• Title/Summary/Keyword: Application Function

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Research for Application of Interactive Data Broadcasting Service in DMB (DMB에서의 양방향 데어터방송 서비스도입에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Jong-Geun;Choe, Seong-Jin;Lee, Seon-Hui
    • Broadcasting and Media Magazine
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    • v.11 no.4
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    • pp.104-117
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    • 2006
  • In this Paper, we analyze the application of Interactive Data Broadcasting in DMB(Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) in the accordance with convergence of service and technology. With the acceleration of digital convergence in the Ubiquitous period substantial development of digital media technology and convergence of broadcasting and telecommunication industry are being witnessed. Consequently these results gave rise to newly combined-products such as DMB(Digital Multimedia Broadcasting), WCDMA(Wide-band code division multiple access), Wibro(Wireless Broadband Internet), IP-TV (Internet protocol TV) and HSDPA(High speed downlink packet access). The preparatory stage for the implementation of Interactive Data Broadcasting Service will be reached by the end of December, 2006. DMB is the first result of a successful convergence service between Broadcasting and Telecommunication in new media era. Multimedia technology and services are the core elements of DMB. The Data Broadcasting will not only offer various services of interactive information such News, Weather, Broadcasting Program etc, but also be linked with characteristic function of mobile phone such as calling and SMS(Short Message Service) via Return Channel.

The Reinterpretation and its Prospect about Resentment Solution and Coexistence in The 4th Industrial Revolution Era (4차 산업혁명 시대에 있어서 해원상생의 재해석과 지평)

  • Kim, Bang-ryong
    • Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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    • v.29
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    • pp.37-68
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    • 2017
  • This paper critically examines the role and function of religion prior to the full-out advent of the 4th industrial revolution. We can understand 'The vision of Daesoon Jinrihoe (大巡眞理會)' as a mission to foresee and create a prospective figure for a future society in the person of the Lord on High, Jeungsan (甑山) as a religious dimension. However, the existence ground of religion relies on giving positive meaning to the present time after reinterpreting religious doctrine to reflect changing realities. Jeungsan (甑山) said that the age to come is 'the age of the human majesty (人尊)'. This means that humans will take the lead and control the revolution of scientific technology to progress and benefit humanity. Problems such as 'human alienatio', 'increased polarization', and 'destruction of the environment' still arise and deepen because the motive of 'the Industrial Revolution' was built upon 'knowledge' within the context of a Knowledge-Based Society. Therefore, we can say that the role of religion will newly rise to the forefront in the era of the 4th industrial revolution. Consequently, religion should face matters squarely and suggest viable alternatives. This paper deals with reinterpreting the concept of 'the resolution of grievances for mutual beneficence (解冤相生)', one of the four teachings of Daesoon Jinrihoe, within the context of the coming era of the 4th industrial revolution. My research is divided into the following three parts: First, I determined the teachings of Daesoon Jinrihoe and the original meaning of 'the resolution of grievances for mutual beneficence', and then I disclosed the way we can reinterpret the general meaning of this concept for application in the ear of the 4th industrial revolution. Second, from the perspective of the religious dimension, I inquired into factors regarding alienation and conflict in the era of the 4th industrial revolution. I focused on human alienation from labor, identity confusion, potential conflicts between humans and post-humans, and the characteristics of the 4th industrial revolution. Third, I examined potential cures for alienation and conflict through the principle of the resolution of grievances for mutual beneficence. I tried to enlarge the interpretive prospects of Daesoon's main teaching in light of the era of the 4th industrial revolution through a new interpretation and application that employs the concept of 'the resolution of grievances for mutual beneficence (解冤相生)' in order to cure the alienation and conflict.

