• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.84-92
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• 2002

A $32{\times}32$ pixels foveated (linear-polar) structure retina chip with the function of local-light adaptation for edge detection has been designed and fabricated using CMOS technology. Human retina can detect a wide range of light intensity. In this study, we use the biologically-inspired visual signal processing mechanism that consists of photoreceptors, horizontal cells, and bipolar cells in order to implement the function of edge detection in the retina chip. For a local-light adaptive function, the size of receptive field is changed locally according to the input light intensity. The spatial distribution of sensing pixels in the foveated retina chip has the advantages of selective reduction of image data and good resolution in central part to carry out the elaborate image processing with still enough resolution in the outer parts. The designed chip has been fabricated using standard $0.6\;{\mu}m$ double-poly triple-metal CMOS technology and optimized using HSPICE simulator.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.229-234
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• 2018

BACKGROUND: in vitro micronucleus test (vitMNT) is one of the promising alternative testing methods in genotoxicity test and was adopted as OECD test guideline for chemical registration. This study was conducted to optimize the cytoplasm conditions in vitMNT using Chinese hamster lung (CHL) cell. METHODS AND RESULTS: In this study cytokinesis-block micronucleus test was conducted. Mitomycin C and colchicine were used as positive control chemicals and were treated for three hours (short time) or twenty-four hours (long time). Giemsa solution was used for cell staining. For optimization of vitMNT, the final fixative was prepared as five concentrations (0%, 1%, 3%, 5%, and 25%) of acetic acid in methanol, and treatment times of the final fixative were varied under four conditions (immediately, one hour, four hours, and one day). CONCLUSION: Acetic acid at 1% in methanol as the final fixative was most adequate to preserve the cytoplasm around the nucleus in the interphase cells. Also, fixative treatment time of cell suspension for one to four hours may minimize the cell rupture. These results can be helpful for getting an accurate result promptly due to clear visual distinction to score micronucleus in vitMNT using giemsa solution.

• Journal of Photoscience
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.5-8
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• 2002

Photoperiodism is an important adaptive phenomenon in various physiological parameters including reproduction to cope with seasonal changes. Involvement of extraretinal photoreceptors in the photoperiodism in non-mammalian vertebrates has been well established. In addition, circadian clock system is known to be involved in the photoperiodic time measurement. The pathway consists of light-input system, time measurement system (circadian clock), gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) production in the hypothalamus, luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) production in the pituitary, and final gonadal development. Recently, several laboratories reported photopigments newly cloned in the pineal, eyes and deep brain in addition to already known visual pigments in the retina. These are pinopsin, parapinopsin, VA-opsin, melanopsin, etc. All these photopigments belong to the opsin family having retinal as the chromophore. However, the function of these photopigments remains unknown. I reviewed the studies on the location of the photopigments by immunocytochemistry. I also discussed the results on the action spectra for induction of gonadal development in relation with the location of the photoreceptors. Various physiologically active substances distribute in the vertebrate brain. Such substances are GnRH, GnIH, neuropeptide Y, vasoactive intestinal peptide, c-Fos, galanin, neurosteroids, etc. I summarized the immunhistochemical studies on the distribution and the photoperiodic changes of these substances and discussed the route from the deep brain photoreceptor to GnRH cells.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.658-665
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• 2014

The neural stimulators have been employed to the visual prostheses system based on the functional electrical stimulation (FES). Due to the size limitation of the implantable device, the smaller area of the unit current driver pixel is highly desired for higher resolution current stimulation system. This paper presents a 16-channel compact current-mode neural stimulator IC with digital to analog converter (DAC) sharing scheme for artificial retinal prostheses. The individual pixel circuits in the stimulator IC share a single 6 bit DAC using the sample-and-hold scheme. The DAC sharing scheme enables the simultaneous stimulation on multiple active pixels with a single DAC while maintaining small size and low power. The layout size of the stimulator circuit with the DAC sharing scheme is reduced to be 51.98 %, compared to the conventional scheme. The stimulator IC is designed using standard $0.18{\mu}m$ 1P6M process. The chip size except the I/O cells is $437{\mu}m{\times}501{\mu}m$.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.14 no.1_2
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• pp.1-12
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• 1999

