• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.546-554
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• 2021

Background: Diabetes mellitus and hypertension often occur together, amplifying cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and emphasizing the need for a multitargeted treatment approach. American ginseng (AG) and Korean Red Ginseng (KRG) species could improve glycemic control via complementary mechanisms. Additionally, a KRG-inherent component, ginsenoside Rg3, may moderate blood pressure (BP). Our objective was to investigate the therapeutic potential of coadministration of Rg3-enriched Korean Red Ginseng (Rg3-KRG) and AG, added to standard of care therapy, in the management of hypertension and cardiometabolic risk factors in type-2 diabetes. Methods: Within a randomized controlled, parallel design of 80 participants with type-2 diabetes (HbA1c: 6.5-8%) and hypertension (systolic BP: 140-160 mmHg or treated), supplementation with either 2.25 g/day of combined Rg3-KRG + AG or wheat-bran control was assessed over a 12-wk intervention period. The primary endpoint was ambulatory 24-h systolic BP. Additional endpoints included further hemodynamic assessment, glycemic control, plasma lipids and safety monitoring. Results: Combined ginseng intervention generated a mean ± SE decrease in primary endpoint of 24-h systolic BP (-3.98 ± 2.0 mmHg, p = 0.04). Additionally, there was a greater reduction in HbA1c (-0.35 ± 0.1% [-3.8 ± 1.1 mmol/mol], p = 0.02), and change in blood lipids: total cholesterol (-0.50 ± 0.2 mmol/l, p = 0.01), non-HDL-C (-0.54 ± 0.2 mmol/l, p = 0.01), triglycerides (-0.40 ± 0.2 mmol/l, p = 0.02) and LDL-C (-0.35 ± 0.2 mmol/l, p = 0.06) at 12 wks, relative to control. No adverse safety outcomes were observed. Conclusion: Coadministration of Rg3-KRG + AG is an effective addon for improving BP along with attaining favorable cardiometabolic outcomes in individuals with type 2 diabetes. Ginseng derivatives may offer clinical utility when included in the polypharmacy and lifestyle treatment of diabetes. Clinical trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov identifier, NCT01578837;

• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.19-32
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• 1980

Besides the benefits of antimicrobial agents in the control of various infectious diseases, widespread and prolonged use of particular antimicrobial agents has brought about the increase of drug-resistant strains in a community and the profound changes in the pattern of infectious diseases. In Korea, there are some remote villages where no clinics and drug stores are available and the residents in those areas are assumed to have fewer chances to contact with antimicrobial agents. In the present study, the differences in susceptibilities to 14 antimicrobial agents between the isolates from rural areas(R) and Seoul National University Hospital(SNUH, H) were studied. The isolates and their numbers were Staphylococcus aureus, R;55, H;68), Enterococci(R;28, H;30), Escherichia coli(R;40, H;40), Enterobacter aerogenes(R;25, H;21) and Klebsiella pneunoniae(R;58, H;67). Minimal inhibitory concentrations(MIC's) of penicillin, ampicillin, carbenicillin, cephalexin, tetracycline, oxytetracyline, doxycycline, minocycline, gentamicin, kanamycin, streptomycin, erythromycin, troleandomycin and co-trimoxazole were determined by agar dilution method. I. Comparison of MIC's and resistant strain proportions between isolates from SNUH and rural areas. MIC's and/or resistant strain proportions of the isolates from SNUH were significantly higher than those of the isolates from rural areas in the cases of 1. S. aureus to doxycycline, streptomycin and kanamycin. 2. E. coli to penicillin, ampicillin, carbenicillin, tetracycline, oxytetracycline, doxycycline, minocycline, streptomycin, kanamycin, erythromycin and co-trimoxazole. 3. E. aerogences to carbenicillin, tetracycline, oxytetracycline, doxycycline, minocycline, streptomycin, kanamycin, genaamicin and co-trimoxazole. 4. K pneunoniae to penicillin, ampicillin, tetracycline, oxytetracycline, doxycycline, monocycline, streptomycin, kanamycine, gentamicin and co-trimoxazole. However, the mean MIC and resistant strain proportion of S. aureus to tetracycline were higher in isolates from rural areas than in those from SNUH and Enterococci showed no differences in susceptibilities to the antimicrobial agents between isolates from rural areas and from SNUH. Therefore, in general, differenes in susceptibility to these antimicrobial agents between the isolates from rural areas and SNUH were remarkably greater and broader in gram negative enteric bacteria. II. Multiple drug resistance pattern. Patterns and incidences of multiple drug resistance were studied with penicillin, ampicillin, tetracycline, cephalexin, gentamicin, streptomcin, kanamycin and co-trimoxazole in Enterococci, E. coli, E. aeroges and K. pneumoniae. There appeared significant differences in the incidence of multiply drug-resistant strains and multiple drug resistance patterns between the isolates from SNUH and rural areas in Enterococci, E. coli, E. aerogenes and K. pneumoniae. However, there was no difference in the incidence of multiply drug-resistant strains between isolates of S. aureus from SNUH and rural areas but the pattern of multiple resistance of the SNUH strains of S. aureus was diverse, while that of the rural strains was predominantly confined to penicillin-tetracycline combination. The incidence of multigly drug-resistant strains and diversity of their patterns were the highest in E. coli strains isolated from SNUH and there were no multiply drug resistant strrains in Enterococci and K. pneumoniae strains isolated from rural areas. The number of drug-resistance determinants was also different between the isolates from rural areas and SNUH. Most of the multiply drug-resistant strains of E. coli, E. aerogenes and K. pneumoniae isolated from SNUH were resistant to more than 3 kinds of antimicrobial agents, most frequently to ampicillin, tetracycline and streptomycin, while multiply drug-resistant strains from rural areas were resistant to 2 kinds of antimicrobial agents among ampicillin, tetracycline and streptomycin. With drug-resistant E. coli strains, resistance to tetracycline which was used most widely since 1951 was most frequently involved as a part of mutliple drug-resistance, followed by resistance to ampicillin and streptomycin. This strongly suggests that emergence of drug-restant strains in a community is directly dependent on the selective pressure exerted by the antimicrobial agent used. III. Cross resistance. Cross resistance of bacteria was studied among tetracycline penicillin, aminoglycoside and macrolide derivatives by analyzing correlation coefficients of sucseptibilities using the least square method. In this study, there were high correlations among the susceptibilities to related derivatives. It appears that the relatively low correlations in susceptibilities present in some cases are due to intrinsic resistance of E. aerogenes to penicillin, Enterococci to aminoglycoside and E. coli E. aerogenes and K. pneumoniae to macrolide derivatives.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.993-1004
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• 2009