Analysis of Paint Used for a Helicopter Operated in the Korean War through the History of Paint Application (페인트 도장의 역사를 통해 본 6·25전쟁 운용 헬기의 도료분석)

  • Kang Hyunsam;Jang Hanul;Choi Yangho
    • Conservation Science in Museum
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    • v.29
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    • pp.133-152
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    • 2023
  • This study references preceding studies to examine the history of paint application techniques using various paints in the past, with the aim to contribute to the long-term preservation of large military cultural heritage assets situated outdoors. To this end, the study compared the findings of preceding research with the findings of an analysis conducted on a H-13 helicopter housed at the War Memorial of Korea. Upon collecting and analyzing samples from three grounded WWII aircraft from above-ground by preceding studies, it was confirmed from each sample that the various chemical properties of chrome ensured the effectiveness of the protective coating. The compound was first tested as a corrosion-inhibiting pigment in the early 1940s and proved its excellent moisture-resistant properties over the course of 80 years, despite the deterioration of the paint layer and long-term exposure to the natural environment. For this reason, it has been widely used as a corrosion inhibitor for aluminum alloys in the aviation industry. In other word, the most widely-used material for preventing corrosion was an organic primer containing chromate. In this study, based on the paint analysis of a H-13 helicopter operated in the Korean War, it was shown that the second layer, consisting of the primer, contains chromium oxide (Cr2O3). In addition, it was estimated that red lead tetraoxide (Pb3O4) was used for the vehicle. Analysis results and data from previous studies can help to confirm the continued effectiveness of corrosion prevention function provided by chromate. Meanwhile, the result of infrared spectroscopy analysis confirmed the use of alkyd resin. In the future, comparisons with a more diverse range of artifacts will allow the identification of changes in the manufacturing technology of paints used to protect alloys from corrosion.

Suggestion of Community Design for the Efficiency of CPTED - Focused on Community Furniture - (범죄예방환경설계(CPTED)의 효율성 증대를 위한 커뮤니티디자인 제안 - 커뮤니티퍼니쳐를 중심으로 -)

  • Lee, Ho Sang
    • Korea Science and Art Forum
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    • v.29
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    • pp.305-318
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    • 2017
  • The need for recognizing the crime in the urban spaces as a social problem and finding out specific approaches such as the study of space design and various guidelines for crime prevention is increasing. In this regard, "Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design" (marked as "CPTED") is actively underway. Yeomri-dong Salt Way is the first place to which the Seoul Crime Prevention Design Project was appled. The business objective of improving the local environment has been implemented rationally through cooperation and voluntary participation between subject of the project executives and community members. Since its efficiency has been proven, the sites have been expanded since then and becomes a benchmarking example of each local government.This kind of problem solving effort has the same context in purpose and direction of the 'Village Art Project' which has been implemented since 2009 with the aim of promoting the culture of the underdeveloped area and encouraging the participation of the residents by introducing the public art. It is noteworthy that this trend is centered around the characteristics of community functions and values. The purpose of this study is to propose the application method of community furniture as a way to increase the efficiency of CPTED to improve the 'quality of life' of residents. To do this, we reviewed CPTED, community design, public art literature and prior research, and identified the problems and implications based on the site visit Yeomri-dong of Seoul and Gamcheon Village of Pusan which is the successful model of "Seoul Root out Crime by Design" and 'Maeulmisul Art Project' respectively. The common elements of the two case places identified in this study are as follows: First, the 'lives' of community residents found its place in the center through the activation of community by collaborative activities in addition to the physical composition of the environment. Second, community design and introduction of public art created a new space, and thereby many people came to visit the village and revitalize the local economy. Third, it strengthened the natural monitoring, the territoriality and control, and the activity increase among the CPTED factors. The psychological aspect of CPTED and the emotional function of public art are fused with the 'community furniture', thereby avoiding a vague or tremendous approach to the public space through a specific local context based on the way of thinking and emotion of local people and it will be possible to create an environment beneficial for all. In this way, the possibility and implication of the fusion of CPTED and public art are expected to be able to reduce the social cost through the construction of the crime prevention infrastructure such as expansion of the CPTED application space, and to suggest a plan to implement the visual amenity as a design strategy to regenerate city.

