• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.334-343
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• 2016

Background: Progressed tissue culture techniques have allowed us to easily obtain mass products of tissue-cultured mountain ginseng over 100 yr old (TCMG-100). We investigated the effects of TCMG-100 extract on erectile function using in vitro and in vivo studies. Methods: To examine the relaxation effects and mechanisms of action of TCMG-100 on rabbit cavernosal strips evaluated in an organ bath. To investigate the long-term treatment effect of TCMG-100, 8-wk administration was performed. After administration of TCMG-100, intracavernosal pressure, cyclic guanosine monophosphate and nitric oxide (NO) levels of cavernosal tissue, serum testosterone level, histological observation of collagen fiber, endothelium, smooth muscle cell, and transforming growth factor-${\beta}1$ were investigated. Results: TCMG-100 extract displayed dose-dependent relaxation effects on precontracted rabbit corporal smooth muscle. The TCMG-100-induced relaxation was significantly reduced by removing the endothelium, and treatment with an NO synthase inhibitor or NO scavenger. Eight weeks of TCMG-100 administration increased intracavernosal pressure in a rat model. The levels of cyclic guanosine monophosphate and NO in the corpus callosum and serum testosterone level were also increased by TCMG-100 treatment. Furthermore, histological evaluation of collagen, smooth muscle, and endothelium showed increases in endothelium and smooth muscle, and a decrease in transforming growth factor-${\beta}1$ expression. Conclusion: These relaxation effects on corporal smooth muscle and increased erectile function suggest that TCMG-100 might be used as an alternative herbal medicine to improve erectile function.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.8 no.7
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• pp.1453-1463
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• 2004

The conventional image segmentation method using level set has been disadvantage since level set function in the gradient-based model evolves depending on the local profile of the edge. In this paper, a new model is introduced by hybridizing level set formulation and complementary smooth function in order to smooth the driving force. We consider an alternative way of getting the complementary function(CF) which is much easier to simulate and makes sense for most cases having no triple junctions. The rule of thumb is that CF must be computed such that the difference between their average and the original CF function should be able to introduce a reliable driving force for the evolution of the level set function. This proposed hybrid method tries to minimize drawbacks the conventional level set method.

• International Journal of Fuzzy Logic and Intelligent Systems
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.131-136
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• 2012

If one can find a control Lyapunov function (CLF) for a given nonlinear system, the control input stabilizing the system can be easily obtained. To find a CLF, the time derivative of an energy function should be negative definite. This procedure frequently requires a control input which is a rational function or includes an inverse function. The control input is not defined on the specific state-space where the denominator of the rational function is equal to 0 or the inverse function does not exist. In this region with singularities, the trajectory of the control system cannot be generated, which is one of the most important reasons why it is hard to make the origin of a nonlinear system be globally asymptotically stable. In this paper, we propose a smooth control law ensuring the globally asymptotic stability by means of cancelling the singularity in the control input.

• BMB Reports
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2014

Atherosclerosis is a pathologic process occurring within the artery, in which many cell types, including T cell, macrophages, endothelial cells, and smooth muscle cells, interact, and cause chronic inflammation, in response to various inner- or outer-cellular stimuli. Atherosclerosis is characterized by a complex interaction of inflammation, lipid deposition, vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation, endothelial dysfunction, and extracellular matrix remodeling, which will result in the formation of an intimal plaque. Although the regulation and function of vascular smooth muscle cells are important in the progression of atherosclerosis, the roles of smooth muscle cells in regulating vascular inflammation are rarely focused upon, compared to those of endothelial cells or inflammatory cells. Therefore, in this review, we will discuss here how smooth muscle cells contribute or regulate the inflammatory reaction in the progression of atherosclerosis, especially in the context of the activation of various membrane receptors, and how they may regulate vascular inflammation.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.431-436
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• 2011

