• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.497-503
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• 2017

Recent reports claimed that glucosylsphingosine (GS) is highly accumulated and specifically evoking itch-scratch responses in the skins of atopic dermatitis (AD) patients. However, it was unclear how GS can trigger itch-scratch responses, since there were no known molecular singling pathways revealed yet. In the present study, it was verified for the first time that GS can activate mouse serotonin receptor 2a (mHtr2a) and 2b (mHtr2b), but not 2c (mHtr2c) that are expressed in HEK293T cells. Specifically, effects of GS on all mouse serotonin receptor 2 subfamily were evaluated by calcium imaging techniques. The GS-induced intracellular calcium increase was dose-dependent, and antagonists such as ketanserin (Htr2a antagonist) and RS-127445 (Htr2b antagonist) significantly blocked the GS-induced responses. Moreover, the proposed GS-induced responses appear to be mediated by phospholipase C (PLC), since pretreatment of a PLC inhibitor U-73122 abolished the GS-induced responses. Additionally, the GS-induced calcium influx is probably mediated by endogenous TRPC ion channels in HEK293T cells, since pretreatment of SKF-96365, an inhibitor for TRPC, significantly suppressed GS-induced response. In conclusion, the present study revealed for the first time that GS can stimulate mHtr2a and mHtr2b to induce calcium influx, by utilizing PLC-dependent pathway afterwards. Considering that GS is regarded as a pruritogen in AD, the present study implicates a novel GS-induced itch signaling pathway.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.545-554
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• 2018

This study presents a novel method of improving the strength and stiffness of cold-formed steel (CFS) beams. Flexural members are primary members in most of the structures. Hence, there is an urgent need in the CFS industry to look beyond the conventional CFS beam sections and develop novel techniques to address the severe local buckling problems that exist in CFS flexural members. The primary objective of this study was to develop new CFS composite beam sections with improved structural performance and economy. This paper presents an experimental study conducted on different CFS composite beams with simply supported end conditions under four point loading. Material properties and geometric imperfections of the models were measured. The test strengths of the models are compared with the design strengths predicted by using Australian/New Zealand Standard for cold-formed steel structures. Furthermore, to ensure high precision testing, a special testing rig was also developed for testing of long span beams. The description of test models, testing rig features and test results are presented here. For better interpretation of results, a comparison of the test results with a hot rolled section is also presented. The test results have shown that the proposed CFS composite beams are promising both in terms of better structural performance as well as economy.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.1065-1070
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• 2017

This study aimed to examine the anti-candidal efficacy of a novel ketone derivative isolated from Diaporthe sp. ED2, an endophytic fungus residing in medicinal herb Orthosiphon stamieus Benth. The ethyl acetate extract of the fungal culture was separated by open column and reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The eluent at retention time 5.64 min in the HPLC system was the only compound that exhibited anti-candidal activity on Kirby-Bauer assay. The structure of the compound was also elucidated by nuclear magnetic resonance and spectroscopy techniques. The purified anti-candidal compound was obtained as a colorless solid and characterized as 3-hydroxy-5-methoxyhex-5-ene-2,4-dione. On broth microdilution assay, the compound also exhibited fungicidal activity on a clinical strain of Candida albicans at a minimal inhibitory concentration of $3.1{\mu}g/ml$. The killing kinetic analysis also revealed that the compound was fungicidal against C. albicans in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. The compound was heat-stable up to $70^{\circ}C$, but its anti-candidal activity was affected at pH 2.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.831-836
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• 2013

Platinized counter electrode is common in most of the dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) researches because of its high catalytic activity and corrosion stability against iodine in the electrolyte. Platinum (Pt) film coating on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) glass surface by using alcoholic solution of hexachloroplatinic acid ($H_2PtCl_6$), paste containing Pt precursors or sputtering are widely used techniques. This paper presents a novel application of Pt ink containing nanoparticles for making platinized counter electrode for DSSC. The characteristics of Pt films coated on FTO glass surface by different chemical methods were compared along with the performance parameters of the DSSCs made by using the films as counter electrodes. The samples coated with Pt inks were sintered at $300^{\circ}C$ for 30 minutes whereas Pt-film and Pt-paste were sintered at $400^{\circ}C$ for 30 minutes. The Pt ink diluted in n-hexane was found to a promising candidate for the preparation of platinized counter electrode. The ink may also be applicable for DSSC on flexible substrates after optimization its sintering temperature.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.33 no.4A
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• pp.394-402
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• 2008