Effect of surface sealant on surface roughness of dental composite with different surface roughness (서로 다른 거칠기의 복합레진에 표면 강화제 도포시 표면 거칠기의 변화)

  • Dong-Ah Shin;Seon-Ju Jin;Kkot-Byeol Bae;In-Nam Hwang
    • Journal of Dental Rehabilitation and Applied Science
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    • v.39 no.4
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    • pp.195-203
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    • 2023
  • Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the influence of surface sealants on the surface roughness of composite resins. Materials and Methods: The study used microfilled composite resin (Metafil CX, Sun Medical Co.) and hybrid composite resin (AeliteTM LS posterior, Bisco). Sixty specimens (8 mm in diameter and 4 mm in height) of each composite resin type were prepared and divided into 3 groups. Each specimen was ground with 600, 1000, and 2000-grit sandpaper. The Surface roughness (Ra) values were measured using a surface roughness tester (SJ-301, Mytutoyo) before and after surface sealant application. Surface sealants, BisCoverTM LV (Bisco), Optiguard® (Kerr), and Seal-n-ShineTM (Pulpdent), were applied to the specimens, as instructed and observed by scanning electron microscope (JSM-7500, JEOL) and atomic force microscope (MultiMode IV, Veeco Instruments). Results: Specimens ground with 600-grit sandpaper coated with surface sealants exhibited significantly lower Ra values than the untreated group (P < 0.05). Specimens ground with 1000 and 2000-grit sandpaper showed statistically no difference. There was no significant difference in surface roughness among BisCoverTM LV, Optiguard®, and Seal-n-ShineTM. SEM and AFM revealed remarkably decreased microdefects on the surfaces of composite resins after surface sealant application. Conclusion: Surface sealants can influence surface roughness when applied on the rough surface of composite resins but not on highly polished composite resins.

A STUDY ON THE TEMPERATURE CHANGES OF BONE TISSUES DURING IMPLANT SITE PREPARATION (임플랜트 식립부위 형성시 골조직의 온도변화에 관한 연구)

