• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.630-635
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Naeso-san in interstitial cells of Cajal (ICCs) in murine small intestine. First, we isolated ICCs from murine small intestine. After that, we cultured these cells for 1 days. The patch-clamp technique was applied on ICCs that formed network-like structures in culture (1 days). Spontaneous rhythms were routinely recorded from cultured ICCs under current-clamp conditions, and the ICCs within networks displayed more robust electrical rhythms (pacemaker potentials). To understand the relationship between Naeso-san and pacemaker activity in ICCs, we examined the effects of Naeso-san on pacemaker potentials of ICCs. In current clamp mode (I = 0), the addition of Naeso-san (10 mg/ml - 50 mg/ml) decreased the amplitude and frequency of the pacemaker potentials of ICCs in a dose dependent manner. However, these effects were blocked by intracellular $GDP{\beta}S$, a G-protein inhibitor, and glibenclamide, a specific ATP-sensitive K+ channels blocker. Pretreatment with SQ-22536, an adenylate cyclase inhibitor, did not block the Naeso-san induced effects, whereas pretreatment with ODQ, a guanylate cyclase inhibitor, or L-NAME, an inhibitor of nitric oxide (NO) synthase blocked the Naeso-san induced effects. Our findings provide insight into unraveling the modulation of Naeso-san in pacemaker potentials of ICCs and developing therapeutic agents against gastrointestinal motility disorders.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.461-472
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• 2010

Objectives: This study evaluated microtensile bond strength (${\mu}TBS$) and short-rod fracture toughness to explain fractural behavior of repaired composite restorations according to different surface treatments. Materials and Methods: Thirty composite blocks for ${\mu}TBS$ test and sixty short-rod specimens for fracture toughness test were fabricated and were allocated to 3 groups according to the combination of surface treatment (none-treated, sand blasting, bur roughening). Each group was repaired immediately and 2 weeks later. Twenty-four hours later from repair, ${\mu}TBS$ and fracture toughness test were conducted. Mean values analyzed with two-way ANOVA / Tukey's B test ($\alpha$= 0.05) and correlation analysis was done between ${\mu}TBS$ and fracture toughness. FE-SEM was employed on fractured surface to examine the crack propagation. Results: The fresh composite resin showed higher ${\mu}TBS$ than the aged composite resin (p < 0.001). Mechanically treated groups showed higher bond strength than non-mechanically treated groups except none-treated fresh group in ${\mu}TBS$ (p < 0.05). The fracture toughness value of mechanically treated surface was higher than that of non-mechanically treated surface (p < 0.05). There was no correlation between fracture toughness and microtensile bond strength values. Specimens having high KIC showed toughening mechanism including crack deviation, microcracks and crack bridging in FE-SEM. Conclusions: Surface treatment by mechanical interlock is more important for effective composite repair, and the fracture toughness test could be used as an appropriate tool to examine the fractural behavior of the repaired composite with microtensile bond strength.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.151-163
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• 2022

This study was conducted to promote organic fertilizer(s) that sustain soil productivity for corn production and protect the environment as required by the Act on the promotion of eco-friendly agriculture. It was conducted at the research station of the Organic Agriculture Division of the National Institute of Agricultural. The treatments consisted of Compost (Com), Bokashi as fermented organic fertilizer (FOF), and mixed expeller pressed cake (PC). They were applied at 174 kg N /ha to field corn, together with a 'no fertilizer' check in Randomized Complete Block Design. At eight weeks after transplanting (WAT) corn, compost increased soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) to 7.48 and 0.76 g/kg respectively, while other fertilizers maintained the initial levels (before treatment application). At corn harvest (13 WAT), soil chemical properties (total C, total N, pH, electrical conductivity, P₂O₅, Ca, K, and Mg) were similar among all organic fertilizer treatments. For soil respiration, FOF increased soil CO₂ respiration by 31-76% above other fertilizer treatments. However, there were no prominent changes in the trends of CH₄ fluxes following the two mechanical weeding operations. Fermented organic fertilizer affected N₂O emissions between 87-96% lower than other fertilizer treatments. Compared to the initial microbial densities, FOF increased fungi and actinomycete colony foming unit by 25 and 16% at harvest. Therefore, the additional potential of improving soil biological fertility and local availability of raw materials make FOF a better option to sustain soil productivity while protecting the environment.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.429-440
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• 2023

