• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.5.1-5.1
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• 2010

One of the most important environmental problems is global warming. Global warming is caused by increase in the amounts of water vapor, methane, carbon dioxide and other gases being released into the atmosphere as a result of the burning of fossil fuels. It has thus become important to reduce fossil fuel use. Environmentally friendly preparation of functional materials has, therefore, attracted much interest for environmental problems. Furthermore, nature mimetic processes are recently been of great interest as environmentally friendly one. There have been many studies on fabrication of various functional nanocrystals. Among various nanocrystal fabrication techniques, flux growth is an environmentally friendly, very convenient process and can produce functional nanocrystals at temperatures below the melting points of the solutes. Furthermore, this technique is suitable for the synthesis of crystals having an enhedral habit. In flux growth, the constituents of the materials to be crystallized are dissolved in a suitable flux (solvent) and crystal growth occurs as the solution becomes critically supersaturated. The supersaturation is attained by cooling the solution, by evaporation of the solvent or by a transport process in which the solute is made to flow from a hotter to a cooler region. Many kinds of oxide nanocrystals have been grown in our laboratory. For example, zero- (e.g., particle), one- (e.g., whisker and tube) and two-dimensional (e.g., sheet) nanocrystals were successfully grown by flux method. Our flux-growth technique has some industrial and ecological merits because the nanocrystal fabrication temperatures are far below their melting points and because the used reagents are less harmless to human being and the environment.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.8
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• pp.662-669
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• 2012

The effect of aspect ratio (AR) on the aerodynamic characteristics of a flapping wing was examined to analyze the design parameters of an insect-based MAV. The experimental model constructed with 4-bar linkages was operated in a water tank with the condition of a low Reynolds number. A water-proof micro-force load cell was fabricated and installed at the root of the wing which is made of a plexiglas. The wing shapes were based on the planform of a fruit fly wing. The ARs selected were 1.87, 3.74 and 7.48 and the Reynolds number was fixed at $10^4$. For AR=1.87 and 3.74, distinct lift peaks which indicate unsteady effects such as 'wake-capture' were observed at the moment of the start of the wing-stroke. However, for AR=7.48, no unsteady effects were observed. These phenomena were also observed in the delayed rotation case. The results indicate that a larger AR provides better aerodynamic performance for the insect-based flapping wing which can be applied in MAV designs.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.427-436
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• 2018

The objective of this study was to analyze the concurrent treatment effects of ursolic acid (UA) and low-intensity treadmill exercise and to confirm the effectiveness of UA as an exercise mimetic to safely improve muscle atrophy-related diseases using Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats with skeletal muscle atrophy. Significant muscle atrophy was induced in male SD rats through hind limb immobilization using casting for 10 days. The muscle atrophy-induced SD rats were group into four: SED, sedentary; UA, daily intraperitoneal UA injection, 5 mg/kg; EX, low-intensity (10-12 m/min, $0^{\circ}$ grade) treadmill exercise; and UEX, daily intraperitoneal UA injection, 5 mg/kg, and low-intensity (10-12 m/min, $0^{\circ}$ grade) treadmill exercise. After 8 weeks of treatment, endurance capacity was analyzed using a treadmill, and tissues were extracted for analysis of visceral fat mass, body weight, muscle mass, expression of muscle atrophy- and hypertrophy-related genes, and endurance capacity. Although the effects of body weight gain control, muscle mass increase, and endurance capacity improvement were inadequate in the UA group, significant results were confirmed in the UEX group. The UEX group had significantly reduced body weight and visceral fat, significantly improved mass of tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius muscles, and significantly decreased atrophy-related gene expression of MuRF1 and atrogin-1, but did not have significant change in hypertrophy-related gene expression of Akt and mTOR. The endurance capacity was significantly improved in the EX and UEX groups. These data suggest that concurrent treatment with low-intensity exercise and UA is effective for atrophy-related physical dysfunctions.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.9-20
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• 2014

Making good predictions about the outcome of one's actions would seem to be essential in the context of social interaction and decision-making. This paper proposes a computational model for learning articulated motion patterns for action recognition, which mimics biological-inspired visual perception processing of human brain. Developed model of cortical architecture for the unsupervised learning of motion sequence, builds upon neurophysiological knowledge about the cortical sites such as IT, MT, STS and specific neuronal representation which contribute to articulated motion perception. Experiments show how the model automatically selects significant motion patterns as well as meaningful static snapshot categories from continuous video input. Such key poses correspond to articulated postures which are utilized in probing the trained network to impose implied motion perception from static views. We also present how sequence selective representations are learned in STS by fusing snapshot and motion input and how learned feedback connections enable making predictions about future input sequence. Network simulations demonstrate the computational capacity of the proposed model for motion recognition.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.85-90
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• 2001

Recently there are lots of concerning on robot agent system working for itself with the trends of the research of bio-mimetic system and intelligent Therefore it is necessary to develop more humanized interface system from communicating with the robot agent. In this paper a virtual 3D interface system is proposed based on Internet for remote controlling and monitoring of robot agent. The proposed system is constructed as manager-agent model and a man can order a job at the 3D virtual interface environment of the manager located remotely Then the robot agent detects a 3D profile data from a range finder automatically and the robot moves the object to the new position in real space. The proposed system supports a advanced interface displaying virtual 3D graphics and real moving images and which makes it possible one to manage the robot agent more conveniently.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.179-184
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• 2007