  • Kim Pyung-Il;Kim Yung-Soo;Jang Kyung-Soo;Kim Chang-Whe
    • The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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    • v.40 no.1
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    • pp.1-17
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    • 2002
  • The purpose of this study is to examine the possibility of thermal injury to bone tissues during an implant site preparation under the same condition as a typical clinical practice of $Br{\aa}nemark$ implant system. All the burs for $Br{\aa}nemark$ implant system were studied except the round bur The experiments involved 880 drilling cases : 50 cases for each of the 5 steps of NP, 5 steps of RP, and 7 steps of WP, all including srew tap, and 30 cases of 2mm twist drill. For precision drilling, a precision handpiece restraining system was developed (Eungyong Machinery Co., Korea). The system kept the drill parallel to the drilling path and allowed horizontal adjustment of the drill with as little as $1{\mu}m$ increment. The thermocouple insertion hole. that is 0.9mm in diameter and 8mm in depth, was prepared 0.2mm away from the tapping bur the last drilling step. The temperatures due to countersink, pilot drill, and other drills were measured at the surface of the bone, at the depths of 4mm and 8mm respectively. Countersink drilling temperature was measured by attaching the tip of a thermocouple at the rim of the countersink. To assure temperature measurement at the desired depths, 'bent-thermocouples' with their tips of 4 and 8mm bent at $120^{\circ}$ were used. The profiles of temperature variation were recorded continuously at one second interval using a thermometer with memory function (Fluke Co. U.S.A.) and 0.7mm thermocouples (Omega Co., U.S.A.). To simulate typical clinical conditions, 35mm square samples of bovine scapular bone were utilized. The samples were approximately 20mm thick with the cortical thickness on the drilling side ranging from 1 to 2mm. A sample was placed in a container of saline solution so that its lower half is submerged into the solution and the upper half exposed to the room air, which averaged $24.9^{\circ}C$. The temperature of the saline solution was maintained at $36.5^{\circ}C$ using an electric heater (J. O Tech Co., Korea). This experimental condition was similar to that of a patient s opened mouth. The study revealed that a 2mm twist drill required greatest attention. As a guide drill, a twist drill is required to bore through a 'virgin bone,' rather than merely enlarging an already drilled hole as is the case with other drills. This typically generates greater amount of heat. Furthermore, one tends to apply a greater pressure to overcome drilling difficulty, thus producing even greater amount heat. 150 experiments were conducted for 2mm twist drill. For 140 cases, drill pressure of 750g was sufficient, and 10 cases required additional 500 or 100g of drilling pressure. In case of the former. 3 of the 140 cases produced the temperature greater than $47^{\circ}C$, the threshold temperature of degeneration of bone tissue (1983. Eriksson et al.) which is also the reference temperature in this study. In each of the 10 cases requiring extra pressure, the temperature exceeded the reference temperature. More significantly, a surge of heat was observed in each of these cases This observations led to addtional 20 drilling experiments on dense bones. For 10 of these cases, the pressure of 1,250g was applied. For the other 10, 1.750g were applied. In each of these cases, it was also observed that the temperature rose abruptly far above the thresh old temperature of $47^{\circ}C$, sometimes even to 70 or $80^{\circ}C$. It was also observed that the increased drilling pressure influenced the shortening of drilling time more than the rise of drilling temperature. This suggests the desirability of clinically reconsidering application of extra pressures to prevent possible injury to bone tissues. An analysis of these two extra pressure groups of 1,250g and 1,750g revealed that the t-statistics for reduced amount of drilling time due to extra pressure and increased peak temperature due to the same were 10.80 and 2.08 respectively suggesting that drilling time was more influenced than temperature. All the subsequent drillings after the drilling with a 2mm twist drill did not produce excessive heat, i.e. the heat generation is at the same or below the body temperature level. Some of screw tap, pilot, and countersink showed negative correlation coefficients between the generated heat and the drilling time. indicating the more the drilling time, the lower the temperature. The study also revealed that the drilling time was increased as a function of frequency of the use of the drill. Under the drilling pressure of 750g, it was revealed that the drilling time for an old twist drill that has already drilled 40 times was 4.5 times longer than a new drill The measurement was taken for the first 10 drillings of a new drill and 10 drillings of an old drill that has already been used for 40 drillings. 'Test Statistics' of small samples t-test was 3.49, confirming that the used twist drills require longer drilling time than new ones. On the other hand, it was revealed that there was no significant difference in drilling temperature between the new drill and the old twist drill. Finally, the following conclusions were reached from this study : 1 Used drilling bur causes almost no change in drilling temperature but increase in drilling time through 50 drillings under the manufacturer-recommended cooling conditions and the drilling pressure of 750g. 2. The heat that is generated through drilling mattered only in the case of 2mm twist drills, the first drill to be used in bone drilling process for all the other drills there is no significant problem. 3. If the drilling pressure is increased when a 2mm twist drill reaches a dense bone, the temperature rises abruptly even under the manufacturer-recommended cooling conditions. 4. Drilling heat was the highest at the final moment of the drilling process.

Utility of Wide Beam Reconstruction in Whole Body Bone Scan (전신 뼈 검사에서 Wide Beam Reconstruction 기법의 유용성)

