• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.68-75
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• 2016

In this study a new, simple, precise, accurate and economic electrochemical method was developed and validated for the voltammetric determination of zolpidem (ZP) using disposable pencil graphite (PG) electrode. The anodic oxidation of ZP on the surface of the PG electrode was examined in a britton robinson (BR) buffer. Square wave and cyclic voltammetry were used as electrochemical techniques in the potential range of 0-1.2 V in the pH 8 BR buffer. In cyclic voltammetry studies, the diffusion coefficient of ZP oxidation was found to be 3.6×10^-6 cm² s^-1. On the other hand, the ZP has shown a well-defined irreversible anodic peak at 0.98 V in the square wave voltammetry mode. The PG electrode, primarily being graphite which has a large active surface area gives rise to increasing peak current with respect to ZP electrooxidation. PG electrode showed an electrocatalytic effect in anodic oxidation of ZP. A linear relationship between catalytic current response and ZP concentration was obtained over a concentration range of 10-30 μM with R.S.D. values ranging from 0.29-3.89. Limits of detection and quantitation were found to be 1 and 3 μM, respectively. Finally, the PG electrode was successfully used to determine ZP in standard and tablet dosage forms with a mean recovery of 100.69 %.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.271-277
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• 2009

Proteins interact with each other within a cell, and those interactions give rise to the biological function and dynamical behavior of cellular systems. Generally, the protein interactions are temporal, spatial, or condition dependent in a specific cell, where only a small part of interactions usually take place under certain conditions. Recently, although a large amount of protein interaction data have been collected by high-throughput technologies, the interactions are recorded or summarized under various or different conditions and therefore cannot be directly used to identify signaling pathways or active networks, which are believed to work in specific cells under specific conditions. However, protein interactions activated under specific conditions may give hints to the biological process underlying corresponding phenotypes. In particular, responsive functional modules consist of protein interactions activated under specific conditions can provide insight into the mechanism underlying biological systems, e.g. protein interaction subnetworks found for certain diseases rather than normal conditions may help to discover potential biomarkers. From computational viewpoint, identifying responsive functional modules can be formulated as an optimization problem. Therefore, efficient computational methods for extracting responsive functional modules are strongly demanded due to the NP-hard nature of such a combinatorial problem. In this review, we first report recent advances in development of computational methods for extracting responsive functional modules or active pathways from protein interaction network and microarray data. Then from computational aspect, we discuss remaining obstacles and perspectives for this attractive and challenging topic in the area of systems biology.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.4307-4312
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• 2016

Background: Breast cancer is the most common female malignancy worldwide and its incidence is on the rise in Pakistan. The aim of this case-control study was to quantify the association of various risk factors with breast cancer risk among Pakistani women. Materials and Methods: A total of 2,246 women were studied, including 1,238 women with histologically confirmed breast cancer patients and age matched control subjects (N=1008) without breast cancer and other chronic diseases. Subjects were interviewed using a specifically designed questionnaire. Unconditional logistic regression was applied. Subsequent disease-specific mortality was also measured. Results: In this study, majority of the breast cancer patients (69.59%) were in age ranges of 40s and 50s. BMI greater than 25kg/m2 (OR=1.57; 95%CI, 1.26-1.90 and OR=1.60; 95%CI, 1.26-2.03), marital status of unmarried (OR=2.03; 95%CI, 1.69-2.44), lack of breast feeding, smoking (current or ever), lack of physical activity and post-menopausal status were found to have significant positive associations with breast cancer. It was also observed that increased parity reduced the disease risk. A larger number of cases (58.1%) had their right breast affected while 22.8% had other complications as well. Conclusions: This exploratory analysis indicated a number of risk factors to be associated with increased risk of breast cancer. It was also observed that mean age at diagnosis is a decade earlier than in western countries. It is hoped that our findings will facilitate establishment of adequate evidence-based awareness and preventive measures for Pakistani women.

