• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.11
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• pp.1205-1211
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• 2011

In this paper, we developed a pacemaker that can increase the efficacy of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) and increase the survival rate for patients suffering end-stage heart failure. Because LVAD patients can experience arrhythmia, the pacemaker incorporated into the LVAD has the important role of sustaining sufficient blood circulation during arrhythmia. The electrode of the pacemaker is located at the apex of the left ventricle, where the VAD's inlet cannula is connected. This is efficient placement, in that the electrode can transmit electrical stimulation directly to the Purkinje fibers of the myocardium. The pacemaker can change the stimulation rate from 0 bpm to 191.4 bpm when a button is pressed on the external control module, and the pacemaker normally stimulates the heart at 60 bpm with 0.25 J of energy. We performed animal experiments to evaluate the performance and reliability of the combination of the LVAD and pacemaker. At pacemaker stimulation rates of 86.4 bpm, 100.2 bpm, 126.6 bpm, we recorded the ECGs, aortic pressures, and flow rates to analyze the heart loads.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.464-474
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• 2021

Inflammation induced by metabolic syndromes, cancers, injuries, and sepsis can alter cellular metabolism by reducing mitochondrial function via oxidative stress, thereby resulting in neuropathy and muscle atrophy. In this study, we investigated whether butyrate, a short chain fatty acid produced by gut microbiota, could prevent mitochondrial dysfunction and muscle atrophy induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in the C2C12 cell line. LPS-activated MAPK signaling pathways increased the levels of the mitochondrial fission signal, p-DRP1 (Ser616), and the muscle atrophy marker, atrogin 1. Interestingly, butyrate significantly inhibited the phosphorylation of JNK and p38 and reduced the atrogin 1 level in LPS-treated C2C12 cells while increasing the phosphorylation of DRP1 (Ser637) and levels of mitofusin2, which are both mitochondrial fusion markers. Next, we investigated the effect of MAPK inhibitors, finding that butyrate had the same effect as JNK inhibition in C2C12 cells. Also, butyrate inhibited the LPS-induced expression of pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 4 (PDK4), resulting in decreased PDHE1α phosphorylation and lactate production, suggesting that butyrate shifted glucose metabolism from aerobic glycolysis to oxidative phosphorylation. Finally, we found that these effects of butyrate on LPS-induced mitochondrial dysfunction were caused by its antioxidant effects. Thus, our findings demonstrate that butyrate prevents LPS-induced muscle atrophy by improving mitochondrial dynamics and metabolic stress via the inhibition of JNK phosphorylation. Consequently, butyrate could be used to improve LPS-induced mitochondrial dysfunction and myopathy in sepsis.

• International Journal of Stem Cells
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.215-233
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• 2023

Background and Objectives: MYC, also known as an oncogenic reprogramming factor, is a multifunctional transcription factor that maintains induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Although MYC is frequently upregulated in various cancers and is correlated with a poor prognosis, MYC is downregulated and correlated with a good prognosis in lung adenocarcinoma. MYC and two other MYC family genes, MYCN and MYCL, have similar structures and could contribute to tumorigenic conversion both in vitro and in vivo. Methods and Results: We systematically investigated whether MYC family genes act as prognostic factors in various human cancers. We first evaluated alterations in the expression of MYC family genes in various cancers using the Oncomine and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and their mutation and copy number alterations using the TCGA database with cBioPortal. Then, we investigated the association between the expression of MYC family genes and the prognosis of cancer patients using various prognosis databases. Multivariate analysis also confirmed that co-expression of MYC/MYCL/MYCN was significantly associated with the prognosis of lung, gastric, liver, and breast cancers. Conclusions: Taken together, our results demonstrate that the MYC family can function not only as an oncogene but also as a tumor suppressor gene in various cancers, which could be used to develop a novel approach to cancer treatment.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.308-316
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• 2009

