• IEIE Transactions on Smart Processing and Computing
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.28-34
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• 2014

Recently, ultrasound therapy has become a new and effective treatment for many brain diseases. Therefore, skull-mimicking phantoms have been developed to simulate the skull and brain tissue of a human and allow further research into ultrasound therapy. In this study, the suitability of various skull-mimicking materials(HDPE, POM C, Acrylic) for studies of brain-tumor treatments was evaluated using focused ultrasound. The acoustic properties of three synthetic resins were measured. The skull-mimicking materials were then combined with an egg white phantom to observe the differences in the ultrasound beam distortion according to the type of material. High-intensity polyethylene was found to be suitable as a skull-mimicking phantom because it had acoustic properties and a denatured-area shape that was close to those of the skull,. In this study, a skull-mimicking phantom with a multi-layer structure was produced after evaluating several skull-mimicking materials. This made it possible to predict the denaturation in a skull in relation to focused ultrasound. The development of a therapeutic protocol for a range of brain diseases will be useful in the future.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.962-975
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• 2020

The accurate segmentation of infant brain MR image into white matter (WM), gray matter (GM), and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is very important for early studying of brain growing patterns and morphological changes in neurodevelopmental disorders. Because of inherent myelination and maturation process, the WM and GM of babies (between 6 and 9 months of age) exhibit similar intensity levels in both T1-weighted (T1w) and T2-weighted (T2w) MR images in the isointense phase, which makes brain tissue segmentation very difficult. We propose a deep network architecture based on U-Net, called Triple Residual Multiscale Fully Convolutional Network (TRMFCN), whose structure exists three gates of input and inserts two blocks: residual multiscale block and concatenate block. We solved some difficulties and completed the segmentation task with the model. Our model outperforms the U-Net and some cutting-edge deep networks based on U-Net in evaluation of WM, GM and CSF. The data set we used for training and testing comes from iSeg-2017 challenge (http://iseg2017.web.unc.edu).

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.78 no.2
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• pp.112-119
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• 2015

Primary thymic adenocarcinoma is a very rare malignancy of the anterior mediastinum with no standardized treatment. A 36-year-old male patient presented with hoarseness over the past 3 months. A chest computed tomography (CT) scan showed an infiltrative mass to the proximal vessels and aortic arch in left upper mediastinum ($4.1{\times}3.1{\times}5.4cm$). Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed focal lesions, suggesting metastasis in the left frontal lobe. A thoracoscopic biopsy of the mediastinal mass confirmed a primary thymic adenocarcinoma forming a glandular structure with atypia of tumor cells. The patient received four cycles of systemic chemotherapy, consisting of etoposide and cisplatin, with concurrent radiotherapy (6,000 cGy/30 fractions) to the mediastinal lesion and the metastatic brain lesion (4,200 cGy/12 fractions). A follow-up chest CT scan and brain MRI showed a decrease in the size of the left upper mediastinal mass and brain lesion. We report a rare case of the primary thymic adenocarcinoma with a literature review.

• Smart Media Journal
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.30-37
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• 2016

In recent decades, the study of human brain function has dramatically increased thanks to the advent of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. This is a powerful tool which provides a deep view of the activities of the brain. From fMRI data, the neuroscientists analyze which parts of the brain have responsibility for a particular action and finding the common pattern representing each state involved in these tasks. This is one of the most challenges in neuroscience area because of noisy, sparsity of data as well as the differences of anatomical brain structure of each person. In this paper, we propose the use of appropriate discriminant methods, such as Fisher Discriminant Ratio and hypothesis testing, together with strong boosting ability of Adaboost classifier. We prove that discriminant methods are effective in classifying cognitive states. The experiment results show significant better accuracy than previous works. We also show that it is possible to train a successful classifier without prior anatomical knowledge and use only a small number of features.

• STI Policy Review
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.43-64
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• 2014

Korea has pursued an aggressive policy of inviting more foreign-born students to its universities since the late 1990s in the wake of the globalization of education markets and its changing demographic structure. While increasingly more students from Asia come to Korea for study, more than half of the graduates return home upon graduation. Given the issues of brain drain, brain circulation, and knowledge transfer that are raised by such a high return rate, this paper examines the factors that frame the foreign students' decision on their post-graduation careers. By analyzing survey data, we report that Asian students majoring in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are more likely to return than non-STEM majors. This suggests that Korea's aggressive policies of inviting foreign-born students have contributed to brain circulation and knowledge transfer between Korea and the other Asian countries. We also find that scholarships from Korean sources and positive attitudes toward Korean culture and life increase their inclination to stay in the country upon graduation. These findings, however, raise more questions than answers, since it becomes obvious that their post-graduation decisions are highly affected by what Korea as a society provides.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.64 no.10
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• pp.497-503
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• 2021

