• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.4 no.6
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• pp.427-437
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• 2000

The early studies of cardiac and smooth muscle cells provided evidence for two different calcium channels, the L-type (also called high-voltage activated [HVA]) and T-type (low-voltage activated [LVA]). These calcium channels provided calcium for muscle contractions and pace-making activities. As might be expected, the number of different calcium channels increased when researchers studied neurons and the identification of the neuronal calcium channels has proven to be much more difficult than with the muscle calcium channels. There are two reasons for this difficulty; (1) a larger number of different calcium channels in neurons and (2) many of the different calcium channels have similar kinetic properties. This review uses the N-type calcium channel to illustrate the difficulties in identifying and characterizing calcium channels in neurons. It shows that the discovery of toxins that can specifically block single calcium channel types has made it possible to easily and rapidly discern the physiological roles of the different calcium channels in the neuron, Without these toxins it is unlikely that progress would have been as rapid.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 1996.04a
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• pp.175-175
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• 1996

The spinal dorsal horn is the area where primary afferent fibers terminate and cutaneous sensory information is Processed. A number of putative neurotransmitter substances, including excitatory and inhibitory amino acids and peptides, are present in this region and sites and cellular mechanisms of their actions have been a target of numerous studies. In this study, single neurons were acutely isolated and the properties of whole cell current and responses to excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters were studied by the patch clamp method. Young rats (7-14 days) were anesthetized with diethyl-ether, and the lumbar spinal cord was excised and cut transversely at a thickness of 30$\mu\textrm{m}$ by Vibroslicer. The treatment of spinal slices with low concentration of proteases (pronase and thermolysin 0.75 mg/$m\ell$) and mechanical dissociation yielded isolated neurons with near intact morphology. Multipolar, ellipsoidal and bipolar, and pyramidal cells were shown. By applying step voltage pulses to neurons held at -70 mV, two types of inward currents and one outward currents observed. The fast activating and inactivating inward current was the Na$\^$+/ current because of its fast kinetics and blocking by 0.5${\mu}$M TTX, a specific blocker of Na$\^$+/ channel. The second type of inward currents were sustained. Based on their kinetics and current-voltage relations, it was likely that the second type of inward current was the voltage-dependent Ca$\^$2+/ current. In the presence of TTX, the steady-state currents mainly represented outward K$\^$+/ current which looked like the delayed rectifier K$\^$+/ current. In addition, the membrane currents produced by agonist of excitatory amino acid (EAA) receptor and the endogenous transmitter candidate L-glutamate were recorded in isolated whole-cell voltage clamped neurons as well as responses to inhibitory amino acids (${\gamma}$-amino butyric acid, glycine). Drugs were applied by a method that allows complete exchange of the solution within 1 sec; an infinite number of solutions can be applied to a single cell.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.404-410
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• 1999

Administration of capsaicin produces acute pain and subsequent long-lasting antinociception. The antinociceptive action site of capsaicin is primarily small afferent nerve fibers. However, the effect of capsaicin on the neural activity of dorsal horn neurons are not well understood. The goal of the present experiment was to study the action of capsaicin on activity of dorsal horn neurons using c-fos immunoreactivity in the spinal cord. Intradermal injection of formalin in the hindpaw produced inflammation in the foot pad and increased the number of cells exhibiting Fos-like immunoreactivity (FLI) in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord, suggesting the hyperalgesia because of the apparent inflammation. Intradermal injection of capsaicin prior to formalin injection significantly reduced the number of cells exhibiting FLI induced by formalin and increased the paw-withdrawal latency, suggesting the hypoalgesic effect of capsaicin. Coadministeration with capsaicin of capsazepine and ruthenium red, antagonists of capsaicin receptor reversed the reduction of formalin-induced FLI by capsaicin. he antagonists also partially antagonized the antinociceptive effect of capsaicin in the paw-withdrawal test. These results further suggest that capsaicin reduces prsponses of dorsal horn neurons to the inflammatory nociceptive stimuli in the periphery. Thus, the reduction of FLI subserves the neural mechanisms underlying analgesia produced by capsaicin.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2021

