• Journal of electromagnetic engineering and science
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.144-147
• /
• 2008

This paper proposes a tunable combline bandpass filter with high selectivity, constant bandwidth, and good stopband performances. A filter with these characteristics is obtained by applying cross-coupling to the conventional combline bandpass filter using stepped-impedance resonators(SIRs). For high selectivity and constant bandwidth, cross-coupling is utilized and the SIR configuration is used for enhanced stopband performances. The proposed combline tunable bandpass filter with 5% of fractional bandwidth at 1.6 GHz was fabricated and tested. The measured results showed 11.6% tunability with constant bandwidth, high selectivity and enhanced stopband characteristics.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.30 no.6
• /
• pp.529-534
• /
• 2009

One of the characteristics of the hearing impaired is that their frequency selectivity is poorer than that of the normal hearing. To compensate this, formant enhancement algorithms and spectral contrast enhancement algorithms have been developed. However in some cases, these algorithms fail to improve the frequency selectivity of the hearing impaired. One of the reasons is the acoustic masking among enhanced formants. In this study, we tried to enhance the formants based on the individual masking characteristic of each subject. The masking characteristic used in this study was minimum level difference (MLD) between the first formant to the second formant while acoustic masking was occurred. If the level difference between the two formants in each frame is larger than the MLD, the gain of the first formant was decreased to reduce the acoustic masking that occurred among formants. As a result of the speech discrimination test, using formant enhanced speeches, speech discrimination score (SDS) of the speeches having differently enhanced formants was significantly superior to SDS of the speeches having equally enhanced formants. It means that suppression of the acoustic masking among formants improve frequency selectivity of the hearing impaired.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
• /
• v.55 no.6
• /
• pp.342-352
• /
• 2022

Purine catabolite screening enables reliable diagnosis of certain diseases. In this regard, the development of a facile detection strategy with high sensitivity and selectivity is demanded for point-of-care applications. In this work, the simultaneous detection of uric acid (UA), xanthine (XA), and hypoxanthine (HX) was carried out as model purine catabolites by surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS). The detection assay was conducted by employing high-aspect ratio Au nanopillar substrates coupled with in-situ Au electrodeposition on the substrates. The additional modification of the Au nanopillar substrates via electrodeposition was found to be an effective method to encapsulate molecules in solution into nanogaps of growing Au films that increase metal-molecule contact and improve substrate's sensitivity and selectivity. In complex solutions, the approach facilitated ternary identification of UA, XA, and HX down to concentration limits of 4.33 𝜇M, 0.71 𝜇M, and 0.22 𝜇M, respectively, which are comparable to their existing levels in normal human physiology. These results demonstrate that the proposed platform is reliable for practical point-of-care analysis of biofluids where solution matrix effects greatly reduce selectivity and sensitivity for rapid on-site disease diagnosis.

• Advances in environmental research
• /
• v.4 no.4
• /
• pp.263-271
• /
• 2015

In this study, the effect of initial nitrate loading on nitrate removal and byproduct selectivity was evaluated in a continuous system. Nitrate removal decreased from 100% to 25% with the increase in nitrate loading from 10 to $300mg/L\;NO_3-N$. Ammonium selectivity decreased and nitrite selectivity increased, while nitrogen selectivity showed a peak shape in the same range of nitrate loading. The nitrate removal was enhanced at low catalyst to nitrate ratios and 100% nitrate removal was achieved at catalyst to nitrate ratio of ${\geq}33mg\;catalyst/mg\;NO_3-N$. Maximum nitrogen selectivity (47%) was observed at $66mg\;catalyst/mg\;NO_3-N$, showing that continuous Cu-Pd-NZVI system has a maximum removal capacity of 37 mg $NO_3{^-}-N/g_{catalyst}/h$. The results from this study emphasize that nitrate reduction in a bimetallic catalytic system could be sensitive to changes in optimized regimes.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.40 no.4
• /
• pp.409-413
• /
• 2012