Three experiments were conducted to determine the effects of non-ionic surfactant (NIS) supplementation on ruminal fermentation, nutrient digestibility and performance of beef steers fed high-roughage diets. The objective of experiment 1 was to investigate the effects of NIS supplementation on in vitro ruminal fermentation of cultures administered with corn and barley as grain substrate and rice straw and timothy hay as roughage substrate. The in vivo ruminal fermentation, nitrogen balance and digestibility of nutrients were also examined with steers fed a high-roughage diet in experiment 2. The aim of experiment 3 was to determine the responses to NIS of growing steers fed a high-roughage diet. In experiment 1, ammonia nitrogen concentration for NIS supplementation was higher (p<0.05) than for the control with all substrates. However, concentrations of total volatile fatty acid (VFA), acetate, butyrate and valerate of the incubated roughage substrates, rice straw and timothy hay, were higher (p<0.05) for NIS supplementation than for the control whereas VFA concentrations in the cultures of corn and barley were unaffected. These results indicated that effects of NIS on ruminal fermentation are diet dependent, specifically on roughage sources. In experiment 2, ruminal pH of steers supplemented with NIS was lower (p<0.05) than the control. Ruminal concentrations of ammonia nitrogen, acetate, total VFA and urinary concentrations of purine derivatives were increased (p<0.05) by NIS supplementation. In experiment 3, supplementation of NIS increased (p<0.05) intakes of total feed and corn silage, average daily gain, and feed efficiency of growing steers although they varied depending on supplementation level. Due to the roughage-specific feature of NIS effects, NIS appears to enhance ruminal fermentation of fibrous parts of feeds and, consequently, performance of steers fed a high-roughage diet.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.751-759
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• 2007

We have developed several methods for the optimization problem having large-scale and highly nonlinear system. First, step by step method in optimization process was employed to improve the convergence. In addition, techniques of furnishing good initial guesses for analysis using sensitivity information acquired from optimization iteration, and of manipulating analysis/optimization convergency criterion motivated from simultaneous technique were used. We applied them to flow control problem and verified their efficiency and robustness. However, they are based on quasi-Newton method that approximate the Hessian matrix using exact first derivatives. However solution of the Navier-Stokes equations are very cost, so we want to improve the efficiency of the optimization algorithm as much as possible. Thus we develop a true Newton method that uses exact Hessian matrix. And we apply that to the three-dimensional problem of flow around a sphere. This problem is certainly intractable with existing methods for optimal flow control. However, we can attack such problems with the methods that we developed previously and true Newton method.

• 전자공학회논문지 IE
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.65-75
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• 2006

This thesis deals with a wavelet-based method of denoising of infrared images contaminated with impulse noise and Gaussian noise, he method of thresholding the wavelet coefficients using derivatives and median absolute deviations of the wavelet coefficients of the detail subbands was proposed to effectively denoise infrared images with noises. Particularly, in order to eliminate the impulse noise the method of generating binary masks indicating locations of the impulse noise was selected. By this method, the threshold values dividing edges and noises were obtained more effectively proving the validity of the denoising method compared with the conventional wavelet shrinkage method.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.25-33
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• 1985

