• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.311-316
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• 2018

An antenna-coupled bolometer-type terahertz sensor was designed, fabricated, evaluated, and utilized to obtain terahertz transmission images. The sensor consists of a thin film bowtie antenna that resonates accordingly in response to an incident terahertz beam, a heater that converts the applied current in the antenna into heat, and a microbolometer that converts the rise in temperature into a change in resistance. The device is fabricated by a bulk micromachining process on a 4-inch silicon wafer. The fabricated sensor chip has a size of $2{\times}2mm$ and an active area of $0.1{\times}0.1mm^2$. The temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of the bolometer film (VOx) is 2.0%, which is acceptable for bolometer applications. The output sensor signal is proportional to the power of the incident terahertz beam. Transmission images were obtained with a 2-axis scanning imaging system that contained the sensor. The small active area of the sensor will enable the development of highly sensitive focal plane array sensors in terahertz imaging cameras in the future.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.585-593
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• 1998

In Fourier magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the number of phase encoded signals is often reduced to minimize the duration of the studies and maintain adequate signal-to-noise ratio. However, this results in the well-known truncation artifact, whose effect manifests itself as blurring and ringing in the image domain. In this paper, we propose a new regularization method in the context of a Bayesian framework to reduce truncation artifact. Since the truncation artifact appears in t도 phase direction only, the use of conventional piecewise-smoothness constraints with symmetric neighbors may result in the loss of small details and soft edge structures in the read direction. Here, we propose more elaborate forms of constraints than the conventional piecewise-smoothness constraints, which can capture actual spatial information about the MR images. Our experimental results indicate that the proposed method not only reduces the truncation artifact, but also improves tissue regularity and boundary definition without oversmoothing soft edge regions.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.63-68
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• 1998

Nitric oxide (NO)-mediated relaxation in vascular smooth muscle involves not only activation of guanylate cyclase but also hyperpolarization of the membrane. It has been shown that depolarization decreases the [$Ca^{2+}$] sensitivity of myosin light chain kinase in arterial smooth muscle, and nitric oxide (NO)-mediated relaxation was attenuated in this situation. However, why potassium inhibits or attenuates the action of EDRF/NO is not clear. Therefore, we investigated the magnitude of relaxation and cGMP contents using measures known to release NO, such as photorelaxation, photo activated NO-mediated relaxation, and NO-donor (SNP)-mediated relaxation in porcine coronary arterial rings in which contractile conditions were made by different degree of depolarization, i.e., contraction in response to U46619 or U46619 plus KCl. In all cases, the magnitude of relaxation was significantly greater (P＜0.05) in U46619-contracted rings than in U46619+KCl-contracted ones. Although accumulation of cGMP was evident with three measures employed in the present study, no difference was found in cGMP contents between U46619 and U46619+KCl conditions, indicating that the diminished relaxation in KCl containing solution is cGMP-independent mechanism(s). To understand this further, cytosolic $Ca^{2+}$ changes due to NO were compared in rat thoracic aorta by exploiting photoactivated NO using streptozotocin (STZ) that was contracted with either NE or KCl. Fura-3 $[Ca]_{cyt}$ signal caused by NO was small and transient in high $K^+$-, but large and sustained in NE-contracted aorta. The inhibitory potency of STZ expressed in terms of $IC_{50}$ was 5.14 and 3.88 ${\mu}M$ in NE and in high $K^+$, respectively. These results suggest that modification of the cellular mobilization of $Ca^{2+}$ rather than cGMP levels may be an important mechanism for the NO-mediated relaxation when vascular membrane is depolarized, such as atherosclerosis and hypertension.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.2155-2161
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• 2015

This study suggests an optical method to measure cardinal of gait (step width, step length, and stride length) with position sensitive detector (PSD). The effect of reflector’s shape (flat and cylinder) on the PSD output voltage was examined for the application of the suggested system to real situations with a curved shape reflector (e.g. shoes). Various mathematical models were evaluated to find the optimal equation for the distance measurement. Considering the effect of shape on detected signal, the inverse polynomial model was developed. The suggested method is simple to operate, low in cost, small in size, and can evaluate gait parameters in real time. This method is expected to be useful in the field of rehabilitation and sport science

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.2070-2078
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• 2014

In this work, the frequency response of gate-all-around (GAA) Ge/GaAs heterojunction tunneling field-effect transistor (TFET) with hetero-gate-dielectric (HGD) and pnpn channel doping profile has been analysed by technology computer-aided design (TCAD) device-circuit mixed-mode simulations, with comparison studies among ppn, pnpn, and HGD pnpn TFET devices. By recursive tracing of voltage transfer curves (VTCs) of a common-source (CS) amplifier based on the HGD pnpn TFET, the operation point (Q-point) was obtained at $V_{DS}=1V$, where the maximum available output swing was acquired without waveform distortion. The slope of VTC of the amplifier was 9.21 V/V (19.4 dB), which mainly resulted from the ponderable direct-current (DC) characteristics of HGD pnpn TFET. Along with the DC performances, frequency response with a small-signal voltage of 10 mV has been closely investigated in terms of voltage gain ($A_v$), unit-gain frequency ($f_{unity}$), and cut-off frequency ($f_T$). The Ge/GaAs HGD pnpn TFET demonstrated $A_v=19.4dB$, $f_{unity}=10THz$, $f_T=0.487$ THz and $f_{max}=18THz$.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.339-347
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• 2007