Fly ash and silica fume belong to industry by-products that can be used to produce concrete. This study shows the model of a neural network to evaluate the strength development of blended concrete containing fly ash and silica fume. The neural network model has four input parameters, such as fly ash replacement content, silica fume replacement content, water/binder ratio, and ages. Strength is the output variable of neural network. Based on the backpropagation algorithm, the values of elements in the hidden layer of neural network are determined. The number of neurons in the hidden layer is confirmed based on trial calculations. We find (1) neural network can give a reasonable evaluation of the strength development of composite concrete. Neural network can reflect the improvement of strength due to silica fume additions and can consider the reductions of strength as water/binder increases. (2) When the number of neurons in the hidden layer is five, the prediction results show more accuracy than four neurons in the hidden layer. Moreover, five neurons in the hidden layer can reproduce the strength crossover between fly ash concrete and plain concrete. Summarily, the neural network-based model is valuable for design sustainable composite concrete containing silica fume and fly ash.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.11 no.7
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• pp.675-679
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• 2001

In this paper, we present a new competitive learning algorithm called Dynamic Competitive Learning (DCL). DCL is a supervised learning method that dynamically generates output neurons and initializes automatically the weight vectors from training patterns. It introduces a new parameter called LOG (Limit of Grade) to decide whether an output neuron is created or not. If the class of at least one among the LOG number of nearest output neurons is the same as the class of the present training pattern, then DCL adjusts the weight vector associated with the output neuron to learn the pattern. If the classes of all the nearest output neurons are different from the class of the training pattern, a new output neuron is created and the given training pattern is used to initialize the weight vector of the created neuron. The proposed method is significantly different from the previous competitive learning algorithms in the point that the selected neuron for learning is not limited only to the winner and the output neurons are dynamically generated during the learning process. In addition, the proposed algorithm has a small number of parameters, which are easy to be determined and applied to real-world problems. Experimental results for pattern recognition of remote sensing data and handwritten numeral data indicate the superiority of DCL in comparison to the conventional competitive learning methods.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.43 no.9
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• pp.821-830
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• 2020

Altered dendritic morphology is frequently observed in various neurological disorders including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), but the cellular and molecular basis underlying these pathogenic dendritic abnormalities remains largely unclear. In this study, we investigated dendritic morphological defects caused by dipeptide repeat protein (DPR) toxicity associated with G4C2 expansion mutation of C9orf72 (the leading genetic cause of ALS and FTD) in Drosophila neurons and characterized the underlying pathogenic mechanisms. Among the five DPRs produced by repeat-associated non-ATG translation of G4C2 repeats, we found that arginine-rich DPRs (PR and GR) led to the most significant reduction in dendritic branches and plasma membrane (PM) supply in Class IV dendritic arborization (C4 da) neurons. Furthermore, expression of PR and GR reduced the number of Golgi outposts (GOPs) in dendrites. In Drosophila brains, expression of PR, but not GR, led to a significant reduction in the mRNA level of CrebA, a transcription factor regulating the formation of GOPs. Overexpressing CrebA in PR-expressing C4 da neurons mitigated PM supply defects and restored the number of GOPs, but the number of dendritic branches remained unchanged, suggesting that other molecules besides CrebA may be involved in dendritic branching. Taken together, our results provide valuable insight into the understanding of dendritic pathology associated with C9-ALS/FTD.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.164-174
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• 2000

