• Molecules and Cells
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.352-357
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• 2016

Vertebrate neurogenesis requires inhibition of endogenous bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signals in the ectoderm. Blocking of BMPs in animal cap explants causes the formation of anterior neural tissues as a default fate. To identify genes involved in the anterior neural specification, we analyzed gene expression profiles using a Xenopus Affymetrix Gene Chip after BMP-4 inhibition in animal cap explants. We found that the xCyp26c gene, encoding a retinoic acid (RA) degradation enzyme, was upregulated following inhibition of BMP signaling in early neuroectodermal cells. Whole-mount in situ hybridization analysis showed that xCyp26c expression started in the anterior region during the early neurula stage. Overexpression of xCyp26c weakly induced neural genes in animal cap explants. xCyp26c abolished the expression of all trans-/cis-RA-induced posterior genes, but not basic FGF-induced posterior genes. Depletion of xCyp26c by morpholino-oligonucleotides suppressed the normal formation of the axis and head, indicating that xCyp26c plays a critical role in the specification of anterior neural tissue in whole embryos. In animal cap explants, however, xCyp26c morpholinos did not alter anterior-to-posterior neural tissue formation. Together, these results suggest that xCyp26c plays a specific role in anterior-posterior (A-P) neural patterning of Xenopus embryos.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.33-42
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• 2009

A polymer-based flexible neural probe was fabricated for monitoring of neural activities from a brain. To improve the insertion stiffness, a 5 ${\mu}m$ thick biocompatible Au layer was electroplated between the top and bottom polymer layers. The developed neural probe penetrated a gel whose elastic modulus is similar to that of a live brain tissue without any fracture, To minimize mechanical residual stress and bending from the probe, two new methods were employed: (1) use of a thermal annealing process after completing the device and (2) incorporation of multiple different layers to compensate the residual stress between top and bottom layers. Mechanical bending around the probe tip was clearly removed after employing the two processes. In electrical test, the developed probe showed a proper impedance value to record neural signals from a brain and the result remained the same for 72 hours. In simple in-vitro probe characterization, the probe showed a great removal of residual stress and an excellent recording performance. The in-vitro recording results did not change even after 1 week, suggesting that this electrode has the potential for great recording from neuron firing and long-term implant performance.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.588-594
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• 2015

Although GPS technology for location positioning system has been widely used, it is difficult to be used in intelligent transport systems, due to the large positioning error and limited area for receiving radio signals. Thanks to the rapid development of LED technology, LED lights become popular in many applications. Especially, visible light communications (VLC) has raised a lot of interests because of the simultaneous functioning of LED illumination and communication. Recent studies on positioning system using VLC mainly focused on indoor environments and still difficult to satisfy positioning accuracy and simple implementation simultaneously. In this paper, we propose a positioning system based on VLC using the coordinate information of LEDs installed on the road infrastructure. Extracting the LED signal, obtained through VLC, from the easily accessible camera image, it is possible to estimate the position of the car on the road. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can achieve a high positioning accuracy of 1 m when large number of pixels is utilized and the distance from the LED light is close.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.1-15
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• 2002

