• Animal cells and systems
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.111-115
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• 2004

The epidermis of the mudskipper, Periophthalmus modestus, consists of three layers- the outermost layer, middle layer and stratum germinativum. Extensive fine blood capillaries are present near the superficial layer of epidermis and outermost layer in five fins and a sucking disc. The diffusion distance between the vascular capillaries and the surface of epidermis ranged from 3.6 to 10.9${\mu}$m: 3.6 ${\mu}$m in the sucking disc, 10.9 ${\mu}$m in the anal fin and 4.6 to 5.0 ${\mu}$m in the two dorsal fins. Rate of the surface area of respiratory epithelium, the surface area of the fine blood capillaries occupied per surface area of epidermis in 0.1mm, is 3.7 to 4.4% in two dorsal fins and 1.1% in the anal fin. The middle layer is simpler in structure consisting of small or voluminous cells swollen by epidermal cells, and this layer appeared web-like. Well-developed lymphatic spaces containing lymphocytes existed in the stratum germinativum. The five fins and sucking disc had no epidermal glands.

• Proceedings of the KOSOMBE Conference
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• v.1993 no.05
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• pp.146-151
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• 1993

A new hydrodynamic mock circulation system was developed, which can test prosthetic heart valves of various sizes in order to obtain valve parameters, such as pressure drop, regurgitation and valve performance index with a high reproducibility. High reproducibility can be obtained only under equal testing conditions, i.e., the compliance, resistance and inertance of the mock circulation system must be constant parameter estimation using actual pressure and flow data was applied to calculate these systemic variables in order to adjust them to create the necessary equal testing conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korea Contents Association Conference
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• 2016.05a
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• pp.391-392
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• 2016

In Japan, the children with problem behavior have been called the difficult children. However, the definitions of the difficult children in the medical, health, childcare and education are different. As a result, it is difficult to support for the needs of children. In addition, the difficult children have been influenced by the subjectivity of the teachers. IN-Child (Inclusive Needs Child) is defined by the result of this study. IN-Child means "Child in need of inclusive education by a team, including experts. It does not depend on intellectual and developmental delays due to physical, mental, home environment." We developed the IN-Child record that enables the educational diagnosis of IN-Child. IN-Child record was made to organize and analyze of the items by experts including 3 researchers and 2 teachers. As a result, it was classified into two domains of "cause" and "effect". The domain of "cause" is classified by two domains of "physical" and "mental". The domain of effect is classified by two domains of "daily living" and "learning".

• International Journal of CAD/CAM
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.21-28
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• 2009

In the present work, an attempt has been made to construct branching surface from 2-D contours, which are given at different layers and may have branches. If a layer having more than one contour and corresponds to contour at adjacent layers, then it is termed as branching problem and approximated by adding additional points in between the layers. Firstly, the branching problem is converted to single contour case in which there is no branching at any layer and the final branching surface is obtained by skinning. Contours are constructed from the given input points at different layers by energy-based B-Spline approximation. 3-D curves are constructed after adding additional points into the contour points for all the layers having branching problem by using energy-based B-Spline formulation. Final 3-D surface is obtained by skinning 3-D curves and 2-D contours. There are three types of branching problems: (a) One-to-one, (b) One-to-many and (c) Many-to-many. Oneto-one problem has been done by plethora of researchers based on minimizations of twist and curvature and different tiling techniques. One-to-many problem is the one in which at least one plane must have more than one contour and have correspondence with the contour at adjacent layers. Many-to-many problem is stated as m contours at i-th layer and n contours at (i+1)th layer. This problem can be solved by combining one-to-many branching methodology. Branching problem is very important in CAD, medical imaging and geographical information system(GIS).

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.191-195
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• 2004

Drug delivery systems that are based on pectin have been studied for colon specific delivery using the specific activity of colon microflora. The aim of this study was to design a novel method of manufacturing pectin microspheres without oils and surfactants and to investigate the potential use of the pectin microspheres as an oral colon-specific drug carrier. The pectin microspheres were successfully formed using the spray drying method and crosslinking with calcium chloride. From the crosslinked pectin microspheres, indomethacin (IND) release was more suppressed than its release from non-crosslinked microspheres. In a low pH (pH 1.4) environment, the pectin microspheres released IND at an amount of about 18${\pm}$2% of the total loaded weight for 24 h while the release rate of IND was stimulated at neutral pH (pH 7.4). IND release from the pectin microspheres was increased by the addition of pectinase. The results clearly demonstrate that the pectin microspheres that were prepared by the spray drying and crosslinking methods are potential carriers for colon-specific drug deliveries.