Reading disability (dyslexia) refers to an unexpected difficulty with reading for an individual who has the intelligence to be a much better reader. Dyslexia is most commonly caused by a difficulty in phonological processing (the appreciation of the individual sounds of spoken language), which affects the ability of an individual to speak, read, and spell. In this paper, I describe reading disabilities by focusing on their underlying neurobiological mechanisms. Neurobiological studies using functional brain imaging have uncovered the reading pathways, brain regions involved in reading, and neurobiological abnormalities of dyslexia. The reading pathway is in the order of visual analysis, letter recognition, word recognition, meaning (semantics), phonological processing, and speech production. According to functional neuroimaging studies, the important areas of the brain related to reading include the inferior frontal cortex (Broca's area), the midtemporal lobe region, the inferior parieto-temporal area, and the left occipitotemporal region (visual word form area). Interventions for dyslexia can affect reading ability by causing changes in brain function and structure. An accurate diagnosis and timely specialized intervention are important in children with dyslexia. In cases in which national infant development screening tests have been conducted, as in Korea, if language developmental delay and early predictors of dyslexia are detected, careful observation of the progression to dyslexia and early intervention should be made.

• Journal of TMJ Balancing Medicine
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.11-15
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• 2018

Recently, clinical efficacies of the intraoral balancing appliance therapy have been reported by several researchers, and it has been found that there are various kinds of diseases that can be effectively applied. However, studies on cerebrovascular disease, one of the main diseases with a high mortality rate, are still poorly reported, and studies of temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD)-induced changes in brain function suggest that cerebrovascular disease is more appropriate as an adaptive disorder of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) balancing device. In the developed countries, the importance of research on the structure and function of the brain has been recognized and spurred on the related research. In Korea, the research on brain function and cognitive disorders should have promoted more massively. In order to regain its former reputation in the Korean medicine in the field of cerebrovascular disease, it should be spurred on basic research and clinical case studies. In addition, extensive and in-depth studies including animal studies are needed to establish the basis of underlying mechanisms of the TMJ balancing therapies.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Emotion and Sensibility Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.183-185
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• 2009

As imaging technology develops, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques have contributed to the understanding of brain function by providing anatomical structure of the brain and functional imaging related to information processing. Manganese-enhanced MRI (MEMRI) techniques can provide useful information about functions of the nervous system. However, systematic studies regarding information processing of pain have not been conducted. The purpose of this study was to detect brain activation during painful electrical stimulation using MEMRI with high spatial resolution. Male Sprague-Dawley rats (250-300 g) were divided into 3 groups: normal control, sham stimulation, and electric stimulation. Rats were anesthetized with 2.5% isoflurane for surgery. Polyethylene catheter (PE-10) was placed in the external carotid artery to administrate mannitol and MnCl2. The blood brain barrier (BBB) was broken by 20% D-mannitol under anesthesia mixed with urethane and a-chloralose. The hind limb was electrically stimulated with a 2Hz (10V) frequency while MnCl2 was infused. Brain activation induced by electrical stimulation was detected using a 4.7 T MRI. Remarkable signal enhancement was observed in the primary sensory that corresponds to sensory tactile stimulation at the hind limb region. These results suggest that signal enhancement is related to functional activation following electrical stimulation of the peripheral receptive field.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.2015-2020
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• 2011

A series of isoxazol-indolin-2-one was designed for GSK-3${\beta}$ inhibitors as novel anticancer agents based on their binding mode analysis in GSK-3${\beta}$ crystal structure. Total 21 compounds were synthesized and evaluated for their inhibitory activity against two tumor cell lines (DU145 and HT29). Most of the synthesized compounds were potent with above 80% inhibitory activity at 100 ${\mu}M$, and several compounds were examined for inhibitory activity against GSK-3${\beta}$. Among them, 15(Z) ($R_1$=H, $R_2$=3-Cl-phenyl) was most active with 78% inhibition of tumor cell line (HT29) at 20 ${\mu}M$ and 72% inhibition of GSK-3${\beta}$ at 20 ${\mu}M$.

• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.135-141
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• 2011

Hertwig's epithelial root sheath (HERS) consists of bi-layered cells derived from the inner and outer dental epithelia and plays important roles in tooth root formation as well as in the maintenance and regeneration of periodontal tissues. With regards to the fate of HERS, and although previous reports have suggested that this entails the formation of epithelial rests of Malassez, apoptosis or an epithelial-mesenchymal transformation (EMT), it is unclear what changes occur in the epithelial cells in this structure. This study examined whether HERS cells undergo EMT using a keratin-14 (K14) cre:ROSA 26 transgenic reporter mouse. The K14 transgene is expressed by many epithelial tissues, including the oral epithelium and the enamel organ. A distinct K14 expression pattern was found in the continuous HERS bi-layer and the epithelial diaphragm were visualized by detecting the ${\beta}$-galactosidase (lacZ) activity in 1 week postnatal mice. The 2 and 4 week old mice showed a fragmented HERS with cell aggregation along the root surface. However, some of the lacZ-positive dissociated cells along the root surface were not positive for pan-cytokeratin. These results suggest that the K14 transgene is a valuable marker of HERS. In addition, the current data suggest that some of the HERS cells may lose their epithelial properties after fragmentation and subsequently undergo EMT.