• The Korean Journal of Pharmacology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.225-235
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• 1993

Pituitary LH release has been known to be regulated by the hypothalamic gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) and the gonadal steroid hormones. In addition, neurotransmitters and neuropeptides are actively involved in the control of LH secretion. The alteration in LH release might reflect changes in biosynthesis and/or posttranslational processing of LH. However, little is known about the mechanism by which biosynthesis of LH subunits is regulated, especially at the level of transcription. In order to investigate if ovarian steroid hormones regulate the LH subunit gene expression, ${\alpha}\;and\;LH{\beta}$ steady state mRNA levels were determined in anterior pituitaries of ovariectomized rats. Serum LH concentrations and pituitary LH concentrations were increased markedly with time after ovariectomy. ${\alpha}\;and\;LH{\beta}$ subunit mRNA levels after ovariectomy were increased in a parallel manner with serum LH concentrations and pituitary LH contents, the rise in $LH{\beta}$ subunit mRNA levels being more prominent than the rise in ${\alpha}\;subunit$ mRNA. ${\alpha}\;and\;LH{\beta}$ subunit mRNA levels in ovariectomized rats were negatively regulated by the continuous treatment of ovarian steriod hormones for $1{\sim}4\;days$ and $LH{\beta}\;subunit$ mRNA seemed to be more sensitive to negative feedback of estradiol than progesterone. Treatment of estrogen antagonist, LY117018 or progesterone antagonist, RU486 significantly restroed LH subunit mRNA levels as well as LH release which were suppressed by estradiol or progesterone treatment. These results suggest that ovarian steroids negatively regulate the LH synthesis at the pretranslational level by modulating the steady state levels of ${\alpha}\;and\;LH{\beta}\;subunit$ mRNA and $LH{\beta}\;subunit$ mRNA seemed to be more sensitive to negative feedback action of estradiol than progesterone.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.183-194
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• 2009

Purpose : This study was performed not only to compare the brain activation regions associated with sexual arousal induced by visual stimulation and SP6 acupuncture, but also to evaluate its differential neuro-anatomical mechanism in healthy women using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at 3 Tesla (T). Subjects and methods : A total of 21 healthy right-handed female volunteers (mean age 22 years, range 19 to 32) underwent fMRI on a 3T MR scanner. The stimulation paradigm for sexual arousal consisted of two alternating periods of rest and activation. It began with a 1-minute rest period, 3 minutes of stimulation with either of an erotic video film or SP6 acupuncture, followed by 1-minute rest. In addition, a comparative study on the brain activation patterns between an acupoint and a shampoint nearby GB37 was performed. The fMRI data were obtained from 20 slices parallel to the AC-PC line on an axial plane, giving a total of 2,000 images. The mean activation maps were constructed and analyzed by using the statistical parametric mapping (SPM99) software. Results : As comparison with the shampoint, the acupoint showed 5 times and 2 times higher activities in the neocortex and limbic system, respectively. Note that brain activation in response to stimulation with the shampoint was not observed in the regions including the HTHL in the diencephalon, GLO and AMYG in the basal ganglia, and SMG in the parietal lobe. In the comparative study of visual stimulation vs. SP6 acupuncture, the mean activation ratio of stimulus was not significantly different to each other in both the neocortex and the limbic system (p < 0.05). The mean activities induced by both stimuli were not significantly different in the neocortex, whereas the acupunctural stimulation showed higher activity in the limbic system (p < 0.05). Conclusions : This study compared the differential brain activation patterns and the neural mechanisms for sexual arousal, which were induced by visual stimulation and SP6 acupuncture by using 3T fMRI. These findings will be useful to understand the theory of traditional acupuncture and acupoint channel in scientific point of view.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.75-103
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• 2014