Excitation-contraction coupling in skeletal muscle is process by which depolarization of the muscle fiber membrane, elicited by a nerve action potential, triggers the release of $Ca^{2+}$ from the sarcoplasmic reticulum(SR). The resulting rise in intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ concentration$([Ca^{2+}]_i)$ activates the troponin complex, thereby initiating the contraction of the muscle. The question remains as to what factors are involved in the inhibition of SR $Ca^{2+}$ release in fatigued muscle. The purpose of this study was determine whether ATP-sensitive $K^+(K_{ATP})$ channels are activated and contribute to decrease in $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ during fatigue development in the mouse skeletal muscle. To elucidate a role of $K_{ATP})$ in relation to ECC, I measured the modulation effects of $K_{ATP})$ channel blocker(glibenclamide) and opener(pinacidil) on $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ after fatiguing electrical field stimulation(FEFS). Intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ signals were recorded by conforcal laser microscopy(LSM 410) and monitored using the fluorescent $Ca^{2+}$-Sensitive indicator Fluo-3 AM. The results of this study were as followed: 1. The relative [Ca2'li after FEFS in the pre-glibenclamide-treated group was higher than the control. And relative $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ after FEFS in the pre-glibenclamide-treated group was lower than the control. 2. The relative $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ after FEFS for 3 min in the control, pre-glibenclamide-treated group and pre-pinacidil-treated group showed a similar pattern; the gradually significant decrease in $[Ca^{2+}]_i$. But, these decreasing pattern was most significant in the control. These findings suggest a tight relationship between $K_{ATP})$ and $Ca^{2+}$ in ECC during fatigue. Therefore, 1 thought that activation of $K_{ATP})$ channels may be one of mechanisms of the fatigue in skeletal muscle.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.325-330
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• 2004

Several kinds of low voltage cables have been used in nuclear power plants for the supply of electric power, supervision, and the propagation of control signals. These low voltage tables must be inspected for safe and stable operation of nuclear power plants. In particular, the degradation diagnosis to estimate the integrity of low voltage rabies has recently been emphasized according to the long use of nuclear power plants. In order to evaluate their degradation, the surrounding temperature, hardness of insulation material, elongation at breaking point (EAB), etc. have been used. However, the measurement of temperature or hardness is not useful because of the absence of quantitative criteria; the inspection of a sample requires turning off of the power plant power; and, the electrical inspection method is not sufficiently sensitive from the initial through the middle stage of degradation. In this research, based on the theory that the ultrasonic velocity changes with relation to the degradation of the material, we measured the ultrasonic velocity as low voltage cables were degraded. To this end, an ultrasonic degradation diagnosis device was developed and used to measure the ultrasonic velocity with the clothing on the cable, and it was confirmed that the ultrasonic velocity changes according to the degradation of low voltage cables. The low voltage cables used in nuclear power plants were degraded at an accelerated rate, and EAB was measured in a tensile test conducted after the measurement of ultrasonic velocity. With the increasing degradation degree, the ultrasonic velocity decreased, whose potential as a useful parameter for the quantitative degradation evaluation was thus confirmed.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.34-42
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• 2017

Since existing nonintrusive appliance load monitoring (NIALM) studies assume that voltage fluctuations are negligible for load identification, and do not affect the identification results, the power factor or harmonic signals associated with voltage are generally not considered parameters for load identification, which limits the application of NIALM in the Smart Home sector. Experiments in this paper indicate that the parameters related to voltage and the characteristics of harmonics should be used to improve the accuracy and reliability of the load monitoring system. Therefore, in this paper, we propose an improved NIALM method that can efficiently analyze the types of household appliances and electrical energy usage in a home network environment. The proposed method is able to analyze the energy usage pattern by analyzing operation characteristics inherent to household appliances using harmonic characteristics of some household appliances as recognition parameters. Through the proposed method, we expect to be able to provide services to the smart grid electric power demand management market and increase the energy efficiency of home appliances actually operating in a home network.

• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.11-22
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• 2021

Sonobuoy is widely used as a very important sensor in combat management system using P-3 patrol aircraft due to its advantages of rapid searching into wide exploration range. It is necessary to verify the performance of developed sonobuoy system using various maritime test data in order to be successfully applied in combat management system. But it is difficult to acquire various real maritime data because it needs much time and effort. Therefore we have developed in this paper a synthetic signal generator and a simulator that they can verify the performance of sonobuoy system and evaluate its operational effectiveness without conducting maritime test. We have synthesized target signals based on the characteristics of underwater sound sources, and then developed the synthesized signal generator which consider to sound propagation etc. like as underwater environment. And in the simulator development we use a HMI technique to enhance the convenience of operator, and design to verify the performance of sonobuoy system. The developed signal generator and simulator can be used as useful tools to evaluate the operational effectiveness such as optimal deployment of sonobuoy in combat management system using P-3 patrol aircraft.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.441-451
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• 2023