  • Kim, Jung-Yul;Kang, Chung-Koo;Park, Min-Soo;Park, Hoon-Hee;Lim, Han-Sang;Kim, Jae-Sam;Lee, Chang-Ho
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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    • v.14 no.1
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    • pp.83-89
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    • 2010
  • Purpose: The Wide Beam Reconstruction (WBR) algorithms that UltraSPECT, Ltd. (U.S) has provides solutions which improved image resolution by eliminating the effect of the line spread function by collimator and suppression of the noise. It controls the resolution and noise level automatically and yields unsurpassed image quality. The aim of this study is WBR of whole body bone scan in usefulness of clinical application. Materials and Methods: The standard line source and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) reconstructed spatial resolution measurements were performed on an INFINA (GE, Milwaukee, WI) gamma camera, equipped with low energy high resolution (LEHR) collimators. The total counts of line source measurements with 200 kcps and 300 kcps. The SPECT phantoms analyzed spatial resolution by the changing matrix size. Also a clinical evaluation study was performed with forty three patients, referred for bone scans. First group altered scan speed with 20 and 30 cm/min and dosage of 740 MBq (20 mCi) of $^{99m}Tc$-HDP administered but second group altered dosage of $^{99m}Tc$-HDP with 740 and 1,110 MBq (20 mCi and 30 mCi) in same scan speed. The acquired data was reconstructed using the typical clinical protocol in use and the WBR protocol. The patient's information was removed and a blind reading was done on each reconstruction method. For each reading, a questionnaire was completed in which the reader was asked to evaluate, on a scale of 1-5 point. Results: The result of planar WBR data improved resolution more than 10%. The Full-Width at Half-Maximum (FWHM) of WBR data improved about 16% (Standard: 8.45, WBR: 7.09). SPECT WBR data improved resolution more than about 50% and evaluate FWHM of WBR data (Standard: 3.52, WBR: 1.65). A clinical evaluation study, there was no statistically significant difference between the two method, which includes improvement of the bone to soft tissue ratio and the image resolution (first group p=0.07, second group p=0.458). Conclusion: The WBR method allows to shorten the acquisition time of bone scans while simultaneously providing improved image quality and to reduce the dosage of radiopharmaceuticals reducing radiation dose. Therefore, the WBR method can be applied to a wide range of clinical applications to provide clinical values as well as image quality.

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The Clinical Application and Results of Palliative Damus-Kaye-Stansel Procedure (고식적 Damus-Kaye-Stansel 술식의 임상적 적용 및 결과)

  • Lim, Hong-Gook;Kim, Soo-Jin;Kim, Woong-Han;Hwang, Seong-Wook;Lee, Cheul;Shinn, Sung-Ho;Yie, Kil-Soo;Lee, Jae-Woong;Lee, Chang-Ha
    • Journal of Chest Surgery
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    • v.41 no.1
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    • pp.1-11
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    • 2008
  • Background: The Damus-Kaye-Stansel (DKS) procedure is a proximal MPA-ascending aorta anastomosis used to relieve systemic ventricular outflow tract obstructions (SVOTO) and pulmonary hypertension. The purpose of this study was to review the indications and outcomes of the DKS procedure, including the DKS pathway and semilunar valve function. Material and Method: A retrospective review of 28 patients who underwent a DKS procedure between May 1994 and April 2006 was performed. The median age at operation was 5.3 months ($13\;days{\sim}38.1\;months$) and body weight was 5.0 kg ($2.9{\sim}13.5\;kg$). Preoperative pressure gradients were $25.3{\pm}15.7\;mmHg$ ($10{\sim}60\;mmHg$). Eighteen patients underwent a preliminary pulmonary artery banding as an initial palliation. Preoperative main diagnoses were double outlet right ventricle in 9 patients, double inlet left ventricle with ventriculoarterial discordance in 6,. another functional univentricular heart in 5, Criss-cross heart in 4, complete atrioventricular septal defect in 3, and hypoplastic left heart variant in 1. DKS techniques included end-to-side anastomosis with patch augmentation in 14 patients, classical end-to-side anastomosis in 6, Lamberti method (double-barrel) in 3, and others in 5. The bidirectional cavopulmonary shunt and Fontan procedure were concomitantly performed in 6 and 2 patients, respectively. Result: There were 4 hospital deaths (14.3%), and 3 late deaths (12.5%) with a follow-up duration of $62.7{\pm}38.9$ months ($3.3{\sim}128.1$ months). Kaplan-Meier estimated actuarial survival was $71.9%{\pm}9.3%$ at 10 years. Multivariate analysis showed right ventricle type single ventricle (hazard ratio=13.960, p=0.004) and the DKS procedure as initial operation (hazard ratio=6.767, p=0.042) as significant mortality risk factors. Four patients underwent staged biventricular repair and 13 received Fontan completion. No SVOTO was detected after the procedure by either cardiac catheterization or echocardiography except in one patient. There was no semiulnar valve regurgitation (>Gr II) or semilunar valve-related reoperation, but one patient (3.6%) who underwent classical end-to-side anastomosis needed reoperation for pulmonary artery stenosis caused by compression of the enlarged DKS pathway. The freedom from reoperation for the DKS pathway and semilunar valve was 87.5% at 10 years after operation. Conclusion: The DKS procedure can improve the management of SVOTO, and facilitate the selected patients who are high risk for biventricular repair just after birth to undergo successful staged biventricular repair. Preliminary pulmonary artery banding is a safe and effective procedure that improves the likelihood of successful DKS by decreasing pulmonary vascular resistance. The long-term outcome of the DKS procedure for semilunar valve function, DKS pathway, and relief of SVOTO is satisfactory.