Vascular smooth muscle cells can obtain a proliferative function in environments such as atherosclerosis in vivo or primary culture in vitro. Proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells is accompanied by changes in ryanodine receptors (RyRs). In several studies, the cytosolic $Ca^{2+}$ response to caffeine is decreased during smooth muscle cell culture. Although caffeine is commonly used to investigate RyR function because it is difficult to measure $Ca^{2+}$ release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) directly, caffeine has additional off-target effects, including blocking inositol trisphosphate receptors and store-operated $Ca^{2+}$ entry. Using freshly dissociated rat aortic smooth muscle cells (RASMCs) and cultured RASMCs, we sought to provide direct evidence for the operation of RyRs through the $Ca^{2+}$- induced $Ca^{2+}$ -release pathway by directly measuring $Ca^{2+}$ release from SR in permeabilized cells. An additional goal was to elucidate alterations of RyRs that occurred during culture. Perfusion of permeabilized, freshly dissociated RASMCs with $Ca^{2+}$ stimulated $Ca^{2+}$ release from the SR. Caffeine and ryanodine also induced $Ca^{2+}$ release from the SR in dissociated RASMCs. In contrast, ryanodine, caffeine and $Ca^{2+}$ failed to trigger $Ca^{2+}$ release in cultured RASMCs. These results are consistent with results obtained by immunocytochemistry, which showed that RyRs were expressed in dissociated RASMCs, but not in cultured RASMCs. This study is the first to demonstrate $Ca^{2+}$ release from the SR by cytosolic $Ca^{2+}$ elevation in vascular smooth muscle cells, and also supports previous studies on the alterations of RyRs in vascular smooth muscle cells associated with culture.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.665-679
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• 2017

When measuring productive efficiency, often it is necessary to have knowledge of the production frontier function that shows the maximum possible output of production units as a function of inputs. Canonical parametric forms of the frontier function were initially considered under the framework of stochastic frontier model; however, several additional nonparametric methods have been developed over the last decade. Efforts have been recently made to impose shape constraints such as monotonicity and concavity on the non-parametric estimation of the frontier function; however, most existing methods along that direction suffer from unnecessary non-smooth points of the frontier function. In this paper, we propose methods to estimate the smooth frontier function with monotonicity for stochastic frontier models and investigate the effect of imposing a monotonicity constraint into the estimation of the frontier function and the finite dimensional parameters of the model. Simulation studies suggest that imposing the constraint provide better performance to estimate the frontier function, especially when the sample size is small or moderate. However, no apparent gain was observed concerning the estimation of the parameters of the error distribution regardless of sample size.

• Communications of the Korean Mathematical Society
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.823-831
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• 2018

We define progressive tax rate functions, study their properties, and describe some smooth models. The key requirement, defining the progressive nature of the taxation model, is that the progressive tax rate functions should have infinite contact with the zero function at the origin, in order to care the poor. In constructing a wide array of such functions, assisting functions are introduced.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.133-140
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• 1992

The problem of estimating a smooth distribution function F at a point $\tau$ based on randomly right censored data is treated under certain smoothness conditions on F . The asymptotic performance of a certain class of kernel estimators is compared to that of the Kap lan-Meier estimator of F($\tau$). It is shown that the .elative deficiency of the Kaplan-Meier estimate. of F($\tau$) with respect to the appropriately chosen kernel type estimate. tends to infinity as the sample size n increases to infinity. Strong uniform consistency and the weak convergence of the normalized process are also proved.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.41-53
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• 2008

Polynomials are one of most important and widely used numerical tools in dealing with a smooth function on a bounded domain and trigonometric functions work for smooth periodic functions. However, they are not the best choice if a function has a bounded support in space and in frequency domain. The Prolate Spheroidal wave function (PSWF) of order zero has been known as a best candidate as a basis for band-limited functions. In this paper, we review some basic properties of PSWFs defined as eigenfunctions of bounded Fourier transformation. We also propose numerical inversion schemes based on PSWF and present some numerical examples to show their feasibilities as signal processing tools.

• Bulletin of the Korean Mathematical Society
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• v.58 no.3
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• pp.617-635
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• 2021

Let X be a smooth hypersurface X of degree d ≥ 4 in a projective space ℙⁿ⁺¹. We consider a projection of X from p ∈ ℙⁿ⁺¹ to a plane H ≅ ℙⁿ. This projection induces an extension of function fields ℂ(X)/ℂ(ℙⁿ). The point p is called a Galois point if the extension is Galois. In this paper, we will give necessary and sufficient conditions for X to have Galois points by using linear automorphisms.