• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.51 no.9
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• pp.190-199
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• 2014

In this paper, the vestibular hair bundle feature model and integrated vestibular hair cell model were proposed. In conventional modeling studies of vestibular system, only partial mechanisms were modeled, such as the characteristics of the vestibular hair bundles without external forces or the action potential of synapse, and the study about action potential of vestibular afferent considering the characteristics of the vestibular hair bundle was not performed. The proposed integrated vestibular hair cell model reflects external forces considering negative stiffness features of each hair bundles with different regularities of hair cells and our model was compared with conventional model without external forces. As a result, irregular afferent and intermediate afferent with high ratio of firing frequency variations to the changes of external stimulation had small width of negative stiffness section, but the width of the negative stiffness of regular afferent with low ratio was similar to that of conventional negative stiffness features. And the proposed integrated vestibular hair cell model showed almost same results with conventional data with animal experiments in 11 chosen frequency bands. It is verified that our proposed hair bundle feature model is adequately modeled.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.542-549
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• 2008

Cisplatin (cis-diamminedichloroplatinum II : CDDP) is the most widely used anticancer drug against a variety of human neoplasms. However, its clinical use is limited by the onset of severe side effects, including ototoxicity and nephrotoxicity. Even though a number of evidences in cytotoxic mechanism of cisplatin have been suggested, the role of pro-inflammatory cytokines in cisplatin cytotoxicity of auditory cells has not yet been demonstrated. Herein our data clearly demonstrated that cisplatin decreased the viability of HEI-OC1 auditory cells, which was inhibited by the addition of neutralizing $anti-TNF-{\alpha}$, $anti-IL-1{\beta}$ and anti-IL-6 antibodies. Consistently, Neutralization with antibodies against pro-inflammatory cytokines ameliorated the cell death and disarrangement of cochlea hair cell layers in the rat primary cochlear explants which were treated with cisplatin. Furthermore, exogeneous supplementation with free radical scavengers, including GSH and NAC, significantly prevented the cytotoxicity of cisplatin in the rat primary cochlea explants. We also observed that $TNF-{\alpha}$ was predominantly expressed in Deiters and Hensen's cells located in hair cell zone of cisplatin-treated cochlear explants. These findings suggest that pro-inflammatory cytokines, including $TNF-{\alpha}$, $IL-1{\beta}$ and IL-6, may play a pivotal role in the pathophysiology of hair cell damages caused by ototoxic drug cisplatin.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.98-105
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• 2009

The cochlea of the inner ear has two core components, basilar membrane and hair cells. The basilar membrane disperses incoming sound waves by their frequencies. The hair cells are on the basilar membrane, and they are the sensory receptors generating bioelectric signals. In this paper, a biomimetic technology using ZnO piezoelectric nano-pillar was studied as the part of developing process for artificial cochlea and novel artificial mechanosensory system mimicking human auditory senses. In particular, ZnO piezoelectric nano-pillar was fabricated by both low and high temperature growth methods. ZnO piezoelectric nano-pillars were grown on solid (high temperature growth) and flexible (low temperature growth) substrates. The substrates were patterned prior to ZnO nano-pillar growth so that we can selectively grow ZnO nano-pillar on the substrates. A multi-physical simulation was also conducted to understand the behavior of ZnO nano-pillar. The simulation results show electric potential, von Mises stress, and deformation in the ZnO nano-pillar. Both the experimental and computational works help characterize and optimize ZnO nano-pillar.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.1077-1082
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• 2007

We present a micromechanical active amplifier, inspired from the principle of the outer hair cells in cochlea, amplifying both displacement and force. The present micromechanical active amplifier modulates the resonant carrier motion using the variable stiffness spring whose stiffness changes proportionally to the input motion. We design, fabricate, and characterize two types of the amplifiers A and B, each having the variable stiffness spring fur the maximum displacement gain and force gain, respectively. In the experimental study, the amplifier A shows the displacement gain of 5.62, which is 2.15 times larger than that of the amplifier 3. The amplifier B shows the force gain of 10.0, resulting in 1.26 times larger value compared to that of the amplifier A. We experimentally verify that the haircell-inspired micromechanical amplifiers are capable to amplify both displacement and force.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.405-408
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• 2007

