• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.1010-1016
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• 2007

Sagunjatang (Sagunja), containing Radix Astragali, Radix Ginseng, Fructus Schizandrae, Radix Ophiopogonis and Radix Glycyrrhizae, has been used as a prescription for ischemic heart and brain diseases in Korean traditional medicine. This study was designed to investigate the protective mechanisms of Sagunja on $H_2O_2$-induced cytotoxicity of H9c2 cardiomyocytes. Treatment with $H_2O_2$ resulted in death of H9c2 cells, characterized by apparent apoptotic features, including the fragmentation of nucleus and increase in sub-GO/G1fraction of cell cycle. However, Sagunja markedly suppressed the apoptotic characteristics of H9c2 cells induced by $H_2O_2$ with decrease of intracellular peroxide level. In addition, Sagunja suppressed the features of mitochondrial dysfunction, including change of mitochondrial membrane potential, in $H_2O_2$- treated cells. Additionally, Sagunja induced the expression of HO-1 protein in both time-and dose-dependent manner. The role of HO-1 in ROS-scavenging activity of Sagunja is proposed.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.373-378
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• 2015

The structure of the human ear is divided into the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. The inner ear includes the cochlea that plays a very important role in hearing. Recently, the development of an artificial cochlear device for the hearing impaired with cochlear damage has been actively researched. Research has been carried out on the biomimetic piezoelectric thin film ABM (Artificial Basilar Membrane) in particular. In an effort to improve the frequency separation performance of the existing piezoelectric thin film ABM, this paper presents the design, fabrication, and characterization of the production and performance of a partially etched-type ABM material. $O_2$ plasma etching equipment was used to partially etch a piezoelectric thin film ABM to make it more flexible. The mechanical-behavior characterization of the manufactured partially etched-type ABM showed that the overall separation frequency range shifted to a lower frequency range more suitable for audible frequency bandwidths and it displayed an improved frequency separation performance. In addition, the maximum magnitude of the vibration displacement at the first local resonant frequency was enhanced by three times from 38 nm to 112 nm. It is expected that the newly designed, partially etched-type ABM will improve the issue of cross-talk between nearby electrodes and that the manufactured partially etched-type ABM will be utilized for next-generation ABM research.

• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.198-203
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• 2020

Background and Objectives: We sought to evaluate the diagnostic and prognostic value of measurable parameters of internal auditory canal (IAC) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL). Subjects and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the patients with ISSNHL who underwent IAC MRI from January 2008 to March 2019. Measurable parameters of IAC MRI, such as the diameter of the IAC, bony cochlear nerve canal, and cross-sectional area of the cochlear nerve, were measured by a single examiner. These parameters were then compared between the affected and healthy sides. Inner-ear abnormalities such as intralabyrinthine hemorrhage or labyrinthitis were also evaluated. The relationship between the surveyed parameters and the diagnosis of ISSNHL was assessed. Results: A total of 208 patients with ISSNHL were included. The measured parameters of IAC MRI were not different between the affected and healthy sides and were also not associated with the diagnosis of ISSNHL. However, inner-ear abnormalities of IAC MRI in ISSNHL displayed a significant association with worse hearing before and after treatment. An age that was older than 40 years also correlated with poorer outcomes. Further, inner-ear abnormalities were more frequently detected when IAC MRI was performed early after ISSNHL onset. Conclusions: Patients with ISSNHL and inner ear abnormalities such as intralabyrinthine hemorrhage or labyrinthitis identified via IAC MRI may experience poorer hearing outcomes. To detect such abnormal findings, it is recommended to perform IAC MRI early after the onset of ISSNHL.

• Korean Journal of Audiology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.198-203
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• 2020

Background and Objectives: We sought to evaluate the diagnostic and prognostic value of measurable parameters of internal auditory canal (IAC) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL). Subjects and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the patients with ISSNHL who underwent IAC MRI from January 2008 to March 2019. Measurable parameters of IAC MRI, such as the diameter of the IAC, bony cochlear nerve canal, and cross-sectional area of the cochlear nerve, were measured by a single examiner. These parameters were then compared between the affected and healthy sides. Inner-ear abnormalities such as intralabyrinthine hemorrhage or labyrinthitis were also evaluated. The relationship between the surveyed parameters and the diagnosis of ISSNHL was assessed. Results: A total of 208 patients with ISSNHL were included. The measured parameters of IAC MRI were not different between the affected and healthy sides and were also not associated with the diagnosis of ISSNHL. However, inner-ear abnormalities of IAC MRI in ISSNHL displayed a significant association with worse hearing before and after treatment. An age that was older than 40 years also correlated with poorer outcomes. Further, inner-ear abnormalities were more frequently detected when IAC MRI was performed early after ISSNHL onset. Conclusions: Patients with ISSNHL and inner ear abnormalities such as intralabyrinthine hemorrhage or labyrinthitis identified via IAC MRI may experience poorer hearing outcomes. To detect such abnormal findings, it is recommended to perform IAC MRI early after the onset of ISSNHL.

