• BMB Reports
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.147-152
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• 2015

Small interfering RNA (siRNA) functions through pairing with specific mRNA sequences and results in the mRNA's degradation. It is a potential therapeutic approach for many diseases caused by altered gene expression. The delivery of siRNA is still a major problem due to its rapid degradation in the circulation. Various strategies have been proposed to help with the cellular uptake of siRNA and short or small hairpin RNA (shRNA). Here, we reviewed recently published data regarding local applications of siRNA. Compared with systemic delivery methods, local delivery of siRNA/shRNA has many advantages, such as targeting the specific tissues or organs, mimicking a gene knockout effect, or developing certain diseases models. The eye, brain, and tumor tissues are 'hot' target tissues/organs for local siRNA delivery. The siRNA can be delivered locally, in naked form, with chemical modifications, or in formulations with viral or non-viral vectors, such as liposomes and nanoparticles. This review provides a comprehensive overview of RNAi local administration and potential future applications in clinical treatment.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.45 no.1 s.141
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• pp.65-68
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• 2007

The application of Giemsa technique to stain compressed diaphragm samples obtained from rodents experimentally infected with Trichinella spiralis is described. Diaphragm samples from rats heavily infected with 20 muscle larvae per gram of body weight(20 ML/gbw) were cut into several pieces and stained with Giemsa; on the other hand, whole diaphragms from slightly infected mice(1 ML/gbw) were also stained with Giemsa. Besides, muscle samples were also stained with Giemsa. Observation at 10 $\times$ magnification revealed that both ML and nurse cells(NC) look as bluish structures clearly contrasting with the pinkish color of the non-infected muscle fibers. NC in the diaphragms of mice could be easily observed at naked eye as blue points contrasting with the pink surrounding areas formed by the non-infected muscle fibers. Among NC observed in the diaphragms of rats infected with 20 ML/gbw, 4.4% was multiple infection. These findings were confirmed in sectioned and hematoxylin-eosin stained specimens. This data could be usefulness for a rapid diagnosis of trichinellosis in post-mortem mammals without magnification procedures.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.368-373
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• 2018

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep has an essential role in the process of learning and memory in the hippocampus. It has been reported that linalool, a major component of Lavandula angustifolia, has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective effects, along with other effects. However, the effect of linalool on the cognitive impairment and behavioral alterations that are induced by REM-sleep deprivation has not yet been elucidated. Several studies have reported that REM-sleep deprivation-induced memory deficits provide a well-known model of behavioral alterations. In the present study, we examined whether linalool elicited an anti-stress effect, reversing the behavioral alterations observed following REM-sleep deprivation in mice. Furthermore, we investigated the underlying mechanism of the effect of linalool. Spatial memory and learning memory were assessed through Y maze and passive avoidance tests, respectively, and the forced swimming test was used to evaluate anti-stress activity. The mechanisms through which linalool improves memory loss and behavioral alterations in sleep-deprived mice appeared to be through an increase in the serotonin levels. Linalool significantly ameliorated the spatial and learning memory deficits, and stress activity observed in sleep-deprived animals. Moreover, linalool led to serotonin release, and cortisol level reduction. Our findings suggest that linalool has beneficial effects on the memory loss and behavioral alterations induced by REM-sleep deprivation through the regulation of serotonin levels.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.264-270
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• 2007

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is defined by sleep apnea with decreased oxygen saturation, excessive snoring with daytime sleepiness, and frequent awakening during the night time sleep. The present study was performed to investigate how apnea-hypopnea, that possibly causes breathing disturbance during sleep, can affect sleep pattern in patients with OSAS. We included 115 patients (92 men, 23 women) who underwent a polysomnography from January 2006 to May 2007. As the frequency of sleep apnea-hypopnea increases, the proportion of non-rapid eye movement (REM) sleep (p<0.001), and stage I sleep (p<0.001) increased, while that of stage II sleep (p<0.001), stage III and IV sleep (p<0.01), and REM sleep (p<0.05) decreased. Furthermore, sleep apnea-hypopnea was closely correlated with REM sleep (r=0.314, p<0.001), stage I sleep (r=0.719, p<0.001), stage II sleep (p=-0.342, p<0.05), stage III and IV sleep (r=-0.414, p<0.001), and REM sleep (r=-0.342, p<0.05). Stage I sleep could account for the 51% of the variance of apnea-hyponea. Our study shows sleep apnea-hypopnea affects sleep pattern in pattern with OSAS significantly, and the change of stage I sleep is the most important factor in estimating the disturbance of sleep pattern.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.547-555
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• 2015

