• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.165-175
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• 2001

Background: Recent in vivo experimental evidence suggests that isoflurane-induced cardioprotection may involve $K_{ATP}$ channel activation. However, it was demonstrated that isoflurane inhibited $K_{ATP}$ channel activities in the inside-out patch mode. To explain this discrepancy, the present investigation tested the hypothesis that a metabolite of isoflurane, trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), contributes to isoflurnae-induced cardioprotection via $K_{ATP}$ channel activation during myocardial ischemia and reperfusion. Methods: Single ventricular myocytes were isolated from rabbit hearts by an enzymatic dissociation procedure. Patch-clamp techniques were used to record single-channel currents. $K_{ATP}$ channel activities were assessed before and after the application of TFA with the inside-out patch mode. Results: TFA enhanced channel activity in a concentration-dependent fashion. The concentration of TFA for half-maximal activation and the Hill coefficient were 0.03 mM and 1.2, respectively. TFA did not affect the single channel conductance of $K_{ATP}$ channels. Analysis of open and closed time distributions showed that TFA increased burst duration and decreased the interburst interval without changes in open and closed time distributions shorter than 5 ms. TFA diminished ATP sensitivity of $K_{ATP}$ channels in a concentration-response relationship for ATP. Conclusions: TFA, a metabolite of isoflurane, enhanced $K_{ATP}$ channel activity in a concentration-dependent fashion. These results imply that TFA could mediate isoflurane-induced cardioprotection via $K_{ATP}$ channel activation during myocardial ischemia and reperfusion.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.879-887
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• 2003

The flow in a parallel walled test channel, when obstructed with a geometry at the entrance, can be forward, reverse and stagnant depending on the position of the obstruction. This interesting flow phenomenon has potential benefit in the control of energy and various flows in the process industry In this experiment, the flat plate obstruction geometry was used as an obstruction at the entry of the test channel. The parameters that influence the flow inside and around the test channel were the gap (g) between the test channel and the obstruction geometry, the length (L) of the test channel and the Reynolds number (Re). The effect of the gap to channel width ratio (g/w) on the magnitude of the velocity ratio (V$\_$i/ / V$\_$o/ : velocity inside/ velocity outside the test channel) was investigated for a range of Reynolds numbers. The maximum reverse flow observed was nearly 20% to 60% of the outside velocity for Reynolds number ranging from 1000 to 9000 at g/w ratio of 1.5. The maximum forward velocity inside the test channel was found 80% of the outside velocity at higher g/w ratio of 8. The effect of the test channel length on the velocity ratio was investigated for different g/w ratios and a fixed Reynolds number of 4000. The influence of the Reynolds number on the velocity ratio is also discussed and presented for different gap to width ratio (g/w). The flow visualisation photographs showing fluid motion inside and around the test channel are also presented and discussed.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.333-339
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• 2003

It has been demonstrated that an unidentified cytosolic factor(s) reduces $K_{ACh}$ channel function. Therefore, this study attempted to elucidate the cytosolic factor. Fresh cytosol isolated from normal heart (FC) depressed the $K_{ACh}$ channel activity, but cytosol isolated from the ischemic hearts (IC) did not modulate the channel function. Electrophorectic analysis revealed that a protein of ${\sim}80 kDa was markedly reduced or even lost in IC. By using peptide sequencing analysis and Western blot, this 80 kDa protein was identified as transferrin (receptor-mediated $Fe^{3+}$ transporter, 76 kDa). Direct application of transferrin (100 nM) to the cytoplasmic side of inside-out patches decreased the open probability ($P_o$, 12.7${\pm}6.4%, n=4) without change in mean open time (${\tau}_o$, $98.5{\pm}1.3$%, n=4). However, the equimolar apotransferrin, which is free of $Fe^{3+}$, had no effect on the channel activity (N*$P_o$, $129.1{\pm}13.5$%, n=3). Directly applied $Fe^{3+}$ (100 nM) showed results similar to those of transferrin (N*$P_o$: $21.1{\pm}3.9$%, n=5). However $Fe^{2+}$ failed to reduce the channel function (N*$P_o$, $106.3{\pm}26.8$%, n=5). Interestingly, trivalent cation La3+ inhibited N*$P_o$ of the channel ($6.1{\pm}3.0$%, n=3). Taken together, these results suggest that $Fe^{3+}$ bound to transferrin can modulate the $K_{ACh}$ channel function by its electrical property as a polyvalent cation.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.13-27
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• 1995

