardless of the concentrations of culture filtrate tested. The greatest electrolyte losses were observed during the initial 30 min incubation of leaf tissues. The highest concentration of culture filtrate (50%, v/v) induced more electrolyte loss than the low concentration (10%, v/v) or control. These results suggest that toxic metabolites ofC. ilicicola may be involved in disease development with leaf symptom expression.

Differential interactions ofColletotrichum gloeosporioides isolate KG 13 with green and red pepper fruits (Capsicum annuum were found when it was inoculated on unwounded and wounded fruits. The isolate produced the typically necrotic, sunken anthracnose symptom on unwounded and wounded green fruits, and wounded red ones, but not on unwounded red ones. Appressorial formation of the fungus on the surfaces of compatible green fruits was higher than on incompatible red ones up to 12 h after inoculation. More and longer infection pegs from appressoria were produced on green than on red fruits. When cuticular wax layers of green and red fruits were removed by dipping in chloroform, red ones only produced larger lesions and more conidia than water-dipped controls did. However, differences in lesion diameter and conidial production were not observed between green and red fruits wounded by pin-pricking. In addition, concentrations of wax extracted from the surface of green and red fruits affected conidial germination and appressorial formation of the fungus. These findings suggest that the isolate KG 13 ofC. gloeosporioides may react differentially to green and red pepper fruits, probably due to the physical and chemical differences in cuticular layers of the fruits.