Fault-network geometry influences earthquake frictional behaviour.

Understanding the factors governing the stability of fault slip is a crucial problem in fault mechanics. The importance of fault geometry and roughness on fault-slip behaviour has been highlighted in recent lab experiments and numerical models, and emerging evidence suggests that large-scale complexities in fault networks have a vital role in the fault-rupture process. Here we present a new perspective on fault creep by investigating the link between fault-network geometry and surface creep rates in California, USA.

A new species of the genus Tutt (Lepidoptera, Psychidae) from Korea, based on morphology and DNA barcodes.

Background: The genus Tutt, 1899 (Lepidoptera, Psychidae) comprises 14 species found throughout the world. In East Asia, three species, Hättenschwiler & Chao, 1990, Saigusa & Sugimoto, 2014 and Saigusa & Sugimoto, 2014, are known from Korea, Japan and China.

New Information: Roh & Lee, sp.

Phenotype-based screening rediscovered benzopyran-embedded microtubule inhibitors as anti-neuroinflammatory agents by modulating the tubulin-p65 interaction.

Neuroinflammation is one of the critical processes implicated in central nervous system (CNS) diseases. Therefore, alleviating neuroinflammation has been highlighted as a therapeutic strategy for treating CNS disorders. However, the complexity of neuroinflammatory processes and poor drug transport to the brain are considerable hurdles to the efficient control of neuroinflammation using small-molecule therapeutics.

Polymeric Microfluidic Devices Fabricated Using Epoxy Resin for Chemically Demanding and Day-Long Experiments.

(PDMS) is a widely used material in laboratories for fabricating microfluidic devices with a rapid and reproducible prototypingability, owing to its inherent properties (e.g., flexibility, air permeability, and transparency).

Discovery of E3 Ligase Ligands for Target Protein Degradation.

Target protein degradation has emerged as a promising strategy for the discovery of novel therapeutics during the last decade. Proteolysis-targeting chimera (PROTAC) harnesses a cellular ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis system for the efficient degradation of a protein of interest. PROTAC consists of a target protein ligand and an E3 ligase ligand so that it enables the target protein degradation owing to the induced proximity with ubiquitin ligases.

Machine Learning-Based Heavy Metal Ion Detection Using Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy.

Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) is often used for heavy metal ion detection. However, large variations in signal strength, spectral profile, and nonlinearity of measurements often cause problems that produce varying results. It raises concerns about the reproducibility of the results.

SERSNet: Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Based Biomolecule Detection Using Deep Neural Network.

Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS)-based biomolecule detection has been a challenge due to large variations in signal intensity, spectral profile, and nonlinearity. Recent advances in machine learning offer great opportunities to address these issues. However, well-documented procedures for model development and evaluation, as well as benchmark datasets, are lacking.

Taxonomy of the coastal Thinobius Kiesenwetter (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Oxytelinae) in Korea.

A taxonomic study of the intertidal Thinobius Kiesenwetter in Korea is presented. Three species are recognized, two of which are identified as new species (Thinobius jejuensis Lee Ahn, sp. n.

Seasonal distribution of Haemaphysalis longicornis (Acari: Ixodidae) and detection of SFTS virus in Gyeongbuk Province, Republic of Korea, 2018.

The seasonal distribution of hard ticks was investigated in 2018 in Gyeongbuk Province, Republic of Korea. Ticks were assayed for severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV). Ticks were collected monthly using CO-baited traps from April to November in four habitats (grasslands, grave sites, hiking trails, and mixed forests).

Sustainable Growth of Social Tourism: A Growth Mixture Modeling Approach Using Heterogeneous Travel Frequency Trajectories.

As travel activity has gained attention as one of the essential ways of understanding the sustainable growth of social tourism, a growing number of research projects have been conducted to elucidate the relationship between residents' travel quantity (frequency) and quality (experience) in both macro and micro perspectives. Yet, very little research has highlighted that travel opportunities are not equally available to residents, especially a longitudinal perspective. The current study classified domestic travelers into four distinct classes using four years of longitudinal data from 5054 Korean residents.

The new single crystal dispersion interferometer installed on KSTAR and its first measurement.

Dispersion interferometers have been used to measure line integrated electron densities from many fusion devices. To optically suppress noise due to mechanical vibrations, a conventional dispersion interferometer typically uses two nonlinear crystals located before and after the plasma along the laser beam path. Due to the long beam path, it can be difficult to overlap the fundamental and second harmonic laser beams for a heterodyne dispersion interferometer and to focus the beams on the second nonlinear crystal located after the plasma, especially when the aperture of the nonlinear crystal is small, i.

Development of a forward model for Bayesian analysis of a single crystal dispersion interferometer.

The Single Crystal Dispersion Interferometer (SCDI) is a newly developed dispersion interferometer (DI) system installed on KSTAR and has obtained the first data successfully in January 2020. Unlike conventional heterodyne DI systems, which use two nonlinear crystals, only one nonlinear crystal is used to eliminate the difficulty in overlapping the first and second harmonic beams, aligning and focusing the beams to a small aperture of the second nonlinear crystal, and resolving a problem of significant efforts to maintain the beam alignment to the second nonlinear crystal after a long beam transmission. The second nonlinear crystal is replaced by a frequency doubler, a simple electronic component.

Impacts of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) on infant mortality: a quasi-experimental study in the USA, 2003-2014.

Objectives: The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is the first mandatory market-based regulatory programme to limit regional carbon dioxide (CO) emissions in the USA. Empirical evidence has shown that high concentrations of ambient air pollutants such as CO have been positively associated with an increased risk of morbidity (eg, respiratory conditions including asthma and lung cancer) and premature mortality. The purpose of this study was to examine the impacts of RGGI on death rates in infancy.