• Proceedings of the Acoustical Society of Korea Conference
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• spring
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• pp.269-273
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• 1999

Combination of mental stress task with noise background is a traditional tool employed in psychophysiology. However, intensity of background noise is a factor affecting both performance on test and psychophysiological responses associated with stress evoked by mental load in noisy environment. In the current study on 7 subjects we analyzed the influence of white noise (WN) intensity (55, 70, and 85 dB[A] ) on psychophysiological responses during word recognition test performed on noise background. There were recorded following physiological variables: electrodermal activity (EDA) , namely, skin conductance level (SCL), skin conductance response (SCR) amplitude (SCR-A), rise time and total number of SCRs (N-SCR); cardiovascular activity, e.g., heart rate (HR), respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) index, pulse transit time (PTT), finger pulse volume (PV), skin temperature (SKT) and respiratory activity, such as respiration rate (RESP-R) and inspiration wane amplitude (RESP-A) during baseline resting state and 40 s long performance on 3 similar Korean word recognition tests with different WN intensity (55, 70, and 85 dB). Electrodermal responses (SCR-A, SCL, N-SCR) demonstrated gradual increment with increased intensity of noise, and this increase of response magnitude with higher intensity of noise was typical also for r skin temperature (phasic SKT decrease) and pulse volume (phasic and tonic PV decrease). However, some cardiovascular and respiratory responses did not exhibit same tendency of gradual increase of reactivity , namely HR, as well as RESP-R and RESP-A showed decrement of response magnitudes. Important finding in terms of cardiovascular reactivity was that 55 and 70dB evoked similar profiles, while 85dB WN resulted in significantly different profile of reactions, suggesting that there exists a threshold level after which intensive auditory stimulation elicits psychophyslological responses pattern of different quality. There are discussed potential autonomic mechanism involved in mediation of observed physiological responses.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.65-75
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• 2001

We proposed the detection method of pH variations by integrating a photocurrent characteristic curve, instead of finding an inflection point by differentiating it in LAPS system. By a simulation of the performance of the proposed method, we verified that it had 80 and 1000 times higher sensitivity and resolution than a conventional method. Then, with the implemented system based on the simulation results, we measured a pH variation which was given rise to a potential change on the LAPS surface exposed to 2-0.03125[mg/ml] enzyme solutions. As results, we observed that the proposed method has a higher sensitivity and resolution of 3.76-0.08[pH/min] pH variations than 3.79-0.27[pH/min] for conventional method with same samples.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.69-74
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• 2002

Recent evidence has suggested that trunk neural crest cell generally assumed to have equivalent differentiation potentials, demonstrate differentiation bias along the anterior/posterior axis. In amphibian and fish, neural crest cells give rise to three chromatophore types, melanophores, xantho-phores, and iridophores. Each pigment cell type has distinct characteristics but there is speculation about the cellular plasticity that exists among them. Neural crest cells migrate along specific routes, ventromedially and dorsolaterally. Neural crest cells that travel dorsolaterally are the first cells to begin migration in the axolotl and are the major contributors to the visible pigment pattern. Many factors and mechanisms that are responsible for guiding migratory neural crest cells along potential pathways or determining their fate remain unknown. A single lineage of the crest, which becomes restricted to one of the three pigment cell types, gives us the opportunity to examine the existence of neural crest stem cell populations and cellular plasticity. Study presented here showed results from recent in vitro studies designed to identify parameters influencing differentiation events of individual neural crest-derived pigment cell lineages. Melanophore production from neural crest explants originating from different levels along the anterior/posterior axis of wild type-axolotl embryos were compared and demonstrate that the differentiation of melanophores is enhanced in subpopulation of neural crest treated with forskolin. Forskolin (an adenylate cyclase activator) increases intracellular CAMP concentration and eventually activates the protein kinase-A signaling pathway. Melanophore number, melanin content, and tyrosinase activity in explants taken from the anterior-most region of the crest increased significantly in response to forskolin treatment. This study suggests implications of region specific influences and developmental regulation in the development of pigment pattern.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF PACKAGING SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.71-76
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• 2020

