• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.1-15
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• 2002

A noel automated brain region extraction method in single channel MR images for visualization and analysis of a human brain is presented. The method generates a volume of brain masks by automatic thresholding using a dual curve fitting technique and by 3D morphological operations. The dual curve fitting can reduce an error in clue fitting to the histogram of MR images. The 3D morphological operations, including erosion, labeling of connected-components, max-feature operation, and dilation, are applied to the cubic volume of masks reconstructed from the thresholded Drain masks. This method can automatically extract a brain region in any displayed type of sequences, including extreme slices, of SPGR, T1-, T2-, and PD-weighted MR image data sets which are not required to contain the entire brain. In the experiments, the algorithm was applied to 20 sets of MR images and showed over 0.97 of similarity index in comparison with manual drawing.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.577-584
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• 2018

Bladder dysfunction is a common complication of diabetes mellitus (DM). However, there have been a few studies evaluating bladder smooth muscle contraction in DM in the presence of pharmacological inhibitors. In the present study, we compared the contractility of bladder smooth muscle from normal rats and DM rats. Furthermore, we utilized pharmacological inhibitors to delineate the mechanisms underlying bladder muscle differences between normal and DM rats. DM was established in 14 days after using a single injection of streptozotocin (65 mg/kg, intraperitoneal) in Sprague-Dawley rats. Bladder smooth muscle contraction was induced electrically using electrical field stimulation consisting of pulse trains at an amplitude of 40 V and pulse duration of 1 ms at frequencies of 2-10 Hz. In this study, the pharmacological inhibitors atropine (muscarinic receptor antagonist), U73122 (phospholipase C inhibitor), DPCPX (adenosine $A_1$ receptor antagonist), udenafil (PDE5 inhibitor), prazosin (${\alpha}_1$-receptor antagonist), verapamil (calcium channel blocker), and chelerythrine (protein kinase C inhibitor) were used to pretreat bladder smooth muscles. It was found that the contractility of bladder smooth muscles from DM rats was lower than that of normal rats. In addition, there were significant differences in percent change of contractility between normal and DM rats following pretreatment with prazosin, udenafil, verapamil, and U73122. In conclusion, we suggest that the decreased bladder muscle contractility in DM rats was a result of perturbations in $PLC/IP_3$-mediated intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ release and PDE5 activity.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.510-517
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• 2003

Studies have shown that both the psychomotor stimulant effects and rewarding properties of addictive drugs, including morphine, are sensitized by repeated drug administration and it is suggested that both of these effects are mediated by the same or closely overlapping dopamine systems. Specifically, the mesolimbic dopamine system has been implicated in the reinforcing and sensitizing properties of morphine. In oriental medicine, Shenmen (HT7) point on the heart channel has been used to treat mental and psychosomatic disorders. This study was designed to investigate the effect of acupuncture on acute and repeated morphine-induced changes in extracellular dopamine levels using in vivo microdialysis and morphine-induced behavioral changes. In the morphine sensitization experiment, male Sprague-Dawley rats were treated twice a day for three days with increasing doses of morphine (10, 20 and 40 mg/kg, s.c.) or with saline. After 15 days of withdrawal, rats were challenged with morphine hydrochloride (5 mg/kg, s.c.). Acupuncture was applied at bilateral Shenmen (HT7) points for 1 min after the morphine challenge. In the acute experiment, rats also received acupuncture for 1 min after an injection of morphine hydrochloride (5 mg/kg, s.c.). Results showed that acupuncture at the specific acupoint HT7, but not at control points (tail) significantly decreased both dopamine release and behavior induced by a systemic morphine challenge or a single sc morphine injection in the acute animals. These results suggest that reduction in sensitization may be one mechanism whereby acupuncture alleviates morphine craving in addicts.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.328-336
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• 2020

