Neuron-on-a-Chip technology is based on advanced neuronal culture technique, surface micropatterning, microelectrode array technology, and multi-dimensional data analysis techniques. The combination of these techniques allowed us to design and analyze live biological neural networks in vitro using real neurons. In this review article, two underlying technologies are reviewed: Microelectrode array technology and Neuronal patterning technology. There are new opportunities in the fusion of these technologies to apply them in neurobiology, neuroscience, neural prostheses, and cell-based biosensor areas.

This study aims at designing and evaluating light source devices that can stably generate light with various wavelengths in order to make possible PDD using a photosensitizer and diagnosis using auto-fluorescence. The light source was a Xenon lamp and filter wheel, composed of an optical output control through Iris and filters with several wavelength bands. It also makes the inducement of auto-fluorescence possible because it is designed to generate a wavelength band of 380-420nm, 430-480nm, and 480-560nm. The transmission part of the light source was developed to enhance the efficiency of light transmission. To evaluate this light source, the characteristics of light output and wavelength band were verified. To validate the capability of this device as PDD, the detection of auto-fluorescence using mouse models was performed.

Cancer serum biomarkers have advanced our ability to more accurately predict tumor classification, prognostic/metastatic potential, and response potential to novel chemotherapies. Serum amyloid A (SAA) and Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) have potential utility as a serum biomarker for lung cancer. Quantum dots, nanometer-sized crystals, have a high quantum yield, sensitivity, and pronounced photostability. The properties of quantum dots can be efficiently applied to the detection of serum biomarkers in immunoassays as fluorescent probe. We used quantum dots as fluorescent probes in immunoassays and attempted to detect serum amyloid A and vascular endothelial growth factor as serum biomarkers of lung cancer. This fluorescence immunoassay based on the properties of quantum dots is applicable to the detection of serum biomarkers for lung cancer. The fluorescence immunoassay with quantum dots should allow the efficient and specific detection of serum amyloid A (SAA) for the possible diagnosis of lung cancer.

The ideal method which measures a blood vessel of senility and degree of arteriosclerosis is to measure compliance of arterial and condition of blood circulation at the periphery. In these days vascular stiffness have been assessed by analyzing PTT (pulse transit time) from ECG and PPG. PTT is that between toe and finger each subject estimated through ECG and PPG signals. Two parameters, which are related to PWV, were tested with the time delay between the finger and toe. PWV is a variation of quantity which is associated with vascular stiffness. These researches which use PTT and PWV don't consider the blood vessel characteristic of an individual. In this current research, we have used with the blood vessel characteristic of an individual. That is an assessment of vascular stiffness using the variation of quantity in PWV with the changes of position in the subject. PWV variation increased as functions of the subject's age. The increase of the PWV variation parameters with age is attributed to the direct decrease of the blood vessel compliance with different position. The quantity of variation estimated by experimental results is that old age's (75.78${\pm}$7.75) case is 113.68% and young age's (26.47${\pm}$2.04) case is 85.69%. We proved and presented about estimation of vascular stiffness of possibility by this result.

Purpose: The aim of present study is to evaluate a possibility of clinical application for the effect of low intensity ultrasound stimulation (LIUS) in mechanical characteristics of bone on osteoporotic fractures prevention. Materials and Methods: Eight virgin ICR mice (14 weeks old, approximate weight 25g) were ovariectomized (OVX) to induce osteoporosis. The right hind limbs were then stimulated with LIDS (US Group), whereas left hind limbs were not stimulated (CON Group). Both hind limbs of all mice were scanned by in-vivo micro-CT to acquire two-dimensional (2D) images at 0 week before stimulation and 3 weeks and 6 weeks after stimulation. Three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) models generated by scanned 2D images were used to determine quantitatively the effect of LIUS on strength related to bone structure. Additionally, distributions of Hounsfield units and elastic moduli, which are related to the bone quality, for the bones in the US and CON groups were determined to analyze quantitatively a degree of improvement of bone qualities achieved by LIUS. Results: The result of FE analysis showed that the structural strength in US Group was significantly increased over time (p<0.05), while that in CON Group was statistically constant over time (p>0.05). High values of Hounsfield units obtained from voxels on micro-CT images and high values of elastic moduli converted from the Hounsfield units were dominantly appeared in US Group compared with those in CON Group. Conclusion: These finding indicated that LIUS would improve the mechanical characteristics of osteoporotic bone via the effects of bone structure (bone strength) and quality (Hounsfield unit and elastic modulus). Therefore, the LIUS may decrease effectively the risk of osteoporotic fracture in clinics.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the angular velocity of forearm pronation/supination movement in Parkinson's disease patients, as a quantitative measure of the bradykinesia. Thirteen Parkinson's disease patients ($64{\pm}11.0$ yrs, male:6, female:7) participated in the experiments. The subjects' both right and left forearms were scored by a rater according to rapid alternating movement of hands category in the UPDRS (unified Parkinson's disease rating scale) and the angular velocity of forearm pronation/supination was measured at the same time. As analysis parameters, RMS (root mean square) angular velocity and RMS angle were used. The parameters showed negative correlation with the clinical score (RMS angular velocity: r= - 0.914, RMS angle: r= -0.749). The RMS angular velocity of all clinical scales were significantly different one another except for the non significant difference between those of scale 3 and 4. RMS angle of scale 0 was significantly different from those of scale 2, 3, 4 and that of scale 1 was significantly different from those of scale 3 and 4. This suggests that RMS angular velocity can be used for a quantitative measure of bradykinesia in motor examination.

