• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.39-48
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• 2000

Background: There arc two theories in the development of colon cancer. One is the adenoma-carcinoma sequence theory and the other is the de novo cancer theory. Western countries believe in the adenoma-carcinoma sequence theory, however there are many recent reports from, Japan about cancers developing from small adenomas. Methods: The present study analyzed 408 polyps from 508 cases that were taken by colonoscopic polypectomy at the Department of internal Medicine, Yeungnam University Hospital. Results: The percentage of patients who had a polyp was 41.3% (210 cases out of 526 cases), and the peak incidence was noted in patients in their 50s and 60s, There was no difference between the sexes, but we noted significant increase in the incidence of polyps in patients over the age of thirty. We found 395 polyps below 1cm and 13 polyps above 1cm. Among 408 polyps, 5 cases were cancerous polyps and 3 cases showed polyp size of less than 1cm each. The first case was a polyp of 0.4cm in size with elevated mucosa at the ascending colon. The second was 0.5cm in size with round elevation and hyperemic mucosa in the rectum. The third was 0.6cm in size with tubular elevation at the hepatic flexure. Conclusions: Colon polyp is a common disease in Koreans, Even small polyps can have cancer tissue, which should be removed if discovered during colonoscopy. We believe that not all colon cancer originates in the manner described by the adenoma-carcinoma sequence theory. However further studies with a larger sample population arc needed to determine the exact role of colon polyps in the development of colon cancer.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.21-29
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• 2016

The sodium hydrogen exchanger 1 (NHE1), which functions in maintaining the ratio of $Na^+$ and $H^+$ ions, is widely distributed in cell plasma membranes. It plays a prominent role in pH balancing, cell proliferation, differentiation, adhesion, and migration. However, its exact subcellular location and biological functions in Toxoplasma gondii are largely unclear. In this study, we cloned the C-terminal sequence of T. gondii NHE1 (TgNHE1) incorporating the C-terminal peptide of NHE1 (C-NHE1) into the pGEX4T-1 expression plasmid. The peptide sequence was predicted to have good antigenicity based on the information obtained from an immune epitope database. After induction of heterologous gene expression with isopropyl-b-D-thiogalactoside, the recombinant C-NHE1 protein successfully expressed in a soluble form was purified by glutathione sepharose beads as an immunogen for production of a rabbit polyclonal antiserum. The specificity of this antiserum was confirmed by western blotting and immunofluorescence. The antiserum could reduce T. gondii invasion into host cells, indicated by the decreased TgNHE1 expression in T. gondii parasites that were pre-incubated with antiserum in the process of cell entry. Furthermore, the antiserum reduced the virulence of T. gondii parasites to host cells in vitro, possibly by blocking the release of $Ca^{2+}$. In this regard, this antiserum has potential to be a valuable tool for further studies of TgNHE1.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 2001

Objective : The exact position of the lesion during the pallidotomy is critical to obtain the clinical improvement of parkinson's disease without damage to surrounding structure. Ventriculogrphy, CT(computed tomograpy) or MRI(magnetic resonance imaging) have been used to determine the initial coordinates of stereotactic target for pallidotomy. The goal of this study was to determine whether microelectrode recording significantly improves the neurophysiologic localization of the target obtained from MRI. Methods : Twenty patients were studied. They underwent a unilateral pallidotomy. Leksell frame was applied and T1 axial images parallel to the AC-PC(anterior commissure-posterior commissure) plane using a 1.5 Tesla MRI with 3mm slice thickness were obtained. Anteroposterior coordinate of target was chosen at 2mm in front of the midcommissural point and lateral coordinate between 19 and 22mm from the midline. The vertical coordinate was calculated on coronal slice using a fast spin echo inversion recovery sequence(FSEIR) related to the position of the choroidal fissure and ranged over 4-5mm below the AC-PC plane. Confirmation of the anatomical target was done on axial slices using the same FSEIR sequence . Microrecording was done at the pallidum contralateral to the symptomatic side using an electrode with a tip diameter of $1{{\mu}m}$ diameter tip and 1.1-1.4 mOhm impedance at 1000Hz. Electrophysiologic localization of the target was also confirmed intraoperatively by macrostimulation. Results : Microrecording techniques were reliable to define the transition from the base of the pallidum which was characterized by the disappearance of spike activity and by the change of the audible background activity. Signals from high amplitude neurons firing at 200-400Hz were recorded in the pallidal base. X, Y and Z coordinates of target obtained from the MRI were within 1mm from the X, Y, Z coordinates obtained with microrecording in 16 patients (80%), 15 patients(75%), 10 patients(50%) respectively. The difference of Y coordinate between on MRI and on microrecording was 4mm in only one patient. Conclusion : The MRI was accurate to localize the target within 1mm of the error from microrecording target in 70% of the patients. 4mm discrepancy was observed only once. We conclude that MRI alone can be used to determine the target for pallidotomy in most patients. However, microrecording technique can still be extremely valuable in patents with aberrant anatomy or unusual MRI coordinates. We also consider physiologic confirmation of the target using macrostimulation to be mandatory in all cases.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartB
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• v.9B no.6
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• pp.853-862
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• 2002

