• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.213-218
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• 2005

Phellinus linteus (PL), one of the immune-regulatory substances, is recognized to play the role in the metabolic process on inflammation and immunity. It has been traditionally used in the oriental medicine to treat inflammatory related disease. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of water extracts of PL on the mesenteric lymph node lymphocytes immune function in the ICR male mice. Control mice received vehicle only. The PL treated mice were administered the respective extract by oral gavages for 4 weeks. IgE concentrations in serum and MLN lymphocytes were significantly lower in PL treated mice than in control mice. PL increased the proportion of $CD4^+\;and\;CD8^+$ T cells in MLN lymphocytes. PL significantly decreased Th2 cytokine concentrations and mRNA expression levels in cytokine secretions. Therefore, water extracts of PL modulate inflammatory parameters through regulation of immunoglobulin production resulting from decreased Th2 cytokine secretion and mRNA expression levels and reduce pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion and mRNA expression in MLN lymphocytes.

• BMB Reports
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• v.43 no.8
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• pp.561-566
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• 2010

Though protein transduction domains (PTDs) are well known for the delivery of exogenous therapeutic proteins into living cells, the overall low efficiency of transduction is a serious obstacle. We investigated the effect of bog blueberry anthocyanins (BBA) on protein transduction efficiency and found that BBA enhanced the transduction efficiencies of Tat-SOD fusion protein into HeLa cells and mice skin. The enzymatic activities in the cells and skin tissue in the presence of BBA were markedly increased compared to controls. Further, BBA did not demonstrate any cell toxicity at various concentrations. Although the mechanism is not fully understood, we suggest that BBA might alter the conformation of the membrane, which would indicate that BBA can be used as a protein transduction enhancer for the efficient delivery of therapeutic proteins for a variety of disorders.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.103-114
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• 2015

In this study, we investigated the effect of rice bran water extract fermented with Lactobacillus plantarum KCCM-12116 (RBLp) on ADP ($20{\mu}M$)-, collagen ($10{\mu}g/mL$)-, and thrombin (0.2 U/mL)-stimulated platelet aggregation. RBLp dose-dependently inhibited ADP-, collagen-, and thrombin-induced platelet aggregation, with $IC_{50}$ values of 501.1, 637.2, and > $2,000{\mu}g/mL$, respectively. The platelet aggregation induced by ADP plus RBLp ($750{\mu}g/mL$) was increased by the adenylate cyclase inhibitor, SQ22536, and the cAMP-dependent protein kinase (A-kinase) inhibitor, Rp-8-Br-cAMPS. Treatment with RBLp increased the phosphorylation of VASP ($Ser^{157}$), an A-kinase substrate, which was also inhibited by SQ22536 and Rp-8-Br-cAMPS. It is thought that the RBLp-induced increases in cAMP contributed to the phosphorylation of VASP ($Ser^{157}$), which in turn resulted in an inhibition of ADP-induced platelet aggregation, thereby indicating that RBLp has an antiplatelet effect via cAMP-dependent phosphorylation of VASP ($Ser^{157}$). Thus, RBLp may have therapeutic potential for the treatment (or prevention) of platelet aggregation-mediated diseases, such as thrombosis, myocardial infarction, atherosclerosis, and ischemic cerebrovascular disease.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.62 no.9
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• pp.1283-1289
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to find the new method for estiming the spatial variations in a light source with utilizing the optical fiber sensory system. With this aim, firstly the asymmetry in the beam profile of a light source is evaluated by using the tipped optical fiber with 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 45-degree angle. Secondly the variation of position in a light source is estimated by adjusting the relative position between the light source unit (XYZ stage, LED, Optical fiber) and the receiver unit (Photodiode, XYZ stage). Our experimental results show that the spatial variation of a light source can be resolved in terms of the variations in beam profile with varying the tip angle of an optical fiber and adjusting the relative distance between the light source unit and the receiver.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.343-349
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• 2005

Continuously motivating people to exercise regularly is more important than finding a way out of barriers such as lack of time, cost of equipment, lack of nearby facilities, and poor weather. Our proposed system presents practicable methods of motivation through a diverse exercise aid system. The Health Improvement and Management System (all-in-one system which saves space and maintenance costs) measures and evaluates a diverse body shape analysis and physical fitness test and directs users to automated personalized exercise prescription which is prescribed by the expert system of three types of exercise templates: aerobics, anaerobics, and leisure sports. Automated personalized exercise prescriptions are built into XML based documents because the data needs to be in the form of flexible, expansible, and convertible structures in order to process various exercise templates, BIOFIT, a digital exercise trainer, monitors and provides feedback on the physiological parameters while users are working out in the gymnasium. If these parameters do not range within the prescribed target zone, the device will alarm users to control the exercise and make the exercise trainer adjust systemically the proper exercise level. Numeric health information such as the report of the physical fitness test and the exercise prescription makes people stay interested in exercising. In addition, this service can be delivered through the Internet.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.466-476
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• 2008

