• Applied Microscopy
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.131-134
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• 2015

Here we show how by processing energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS) data obtained using highly sensitive, new generation EDS detectors in the AZtec LayerProbe software we can obtain data of sufficiently high quality to non-destructively measure the number of layers in two-dimensional (2D) $MoS_2$ and $MoS_2/WSe_2$ and thereby enable the characterization of working devices based on 2D materials. We compare the thickness measurements with EDS to results from atomic force microscopy measurements. We also show how we can use electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) to address fabrication challenges of 2D materials. Results from EBSD analysis of individual flakes of exfoliated $MoS_2$ obtained using the Nordlys Nano detector are shown to aid a better understanding of the exfoliation process which is still widely used to produce 2D materials for research purposes.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.49-56
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• 2015

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Glutathione S-transferase (GST) forms a multigene family of phase II detoxification enzymes which are involved in the detoxification of reactive oxygen species. This study examines whether daily supplementation of kale juice can modulate blood pressure (BP), levels of lipid profiles, and blood glucose, and whether this modulation could be affected by the GSTM1 and GSTT1 polymorphisms. SUBJECTS/METHODS: 84 subclinical hypertensive patients showing systolic BP over 130 mmHg or diastolic BP over 85 mmHg received 300 ml/day of kale juice for 6 weeks, and blood samples were collected on 0-week and 6-week in order to evaluate plasma lipid profiles (total cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL-cholesterol, and LDL-cholesterol) and blood glucose. RESULTS: Systolic and diastolic blood pressure was significantly decreased in all patients regardless of their GSTM1 or GSTT1 polymorphisms after kale juice supplementation. Blood glucose level was decreased only in the GSTM1-present genotype, and plasma lipid profiles showed no difference in both the GSTM1-null and GSTM1-present genotypes. In the case of GSTT1, on the other hand, plasma HDL-C was increased and LDL-C was decreased only in the GSTT1-present type, while blood glucose was decreased only in the GSTT1-null genotype. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that the supplementation of kale juice affected blood pressure, lipid profiles, and blood glucose in subclinical hypertensive patients depending on their GST genetic polymorphisms, and the improvement of lipid profiles was mainly greater in the GSTT1-present genotype and the decrease of blood glucose was greater in the GSTM1-present or GSTT1-null genotypes.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.5 no.6
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• pp.520-526
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• 2011

Folate deficiency and hyperhomocysteinemia are found in most patients with alcoholic liver disease. Oxidative stress is one of the most important mechanisms contributing to homocysteine (Hcy)-induced tissue injury. However it has not been examined whether exogenous administration of folic acid attenuates oxidative stress and hepatic toxicity. The aim of this study was to investigate the in vivo effect of folic acid supplementation on oxidative stress and hepatic toxicity induced by chronic ethanol consumption. Wistar rats (n = 32) were divided into four groups and fed 0%, 12%, 36% ethanol, or 36% ethanol plus folic acid (10 mg folic acid/L) diets. After 5 weeks, chronic consumption of the 36% ethanol diet significantly increased plasma alanine transaminase (ALT) (P < 0.05) and aspartate transaminase (AST) (P < 0.05), triglycerides (TG) (P < 0.05), Hcy (P < 0.001), and low density lipoprotein conjugated dienes (CD) (P < 0.05) but decreased total radical-trapping antioxidant potential (TRAP) (P < 0.001). These changes were prevented partially by folic acid supplementation. The 12% ethanol diet had no apparent effect on most parameters. Plasma Hcy concentration was well correlated with plasma ALT (r = $0.612^{**}$), AST (r = $0.652^*$), CD (r = $0.495^*$), and TRAP (r = $-0.486^*$). The results indicate that moderately elevated Hcy is associated with increased oxidative stress and liver injury in alcohol-fed rats, and suggests that folic acid supplementation appears to attenuate hepatic toxicity induced by chronic ethanol consumption possibly by decreasing oxidative stress.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.335-340
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• 2013

In this study, the plasma etching of the TaN thin film with $CH_4/BCl_3/Ar$ gas chemistries was investigated. The etch rate of the TaN thin film and the etch selectivity of TaN to $SiO_2$ was studied as a function of the process parameters, including the amount of $CH_4$. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) was used to investigate the chemical states of the surface of the TaN thin film.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.157-157
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• 2017

Titanium and its alloys that have a good biocompatibility, corrosion resistance, and mechanical properties such as hardness and wear resistance are widely used in dental and orthopedic implant applications. They can directly connect to bone. However, they do not form a chemical bond with bone tissue. Plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) that combines the high voltage spark and electrochemical oxidation is a novel method to form ceramic coatings on light metals such as titanium and its alloys. This is an excellent reproducibility and economical, because the size and shape control of the nano-structure is relatively easy. Silicon (Si), manganese (Mn), and magnesium (Mg) has a useful to bone. Particularly, Si has been found to be essential for normal bone, cartilage growth and development. Manganese influences regulation of bone remodeling because its low content in body is connected with the rise of the concentration of calcium, phosphates and phosphatase out of cells. Insufficience of Mn in human body is probably contributing cause of osteoporosis. Pre-studies have shown that Mg plays very important roles in essential for normal growth and metabolism of skeletal tissue in vertebrates and can be detected as minor constituents in teeth and bone. The objective of this work was to study nucleation and growth of bone-like apatite formation on Ti-6Al-4V in solution containing Mn, Mg, and Si ions after plasma electrolytic oxidation. Anodized alloys was prepared at 270V~300V voltages. And bone-like apatite formation was carried out in SBF solution for 1, 3, 5, and 7 days. The morphologies of PEO-treated Ti-6Al-4V alloy in containing Mn, Mg, and Si ions were examined by FE-SEM, EDS, and XRD.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.80-80
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• 2017

