• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.65-71
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• 2014

A Varian Portal Dosimetry system was compared to an isocentrically mounted MapCHECK 2 diode array for volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) QA. A Varian TrueBeam STx with an aS-1000 digital imaging panel was used to acquire VMAT QA images for 13 plans using four photon energies (6, 8, 10 and 15 MV). The EPID-based QA images were compared to the Portal Dose Image Prediction calculated in the Varian Eclipse treatment planning system (TPS). An isocentrically mounted Sun Nuclear MapCHECK 2 diode array with 5 cm water-equivalent buildup was also used for the VMAT QAs and the measurements were compared to a composite dose plane from the Eclipse TPS. A ${\gamma}$ test was implemented in the Sun Nuclear Patient software with 10% threshold and absolute comparison at 1%/1 mm (dose difference/distance-to-agreement), 2%/2 mm, and 3%/3 mm criteria for both QA methods. The two-tailed paired Student's t-test was employed to analyze the statistical significance at 95% confidence level. The average ${\gamma}$ passing rates were greater than 95% at 3%/3 mm using both methods for all four energies. The differences in the average passing rates between the two methods were within 1.7% and 1.6% of each other when analyzed at 2%/2 mm and 3%/3 mm, respectively. The EPID passing rates were somewhat better than the MapCHECK 2 when analyzed at 1%/1 mm; the difference was lower for 8 MV and 10 MV. However, the differences were not statistically significant for all criteria and energies (p-values >0.05). The EPID-based QA showed large off-axis over-response and dependence of ${\gamma}$ passing rate on energy, while the MapCHECK 2 was susceptible to the MLC tongue-and-groove effect. The two fluence-based QA techniques can be an alternative tool of VMAT QA to each other, if the limitations of each QA method (mechanical sag, detector response, and detector alignment) are carefully considered.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Developmental Biology Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.100-100
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• 2003

Pluripotent embryonic stem (ES) cells differentiate spontaneously into beating cardiomyocytes via embryo-like aggregates. We describe the use of mouse embryonic stem (mES03) cells as a reproducible differentiation system for cardiomyocyte. To induce cardiomyocytic differentiation, mES03 cells were dissociated and allowed to aggregate (EB formation) at the presence of 0 75% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) for 4 days and then another 4 days without DMSO (4+/4-). Thus treated EBs were plated onto gelatin-coated dish for differentiation. Spontaneously contracting colonies which appeared in approximately 4-5 days upon differentiation. Expression of cardiac-specific genes were determined by RT-PCR. Rebust expression of myosin light chain (MLC-2V), cardiac myosin heavy chain $\alpha$, cardiac muscle heavy polypeptide 7 $\beta(\beta$-MHC), cardiac transcription factor GATA4 and skeletal muscle-specific ${\alpha}_1$-subunit of the L-type calcium channel (${\alpha}_1 CaCh_{sm}$) were detected as early as 8 days after EB formation, but message of cardiac muscle-specific $\alpha$$_1$-subunit of the L-type calcium channel (${\alpha}_1$CaCh) were revealed at a low level. Strikingly, the expression of atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) was not detected. When spontaneous contracting cell masses were examined their electrophysiological features by patch-clamp technique, it showed ventricle-like action potential 17 days after the EB formation. This study indicates that mES03 cell-derived cardiomyocytes displayed biochemical and electrophysiological properties of cardiomyocytes and DMSO enhanced development of cardiomyocytes in 4+/4- method.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.64-64
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• 2003