Diabetes mellitus affects the colonic motility developing gastrointestinal symptoms, such as constipation. The aim of the study was to examine the role of intracellular signaling pathways contributing to colonic dysmotility in diabetes mellitus. To generate diabetes mellitus, the rats were injected by a single high dose of streptozotocin (65 mg/kg) intraperitoneally. The proximal colons from both normal and diabetic rats were contracted by applying an electrical field stimulation with pulse voltage of 40 V in amplitude and pulse duration of 1 ms at frequencies of 1, 2, 4, and 6 Hz. The muscle strips from both normal rats and rats with diabetes mellitus were pretreated with different antagonists and inhibitors. Rats with diabetes mellitus had lower motility than the control group. There were significant differences in the percentage of inhibition of contraction between normal rats and rats with diabetes mellitus after the incubation of tetrodotoxin (neuronal blocker), atropine (muscarinic receptor antagonist), prazosin (α₁ adrenergic receptor antagonist), DPCPX (adenosine A1 receptor antagonist), verapamil (L-type Ca²⁺ channel blocker), U73122 (PLC inhibitor), ML-9 (MLCK inhibitor), udenafil (PDE₅ inhibitor), and methylene blue (guanylate cyclase inhibitor). The protein expression of p-MLC and PDE₅ were decreased in the diabetic group compared to the normal group. These results showed that the reduced colonic contractility resulted from the impaired neuronal conduction and decreased muscarinic receptor sensitivity, which resulted in decreased phosphorylation of MLC via MLCK, and cGMP activity through PDE₅.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.31 no.10A
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• pp.935-942
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• 2006

The performance of ROF systems can be severely degraded due to nonlinear effects in the channel. Also, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex(OFDM), as a standard for broadband wireless and mobile internet networks, is being proposed for deployment with ROF systems to facilitate the total performance of a system. In this paper, at first, the performance of the OFDM-based RoF system with a Mach-Zehnder(MZ) modulator distortion effects has been analyzed at 5.8GHz. Evaluation of mean-squared error of the proposed OFDM-RoF system was carried out to compare with the conventional single carrier system based RoF link after the modulator distortion case and also for fixed signal to noise ratio(SNR) of 20dB using undistorted OFDM signal. Nominal and offset baising pre-distortion techniques are applied in proposed system to linearize the OFDM-RoF link. Finally, a comparison between the aforementioned pre-distortion techniques applied showed important observation in terms of distortion-free dynamic range and SNR to choose offset pre-distortion technique for our proposed system.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.40 no.10
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• pp.773-786
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• 2017

The loss of green coloration via chlorophyll (Chl) degradation typically occurs during leaf senescence. To date, many Chl catabolic enzymes have been identified and shown to interact with light harvesting complex II to form a Chl degradation complex in senescing chloroplasts; this complex might metabolically channel phototoxic Chl catabolic intermediates to prevent oxidative damage to cells. The Chl catabolic enzyme 7-hydroxymethyl Chl a reductase (HCAR) converts 7-hydroxymethyl Chl a (7-HMC a) to Chl a. The rice (Oryza sativa) genome contains a single HCAR homolog (OsHCAR), but its exact role remains unknown. Here, we show that an oshcar knockout mutant exhibits persistent green leaves during both dark-induced and natural senescence, and accumulates 7-HMC a and pheophorbide a (Pheo a) in green leaf blades. Interestingly, both rice and Arabidopsis hcar mutants exhibit severe cell death at the vegetative stage; this cell death largely occurs in a light intensity-dependent manner. In addition, 7-HMC a treatment led to the generation of singlet oxygen ($^1O_2$) in Arabidopsis and rice protoplasts in the light. Under herbicide-induced oxidative stress conditions, leaf necrosis was more severe in hcar plants than in wild type, and HCAR-overexpressing plants were more tolerant to reactive oxygen species than wild type. Therefore, in addition to functioning in the conversion of 7-HMC a to Chl a in senescent leaves, HCAR may play a critical role in protecting plants from high light-induced damage by preventing the accumulation of 7-HMC a and Pheo a in developing and mature leaves at the vegetative stage.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.37-47
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• 1994

