• Applied Microscopy
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.31-39
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• 2005

Synapses are contact points where one neuron communicates with another. The morphological change of synapses under various physiological or pathological conditions has long been hypothesized to modify their functional properties. 3-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction of synapses with serial ultrathin sections has contributed to the understanding of ultrastructural dimensions and compositions of synapses. The 3-D reconstruction procedures, however, require a great amount of expertise as well as include prohibitively timeconsuming processes. Here, we introduce efficient 3-D reconstruction technique using high-voltage electron microscopy (HVEM). Primarily, we established an optimal section thickness and staining condition to observe synaptic structures in detail under HVEM. The result showed that synaptic profiles were preserved at the section thickness of 250 nm without the overlapping of synaptic ultrastructures. An increase in the reaction time of en bloc staining was most efficient to enhance contrast than the extension of postembedding staining or the addition of uranyl acetate during dehydration. Then, 3-D reconstruction of parallel fiber-Purkinje cell synapses in the rat cerebellum was carried out with serial HVEM images and reconstruction software. The images were aligned and the contours of synapses were outlined on each section. 3-D synapses were finally extracted from the section files by grouping all the synaptic contours. The reconstructed synapse model clearly demonstrated the configuration of pre and postsynaptic components. These results suggest that 3-D reconstruction of synapses using HVEM is much efficient and suitable for massive quantitative studies on synaptic connectivity than conventional TEM approach using numerous ultrathin sections.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.31-38
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• 2015

At present, carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) emission, which causes global warming, is a major issue all over the world. To reduce $CO_2$ emission directly, commercial deployment of $CO_2$ separation processes has been attempted in industrial plants, such as power plant, oil refinery and steelmaking plant. Besides, several studies have been done on indirect reduction of $CO_2$ emission from recycle of reducing gas (carbon monoxide or hydrogen containing gas) in the plants. Unlike many competing gas separation technologies, pressure swing adsorption (PSA) and membrane filtration are commercially used together or individually to separate a single component from the gas mixture. However, there are few studies on operation of sequential separation process of multi-component gas which has more than two target gas products. In this paper, process simulation model is first developed for two available configurations: $CO_2$ PSA-CO PSA-$H_2$ PSA and $CO_2$ PSA-CO PSA-$H_2$ membrane. Operation optimization and economic evaluation of the processes are also performed. As a result, feed gas contains about 14% of $H_2$ should be used as fuel than separating $H_2$, and $CO_2$ separation should be separated earlier than CO separation when feed gas contains about 30% of $CO_2$ and CO. The simulation results can help us to find an optimal process configuration and operation condition for separation of multicomponent gas with $CO_2$, CO, $H_2$ and other gases.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.338-343
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• 2004

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a small animal PET using dual layer phoswich detector to minimize parallax error that degrades spatial resolution at the outer part of field-of-view (FOV). Materials and Methods: A simulation tool GATE (Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission) was used to derive optimal parameters of small PET, and PET was developed employing the parameters. Lutetium Oxyorthosilicate (LSO) and Lutetium-Yttrium Aluminate-Perovskite(LuYAP) was used to construct dual layer phoswitch crystal. $8{\times}8$ arrays of LSO and LuYAP pixels, $2mm{\times}2mm{\times}8mm$ in size, were coupled to a 64-channel position sensitive photomultiplier tube. The system consisted of 16 detector modules arranged to one ring configuration (ring inner diameter 10 cm, FOV of 8 cm). The data from phoswich detector modules were fed into an ADC board in the data acquisition and preprocessing PC via sockets, decoder block, FPGA board, and bus board. These were linked to the master PC that stored the events data on hard disk. Results: In a preliminary test of the system, reconstructed images were obtained by using a pair of detectors and sensitivity and spatial resolution were measured. Spatial resolution was 2.3 mm FWHM and sensitivity was 10.9 $cps/{\mu}Ci$ at the center of FOV. Conclusion: The radioactivity distribution patterns were accurately represented in sinograms and images obtained by PET with a pair of detectors. These preliminary results indicate that it is promising to develop a high performance small animal PET.