Objectives: Patient dose verification is clinically the most important parts in the treatment delivery of radiation therapy. The three dimensional(3D) reconstruction of dose distribution delivered to target volume helps to verify patient dose and determine the physical characteristics of beams used in intensity modulated radiation therapy(IMRT). We present Beam Intensity Scanner(BInS) system for the pre treatment dosimetric verification of two dimensional photon intensity. The BInS is a radiation detector with a custom made software for relative dose conversion of fluorescence signals from scintillator. Methods: This scintillator is fabricated by phosphor Gadolinium Oxysulphide and is used to produce fluorescence from the irradiation of 6MV photons on a Varian Clinac 21EX. The digitized fluoroscopic signals obtained by digital video camera will be processed by our custom made software to reproduce 3D relative dose distribution. For the intensity modulated beam(IMB), the BInS calculates absorbed dose in absolute beam fluence, which are used for the patient dose distribution. Results: Using BInS, we performed various measurements related to IMRT and found the followings: (1) The 3D dose profiles of the IMBs measured by the BInS demonstrate good agreement with radiographic film, pin type ionization chamber and Monte Carlo simulation. (2) The delivered beam intensity is altered by the mechanical and dosimetric properties of the collimating of dynamic and/or static MLC system. This is mostly due to leaf transmission, leaf penumbra, scattered photons from the round edges of leaves, and geometry of leaf. (3) The delivered dose depends on the operational detail of how to make multileaf opening. Conclusions: These phenomena result in a fluence distribution that can be substantially different from the initial and calculative intensity modulation and therefore, should be taken into account by the treatment planing for accurate dose calculations delivered to the target volume in IMRT.

• Proceedings of the KSAR Conference
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• 2003.06a
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• pp.76-76
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• 2003

Pluripotent embryonic stem cells can differentiate into beating cardiomyocytes with proper culture conditions and stimulants via embryo-like aggregates. We describe here the use of mouse embryonic stem (mES03) cells as a reproducible differentiation system for cardiomyocyte. mES03 cells growing in colonies were dissociated and allowed to re-aggregated in suspension [embryoid body (EB) formation〕. To induce cardiomyocytic differentiation, cells were exposed to 0.75% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) during EB formation for 4 days and then another 4 days without DMSO (4+/4-). Thus treated EB was plated onto gelatin-coated dishes for differentiation. Spontaneously contracting colonies which appeared in approximately 4~5 days upon differentiation were mechanically dissected, enzymatically dispersed, plated onto coverslips, and then incubated for another 48~72 hrs. By RT-PCR, robust expression of cardiac myosin heavy chain $\alpha$, cardiac muscle heavy polypeptide 7 $\beta$($\beta$-MHC), cardiac transcription factor GATA4, and skeletal muscle-specific $\alpha$$_1$-subunit of the L-type calcium channel ($\alpha$$_1$CaC $h_{sm}$ ) were detected as early as 8 days after EB formation, but message of cardiac muscle-specific $\alpha$$_1$-subunit of the L-type calcium channel ($\alpha$$_1$CaCh) were reveled at a low level. In contrast, expression of myosin light chain (MLC-2V) and atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) were not detected during EB formation for 8 days. However, a strong expression of the atrial-specific ANF gene was expressed from day 8 onward, which were remained constant in EB. (cardiac specialization and terminal differentiation stage). Electrophysiological examination of spontaneously contracting cells showed ventricle-like action potential 17 days after the EB formation. This study indicates that mES03 cell-derived cardiomyocytes via 4+/4- protocol displayed biochemical and electrophysiological properties of subpopulation of cardiomyocytes.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.175-179
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• 2009

High concentrations of ATP induce membrane blebbing. However, the underlying mechanism involved in epithelial cells remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the role of the P2X7 receptor (P2X7R) in membrane blebbing using Par C5 cells. We stimulated the cells with 5 mM of ATP for 1${\sim}$2 hrs and found the characteristics of membrane blebbing, a hallmark of apoptotic cell death. In addition, 500 ${\mu}M$ Bz-ATP, a specific P2X7R agonist, induced membrane blebbing. However, 300 ${\mu}M$ of Ox-ATP, a P2X7R antagonist, inhibited ATP-induced membrane blebbing, suggesting that ATP-induced membrane blebbing is mediated by P2X7R. We found that ATP-induced membrane blebbing was mediated by ROCK I activation and MLC phosphorylation, but not by caspase-3. Five mM of ATP evoked a biphasic $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ response; a transient $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ peak and sustained $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ increase secondary to ATP-stimulated $Ca^{2+}$ influx. These results suggest that P2X7R plays a role in membrane blebbing of the salivary gland epithelial cells.