Ultrasound transducers are an essential component of combined photoacoustic and ultrasound imaging systems and play an important role in image evaluation. However, ultrasound transducers are opaque; therefore, light must bypass the ultrasound transducer to reach the target point to produce a photoacoustic image. Providing different paths for the optical and acoustic signals results in a complicated system design, increasing the system volume. To overcome these problems, an optically Transparent Ultrasound Transducer (TUT) was developed. Unlike conventional opaque ultrasound transducers, optically TUT can be fabricated by a variety of manufacturing methods and they are suitable for use with specific piezoelectric elements and serve various purposes. In this study, a comparative analysis of the results of using Lithium Niobate (LNO), Lead Magnesium Niobate-Lead Titanate (PMN-PT), and Polyvinylidene Difluoride (PVDF), which are materials used in piezoelectric element-based TUT. LNO is a piezoelectric element widely used in TUT, and PMN-PT has been actively studied recently with a higher transmission and reception rate than LNO. Existing TUT have lower ultrasound resolution than photoacoustic resolution, but they have recently been manufacturing focused TUT with high ultrasound resolution using PVDF. A comparative analysis of the production results of these TUT was performed.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.85-91
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• 2024

To realize stable use of ground treated with cementitious materials, the curing process must be evaluated. In this study, a time domain reflectometry (TDR) measurement system was employed to evaluate the curing process of cementitious grout based on the electromagnetic property. A coated probe was manufactured to prevent electrical connection between the electrodes by the electrically conductive cementitious grout, and a calibration process was performed to estimate the actual relative permittivity using the coated probe. To assess the curing process of cementitious grout using the TDR measurement system, cementitious grout with added retarder was prepared with a water-to-cement ratio of 45%. A preliminary measurement was conducted immediately after pouring the cementitious grout into the mold to test the applicability of the coated probe, and TDR signals and relative permittivity were measured at 3~288 hours of curing time. The experimental results demonstrate that the relative permittivity of the cementitious grout immediately after pouring was greater than 100, decreased rapidly over time, and converged to approximately 13.8 at 144 hours, which is considered the fully cured time. This findings of this study demonstrate that the TDR measurement system with a coated probe is applicable to electrically conductive materials. In addition, the TDR measurement system can be used effectively to monitor the curing process of cementitious grout based on electromagnetic properties.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.245-252
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• 2018

A method of transmitting an alert signal in case of man-overboard (MOB) systems in a small fishing vessel navigating within coastal area is being operated as VHF-DSC equipment via a distress alert button and V-P ass Equipment via alert button or beacon separation. However, a small fishing vessel with a couple of crews on board is an inappropriate way to alert a man-overboard condition. However, internationally, MOB equipment using VHF-DSC, AIS, and Bluetooth technologies is used to transmit alert signals directly to the mother ship and other radio stations. In order to analyze the performance and technology of the MOB equipment operating in foreign countries, it was confirmed that the alarm signal can be received within a maximum of one nautical mile when the MOB device is on the water surface. An MOB device that meets domestic conditions needs to send an alarm signal to a station within the VHF communication range. However, in order to reduce the false alert signal, it is most appropriate to operate the VHF-DSC radio equipment installed on the ship remotely. Analysis of various technologies connecting the MOB and the VHF-DSC revealed that the Bluetooth system has advantages such as device miniaturization. When an emergency signal is transmitted from the MOB device, it can be received by a dedicated receiver and recognized through an external input terminal of the VHF-DSC equipment generating its own alarm. If the emergency situation cannot be processed at the mother ship, a distress alert is sent to all radio stations via VHF-DSC for response under emergencies faced by small fishing vessels.