• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.57-62
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• 2012

In this report, we demonstrate that the longitudinal localized surface plasmon resonance mode can be suppressed when the nanorods were in dumbbell shape. The seed nanorods were synthesized by electrochemical deposition of metals into the pores of anodic aluminum oxide templates. The dumbbell-like nanorods were grown from seed Au-Ni-Au nanorods by a rate-controlled seed-mediated growth strategy. The selective deposition of Au atoms onto Au blocks of Au-Ni-Au nanorods produced larger diameter of Au nanorods with bumpy surface resulting in dumbbell-like nanorods. The morphology of nanorods depended on the reduction rate of $AuCl_4^-$, slow rate producing smooth surface of Au nanorods, but high reduction rate producing bumpy surface morphology. Through systematic investigation into the UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy, we found that the multiple localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) modes were available from single-component Au nanorods. And, their LSPR modes of Au NRs with bumpy surface, compared to the smooth seed Au NRs, were red-shifted, which was obviously attributed to the increased electron oscillation pathways. While the longitudinal LSPR modes of smoothly grown Au NRs were blue-shifted except for a dipole transverse LSPR mode, which can be interpreted by decreased aspect ratio. In addition, dumbbell-like nanorods showed an almost disappeared longitudinal LSPR mode. It reflects that the plasmonic properties can be engineered using complex nanorods structure.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.6797-6802
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• 2013

Background: Prevalence of tobacco use is higher in the rural than urban areas of India. Unlike tobacco cessation clinics located in urban areas, community-based smoking cessation intervention has the potential to reach a wider section of the community to assist in smoking cessation in the rural setting. The present study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a cessation intervention in rural Kerala state, India. Materials and Methods: Current daily smoking resident males in the age group 18-60 years from four community development blocks in rural Kerala were randomly allocated to intervention and control groups. The intervention group received multiple approaches in which priority was given to face-to-face interviews and telephone counselling. Initially educational materials on tobacco hazards were distributed. Further, four rounds of counselling sessions were conducted which included a group counselling with a medical camp as well as individual counselling by trained medical social workers. The control group received general awareness training on tobacco hazards along with an anti-tobacco leaflet. Self-reported smoking status was assessed after 6 and 12 months. Factors associated with tobacco cessation were estimated using binomial regression method. Results: Overall prevalence of smoking abstinence was 14.7% in the intervention and 6.8% in the control group (Relative risk: 1.85, 95% CI: 1.05, 3.25). A total of 41.3% subjects in the intervention area and 13.6% in the control area had reduced smoking by 50% or more at the end of 12 months. Lower number of cigarettes/ bidi used, low nicotine dependence and consultation with a doctor for a medical ailment were the statistically significant predictors for smoking cessation. Conclusions: Rigorous approaches for smoking cessation programmes can enhance quit rates in smoking in rural areas of India.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.395-401
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• 2016

Background Some of the relatively newer, more efficacious, and potent topical wound dressing solutions include tetrachlorodecaoxide and super-oxidised solution. This study compares the efficacy and safety of these two drugs. Methods This is a block-randomised, double blind, parallel-arm, post-marketing study. One hundred fifty patients with ulcers (75 blocks uniform for sex, ulcer aetiology, diabetes mellitus, and wound area score) were randomised into the two treatment arms. Patients were observed for eight weeks with weekly assessments. One hundred and twenty patients completed the study. Wound healing was objectively assessed by measurement of wound area, scoring of wound exudation and tissue type, and using the pressure ulcer scale of healing Tool (validated for multiple wound aetiologies). Subjective improvement in pain was noted using a visual analogue scale. Both groups were compared using Mann-Whitney U test on all indicators. Results Difference in change in wound tissue type in the two groups was significant (${\alpha}$=0.05) by intention-to-treat (ITT) and per-protocol (PP) analysis at the end of week two (ITT and PP, P<0.001) and week four (ITT, P=0.010; PP, P=0.009). P-values for other comparisons were not significant (P>0.05). No study-related adverse events were observed. Conclusions Both drugs are efficacious. Tetrachlorodecaoxide yields healthy granulation tissue earlier. Both drugs appear to be safe for application.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.42 no.2 s.302
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• pp.87-100
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• 2005

In this paper, we propose a new selective temporal error concealment algerian best suited for H.264/AVC. The proposed algorithm performs selective temporal error concealment depending on whether the lost block is at background or foreground. It the corrupted macroblock is decided as at background, then the simple temporal replacement is performed. Also we propose replacing a lost block at foreground with the selective average of respectively estimated blocks from the multiple reference frames. This paper supposes error-corrupted H.264/AVC video bitstreams over CDMA2000 (or UMTS) air interface. It is shown that under Flexible Macroblock Ordering (FMO) coding of H.264/AVC, the proposed algorithm provides PSNR gain up to 1.18dB compared to built-in algorithm in the K264/AVC test model. In addition, the proposed error concealment method has average PSNR improvement of 0.33dB compared with that under N-slice coding mode. The proposed algorithm also provides better subjective video quality than other conventional error concealment algorithms.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics S
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• v.36S no.2
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• pp.57-62
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• 1999

Estimation of the point spread function (PSF) is one of the main research topic of image processing, because it determines the performance of the auto-focusing system. In this paper, a new algorithm for PSF estimation is proposed, and its application to image restoration is also presented. The procedure for complete realization of the auto-focusing system consists of two steps: PSF estimation based on edge classification, and image restoration using the estimated PSF. More specifically, we divide imput image into multiple small image or block, estimate unit step response and average them on the blocks which contain edge, and estimate 2-dimensional isotropic PSF from the 1 dimensional step response. Finally we obtain in-focused image by using image restoration based on the estimated PSF.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.34 no.8C
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• pp.790-800
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• 2009