single $K^{+}$ channels of skeletal muscle from the rat and frog were into planar lipid bilayers and their properties were studied. Fusion was induced by an osmotic gradient. Of the four types of $K^{+}$ channels recorded, the two most frequently observed were a voltage and $Ca^{2+}-activated$ $K^{+}$ channel and a $K^{+}$ channel with a prominent conductance substate. The first $K^{+}$ channel was identified as the large $Ca^{2+}-activated$ $K^{+}$ (BK) channel because the open-state probability was increased with depolarization (e-fold change per $10.6{\pm}3.5$ mV, n=8) and internal $Ca^{2+}$ (half-activation at $16.7{\pm}3.8$ mV, n=8, pCa 4) and its conductance was large ($247{\pm}4.9$ pS, n=24 in 0.1 M KCI). Lifetime distributions of open- and closed-states could be fitted with single exponentials of several milliseconds. The mean open- and closed-lifetimes were linearly dependent on the intracellular $[Ca^{2+}]$ and $1/[Ca^{2+}]$, respectively. The second $K^{+}$ channel showed a conductance substate at $30{\sim}60%$ of the open state. Its current-voltage relation was linear in the range of $-80\;{\sim}\;+80\;mV$. The slope conductance of the substate and open-state were 40 and 144 pS in 0.2 M KCl, respectively. The channel was highly selective for $K^{+}$ over Cl. The open-state probability was weakly voltage-dependent (e-fold change per 35 mV. The lifetime distributions of open- and closed-states were fitted with two exponentials and the major gating occurred slowly at several hundred milliseconds. Based on the above results, we think the second type of $K^{+}$ channel is the sarcoplasmic reticulum $K^{+}$ (SRK) channel. In addition, both types of channel were also incorporated into the lipids extracted from the skeletal muscle. The channel properties recorded in the bilayers termed from synthetic and extracted lipids were qualitatively similar. Our data indicate that BK and SRK channels are rich in the skeletal muscle and their properties and regulation could be effectively studied in planar lipid bilayer.

• Journal of Communications and Networks
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.496-503
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• 2013

In an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system, conventional interpolation techniques cannot correctly balance performance and overhead when estimating dynamic long-delay channels in single frequency networks (SFNs). In this study, classical filter analysis and design methods are employed to derive a complex interpolator for maximizing the resistible echo delay in a channel estimator on the basis of the correlation between frequency domain interpolating and time domain windowing. The coefficient computation of the complex interpolator requires a key parameter, i.e., channel length, which is obtained in the frequency domain with a tentative estimation scheme having low implementation complexity. The proposed complex adaptive interpolator is verified in a simulated digital video broadcasting for terrestrial/handheld receiver. The simulation results indicate that the designed channel estimator can not only handle SFN echoes with more than $200{\mu}s$ delay but also achieve a bit-error rate performance close to the optimum minimum mean square error method, which significantly outperforms conventional channel estimation methods, while preserving a low implementation cost in a short-delay channel.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.805-814
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• 2016

Electric-field coupled power transfer (ECPT) systems have been proposed as an alternative wireless power transfer (WPT) technology in recent years. With the use of capacitive plates as a coupling structure, ECPT systems have many advantages such as design flexibility, reduced volume of the coupling structure and metal penetration ability. In addition, wireless communications are effective solutions to improve the safety and controllability of ECPT systems. This paper proposes a power and signal shared channel for electric-field coupled power transfer systems. The shared channel includes two similar electrical circuits with a band pass filter and a signal detection resistor in each. This is designed based on the traditional current-fed push-pull topology. An analysis of the mutual interference between the power and signal transmission, the channel power and signal attenuations, and the dynamic characteristic of the signal channel are conducted to determine the values for the electrical components of the proposed shared channel. Experimental results show that the designed channel can transfer over 100W of output power and data with a data rate from 300bps to 120 kbps.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.2 no.5
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• pp.611-616
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• 1998

