• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.710-720
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• 2013

Radiotherapy is commonly used in treating many kinds of cancers which cannot be cured by other therapeutic strategies. However, radiotherapy also induces the damages on the normal tissues. Radiation-induced fibrosis is frequently observed in the patients undergoing radiotherapy, and becomes a major obstacle in the treatment of intrahepatic cancer. Hedgehog (Hh) that is an essential in the liver formation during embryogenesis is not detected in the healthy liver, but activated and modulates the repair process in damaged livers in adult. The expression of Hh increases with the degree of liver damage, regulating the proliferation of hepatic progenitors and hepatic stellate cells (HSC). In addition, Hh induces epithelial-to-mesencymal transition (EMT) and activation of myofibroblasts. In the irradiated livers, up-regulated expression of Hh signaling was associated with proliferation of progenitors, EMT induction, and increased fibrosis. Female-specific expression of Hh leaded to the expansion of progenitors and the accumulation of collagen in the irradiated livers of female mice, indicating that gender disparity in Hh expression may be related with radiation-susceptibility in female. Hence, Hh signaling becomes a novel object of studies for fibrogenesis induced by radiation. However, the absence of the established experimental animal models showing the similar physiopathology with human liver diseases and fibrosis-favorable microenvironment hamper the studies for the radiation-induced fibrosis, providing a few descriptive results. Therefore, further research on the association of Hh with radiation-induced fibrosis can identify the cell and tissue-specific effects of Hh and provides the basic knowledge for underlying mechanisms, contributing to developing therapies for preventing the radiation-induced fibrosis.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.12
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• pp.1795-1803
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• 2011

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease accompanies the rise in the prevalence of obesity, diabetes and the tendency toward high-fat dietary habits. Specifically, the higher prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in men and postmenopausal women seems to be caused by the protective effects of estrogen against liver fibrosis, or lack thereof. There are no effective preventive therapies for liver diseases because the mechanisms underlying the progression of fatty liver diseases to chronic liver diseases and the protective effects of estrogen against fibrogenesis remain unclear. Recently, it has been reported that the hedgehog signaling pathway plays an important role in the progression of chronic liver diseases. Hedgehog, a morphogen regulating embryonic liver development, is expressed in injured livers but not in adult healthy livers. The level of hedgehog expression parallels the stages of liver diseases. Hedgehog induces myofibroblast activation and hepatic progenitor cell proliferation and leads to excessive liver fibrosis, whereas estrogen inhibits the activation of hepatic stellate cells to myofibroblasts and prevents liver fibrosis. Although the mechanism underlying the opposing actions of hedgehog and estrogen on liver fibrosis remain unclear, the suppressive effects of estrogen on the expression of osteopontin, a profibrogenic extracellular matrix protein and cytokine, and the inductive effects of hedgehog on osteopontin transcription suggest that estrogen and hedgehog are associated with liver fibrosis regulation. Therefore, further research on the estrogen-mediated regulatory mechanisms underlying the hedgehog-signaling pathway can identify the mechanism underlying liver fibrogenesis and contribute to developing therapies for preventing the progression of fibrosis to chronic liver diseases.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Information Technology
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.85-95
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• 2018

With the popularity of smartphones, most peoples have been using mobile cameras to capture photographs. However, due to insufficient amount of lights in a low lighting condition, unwanted noises can be generated during image acquisition. To remove the noise, a method of using deep convolutional neural networks is introduced. However, this method still lacks the ability to describe textures and edges, even though it has made significant progress in terms of visual quality performance. Therefore, in this paper, the HOG (Histogram of Oriented Gradients) images that contain information about edge orientations are used. More specifically, a method of learning deep convolutional neural networks is proposed by stacking noise and HOG images into an input tensor. Experiment results confirm that the proposed method not only can obtain excellent result in visual quality evaluations, compared to conventional methods, but also enable textures and edges to be improved visually.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Computer Information Conference
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• 2012.01a
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• pp.205-208
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• 2012

지하철 실내의 표지판은 다양한 정보들을 포함하고 있다. 그 중에서 시설물의 형상을 단순화하여 나타낸 픽토그램 사인은 국제적으로 표준화 되어 있어 검출이 용이하다고 볼 수 있다. 일반적으로 객체를 인식하는 방법은 후보영역을 설정하는 검출단계와 후보영역을 인식하는 단계로 나뉘어 진다. 본 논문에서는 후보영역 검출단계에서 단일 값을 가지는 이진화로 픽토그램 영역이 분리가 잘 안되는 문제점을 해결하기 위하여 적응적 이진화를 사용하였고 인식을 위한 특징추출로 HOG서술자를 사용하고 학습과 인식에는 SVM을 사용하였다. 실험 결과를 통하여 HOG서술자로 픽토그램 사인을 인식하는 것이 적합한 것인지 확인한다.

