• BMB Reports
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.441-447
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• 2006

Abuse of drugs can elicit compulsive drug seeking behaviors upon repeated administration, and ultimately leads to the phenomenon of addiction. We developed a procedure for the standardization of microarray gene expression data of rat brain in drug addiction and stored them in a single integrated database system, focusing on more effective data processing and interpretation. Another characteristic of the present database is that it has a systematic flexibility for statistical analysis and linking with other databases. Basically, we adopt an intelligent SQL querying system, as the foundation of our DB, in order to set up an interactive module which can automatically read the raw gene expression data in the standardized format. We maximize the usability of this DB, helping users study significant gene expression and identify biological function of the genes through integrated up-to-date gene information such as GO annotation and metabolic pathway. For collecting the latest information of selected gene from the database, we also set up the local BLAST search engine and non-redundant sequence database updated by NCBI server on a daily basis. We find that the present database is a useful query interface and data-mining tool, specifically for finding out the genes related to drug addiction. We apply this system to the identification and characterization of methamphetamine-induced genes' behavior in rat brain.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.222-229
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• 2016

Kimchi is a traditional Korean food prepared by fermenting vegetables, such as Chinese cabbage and radishes, which are seasoned with various ingredients, including red pepper powder, garlic, ginger, green onion, fermented seafood (Jeotgal), and salt. The various unique microorganisms and bioactive components in kimchi show antioxidant activity and have been associated with an enhanced immune response, as well as anti-cancer and anti-diabetic effects. Red pepper inhibits decay due to microorganisms and prevents food from spoiling. The vast amount of biological information generated by academic and industrial research groups is reflected in a rapidly growing body of scientific literature and expanding data resources. However, the genome, biological pathway, and related disease data are insufficient to explain the health benefits of kimchi because of the varied and heterogeneous data types. Therefore, we have constructed an appropriate semantic data model based on an integrated food knowledge database and analyzed the functional and biological processes associated with kimchi in silico. This complex semantic network of several entities and connections was generalized to answer complex questions, and we demonstrated how specific disease pathways are related to kimchi consumption.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.59-71
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• 2018

Purpose: Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are natural polymers that have been promoted as a next generation of new, sustainable materials. CNCs are invaluable as reinforcing materials for composites because they can impart improved mechanical, chemical, and thermal properties and they are biodegradable. The purpose of this review is to provide researchers with information that can assist in the application of CNCs extracted from waste agricultural byproducts (e.g. rice husks, corncobs, pineapple leaves). Methods & Results: This paper presents the unique characteristics of CNCs based on agricultural byproducts, and lists processing methods for manufacturing CNCs from agricultural byproducts. Various mechanical treatments (microfluidization and homogenization) and chemical treatments (alkali treatment, bleaching and hydrolysis) can be performed in order to generate nanocellulose. CNC-based composite properties and various applications are also discussed. Conclusions: CNC-based composites from agricultural byproducts can be combined to meet end-use applications such as sensors, batteries, films, food packaging, and 3D printing by utilizing their properties. The review discusses applications in food engineering, biological engineering, and cellulose-based hydrogels.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.239-247
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• 2013

Digital image processing is a process to analyze a large volume of information on digital images. In this study, Artemia hatching rate was measured by automatically classifying and counting cysts and larvae based on color imaging data from cyst hatching experiments using an image processing technique. The Artemia hatching rate estimation consists of a series of processes; a step to convert the scanned image data to a binary image data, a process to detect objects and to extract their shape information in the converted image data, an analysis step to choose an optimal discriminant function, and a step to recognize and classify the objects using the function. The function to classify Artemia cysts and larvae is optimally estimated based on the classification performance using the areas and the plan-form factors of the detected objects. The hatching rate using the image data obtained under the different experimental conditions was estimated in the range of 34-48%. It was shown that the maximum difference is about 19.7% and the average root-mean squared difference is about 10.9% as the difference between the results using an automatic counting (this study) and a manual counting were compared. This technique can be applied to biological specimen analysis using similar imaging information.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.9 no.7
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• pp.1594-1600
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• 2005

Recently many researches have been studied in the human vision model to solve the Wblem of the machine vision. Starting from research on the human visual system, first, we investigate the mechanisms of retina through physiological and biological evidence. In retina, input data was processed information processing that was data reduction edge detection, and emphasizing region. The processed image was recognized by region. In this paper, we proposed retinal algorithms that process data reduction and edge detection by the wavelet transform and emphasize region contrast. In experiments, the proposed model simulates processing the retina outputs in the levels and compares with outputs.