Indolicidin (ID) is a 13-residue Trp-rich antimicrobial peptide (AMP) isolated from bovine neutrophils. In addition to having a high antimicrobial potency, it is also toxic to mammalian cells. To develop novel ID-derived AMPs with shorter lengths and enhanced prokaryotic selectivities (meaning potent antimicrobial activity against bacterial cells without toxicity against mammalian cells) over the parental ID, several ID analogs were designed and synthesized. Finally, 10-residue ID analogs (SI, SI-PA, SI-WF and SI-WL) with much higher prokaryotic selectivity than the parental ID were developed. Our results suggest that the hydrophobic and aromatic amino acids at the central position of the analog SI with the highest prokaryotic selectivity are important for potent antimicrobial activity, but two Pro residues do not affect antimicrobial activity. The order of prokaryotic selectivity for ID and its designed analogs was SI > SI-PA > SI-WF > SI-WL > ID > SI-WA. Taken together, our designed short ID analogs could be developed as therapeutic agents for treating bacterial infections.

• Korean Membrane Journal
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.48-55
• /
• 2000

In order to improve organic vapor separation efficiency of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane, various zeolites (zeolite 4A, zeolite 13X and natural zeolite) were introduced into a thin PDMS film. The measurements of permeability and selectivity of zeolite-filled PDMS membranes were carried out with a CO$_2$gas and a CO$_2$gas/acetic acid vapor mixture, respectively. The CO$_2$permeability of zeolite-filled membranes decreased with increasing zeolite content and then recovered up to 30 wt% content. The effect of zeolite type on the improvement of CO$_2$permeability was found to be in the order of zeolite 13X > natural zeolite > 4A. The CO$_2$selectivity of zeolite-filled membranes was enhanced up to 9 times compared with the selectivity of a pure (unfilled) PDMS membrane. The effect of zeolite type on the improvement of CO$_2$selectivity was found to be in the order of natural zeolite > zeolite 13X > zeolite 4A.

• Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.339-344
• /
• 2014

Different types of polyethersulfone (PES) support layer for a thin film composite (TFC) membrane were synthesized under various synthesis conditions using the phase inversion method to study the combined effects of substrate, adhesive, and pore former. The permeability, selectivity, pore structure, and morphology of the prepared membranes were analyzed to evaluate the membrane performance. The combined use of substrate, adhesive, and pore former produced a thinner dense top layer, with more straight finger-like pores. The pure water permeation (PWP) of the optimized PES membrane was $27.42L/m^2hr$ (LMH), whereas that of bare PES membrane was 3.24 LMH. Moreover, membrane selectivity, represented as divalent ion ($CaSO_4$) rejection, was not sacrificed under the synthesis conditions, which produced the dramatically enhanced PWP. The high permeability and selectivity of the PES membrane produced under the optimized synthesis conditions suggest that it can be utilized as a potential support layer for TFC membranes.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.15-21
• /
• 1997

Carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membranes were synthesized by the pyrolysis of polymeric precursors. The CMS materials had oxygen-nitrogen selectivities much higher than those observed for the polymeric precursors. Typically molecular sieving materials have diffusion selectivities much higher than polymeric materials. This has been identified as a result of higher entropic selectivity of the molecular sieving materials. A study of the development of molecular sieving properties as the polymeric precursor is pyrolyzed into a CMS material will offer us an insight into polymeric molecular structures needed for enhanced entropic selectivity membrane materials.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2004.05a
• /
• pp.90-93
• /
• 2004

In this study, we have reported an organic-inorganic hybrid membrane, which exhibits an asymmetric structure consisted of a carbonized skin layer and a polyimide porous substructure, to synthesize a novel gas separation membrane combining high gas permeability and selectivity. Both the gas permeability and selectivity of the carbonized layer significantly enhanced when compared with those determined in the control polyimide.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2006.11a
• /
• pp.15.1-15.1
• /
• 2006