Face Detection can be defined as follows : Given a digitalized arbitrary or image sequence, the goal of face detection is to determine whether or not there is any human face in the image, and if present, return its location, direction, size, and so on. This technique is based on many applications such face recognition facial expression, head gesture and so on, and is one of important qualify factors. But face in an given image is considerably difficult because facial expression, pose, facial size, light conditions and so on change the overall appearance of faces, thereby making it difficult to detect them rapidly and exactly. Therefore, this paper proposes fast and exact face detection which overcomes some restrictions by using neural network. The proposed system can be face detection irrelevant to facial expression, background and pose rapidily. For this. face detection is performed by neural network and detection response time is shortened by reducing search region and decreasing calculation time of neural network. Reduced search region is accomplished by using skin color segment and frame difference. And neural network calculation time is decreased by reducing input vector sire of neural network. Principle Component Analysis (PCA) can reduce the dimension of data. Also, pose estimates in extracted facial image and eye region is located. This result enables to us more informations about face. The experiment measured success rate and process time using the Squared Mahalanobis distance. Both of still images and sequence images was experimented and in case of skin color segment, the result shows different success rate whether or not camera setting. Pose estimation experiments was carried out under same conditions and existence or nonexistence glasses shows different result in eye region detection. The experiment results show satisfactory detection rate and process time for real time system.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea CI
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.35-44
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• 2002

The translation and the rotation of camera occur global motion which affects all over the frame in video sequence. With the video sequences containing global motion, it is practically impossible to extract exact video objects and to calculate genuine object motions. Therefore, high compression ratio cannot be achieved due to the large motion vectors. This problem can be solved when the global motion compensated frames are used. The existing camera motion estimation methods for global motion compensation have a large amount of computations in common. In this paper, we propose a simple global motion estimation algorithm that consists of linear equations without any repetition. The algorithm uses information .of symmetric points in the frame of the video sequence. The discriminant conditions to distinguish regions belonging to distant view from foreground in the frame are presented. Only for the distant view satisfying the discriminant conditions, the linear equations for the panning, tilting, and zooming parameters are applied. From the experimental results using the MPEG test sequences, we can confirm that the proposed algorithm estimates correct global motion parameters. Moreover the real-time capability of the proposed technique can be applicable to many MPEG-4 and MPEG-7 related areas.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.575-581
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• 2015

This paper presents the development of certain highly efficient and accurate method for computing tangent curves for three-dimensional vector fields. Unlike conventional methods, such as Runge-Kutta method, for computing tangent curves which produce only approximations, the method developed herein produces exact values on the tangent curves based upon piecewise linear variation over a tetrahedral domain in 3D. This new method assumes that the vector field is piecewise linearly defined over a tetrahedron in 3D domain. It is also required to decompose the hexahedral cell into five or six tetrahedral cells for three-dimensional vector fields. The critical points can be easily found by solving a simple linear system for each tetrahedron. This method is to find exit points by producing a sequence of points on the curve with the computation of each subsequent point based on the previous. Because points on the tangent curves are calculated by the explicit solution for each tetrahedron, this new method provides correct topology in visualizing 3D vector fields.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.427-445
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• 2016

Star sensors are the attitude estimation sensors of the satellite orbiting in its path. It gives information to the control station on the earth about where the satellite is heading towards. It captures the images of a predetermined reference star. By comparing this image with that of the one captured from the earth, exact position of the satellite is determined. In the process of imaging, stray lights are eliminated from reaching the optic lens by the mechanical enclosures of the star sensors called Baffles. Research in space domain in the last few years is mainly focused on increased payload capacity and reduction in launch cost. In this paper, a star sensor baffle made of Aluminium is considered for the study. In order to minimize the component weight, material wastage and to improve the structural performance, an alternate material to Aluminium is investigated. Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer is found to be a better substitute in this regard. Design optimisation studies are carried out by adopting suitable design modifications like implementing an additional L-shaped flange, Upward flange projections, downward flange projections etc. A better configuration of the baffle, satisfying the design requirements and achieving manufacturing feasibility is attained. Geometrical modeling of the baffle is done by using UNIGRAPHICS-Nx7.5(R). Structural behavior of the baffle is analysed by FE analysis such as normal mode analysis, linear static analysis, and linear buckling analysis using MSC/PATRAN(R), MSC-NASTRAN(R) as the solver to validate the stiffness, strength and stability requirements respectively. Effect of the layup sequence and the fiber orientation angle of the composite layup on the stiffness are also studied.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.130-136
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• 2008