The Quaternary faults are extensively observed along major inherited fault zones (i.e. Yangsan Fault System, Ulsan Fault, Yeonil Tectonic Line, Ocheon Fault System) in SE Korea. Their geometry and kinematics provide a very useful piece of information about the Quaternary crustal deformation and stress field in and around Korean Peninsula. Using magnetic fabrics (AMS), we attempted to determine the slip senses of Jinti, Mohwa, Suseongji2, and Wangsan faults and then interpreted the fabric development process of fault gouge and the characteristics of stress field during the Quaternary. All the magnetic fabrics of the faults, except the Wangsan Fault, consistently indicate a dominant reverse-slip sense with weak strike-slip component. Most of the oblate fabrics are nearly parallel to the fault surface and the anisotropy degrees generally increase in proportion to the oblatenesses. These results suggest that the fabrics of the fault gouges resulted from a progressive deformation due to continuous simple shear during the last reactivation stage as reverse faulting. It is also interpreted that the pre-existing fabrics were overwhelmed and obliterated by the re-activated faulting. Paleostress field calculated from the fault slip data indicates an ENE-WNW compressive stress, which is in accord with those determined from previous fault tectonic analysis, focal mechanism solution, and hydraulic fracturing test in and around Korean Peninsula.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.31-31
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• 2010

The growth of the high-quality GaN epilayers is of significant technological importance because of their commercializedoptoelectronic applications as high-brightness light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes (LDs) in the visible and ultraviolet spectral range. The GaN-based heterostructural epilayers have the polar c-axis of the hexagonal structure perpendicular to the interfaces of the active layers. The Ga and N atoms in the c-GaN are alternatively stacked along the polar [0001] crystallographic direction, which leads to spontaneous polarization. In addition, in the InGaN/GaN MQWs, the stress applied along the same axis contributes topiezoelectric polarization, and thus the total polarization is determined as the sum of spontaneous and piezoelectric polarizations. The total polarization in the c-GaN heterolayers, which can generate internal fields and spatial separation of the electron and hole wave functions and consequently a decrease of efficiency and peak shift. One of the possible solutions to eliminate these undesirable effects is to grow GaN-based epilayers in nonpolar orientations. The polarization effects in the GaN are eliminated by growing the films along the nonpolar [$11\bar{2}0$] ($\alpha$-GaN) or [$1\bar{1}00$] (m-GaN) orientation. Although the use of the nonpolar epilayers in wurtzite structure clearly removes the polarization matters, however, it induces another problem related to the formation of a high density of planar defects. The large lattice mismatch between sapphiresubstrates and GaN layers leads to a high density of defects (dislocations and stacking faults). The dominant defects observed in the GaN epilayers with wurtzite structure are one-dimensional (1D) dislocations and two-dimensional (2D) stacking faults. In particular, the 1D threading dislocations in the c-GaN are generated from the film/substrate interface due to their large lattice and thermal coefficient mismatch. However, because the c-GaN epilayers were grown along the normal direction to the basal slip planes, the generation of basal stacking faults (BSFs) is localized on the c-plane and the generated BSFs did not propagate into the surface during the growth. Thus, the primary defects in the c-GaN epilayers are 1D threading dislocations. Occasionally, the particular planar defects such as prismatic stacking faults (PSFs) and inversion domain boundaries are observed. However, since the basal slip planes in the $\alpha$-GaN are parallel to the growth direction unlike c-GaN, the BSFs with lower formation energy can be easily formed along the growth direction, where the BSFs propagate straightly into the surface. Consequently, the lattice mismatch between film and substrate in $\alpha$-GaN epilayers is mainly relaxed through the formation of BSFs. These 2D planar defects are placed along only one direction in the cross-sectional view. Thus, the nonpolar $\alpha$-GaN films have different atomic arrangements along the two orthogonal directions ($[0001]_{GaN}$ and $[\bar{1}100]_{GaN}$ axes) on the $\alpha$-plane, which are expected to induce anisotropic biaxial strain. In this study, the anisotropic strain relaxation behaviors in the nonpolar $\alpha$-GaN epilayers grown on ($1\bar{1}02$) r-plane sapphire substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVO) were investigated, and the formation mechanism of the abnormal zigzag shape PSFs was discussed using high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM).