• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.423-428
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• 2021

Here, we report the development of a new and low-cost core-shell structure for lithium-ion battery anodes using silicon waste sludge and the Ti-ion complex. X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirmed the raw waste silicon sludge powder to be pure silicon without other metal impurities and the particle size distribution is measured to be from 200 nm to 3 ㎛ by dynamic light scattering (DLS). As a result of pulverization by a planetary mill, the size of the single crystal according to the Scherrer formula is calculated to be 12.1 nm, but the average particle size of the agglomerate is measured to be 123.6 nm. A Si/TiO₂ core-shell structure is formed using simple Ti complex ions, and the ratio of TiO₂ peaks increased with an increase in the amount of Ti ions. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations revealed that TiO₂ coating on Si nanoparticles results in a Si-TiO₂ core-shell structure. This result is expected to improve the stability and cycle of lithium-ion batteries as anodes.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.506-518
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• 2021

The imprinted tumour suppressor NOEY2 is downregulated in various cancer types, including ovarian cancers. Recent data suggest that NOEY2 plays an essential role in regulating the cell cycle, angiogenesis and autophagy in tumorigenesis. However, its detailed molecular function and mechanisms in ovarian tumours remain unclear. In this report, we initially demonstrated the inhibitory effect of NOEY2 on tumour growth by utilising a xenograft tumour model. NOEY2 attenuated the cell growth approximately fourfold and significantly reduced tumour vascularity. NOEY2 inhibited the phosphorylation of the signalling components downstream of phosphatidylinositol-3'-kinase (PI3K), including phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase 1 (PDK-1), tuberous sclerosis complex 2 (TSC-2) and p70 ribosomal protein S6 kinase (p70S6K), during ovarian tumour progression via direct binding to vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR-2). Particularly, the N-terminal domain of NOEY2 (NOEY2-N) had a potent anti-angiogenic activity and dramatically downregulated VEGF and hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), key regulators of angiogenesis. Since no X-ray or nuclear magnetic resonance structures is available for NOEY2, we constructed the three-dimensional structure of this protein via molecular modelling methods, such as homology modelling and molecular dynamic simulations. Thereby, Lys15 and Arg16 appeared as key residues in the N-terminal domain. We also found that NOEY2-N acts as a potent inhibitor of tumorigenesis and angiogenesis. These findings provide convincing evidence that NOEY2-N regulates endothelial cell function and angiogenesis by interrupting the VEGFR-2/PDK-1/GSK-3β signal transduction and thus strongly suggest that NOEY2-N might serve as a novel anti-tumour and anti-angiogenic agent against many diseases, including ovarian cancer.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.253-260
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• 2024

Proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) is an efficient method for utilizing renewable energy sources such as wind and solar powers to produce green hydrogen. For PEMWE powered by renewable energy sources, its durability is a crucial factor in its performance since irregular and fluctuating characteristics of renewable energy sources, especially for wind power, can deteriorate the stability of PEMWE. Triangular voltage cycle is well able to simulate fluctuating wind power, but its effect on the durability has not been investigated extensively. In this study, the performance degradation of the PEMWE cell operated with the triangular voltage cycling was investigated at different ramping rates. The measured current responses during the cycling gradually decreased for both ramping rates, and I-V curve measurements before and after the cycling confirmed the degradation of the performances of PEMWE. For both measurements, the degradation rate was larger for 300 mV s^-1 than 30 mV s^-1, and they were determined as 0.36 and 1.26 mV h^-1 (at the current density of 2 A cm^-2) at the ramping rates of 30 and 300 mV s^-1, respectively. The comparison with other studies on triangular voltage cycling also indicate that an increase in the ramping rate accelerates the deterioration of the PEMWE performance. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy results showed that the Ir catalyst was oxidized and did not dissolve during the voltage cycling. This study suggests that the ramping rate of the triangular voltage cycling is an important factor for the evaluation of the durability of PEMWE cells.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.319-328
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• 1994

Aluminium and titanium precursors containing $\beta$-diketonate ligands were used for the synthesis of polymeric sols of alumina and titania by sol-gel methods. To prepare polymeric sols by solgel processing, we synthesized modified precursors having chelating organic ligands. With these precursors it was found to be possible to control both hydrolysis and polycondensation reaction rates which resulted in ultrafine particles few nms of average size. The optimum molar ratio of acid to alkoxide for alumina sol was 0.3-0.4 and that of water to alkoxide &as 1. On the other hand, the corresponding ratios for titania sol were found be 0.25-0.20 and 1 respectively. Dynamic light scattering measurements indicated that the average particle size in both sols was in the order of few nms. SEM photographs were taken to observe crack-free and smooth surfaces of coated membranes after sintering at $450^{\circ}C$. Alumina coated membrane on a slide glass had about 4-4.5$\mu \textrm{m}$, thickness and titania coated one had 2-2.5$\mu \textrm{m}$, thickness. And according to TEM photographs, the grain size of titania was smaller than 30nm and that of alumina was in the range of few $\AA$s to 2nms. An X-ray diffraction study revealed that alumina was $\gamma$ phase and titania was anatase crystal.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.367-375
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• 2014

In this thesis we observe microvascular structure in mice by using micro-computed tomography (CT), which is high-resolution X-ray imaging equipment that can acquire Real-time dynamic image, and it aims to investigate the usefulness of micro-CT developed by Institute for Radiological Imaging Science Wonkwang University School of Medicine. After acquiring the systemic images of rats, contrast-enhanced 3D images of vascular structures could be acquired by using Maximum Intensity Projection (MIP) and Volume Rending Technique (VRT), This was divided into each vascular system of head, abdomen and heart and systemic vascular system.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.220-229
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• 2013

Respiratory-induced dynamic tumors render free-breathing cone-beam computed tomography (FBCBCT) images with motion artifacts complicating the task of quantifying the internal target volume (ITV). The purpose of this paper is to study the visibility of the revealed ITV when the imaging dose parameters, such as the kVp and mAs, are varied. The $Trilogy^{TM}$ linear accelerator with an On-Board Imaging ($OBI^{TM}$) system was used to acquire low-imaging-dose-mode (LIDM: 110 kVp, 20 mA, 20 ms/frame) and high-imaging-dose-mode (HIDM: 125 kVp, 80 mA, 25 ms/frame) FBCBCT images of a 3-cm diameter sphere (density=0.855 $g/cm^3$) moving in accordance to various sinusoidal breathing patterns, each with an unique inhalation-to-exhalation (I/E) ratio, amplitude, and period. In terms of image ITV contrast, there was a small overall average change of the ITV contrast when going from HIDM to LIDM of $6.5{\pm}5.1%$ for all breathing patterns. As for the ITV visible volume measurements, there was an insignificant difference between the ITV of both the LIDM- and HIDM-FBCBCT images with an average difference of $0.5{\pm}0.5%$, for all cases, despite the large difference in the imaging dose (approximately five-fold difference of ~0.8 and 4 cGy/scan). That indicates that the ITV visibility is not very sensitive to changes in imaging dose. However, both of the FBCBCT consistently underestimated the true ITV dimensions by up to 34.8% irrespective of the imaging dose mode due to significant motion artifacts, and thus, this imaging technique is not adequate to accurately visualize the ITV for image guidance. Due to the insignificant impact of imaging dose on ITV visibility, a plausible, alternative strategy would be to acquire more X-ray projections at the LIDM setting to allow 4DCBCT imaging to better define the ITV, and at the same time, maintain a reasonable imaging dose, i.e., comparable to a single HIDM-FBCBCT scan.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.260-267
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• 2006

