A Novel Pinkish-White Flower Color Variant Is Caused by a New Allele of Flower Color Gene W1 in Wild Soybean (Glycine soja)

The enzyme flavonoid 3',5'-hydroxylase (F3'5'H) plays an important role in producing anthocyanin pigments in soybean. Loss of function of the W1 locus encoding F3'5'H always produces white flowers. However, few color variations have been reported in wild soybean. In the present study, we isolated a new color variant of wild soybean accession (IT261811) with pinkish-white flowers. We found that the flower's pinkish-white color is caused by w1-s3, a single recessive allele of W1. The SNP detected in the mutant caused amino acid substitution (A(304)S) in a highly conserved SRS4 domain of F3'5'H proteins. On the basis of the results of the protein variation effect analyzer (PROVEAN) tool, we suggest that this mutation may lead to hypofunctional F3'5'H activity rather than non-functional activity, which thereby results in its pinkish-white color

Reconstructive challenge of dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans in the female breast

Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans is an uncommon locally aggressive malignant neoplasm that most frequently appears in the trunk, followed by the extremities, head, and neck. But occurrence in the breast is extremely rare. We present a case of a 28-year-old woman, who had a history of trauma 5 years previously and excision 1 year before presentation at our clinic. We performed wide excision, together with microscopic and immunohistochemical analysis. No postoperative oncologic treatment was used and she remains disease-free 1 year after the surgery without any tumor recurrence. Here, we report a case of dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans in the female breast and present a detailed discussion of the diagnosis and treatment with reference to available literatures

Experimental Investigation for Tensile Performance of GFRP-Steel Hybridized Rebar

Tensile performance of the recently developed “FRP Hybrid Bar” at Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT) is experimentally evaluated by the authors. FRP Hybrid Bar is introduced to overcome the low elastic modulus of the existing GFRP bars to be used as a structural member in reinforced concrete structures. The concept of material hybridization is applied to increase elastic modulus of GFRP bars by using steel. This hybridized GFRP bar can be used in concrete structures as a flexural reinforcement with a sufficient level of elastic modulus. In order to verify the effect of material hybridization on tensile properties, tensile tests are conducted. The test results for both FRP Hybrid Bar and the existing GFRP bars are compared. The results indicate that the elastic modulus of FRP Hybrid Bar can be enhanced by up to approximately 250 percent by the material hybridization with a sufficient tensile strength. To ensure the long-term durability of FRP Hybrid Bar to corrosion resistance, the individual and combined effects of environmental conditions on FRP Hybrid Bar itself as well as on the interface between rebar and concrete are currently under investigation

Novel water filtration of saline water in the outermost layer of mangrove roots

The scarcity of fresh water is a global challenge faced at present. Several desalination methods have been suggested to secure fresh water from sea water. However, conventional methods suffer from technical limitations, such as high power consumption, expensive operating costs, and limited system durability. In this study, we examined the feasibility of using halophytes as a novel technology of desalinating high-concentration saline water for long periods. This study investigated the biophysical characteristics of sea water filtration in the roots of the mangrove Rhizophora stylosa from a plant hydrodynamic point of view. R. stylosa can grow even in saline water, and the salt level in its roots is regulated within a certain threshold value through filtration. The root possesses a hierarchical, triple layered pore structure in the epidermis, and most Na+ ions are filtered at the first sublayer of the outermost layer. The high blockage of Na+ ions is attributed to the high surface zeta potential of the first layer. The second layer, which is composed of macroporous structures, also facilitates Na+ ion filtration. This study provides insights into the mechanism underlying water filtration through halophyte roots and serves as a basis for the development of a novel bio-inspired desalination method.Creative Research Initiative (Diagnosis of Biofluid Flow Phenomena and Biomimic Research) of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) , National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea , ICT R&D program of MSIP/IITP (Korea

Towards standardizing Korean Grammatical Error Correction: Datasets and Annotation

Research on Korean grammatical error correction (GEC) is limited compared to other major languages such as English and Chinese. We attribute this problematic circumstance to the lack of a carefully designed evaluation benchmark for Korean. Thus, in this work, we first collect three datasets from different sources (Kor-Lang8, Kor-Native, and Kor-Learner) to cover a wide range of error types and annotate them using our newly proposed tool called Korean Automatic Grammatical error Annotation System (KAGAS). KAGAS is a carefully designed edit alignment & classification tool that considers the nature of Korean on generating an alignment between a source sentence and a target sentence, and identifies error types on each aligned edit. We also present baseline models fine-tuned over our datasets. We show that the model trained with our datasets significantly outperforms the public statistical GEC system (Hanspell) on a wider range of error types, demonstrating the diversity and usefulness of the datasets.Comment: Add affiliation and email addres