Renal arterial infusion of renotropic agents has been a very useful technique in the renal function studies. This type of experiments have usually been conducted in the large animals such as dogs and sheep. In these animals a catheter can be placed in the site without much disturbances of renal blood flow. Rabbits as an experimental model, however, caused a disturbances of renal blood flow by a catheterization of renal artery by its properties. Therefore we have developed a new technique that allows a simple and selective access to one side of renal arteries and the other as a control, without any disturbances of renal function. The distance between the both bifurcations of renal arteries on abdominal aorta is about 7 mm. To locate the tip of catheter on one side renal artery, ascending cannulation performed via femoral artery was done. We did an experiment with the technique to clarify the effect of calmodulin inhibitor on the renal function. One of the phenothiazine derivatives, trifluoperazine known as a powerful calmodulin inhibitor. Trifluoperazine, actual dose ranges of $2.76-5.20\;ug\;{\cdot}\;kg^{-1}\;{\cdot}\;min^{-1}$, increased urine volume and glomerular filtration rate significantly. Significant increases in urinary excretion of sodium, chloride and potassium were found. Fractional excretion of sodium and free water clearance increased significantly. These data suggest that this new technique is very useful in field of renal physiology and that striking effect of trifluoperazine on the renal function may be caused by increasing the renal hemodynamics, and by the inhibition of sodium, chloride and potassium reabsorption in the renal tubules.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.275-276
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• 2009

We have studied physical properties of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) in a device with 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ). Since the TCNQ has a high electron affinity, it is widely used for a charge-transport and injection layer. And the TCNQ-derivatives have also been used to control the conductivity of the materials. It is known that a charge injection and transport in OLEDs with a TCNQ-derivative enhances a performance of the devices such as operating voltage and efficiency. To see how the TCNQ affects on the device performance, we have made a reference device in a structure of ITO(170nm)/TPD(40nm)/$Alq_3$(60nm)/LiF(0.5nm)/Al(100nm). And several type of devices were manufactured by doping TCNQ either in TPD or $Alq_3$ layer. The TCNQ layer was also formed in between the organic layers. N,N'-diphenyl-N,N'-di(m-tolyl)-benzidine (TPD), tri(8-hydroxy quinoline) aluminium ($Alq_3$), and TCNQ layers were formed by thermal evaporation at a pressure of $10^{-6}$ torr. The deposition rate was $1.0{\sim}1.5\;{\AA}/s$ for TPD, and $1.0{\sim}1.5\;{\AA}$ for $Alq_3$. The LiF was thermally evaporated at a deposition rate of $0.2\;{\AA}/s$ successively. The device with TCNQ-derivative improved the turn-on voltage compared to the one without TCNQ-derivative.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.137-146
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• 2007

The substitution of fossil fuels with biofuels has been proposed by the European Union (EU) as part of a strategy to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from road transport, increase security of energy supply and support the development of rural communities. Vegetable oils and their derivatives (especially methyl esters), commonly referred to as 'biodiesel', are prominent candidates as alternative diesel fuels. They have advanced from being purely experimental fuels to the initial stages of commercialization. They are technically competitive with or offer technical advantages compared to conventional diesel fuel. However, several problems remain including economics, combustions, some emissions, lube oil contamination, and low-temperature properties. Therefore, quality control of fuel-related properties of biodiesel is needed to obtain consistent engine performance by fuel users. The quality of the fuel is affected by the oil composition. Rapeseed oil has been targeted for fuel use because it produces an oil with a close-to-optimum set of fuel characteristics. In this paper we have reviewed past and current efforts, both by traditional seed-breeding methods and by genetic engineering, to modify rapeseed oil quality and yield.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.49-56
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• 2007

One of the goals of stem cell technology is to control the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), thereby generating large numbers of specific cell types for many applications including cell replacement therapy. Although individual hESC lines resemble each other in expressing pluripotency markers and telomerase activity, it is not clear whether they are equivalent in their developmental potential in vitro. We compared the developmental competence of three hESC lines (HSF6, Miz-hES4, and Miz-hES6). All three generated the three embryonic germ layers, extraembryonic tissues, and primordial germ cells during embryoid body (EB) formation. However, HSF6 and Miz-hES6 readily formed neuroectoderm, whereas Miz-hES4 differentiated preferentially into mesoderm and endoderm. Upon terminal differentiation, HSF6 and Miz-hES6 produced mainly neuronal cells whereas Miz-hES4 mainly formed mesendodermal derivatives, including endothelial cells, leukocyte progenitors, hepatocytes, and pancreatic cells. Our observations suggest that independently-derived hESCs may differ in their developmental potential.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.34-40
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• 2005

Most analyses and researches on Micro Aerial Vehicle(MAV) have focused upon propulsion, automatic control, aerodynamic configuration in low Reynolds number region, and miniaturization of telemetric parts. In the present study, a structural concept for MAV is designed by using the composite material suitable for light flight structures. In order to study the load path and stress state of the MAV, the load and structural analyses are simultaneously performed by the aeroelasticity module of MSC/NASTRAN. The stability derivatives of the MAV are obtained for three symmetric, two antisymmetric, and four unsymmetric maneuvering conditions. Although the aerodynamic theory in MSC/NASTRAN could not be proper for MAV analysis, it provides an traditional and effective tool for trim and load analyses and may be corrected with the results by more accurate theory or test. The results show that the inertial load due to payloads has a more effect on stress rather than the aerodynamic load.