• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.496-502
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• 2010

The acidic saline animal model of pain has been suggested to mimic fibromyalgia (FM). Oligomeric proanthocyanidin complexes (OPC) from grape seeds are known to act as an antioxidant. We studied the effects of OPC on the pain threshold in the acidic saline animal model of pain. The left gastrocnemius muscle was injected with $100\;{\mu}l$ of saline at pH 4.0 under brief isoflurane anesthesia on days 0 and 5. Control rats (n=5) received identical injections of physiological saline (pH 7.2) on the same schedule. Rats (n=10) with acidic saline injection were separated into two study subgroups. After measurement of pre-drug pain thresholds, rats were injected intraperitoneally with either saline or OPC 300 mg/kg. Paw withdrawal thresholds to pressure were again measured 60 min after intraperitoneal injection. Nociceptive thresholds were measured with a Dynamic Plantar Aesthesiometer by applying an increasing pressure to right or left hind paw until the rat withdrew the paw. Compared to baseline (day 0), acid injections produced mechanical hyper-responsiveness on day 7 (pre-drug) in these rats [p<0.05]. A potent antihyperalgesic effect was observed when rats were injected intraperitoneally with OPC 300 mg/kg [injected paw, p=0.001; contralateral paw, p=0.002]. OPC treatment decreased the expression of acid sensing ion channel 3 in the brain motor cortex area on immunohistochemical staining when OPC 300 mg/kg was administered intraperitoneally in the animal model of FM pain [p<0.05]. Further research is required to determine the efficacy of OPC treatments in FM pain in humans.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.36 no.4 s.105
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• pp.447-454
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• 2003

Aluminum coagulant was applied to two eutrophic lakes (Lake Sukchon, in Seoul, and a pond on the campus of Kangwon National University), to precipitate suspended particles and phosphate from the water column. Aluminum sulfate (alum) was used for seven treatments and polyaluminum chloride (PAC) was used for one treatment. The effect of treatment varied depending on the dose of alumium coagulant. Particles and phosphate were completely precipitated from the water column with a dose of 10.0 mgAl/l. Partial removal was observed at doses of 3.3 and 1.8 mgAl/l, but not at 0.45 mgAl/l. Therefore, coagulant should be applied at a dose over the threshold in order to remove particles effectively, which seems to be between 1.8 and 10.0 mgAl/l. The length of treatment effect was determined by new inputs of nutrients and particles from external sources. Renewal of pond water by stream water caused recovery of algal growth in Lake Sukchon, and rainfall runoff and ground water pumping caused a return of turbid water in the campus pond. During treatment there was no sign of decreasing pH, or harmful effects on fish or mussels. Aluminum coagulant may be an economically feasible alternative for water quality improvement when the external control of pollutant sources is difficult. However, repeated application is required when there is a renewal of lake water or new input of nutrients.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea TC
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• v.42 no.8 s.338
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• pp.33-40
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• 2005

This paper presents a structure of the searcher using a diversity in array antenna systems operating in the cdma2000 1x signal environments. The new technique exploits the fact that the In-phase and quadrature components of interferers can respectively be viewed as an independent gaussian noise at each antnna element in most practical cdma signal environments. The proposed PN acquisition scheme is a singles-dwell PN acquisition system consisting of two stages, that is, the searching stage and the verification stage. The searching stage independently correlates the receiver multiple signals with PN generator of each antenna element for obtaining the synchronous energy at the entire region. Then, the searching results of each antenna element are non-coherently combinind. The verification stage compares the searching energy with the optimal threshold, which is predesigned in the lock detector, and decides whether the acquisition is successful or fail. In this paper, we analyzed the effect of tile diversity order to determine the mean acquisition time. In general, it is known that the mean acquisition time significantly decrease as the number of antenna elements increases. But, as the diversity order goes up, the enhancement of the performance is saturated. Therefore, to decrease the mean acquisition time of the searcher, we must design the optimal array antenna systems by considering the operating SNR range of the receiver, the probability of detection $P_D$ and that of false alarm $P_{FA}$ . The Performance of the proposed PN acquisition scheme is analyzed in frequency selective Rayleigh fading channels. In this paper, the effect of the number of antenna elements on PN acquisition scheme is shown according to the probability of detection $P_D$ and that of false alarm $P_{FA}$.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.57-65
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• 2007