Functional elements demarcated by histone modifications in breast cancer cells

AbstractHistone modifications are regarded as one of markers to identify regulatory elements which are DNA segments modulating gene transcription. Aberrant changes of histone modification levels are frequently observed in cancer. We have employed ChIP-Seq to identify regulatory elements in human breast cancer cell line, MCF-7 by comparing histone modification patterns of H3K4me1, H3K4me3, and H3K9/14ac to those in normal mammary epithelial cell line, MCF-10A. The genome-wide analysis shows that H3K4me3 and H3K9/14ac are highly enriched at promoter regions and H3K4me1 has a relatively broad distribution over proximity of TSSs as well as other genomic regions. We identified that many differentially expressed genes in MCF-7 have divergent histone modification patterns. To understand the functional roles of distinctively histone-modified regions, we selected 35 genomic regions marked by at least one histone modification and located from 3 to 10kb upstream of TSS in both MCF-7 and MCF-10A and assessed their transcriptional activities. About 66% and 60% of selected regions in MCF-7 and MCF-10A, respectively, enhanced the transcriptional activity. Interestingly, most regions marked by H3K4me1 exhibited an enhancer activity. Regions with two or more kinds of histone modifications did show varying activities. In conclusion, our data reflects that comprehensive analysis of histone modification profiles under cell type-specific chromatin environment should provide a better chance for defining functional regulatory elements in the genome

Dysfunction of 67-kDa Laminin Receptor Disrupts BBB Integrity via Impaired Dystrophin/AQP4 Complex and p38 MAPK/VEGF Activation Following Status Epilepticus

Status epilepticus (SE, a prolonged seizure activity) impairs brain-blood barrier (BBB) integrity, which results in secondary complications following SE. The non-integrin 67-kDa laminin receptor (67-kDa LR) plays a role in cell adherence to laminin (a major glycoprotein component in basement membrane), and participates laminin-mediated signaling pathways including p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK). Thus, we investigated the role of 67-kDa LR in SE-induced vasogenic edema formation in the rat piriform cortex (PC). SE diminished 67-kDa LR expression, but increased laminin expression, in endothelial cells accompanied by the reduced SMI-71 (a rat BBB barrier marker) expression. Astroglial 67-kDa LR expression was also reduced in the PC due to massive astroglial loss. 67-kDa LR neutralization led to serum extravasation in the PC concomitant with the reduced SMI-71 expression. 67-kDa LR neutralization also decreased expressions of dystrophin and aquaporin-4 (AQP4). In addition, it increased p38 MAPK phosphorylation and expressions of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), laminin and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), which were abrogated by SB202190, a p38 MAPK inhibitor. Therefore, our findings indicate that 67-kDa LR dysfunction may disrupt dystrophin-AQP4 complex, which would evoke vasogenic edema formation and subsequent laminin over-expression via activating p38 MAPK/VEGF axis

Effect of two different exercises on balance, pain and ankle motor function in male college students with chronic ankle instability

Strength and proprioceptive exercise are known to be representative exercise methods used in patients with chronic ankle instability (CAI) and they are effective in restoring ankle stability and body balance, which gets reduced by repetitive ankle sprains. But, there is a lack of data comparing the effects of strengthening or proprioceptive exercise rehabilitation program for CAI patients. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of a 4-week exercise program on ankle range of motion (ROM), static/dynamic balance, and drop landing in college students with CAI. The subjects of this study were 21 male college students who had the Cumberland ankle instability tool (CAIT) questionnaire scores of 24 or less, and they were divided into three groups; the non-treated group (NTG), the traditional strength exercise group (SEG) and the proprioceptive exercise group (PEG). The exercise rehabilitation program was applied 3 times a week for 4 weeks. To examine the difference between groups, CAIT, visual analogue scale (VAS), body composition, ankle ROM, one-leg standing with eyes closed and Y-balance test (YBT) as well as center of pressure (COP) 95% confidence ellipse area during drop landing were measured before and after the exercise intervention. CAIT scores and static balance were significantly increased in the PEG compared to the NTG and the SEG, and ankle dorsiflexion ROM and Y-balance were significantly increased in the SEG and the PEG compared to the NTG. In addition, pain, ankle inversion ROM, and COP 95% confidence ellipse area were significantly reduced in the SEG and the PEG compared to the NTG. The proprioceptive exercise program is thought to be effective therapeutic approach on improving the symptoms of CAI patients