The vegetation index is a crucial parameter in many biophysical studies of vegetation, and is also a valuable content in ecological processes researching. The OVIs (Optical Vegetation Index) that of using multispectral and hyperspectral data have been widely investigated in the literature, while the RVI (Radar Vegetation Index) that of considering volume scattering measurement has been paid relatively little attention. Also, there was only some efforts have been put to fuse the OVI with the RVI as an integrated vegetation index. To address this issue, this paper presents a novel FVI (Fusion Vegetation Index) that uses multispectral and full-PolSAR (Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar) data. By fusing a NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) of RapidEye and an RVI of C-band Radarsat-2, we demonstrated that the proposed FVI has higher separability in different vegetation types than only with OVI and RVI. Also, the experimental results show that the proposed index not only has information on the vegetation greenness of the NDVI, but also has information on the canopy structure of the RVI. Based on this preliminary result, since the vegetation monitoring is more detailed, it could be possible in various application fields; this synergistic FVI will be further developed in the future.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.390-395
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• 2017

The present study investigated the sedative effects of Sophora flavescens (SF) and its bioactive compound, matrine through performing locomotor activity test and the electroencephalography (EEG) analysis in the rat. The underlying neural mechanism of their beneficial effects was determined by assessing c-Fos immunoreactivity and serotonin (5-HT) in the brain utilizing immunohistochemical method and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The results showed that SF and matrine administration had an effect on normalization of caffeine-induced hyperactivity and promoting a shift toward non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. c-Fos-immunoreactivity and 5-HT level in the ventrolateral preoptic nucleus (VLPO), a sleep promoting region, were increased in the both SF and matrine-injected groups. In conclusion, SF and its bioactive compound, matrine alleviated caffeine-induced hyperactivity and promoted NREM sleep by activating VLPO neurons and modulating serotonergic transmission. It is suggested that SF might be a useful natural alternatives for hypnotic medicine.

• Journal of mucopolysaccharidosis and rare diseases
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.35-39
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• 2015

Sleep problems occur frequently among patients with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS). The most common problem is excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) that are closely related to of sleep-related breathing disorder (SRBD) such as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and congenital hypoventilation syndrome. Obesity, craniofacial dysmorphism and muscular hypotonia of patients with PWS may increase the risk of SRBD. Sleep apneas can interrupt the continuity of sleep, and these disruptions result in a decrease in both the quality and quantity of sleep. In addition to SRBD, other sleep disorders have been reported, such as hypersomnia, a primary abnormality of the rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and narcolepsy traits at sleep onset REM sleep. Patients with PWS have intrinsic abnormalities of sleep-wake cycles due to hypothalamic dysfunction. The treatment of EDS and other sleep disorders in PWS are similar to standard treatments. Correction of sleep hygiene such as sufficient amount of sleep, maintenance of regular sleep-wake rhythm, and planned naps are important. After comprehensive evaluation of sleep disturbances, CPAP or surgery should be recommended for treatment of SRBD. Remaining EDS or narcolepsy-like syndrome are controlled by stimulant medication. Bright light therapy might be beneficial for disturbed circadian sleep-wake rhythm caused by hypothalamic dysfunction.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.6 no.1 s.10
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• pp.10-20
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• 2002

The purpose of this work is to develop a system fer rapid and automatic identification of persons, with high reliability and confidence levels. The iris of the eye is used as an optical fingerprint, having a highly detailed pattern that is unique for each individual and stable over many years. Image analysis algorithms find the iris in a image, and encode its texture into an iris code. Iris texture is extracted from the image at multiple scales of analysis by wavelet transformation. The features of many different parts of the iris are projected onto the space-frequency space. They are used to determine an abstract iris code which is similar to 2D barcode. Pattern recognition is achieved by using modified CPN.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.10 no.2 s.23
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• pp.51-60
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• 2004

Through the fast economic growth since the 1960s, Korea has experienced various problems on land such as urban sprawl, the rapid increase in land prices, land speculation, privatization of the betterment, and so on. To prevent such problems and to enhance harmonious development and conservation, the National Land Planning and Use Act(NLPUA) was established in 2003. The NLPUA which was revised and combined two existing planning laws i.e. the National Land Use Management Act and Urban Planning Act, has an eye to preventing disorderly spatial development, to pursuing environmentally friendly spatial planning, and to following up planned development in non-urbanized area like rural area. This study aims to discuss what should be considered the pending issues after the application of the NLPUA in rural area. On the basis of reviewing the NLPUA in a viewpoint of the rural planning, this study suggests some improvement policy such as considering various rural conditions, securing excellent agricultural land, applying the District Plan II system effectively, reorganizing the planning administrative, and so on.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.493-493
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• 2000

Multi-valued decision making for transitional stochastic events was newly derived based on conditional probability of database. The two values (on-off) decision making method without transition had been proposed by one of the author in a previous work for a purpose of realizing human on-off decision making. The current method is an extension of the previous on-off decision making. By combining the conditional probability and the transitional probability, the closed form of the algorithm for the multi-valued transitional decision making was derived. The proposed multi-valued decision making was successfully applied to the determination of the five levels of the vigilance of a subject during the EEG recording; awake stage, drowsy stage and sleeping stages (stage 1, stage 2/3, REM (rapid eye movement)). The method for determining the vigilance level can be directly usable for the two purposes; selection of awake EEG segments for automatic EEG interpretation, and determination of sleep stages through sleep EEG. The proposed multi-valued decision making with a mathematical background of the probability can be applicable widely, in industries and in medical fields for purposes of the multi-valued decision making.