• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.254-259
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• 2011

In this paper, a current stimulator circuit with adaptive supply regulator for retinal prosthesis is proposed. In current stimulation systems, the stimulating circuits with wide voltage swing range are needed due to the high impedance of the retina cell and microelectrodes. Thus, previous researches adopt the high voltage architecture to obtain the enough operating range. The high voltage architecture, however, could increase the power consumption and can damage the retina cells. The proposed circuit provides the adaptively regulated supply voltage by measuring the difference between desired stimulation current and the actual stimulation current. The proposed circuit can achieve the extended range of the allowable cell impedance, improved accuracy of the stimulation current, and higher biosafety.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.353-360
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• 2006

This study was performed to investigate the effects of artificial stimulation on the increase of the oocyte activation, to evaluate the expression of cyclin B1 protein levels in enucleated mouse oocytes, and to investigate correlation between the oocyte activation and the cyclin B1 protein levels. The oocyte activation was induced by 7% ethanol (EtOH) or 10μg/ml Ca-ionophore with or without 10μg/ml cycloheximide (CH). The activation rate was significantly higher in both single (p<0.05) and combined (p<0.01) stimulated groups compared to control group. The cyclin B1 protein level was significantly reduced in both stimulated groups (p<0.05), except for EtOH+CH treatment group. The expression of cyclin B1 protein showed a higher negative correlation with activation rate in EtOH+CH (r=0.61, p<0.05) and Ca+CH (r=0.86, p<0.01) stimulation groups, but not in a both single stimulation groups. Taken together, it can be suggested that single (EtOH and Ca- ionophore) and combined (EtOH+CH and Ca+CH) stimulation increases the oocyte activation, especially combined stimulation, because it induces the degradation of cyclin B1 protein after artificial stimulation treatments in mouse oocytes.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.658-665
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• 2014

The neural stimulators have been employed to the visual prostheses system based on the functional electrical stimulation (FES). Due to the size limitation of the implantable device, the smaller area of the unit current driver pixel is highly desired for higher resolution current stimulation system. This paper presents a 16-channel compact current-mode neural stimulator IC with digital to analog converter (DAC) sharing scheme for artificial retinal prostheses. The individual pixel circuits in the stimulator IC share a single 6 bit DAC using the sample-and-hold scheme. The DAC sharing scheme enables the simultaneous stimulation on multiple active pixels with a single DAC while maintaining small size and low power. The layout size of the stimulator circuit with the DAC sharing scheme is reduced to be 51.98 %, compared to the conventional scheme. The stimulator IC is designed using standard $0.18{\mu}m$ 1P6M process. The chip size except the I/O cells is $437{\mu}m{\times}501{\mu}m$.

• Kidney Research and Clinical Practice
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.424-425
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• 2018

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.363-366
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• 2018

One of the complications of permanent pacemaker implantation is unintended phrenic nerve stimulation. A 15-year-old boy with a permanent pacemaker presented with chest discomfort due to synchronous chest wall contraction with pacing beats. Even after reprogramming of the pacemaker, diaphragmatic stimulation persisted. Therefore, we performed thoracoscopic phrenic nerve insulation using a Gore-Tex patch to insulate the phrenic nerve from the wire. A minimally invasive approach using a thoracoscope is a feasible option for retractable phrenic nerve stimulation after pacemaker implantation.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.541-553
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• 2023