A Deep Learning Based Approach to Recognizing Accompanying Status of Smartphone Users Using Multimodal Data (스마트폰 다종 데이터를 활용한 딥러닝 기반의 사용자 동행 상태 인식)

  • Kim, Kilho;Choi, Sangwoo;Chae, Moon-jung;Park, Heewoong;Lee, Jaehong;Park, Jonghun
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.25 no.1
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    • pp.163-177
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    • 2019
  • As smartphones are getting widely used, human activity recognition (HAR) tasks for recognizing personal activities of smartphone users with multimodal data have been actively studied recently. The research area is expanding from the recognition of the simple body movement of an individual user to the recognition of low-level behavior and high-level behavior. However, HAR tasks for recognizing interaction behavior with other people, such as whether the user is accompanying or communicating with someone else, have gotten less attention so far. And previous research for recognizing interaction behavior has usually depended on audio, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi sensors, which are vulnerable to privacy issues and require much time to collect enough data. Whereas physical sensors including accelerometer, magnetic field and gyroscope sensors are less vulnerable to privacy issues and can collect a large amount of data within a short time. In this paper, a method for detecting accompanying status based on deep learning model by only using multimodal physical sensor data, such as an accelerometer, magnetic field and gyroscope, was proposed. The accompanying status was defined as a redefinition of a part of the user interaction behavior, including whether the user is accompanying with an acquaintance at a close distance and the user is actively communicating with the acquaintance. A framework based on convolutional neural networks (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent networks for classifying accompanying and conversation was proposed. First, a data preprocessing method which consists of time synchronization of multimodal data from different physical sensors, data normalization and sequence data generation was introduced. We applied the nearest interpolation to synchronize the time of collected data from different sensors. Normalization was performed for each x, y, z axis value of the sensor data, and the sequence data was generated according to the sliding window method. Then, the sequence data became the input for CNN, where feature maps representing local dependencies of the original sequence are extracted. The CNN consisted of 3 convolutional layers and did not have a pooling layer to maintain the temporal information of the sequence data. Next, LSTM recurrent networks received the feature maps, learned long-term dependencies from them and extracted features. The LSTM recurrent networks consisted of two layers, each with 128 cells. Finally, the extracted features were used for classification by softmax classifier. The loss function of the model was cross entropy function and the weights of the model were randomly initialized on a normal distribution with an average of 0 and a standard deviation of 0.1. The model was trained using adaptive moment estimation (ADAM) optimization algorithm and the mini batch size was set to 128. We applied dropout to input values of the LSTM recurrent networks to prevent overfitting. The initial learning rate was set to 0.001, and it decreased exponentially by 0.99 at the end of each epoch training. An Android smartphone application was developed and released to collect data. We collected smartphone data for a total of 18 subjects. Using the data, the model classified accompanying and conversation by 98.74% and 98.83% accuracy each. Both the F1 score and accuracy of the model were higher than the F1 score and accuracy of the majority vote classifier, support vector machine, and deep recurrent neural network. In the future research, we will focus on more rigorous multimodal sensor data synchronization methods that minimize the time stamp differences. In addition, we will further study transfer learning method that enables transfer of trained models tailored to the training data to the evaluation data that follows a different distribution. It is expected that a model capable of exhibiting robust recognition performance against changes in data that is not considered in the model learning stage will be obtained.