• Proceedings of the KOSOMBE Conference
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• v.1996 no.05
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• pp.36-40
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• 1996

There are two prevailing techniques, mechanical and optical profilometers, to measure 3-dimensional configurations of the human skin furrows. The methods have some limitations such as, accuracies or resolutions of the acquired 3-dimensional data and consistencies according to the repeated experiments. We devised an optical profilometer that is called stereo image optical profilometer (SOP) based on stereo image processing techniques. A stereo image is a pair of images that obtained from two cameras which have different angles. From the digital stereo images, the clinical informations for skin can be obtained by some signal processing techniques. In this paper, we focused on the 3-dimensional graphical visualizations of the structures and state of the skin furrows by solving the corresponding problem from the left and right pairs of the stereo images.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.23-30
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• 2005

3D virtual endoscopy has been used as an alternative non-invasive procedure for visualization of hollow organs. However, due to computational complexity, this is a time-consuming procedure. In this paper, we propose a fast volume rendering algorithm based on perspective ray casting for virtual endoscopy. As a pre-processing step, the algorithm divides a volume into hierarchical blocks and classifies them into opaque or transparent blocks. Then, in the first step, we perform ray casting only for sub-sampled pixels on the image plane, and determine their pixel values and depth information. In the next step, by reducing the sub-sampling factor by half, we repeat ray casting for newly added pixels, and their pixel values and depth information are determined. Here, the previously obtained depth information is utilized to reduce the processing time. This step is recursively performed until a full-size rendering image is acquired. Experiments conducted on a PC show that the proposed algorithm can reduce the rendering time by 70- 80% for bronchus and colon endoscopy, compared with the brute-force ray casting scheme. Using the proposed algorithm, interactive volume rendering becomes more realizable in a PC environment without any specific hardware.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2004.07d
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• pp.2693-2695
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• 2004

Recently A virtual environment provides patient with stimuli which arouses phobia, and exposing to that environment makes him having ability to over come the fear. ECG and HRV are used in most virtual reality system. GSR is electrical impedance of biological tissues and the changes in impedance accompanying physiological activity. GSR is better than ECG or HRV for explaining mental states in other study. In this study, we will analysis GSR signal when a acrophobia patient and a normal is on high floor.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.87-93
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• 2015

The accidents caused by drivers while driving are considered as the major causes along with other causes such as conditions of roads, weather and cars. In this study, we investigated the driver's workloads under three different driving conditions (Weather, Driving time zone, and Traffic density) through analyzing biological signals obtained from a car driving simulator system. The proposed method is able to detect R waves and R-R interval calculation in the ECG. Heart rate variability (HRV) was investigated for the time domain to determine the changes in driver's conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.429-431
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• 2002

Metabolic analysis of biological tissues, the interventional radiology in MRT (Magnetic Resonance Treatment) and for clinical diagnoses, representation of 4-Dimensional (4D) structural information (x,y,z,t) of biological tissues is required. This paper discusses image representation techniques for those 4D MR Images. We have proposed an image reconstruction method for ultra-fast 3D MRI. It is based on image interpolation and prediction of un-acquired pictorial data in both of the real and the k-space (the acquisition domain in MRI). A 4D MR image is reconstructed from only two 3D MR images and acquired a few echo signals that are optimized by prediction of the tissue motion. This prediction can be done by the phase of acquired echo signal is proportioned to the tissue motion. On the other hand, reconstructed 4D MR images are represented as a 3D-movie by using computer graphics techniques. Rendered tissue surfaces and/or ROIs are displayed on a CRT monitor. It is represented in an arbitrary plane and/or rendered surface with their motion. As examples of the proposed representation techniques, the finger and the lung motion of healthy volunteers are demonstrated.