Wild Lentinula edodes (shiitake) strains are an important breeding material for developing new varieties suitable for various consumer preferences and environmental conditions. The morphological characteristics of 100 wild shiitake strains collected from 14 regions were investigated in a sawdust block cultivation. The characteristics of their fruiting bodies were diverse. Among them, 38% of the caps was convex, 33% was broadly umbonate, 27% was applanate, and 2% was shallowly depressed. In terms of their stipes, 55, 23, and 22% were the column, clavate, and funnel type, respectively. The shape of the cap was the most diverse on Mt. Hwaak, whereas the shape of the stipe showed various phenotypes from various regions. Even among strains collected from the same forest, different types of mushrooms were observed. In conclusion, wild shiitake strains that have adapted to various environmental stress can be used to develop new varieties. Thus, securing various genetic resources and studying their traits are important for researching breeding technology.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.885-891
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• 2018

Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) toxin A is known to cause acute gut inflammation in humans and animals by triggering cytoskeletal disorganization in gut epithelial cells. In human colonocytes, toxin A blocks microtubule assembly by directly increasing the enzymatic activity of histone deacetylase-6 (HDAC-6), a tubulin-specific deacetylase, thereby markedly decreasing tubulin acetylation, which is essential for microtubule assembly. Microtubule assembly dysfunction-associated alterations (i.e., toxin A-exposed gut epithelial cells) are believed to trigger barrier dysfunction and gut inflammation downstream. We recently showed that potassium acetate blocked toxin A-induced microtubule disassembly by inhibiting HDAC-6. Herein, we tested whether acetic acid (AA), another small acetyl residue-containing agent, could block toxin A-induced tubulin deacetylation and subsequent microtubule assembly. Our results revealed that AA treatment increased tubulin acetylation and enhanced microtubule assembly in an HT29 human colonocyte cell line. AA also clearly increased tubulin acetylation in murine colonic explants. Interestingly, the AA treatment also alleviated toxin A-induced tubulin deacetylation and microtubule disassembly, and MTT assays revealed that AA reduced toxin A-induced cell toxicity. Collectively, these results suggest that AA can block the ability of toxin A to cause microtubule disassembly-triggered cytoskeletal disorganization by blocking toxin A-mediated deacetylation of tubulin.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2010

PAPR of the pilot symbols can be reduced down by the CAZAC sequence in the SC-FDMA communication system. However, it is very complicated and takes quite a long time to compute the interpolation between the OFDM information symbols for the channel estimation because the pilot data are trasmitted in the block type. Furthermore, situation will be much more serious in the severe fading channel. Actually the pilot insertion of the comb type is much efficient and convenient for the channel estimation since the calculation of the interpolation can be made in the frequency domain symbol by symbol. But, the PAPR will be regrown when the pilot data are inserted with the information data in the comb type. So, in this paper, we like to study the PAPR reduction and comb type pilot assignment for the efficient channel estimation. Unlike the conventional SLM(selected mapping) method requiring the side information, our improved SLM method is to use the phase rotation sequence into information data without rotating phase of pilot. We use different pilot data according to the different phase rotation sequence. From the simulation result, it can be confirmed that when SLM method of 4 phase rotation sequence is used, PAPR is almost same to the block type method without pilot.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.571-578
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• 2016

Recently, review on viability of various industrial by product and natural materials as raw material for concrete has been actively done in aspect of environment-friendly issue and depletion of natural resource. This study conducted fundamental study on the possibility of utilizing mud flat as admixture and filling material for concrete. First, chemical analysis on the viability of mud flat as admixture was done and the researchers compared it with the substance of fly ash and blast furnace slag. According to the result, substance content was proven to be inadequate. In addition, as the replacement rate of mud flat increased, compressive strength and tensile strength decreased. According to the estimated result of chemical substance analysis, possibility of utilizing mud flat as admixture was low. According to the result of experiment done as filling material, 10% ~ 30% replacement rate of mud flat manifested more than 8 Mpa of compressive strength of block which may be utilized for secondary product. However, additional experiment such as making block is required afterward. According to the result of flow experiment, as the replacement rate of mud flat increased, flow value decreased, and through chloride content analysis test, it was proven that mud flat is inappropriate to be applied as steel beam using structure since it has high content of sodium. It may be utilized as products that does not use steel beam such as internal brick.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea TC
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• v.43 no.3 s.345
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• pp.1-9
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• 2006