Background: Human cytomegalovirus UL18, a MHC class I homologue, has been considered a natural killer (NK) cell decoy. It ligates LIR-1/ILT2 (CD85j), an NK inhibitory receptor, to prevent lysis of infected target cells. However, precise role of UL18 to NK cell cytotoxicity is yet elusive. Difficulty in clarifying the function of UL18 lies in complication in detecting UL18 mainly due to low level expression of UL18 on the surface and gradual loss of its expression. Methods: To overcome this hurdle, cDNA of cytoplasmic tail-less UL18 was constructed and expressed in swine endothelial cell (SEC). The expression level and its stability in the cell surface were monitored with FACS analysis. Results: Surface expression of UL18 is up-regulated by removing cytoplasmic tail portion from UL18F (a full sequence of UL18). SECs transfected with a cDNA of UL18CY (a cytoplasmic tail-less UL18) stably expressed UL18 molecule on the surface without gradual loss of its expression during 6 week continuous cultures. In the NK cytotoxicity assay, UL18 functions either inhibiting or activating NK cell cytotoxicity according to the source of NK cells. We found that there is individual susceptibility in determining whether the engagement of NK cell and UL18 results in overall inhibiting or activating NK cell cytotoxicity. Conclusion: In this study, we found that cytoplasmic tail is closely related to the regulatory function for controlling surface expression of UL18. Furthermore, by constructing stable cell line in which UL18 expression is up-regulated and stable, we provided a useful tool to clarify exact functions of UL18 on various immune cells having ILT2 receptor.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.115-124
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• 2010

The current study investigated the role of acoustic correlates of domain-initial strengthening in lexical segmentation of a non-native language. In a series of cross-modal identity-priming experiments, native Korean listeners heard English auditory stimuli and made lexical decision to visual targets (i.e., written words). The auditory stimuli contained critical two word sequences which created temporal lexical ambiguity (e.g., 'mill#company', with the competitor 'milk'). There was either an IP boundary or a word boundary between the two words in the critical sequences. The initial CV of the second word (e.g., [$k_{\Lambda}$] in 'company') was spliced from another token of the sequence in IP- or Wd-initial positions. The prime words were postboundary words (e.g., company) in Experiment 1, and preboundary words (e.g., mill) in Experiment 2. In both experiments, Korean listeners showed priming effects only in IP contexts, indicating that they can make use of IP boundary cues of English in lexical segmentation of English. The acoustic correlates of domain-initial strengthening were also exploited by Korean listeners, but significant effects were found only for the segmentation of postboundary words. The results therefore indicate that L2 listeners can make use of prosodically driven phonetic detail in lexical segmentation of L2, as long as the direction of those cues are similar in their L1 and L2. The exact use of the cues by Korean listeners was, however, different from that found with native English listeners in Cho, McQueen, and Cox (2007). The differential use of the prosodically driven phonetic cues by the native and non-native listeners are thus discussed.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.51-61
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• 2016

Neurokinin B (NKB) and neurokinin B related peptide (NKBRP) belong to tachykinin peptide family. They act as a neurotransmitter and/or neuromodulator. Mutation of NKB and/or its cognate receptor, NK3R resulted in hypogonadotropic hypogonadism in mammals, implying a strong involvement of NKB/NK3R system in controlling mammalian reproduction. Teleosts possess NKBRP as well as NKB, but their roles in fish reproduction need to be clarified. In this study, NKB and NKBRP coding gene (tac3) was cloned from Nile tilapia and sequenced. Based on the sequence, Nile tilapia NKB and NKBRP peptide were synthesized and their biological potencies were tested in vitro pituitary culture. The synthetic NKBRP showed direct inhibitory effect on the expression of GTH subunits at the pituitary level. This inhibitory effect was confirmed in vivo by means of intraperitoneal (ip) injection of synthetic NKB and NKBRP to mature female tilapia (20 pmol/g body weight [BW]). Both NKB and NKBRP had no effect on the plasma level of sex steroids, E2 and 11-KT. However, NKBRP caused declines of expression level of GnRH I, Kiss2 and tac3 mRNAs in the brain while NKB seemed to have no distinct effect. These results indicate some inhibitory roles of NKBRP in reproduction of mature female Nile tilapia, although their exact functions are not clear at the moment.