This study introduces the characteristics and some applications of repetitive polypeptides, especially to the biomaterial, tissue engineering scaffolds, drug delivery system, and DNA separation systems. Since some fibrous proteins, which consist of repeating peptide monomers, have been reported that their physical properties are changed dramatically by means of temperature alteration or pH shifting. For that reason, fibrous protein-mimetic polypeptides, which are produced by the recombinant technology, can be applied to the diverse biological fields. Repetitive polypeptides can also be used in the bioseparation area such as DNA sequencing, because they make DNA separation possible in free-solution electrophoresis by conjugating DNA fragments to them. Moreover, artificial synthesis of repetitive polypeptides helps to demonstrate the correlations between mechanical properties and structures of natural protein polymer, which have been proven that repetitive domains are affected by the sequence of the repeating domains and the number of repeating subunits. Repetitive polypeptides can be biologically synthesized using some special cloning methods, which are represented here. Recursive directional ligation (RDL) and controlled cloning method (CCM) have been proposed as excellent cloning methods in that we can control the number of repetition in the multimerization of polypeptides and the components of repetitive polypeptides by either method.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartA
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• v.16A no.4
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• pp.255-262
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• 2009

We present an autonomous entertainment dolphin robot system based on ubiquitous sensor networks(USN). Generally, It is impossible to apply to USN and GPS in underwater bio-mimetic robots. But An Entertainment dolphin robot which presented in this paper operates on the water not underwater. Navigation of the underwater robot in a given area is based on GPS data and the acquired position information from deployed USN motes with emphasis on user interaction. Body structures, sensors and actuators, governing microcontroller boards, and swimming and interaction features are described for a typical entertainment dolphin robot. Actions of mouth-opening, tail splash or water blow through a spout hole are typical responses of interaction when touch sensors on the body detect users' demand. Dolphin robots should turn towards people who demand to interact with them, while swimming autonomously. The functions that are relevant to human-robot interaction as well as robot movement such as path control, obstacle detection and avoidance are managed by microcontrollers on the robot for autonomy. Distance errors are calibrated periodically by the known position data of the deployed USN motes.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartA
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• v.15A no.2
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• pp.75-86
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• 2008

Black/white comic rendering is one of the researches in the field of non-photorealistic rendering(NPR). Black/white comics have been produced manually as yet. But these previous systems require lots of time and manual work. So we propose the COmics Rendering system on VIdeo Stream (CORVIS) which transforms video streams into black/white comic cuts. Stylized font, one of comic representations, can be used to express onomatopoeic words and mimetic dialogue exaggeratively. But current comic generation systems do not provide enough effects of stylized font. This paper proposes a model for stylized fonts to express various effects. Effects of stylized fonts we proposed include geometric deformations. Thus we could represent stylized fonts on the still cut of movies and the background texture on a cuts of plain black/white comics. The final quality of our system produced is good enough to compare with manual black/white comics.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.11
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• pp.1575-1580
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• 2010

Recently, the development of bio-mimetic underwater vehicles that can emulate the characteristic movements of marine fish and mammals has attracted considerable attention. In this study, the motion of the batoid (i.e., cownose ray) fin that facilitates excellent cruising and maneuvering during underwater movement has been studied. The velocity achieved and distance covered with each fin movement are numerically studied. A fluid-structure interaction method is used to perform 3D time-dependent numerical analysis, wherein an adaptive mesh is employed to account for the large deformation of a fin interacting with a fluid. The results of a preliminary study show that the thrust of a ray fin is highly dependent on the frequency. Further, once the fin amplitude required for generating a given thrust is evaluated for the conditions experienced by an actual ray, the frequency and amplitude values for achieving better thrust are determined.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.47-54
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• 2012

Korean red ginseng (KRG) has been used worldwide as a traditional medicine for the treatment of various reproductive diseases. Gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons are the fundamental regulators of pulsatile release of gonadotropin required for fertility. In this study, an extract of KRG (KRGE) was applied to GnRH neurons to identify the receptors activated by KRGE. The brain slice patch clamp technique in whole cell and perforated patch was used to clarify the effect of KRGE on the membrane currents and membrane potentials of GnRH neurons. Application of KRGE (3 ${\mu}g$/${\mu}L$) under whole cell patch induced remarkable inward currents (56.17${\pm}$7.45 pA, n=25) and depolarization (12.91${\pm}$3.80 mV, n=4) in GnRH neurons under high $Cl^-$ pipette solution condition. These inward currents were not only reproducible, but also concentration dependent. In addition, inward currents and depolarization induced by KRGE persisted in the presence of the voltage gated $Na^+$ channel blocker tetrodotoxin (TTX), suggesting that the responses by KRGE were postsynaptic events. Application of KRGE under the gramicidin perforated patch induced depolarization in the presence of TTX suggesting its physiological significance on GnRH response. Further, the KRGE-induced inward currents were partially blocked by 6-cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione (CNQX; non-NMDA glutamate receptor antagonist, 10 ${\mu}M$) or picrotoxin (PIC; $GABA_A$ receptor antagonist, 50 ${\mu}M$), and almost blocked by PIC and CNQX mixture. Taken together, these results suggest that KRGE contains ingredients with possible GABA and non-NMDA glutamate receptor mimetic activity, and may play an important role in the endocrine function of reproductive physiology, via activation of $GABA_A$ and non-NMDA glutamate receptors in GnRH neurons.