In this paper, we propose a novel soft output generation method for spatially multiplexed MIMO systems. The receiver complexity of spatially mutiplexed MIMO system is in proportion to the number of candidate vectors. The ML signal detection method considers all possible vectors as candidates, thereby achieving a high performance, however, its complexity is very high. Low complexity receiver techniques involving a small number of candidate vectors, provide soft output values of low reliability. In this paper, we propose a method to improve reliability of the soft output values obtained using a small number of candidate vectors.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.2078-2094
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• 2015

Now a days, Efficient processing of Broadcast Queries is of critical importance with the ever-increasing deployment and use of mobile technologies. BQs have certain unique characteristics that the traditional spatial query processing in centralized databases does not address. In novel query processing technique, by maintaining high scalability and accuracy, latency is reduced considerably in answering BQs. Novel approach is based on peer-to-peer sharing, which enables us to process queries without delay at a mobile host by using query results cached in its neighboring mobile peers. We design and evaluate cooperative caching techniques to efficiently support data access in ad hoc networks. We first propose two schemes: Cache Data, which caches the data, and Cache Path, which caches the data path. After analyzing the performance of those two schemes, we propose a hybrid approach (Hybrid Cache), which can further improve the performance by taking advantage of Cache Data and Cache Path while avoiding their weaknesses. Cache replacement policies are also studied to further improve the performance. Simulation results show that the proposed schemes can significantly reduce the query delay and message complexity when compared to other caching schemes.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.453-456
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• 2017

Patients are increasingly seeking repair of their earlobes following ear gauging. Research has shown that current repair techniques either excessively reduce the lobular volume or leave an obvious scar along the free edge of the earlobe. In our case series, we describe the use of a novel technique for repairing earlobes following ear gauging using a rolling earlobe flap that preserves the lobular volume and avoids leaving a scar on the free edge of the lobule. The procedure was performed on 3 patients (6 earlobes) who had defects from ear gauging that ranged from 3.0 to 6.5 cm. There were no postoperative complications of infection, wound dehiscence, flap necrosis, hypertrophic scars, or keloids, and all patients were highly satisfied with the postoperative results. This versatile technique allows for an aesthetically pleasing reconstruction of the lobule with the advantages of: the absence of a surgical scar on the free edge of the lobule, preserving the lobule volume, and presenting a highly customizable technique that allows lobules to be created with various shapes and volumes.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea TC
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.63-68
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• 2004

This paper presents a design of 12㎓ VCBRO(voltage controlled dielectric resonator oscillator) using a novel PBG(photonic band gap) ground plane and a varactor circuit that enhances the frequency linearity of VCO with different bias to varactors. The PBG structures are used for suppressing the second and third harmonics without any filters. To simulate the accurate resonating frequency, a DR coupled with microstrip lines is analysed by FTM(finite element method) simulation, and the results are transformed into scattering parameters to design the VCO. Some measured results are presented to show the usefulness of the proposed techniques.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.674-679
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• 2006

In this paper a gesture recognition system using 3D feature data is described. The system relies on a novel 3D sensor that generates a dense range mage of the scene. The main novelty of the proposed system, with respect to other 3D gesture recognition techniques, is the capability for robust recognition of complex hand postures such as those encountered in sign language alphabets. This is achieved by explicitly employing 3D hand features. Moreover, the proposed approach does not rely on colour information, and guarantees robust segmentation of the hand under various illumination conditions, and content of the scene. Several novel 3D image analysis algorithms are presented covering the complete processing chain: 3D image acquisition, arm segmentation, hand -forearm segmentation, hand pose estimation, 3D feature extraction, and gesture classification. The proposed system is tested in an application scenario involving the recognition of sign-language postures.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.436-446
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• 2016

A novel step-up DC-DC converter with a switched-coupled-inductor-capacitor (SCIC) which successfully integrates three-winding coupled inductors and switched-capacitor techniques is proposed in this paper. The primary side of the coupled inductors for the SCIC is charged by the input source, and the capacitors are charged in parallel and discharged in series by the secondary windings of the coupled inductor to achieve a high step-up voltage gain with an appropriate duty ratio. In addition, the passive lossless clamped circuits recycle the leakage energy and reduce the voltage stress on the main switch effectively, and the reverse-recovery problem of the diodes is alleviated by the leakage inductor. Thus, the efficiency can be improved. The operating principle and steady-state analyses of the converter are discussed in detail. Finally, a prototype circuit at a 50 kHz switching frequency with a 20-V input voltage, a 200-V output voltage, and a 200-W output power is built in the laboratory to verify the performance of the proposed converter.