Over the past few decades, considerable numbers of studies on the durability of concrete have been carried out extensively. A lot of improvements have been achieved especially in both measuring techniques as well as modeling of ionic flows. However, the majority of these researches have been performed on sound uncracked concrete, although most of in-situ concrete structures have more or less micro-cracks. It is only recent approach that the attention has shifted towards the influence of cracks and crack width on the penetration of chloride into concrete. The penetration of chlorides into concrete through the cracks can make a significant harmful effect on reinforcement corrosion. On the other hand, a general acceptable crack width of 0.3 mm has been recognized for keeping the serviceability of concrete structures in accordance with a lot of codes. However, there seems to be rare established description to explain the critical crack width in terms of the durability of concrete. To make a bad situation worse, there is little agreement on critical crack width among a few of literatures for this issue. Critical crack width is still controversial problem. Nevertheless, since the critical crack width is important key for healthy assessment of concrete structures exposed to marine environment, it should be established. The objective of this study is to define a critical crack width. The critical crack width in this study is designed for a threshold crack width, which contributes to the first variation of chloride diffusion coefficient in responsive to the existence of cracks. A simple solution is formulated to realize the quantifiable parameter, chloride diffusion coefficient for only cracked zone excluding sound concrete. From the examination on the trend of chloride diffusion coefficient of only cracked zone for various crack widths, a critical crack width is founded out.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.17-27
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• 2003

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) modulates cortical excitability beyond the duration of the rTMS trains themselves. Depending on rTMS parameters, a lasting inhibition or facilitation of cortical excitability can be induced. Therefore, rTMS of high or low frequency over motor cortex may change certain aspects of motor learning performance and cortical activation. This study investigated the effect of high and low frequency subthreshold rTMS applied to the motor cortex on motor learning of sequential finger movements and brain activation using functional MRI (fMRI). Three healthy right-handed subjects (mean age 23.3) were enrolled. All subjects were trained with sequences of seven-digit rapid sequential finger movements, 30 minutes per day for 5 consecutive days using their left hand. 10 Hz (high frequency) and 1 Hz (low frequency) trains of rTMS with 80% of resting motor threshold and sham stimulation were applied for each subject during the period of motor learning. rTMS was delivered on the scalp over the right primary motor cortex using a figure-eight shaped coil and a Rapid(R) stimulator with two Booster Modules (Magstim Co. Ltd, UK). Functional MRI (fMRI) was performed on a 3T ISOL Forte scanner before and after training in all subjects (35 slices per one brain volume TR/TE = 3000/30 ms, Flip angle $60^{\circ}$, FOV 220 mm, $64{\times}64$ matrix, slice thickness 4 mm). Response time (RT) and target scores (TS) of sequential finger movements were monitored during the training period and fMRl scanning. All subjects showed decreased RT and increased TS which reflecting learning effects over the training session. The subject who received high frequency rTMS showed better performance in TS and RT than those of the subjects with low frequency or sham stimulation of rTMS. In fMRI, the subject who received high frequency rTMS showed increased activation of primary motor cortex, premotor, and medial cerebellar areas after the motor sequence learning after the training, but the subject with low frequency rTMS showed decreased activation in above areas. High frequency subthreshold rTMS on the motor cortex may facilitate the excitability of motor cortex and improve the performance of motor sequence learning in normal subject.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.33 no.5_1
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• pp.507-519
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• 2017

The applications of NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) as a vegetation index has been widely used to understand vegetation biomass and physiological activities. However, NDVI is not suitable way for monitoring vegetation stress because it is less sensitive to change in physiological state than biomass. PRI (Photochemical Reflectance Index) is well developed to present physiological activities of vegetation, particularly high-light-stress condition, and it has been adopted in several satellites to be launched in the future. Thus, the understanding of PRI performance and the development of analysis method will be necessary. This study aims to interpret the characteristics of light-stress-sensitive PRI in shadow areas and to evaluate the PRI calculated by other wavelengths (i.e., 488.9 nm, 553.6 nm, 646.9 nm, and 668.4 nm) instead of 570 nm that used in original PRI. Using airborne-based hyperspectral image, we found that PRI values were increased in shadow detection due to the reduction of high light induced physiological stress. However, the qualities of both PRI and NDVI data were dramatically decreased when the shadow index (SI) exceeded the threshold (SI<25). In addition, the PRI calculated using by 553.6 nm had best correlation with original PRI. This relationship was improved by multiple regression analysis including reflectances of RED and NIR. These results will be helpful to the understanding of physiological meaning on the application of PRI.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.33-44
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• 2006

Background: Peripheral nerve injury leads to neuropathic pain, including mechanical hyperalgesia (MH). Nerve discharges produced by an injury to the primary afferents cause the release of glutamate from both central and peripheral terminals. While the role of centrally released glutamate in MH has been well studied, relatively little is known about its peripheral role. This study was carried out to determine if the peripherally conducting nerve impulses and peripheral glutamate receptors contribute to the generation of neuropathic pain. Methods: Rats that had previously received a left L5 dorsal rhizotomy were subjected to a spinal nerve lesion (SNL) or brief electrical stimulation (ES, 4 Hz pulses for 5 min) of the left L5 spinal nerve. The paw withdrawal threshold (PWT) to von Frey filaments was measured. The effects of an intraplantar (i.pl.) injection of a glutamate receptor (GluR) antagonist or agonist on the changes in the SNL- or ES-produced PWT was investigated. Results: SNL produced MH, as evidenced by decrease in the PWT, which lasted for more than 42 days. ES also produced MH lasting for 7 days. MK-801 (NMDAR antagonist), DL-AP3 (group-I mGluR antagonist), and APDC (group-II mGluR agonist) delayed the onset of MH when an i.pl. injection was given before SNL. The same application blocked the onset of ES-induced MH. NBQX (AMPA receptor antagonist) had no effect on either the SNL- or ES-induced onset of MH. When drugs were given after SNL or ES, MK-801 reversed the MH, whereas NBQX, DL-AP3, and APDC had no effect. Conclusions: Peripherally conducting impulses play an important role in the generation of neuropathic pain, which is mediated by the peripheral glutamate receptors.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.123-127
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• 2013