To achieve the accurate evaluation of given absorbed dose from output dose of linear accelerator photon beam through investigate the characteristics of LiF:Mg,Cu,P TLD powder. This experimental TL phosphor is performed with a commercial LiF:Mg,Cu,P powder (Supplied by PTW) and TL reader (LTM, France). The TLD was exposed to 6 MV X rays of linear accelerator photon beam with range 15 to 800 cGy in blind dose at two hospitals. The dose evaluation of TLD was through the experimental algorithms which were dose dependency, dose rate dependency, fading and powder weight dependency. The glow curve has shown the three peaks which are 110, 183 and 232 degrees of heating temperature and the main dosimetric peak showed highest TL response at 232 high temperature. In this experiments, the LiF:Mg,Cu,P phosphor has shown the 2.5 eV of electron trap energy with a second order. This experiments guided the dose evaluation accuracy is within 1% +2.58% of discrepancy. The TLD powder of LiF:Mg,Cu,P was analyzed to dosimetric characterists of electron captured energy and order by glow shape, and dose-TL response curve guided the accuracy within 1.0+2.58% of output dose discrepancy.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.80-88
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• 2008

Recent radiotherapy dose planning system (RTPS) generally adapted the kernel beam using the convolution method for computation of tissue dose. To get a depth and profile dose in a given depth concerened a given photon beam, the energy spectrum was reconstructed from the attenuation dose of transmission of filter through iterative numerical analysis. The experiments were performed with 15 MV X rays (Oncor, Siemens) and ionization chamber (0.125 cc, PTW) for measurements of filter transmitted dose. The energy spectrum of 15MV X-rays was determined from attenuated dose of lead filter transmission from 0.51 cm to 8.04 cm with energy interval 0.25 MeV. In the results, the peak flux revealed at 3.75 MeV and mean energy of 15 MV X rays was 4.639 MeV in this experiments. The results of transmitted dose of lead filter showed within 0.6% in average but maximum 2.5% discrepancy in a 5 cm thickness of lead filter. Since the tissue dose is highly depend on the its energy, the lateral dose are delivered from the lateral spread of energy fluence through flattening filter shape as tangent 0.075 and 0.125 which showed 4.211 MeV and 3.906 MeV. In this experiments, analyzed the energy spectrum has applied to obtain the percent depth dose of RTPS (XiO, Version 4.3.1, CMS). The generated percent depth dose from $6{\times}6cm^2$ of field to $30{\times}30cm^2$ showed very close to that of experimental measurement within 1 % discrepancy in average. The computed dose profile were within 1% discrepancy to measurement in field size $10{\times}10cm$, however, the large field sizes were obtained within 2% uncertainty. The resulting algorithm produced x-ray spectrum that match both quality and quantity with small discrepancy in this experiments.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.232-237
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• 2010

The shielding materials designed for replacement of lead equivalent materials for lighter apron than that of lead in diagnostic photon beams. The absorption characteristics of elements were applied to investigate the lead free material for design the shielding materials through the 50 kVp to 110 kVp x-ray energy in interval of 20 kVp respectively. The idea focused to the effect of K-edge absorption of variable elements excluding the lead material for weight reduction. The designed shielding materials composited of Tin 34.1%, Antimon 33.8% and Iodine 26.8% and Polyisoprene 5.3% gram weight account for 84 percent of weight of lead equivalent of 0.5 mm thickness. The size of lead-free shielder was $200{\times}200{\times}1.5\;mm^3$ and $3.2\;g/cm^3$ of density which is equivalent to 0.42 mm of Pb. The lead equivalent of 0.5 mm thickness generally used for shielding apron of diagnostic X rays which is transmitted 0.1% for 50 kVp, 0.9% for 70 kVp and 3.2% for 90 kVp and 4.8% for 110 kVp in experimental measurements. The experiment of transmittance for lead-free shielder has showed 0.3% for 50 kVp, 0.6% for 70 kVp, 2.0% for 90 kVp and 4.2% for 110 kVp within ${\pm}0.1%$. respectively. Using the attenuation coefficient of experiments for 0.5 mm Pb equivalent of lead-free materials showed 0.1%. 0.3%, 1.0% and 2.4%, respectively. Furthermore, the transmittance of lead-free shielder for scatter rays has showed the 2.4% in operation energy of 50 kVp and 5.9% in energy of 110 kVp against 2.4% and 5.1% for standard lead thickness within ${\pm}0.2%$ discrepancy, respectively. In this experiment shows the designed lead-free shielder is very effective for reduction the apron weight in diagnostic radiation fields.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.369-375
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• 2018