Effects of Injection Laryngoplasty with Hyaluronic Acid in Patients with Vocal Fold Paralysis.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of injection laryngoplasty (IL) with hyaluronic acid in patients with vocal fold paralysis (VFP).

Methods: A total of 50 patients with VFP participated in this study. Pre- and post-IL assessments were performed, which included analyzing the sustained vowel /a/ phonation, and the patient reading 1 Korean sentence from the "Walk" passage that comprised 25 syllables in 10 words.

Association between knee extensor strength and pulmonary function in the female elderly.

[Purpose] The purpose of this study is to study the impact of knee extensor strength, which is an index of the degree of physical activity on lung capacity in older women. [Subjects and Methods] Thirty-three older women who participated in the exercise program hosted by a senior citizen center and S University located in Busan. Force vital capacity (FVC) was measured with digital spirometry (Pony FX, COSMED Inc.

Convolutional neural network for high-accuracy functional near-infrared spectroscopy in a brain-computer interface: three-class classification of rest, right-, and left-hand motor execution.

The aim of this work is to develop an effective brain-computer interface (BCI) method based on functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). In order to improve the performance of the BCI system in terms of accuracy, the ability to discriminate features from input signals and proper classification are desired. Previous studies have mainly extracted features from the signal manually, but proper features need to be selected carefully.

The effect of bridge exercise method on the strength of rectus abdominis muscle and the muscle activity of paraspinal muscles while doing treadmill walking with high heels.

[Purpose] The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of the method of bridge exercise on the change of rectus abdominis muscle and the muscle activity of paraspinal muscles while doing treadmill walking with high heels. [Subjects and Methods] The subjects of this research are healthy female students consisting of 10 persons performing bridge exercises in a supine group, 10 persons performing bridge exercises in a prone group, and 10 persons in a control group while in S university in Busan. Bridge exercise in supine position is performed in hook lying position.

The change of lung capacity in elderly women caused by life span.

[Purpose] Although lung capacity in the elderly is affected by age, little research has been performed studying decreasing lung capacity in relation to increasing life expectancy. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of increased life span on the lung capacity of women. [Subjects and Methods] The subjects of this study were 55 healthy elderly women over 60 years of age who were living in Busan.

Terpenes from Forests and Human Health.

Forest bathing has beneficial effects on human health via showering of forest aerosols as well as physical relaxation. Terpenes that consist of multiple isoprene units are the largest class of organic compounds produced by various plants, and one of the major components of forest aerosols. Traditionally, terpene-containing plant oil has been used to treat various diseases without knowing the exact functions or the mechanisms of action of the individual bioactive compounds.

Pruning-Based Sparse Recovery for Electrocardiogram Reconstruction from Compressed Measurements.

Due to the necessity of the low-power implementation of newly-developed electrocardiogram (ECG) sensors, exact ECG data reconstruction from the compressed measurements has received much attention in recent years. Our interest lies in improving the compression ratio (CR), as well as the ECG reconstruction performance of the sparse signal recovery. To this end, we propose a sparse signal reconstruction method by pruning-based tree search, which attempts to choose the globally-optimal solution by minimizing the cost function.

Joint Maximum Likelihood Time Delay Estimation of Unknown Event-Related Potential Signals for EEG Sensor Signal Quality Enhancement.

Electroencephalograms (EEGs) measure a brain signal that contains abundant information about the human brain function and health. For this reason, recent clinical brain research and brain computer interface (BCI) studies use EEG signals in many applications. Due to the significant noise in EEG traces, signal processing to enhance the signal to noise power ratio (SNR) is necessary for EEG analysis, especially for non-invasive EEG.

Chemosensitizing effect of podophyllotoxin acetate on topoisomerase inhibitors leads to synergistic enhancement of lung cancer cell apoptosis.

Podophyllotoxin acetate (PA) acts as a radiosensitizer against non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in vitro and in vivo. In this study, we examined its potential role as a chemosensitizer in conjunction with the topoisomerase inhibitors etoposide (Eto) and camptothecin (Cpt). The effects of combinations of PA and Eto/Cpt were examined with CompuSyn software in two NSCLC cell lines, A549 and NCI-H1299.

Γ-Ionizing radiation-induced activation of the EGFR-p38/ERK-STAT3/CREB-1-EMT pathway promotes the migration/invasion of non-small cell lung cancer cells and is inhibited by podophyllotoxin acetate.

Here, we report a new intracellular signaling pathway involved in γ-ionizing radiation (IR)-induced migration/invasion and show that podophyllotoxin acetate (PA) inhibits the IR-induced invasion and migration of A549 cells (a non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell line). Our results revealed that IR increased the invasion/migration of A549 cells, and this effect was decreased by 10 nM PA treatment. PA also inhibited the expressions/activities of matrix metalloprotase (MMP) -2, MMP-9, and vimentin, suggesting that PA could block the IR-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT).

The effects of Juchumseogi and Juchumseo Jireugi motions of taekwondo on muscle activation of paraspinal muscles.

[Purpose] The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of Juchumseogi and Juchumseo Jireugi motions on muscle activation of the paraspinal muscles. [Subjects] The subjects of this study were 20 healthy male students who listened to an explanation of the study methods and the purpose of the experiment, and agreed to participate in the study. [Methods] Muscle activation measurements of the paraspinal muscles at C3, T7, and L3 were taken while standing still and while performing Juchumseogi and Juchumseo Jireugi movements.