• Journal of the korean veterinary medical association
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.206-219
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• 1996

동물의 전염성 해면형 뇌증에는 양과 염소의 스크래피, 사슴과 엘크의 만성소모형, 밍크의 전염성 밍크 뇌증, 소 및 소과 야생동물의 소 해면형 뇌증 그리고 고양이의 고양이 해면형 뇌증등이 알려져 있다. 전염성 해면형 뇌증의 원인은 알려져 있지 않으며, 스트레인간의 차이는 숙주의 프리온 유전자에 있어서의 대립유전자의 차이에 의존되는 것으로 추정되고 있다. 이러한 동물의 전염성 해면형 뇌증들은 우리나라에서의 발생보고가 없는 해외 가축전염병이며 현재 영국에서 문제되고 있는 소 해면형 뇌증 즉 일명 광우병은 영국에서 1986년 최초로 확인된 새로운 가축전염병으로서 사람의 크로이츠휄트-야콥병과의 어떤 연관 가능성 때문에 수의학계의 관심의 대상이 되고 있는 질병이다. 영국정부 보건장관 스티픈 도렐은 최근(1996년 3월 20일)에 과거 10년 동안 영국의 소에 감염되어 온 소 해면형 뇌증이 사람의 희귀한 뇌 질환인 크로이츠휄트-야콥병의 새로운 스트레인과 관련성이 있는 증거가 있을 수 있는 것으로 과학자문위원회가 믿고 있다고, 영국하원에서 보고한 바 있다. 한편, 영국의 농업장관 더글러스 호그는 영국에서 30개월 이상된 소를 도살할 때에는 모든 뼈를 제거하여야 하며, 모든 포유동물의 조직은 농업용 사료로 사용해서는 아니된다는 새로운 규정을 공표하였다. 그러나 영국의 쇠고기는 안심하고 먹을 수 있다고 발표하면서 만일 문제가 된다면, 영국에서 사육하는 1천 1백만 마리의 소를 전부 도살할 용의가 있다고 하였다. 이러한 영국정부 견해는 다음 날 CNN News 등 세계 각 매스컴을 통하여 보도되었으며, 아직까지 과학적인 증거가 확립된 바는 없지만, 수의학이나 의학적인 사실 확인의 여부를 떠나, 사회 경제적인 문제로 큰 놀라움과 많은 의문사항을 남겨둔 채, 영국산 소와 쇠고기의 수입금지 조치 등 국제적인 문제로 확대되었다. 본편에서는 동물의 전염성 해면형 뇌증에 대하여 종합적으로 고찰해 보고자 한다.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.693-698
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• 1997

Drought resistance and salt resistance of seedlings were compared with the polyethylene glycol(P.E.G) and NaCl solutions of the same osmotic potential($\Psi_\pi$=-10 bar). Plant height, seedling dry weight, chlorophyll content and leaf water potential decreased while the free proline content increased more in the P.E.G. than in the NaCl solution. Free amino acids increased 2.6 times in the P.E.G. solution and 3.6 times in the NaCl solution more than in the untreated(Hoagland's solution). Free proline occupied 66% and 61% of the content of total amino acids under water stress and salt stress, respectively. Besides free proline, phenylalanine in the P.E.G. solution and phenylalanine, alanine and asparagine in the NaCl solution increased distinctly. In short, it was shown that water and salt stress responses in seedling stage were relatively similar.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.3-24
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• 2009

The Harry Potter series is considered to represent the multicultural aspect of contemporary British society and to show critical perspectives of racism. This series, however, also includes many elements of British imperialism. This paper examines the ideas about education and Harry's role in relation to British imperialism. One of the main ideas prevalent in 19th century British boys' public schools was that people's blood origin is the most important element in determining their characteristics, ability and moral qualities. The students' inherited capacity and their family background are more highly regarded than their secondary learning and training. This reflects a 19th century concept that ultimately, inborn quality makes 'a hero', a truth presented in the educational policies of Hogwarts. Hogwarts' educational policies and systems can also be related to 'developmentalism', which defines children as imperfect, in-progress and incomplete, thus needing proper training and discipline. As this concept functioned to justify the control of children while educating them, Hogwarts adopts diverse controlling devices and oppressive policies, which are mainly justified in the name of education. On the one hand, child characters are controlled and oppressed by the school authorities, on the other hand, some of the students such as Harry have remarkable magic powers enough to resist the adult authority and even to save the magic society from the evil power. Harry plays dual roles, which the British boys of the Empire were assigned from their society; they are important heirs to conquer the 'evil' or 'barbarous' world but need to be obedient to a 'good' authority to achieve the mission. Harry's magic power and self-discipline ultimately contribute to fulfilling Dumbledore's mission, which mirrors 19th century British boys' roles as the heirs of the British Empire.