EFFECT OF OCTANOL, THE GAP JUNCTION BLOCKER, ON THE REGULATION OF FLUID SECRETION AND INTRACELLULAR CALCIUM CONCENTRATION IN SALIVARY ACINAR CELLS (흰쥐 악하선 세포에서 gap junction 봉쇄제인 octanol이 타액분비 및 세포내 $Ca^{2+}$ 농도 조절에 미치는 영향)

  • Lee, Ju-Seok;Seo, Jeong-Taeg;Lee, Syng-Il;Lee, Jong-Gap;Sohn, Heung-Kyu
    • Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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    • v.26 no.2
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    • pp.399-415
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    • 1999
  • From bacteria to mammalian cells, one of the most important mediators of intracellular signal transduction mechanisms which regulate a variety of intracellular processes is free calcium. In salivary acinar cells, elevation of intracellular calcium concentration ($[Ca^{2+}]_i$) is essential for the salivary secretion induced by parasympathetic stimulation. However, in addition to $[Ca^{2+}]_i$, gap junctions which couple individual cells electrically and chemically have also been reported to regulate enzyme secretion in pancreatic acinar cells. Since the plasma membrane of salivary acinar cells has a high density of gap junctions, and these cells are electrically and chemically coupled with each other, gap junctions may modulate the secretory function of salivary glands. In this respect, I planned to investigate the role of gap junctions in the modulation of salivary secretion and $[Ca^{2+}]_i$, using mandibular salivary glands of rats. In order to measure the salivary flow rate, fluid was collected from the cannulated duct of the isolated perfused rat mandibular glands at 2 min intervals. $[Ca^{2+}]_i$, was measured from the cells loaded with fura-2 by spectrofluorometry. The results obtained were as follows: 1. CCh-induced salivary secretion was reversibly inhibited by 1 mM octanol, a gap junction blocker. 2. CCh-induced increase in $[Ca^{2+}]_i$, was also reversed by the application of 1 mM octanol. 3. Octanol did not block the initial increase in $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ caused by CCh, which suggested that the reduction of $[Ca^{2+}]_i$, caused by gap junction blockade was not resulted from the inhibition of $Ca^{2+}$ release from intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ stores. 4. Addition of octanol during stimulation with $1{\mu}M$ thapsigargin, a potent microsomal ATPase inhibitor, reduced $[Ca^{2+}]_i$, to the basal level. This suggested that inhibition of gap junction permeability closed plasma membrane $Ca^{2+}$ channels. 5. 2,5-di-tert-butyl-1,4-benzohydroquinone (TBQ) generated $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ oscillations resulting from periodic influx of $Ca^{2+}$ via plasma membrane. The TBQ-induced $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ oscillations were stopped by the application of 1mM octanol which implicated that gap junctions modulate the permeability of plasma membrane $Ca^{2+}$ channels. 6. Glycyrrhetinic acid, another well known gap junction blocker, also inhibited CCh-induced salivary secretion from rat mandibular glands. These results suggested that gap junctions play an important role in the modulation of fluid secretion from the rat mandibular glands and this was probably due to the inhibition of $Ca^{2+}$ influx through the plasma membrane $Ca^{2+}$ channels.

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