Background: After an injury to tissue such as the skin, hyperalgesia develops. Hyperalgesia is characterized by an increase in the magnitude of pain evoked by noxious stimuli. It has been postulated that in the mechanism of hyperalgesia (especially secondary hyperalgesia) and allodynia, a sensitization of central nervous system such as spinal dorsal horn may contribute to development of hyperalgesia. However, the precise mechanism is still unclear. In the present study, we investigated the roles of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor and nitric oxide (NO) system in the mechanism of hyperalgesia, and their relations with c-fos expression Methods: Inflammation was induced by injection of complete Freund adjuvant (CFA) into unilateral hindpaw of Sprague-Dawley rat. Behavioral studies measuring paw withdrawal responses by von Frey filaments and paw withdrawal latencies by radiant heat stimuli and stainings of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH)-diaphorase and c-fos immunoreactivity were performed. The effects of MK-801, an NMDA receptor blocker and $N^\omega$-nitro-L-arginine (L-NNA), a nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor were evaluated. Results: 1) Injection of CFA induced mechanical allodynia, mechanical hyperalgesia and thermal hyperalgesia. And it increased the number of NADPH-diaphorase positive neurons and c-fos expression neurons. 2) MK-801 inhibited mechanical hyperalgesia and thermal hyperalgesia induced by CFA and reduced the number of NADPH-diaphorase positive neurons and c-fos expression neurons. 3) L-NNA inhibited the thermal hyperalgesia and reduced the number of NADPH-diaphorase positive neurons, but did not affect the number of c-fos expression neurons. Conclusions: These results suggest that in the mechanism of mechanical hyperalgesia, NMDA receptor but not NO-system is involved and in the case of thermal hyperalgesia both NMDA receptor and NO system are involved. NO system did not affect the expression of c-fos, but c-fos expression and NOS activity were dependent on the activity of NMDA receptor.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.814-820
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• 2011

It takes long time in numerical simulation because structural design for tire requires the nonlinear material property. Neural networks has been widely studied to engineering design to reduce numerical computation time. The numbers of hidden layer, hidden layer neuron and training data have been considered as the structural design variables of neural networks. In application of neural networks to optimize design, there are a few studies about arrangement method of input layer neurons. To investigate the effect of input layer neuron arrangement on neural networks, the variables of tire contour design and tension in bead area were assigned to inputs and output for neural networks respectively. Design variables arrangement in input layer were determined by main effect analysis. The number of hidden layer, the number of hidden layer neuron and the number of training data and so on have been considered as the structural design variables of neural networks. In application to optimization design problem of neural networks, there are few studies about arrangement method of input layer neurons. To investigate the effect of arrangement of input neurons on neural network learning tire contour design parameters and tension in bead area were assigned to neural input and output respectively. Design variables arrangement in input layer was determined by main effect analysis.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.59-66
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of electroacupuncture on pain threshold and 5-HT synthesis in raphe magnus nucleus of dog brain stem following nociception induced by 1% carageenan. Method: Twenty male dogs were randomly divided into two groups, a control group and an electroacupuncture group with the following parameters: ST36, LI11 and SP9 with 120Hz and 0.5mA. The dogs were sacrificed at 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180 min after nociception using 1% carageenan injection into the plantar side of the dog's left leg. The pain threshold was recorded by an Analgesia-meter. After making brain slice sections, the tissues were immunostained with 5-HT antisera (1:2,500). Results: The pain threshold for the electroacupuncture group was higher than for the control group. The number of 5-HT immunoreactive neurons in the electroacupuncture group was greater than that of the control group. Differences between the two groups regarding the number of 5-HT immunoreactive neurons at 30 min and 60 min (p<0.05), at 120 min and 150 min (p<0.01), and at 8 days (p<0.05) were significant. Conclusion: The increases in pain threshold and number of 5-HT immunoreactive neurons in the raphe magnus nucleus of dog brain stem showed that electroacupuncture can attenuate pain transduction through the descending tract.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.216-221
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• 2004

This paper describes an optimal synthesis method of binary neural network for pattern recognition. Our objective is to minimize the number of connections and the number of neurons in hidden layer by using a Newly Expanded and Truncated Learning Algorithm (NETLA) for the multilayered neural networks. The synthesis method in NETLA uses the Expanded Sum of Product (ESP) of the boolean expressions and is based on the multilayer perceptron. It has an ability to optimize a given binary neural network in the binary space without any iterative learning as the conventional Error Back Propagation (EBP) algorithm. Furthermore, NETLA can reduce the number of the required neurons in hidden layer and the number of connections. Therefore, this learning algorithm can speed up training for the pattern recognition problems. The superiority of NETLA to other learning algorithms is demonstrated by an practical application to the approximation problem of a circular region.