Recently, several new methods for the detection of genetic damages in vitro and in vivo based on molecular biological techniques were introduced according to the rapid progress in toxicology combined with cellular and molecular biology. Among these methods, mouse lymphoma thymidine kanase (tk) gene forward mutation assay, single cell gel electrophoresis (comet assay) and transgenic animal and cell line model as a target gene of lac I (Big Blue) and lac Z (Muta Mouse) gene mutation are newly introduced based on molecular toxicological approaches. The mouse lymphoma tk$\^$+/-/ gene assay (MOLY) using L5178Y tk$\^$+/-/ mouse lymphoma cell line is one of the mammalian forward mutation assays, and has many advantages and more sensitive than hprt assay. The target gene of MOLY is a heterozygous tk$\^$+/-/ gene located in 11 chromosome, so it is able to detect the wide range of genetic changes like point mutation, deletion, rearrangement, and mitotic recombination within tk gene or deletion of entire chromosome 11. The comet assay is a rapid, simple, visual and sensitive technique for measuring and analysing DNA breakages in mammalian cells, Also, transgenic animal and cell line models, which have exogenous DNA incorporated into their genome, carry recoverable shuttle vector containing reporter genes to assess endogenous effects or alteration in specific genes related to disease process, are powerful tools to study the mechanism of mutation in vivo and in vitro, respectively. Also in vivo acridine orange supravital staining micronucleus assay by using mouse peripheral reticulocytes was introduced as an alternative of bone marrow micronucleus assay. In this respect, there was an International workshop on genotoxicity procedure (IWGTP) supported by OECD and EMS (Environmental Mutagen Society) at Washington D. C. in March 25-26, 1999. The objective of IWGTP is to harmonize the testing procedures internationally, and to extend to finalization of OECD guideline, and to the agreement of new guidelines under the International Conference of Harmonization (ICH) for these methods mentioned above. Therefore, we introduce and review the principle, detailed procedure, and application of MOLY, comet assay, transgenic mutagenesis assay and supravital staining micronucleus assay.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.221-230
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• 2012

Objectives: This study sought to evaluate the efficacy of collagen graft materials, as compared to other graft materials, for use in healing calvarial defects in rabbits. Materials and Methods: Ten mm diameter calvarial defects were made in ten rabbits. The rabbits were then divided into 4 groups: control, autogenous bone graft, SureOss graft, and Teruplug graft. Bone regeneration was evaluated using histological and radiographic methods. Results: Based on visual examination, no distinct healing profile was observed. At 4 weeks after treatment, histological analysis showed there was no bone regeneration in the control group; however, at 8 weeks after treatment, new bone formation was observed around the margin of the defective sites. In the autogenous bone graft group, new bone formation was observed at 4 weeks after treatment and mature bone was detected around the grafted bone after 8 weeks. In the SureOss graft group, at 4 weeks after treatment, acute inflammatory and multinuclear cells were noted around the grafted materials; at 8 weeks after treatment, a decrease in graft materials coupled with new bone formation were observed at the defective sites. In the Teruplug graft group, new bone formation was detected surrounding the bone margin and without signs of inflammation. There were statistically significant differences observed between the graft and control group in terms of bone density as evidenced by radiographic analysis using computed tomography (P<0.05), particularly for the autogenous bone graft group (P<0.001). Conclusion: These results suggested that autogenous bone, SureOss and Teruplug have the ability to induce bone regeneration as compared to an untreated control group. The osteogenic potential of Teruplug was observed to be lower than that of autogenous bone, but similar to that of SureOss.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.282-289
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• 2018