Vestibular hair cells, the sensory receptors of vestibular organs, selectively amplify miniscule stimuli to attain high sensitivity. Such selective amplification results in compressive nonlinear sensitivity, which plays an important role in expanding dynamic range while ensuring robustness of the system. In this study, negative stiffness mechanism, a mechanism responsible for the selective amplification by vestibular hair cells, is applied to a simple mechanical system consisting of an array of inverted pendulums. The structure and working principle of the system have been inspired by gating spring hypothesis proposing that opening and closing of transduction channels contributes to the global stiffness of vestibular hair bundle. Parameter study was carried out to analyze the effect of each parameter on the compressive nonlinearity of suggested model.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.91-99
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• 2001

청각기관에서 소리가 전달되어지는 과정에 대한 이론적인 전기/기계적 모델이 이루어진다면 이명환자의 분류 및 전기자극을 이용한 치료방법의 선택에 크게 기여할 수 있을 것이다. 본 연구에서는 기존 청각기관의 모델에 대한 장단점을 파악하여 이를 보완하는 실제의 시스템에 가장 근접한 모델을 수립하고, 청각시스템의 변화를 객관적으로 관찰할 수 있는 이론적인 배경을 수립하고자 하였다. 즉, 유모세포의 상면을 질량을 가진 성분으로 가정하고 그러한 질량의 경도와 제동을 위한 소자들을 첨가하여 새롭게 청각 모델을 수립하였다. 그리고 수립된 모델을 수학적으로 해석하여 전달함수의 영점이 극점보다 작게 나타남으로써 신경 조율 데이터를 이용한 기존의 연구와 일치함을 확인할 수 있었고, 제동주파수와 극점 주파수의 관계에 대한 가정들이 정당화됨을 확인할 수 있었다.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.1039-1050
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• 2010

Carrot is one of the useful crops used abundantly in cooking in Western as well as Asia regions such as China and Korea. However, seed coats have hairs which should be removed to increase germination rate. Furthermore, because of seed hairs, farmers face several additional losses, such as time consumption, manpower, capital and so on, for seed handling. To prevent these problems, study of gene related hair formation using short-hair seed lines is required. We analyzed genes related to hair formation from seed through expressed sequenced tag (EST) profiling, based on the fact that the development of carrot seed hair is related to cellulose synthesis pathway in secondary cell wall synthesis stage. To study the gene expression related to hair formation of the carrot seed, a cDNA library was constructed by using the early maturation stage of the short-hair line (659-1) and hairy seed line (677-14). In short-hair (659-1) and hairy seed (677-14) lines, results from of EST profiling through BLASTX search analysis using the NCBI database showed that 172 and 224 unigenes had significant homology with known protein sequences, whereas 233 and 192 unigenes were not, respectively. All ESTs were grouped into 16 categories according to their putative functions. Twenty nine unigenes among all ESTs were considered to be genes regulating seed hair development from cellulose synthesis pathway during secondary cell wall synthesis stage; in results, 14 unigenes related to seed hair development were found only in hairy seed line.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.218-225
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• 2013

In this paper hair bundle feature model and integration method for hair cell models were proposed. The proposed hair bundle feature model was based on spring-damper-mass model. Input of integrated vestibular hair cell model was frequency and output was interspike interval of hair cell that was reflected the feature of hair bundles. Irregular afferents that had a great gain variation showed reduction of negative stiffness section. Regular afferents that had a small gain variation, however, showed same feature with base negative stiffness feature. As a result, integrated vestibular hair cell model showed almost the same modeling data with experimental data in the modeled eleven frequency bands. It is verified that the proposed model is a good model for hair bundle feature modeling.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.80-88
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• 2013