• International Journal of Molecular Medicine
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.1473-1483
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• 2019

One of the primary theories of the pathogenesis of tinnitus involves maladaptive auditory-somatosensory plasticity in the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN), which is assumed to be due to axonal sprouting. Although a disrupted balance between auditory and somatosensory inputs may occur following hearing damage and may induce tinnitus, examination of this phenomenon employed a model of hearing damage that does not account for the causal relationship between these changes and tinnitus. The present study aimed to investigate changes in auditory-somatosensory innervation and the role that axonal sprouting serves in this process by comparing results between animals with and without tinnitus. Rats were exposed to a noise-inducing temporary threshold shift and were subsequently divided into tinnitus and non-tinnitus groups based on the results of gap prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle reflex. DCNs were collected from rats divided into three sub-groups according to the number of weeks (1, 2 or 3) following noise exposure, and the protein levels of vesicular glutamate transporter 1 (VGLUT1), which is associated with auditory input to the DCN, and VGLUT2, which is in turn primarily associated with somatosensory inputs, were assessed. In addition, factors related to axonal sprouting, including growth-associated protein 43 (GAP43), postsynaptic density protein 95, synaptophysin, α-thalassemia/mental retardation syndrome X-linked homolog (ATRX), growth differentiation factor 10 (GDF10), and leucine-rich repeat and immunoglobulin domain-containing 1, were measured by western blot analyses. Compared to the non-tinnitus group, the tinnitus group exhibited a significant decrease in VGLUT1 at 1 week and a significant increase in VGLUT2 at 3 weeks post-exposure. In addition, rats in the tinnitus group exhibited significant increases in GAP43 and GDF10 protein expression levels in their DCN at 3 weeks following noise exposure. Results from the present study provided further evidence that changes in the neural input distribution to the DCN may cause tinnitus and that axonal sprouting underlies these alterations.

• 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.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.42-47
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• 1990

A neural auditory system is studied for the aim of making better speech recognition systems. The cochlear mechanics is described. A IIR digital filter modeling of basilar membrane is discussed for the speech recognition. A multi-layer model of consonant recognition using phoneme detection filters and discriminant functions for feature estimation is constructed. This model shows more then 90% recognition rate in consonants.

• Proceedings of the KOSOMBE Conference
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• v.1992 no.05
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• pp.167-170
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• 1992

본 논문에서는 감각성 난청자들이 정상인들과 유사한 음성 인식을 하도록 청각 보철 기기를 구성하였다. 음성의 포먼트를 추출하기 위해서는 PLP(Perceptual Linear Prediction) 방식을 이용하였으며, pitch 추출을 위해서는 3 단계 클리핑 함수를 이용한 자기 상관법을 이용하였다. 또한 다중 채널 - 다중 전극 방식을 이용하여 내이의 헤어셀에 17 개의 전극을 삽입하여 신호를 가하는 시뮬레이션을 하였다. 실험에 사용한 데이타는 모음 /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/로 전모음과 후모음의 차이를 구별하였으며 두번째 포먼트의 변화와 포먼트 통합 이론에 대한 검증을 하였다.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.1E
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• pp.15-23
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• 1997

Zero-Crossings with Peak Amplitudes(ZCPA) model motivated by human auditory periphery was proposed to extract reliable features speech signals even in noisy environments for robust speech recognition. In this paper, some practical considerations for digital hardware implementations of the ZCPA model are addressed and evaluated for recognition of speech corrupted by several real world noises as well as white Gaussian noise. Infinite impulse response(IIR) filters which constitute the cochliar filterbank of the ZCPA are replaced by hamming bandpass filters of which frequency responses are less similar to biological neural tuning curves. Experimental results demonstrate that the detailed frequency response of the cochlear filters are not critical to performance. Also, the sensitivity of the model output to the variations in microphone gain is investigated, and results in good reliability of the ZCPA model.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.83-88
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• 1990

A New speech processing algorithm using neural networks is proposed. We transform input data into frequency domain and process them by neural networks of 22 output neurons which have Bark scale on the ground that the Bark scale is similiar with that of the characteristics of human cochlea. An utilized neural network is multilayer perceptron, and the characteristics of cochlea have it trained by error back propagation learning algorithm. The trained neural networks suffices functions of human cochlea including the effects of automatic gain control, compression and equalization. Simulation results show that the proposed speech processing algorithm has good performance in automatic gain control, compression and equalization.