CO₂ concentration in kimchi package has emerged recently as a potential index of product ripening to be monitored or sensed in intelligent packaging. Considering that addition of CO₂ absorber into the flexible kimchi package changes behavior of its CO₂ concentration, ripening of kimchi in total acidity, package CO₂ concentration in partial pressure (P_CO2) and package volume at 10℃ were estimated by mathematical model for two size packages included with different CO₂ absorbers. In small size package containing 0.5 kg of kimchi, relatively less gas permeable low density polyethylene (LDPE) sachet of the absorber was found to give rise of P_CO2 linearly correlated with acidity at acceptable conditions of absorber amount and size. The levels of P_CO2 at optimum ripening were different with absorber amount. However, highly gas permeable microporous spunbonded film (Tyvek) sachet did not show the linear relationship except a condition of 1.5 g of CO₂ absorbent. In large size package containing 2.0 kg, absorber sachets of LDPE and Tyvek could give the linear relationship between product acidity and package P_CO2 but at different levels (P_CO2 of package with LDPE sachet: 0.46~0.79 bar, P_CO2 of package with Tyvek sachet: 0.00~0.75 bar). The P_CO2 at optimal ripening was found to be less variable with LDPE sachets than with Tyvek ones. Use of package CO₂ concentration as an indicator of kimchi ripening was shown to be possible on the limited conditions where the linear relationship between them is established or confirmed.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.38-45
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• 2002

This paper describes the technical issues of the domestic standard and guideline for lightning protection systems in order to propose the countermeasures in damage of computer and electronic equipments due to lightning surges. The relationship between the current flow in the down conductor and the current flow in the steel conduit surrounding the down conductor was investigated as a function of the installation method of down conductors. Also the experiments were conducted to evaluate the influences of the skin effect on the down conductor systems. As a result, when the down conductor were bonded to the steel conduit, the down conductor and the steel conduit act as one conductor, so much mure lightning current flows in the steel conduit than in the copper down conductor because of the skin effect and choking effect. Therefore to reduce the adverse effects such as the electrostatic induction and side flashes caused by the potential rise of down conductors due to lightning currents, it is extremely effective to bond the down conductor to the steel conduit and steel frame of structures.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.22-28
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• 2003

This paper describes the frequency dependence of the grounding impedance. In order to propose the evaluation method of the transient response of powered grounding systems, the grounding impedances were measured with varying the frequency of incoming currents by way of the variable frequency inverter and band pass filter. The magnitude and phase of the grounding impedance were analyzed in the frequency range of 20 [Hz]∼2.1[kHz]. The grounding impedance were increased with increasing the frequency of the test current. The grounding impedance at the frequency of 2[kHz] in the actual 22.9[kV] substation grounding system was approximately 3 times as large as the 60[Hz] grounding impedance. It was found that the frequency dependence of the grounding impedance is mainly subject to the inductive reactance of the grounding conductors. As a result, it is critical to determine the shape and size of grounding grid reducing the resultant inductance in grounding systems for lightning surge protection.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.3-11
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• 2003

Face stability of a tunnel is a main concern during tunnel excavation. However, there has been only a few studies on this problem while a lot of researches on the support systems have been carried out. In addition, when tunneling is performed below the groundwater level, the groundwater flows into the tunnel so that the seepage forces generated on the tunnel face might give rise to a serious potential for the face instability. In this study, the face stability was evaluated by simultaneously considering two factors: one is the effective stress calculated by upper bound theorem; the other is the seepage forces acting on the tunnel face obtained by numerical analysis under the condition of steady-state groundwater flow. Tunneling in difficult geological conditions often requires auxiliary techniques to guarantee safe tunnel excavations and/or to prevent damage to structures and services around the tunnel. The steel pipe-reinforced multistep grouting has been recently applied to tunnel sites in Korea. Face stability of a tunnel with the steel pipe-reinforced multistep grouting was also analyzed in this study.