Mycoplasma genitalium has 367 conserved genes and the smallest genome among mono-culturable prokaryotes. Conservative metabolic pathways were examined among M. genitalium and 14 prokaryotes, one hyperthermophilic exosymbiotic archaeon Nanoarchaeum equitans and 13 intracellular eubacteria of plants or insects, with fewer conserved genes than M. genitalium. They have 11 to 71 metabolic pathways, however complete metabolic pathways ranged from 1 to 24. Totally, metabolic pathway hole is very high due to the lack of 45.8% of the enzymes required for the whole metabolic pathways and it could be suggested that the shared metabolic pathway with the host's enzyme would work or the essential substances are host dependent. The number of genes necessary for mass transfer through the cell membrane is also very low, and it may be considered that the simple diffusion or the protein of the host will function in the cell membrane of these prokaryotes. Although the tRNA charging pathway was distributed in all 15 prokaryotes, each has 5-20 tRNA charging genes. This study would give clues to the understanding of the metabolic pathways of intracellular parasitic bacteria of plant and endosymbiotic bacteria of insects, and could provide basic data for prevention of crop damage, development of insect pests and human medicines.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.330-338
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• 2015

The influences of fluorescence, scattering, and flocculation in turbid material by light scattering of N-propyl-N,N-dimethylethanolamine, fluorescence agent and absorption agent were interpreted for the scattered fluorescence intensity and wavelength. They have been studied the molecular properties by the spectroscopy of laser induced fluorescence (LIF) and flocculation. The effects of optical properties in scattering media have been found by the optical parameters(${\mu}_s$, ${\mu}_a$, ${\mu}_t$). Flocculation is an important step in many solid-liquid separation processes and is widely used. When two particles approach each other, interactions of several colloid particles can come into play which may have major effect on the flocculation and LIF process. The values of scattering coefficient ${\mu}_s$ are large by means of the increasing scattering of scatterer, The values have been found that the slope decays exponentially as a function of concentration from laser source to detector by our experimental result. It may also aid in designing the best model for oil chemistry, bio-pharmaceutical, laser medicine and application of medical engineering on LIF and coagulation in particle transport mode.

• BMB Reports
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.178-183
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• 2015

Dendritic cells play an important role in determining whether na${\ddot{i}}$ve T cells mature into either Th1 or Th2 cells. We determined whether heat-shock protein X (HspX) purified from Mycobacterium tuberculosis regulates the Th1/Th2 immune response in an ovalbumin (OVA)-induced murine model of asthma. HspX increased interferon-gamma, IL-17A, -12 and transforming growth factor (TGF)-${\beta}$ production and T-bet gene expression but reduced IL-13 production and GATA-3 gene expression. HspX also inhibited asthmatic reactions as demonstrated by an increase in the number of eosinophils in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, inflammatory cell infiltration in lung tissues, airway luminal narrowing, and airway hyper-responsiveness. Furthermore, HspX enhanced OVA-induced decrease of regulatory T cells in the mediastinal lymph nodes. This study provides evidence that HspX plays critical roles in the amelioration of asthmatic inflammation in mice. These findings provide new insights into the immunotherapeutic role of HspX with respect to its effects on a murine model of asthma.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.209-214
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• 2011

Goal of this study was to measure effective radiation dose of highly exposed patients who were treated by TACE, interventional radiology from June to September 2010. The effective radiation dose was approximately measured by weighted DAP (dose area product) with the ionization chamber which is inserted in angiography equiment (Philips Allura Xper FD 20). Radiation dose was measured by TLD which was attached to patients' thyroid and genital gland. The average of ED (effective dose) was 18.43${\pm}$6.63 mSv per person and the average of radiation dose of thyroid and genital gland was 0.37 mSv, 0.77 mSv, respectively. The mean radiation dose of operators who wear the protector was 0.07 mSv for thyroid, and 0.01 mSv for genital gland, respectively. All staffs involved in TACE treatment, have to keep them aware and use the appropriate protectors to reduce the radiation dose of patient.