• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.323-328
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• 2017

Angiogenesis is a process including members of the angiogenic factors. In particular, fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) is considered the most potent angiogenic factor because it promotes cell proliferation and tube formation. A recent study reported that fucoidan derived from marine plant potentiated FGF-2 induced tube formation in human endothelial cells. On the other hand, the molecular mechanisms involved in the angiogenic activity of fucoidan and FGF2 are unknown. In this study, a fucoidan treatment promoted angiogenesis induced by FGF2. The effects of fucoidan on FGF2-induced angiogenesis were confirmed by a proliferation assay using a CellTiter96 Aqueous One solution after a treatment with fucoidan and FGF2. The tube formation and wound healing assay for the angiogenic activity were also confirmed. Reverse transcription PCR showed a change in the mRNA of vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A), intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), matrix metallopeptidase9 (MMP9), and the signal transducer and activator of transcription3 (STAT3). In summary, the Fucoidan/FGF2 treatment induced an increase in cell proliferation, improved the tube formation and wound healing activity, and altered the STAT3, VEGF-A, ICAM-1, and MMP9 mRNA expression levels. Further research will be needed to provide a scientific explanation in terms of cell-signaling and confirm the present findings.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.263-273
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• 2008

The precision of sensors' position is particularly important in the application of road extraction or digital map generation. In general, the various ranging solution systems such as GPS, Total Station, and Laser Ranger have been employed for the position of the sensor. Basically, the ranging solution system has problems that the signal may be blocked or degraded by various environmental circumstances and has low temporal resolution. To overcome those limitations a IMU/range integrated system could be introduced. In this paper, after pointing out the limitation of extended Kalman filter which has been used for workhorse in navigation and geodetic community, the two sampling based nonlinear filters which are sigma point Kalman filter using nonlinear transformation and carefully chosen sigma points and particle filter using the non-gaussian assumption are implemented and compared with extended Kalman filter in a simulation test. For the ranging solution system, the GPS and Total station was selected and the three levels of IMUs(IMU400C, HG1700, LN100) are chosen for the simulation. For all ranging solution system and IMUs the sampling based nonlinear filter yield improved position result and it is more noticeable that the superiority of nonlinear filter in low temporal resolution such as 5 sec. Therefore, it is recommended to apply non-linear filter to determine the sensor's position with low degree position sensors.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.8-16
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• 2016

Reactive oxygen species (ROS), at appropriate concentrations, mediate various normal cellular functions, including defense against pathogens, signal transduction, cellular growth, and gene expression. A recent study demonstrated that ROS and ROS-generating NADPH oxidase (Nox) are important in self-renewal and neuronal differentiation of subventricular zone (SVZ) neural stem cells in adult mouse brains. In this study, we found that endogenous ROS were detected in SVZ neural stem cells cultured from postnatal mouse brains. Nox4 was predominantly expressed in cultured cells, while the levels of the Nox1 and Nox2 transcripts were very low. In addition, the Nox4 gene was highly upregulated (by up to 10-fold) during neuronal differentiation. Immunocytochemical analysis detected the Nox4 protein mainly in neurons positive for the neuronal specific tubulin Tuj1. After differentiation, endogenous ROS were detected exclusively in neuron-like cells with processes. In addition, perturbation of the cellular redox state with N-acetyl cysteine, a ROS scavenger, during neuronal differentiation greatly inhibited neurogenesis. Lastly, knockdown of Nox4 using short hairpin RNA decreased neurogenesis. These findings suggest that Nox4 may be a major ROS-generating enzyme in postnatal SVZ neural stem cells, and Nox4-mediated ROS generation may be important in their neuronal differentiation.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.119-125
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• 2018

Hydrogen gas is an important and promising energy resource that has no emissions of pollutants during power generation. However, hydrogen gas is very dangerous because it is colorless, odorless, highly flammable, and explosive at low concentration. Conventional techniques for hydrogen gas detection are very difficult for measuring the hydrogen gas distribution at long distances, because they sample the gas to measure its concentration. Raman lidar is one of the techniques for remotely detecting hydrogen gas and measuring the range of the hydrogen gas distribution. A Raman lidar system with an on-axis optical receiver was developed to improve the range of hydrogen gas detection at long distance. To verify the accuracy and improvement in the range of detecting the hydrogen gas, experiments measuring the hydrogen gas concentration are carried out using the developed on-axis Raman lidar system and a gas chamber, to prevent explosion of the hydrogen gas. As a result, our developed on-axis Raman lidar system can measure a minimum hydrogen gas concentration of 0.66 volume percent at a distance of 50 m.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.219-228
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• 2015