The more people use ambulatory electrocardiogram(ECG) for arrhythmia detection, the more researchers report the automatic classification algorithms. Most of the previous studies don't consider the un-balanced data distribution. Even in patients, there are much more normal beats than abnormal beats among the data from 24 hours. To solve this problem, the hierarchical classification using 21 features was adopted for arrhythmia abnormal beat detection. The features include R-R intervals and data to describe the morphology of the wave. To validate the algorithm, 44 non-pacemaker recordings from physionet were used. The hierarchical classification model with 2 stages on domain knowledge was constructed. Using our suggested method, we could improve the performance in abnormal beat classification from the conventional multi-class classification method. In conclusion, the domain knowledge based hierarchical classification is useful to the ECG beat classification with unbalanced data distribution.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.183-189
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• 2017

Electrosurgical Unit(ESU) is medical equipment that cut or coag tissues using electrical energy. It is used in hospitals' outpatient clinic room and operating room. Improper use of an ESU may cause fatal injuries to the patient, such as burns. So, before using an ESU, make sure that it is supplying enough energy for cut and coag by measuring the output power and checking the output power cable. In this study, we developed a simple ESU power measurement system PW100 that allows anyone to check the basic output power. And PW100 can check the state of the cable associated with the output power before using ESU. Then, we compared the measured output power of the PW100 with an ESU Analyzer which was commercialized, and compared the performance. In the experiment, the output power measured by the PW100 was lower value than an ESU Analyzer's that. However, the PW100's output power measured in the 5% error range and showed stable reproducibility by a low %RSD value.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.163-168
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• 2012

Elderly women are reported to have greater risk of falls. The purpose of this paper was to investigate the possible gender differences in the reaction performance of ankle joint muscles, which have dominant role in the control of sagittal plane balance. Twenty-six elderly men and women with comparable mean age participated in this study. Reaction times to the audible beeps were measured in the tibialis anterior muscle and gastrocnemius muscle. Reaction time variables included premotor time, electromechanical delay and total reaction time. Gender difference in each reaction time was investigated by independent t-test. In both muscles, premotor time was longer in men but the electromechanical delay was longer in women (p < 0.05). Resulting total reaction time was longer in men in tibialis anterior muscle (p < 0.01) and it tended to be longer in men also in gastrocnemius muscle (p = 0.25). The results demonstrates that the overall reaction performances of elderly women is better than or comparable to those of elderly men in ankle joint muscles. This suggests that the reaction performance of ankle muscles is hardly the cause of the greater risk of falls in elderly women.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.23-26
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• 2009

During operations, neurosurgeons usually perform multiple temporary occlusions of parental artery, possibly resulting in the neuronal damage. It is generally thought that neuronal damage by cerebral ischemia is associated with extracellular concentrations of the excitatory amino acids. In this study, we measured the dynamics of extracellular glutamate release in 11 vessel occlusion(VO) model to compare between single occlusion and repeated transient occlusions within short interval. Changes in cerebral blood flow were monitored by laser-Doppler flowmetry simultaneously with cortical glutamate level measured by amperometric biosensor. From real time monitoring of glutamate release in 11 VO model, the change of extracellular glutamate level in repeated transient occlusion group was smaller than that of single occlusion group, and the onset time of glutamate release in the second ischemic episode of repeated occlusion group was delayed compared to the first ischemic episode which was similar to that of single 10 min ischemic episode. These results suggested that repeated transient occlusion induces less glutamate release from neuronal cell than single occlusion, and the delayed onset time of glutamate release is attributed to endogeneous protective mechanism of ischemic tolerance.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.69-73
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• 2015

The mesothelium is an essential lining for maintaining the normal homeostasis of the closed body cavity and a central component of pathophysiologic processes. The mesothelium has been known as the end target for asbestos which induces asbestos-related lung diseases. Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is a rare and fatal neoplasm predominantly due to asbestos exposure. Adaptation of an advanced and reliable technology is necessary for early detection of MM because it is difficult to diagnose this disease in its early stages. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) provides cross-sectional images of micro-tissue structures with a resolution of $2-10{\mu}m$ that can image the mesothelium with a thickness of ${\sim}100{\mu}m$ and, therefore, enable investigation of early development of MM. The mesothelium is typically located at the pleura and tunica vaginalis of the scrotum. In this study, we developed animal window models in the above two anatomical sites to visualize mesothelial layers within the mesothelium. OCT images at the two locations were also acquired.