SBR (styrene-butadiene rubber; 25 wt% of solid contents) nanocomposites reinforced with OLS(organically modified layered silicates) were manufactured via the latex method. Two types of OLS are prepared, i.e. dodecylamine (primary amine) modified montmorillonite (DA-MMT) and N, N-dimethyldodecylamine (tertiary amino) modified MMT (DDA-MMT). X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were employed to characterize the layer distance of OLS and the morphology of the nanocomposites. SBR nanocomposites reinforced with ternary phase filler (carbon black/silica/OLS) systems also manufactured. Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) was performed on these composites to determine the loss factor (tan $\delta$) over a range of temperature($-20^{\circ}C{\sim}80^{\circ}C$). The results showed that there was significant changes on the values or tan $\delta$ with the addition of small amount of the OLS. By increasing the contents of OLS, the values of tan $\delta$ at $0^{\circ}C$ increased but those of tan $\delta$ at $60^{\circ}C$ decreased with increasing OLS contents.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.33-37
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• 2004

Cu$_{0.1}$Fe$_{0.9}$Cr$_2$S$_4$ has been studied with Mossbauer spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and magnetoresistance (MR) measurement. The crystal structure was determined to be a cubic spinel with lattice parameter a$_{0}$=9.9880 $\AA$. The MR measurements show a semiconductor behavior below 110 K and metal behaved above 100 K. The temperature dependence of magnetization of Cu$_{0.1}$Fe$_{0.9}$Cr$_2$S$_4$ was reported. In addition to a large irreversibility between the zero-field-cooling (ZFC) and the field-cooling (FC) magnetization at applied field H=100 Oe, a cusp-like anomaly was observed in both the FC and ZFC curves. It shifted toward the lower temperature region with increasing magnetic field, and then showed convex type maximum at 110 K, under the applied field of 5 kOe. The Mossbauer spectra were measured from 15 K to room temperature. The asymmetric line broadening was observed for the sample Cu$_{0.1}$Fe$_{0.9}$Cr$_2$S$_4$, and it was considered to be dynamic Jahn-Teller relaxation. The charge state of Fe ions was ferrous in character. The unusual reduction of magnetic hyperfine field below 110 K was interpreted in terms of cancellation effect between the mutually opposite orbital current field (H$_{L}$) and Fermi contact field (H$_{C}$).

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.231-237
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• 2014

The supercritical fluids (SCFs) have been widely used for material synthesis and processing due to their remarkable properties including low viscosity, high diffusivity and low surface tension. Carbon dioxide is one of the suitable solvents in SCFs processes in terms of its advantages such as easy processibility (with low critical temperature and pressure), inexpensive, nonflammable, nontoxic, and readily available. However, it has generally low solubility for high molecular weight polymers with the exception of fluoropolymers and siloxane polymers. Therefore, hydrocarbon solvents and hydrochlorofluorocarbons have been used for various SCFs process by its high solubility for high molecular weight polymers. In this report, a PMMA/clay nanocomposites were fabricated by using supercritical fluid process. The $Na^+$-MMT(montmorillonites)was modified by a fluorinated surfactant which is able to enhance compatibility with the chlorodifluoromethane(HCFC-22) and thus, improve dispersability of the clay in the polymer matrix. The PMMA/fluorinated surfactant modified clay nanocomposite shows enhanced mechanical and thermal properties which characterized by X-raydiffraction(XRD), Thermo gravimetric analysis(TGA), Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.608-615
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• 2017

The objective of this study was to evaluate the physicochemical, structural, and rheological properties of new domestic potato cultivars ('Goun', 'Sebong', and 'Jinsun') against the foreign potato cultivar 'Atlantic'. Based on the results obtained from scanning electron micrograph, X-ray, and Fourier transform infrared spectrum analyses, the structural properties of all potato flours were not considerably different. Rapid visco analyzer analyses showed that the setback viscosities of 'Goun', 'Sebong', and 'Jinsun' were significantly lower than that of 'Atlantic'. For steady shear rheological properties, potato flour dispersions showed shear-thinning behaviors (n=0.45~0.49) at $25^{\circ}C$. Apparent viscosity and consistency index of 'Atlantic' were similar to those of 'Sebong' and 'Jinsun'. For dynamic shear rheological properties, storage modulus (G′) and loss modulus increased, whereas complex viscosity (${\eta}^*$) was reduced with increasing frequency from 0.63 to 62.8 rad/s. G′ and ${\eta}^*$ values of 'Jinsun' were significantly higher than those of the other potato cultivars.