Titanium and its alloys that have a good biocompatibility, corrosion resistance, and mechanical properties such as hardness and wear resistance are widely used in dental and orthopedic implant applications. However, they do not form a chemical bond with bone tissue. Plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) that combines the high voltage spark and electro-chemical oxidation is a novel method to form ceramic coatings on light metals such as tita-nium and its alloys. This is an excellent re-producibility and economical, because the size and shape control of the nano-structure is relatively easy. Silicon (Si), manganese (Mn), and magne-sium (Mg) have a useful to bone. Particularly, Si has been found to be essential for normal bone, cartilage growth, and development. Mn influences regulation of bone remodeling be-cause its low content in body is connected with the rise of the concentration of calcium, phosphates and phosphatase out of cells. Pre-studies have shown that Mg plays very im-portant roles in essential for normal growth and metabolism of skeletal tissue in verte-brates and can be detected as minor constitu-ents in teeth and bone. In this study, Electrochemical behavior of plasma electrolytic oxidized films formed in solution containing Mn, Mg and Si ions were researched using various experimental in-struments. A series of Si-Mn-Mg coatings are produced on Ti dental implant using PEO, with the substitution degree, respectively, at 5 and 10%. The potentiodynamic polarization and AC impedance tests for corrosion behav-iors were carried out in 0.9% NaCl solution at similar body temperature using a potentiostat with a scan rate of 1.67mV/s and potential range from -1500mV to + 2000mV. Also, AC impedance was performed at frequencies anging from 10MHz to 100kHz for corrosion resistance.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.126-136
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• 2013

This study was conducted in order to investigate the association between hypertension and oxidative stress-related parameters and to evaluate these parameters in subclinical hypertensive patients and normotensive subjects living in Korea. We attempted to determine whether oxidative stress-related parameters would differ between two groups of 227 newly-diagnosed, untreated (systolic blood pressure (BP) ${\geq}$ 130 mmHg and diastolic BP ${\geq}$ 85 mmHg) and 130 normotensive subjects (systolic BP < 120 mmHg and diastolic BP < 80 mmHg). General characteristics of the subjects were collected using a simple questionnaire. From subjects' blood, degree of DNA damage in lymphocytes, the activities of erythrocyte superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase, level of plasma total radical-trapping antioxidant potential (TRAP), glutathione, and anti-oxidative vitamins, as well as plasma lipid profiles and conjugated diene (CD) were analyzed. Evaluation of the associations of oxidative stress-related parameters with blood pressure of the subjects was performed using Pearson partial correlation and multivariate logistic regression analysis after adjusting for confounding factors. Several oxidative stress-related parameters were higher in subclinical hypertensive patients than in normotensive subjects. Plasma levels of ${\alpha}$-tocopherol, ${\beta}$-carotene, TRAP, and activity of GSH-px were significantly lower in subclinical hypertensive patients than in normotensive subjects. Increased levels of DNA damage, lipid peroxidation, triglyceride, total cholesterol, and LDL-cholesterol were observed in subclinical hypertensive patients. These results confirm an association between blood pressure and oxidative stress-related parameters and suggest that the pathogenic role of oxidative stress in hypertension might be significant.

• Current Applied Physics
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.1540-1545
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• 2018

SiGe alloy is widely used thermoelectric materials for high temperature thermoelectric generator applications. However, its high thermoelectric performance has been thus far realized only in alloys synthesized employing mechanical alloying techniques, which are time-consuming and employ several materials processing steps. In the current study, for the first time, we report an enhanced thermoelectric figure-of-merit (ZT) ~ 1.1 at $900^{\circ}C$ in ntype $Si_{80}Ge_{20}$ nano-alloys, synthesized using a facile and up-scalable methodology consisting of rapid solidification at high optimized cooling rate ${\sim}3.4{\times}10^7K/s$, employing melt spinning followed by spark plasma sintering of the resulting nano-crystalline melt-spun ribbons. This enhancement in ZT > 20% over its bulk counterpart, owes its origin to the nano-crystalline microstructure formed at high cooling rates, which results in crystallite size ~7 nm leading to high density of grain boundaries, which scatter heat-carrying phonons. This abundant scattering resulted in a very low thermal conductivity ${\sim}2.1Wm^{-1}K^{-1}$, which corresponds to ~50% reduction over its bulk counterpart and is amongst the lowest reported thus far in n-type SiGe alloys. The synthesized samples were characterized using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy, based on which the enhancement in their thermoelectric performance has been discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Magnestics Society Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.24.2-24.2
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• 2007

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.499-500
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• 2010