Retinal prostheses have shown some clinical success in restoring vision in patients with retinitis pigmentosa. However, the post-implantation visual acuity does not exceed that of legal blindness. The reason for the poor visual acuity might be that (1) degenerate retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are less responsive to electrical stimulation than normal RGCs, and (2) electrically-evoked RGC spikes show a more widespread not focal response. The single-biphasic pulse electrical stimulation, commonly used in artificial vision, has limitations in addressing these issues. In this study, we propose the benefit of multiple consecutive-biphasic pulse stimulation. We used C57BL/6J mice and C3H/HeJ (rd1) mice for the normal retina and retinal degeneration model. An 8 × 8 multi-electrode array was used to record electrically-evoked RGC spikes. We compared RGC responses when increasing the amplitude of a single biphasic pulse versus increasing the number of consecutive biphasic pulses at the same stimulus charge. Increasing the amplitude of a single biphasic pulse induced more RGC spike firing while the spatial resolution of RGC populations decreased. For multiple consecutive-biphasic pulse stimulation, RGC firing increased as the number of pulses increased, and the spatial resolution of RGC populations was well preserved even up to 5 pulses. Multiple consecutive-biphasic pulse stimulation using two or three pulses in degenerate retinas induced as much RGC spike firing as in normal retinas. These findings suggest that the newly proposed multiple consecutive-biphasic pulse stimulation can improve the visual acuity in prosthesis-implanted patients.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.429-431
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• 2003

The induced learning retardation method involves the temporary inhibition of the artificial neural network’s active units from participating in the error reduction process during training. This stimulates the less active units to contribute significantly to reduce the network error. However, some less active units are not sensitive to stimulation making them almost useless. The network can then be pruned by removing the less active units to make it smaller and more efficient. This study focuses on making the network more efficient and accurate by developing the induced learning retardation and pruning sequence training method. The developed procedure results to faster learning and more accurate artificial neural network for satellite image classification.

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.395-412
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• 1997

Mammalian eggs are ovulated arrested at meiotic metaphase II until fertilization. Generally in mammals, fertilization results in a series of intracellular calcium oscillations that are mediated by inositol triphosphate (IP$^3$) or cyclic adenosine diphosphoribose (cADPr). The high levels of maturation promotion factor (MPF) within the cell decrease, pronuclei form, the cytoskeleton is reorganized and proteins are post-translationally modified. If all is normal, the newly formed embryo initiates the developmental program specific to that species. Artificial methods of producing these effects in pig oocytes are discussed. One potential mechanism mediated via a signal transduction pathway is present in pig oocytes. Stimulation of this pathway leads to the early events following fertilization, and electrical stimulation leads to apparently normal de v velopment to day 12. Further studies are needed to determine which mechanism(s) the sperm uses to initiate development.

• Journal of Plant Biology
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 1959

The cuttings and apical portion of stein in sweet potato were growlh under artificial light and specific photoperied and temperature. Though the plant growth was poor under insufficient light intensity of artificial light, the tuber formations were induced at long light period (16L+8D) and not induced at short light period (8L+16D) and low temperature of darkparied. The determinative factor for tuber formation of sweet potato seems to be a stimulation which has intimate relationship with specific photoperiod and temperature and no direct relation with the growth of plant body and light intensity. The root pattern of inductive state for tubers and non-inductive state were different distinctly, the former were silky and slender, the latter were branchy, and stout appearence. This different root pattern must be due also to the specific photoperiod and temperature and may have any relationship with the stimulation for tuber formation from the point of auxin physiology etc.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.275-278
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• 1992

One hundred sixty three (163) animals were used in $2{\times}2$ and $3{\times}2$ factorial experiment in randomized complete block design (RCBD) to determine the effect of clitoral stimulation during timed inseminations on the fertility of Philippine swamp buffaloes (carabaos). There were 3 separate trials conducted with two treatment groups per trial : control and with 30 second clitoral stimulation after each insemination. Parity, tone of uterus and site of semen deposition were also used as criteria in subdividing the main groups. The pregnancy rates of animals that received clitoral stimulation were significantly (p<0.05 or p<0.01) higher than those of control for both caraheifers (52.98 vs 31.41%) and caracows (52.68 vs 27.07%) ; under all uterine conditions : tone 1 (53.33 vs 31.75%), tone 2 (35.83 vs 22.82%) and tone 3 (75.65 vs 42.44%) ; and in both site of semen placement, cervix (43.99 vs 22.85%) and uterus (60.92% vs 37.81%). Fertility was also significantly (p<0.05) higher when semen was deposited in the uterus (49.37%) than in the cervix (33.42%). Interaction effect was insignificant. Clitoral stimulation should be utilized as a routine procedure following artificial insemination in carabaos.