• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.408-419
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• 2023

Background: Ginsenoside compound K (CK), the main active metabolite in Panax ginseng, has shown good safety and bioavailability in clinical trials and exerts neuroprotective effects in cerebral ischemic stroke. However, its potential role in the prevention of cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury remains unclear. Our study aimed to investigate the molecular mechanism of ginsenoside CK against cerebral I/R injury. Methods: We used a combination of in vitro and in vivo models, including oxygen and glucose deprivation/reperfusion induced PC12 cell model and middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion induced rat model, to mimic I/R injury. Intracellular oxygen consumption and extracellular acidification rate were analyzed by Seahorse multifunctional energy metabolism system; ATP production was detected by luciferase method. The number and size of mitochondria were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy and MitoTracker probe combined with confocal laser microscopy. The potential mechanisms of ginsenoside CK on mitochondrial dynamics and bioenergy were evaluated by RNA interference, pharmacological antagonism combined with co-immunoprecipitation analysis and phenotypic analysis. Results: Ginsenoside CK pretreatment could attenuate mitochondrial translocation of DRP1, mitophagy, mitochondrial apoptosis, and neuronal bioenergy imbalance against cerebral I/R injury in both in vitro and in vivo models. Our data also confirmed that ginsenoside CK administration could reduce the binding affinity of Mul1 and Mfn2 to inhibit the ubiquitination and degradation of Mfn2, thereby elevating the protein level of Mfn2 in cerebral I/R injury. Conclusion: These data provide evidence that ginsenoside CK may be a promising therapeutic agent against cerebral I/R injury via Mul1/Mfn2 mediated mitochondrial dynamics and bioenergy.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.61-73
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• 2014

This study reviewed an application of water quality estimation using an Airborne Hyperspectral Imagery (A-HSI) and tested a part of Han River water quality (especially suspended solid) estimation with available in-situ data. The estimation of water quality was processed two methods. One is using observation data as downwelling radiance to water surface and as scattering and reflectance into water body. Other is linear regression analysis with water quality in-situ measurement and upwelling data as at-sensor radiance (or reflectance). Both methods drive meaningful results of RS estimation. However it has more effects on the auxiliary dataset as water quality in-situ measurement and water body scattering measurement. The test processed a part of Han River located Paldang-dam downstream. We applied linear regression analysis with AISA eagle hyperspectral sensor data and water quality measurement in-situ data. The result of linear regression for a meaningful band combination shows $-24.847+0.013L_{560}$ as 560 nm in radiance (L) with 0.985 R-square. To comparison with Multispectral Imagery (MSI) case, we make simulated Landsat TM by spectral resampling. The regression using MSI shows -55.932 + 33.881 (TM1/TM3) as radiance with 0.968 R-square. Suspended Solid (SS) concentration was about 3.75 mg/l at in-situ data and estimated SS concentration by A-HIS was about 3.65 mg/l, and about 5.85mg/l with MSI with same location. It shows overestimation trends case of estimating using MSI. In order to upgrade value for practical use and to estimate more precisely, it needs that minimizing sun glint effect into whole image, constructing elaborate flight plan considering solar altitude angle, and making good pre-processing and calibration system. We found some limitations and restrictions such as precise atmospheric correction, sample count of water quality measurement, retrieve spectral bands into A-HSI, adequate linear regression model selection, and quantitative calibration/validation method through the literature review and test adopted general methods.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.301-308
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• 2007

Purpose: This study was performed to compare and evaluate the effect of recipient site depths and diameters of the drills on the primary stability of implant in pig's ribs. Materials and methods: An intact pig's rib larger than 8 mm in width and 20 mm in height; RBM(resorbable blasting media) surface blasted ${\phi}3.75mm$ and 8.0 mm long USII Osstem Implants (Osstem Co., Korea) were used. To measure the primary stability, $Periotest^{(R)}$ (Simens AG, Germany) and $Osstell^{TM}$ (Model 6 Resonance Frequency Analyser: Integration Diagnostics Ltd., Sweden) were used. They were divided into 6 groups according to its recipient site formation method: D3H3, D3H5, D3H7, D3.3H3, D3.3H5, D3.3H7. Each group had, as indicated, 10 implants placed, and total 60 implants were used. The mean value was obtained by 4-time measurements each on mesial, distal, buccal, and lingual side perpendicular to the long axis of the implant using $Periotest^{(R)}$ and $Osstell^{TM}$. For statistical analysis one-way ANOVA was used to compare the mean value of each group, and the correlation between placement depths and the primary stability, and that of measuring instruments was analyzed using SPSS 12.0. Results: The primary stability of the implants increased as the placement depths increased (p<0.05), and showed a proportional relationship (p<0.01). The primary stability increased when the diameter of the recipient site was smaller than that of the implant but with no statistical significance. There was a strong correlation between $Osstell^{TM}$ and $Periotest^{(R)}$ (p<0.01). Conclusion: These results suggest that increasing the placement depth of implants enhances the primary stability of implant.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.22 no.4 s.75
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• pp.97-106
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• 2004