BACKGROUND: The incandescent bulb and compact fluorescent lamp are widely using as a light sources for daylength extension of chrysanthemum. But, these light sources consume a lot of electricity and have short longevity. A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semi conductor light source. LEDs have many advantages over incandescent light sources including lower energy consumption, longer lifetime. In this study, we investigated the intensity of red light to control flowering of chrysanthemum (Dendranthema grandiflorum cv. "Shinma") by using LEDs. METHODS AND RESULTS: The red (660 nm) and far-red (730 nm) light were irradiated subsequently to investigate photo-reversible flowering responses of chrysanthemum. The flowering of chrysanthemum was inhibited by night interruption with red light but subsequently irradiated far-red light induced the flowering of chrysanthemum. This photoreversibility, reversion of the inductive effect of a brief red light pulse by a subsequent far-red light pulse, is a property of photo responses regulated by the plant photoreceptor phytochrome B. Four different intensity of red light of 0.7, 1.4, 2.1, and $2.8{\mu}mol/m^2/s$ (PAR) were irradiated at growth room in order to determine the threshold for floral inhibition of chrysanthemum. Over $1.4{\mu}mol/m^2/s$ of the red lights irradiated chrysanthemums were not flowered. The plant length, fresh weight, number of leaves, and leaf area of chrysanthemum irradiated with red light were increased by 17%, 36%, 11%, and 48%, respectively, compared to those of compact fluorescent lamp. CONCLUSION(S): The red light and subsequential far-red light showed that the photoreversibility on flowering of chrysanthemum. The red light ($1.4{\mu}mol/m^2/s$ of red LEDs) and white light (50 Lux of compact fluorescent lamp) have the same effect on inhibition of flowering in chrysanthemum. Additionally, the red light increased the plant height and dry weight of chrysanthemum.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.72-76
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• 2000

The study was conducted to investigate the developmental periods and effect of several insecticides on Hemiptarsenus sp., ectoparasitoid of Liriomyza trifolii. The mean length and width of egg were 0.5mm and 0.1mm. The mean length of larva, pupae, abult female, and abult male were 1.9mm, 2.0mm, 2.2mm, and 1.8mm, respectively. Developmental periods of Hemiptarsenus sp. from egg to larva at 15, 20, 25, $30^{\circ}C$ were 16.9, 8.8, 5.9, and 4.5 days, and those of pupa were 20.7, 9.7, 5.6, and 3.4 days, respectively. Based on these results, developmental threshold temperatures and effective temperatures were $9.5^{\circ}C$, 91.5 degree-days in egg-larval stage, $10.9^{\circ}C$, 142.3 degree-days in pupal stage. When several insecticides were evaluated to Hemiptarsenus sp. at the recommended concentrations, B.t WP, diflubenzuron WP, and cyromazin were negligiblly effective all life stages. Fipronil SC, cartap SP, spinosad GW were less toxic to larva and pupa, but highly toxic to adults. Abamectin EC was less toxic to all life stages, but inhibited oviposition of 50% more to Hemiptarsenus sp. female.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.12-20
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• 1999

In this paper, we compared speaker verification performance of the speech data collected in clean environment and in channel environment. For the improvement of the performance of speaker verification gathered in channel, we have studied on the efficient feature parameters in channel environment and on the preprocessing. Speech DB for experiment is consisted of Korean doublet of numbers, considering the text-prompted system. Speech features including LPCC(Linear Predictive Cepstral Coefficient), MFCC(Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient), PLP(Perceptually Linear Prediction), LSP(Line Spectrum Pair) are analyzed. Also, the preprocessing of filtering to remove channel noise is studied. To remove or compensate for the channel effect from the extracted features, cepstral weighting, CMS(Cepstral Mean Subtraction), RASTA(RelAtive SpecTrAl) are applied. Also by presenting the speech recognition performance on each features and the processing, we compared speech recognition performance and speaker verification performance. For the evaluation of the applied speech features and processing methods, HTK(HMM Tool Kit) 2.0 is used. Giving different threshold according to male or female speaker, we compare EER(Equal Error Rate) on the clean speech data and channel data. Our simulation results show that, removing low band and high band channel noise by applying band pass filter(150～3800Hz) in preprocessing procedure, and extracting MFCC from the filtered speech, the best speaker verification performance was achieved from the view point of EER measurement.