• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.65-73
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• 2013

As the advent of the digital age, documents are often scanned to be archived or to be transmitted over the network. The largest proportion of documents is texts and the next is seal images indicating the author of the documents. While a lot of research has been conducted to recognize texts in scanned documents and commercialized text recognizing products are developed as highlighted the importance of the scanned document, information about seal images is discarded. In this paper, we study how to extract the seal image area from the color or black and white document containing the seal image and how to save the seal image. We propose a preprocessing step to remove other components except for the candidate outlines of the seal imprint from scanned documents and a method to select the final region of interest from these candidates by using the feature of seal images. Also in case of a seal imprint overlapped with texts, the most similar image among those stored in the database is selected through the template matching process. We verify the implemented system for a various type of documents produced in schools and analyze the results.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.116-120
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• 2019

We prepared $Y_3Al_5O_{12};Ce^{3+},Pr3^{+}$ transparent ceramic phosphor using a solid state reaction method. By XRD pattern analysis and SEM measurement, our phosphors reveal an Ia-3d(230) space group of cubic structure, and the transparent ceramic phosphor has a polycrystal state with some internal cracks and pores. In the Raman scattering measurement with an increasing temperature, lattice vibrations of the transparent ceramic phosphor decrease due to its more perfect crystal structure and symmetry. Thus, low phonon generation is possible at high temperature. Optical properties of the transparent ceramic phosphor have broader excitation spectra due to a large internal reflection. There is a wide emission band from the green to yellow region, and the red color emission between 610 nm and 640 nm is also observed. The red-yellow phosphor optical characteristics enable a high Color Rendering Index (CRI) in combination with blue emitting LED or LD. Due to its good thermal properties of low phonon generation at high temperature and a wide emission range for high CRI characteristics, the transparent ceramic phosphor is shown to be a good candidate for high power solid state white lighting.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.40-44
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• 2019

This study investigates mixtures of water and cryoprotectant agents (CPAs) to store high-grade cold energy. Although water is an ideal material for a cold thermal storage (CTS) due to its high specific heat, undesirable volume expansion may cause structural stresses during freezing. The volume expansion can be alleviated by adding the CPAs to water. However, the CPA aqueous solutions not only have different thermal properties but also transit to amorphous state different from pure water. Therefore, these characteristics should be considered when using them as material of the CTS. In experiments, glycerol and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) are selected as the candidate CPA. The volume expansion of the solution is measured by an in-situ strain gauge in low temperature region. The specific heat capacity of the solution is also measured by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Both the amount of volume expansion and the specific heat capacity of the CPA aqueous solution decrease in the case of higher concentration of CPA. These characteristics should be contemplated to select optimal aqueous solution for CTS for liquid air energy storage system (LAES). The CPA solutions have advantages of having wide temperature range to utilize the latent heat of water and higher sensible heat of the CPA. The CPA solutions which can satisfy the allowable stress of the structure are determined. Consequently, among the CPA solutions investigated, DMSO 20% w/w solution is the most suitable for the CTS.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.55-61
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• 2021

One of the major problems in fish production is that parasite-induced episodes of disease can result in significant impacts to the health of stock, mortalities and, economical losses. Seabreams are economically important fish in both the capture fishery and aquaculture sectors in Oman and represent potential species for aquaculture. The current study set out to investigate infection of polyopisthocotylean monogeneans on the gills of wild goldlined seabream, Rhabdosargus sarba, caught from Musairah region in Oman. The prevalence, mean intensity and abundance of polyopisthocotyleans on 145 fish was found to be 52.41%, 5.65 and 3.04, respectively. Three species of microcotylid parasite were isolated, one being Atrispinum acarne while the remaining two species require further study to identify them. There was no significant difference in the infection rate between host sex, however, parasite burdens were higher on larger sized fish (p<0.05) and were found to favour the first gill arch (p< 0.05). The study found that the sample of Rhabdosargus sarba landed in the waters around Musairah are heavily infected, with a predominantly immature population of microcotylids. Further work is required to better understand the potential risk each species poses to the health of its host before a decision is made on the suitability of new candidate fish species for commercial aquaculture.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.77-81
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• 2020

Resistive RAM (ReRAM) is a strong candidate for the next-generation nonvolatile memories which use the resistive switching characteristic of transition metal oxides. The resistive switching behaviors originate from the redistribution of oxygen vacancies inside of the oxide film by applied programming voltage. Therefore, controlling the oxygen vacancy inside transition metal oxide film is most important to obtain and control the resistive switching characteristic. In this study, we introduced an applying electric field into photochemical metal-organic deposition (PMOD) process to control the oxidation state of metal oxide thin film during the photochemical reaction by UV exposure. As a result, the surface oxidation state of FeOx film could be successfully controlled by the electric field-assisted PMOD (EFAPMOD), and the controlled oxidation states were confirmed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) I-V characteristic. And the resistive switching characteristics with the oxidation-state of the surface region could be controlled effectively by adjusting an electric field during EFAPMOD process.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.546-552
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• 2022

