• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제42권1호
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• pp.18-24
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• 2021

Vibration is a mechanical cue that can be applied to adipose tissues for the purpose of treating obesity. However, the exact correlation between vibration and other anti-adipogenic pathways, such as development of cytoskeleton and apoptosis, remains unknown. The objective of this study was to investigate the unknown anti-adipogenic effects of vibration with varied frequencies on preadipocytes. 3T3-L1 preadipocytes were cultured in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) containing 5% calf serum at 37 ℃ with 5% CO2 in a humidified incubator. Vibration was generated using Arduino Uno microcontroller and vibration motor module with 1 V DC, and applied to preadipocytes for 3 days. Frequency conditions were set to 20, 55, and 90 Hz. Then, the expressions of p38 pathway, ROCK-1, α-actinin, Bax, Bcl-2, caspase-9, 8, and 3 were analyzed with western blot. As a result, p38 pathway was inhibited in 55 and 90 Hz while ROCK-1 and α-actinin were expressed in 20 Hz. Caspase-3, a terminal apoptotic factor, was activated in 20 Hz via extrinsic pathway rather than intrinsic pathway. Results suggest that various frequencies of vibration can inhibit adipogenesis via different pathways which sheds light on future mechanotransduction applications of vibration for the treatment of obesity.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.109-121
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• 2013

This study examined several kinematic properties of the primary articulator (the tongue dorsum) and the supplementary articulator (the jaw) in the articulation of the voiceless velar stop (/k/) within nonassimilating contexts. We examined in particular the spatiotemporal properties (constriction duration and constriction maxima) from the constriction onset to the constriction offset by analyzing a velar (/k/) followed by the coronal fricative (/s/), the coronal stop (/t/), and the labial (/p/) in across-word boundary conditions (/k#s/, /k#t/, and /k#p/). Along with these measurements, we investigated intergestural temporal coordination between C1 and C2 and the jaw articulator in relation to its coordination with the articulation of consonant sequences. The articulatory movement data was collected by means of electromagnetic midsagittal articulometry (EMMA). Four native speakers of Seoul Korean participated in the laboratory experiment. The results showed several characteristics. First, a velar (/k/) in C1 was not categorically reduced. Constriction duration and constriction degree of the velar (/k/) were similar within nonassimilating contexts (/k#s/=/k#t/=/k#p/). This might mean that spatiotemporal attributes during constriction duration were stable and consistent across different contexts, which might be subsequently associated with the nontarget status of the velar in place assimilation. Second, the gestural overlap could be represented as the order of /k#s/ (less) < /k#p/ (intermediate) < /k#t/ (more) as we measured the onset-to-onset lag (a longer lag indicated shorter gestural overlap.). This indicates a gestural overlap within nonassimilating contexts may not be constrained by any of the several constraints including the perceptual recoverability constraint (e.g., more overlap in Front-to-Back sequences compared to the reverse order (Back-to-Front) since perceptual cues in C1 can be recovered anytime during C2 articulation), the low-level speech motor constraint (e.g., more overlap in lingual-nonlingual sequences as compared to the lingual-lingual sequences), or phonological contexts effects (e.g., similarity in gestural overlap within nonassimilating contexts). As one possible account for more overlap in /k#t/ sequences as compared to /k#p/, we suspect speakers' knowledge may be receptive to extreme encroachment on C1 by the gestural overlap of the coronal in C2 since it does not obscure the perceptual cue of C1 as much as the labial in C2. Third, actual jaw position during C2 was higher in coronals (/s/, /t/) than in the labial (/p/). However, within the coronals, there was no manner-dependent jaw height difference in C2 (/s/=/t/). Vertical jaw position of C1 and C2 was seen as inter-dependent as higher jaw position in C1 was closely associated with C2. Lastly, a greater gap in jaw height was associated with longer intergestural timing (e.g., less overlap), but was confined to the cluster type (/kp/) with the lingual-nonlingual sequence. This study showed that Korean jaw articulation was independent from coordinating primary articulators in gestural overlap in some cluster types (/k#s/, /k#t/) while not in others (e.g., /k#p/). Overall, the results coherently indicate the velar stop (/k/) in C1 was robust in articulation, which may have subsequently contributed to the nontarget status of the velar (/k/) in place assimilation processes.