In this paper, we propose a MIMO-OFDMA (Multi Input Multi Output-Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) system based on beamforming for performance improvement of downlink real-time traffic transmission in harsh channel conditions with low CIR (Carrier-to-Interference Ratio). In the proposed system, we first consider the M-GTA-SBA (Modified-Grouped Transmit Antenna-Simple Bit Allocation) using effective CSI (Channel State Information) calculation procedure based on spatial resource grouping, which is adequate for the combination of MRT (Maximum Ratio Transmission) in the transmitter and MRC (Maximum Ratio Combining) in the receiver. In addition, to reduce feedback information for the beamforming, we also apply QEGT (Quantized Equal Gain Transmission) based on quantization of amplitudes and phases of beam weights. Furthermore, considering multi-user environments, we propose the P-SRA (Proposed-Simple Resource Allocation) algorithm for fair and efficient resource allocation. Simulation results reveal that the proposed MIMO-OFDMA system achieves significant improvement of spectral efficiency in low CRI region as compared to a typical open-loop MIMO-OFDMA system using pseudo-orthogonal space time block code and H-ARQ IR (Hybrid-Automatic Repeat Request Incremental Redundancy).

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.8
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• pp.2342-2348
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• 2014

Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) were grafted to both ends of Pluronic$^{(R)}$ F68 ($(EO)_{75}(PO)_{30}(EO)_{75}$) triblock copolymer to produce poly{(lactic acid)$_m$-co-(glycolic acid)$_n$}-b-poly(ethylene oxide)$_{75}$-b-poly(propylene oxide)$_{30}$-b-poly(ethylene oxide)$_{75}$-b-poly{(lactic acid)$_m$-co-(glycolic acid)$_n$} (PLGA-F68-PLGA) pentablock copolymers. Molecular weights of PLGA blocks were controlled and five kinds of pentablock copolymers with different PLGA block lengths were synthesized using in-situ ring-opening polymerization of D,L-lactide and glycolide with tin(II) 2-ethylhexanoate ($Sn(Oct)_2$) catalyst. PLGA-F68-PLGA pentablock copolymers were characterized by $^1H$- and $^{13}C$-NMR, GPC, and TGA. The numbers (2m, 2n) of repeating units for lactic acid and glycolic acid inside PLGA segments were obtained as (48, 17), (90, 23), (125, 40), (180, 59), and (246, 64), with $^1H$-NMR measurement. From NMR data, the resultant molecular weights were determined in the range of 12,700-29,700, which were similar to those obtained from GPC. Polydispersity index was increased in the range of 1.32-1.91 as the content of PLGA blocks increased. TG and DTG thermograms showed discrete degradation traces for PLGA and F68 blocks, which indicate the weight fractions of PLGA blocks in pentablock copolymers can be calculated by TG profile and it is possible to remove PLGA block selectively. Hydrodynamic radius and radius of gyration of pentablock copolymer micelle were obtained in the range of 46-68 nm and 31-49 nm, respectively, in very dilute (i.e. 0.005 wt %) aqueous solution of THF:$H_2O$ = 10:90 by volume at $25^{\circ}C$.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.34 no.8C
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• pp.742-749
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• 2009

In this paper, we propose mitigation techniques using time-domain shortening filter (TSF) and frequency-domain shortening filter (FSF) to overcome inter-block interference (IBn and inter-carrier interference (ICn due to the time difference of arrival (TDoA) and carrier frequency offset (CFO) between downlink and uplink signals from access point (AP) and subscriber station (SS) in synchronous digital duplexing (SDD)/orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems for indoor wireless communication. The proposed TSF and FSF maximize SIR for shortening in time (SIRST) and SINR for shortening in frequency (SINRSF), respectively, by using channel impulse responses and timing information among stations, obtained from mutual ranging procedure. It is verified by computer simulation that the proposed TSF and FSF reduce effectively the effects of IBI and ICI in the SDD/OFDMA systems.