Although the $Ca^{2+}-activated\;K^+\;(I_{K,Ca})$ channel is known to play an important role in the maintenance of resting membrane potential, the regulation of the channel in physiological condition is not completely understood in vascular myocytes. In this study, we investigated the role of cytoplasmic $Mg^{2+}$ on the regulation of $I_{K,Ca}$ channel in pulmonary arterial myocytes of the rabbit using the inside-out patch clamp technique. $Mg^{2+}$ increased open probability (Po), but decreased the magnitude of single channel current. $Mg^{2+}-induced$ block of unitary current showed strong voltage dependence but increase of Po by $Mg^{2+}$ was not dependent on the membrane potential. The apparent effect of $Mg^{2+}$ might, thus, depend on the proportion between opposite effects on the Po and on the conductance of $I_{K,Ca}$ channel. In low concentration of cytoplasmic $Ca^{2+},\;Mg^{2+}$ increased $I_{K,Ca}$ by mainly enhancement of Po. However, at very high concentration of cytoplasmic $Ca^{2+},$ such as pCa 5.5, $Mg^{2+}$ decreased $I_{K,Ca}$ through the inhibition of unitary current. Moreover, $Mg^{2+}$ could activate the channel even in the absence of $Ca^{2+}.\;Mg^{2+}$ might, therefore, partly contribute to the opening of $I_{K,Ca}$ channel in resting membrane potential. This phenomenon might explain why $I_{K,Ca}$ contributes to the resting membrane potential where membrane potential and concentration of free $Ca^{2+}$ are very low.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.467-481
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• 2013

The study examined the main effect of the reward channel and reward time of customer loyalty programs for on-offline shopping channels; in addition, it investigated the interaction effect of the reward channels and merchandise as well as the interaction effect of the reward time and merchandise. An online apparel shopping web experiment was conducted with a 2 (reward channel: online channel reward vs. offline channel reward) ${\times}2$ (reward time: immediate vs. delayed) ${\times}2$ (merchandise: online channel product vs. offline channel products) between-subject factorial design. An online shopping channel was considered the core-shopping channel and a department store was considered the cross-shopping channel. Loyalty program value, core-channel loyalty and cross-channel loyalty were measured as dependent variables. A total of 845 shoppers (who had experiences in shopping in both channels) participated in the experiment. The results of the study revealed (1) the main effect of the reward channel on loyalty program value, core-channel loyalty and cross-channel loyalty [online>offline channel rewards], (2) the main effect of reward time on loyalty program value, core-channel loyalty and cross-channel loyalty [immediate>delayed reward], and (3) the interaction effect of the reward channel and merchandise on loyalty program value, core-channel loyalty, and cross-channel loyalty. (4) Finally the study found that loyalty program value affected cross-channel loyalty indirectly through core-channel loyalty. This study suggested diverse theoretical and managerial implications for multi-channel retailers.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.405-414
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• 2016

The rapid change of consumer expectations in shopping environments has required retailers to actively adopt omni-channel services, however, limited research exists on the topic. We identify the effect of consumer's utilitarian shopping value on expectations for omni-channel services. An online survey was conducted on 176 subjects who had experience using omni-channel services. We employed Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) as our theoretical model to explore the mechanisms of consumers' acceptance of omni-channel services in fashion. We used SPSS ver. 22.0 and AMOS ver. 22.0 programs to analyze data. The results indicate that utilitarian shopping value has a positive effect on performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence for omni-channel services. Performance expectancy for omni-channel services also has a positive effect on the purchase intentions of fashion products. Effort expectancy for omni-channel services also positively increases the purchase intentions of fashion products. Last, the social effect of omni-channel services has a significant positive effect on purchase intention. All the hypotheses were supported. The research findings can provide the fashion distribution industry with useful basic data to understand the needs of consumers who use multi-channels when establishing a new channel or marketing strategy.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.11 no.11
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• pp.5223-5242
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• 2017

In the last decade, the 2.4 GHz band of IEEE 802.11 WLANs has become heavily congested due to the explosive increase in demand of Wi-Fi connectivity. With the current deployment of enterprise WLANs, channel switching mechanism continues to exhibit inefficiencies because it cannot adapt to real-time channel condition and the inability to support seamless channel switching. Software Defined Networking (SDN) as an emerging architecture is promising to introduce flexibility and programmability for wireless network management. Leveraging SDN to existing enterprise WLANs, channel switching method can be improved significantly. This paper presents a software-defined enterprise WLAN framework with a load aware automatic channel switching solution, which utilizes AP load and channel interference factor (CIF) to provide seamless channel switching. Two automatic channel switching algorithms named Single Switch (SS) and Double Switch (DS) are proposed to improve the overall user experience and the experience of users with highest traffic load respectively. Experiment results demonstrate that our solution can efficiently improve user experience in terms of jitter, transmission delay and network throughout when compared to the conventional channel switching mechanism.