Excessive microglial activation and subsequent neuroinflammation lead to synaptic loss and dysfunction as well as neuronal cell death, which are involved in the pathogenesis and progression of several neurodegenerative diseases. Thus, the regulation of microglial activation has been evaluated as effective therapeutic strategies. Although dieckol (DEK), one of the phlorotannins isolated from marine brown alga Ecklonia cava, has been previously reported to inhibit microglial activation, the molecular mechanism is still unclear. Therefore, we investigated here molecular mechanism of DEK via extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), Akt and nicotinamide adenine dinuclelotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase-mediated pathways. In addition, the neuroprotective mechanism of DEK was investigated in microglia-mediated neurotoxicity models such as neuron-microglia co-culture and microglial conditioned media system. Our results demonstrated that treatment of anti-oxidant DEK potently suppressed phosphorylation of ERK in lipopolysaccharide (LPS, $1{\mu}g/ml$)-stimulated BV-2 microglia. In addition, DEK markedly attenuated Akt phosphorylation and increased expression of $gp91^{phox}$, which is the catalytic component of NADPH oxidase complex responsible for microglial reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. Finally, DEK significantly attenuated neuronal cell death that is induced by treatment of microglial conditioned media containing neurotoxic secretary molecules. These neuroprotective effects of DEK were also confirmed in a neuron-microglia co-culture system using enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP)-transfected B35 neuroblastoma cell line. Taken together, these results suggest that DEK suppresses excessive microglial activation and microglia-mediated neuronal cell death via downregulation of ERK, Akt and NADPH oxidase-mediated pathways.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.189-198
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• 2002

The time for evacuation of residents in emergency planning zone(EPZ) of Uljin nuclear site in case of a radiological emergency was estimated with traffic analysis. Evacuees were classified into 4 groups by considering population density, local jurisdictions, and whether they ate residents or transients. The survey to investigate the behavioral characteristics of the residents was made for 200 households and included a hypothetical scenario explaining the accident situation and questions such as dwelling place, time demand for evacuation preparation transportation means for evacuation, sheltering place, and evacuation direction. The microscopic traffic simulation model, CORSIM, was used to simulate the behavior of evacuating vehicles on networks. The results showed that the evacuation time required for total vehicles to move out from EPZ took longer in the daytime than at night in spite that the delay times at intersections were longer at night than in the daytime. This was analyzed due to the differences of the trip generation time distribution. To validate whether the CORSIM model fan appropriately simulate the congested traffic phenomena assumable in case of emergency, a benchmark study was conducted at an intersection without an actuated traffic signal near Uljin site during the traffic peak-time in the morning. This study indicated that the predicted output by the CORSIM model was in good agreement with the observed data. satisfying the purpose of this study.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.34 no.5C
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• pp.527-539
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• 2009

In this paper, we propose an asynchonous ICI (Inter-Cell Interference) mitigation techniques for 3GPP LTE MIMO-OFDMA down-link receiver. An increasing in symbol timing misalignments may occur relative to sychronous network as the result of BS (Base Station) timing differences. Such symbol synchronization errors that exceed the guard interval or the cyclic prefix duration may result in MAI (Multiple Access Interference) for other carriers. In particular, at the cell boundary, this MAI becomes a critical factor, leading to degraded channel throughput and severe asynchronous ICI. Hence, many researchers have investigated the interference mitigation method in the presence of asynchronous ICI and it appears that the knowledge of the SCM (Spatial Covariance Matrix) of the asynchronous ICI plus background noise is an important issue. Generally, it is assumed that the SCM estimated by using training symbols. However, it is difficult to measure the interference statistics for a long time and training symbol is also not appropriate for MIMO-OFDMA system such as LTE. Therefore, a noise reduction method is required to improve the estimation accuracy. Although the conventional time-domain low-pass type weighting method can be effective for noise reduction, it causes significant estimation error due to the spectral leakage in practical OFDM system. Therefore, we propose a time-domain sinc type weighing method which can not only reduce the noise effectively minimizing estimation error caused by the spectral leakage but also implement frequency-domain moving average filter easily. By using computer simulation, we show that the proposed method can provide up to 3dB SIR gain compared with the conventional method.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.725-737
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• 2020