Melanin is a pigment produced from tyrosine in melanocytes. Although melanin has a protective role against UVB radiation-induced damage, it is also associated with the development of melanoma and darker skin tone. Tyrosinase is a key enzyme in melanin synthesis, which regulates the rate-limiting step during conversion of tyrosine into DOPA and dopaquinone. To develop effective RNA interference therapeutics, we designed a melanin siRNA pool by applying multiple prediction programs to reduce human tyrosinase levels. First, 272 siRNAs passed the target accessibility evaluation using the RNAxs program. Then we selected 34 siRNA sequences with ${\Delta}G{\geq}-34.6kcal/mol$, i-Score value ${\geq}65$, and siRNA scales score ${\leq}30$. siRNAs were designed as 19-bp RNA duplexes with an asymmetric 3' overhang at the 3' end of the antisense strand. We tested if these siRNAs effectively reduced tyrosinase gene expression using qRT-PCR and found that 17 siRNA sequences were more effective than commercially available siRNA. Three siRNAs further tested showed an effective visual color change in MNT-1 human cells without cytotoxic effects, indicating these sequences are anti-melanogenic. Our study revealed that human tyrosinase siRNAs could be efficiently designed using multiple prediction algorithms.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.572-580
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• 2014

This study deals with reconfigurable modular robot with respect to the compact and capability of representing the various actions for promoting creativity through education and play. Generally modular robot can be designed as a suitable robot that is transformed to various structure by reconstructing each cells, However, there are only few research on the education and play using those robots in the world and still nothing domestically. Unlike the existing modular robots only having a repeating motion, the proposed modular works by individual module such as sound is produced by sound module, wheel is driven by wheel module, LED module controls the visual expression, power is supplied by battery module, bluetooth module for communication, and dynamic motion realization is possible by using joint module. By manipulating the abilities endowed by individual modules, diversity of creative activities is possible and thus made an easy access for children. This study deals with the design of modular robotic by using the variety of different modules to endowed the learning and playing ability. And the study showed the utility of the operating behavior over the actual production and testing.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.533-539
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• 2013

Recently, Ionic Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC) systems receive great attention in the fields of the medical and biomedical Engineering because of several merits in terms of new actuators and sensors and fuel cell materials. When the voltage is excited to IPMC system, it moves. Conversely, if there are any movement on the IPMC, the IPMC has charge voltage by the internal properties. Therefore the IPMC can be used as a motion sensor or force sensor. In this paper, we identify characteristics of the IPMC and control its movements from remote locations by the smart-phone system based on visual information for monitoring. Additionally, control of movements of the IPMC is realized by transmit motion commands using the smart-phone system with the blue-tooth communication. Unfortunately, there are some deficiencies to perfectly attain physical properties of the IPMC systems from our experiments in this paper. However, in its utilization point of view, we demonstrate that the IPMC has some potentials as new sensors, actuators, and fuel cells.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.103-103
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• 2000

In this paper to cope with the reduction of products life-cycle as the variety of products along with the various demands of consumers, a virtual simulator is developed to make the changeover of manufacturing line efficient to embody a virtual simulation similar to a real manufacturing line. The developed virtual simulator can design a layout of a factory and make the time scheduling. Every factory has one simulator so that one product can be manufactured in the factories to use them as virtual factories. We suggest a scheme that heightens the agility to the diversity of manufacturing models by making the information of manufacturing lines and products models to be shared. The developed unit simulator can construct a proper virtual manufacturing line along with the required process of products using several kinds of operator and work cell. A user with the simulator can utilize an interface that makes one to manage the separate task process for each manu(acturing module, change operator components and work cells, and easily teach tasks of each task module. The developed simulator was made for users convenience by Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 that can develop a program supplying graphic user interface environment and by OpenGL of the Silicon Graphics as a graphic library to embody 3D graphic environment. Also, we show that the simulator can be used efficiently for the agile manufacturing by the communication among the factories being linked by TCP/IP and a hybrid database system made by a hierarchical model and a relational model being developed to standardize the data information.