• Korean Medical Education Review
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.132-140
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• 2014

Higher education is under unprecedented pressure for quality improvement and cost containment/reduction due to global competition and ever-increasing tuition costs. These twin challenges require an unconventional approach, and massive open online courses (MOOCs) and flipped learning have recently emerged as two promising educational alternatives not only to address the current problems but also to direct the future of education. This paper discusses the rapidly changing environment for education, MOOCs, and flipped learning as learning alternatives, the relationship between MOOCs and flipped learning, and course redesign for the implementation of flipped learning. The case of Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) is also discussed for benchmarking purposes since it has been pioneering an innovative educational methodology for teaching and learning IT-enabled active learning methods from its inception in 2009. It has redesigned almost 70 courses (20% of all the courses to offer) for flipped learning. The objectives of UNIST's educational experiment are three-fold: improving the quality of education for students, improving teaching productivity for the faculty, and containing/reducing education costs for the university.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.33-39
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• 2015

The correction of disease-causing mutations by single-strand oligonucleotide-templated DNA repair (ssOR) is an attractive approach to gene therapy, but major improvements in ssOR efficiency and consistency are needed. The mechanism of ssOR is poorly understood but may involve annealing of oligonucleotides to transiently exposed single-stranded regions in the target duplex. In bacteria and yeast it has been shown that ssOR is promoted by expression of $Red{\beta}$, a single-strand DNA annealing protein from bacteriophage lambda. Here we show that $Red{\beta}$ expression is well tolerated in a human cell line where it consistently promotes ssOR. By use of short interfering RNA, we also show that ssOR is stimulated by the transient depletion of the endogenous DNA mismatch repair protein MSH2. Furthermore, we find that the effects of $Red{\beta}$ expression and MSH2 depletion on ssOR can be combined with a degree of cooperativity. These results suggest that oligonucleotide annealing and mismatch recognition are distinct but interdependent events in ssOR that can be usefully modulated in gene correction strategies.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.2989-2993
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• 2016

The commonest cancer in Egyptian females occurs in the breast cfDNA is a non-invasive marker for tumor detetion and prognostic assessment in many types of cancer including breast cancer. This study aimed to assess the role of cfDNA and its fragmentation pattern in breast cancer prognosis and treatment response. Forty female patients with malignant breast tumors and a comparable group of healthy blood donors were enrolled prospectively. cfDNA levels and fragmentation patterns were investigated after cfDNA extraction, gel electrophoresis and gel analysis. The percentage of breast cancer patients positive for cfDNA (92.5%) was significantly higher than that of controls (55%). Also, mean concentration of cfDNA was significantly higher than in the control group (P<0.05). Most Her-2 positive patients had long cfDNA fragments, this being significant as compared to Her-2 negative patients (P<0.05). Metastasis was also positively linked to significantly higher cfDNA (P<0.05) and the mean cfDNA integrity index was significantly higher in non-responders compared to treatment responders (P<0.05). In conclusion, both qualitative and quantitative aspects of cfDNA and its different fragments in breast cancer patients could be related to prognosis, metastasis and treatment response. Long cfDNA fragments could be particularly useful for prediction purposes.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.9
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• pp.3044-3050
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• 2021

This study offers a Monte Carlo alternative for computing mass energy absorption coefficients of any material through calculation of photon energy deposited per mass of the sample and the energy flux obtained inside a sample volume. This approach is applied in this study to evaluate mass energy absorption coefficients of some amino acids found in human body at twenty-eight different photon energies between 10 keV and 20 MeV. The simulations involved a pencil beam source modeled to emit a parallel beam of mono-energetic photons toward a 1 mean free path thick sample of rectangular parallelepiped geometry. All the components in the problem geometry were surrounded by a 100 cm vacuum sphere to avoid any interactions in materials other than the absorber itself. The results computed using the Monte Carlo radiation transport packages MCNP6.2 and GAMOS5.1 were checked against the theoretical values available from the tables of XMUDAT database. These comparisons indicate very good agreement and support the conclusion that Monte Carlo technique utilized in this fashion may be used as a computational tool for determining the mass energy absorption coefficients of any material whose data are not available in the literature.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.214-223
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• 2019

Objectives: Equity in financial protection against healthcare expenditures is one the primary functions of health systems worldwide. This study aimed to quantify socioeconomic inequality in facing catastrophic healthcare expenditures (CHE) and to identify the main factors contributing to socioeconomic inequality in CHE in Iran. Methods: A total of 37 860 households were drawn from the Households Income and Expenditure Survey, conducted by the Statistical Center of Iran in 2017. The prevalence of CHE was measured using a cut-off of spending at least 40% of the capacity to pay on healthcare services. The concentration curve and concentration index (C) were used to illustrate and measure the extent of socioeconomic inequality in CHE among Iranian households. The C was decomposed to identify the main factors explaining the observed socioeconomic inequality in CHE in Iran. Results: The prevalence of CHE among Iranian households in 2017 was 5.26% (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.04 to 5.49). The value of C was -0.17 (95% CI, -0.19 to -0.13), suggesting that CHE was mainly concentrated among socioeconomically disadvantaged households in Iran. The decomposition analysis highlighted the household wealth index as explaining 71.7% of the concentration of CHE among the poor in Iran. Conclusions: This study revealed that CHE is disproportionately concentrated among poor households in Iran. Health policies to reduce socioeconomic inequality in facing CHE in Iran should focus on socioeconomically disadvantaged households.