This study was conducted to observe the change of limbs stroke and respiration gas parameters in our new bicycle fitness system. We hypothesized that the variable force of left and right limbs might be effective for sensing stimulation in modified new unequal pedal bicycle system. It has been developed, which can provide visual information and different length of pedal with left and right limbs. Experimental results showed different activities between the left and right limbs where the activity of the left limb increased than that of right limb. Especially, the soleous muscle activity increased both in control and experimental groups by this training method. But oxygen and carbon dioxide partial pressures in respiratory gas increased during training method. These results suggest that acidosis of blood was led by this process. Consequently, this bicycle training is concluded that aerobic training could affect different limb activities. Finally, we expect that our new bicycle system will be effective for healthcare with proper balance between the left and right limbs.

Mammogram is one of the important techniques for mass detection, which is the early diagnosis stage of a breast cancer. Especially, the CAD(Computer Aided Diagnosis) using mammogram improves the working performance of radiologists as it offers an effective mass detection. There are two types of CAD systems using mammogram; automatic and semi-automatic CAD systems. However, the automatic segmentation is limited in performance due to the difficulty of obtaining an accurate segmentation since mass occurs in the dense areas of the breast tissue and has smoother boundaries. Semi-automatic CAD systems overcome these limitations, however, they also have problems including high FP (False Positive) rate and a large amount of training data required for training a classifier. The proposed system which overcomes the aforementioned problems to detect mass is composed of the suspected area selection, the level set segmentation and SVM (Support Vector Machine) classification. To assess the efficacy of the system, 60 test images from the FFDM (Full-Field Digital Mammography) are analyzed and compared with the previous semi-automatic system, which uses the ANN classifier. The experimental results of the proposed system indicate higher accuracy of detecting mass in comparison to the previous systems.

Implantable middle ear hearing devices (IMEHDs) have been widely studied as an alternative hearing aids to solve the problems of conventional hearing aids. Vibration transducer of middle ear hearing aids is a key component because vibration characteristics of transducer is directly involved performance of hearing aids. So, the study about middle ear hearing aids concentrate on the transducers. A floating mass type transducer is most efficient. In this paper, we suggest a lumped mechanical model of electromagnetic floating mass transducer implanted on human middle ear. The proposed model enables analysis of the vibration characteristics of a floating mass transducer and prediction of the variation after implant on ossicle that offers a simple and easy to analyze. The parameters was drawn based on the components and the structures of transducer. The Lumped mechanical model was converted by the electrical-mechanical equivalent model, and simulated using PSpice. So, we investigated vibration characteristics of transducer influenced it's components. And we predict vibration characteristics of stapes footplate due to implanted transducer's vibration using combining model of transducer and human ear. To prove the feasibility of the suggested model, we fabricated a differential floating mass transducer (DFMT) as one of floating mass transducers and performed experiments using the human temporal bones.

In this study, we suggest Korean nonlinear fitting formula (KNFF) to maximize speech intelligibility for digital hearing aids based on NAL-NL1 (NAL-nonlinear, version 1). KNFF was derived from the same procedure which is used for deriving NAL-NL1. KNFF consider the long-term average speech spectrum of Korean instead of English because the frequency characteristic of Korean is different from that of English. New insertion gains of KNFF were derived using the SII (speech intelligibility index) program provided by ANSI. In addition, the insertion gains were modified to maximize the intelligibility of high frequency words. To verify effect of the new fitting gain, we performed speech discrimination test (SDT) and preference test using the hearing loss simulator from NOISH. In the SDT, a word set as test material consists of 50 1-syllable word generally used in hearing clinic. As a result of the test, in case of moderate hearing loss with severe loss on high frequency, the SDT scores of KNFF was more improved about 3.2% than NAL-NLl and about 6% in case of the sever hearing loss. Finally we have obtained the result that it was the effective way to increase gain of mid-high frequency bands and to decrease gain of low frequency bands in order to maximize speech intelligibility of Korean.

Magnetic Resonance Electrical Impedance Tomography (MREIT) is a new bio-imaging modality providing cross-sectional conductivity images from measurements of internal magnetic flux densities produced by externally injected currents. Recent MREIT studies demonstrated successful conductivity image reconstructions of postmortem and in vivo canine brain. However, the whole head imaging was not achieved due to technical issues related with electrodes and noise in measured magnetic flux density data. In this study, we used a new carbon-hydrogel electrode with a large contact area and injected 30 mA imaging current through a canine head. Using a 3T MREIT system, we performed a postmortem canine experiment and produced high-resolution conductivity images of the entire canine head. Collecting magnetic flux density data inside the head subject to multiple injection currents, we reconstructed cross-sectional conductivity images using the harmonic $B_z$ algorithm. The conductivity images of the canine head show a good contrast not only inside the brain region including white and gray matter but also outside the brain region including the skull, temporalis muscle, mandible, lingualis proprius muscle, and masseter muscle.