• KSBB Journal
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• v.20 no.1 s.90
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• pp.1-11
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• 2005

Recently, there has been extremely active in the research of stem cell biology. Stem cells have excellent potential for being the ultimate source of transplantable cells for many different tissues. Researchers hope to use stem cells to repair or replace diseased or damaged organs, leading to new treatments for human disorders that are currently incurable, including diabetes, spinal cord injury and brain diseases. There are primary sources of stem cells like embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells. Stem cells from embryos were known to give rise to every type of cell. However, embryonic stem cells still have a lot of disadvantages. First, transplanted cells sometimes grow into tumors. Second, the human embryonic stem cells that are available for research would be rejected by a patient's immune system. Tissue-matched transplants could be made by either creating a bank of stem cells from more human embryos, or by cloning a patient's DNA into existing stem cells to customize them. However, this is laborious and ethically contentious. These problems could be overcome by using adult stem cells, taken from a patient, that are treated to remove problems and then put back. Nevertheless, some researchers do not convince that adult stem cells could, like embryonic ones, make every tissue type. Human stem cell research holds enormous potential for contributing to our understanding of fundamental human biology. In this review, we discuss the recent progress in stem cell research and the future therapeutic applications.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.64 no.12
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• pp.1818-1823
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• 2015

In this paper, we analyzed the optimal configuration of protection wire that have been installed in the electric railway power supply system. Protection wires are to suppress the ground potential rise when the short circuit fault between contact wire-rail(C-F), and protect the electronics equipments(signalling and communication) that are facility the wayside. The role of protection wires must be feed back quickly the fault current to the substation when a short circuit fault occurs. In this paper, we proposed that only one line to install the protection wire. Comparing how to newly proposed and existing system, most of the performance is similar. The reason is that most of the current flowing in the protection wire near the location where the fault occurred. There is no problem even if in one line for human safe and the low impedance of the return circuit in dimension to ensure the safety of the facility during the fault. To ensure safety during an fault occurs, it is sufficient even by one line. But, In the protection wire of facilities planning it is necessary to design taking into account the potential utility.

• Experimental and Molecular Medicine
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• v.50 no.12
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• pp.10.1-10.11
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• 2018

Cancer growth and progression are associated with immune suppression. Cancer cells have the ability to activate different immune checkpoint pathways that harbor immunosuppressive functions. Monoclonal antibodies that target immune checkpoints provided an immense breakthrough in cancer therapeutics. Among the immune checkpoint inhibitors, PD-1/PD-L1 and CTLA-4 inhibitors showed promising therapeutic outcomes, and some have been approved for certain cancer treatments, while others are under clinical trials. Recent reports have shown that patients with various malignancies benefit from immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment. However, mainstream initiation of immune checkpoint therapy to treat cancers is obstructed by the low response rate and immune-related adverse events in some cancer patients. This has given rise to the need for developing sets of biomarkers that predict the response to immune checkpoint blockade and immune-related adverse events. In this review, we discuss different predictive biomarkers for anti-PD-1/PD-L1 and anti-CTLA-4 inhibitors, including immune cells, PD-L1 overexpression, neoantigens, and genetic and epigenetic signatures. Potential approaches for further developing highly reliable predictive biomarkers should facilitate patient selection for and decision-making related to immune checkpoint inhibitor-based therapies.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.1009-1013
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• 2019

Polymeric nanoparticles are widely used for drug delivery due to their biodegradability property. Among the wide array of polymers, chitosan has received growing interest among researchers. It was widely used as a vehicle in polymeric nanoparticles for drug targeting. This review explored the current research on the antimicrobial activity of chitosan nanoparticles (ChNP) and the impact on the clinical applications. The antimicrobial activities of ChNP were widely reported against bacteria, fungi, yeasts and algae, in both in vivo and in vitro studies. For pharmaceutical applications, ChNP were used as antimicrobial coating for promoting wound healing, preventing infections and combating the rise of infectious disease. Besides, ChNP also exhibited significant inhibitory activities on foodborne microorganisms, particularly on fruits and vegetables. It is noteworthy that ChNP can be also applied to deliver antimicrobial drugs, which further enhance the efficiency and stability of the antimicrobial agent. The present review addresses the potential antimicrobial applications of ChNP from these few aspects.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.47-54
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• 2023

This article reviews recent advances and perspectives in neuroscience related to consciousness, cognition, and neural networks in the brain. The neural mechanisms underlying cognitive processes, such as perception, attention, memory, and decision-making, are explored. The article also examines how these processes give rise to our experience of consciousness. The implications of these findings for our understanding of the brain and its functions are presented, as well as potential applications of this knowledge in fields such as medicine, psychology, and artificial intelligence. Additionally, the article explores the concept of a quantum viewpoint concerning consciousness, cognition, and creativity and how incorporating DNA as a key element could reconcile classical and quantum perspectives on human behaviour, consciousness, and cognition, as explained by genomic psychological theory. Furthermore, the article explains how the human brain processes external stimuli through the sensory nervous system and how it can be simulated using an artificial neural network (ANN) consisting of one input layer, multiple hidden layers, and an output layer. The law of learning is also discussed, explaining how ANNs work and how the modification of weight values affects the output and input values. The article concludes with a discussion of future research directions in this field, highlighting the potential for further discoveries and advancements in our understanding of the brain and its functions.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.236-242
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• 1986