It is a Known fact that driving through long tunnel increases possibility of traffic accident because of psychological feeling of insecurity and dispersion of drivers' concentration since driving in narrow and limited space for a longtime. It, therefore, results in raising transportation and environment problems, such as traffic accident difficult to be properly dealt with and ventilation. This study aims at proposing a method of augmenting driving amenity by improving the internal lighting facilities in the tunnel. The study is conducted by investigating internal landscapes of tunnels by lighting colors, which are currently being operated. The Color Planning System (CPS), developed by SHARP Co. Ltd, is exploited for selecting adjective that express the sensitivity image on lighting colors. The CPS is an example that applies to sensitivity of human body for products design development. The CPS takes the following process to define the color : 1) expressing "Pvoduct's Image" as "A Word (adjective)" and 2) referring "A Word" to "Image Scale", and 3) determining the color through this "Image Panel". The study is processed by making a questionnaire using the semantic differential (SD) scale, grasping the consciousness structure of experimental persons through the Factor Analysis, and building a model in which dependent variable is "Degree of Preference" about internal landscape in tunnel using LISREL(LInear Structural RELations).

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.5763-5768
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• 2014

Maintaining a voice color is important when compounding both the normal voice because an emotion is not expressed with various emotional voices in a single synthesizer. When a synthesizer is developed using the recording data of too many expressed emotions, a voice color cannot be maintained and each synthetic speech is can be heard like the voice of different speakers. In this paper, the speech data was recorded and the change in the voice color was analyzed to develop an emotional HMM-based speech synthesizer. To realize a speech synthesizer, a voice was recorded, and a database was built. On the other hand, a recording process is very important, particularly when realizing an emotional speech synthesizer. Monitoring is needed because it is quite difficult to define emotion and maintain a particular level. In the realized synthesizer, a normal voice and three emotional voice (Happiness, Sadness, Anger) were used, and each emotional voice consists of two levels, High/Low. To analyze the voice color of the normal voice and emotional voice, the average spectrum, which was the measured accumulated spectrum of vowels, was used and the F1(first formant) calculated by the average spectrum was compared. The voice similarity of Low-level emotional data was higher than High-level emotional data, and the proposed method can be monitored by the change in voice similarity.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.117-140
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• 2015

Cloud Computing has drawn attention as one of 10 IT strategic technology trends and has various advantages such as cost reduction and enhancing business flexibility. However, corporations hesitate to adopt the service because of unexpected risks. Especially compared to large firm, medium and small ones use public cloud that security risk is high. Meanwhile, real option strategy has drawn attention as the method to hedge uncertainty in IT projects. Therefore, in this study causal relationships among technical, security, relational, and economic risks of cloud service will be investigated. Eventually, this study investigates how those risks influence the intention to choose the real option about the cloud service. For this study, five hypotheses is drawn, and a survey is conducted about the medium and small firms which are currently using cloud service to examine hypotheses. Since the study is at organizational level, 287 questionnaire replies are recalculated to 120 firms. For statistical analysis, Smart PLS and SPSS Statistics18 are used. As a result, technical risk of cloud service has significantly positive influence on security risk. Second, security risk and relational risk of cloud service has significantly positive influence on economic risk. Third, economic risk of cloud service has significantly positive influence on the intention to purchase the delay option or abandon option. Based on this result, this research discussed practical and academic implications and the limitations.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.7
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• pp.779-785
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• 2015

Cathodic protection is recognized as the most cost-effective and technically appropriate corrosion prevention method for the submerged zone of offshore structures, ships, and deep-sea facilities. When cathodic protection is applied, the cathodic currents cause dissolved oxygen reduction, generating hydroxyl ions near the polarized surface that increase the interfacial pH and result in enhanced carbonate ion concentration and precipitation of an inorganic layer whose principal component is calcium carbonate. Depending on the potential, magnesium hydroxide can also precipitate. This mixed deposit is generally called "calcareous deposit." This layer functions as a barrier against the corrosive environment, leading to a decrease in current demand. Hence, the importance of calcareous deposits for the effective, efficient operation of marine cathodic protection systems is recognized by engineers and scientists concerned with cathodic protection in submerged marine environments. Calcareous deposit formation on a marine structure depends on the potential, current, pH, temperature, pressure, sea-water chemistry, flow, and time; deposit quality is significantly influenced by these factors. This study determines how calcareous deposits form in sea water, and assesses the interrelationship of formation conditions (such as the sea water temperature and surface condition of steel), deposited structure, and properties and the effectiveness of the cathodic protection.

• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.337-344
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• 2006

Purpose: To evaluate the vision-specific Quality of Life according to modes of refractive error correction in myopia. Method: This study included subjects from two different universities in Korea during March 2005 to June 2005. The following subjects (470) were university students, university faculty members, and their immediate families; all of whom were over the age of 19 and all who had refractive error of some sort. The four focus groups consisted of 171 spectacle wearers, 154 contact lens wearers, 123 refractive surgery patients, and 22 post-refractive surgery patients who returned to wearing glasses. The study of Vision-Specific Quality of Life used QIRC - The Quality of Life Impact of refractive Correction Questionnaire, which was translated by our group from English into Korean. Using analysis of co-variance (ANCOVA) and adjusting for age, sex, job, economic status, and education level, we examined and compared the QOL mean scores of the three groups (glass & contact lenses wears, refractive surgery patients, and post-refractive surgery patients who returned to wearing glasses). Results: After adjusting for major compounding variance, the research results showed the highest QOL mean score of 43.2 for the group who had received refractive surgery, 37.1 for the glasses & contact lenses group, and 33.4 for patients who had returned to wearing glasses after refractive surgery. There were significant differences between the three groups (p=0.001). Conclusion: Refractive surgery has shown a significant contribution to improve the QOL in myopia patients. However, upon our investigation, patients who underwent refractive surgery and returned to wearing glasses had a lower QOL compared to non-refractive surgery patients who wore glasses/contact lenses. Upon concluding our studies that shows that refractive surgery does not always conclusively bring higher QOL, we would like patients to carefully consider their options before undergoing refractive surgery in the future.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.350-357
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• 2017

Purpose: In-situ monitoring of water quality is fundamental to most environmental applications. The high cost and long delays of conventional laboratory methods used to determine water quality, including on-site sampling and chemical analysis, have limited their use in efficiently managing water sources while preventing environmental pollution. The objective of this study was to develop an on-site water monitoring system consisting mainly of an Arduino board and a sensor array of multiple ion selective electrodes (ISEs) to measure the concentration of $NO_3$ ions. Methods: The developed system includes a combination of three ISEs, double-junction reference electrode, solution container, sampling system consisting of three pumps and solenoid valves, signal processing circuit, and an Arduino board for data acquisition and system control. Prior to each sample measurement, a two-point normalization method was applied for a sensitivity adjustment followed by an offset adjustment to minimize the potential drift that could occur during continuous measurement and standardize the response of multiple electrodes. To investigate its utility in on-site nitrate monitoring, the prototype was tested in a facility where drinking water was collected from a water supply source. Results: Differences in the electric potentials of the $NO_3$ ISEs between 10 and $100mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$ $NO_3$ concentration levels were nearly constant with negative sensitivities of 58 to 62 mV during the period of sample measurement, which is representative of a stable electrode response. The $NO_3$ concentrations determined by the ISEs were almost comparable to those obtained with standard instruments within 15% relative errors. Conclusions: The use of the developed on-site nitrate monitoring system based on automatic sampling and two-point normalization was feasible for detecting abrupt changes in nitrate concentration at various water supply sites, showing a maximum difference of $4.2mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$ from an actual concentration of $14mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.103-111
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• 2019

DNA methylation is involved in diverse processes in bacteria, including maintenance of genome integrity and regulation of gene expression. CcrM, the DNA methyltransferase conserved in Alphaproteobacterial species, carries out $N^6$-adenine or $N^4$-cytosine methyltransferase activities using S-adenosyl methionine as a co-substrate. Celeribacter marinus IMCC12053 from the Alphaproteobacterial group was isolated from a marine environment. Single molecule real-time sequencing method (SMRT) was used to detect the methylation patterns of C. marinus IMCC12053. Gibbs motif sampler program was used to observe the conversion of adenosine of 5'-GANTC-3' to $N^6$-methyladenosine and conversion of $N^4$-cytosine of 5'-GpC-3' to $N^4$-methylcytosine. Exocyclic DNA methyltransferase from the genome of strain IMCC12053 was chosen using phylogenetic analysis and $N^4$-cytosine methyltransferase was cloned. IPTG inducer was used to confirm the methylation activity of DNA methylase, and cloned into a pQE30 vector using dam-/dcm- E. coli as the expression host. The genomic DNA and the plasmid carrying methylase-encoding sequences were extracted and cleaved with restriction enzymes that were sensitive to methylation, to confirm the methylation activity. These methylases protected the restriction enzyme site once IPTG-induced methylases methylated the chromosome and plasmid, harboring the DNA methylase. In this study, cloned exocyclic DNA methylases were investigated for potential use as a novel type of GpC methylase for molecular biology and epigenetics.