Epidermal cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) is a tumor-associated antigen (TAA), which has been considered as a cancer vaccine candidate. The EpCAM protein fused to the fragment crystallizable region of immunoglobulin G (IgG) tagged with KDEL endoplasmic reticulum (ER) retention signal (EpCAM-FcK) has been successfully expressed in transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum cv. Xanthi) and purified from the plant leaf. In this study, we investigated the ability of the plant-derived EpCAM-FcK (EpCAM-FcK^P) to elicit an immune response in vivo. The animal group injected with the EpCAM-FcK^P showed a higher differentiated germinal center (GC) B cell population (~9%) compared with the animal group injected with the recombinant rhEpCAM-Fc chimera (EpCAM-Fc^M). The animal group injected with EpCAM-FcK^P (~42%) had more differentiated T follicular helper cells (Tfh) than the animal group injected with EpCAM-Fc^M (~7%). This study demonstrated that the plant-derived EpCAM-FcK fusion antigenic protein induced a humoral immune response in mice.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.295-302
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• 2021

Microglial priming is the process of microglial proliferation and activation in response to neurodegeneration and abnormal protein accumulation. Priming makes microglia susceptible to secondary inflammatory stimuli and causes exaggerated inflammatory responses. In the present study, we established a microglial priming model in mice by administering a single injection of 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP, 20 mg/kg). MPTP induced microglial activation without dopaminergic degeneration; however, subsequent treatment with a sub-toxic dose of lipopolysaccharides (LPS) induced an amplified inflammatory response and caused nigrostriatal dopaminergic degeneration. These pathological and inflammatory changes, including microglial activation and dopaminergic cell loss in the substantia nigra (SN) area were reversed by papaverine (PAP) administration. In addition, MPTP/LPS enhanced interleukin-1β (IL-1β) expression and processing via nod-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome activation in the SN region of mice. However, PAP treatment suppressed inflammasome activation and subsequent IL-1β maturation. Moreover, PAP inhibited nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and enhanced cAMP-response element binding protein (CREB) activity in the SN of MPTP/LPS mice. These results suggest that PAP inhibits the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome by modulating NF-κB and CREB signaling pathways, which results in reduced microglial activation and neuronal cell death. Thus, PAP may be a potential candidate for the treatment of Parkinsons's disease, which is aggravated by systemic inflammation.

• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.135-143
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• 2013

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to determine whether the methanol extract of Cassia mimosoides var. nomame Makino, a naturally growing plant in Korea, could prevent the renal-ischemia/reperfusion injury in a rat model or not. Methods : The radical scavenging activities of the extracts, and ascorbic acid as a positive control, were measured in vitro. At one hour after an intraperitoneal injection of the extract (400 mg/kg), renal ischemia/reperfusion injury was generated by 40 min clamping of the left renal artery in rats. After renal ischemia/reperfusion and 24 hr restoration of blood circulation, the serum creatinine concentration was measured. And the extent of epithelial cell injury and apoptosis was assessed by various staining technologies. The Bax/Bcl-2 ratio and activated caspase-3 were assessed by immunohistochemistry. Results : The extract showed a slightly lower level of radical scavenging activity than that of ascorbic acid. Compared to those of the vehicle-treated group, the extract-treated group displayed a significantly smaller tubular epithelial cell injury of 54% reduction in the outer medulla region and a lower serum creatinine concentration of 50% reduction. It seems that the reduction in cellular injury is due to the attenuation of the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, and the inhibition of caspase-3 activation by the extract of Cassia mimosoides. Conclusions : Cassia mimosoides var. nomame Makino could be a good candidate for a prophylactic agent against the ischemia/reperfusion/induced kidney injury.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.36 no.7
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• pp.1010-1021
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• 2023

Objective: Growth performance and growth-related traits have a crucial role in livestock due to their influence on productivity. This genome-wide association study (GWAS) in Pakistani dromedary camels was conducted to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with growth at specific camel ages, and for selected SNPs, to investigate in detail how their effects change with increasing camel age. This is the first GWAS conducted on dromedary camels in this region. Methods: Two Pakistani breeds, Marecha and Lassi, were selected for this study. A genotyping-by-sequencing method was used, and a total of 65,644 SNPs were identified. For GWAS, weight records data with several body weight traits, namely, birthweight, weaning weight, and weights of camels at 1, 2, 4, and 6 years of age were analysed by using model-based growth curve analysis. Age-specific weight data were analysed with a linear mixed model that included fixed effects of SNP genotype as well as sex. Results: Based on the q-value method for false discovery control, for Marecha camels, five SNPs at q<0.01 and 96 at q<0.05 were significantly associated with the weight traits considered, while three (q<0.01) and seven (q<0.05) SNP associations were identified for Lassi camels. Several candidate genes harbouring these SNP were discovered. Conclusion: These results will help to better understand the genetic architecture of growth including how these genes are expressed at different phases of their life. This will serve to lay the foundations for applied breeding programs of camels by allowing the genetic selection of superior animals.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.63-73
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• 2009

This paper presents a vehicle detection method that uses convolution matching method based on a simple color information. An input image is expressed as 8 oriented color expression(Red, Green, Blue, White, Black, Cyan, Yellow, Magenta) considering an orientation of a pixel color vector. It makes the image very reliable and strong against changes of illumination condition or environment. This paper divides the vehicle detection into a hypothesis generation step and a hypothesis verification step. In the hypothesis generation step, the vehicle candidate region is found by vertical edge and shadow. In the hypothesis verification step, the convolution matching and the complexity of image edge are used to detect real vehicles. It is proved that the proposed method has the fast and high detection rate on various experiments where the illumination source and environment are changed.