• Journal of KIISE:Computing Practices and Letters
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.913-917
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• 2009

Flash memories have asymmetric I/O costs for read and write in terms of latency and energy consumption. However, the ratio of these costs is dependent on the type of storage. Moreover, it is becoming more common to use two flash memories on a system as an internal memory and an external memory card. For this reason, buffer cache replacement algorithms should consider I/O costs of device as well as possibility of reference. This paper presents WWCLOCK(Write-Weighted CLOCK) algorithm which directly uses I/O costs of devices along with recency and frequency of cache blocks to selecting a victim to evict from the buffer cache. WWCLOCK can be used for wide range of storage devices with different I/O cost and for systems that are using two or more memory devices at the same time. In addition to this, it has low time and space complexity comparable to CLOCK algorithm. Trace-driven simulations show that the proposed algorithm reduces the total I/O time compared with LRU by 36.2% on average.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 2014

Scuticociliates are regarded as serious pathogens in marine aquaculture worldwide. In Korea, they cause mass-mortalities in fish such as the commercially important olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus. In particular, mixed infections of scuticociliates with pathogenic bacteria have been commonly reported. During efforts to identify natural marine-algae derived products that possess anti-bacterial and anti-scuticociliate properties, we found that an 80% methanolic extract of the red alga Polysiphonia morrowii Harvey exhibits both anti-scuticociliate activity against Miamiensis avidus, which is a major causative agent of scuticociliatosis, and anti-bacterial activities against fish pathogenic bacteria. Activity-guided fractionation and isolation of the 80% methanolic extract of P. morrowii yielded three bromophenols, which were identified as 3-bromo-4,5-dihydroxybenzyl methyl ether (1), 3-bromo-4,5-dihydroxybenzaldehyde (2) and urceolatol (3) based on spectroscopic analyses. 3-bromo-4,5-dihydroxybenzyl methyl ether (1) showed the highest anti-bacterial and anti-scuticociliate activities, with a minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of $62.5{\mu}g/mL$ (against Vibrio anguillarum) and minimal lethal concentration (MLC) of 62.5 ppm (in seawater). Investigations of the anti-bacterial and anti-scuticociliate activities of seventeen bromophenol derivatives, including the three isolated natural bromophenols, showed that the existence of an electron donating group or atom with a non-covalent electron pair at $C_4$ of the 2-bromophenol structure may be important in anti-scuticociliate activity. These findings suggest that the extract and bromophenol derivatives of P. morrowii may provide useful alternatives in aquaculture anti-scuticociliate therapies.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.47 no.12
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• pp.1-7
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• 2010

In this paper, we suggested a sensing method of PoRAM with the multilevel cell When a specific voltage is applied between top and bottom electrodes of PoRAM unit cell, we can distinguish cell states by changing resistance values of the cell. Especially, we can use the PoRAM as the multilevel cell due to have four stable resistance values per cell. Therefore, we proposed an address decoding method, sense amplifier and control signal for sensing of a multilevel cell. The sense amplifier is designed based on a current comparator that compared a cell current the cell with a reference current, and have a low input impedance for a amplification of the current. The proposed circuit was designed in a $0.13{\mu}m$ CMOS technology, we verified to sense each data "00", "01", "10", "10" by four states of a cell current.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.43-59
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• 2019

The Traffic controller currently used in Korea is a switch control system that directly transfers 220V of high voltage to traffic lights one to one. This method requires a lot of cables, and there are concerns about electric shock. Accordingly, Korea Road Traffic Authority added the digital communication signal controller standard using digital communication method to the standard specification of the communication signal controller of the National Police Agency. Based on these specifications, this paper intended to develop digital communication call controllers. In addition, it was verified that even if the digital communication signal controller and analogue communication call controller were mixed, they could operate in the signal control system currently in operation.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.135-140
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• 2014

The actual observance of hours of rest became one of the main checking items of PSC after enter into force of Maritime Labour Convention in 20 August 2013. And the non-compliances of the rest hours stipulated in the provisions of Seafare's Act of Korea and MLC is occuring and this would be the great obstruction for the shuttle vessels operating between Korea and Japan. In this study, to find the method which could give solution for the observance of provisions of rest hours, the modified duty model, reduction of calling ports and substitute of port duty by shore assistance personnel were reviewed. To comply with the requirement of hours of rest by shuttle vessels operating between Korea and Japan, adoption of the method to reduce calling ports or substitution of port duty by shore personnel are recommended.