For the improvement of coding efficiency, the H.264/AYC standard uses new coding tools such as 1/4-pel-accurate motion estimation, multiple references, intra prediction, loop filter, variable block size etc. Using these coding tools, H.264/AYC has achieved significant improvements from rate-distortion point of view compared to existing standards. However, the encoder complexity was greatly increased due to these coding tools. We focus on the complexity reduction method of intra macroblock mode selection. The proposed algorithm for fast intra mode selection calculates the edge activity in transform domain, and performs fast encoding of intra frame in H.264/AYC through the fast prediction mode selection of intra4x4 and chrominance blocks. Simulation results show that the proposed method saves about 59.76% for QCIF sequences and 65.03% for CIF sequences of total encoding time, while bitrate increase and PSNR decrease are very small.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.28-35
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• 2010

The variable block size motion estimation (ME) and compensation (MC) using multiple reference frames is adopted in H.264/AVC to improve coding efficiency. However, the computational complexity for ME/MC increases proportional to the number of reference frames and variable blocks. In this paper, we propose a new efficient reference frame selection algorithm to reduce the complexity while keeping the visual quality. First, a motion vector reference map is constructed by SAD of $4{\times}4$ block unit for multi reference frames. Next, the variable block size motion estimation and motion compensation is performed according to the motion vector reference map. The computer simulation results show that the average loss of BDPSNR is -0.01dB, the increment of BDBR is 0.27%, and the encoding time is reduced by 38% compared with the original method for H.264/AVC.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.286-292
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• 2001

During mitosis. the proper segregation of duplicated chromosomes is corrdinated by a spindle check-point. The bifurcated spindle checkpoint blocks cell cycle progression at metaphase by monitoring unattached kinetochores and inhibits mitotic exit in response to the misorientation of the mitotic spin- dle Ibd1p/Bfa1p is a spindle checkpoint regulator of budding yeast in the Bub2p checkpoint pathway for mitotic exit and its disruption abolishes mitotic arrest when proper organization of the mitotic spin-dls inhibited. Ibd1p/Bfa1p localizes to the spindle pole body, a microtublue-organizing center in yeast, and its overexpression arrests the cell cycle in 80% of cells with an enlarged budy at mitosis and in 20 % of cells with multiple buds. In this study, we found that the C-terminus of Ibd1p/Bfa1p phys-ically interacts with Skp1p, a key component of SCF (Skp1/cullin/F-box) complex for ubiquition-medi-ated proteolysis of cel cycle regulatores as well as an evolutionally conserved kinetochore protein for cell cycle progression. A putative F-box motif was found in the C-terminus of Ibd1p/Bfa1p and its function was investigated by making mutants of conserved residues in the motif. These Ibd1p/Bfa1p mutants of a putative F-box interacted with SKp1p in vitro by two-hybrid assays as wild type Ibd1p/Bfa1p. Also these Ibd1p/Bfa1p utants displayed the overexpression phenotypes of wild type Ibd1p, when over-expressed under inducible promoters . These results suggest that a putative F-box motif of Ibd1p/Bfa1p is not essential for the interaction with SKp1p and its function in mitotic exit and cytokinesis.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.123-128
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• 2016

Phantom limb pain is a phenomenon in which patients experience pain in a part of the body that no longer exists. In several treatment modalities, spinal cord stimulation (SCS) has been introduced for the management of intractable post-amputation pain. A 46-year-old male patient complained of severe ankle and foot pain, following above-the-knee amputation surgery on the right side amputation surgery three years earlier. Despite undergoing treatment with multiple modalities for pain management involving numerous oral and intravenous medications, nerve blocks, and pulsed radiofrequency (RF) treatment, the effect duration was temporary and the decreases in the patient's pain score were not acceptable. Even the use of SCS did not provide completely satisfactory pain management. However, the trial lead positioning in the cauda equina was able to stimulate the site of the severe pain, and the patient's pain score was dramatically decreased. We report a case of successful pain management with spinal cauda equina stimulation following the failure of SCS in the treatment of intractable phantom limb pain.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.687-708
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• 2017

The machine-to-machine (M2M) communication is featured by tremendous number of devices, small data transmission, and large uplink to downlink traffic ratio. The massive access requests generated by M2M devices would result in the current medium access control (MAC) protocol in LTE/LTE-A networks suffering from physical random access channel (PRACH) overload, high signaling overhead, and resource underutilization. As such, fairness should be carefully considered when M2M traffic coexists with human-to-human (H2H) traffic. To tackle these problems, we propose an adaptive Slotted ALOHA (S-ALOHA) and time division multiple access (TDMA) hybrid protocol. In particular, the proposed hybrid protocol divides the reserved uplink resource blocks (RBs) in a transmission cycle into the S-ALOHA part for M2M traffic with small-size packets and the TDMA part for H2H traffic with large-size packets. Adaptive resource allocation and access class barring (ACB) are exploited and optimized to maximize the channel utility with fairness constraint. Moreover, an upper performance bound for the proposed hybrid protocol is provided by performing the system equilibrium analysis. Simulation results demonstrate that, compared with pure S-ALOHA and pure TDMA protocol under a target fairness constraint of 0.9, our proposed hybrid protocol can improve the capacity by at least 9.44% when ${\lambda}_1:{\lambda}_2=1:1$and by at least 20.53% when ${\lambda}_1:{\lambda}_2=10:1$, where ${\lambda}_1,{\lambda}_2$ are traffic arrival rates of M2M and H2H traffic, respectively.