The dependence of the current-voltage characteristics of hydrogenated amorphous silicon pin solar cells on the illumimination light intensity has been investigated. The open circuit voltage increases linearly with increasing the logarithm of light intensity up to AM 1, and nearly saturates above AM 1, indicating the open circuit voltage approaching the built-in potential of the pin solar cell above AM 1. The short circuit current density increase with light intensity in proportion to I**0.85 before and I**0.97 after light exposure. Since the series resistance devreses and shunt resistance increases with light intensily, the fill factor increases with light illumination. To increase the fill factor at high illumination in large area solar cells, t6he grid pattern on the ITO substrates should be made. Long light exposure on the solar cells gives rise to the increase of bulk resistance and defect states, resulting in the decrease of the fil factor and short circuit current density. The potential drop in the bulk of the a-Si:H pin solar cells at short circuit condition increases with decreasing temperature, and increases after long light exposure.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.83-88
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• 2010

In this paper, to propose a valid method solving a problem relevant to grounding from actual field data, the experimental results relevant to touch and step voltages and surface potential profiles measured around the real-sized and small-sized grounding electrode models were described. The ground surface potential profiles and dangerous voltages around the concrete pedestals employed in street facilities such as street lamps, traffic signal lamp and controllers as a case study were measured and discussed. The hemispherical cell with a diameter of 1,160[mm] was employed to simulate uniform soil. As a result, the results measured with the small-sized model were in reasonably agreement with the data obtained from the real-sized installation. It was found that the small-sized model test could be employed as a useful means evaluating the dangerous voltages around grounding electrodes installed at the inaccessible areas such as mountains, underground, underwater, and so on.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.169-175
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• 2000

To learn the developmental changes in intrinsic electrophysiological properties of the second order taste neurons, whole cell recordings from the developing nucleus of the solitary tract neurons were done in brainstem slices of postnatal rats. Rats aged from postnatal 0 to 21 days (P0-P21) were used, being divided into 3 age groups: postnatal first week (P0-P7 days), second week (P8-P14 days), and third week (P15-P21 days). Slices containing gustatory NTS were cut horizontally in the thickness of $300\;{\mu}m.$ Whole cell recordings were obtained from neurons in response to a series of hyperpolarizing and depolarizing current pulses. The intrinsic electrophysiological properties of the rostral NTS (rNTS) neurons were compared among the age groups. Depolarizing current pulses evoked a train of action potentials in all neurons of all age groups. The resting membrane potential and input resistance of the neurons did not show any significant differences during the postnatal 3 weeks. The time constant, however, decreased during the development. Duration of action potential measured at half maximum amplitude was longer in younger age groups. Both the maximum rate of rise and the maximum rate of fall in the action potential increased during the first 3 weeks postnatal. Electrophysiologically more than half neurons were type III. In summary, it is suggested that developmental changes in electrophysiological properties in rNTS occur during the first three weeks in rats.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.53-61
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• 2014

Background: The use of health functional food (HFF) is increasing and will continue to rise worldwide. Concerns about HFF-drug interactions are increasing as HFF are becoming more widely used. Therefore, awareness of consumers' perceptions and behaviors associated with HFF use may help health care providers improve their communications with patients. Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the characteristics, perceptions, and behaviors associated with HFF use in South Korea. Method: The online survey was conducted from September 21th to October 7th, 2013. With the aid of Social Network Service (SNS) and google, the questionnaire was posted online on internet website targeting people aged 15 years or older so that self-reported data covering 4 domains were collected from 257 Koreans. Results: A total of 257 people responded the questionnaire. Among them, 81.3% reported experiences of HFF use. Female were more likely than male to use HFFs. There were no differences in demographic characteristics between HFF users and non-users in relation to age, education, and household income. Higher level of education was associated with high-level perception of HFF function (OR 3.9, 95% CI 1.48, 10.1) and a positive relationship was observed between the maximum number of HFFs used concurrently and age of the respondents. Among the HFF users, 42.6% reported concurrent HFF-medication use. However 73.3% of them did not disclose their use to physician or pharmacist and only 30.2% were informed about potential drug-HFF interactions. Pharmacy was most commonly reported as the source from which the respondents were informed about potential interactions. Conclusion: Many people had used HFF and medications concurrently while not being informed about potential HFF-drug interactions. Pharmacists and physicians should be vigilant for risk of the interactions and actively determine whether the patient is using an HFF before prescribing and administrating medications.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.7_spc
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• pp.527-536
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• 2016

This paper investigates seismic damage potential of recent September 12 M5.8 Gyeongju earthquake from diverse earthquake engineering perspectives using the accelerograms recorded at three stations near the epicenter. In time domain, strong motion durations are evaluated based on the accelerograms and compared with statistical averages of the ground motions with similar magnitude, epicentral distance and soil conditions, while Fourier analysis using FFT is performed to identify damaging frequency contents contained in the earthquake. Effective peak ground accelerations are evaluated from the calculated response spectra and compared with apparent peak ground accelerations and the design spectrum in KBC 2016. All these results are used to consistently explain the reason why most of seismic damage in the earthquake was concentrated on low-rise stiff buildings but not quite significant. In order to comparatively appraise the damage potential, the constant ductility spectrum constructed from the Gyeongju earthquake is compared with that of the well-known 1940 El Centro earthquake. Deconvolution analysis by using one accelerogram speculated to be recorded at a stiff soil site is also performed to estimate the soil profile conforming to the response spectrum characteristics. Finally, response history analysis for 39- and 61-story tall buildings is performed as a case study to explain significant building vibration felt on the upper floors of some tall buildings in Busan area during the Gyeongju earthquake. Seismic design and retrofit implications of M5.8 Gyeongju earthquake are summarized for further research efforts and improvements of relevant practice.