Carrot (Daucus carota L. var. sativa) is one of the most extensively used vegetable crops in the world and a significant source of nutrient because of its high content of ${\beta}$-carotene, well known as the precursor of vitamin A carotenoid. However, seed-hairs generated and elongated from the epidermal cell of seeds inhibit absorption and germination by various factors such as carotol and so on. Accordingly, mechanical hair removal process is essential before commercialization of carrot seeds. Because of this process, producers will have additional losses such as time consuming, manpower, capital and so on. Furthermore, physical damage of seeds causes irregular germination rate. To overcome such cumbersome weaknesses, new breeding program for developing hairless-seed carrot cultivar has been needed and studies for molecular markers related to seed-hair characteristic is needed for a new breeding program. Therefore, in this study, cDNA libraries from seeds of short-hair seed phenotype CT-SMR 616 OP 659-1 line, hairy-seed phenotype CT-SMR 616 OP 677-14 line and short-hair seed phenotype CT-ATR 615 OP 666-13 line, hairy-seed phenotype CT-ATR 615 OP 671-9 were constructed, respectively. Furthermore, 1,248 ESTs in each line, total 4,992 ESTs were sequenced. As a result, 19 SNP sites and 14 SNP sites in each of 2 combinations were confirmed by analyzing these EST sequences from short-hair and hairy-seed lines. Then we designed SNP primer sets from EST sequences of SNP sites for high resolution melting (HRM) analysis. Designed HRM primers were analyzed using hairy seed phenotype CT-SMR 616 OP 1040 line and short-hair seed phenotype CT-SMR 616 OP 1024, 1025, 1026 lines. One set of HRM primers showed specific difference between the melting curves of hairy and short-hair seed phenotype lines. Based on this result, allele-specific (AS) PCR primers were designed for easier selection between hairy-seed carrot and hairless seed carrot. These results of HRM and AS-PCR are expected to be useful in breeding of hairless seed carrot cultivar as a molecular marker.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.767-782
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• 2006

이 연구의 목적은 DNA microarray 분석법을 이용하여 건강한 사람치주인대섬유모세포, 건강한 사람치은섬유모세포, 복제노화된 사람치은섬유모세포, 염증성 사람치주인대 섬유모 세포의 유전자 발현 형태를 상호비교하고자 하였다. 환자의 동의하에 충치, 치주염이 없이 교정발치된 치아의 치주인대세포를 배양하여 건강한 치주인대섬유모세포로, 만성치주염으로 발거된 치아에서 채취하여 배양한 세포를 염증성 치주인대섬유모세포로 선정하였다. 구강에서 채취한 치은결체조직에서 배양한 사람치은섬유모세포를 일차 배양한 후 계대배양을 통해 복제 노화를 유도하였다. $-198^{\circ}C$의 액화질소에 저장되어 있던 2, 4, 8, 15, 16세대 세포를 실험에 이용하였다. 위의 모든 세포들은 60 mm 배양접시에서 세포들이 80-90%의 밀생이 될 때까지 5% $CO_2$, $37^{\circ}C$, 100% 습도의 배양기에서 2일 간격으로 10% FBS가 함유된 DMEM 세포 배양액을 교체하면서 세포를 배양하였다. Trizol Reagent (Invitrogen, USA)를 이용하여 제조회사의 지시에 따라 total RNA를 추출하였다. 18S RNA와 28S RNA를 확인한 후 DNA microarray 분석을 실시하였다. 4배수 이상의 변화양상을 비교시 상호 유전자 발현의 차이를 나타내었다. 건강한 사람치은섬유모세포(2세대)와 노화된 치은섬유모세포에서 가장 높은 발현변화를 나타낸 반면 DMC1 dosage suppressor of mck1 homolog, meiosis-specific homologous recombination,은 건강한 치은섬유모세포에서 가장 높게 나타났다. 염증성 치은인대섬유모세포와 건강한 치주인대 섬유모세포를 비교시, Regucalcin은 염증성 치주인대섬유모세포에서 가장 높게 나타났고, Vascular cell adhesion molecule 1도 두 번째로 높게 나타났다. 건강한 치주인대섬유모 세포와 건강한 치은섬유모세포를 비교시, IL-11과 periostin이 치주인대섬유모세포에서 높은 발현을 나타낸 반면, Prostaglandin D2 synthase 21kDa과 Thioredoxin interacting protein은 치은섬유모세포에서 높은 발현을 나타내었다. 염증성 치주인대섬유모세포와 노화된 치은섬유모세포(15세대 이상)를 비교시 149개의 유전자가 유사한 발현 수준을 나타내었다. 이 연구는 노화, 염증, 세포 형태에 따라서 유전자 수준에서 가장 높거나 높은 수준 변화를 보이는 유전자가 다를 수 있음을 나타낸다. 향후, 치주염 환자들에서, 노염, 염증, 세포 특이성에 관한 유전자 표시지를 이용하여 진단하거나 치료에 응용하기 위해서는 더 많은 연구가 필요하리라 사료된다.