Kwandong University

Oak trees are widely distributed nationwide and account for approximately 24% of the total forest area in South Korea. However, these species are currently threatened by oak wilt disease caused by Dryadomyces quercus-mongolicae, leading to significant economic and ecological losses in the forestry industry. This study evaluated the effectiveness of culture suspension and lyophilized powder formulations of Streptomyces blastmyceticus in controlling oak wilt disease on Mongolian oak (Quercus mongolica). Field experiments were conducted using trunk and root injection methods in Q. mongolica plantations. The non-conductive area (NCA) of sapwood and colonization rate of the oak wilt fungus were analyzed and compared across treatments. In the Chuncheon experiment, Kangwon province, only the root injection of fungicide showed a significant difference compared to the culture suspension treatments. There were no significant differences between culture suspension and lyophilized powder treatments in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province. Specifically, both preventive and curative treatments using culture suspension and lyophilized powder of S. blastmyceticus resulted in significantly different NCA values compared to the negative control (8.7%) and positive control (88.5%). The NCA for culture suspension ranged from 33.3% to 49.9%, and for lyophilized powder, from 37.3% to 43.9%. The colonization rate of the oak wilt fungus was lowest (9.72%) in the preventive treatment using lyophilized powder via trunk injection. For the culture suspension, the lowest colonization rate (20.83%) was observed in the curative treatment using trunk injection. These findings suggest that the lyophilized powder formulation of S. blastmyceticus efficiently suppresses the progression of oak wilt disease under field conditions.

Objectives: This study aimed to analyze the association between social isolation (SI) and falls in Koreans. Methods: The cross-sectional study of the 2019 Korea Community Health Survey (KCHS) was conducted on 228,143 individuals aged 19 years or older. SI was defined using five indicators as "the presence of a spouse," "social network," "single-person household," "participation in social activities," and "job status," and SI group were defined as SI score >= 3. Multiple logistic regression after adjusting factors (socioeconomic status, health behavior and psychological factors) were used for association SI and falls. Results: Fall injury were significantly higher in the SI group (15.8%) than that in the non-SI group (10.8%) (p < 0.001), and subcomponent scores for nonspouse, single-person household, nonsocial activity, nonsocial network, and no job were significantly higher in the falls group (p < 0.001). The multivariate odds ratio (OR) after adjusting multiple confounding variables showed SI (SI score >= 3) was significantly associated with an increased risk of falls (OR: 1.23, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.19-1.27). The presence of falls according to the SI subcomponents was more likely to be associated with nonspouse (OR: 1.40, 95% CI: 1.36-1.44), single-person households (OR: 1.17, 95% CI: 1.13-1.21), non-social network (OR: 1.09, 95% CI: 1.00-1.19) and nonjob (OR: 1.14, 95% CI: 1.11-1.18), respectively. Conclusion: SI was associated with falls.

A numerical formulation for evaluating the hydrodynamic behaviours of arbitrarily shaped two-dimensional (2D) floating breakwaters with wide porous media is developed based on the multi-domain boundary element method (BEM). Both diffraction and radiation problems are tackled and key hydrodynamic quantities such as wave exciting forces, added masses, radiation damping, and response amplitude operators (RAOs) are obtained. In addition, three representative performance indices for floating breakwaters—transmission, reflection, and dissipation coefficients—as well as mooring loads are computed. The present numerical formulation is verified by comparing the results with those from an analytical approach in the previous literature. Furthermore, previously published solutions for floating compound breakwaters with wide porous media are compared with experimental data for validation purposes. Through parametric studies, the effect of the location and shape of wide porous media attached to floating breakwaters are investigated. For the first investigation, the porous media are attached to the sides, top, bottom, top-and-bottom, and sides-and-bottom of rectangular floating breakwaters. Next, the shapes considered include semi-circular, rectangular, upright trapezoidal, and inverted trapezoidal geometries. The present numerical formulation will serve as a useful tool for evaluating the hydrodynamic behaviours of arbitrarily shaped 2D floating breakwaters with wide porous media.

Patients with hormone receptor-positive/HER2-positive (HR+/HER2+) breast cancer represent a historically underrecognized subgroup demonstrating poor response to combined endocrine and HER2-targeted therapies. In this study, using single-cell transcriptomic and epigenomic sequencing of estrogen receptor-positive (ER+)/HER2+ models, we identified BRD8, an acetyl-lysine reader in the EP400 histone acetyltransferase complex, as a critical mediator of ER/HER2 signaling cross-talk. BRD8 expression rapidly increased following anti-HER2 treatment, whereas its depletion disrupted ER-HER2 interaction and enhanced drug sensitivity. Single-nucleus assay for transposase-accessible chromatin using sequencing revealed that chromatin regions opening after anti-HER2 treatment were enriched for ER, FOX, and ETS transcription factor motifs, coinciding with BRD8-dependent gene activation through EP400-mediated acetylated H2AZ deposition. BRD8 regulated ER-dependent and ER-independent growth pathways, and depletion of BRD8 abolished neratinib-induced ER activation and restored drug sensitivity in resistant cells. A three-gene BRD8 signature successfully predicted anti-HER2 therapy response in two human clinical trials. Together, these findings establish BRD8 as both a predictive biomarker for anti-HER2 response and a therapeutic target to overcome resistance in HR+/HER2+ breast cancer. SIGNIFICANCE:Multiomic single-cell profiling of breast cancer identified BRD8 as a critical mediator of resistance to HER2-targeted therapies that enables ER-HER2 cross-talk and serves as a predictive biomarker for treatment response.