Background: T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is a kind of aggressive hematological cancer, and the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway is activated in most patients with T-ALL and responsible for poor prognosis. 20(S)-Ginsenoside Rh2 (20(S)-GRh2) is a major active compound extracted from ginseng, which exhibits anti-cancer effects. However, the underlying anticancer mechanisms of 20(S)-GRh2 targeting the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway in T-ALL have not been explored. Methods: Cell growth and cell cycle were determined to investigate the effect of 20(S)-GRh2 on ALL cells. PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway-related proteins were detected in 20(S)-GRh2-treated Jurkat cells by immunoblotting. Antitumor effect of 20(S)-GRh2 against T-ALL was investigated in xenograft mice. The mechanisms of 20(S)-GRh2 against T-ALL were examined by cell proliferation, apoptosis, and autophagy. Results: In the present study, the results showed that 20(S)-GRh2 decreased cell growth and arrested cell cycle at the G1 phase in ALL cells. 20(S)-GRh2 induced apoptosis through enhancing reactive oxygen species generation and upregulating apoptosis-related proteins. 20(S)-GRh2 significantly elevated the levels of pEGFP-LC3 and autophagy-related proteins in Jurkat cells. Furthermore, the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway was effectively blocked by 20(S)-GRh2. 20(S)-GRh2 suppressed cell proliferation and promoted apoptosis and autophagy by suppressing the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway in Jurkat cells. Finally, 20(S)-GRh2 alleviated symptoms of leukemia and reduced the number of white blood cells and CD3 staining in the spleen of xenograft mice, indicating antitumor effects against T-ALL in vivo. Conclusion: These findings indicate that 20(S)-GRh2 exhibits beneficial effects against T-ALL through the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway and could be a natural product of novel target for T-ALL therapy.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.44 no.9
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• pp.71-80
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• 2007

This paper presents a new push-push VCO technique that extracts a second harmonic output signal from a capacitive commonnode in a negativegm oscillator topology. The generation of the $2^{nd}$ harmonics is accounted for by the nonlinear current-voltage characteristic of the emitter-base junction diode causing; 1) significant voltage clipping and 2) different rising and falling time during the switching operation of core transistors. Comparative investigations show the technique is more power efficient in the high-frequency region that a conventional push-push technique using an emitter common node. Prototype 12GHz and 17GHz MMIC VCO were realized in GaInP/GaAs HBT technology. They have shown nominal output power of -4.3dBm and -5dBm, phase noise of -108 dBc/Hz and -110.4 dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset, respectively. The phase noise results are also equivalent to a VCO figure-of-merit of -175.8 dBc/Hz and -184.3 dBc/Hz, while dissipate 25.68mW(10.7mA/2.4V) and 13.14mW(4.38mA/3.0V), respectively.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.125-135
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• 1993

The safe and efficient operation of nuclear plants is recognized to be accomplished through the application of plant automation using digital technology, which is one of main targets of the next generation nuclear plants. For plant level automation, it is first required that each major subsystem be digitalized, and the steam generator water level control system is discussed in this study. The transfer functions between inputs and the level are derived by employing the thermal hydraulic model of the steam generator and are applied to the analysis of the current three-element control system. Since the control scheme in this study includes the steam generator itself as a process plant, the system order is high and the numerical instability arises in digitalizing. Together with this, the unreliability of the feedwater feedback signal at low power level leads to the proposal of a two-element control system with a proper digital controller. The digital PI controller developed for this system has the initial power adaptive gain and integration time constant. And it makes the overall system response satisfy the stability and other necessary control specifications simultaneously. Since the two-element control system using this controller depends on the initial power only, it is simple to define and it shows a similar level response behavior to that of its corresponding analog system.