The effects of the novel compound GS-386 on the calcium current were investigated in rabbit atrial myocytes. The calcium current was recorded during various depolarizations of 200 ms duration from a holding potential of -40 mV using the whole cell patch clamp technique. The calcium current was activated from -30 mV, reached maximum amplitude at +10 mV and almost disappeared at +50 mV. Superfusion of GS-386 led to a reduction of the calcium current amplitude dose-dependently and $ED_{50}$ was $2.5{\times}10^{-7}M$. But the dependence of the calcium current on the membrane potential was not altered by GS-386. The inactivation of the calcium currents showed single exponential curves in both before and after application of GS-386. The inactivation time constants before and after application of GS-386 were almost the same(35 ms and 32.5 ms). The steady-state inactivation curve of the calcium current was not shifted by GS-386. The calcium currents both before and after application of GS-386 recovered completely in 1 sec and the recovery time constants were about 200 ms in both cases. From the above results it is concluded that the novel compound GS-386 has calcium antagonistic property decreasing the calcium current.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.15 no.12 s.105
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• pp.1370-1377
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• 2005

The bottom structure of an instrumented capsule is a part which is joined at the receptacle of the flow tube in the reactor in-core. A geometrical change of the bottom structure has an effect on the pressure drop and the vibration of the capsule. The out-pile test to evaluate the structural integrity of the material capsule called 04M-17U was performed by using a single channel and a half core test loop. From the pressure drop test, the optimized diameter of the cone shape's bottom structure which satisfies HANARO's flow requirement (19.6 kg/s) is 71 mm. The maximum displacement of the capsule measured at the half core test loop is lower than 1.0 mm. From the analysis results, it is found that the test hole will not be interfered with near the flow tubes because its displacement due to the cooling water is very small at 0.072 mm. The fundamental frequency of the capsule under water is 9.64 Hz. It is expected that the resonance between the capsule and the fluid flow due to the cooling water in HANARO's in-core will not occur. Also, the new bottom structure of a solid cone shape with 71 mm in diameter will be applicable to the material and special capsules in the future.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.43-50
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• 1996

This paper presents a manufacture of the multiple subjects biotelemetry system using custom CMOS IC fabricated $1.5{\mu}m$ n-well process technology. The implantable circuits of the system except sensor interface circuits including FM transmitter are fabricated on a single chip with the sire of $4{\times}4mm^{2}$. It is possible to assemble the implantable system in a hybrid package as small as $3{\times}3{\times}2.5cm$ by using this chip, It's main function is to enable continuous measurement simultaneously up to 7-channel physiological signals from the selected one among 8 subjects. Another features of this system are to enable continuous measurement of physiological signals, and to accomplish ON/OFF switching of an implanted battery by subject selection signal with command signal from the external circuit. If this system is coupled with another appropriate sensors in medical field, various physiological parameters such as pressure, pH and temperature are to be measured effectively in the near future.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.85-91
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• 2003

Quick Response based Mass-Customization can be produced and distributed customized goods and services on mass basis in apparel e-business. Because consumers cannot touch and feel the apparel products in e-business, they tend to have the negative buying behavior. The purposes of this study were to analyze factors of texture image, and to investigate the differences of consumer sensibility on texture image of apparel products based on different marketing channels (on-line/off-line). Two types of questionnaires for on-line and off-line were used to assess consumer sensibility on apparel fabric. The 8 swatches were selected based on the previous literatures. 202 returned questionnaires for each type (on-line/off-line) were analyzed by t-test, mean and standard deviation with SPSS 10.0. The result of this study was showed that there were partially significant differences on consumer sensibility on texture image of apparel products between on-line and off-line. In case of corduroy, consumers perceived more high-class image under on-line than off-line. In case of taffeta, consumers perceived more thin and dense image under off-line (traditional marketing channel) than on-line (e-commerce). In case of denim, consumers perceived more thin and natural image under off-line than online. In case of organza, consumers perceived more natural image under on-line than off-line. In case of satin, consumers perceived more natural image under on-line than off-line. In case of chiffon, consumers perceived denser image under on-line than off-line. In case of velvet, consumers perceived thinner image, higher-class image, and more natural image of texture sensibility under on-line than off-line. In case of single jersey, consumers perceived higher-class image, and denser image of texture under on-line than off-line.