A hexapod walking robot had been developed for gathering information in the field. The developed robot was $260{\times}260{\times}130$ ($W{\times}L{\times}H$, mm) in size and 14.7 N in weight. The legs had nineteen degrees of freedom. A leg has three rotational joints actuated by small servomotors. Two servomotors placed at ankle and knee played the roles of vertical joint for up and down motions of the leg and the other one placed at coxa played the role of horizontal joint for forward and backward motions. In addition, a servomotor placed at thorax between the front legs and the middle legs played the role of vertical joint for pumping the two front legs to climb stair or inclination. Walking motion of the robot was executed by tripod gait. The robot was controlled by manual remote-controller communicated by an infrared ray. Two controllers were equipped to control the walking of the robot. The sub-controller using PIC microcomputer (Microchips, PIC16F84A) received the 16 bit command signal from the manual remote controller, decoded it to 8bit and transmitted it to the main microcomputer (RENESAS, SH2/7045), which controlled the 19 servomotors using the PWM command signals. Walking speeds were controlled by adjusting the period of command cycle and the stride. Forward walking speed were within 100 cm/min to 300 cm/min. However, experimental walking speed had the error of 4-40 cm/min to compare with the theoretical one, because of slippage of the leg and the circular arc motion of servomotor of coxa.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.9 no.12
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• pp.1669-1680
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• 2006

This paper explains that the RF systems for hi-directional wireless capsule endoscopes were designed and implemented. The designed RF systems for a capsule endoscope can transmit the images of intestines from the inside to the outside of a body and the behavior of the capsules can be controlled by an external controller simultaneously. The hi-directional wireless capsule endoscope consists of a CMOS image sensor, FPGA, LED, battery, DC to DC Converter, transmitter, receiver, and antennas. The transmitter and receiver which were used in the hi-directional capsule endoscope, were designed and fabricated with $10mm(diameter){\times}3.2mm(thickness)$ dimensions taking into the MPE, power consumption, system size, signal to noise ratio and modulation method. The RF systems designed and implemented for the hi-directional wireless capsule endoscopes system were verified by in-vivo experiments. As a result, the RF systems for the hi-directional wireless capsule endoscopes satisfied the design specifications.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.61-66
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• 2014

Lung cancer is still the number one cause of death from cancer worldwide. The clinical effect of platinum-based chemotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer is constrained by the resistance to drug. To overcome chemo-resistance, various modified treatment including combination therapy has been used, but overall survival has not been improved yet. In this study, chemo-resistant lung cancer cells, A549/Cis and H460/Cis, were developed by long-term exposure of cells to cisplatin and the proliferative capability of these resistant cells was verified to be reduced. We found cytotoxic effect of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a major catechin derived from green tea, on both the parental lung cancer cells, A549 and H460, and their cisplatin resistant cells, A549/Cis and H460/Cis. ELISA and Western blot analysis revealed that EGCG was able to increase interlukine-6 (IL-6) production per cell, whereas its downstream effector Signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 (STAT3) phosphorylation was not changed by EGCG, indicating that IL-6/STAT3 axis is not the critical signaling to be inhibited by EGCG. We next found that EGCG suppresses the expression of both Axl and Tyro 3 receptor tyrosine kinases at mRNA and protein level, explaining the cytotoxic effect of EGCG on lung cancer cells, especially, regardless of cisplatin resistance. Taken together, these data suggest that EGCG impedes proliferation of lung cancer cells including their chemo-resistant variants through downregulation of Axl and Tyro 3 expression.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1789-1796
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• 2012

In this paper, a new high-efficiency CMOS bridge rectifier for driving RFID tag chips is designed and analyzed. The input stage of the proposed rectifier is designed as a cascade structure connected with two NMOSs for reducing the gate capacitance by circuitry method, which is the main path of the leakage current that is increased when the operating frequency is increased. This gate capacitance reduction technique using the cascade input stage for reducing the gate leakage current is presented theoretically. The output characteristics of the proposed rectifier are derived analytically using its high frequency small-signal equivalent circuit. For the general load resistance of $50K{\Omega}$, the proposed rectifier shows better power conversion efficiencies of 28.9% for 915MHz UHF (for ISO 18000 -6) and 15.3% for 2.45GHz microwave (for ISO 18000-4) than those of 26.3% and 26.8% for 915MHz, and 13.2% and 12.6% for 2.45GHz of compared other two existing rectifiers. Therefore, the proposed rectifier may be used as a general purpose rectifier to drive tag chips for various RFID systems.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.162-168
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• 2008

In this paper, the RCF(Resistive Companion Form) analysis method is applied to analyze small signal stability of power systems including thyristor controlled FACTS(Flexible AC Transmission System) equipments such as TCSC(Thyristor Controlled Series Capacitor). The eigenvalue sensitivity analysis algorithm in discrete systems based on the RCF analysis method is presented and applied to the power system including TCSC. As a result of simulation, the RCF analysis method is very useful to precisely calculate the variations of eigenvalues or newly generated unstable oscillation modes after periodic switching operations of TCSC. Also the eigenvalue sensitivity analysis method based on the RCF analysis method enabled to precisely calculate eigenvalue sensitivity coefficients of controller parameters about the dominant oscillation mode after periodic switching operations in discrete systems. These simulation results are different from those of the conventional continuous system analysis method such as the state space equation and showed that the RCF analysis method is very useful to analyze the discrete power systems including periodically operated switching equipments such as TCSC.