• Korean Journal of Weed Science
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.85-98
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• 1995

Six malformin B's produced by Aspergillus niger van Tiegh. were separated by HPLC. Their structures determined by the methods of amino acid analyses, mass spectrometry, and two-dimensional NMR were revealed as cyclic pentapeptides structurally related to malformin $A_1$. Both the NMR and MS/MS data suggest that the respective structures of separated malformin B's were as follows; cyclo-D-Cys-D-Cys-L-Val-D-Leu-L-allo-Ile for $B_{1a}$, cyclo-D-Cys-D-Cys-L-Val-D-Leu-L-Leu for $B_{1b}$, cyclo-D-Cys-D-Cys-L-Val-D-Val-L-Leu for $B_2$, cyclo-D-Cys-D-Cys-L-Val-D-Ile-L-Leu for $B_3$, cyclo-D-Cys-D-Cys-L-Val-D-Ile-L-Ile for $B_4$, and cyclo-D-Cys-D-Cys-L-Val-D-Val-L-Ile for $B_5$. Among the malformin B's, the structure of $B_{1b}$ was the same as that of malformin $A_3$ or C. All the malformin B's showed physiological activities in the two assay systems using corn(Zea mays L.) roots and mung bean(Phaseolus aureus Roxb.) hypercotyl segments. The malformin B's with molecular weight 529 were more effective for inducing corn root curvature than those with molecular weight 515. The difference in molecular weight of malformin B's, i.e., the retention time on HPLC, results in the polarity change of the whole malformin molecule which affects the revealation of the malformin activities. In addition, the disulfide form of the malformin B's gives the rigidity of the molecule, whereas the combination of the fourth and the fifth amino acid residues provides the optimal three-dimensional configuration to the malformin receptor of plants. Presumably, these two factors are appeared to be essential for the greatest physiological activity of malformin B's. malformin $B_{1a}$ caused the corn root curvature by 90% at a concentration of $0.25{\mu}M$. However, such differential activities with molecular weight of 529 or 515 of malformin B's were not found in the mung bean hypercotyl segment test. Maximum stimulation of mung bean hypercotyl growth was observed at $0.1{\mu}M$ concentration of malformin B's. The growth of the segments treated with $B_5$ was 154% greater than that of the control.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.21-34
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• 2015

In this study, a reference model is constructed that provides architects or designers with sufficient information on the intelligent service facility that is essential for U-City space configuration, and for the support of enhanced design, as well as for planning activities. At the core of the reference model is comprehensive information about the intelligent service facility that plans the content of services, and the latest related information that is regularly updated. A plan is presented to take advantage of the database of list information systems in the Public Procurement Service that handles intelligent service facilities. We suggest a number of improvements by analyzing the current status of, and issues with, the goods information in the Public Procurement Service, and by conducting a simulation for the proper placement of CCTV. As the design of U-City plan has evolved from IT technology-based to smart space-based, reviews of limitations such as the lack of standards, information about the installation, and the placement of the intelligent service facility that provides U-service have been carried out. Due to the absence of relevant legislation and guidelines, however, planning activities, such as the appropriate placement of the intelligent service facility are difficult when considering efficient service provision. In addition, with the lack of information about IT technology and intelligent service facilities that can be provided to U-City planners and designers, there are a number of difficulties when establishing an optimal plan with respect to service level and budget. To solve these problems, this study presents a plan in conjunction with the goods information from the Public Procurement Service. The Public Procurement Service has already built an industry-related database of around 260,000 cases, which has been continually updated. It can be a very useful source of information about the intelligent service facility, the ever-changing U-City industry's core, and the relevant technologies. However, since providing this information is insufficient in the application process and, due to the constraints in the information disclosure process, there have been some issues in its application. Therefore, this study, by presenting an improvement plan for the linkage and application of the goods information in the Public Procurement Service, has significance for the provision of the basic framework for future U-City enhancement plans, and multi-departments' common utilization of the goods information in the Public Procurement Service.