• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.7
• /
• pp.3211-3217
• /
• 2014

Background: The current study investigated the effects of Piper longumine on radio-sensitization of human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells and underlying mechanisms. Materials and Methods: Human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells were cultured in vitro and those in logarithmic growth phase were selected for experiments divided into four groups: control, X-ray exposed, Piper longumine, and Piper longumine combined with X-rays. Conogenic assays were performed to determine the radio-sensitizing effects. Cell survival curves were fitted by single-hit multi-target model and then the survival fraction (SF), average lethal dose ($D_0$), quasi-threshold dose ($D_q$) and sensitive enhancement ratio (SER) were calculated. Cell apoptosis was analyzed by flow cytometry (FCM). Western blot assays were employed for expression of apoptosis-related proteins (Bc1-2 and Bax) after treatment with Piper longumine and/or X-ray radiation. The intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) level was detected by FCM with a DCFH-DA probe. Results: The cloning formation capacity was decreased in the group of piperlongumine plus radiation, which displayed the values of SF2, D0, Dq significantly lower than those of radiation alone group and the sensitive enhancement ratio (SER) of D0 was1.22 and 1.29, respectively. The cell apoptosis rate was increased by the combination treatment of Piper longumine and radiation. Piper longumine increased the radiation-induced intracellular levels of ROS. Compared with the control group and individual group, the combination group demonstrated significantly decreased expression of Bcl-2 with increased Bax. Conclusions: Piper longumine at a non-cytotoxic concentration can enhance the radio-sensitivity of MDA-MB-231cells, which may be related to its regulation of apoptosis-related protein expression and the increase of intracellular ROS level, thus increasing radiation-induced apoptosis.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
• /
• v.50 no.5
• /
• pp.420-425
• /
• 2011

Objective : Excitatory amino acids play important roles in the development of secondary pathology following spinal cord injury (SCI). This study was designed to evaluate morphological changes in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord and assess profiles of pain behaviors following intraspinal injection of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) or quisqualate (QUIS) in rats. Methods : Forty male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomized into three groups : a sham, and two experimental groups receiving injections of 125 mM NMDA or QUIS into their spinal dorsal horn. Following injection, hypersensitivity to cold and mechanical stimuli, and excessive grooming behaviors were assessed serially for four weeks. At the end of survival periods, morphological changes in the spinal cord were evaluated. Results : Cold allodynia was developed in both the NMDA and QUIS groups, which was significantly higher in the QUIS group than in the NMDA group. The mechanical threshold for the ipsilateral hind paw in both QUIS and NMDA groups was significantly lower than that in the control group. The number of groomers was significantly higher in the NMDA group than in the QUIS group. The size of the neck region of the spinal dorsal horn, but not the superficial layer, was significantly smaller in the NMDA and QUIS groups than in the control group. Conclusion : Intraspinal injection of NMDA or QUIS can be used as an excitotoxic model of SCI for further research on spinal neuropathic pain.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.35 no.12
• /
• pp.1351-1358
• /
• 2011

To approximate the threshold of the fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) system, validation of the measurements is mandatory. Naturally, the system shows uncertainties due to measuring sensors - mostly thermocouples or RTDs - and due to repeatability. The uncertainty of a thermocouple comes from natural variation or a drift of the thermocouple measurement. Considering the natural variation behaves like zero-mean white noise, its natural variation can be characterized closely by the steady-state standard deviation. However, residuals between measurements and no-fault references in FDD systems show a statistical distribution with various uncertainties. In this paper, steady-state variations of measurement residuals were investigated by utilizing built-in temperature sensors in a heat pump for the model development and the final application.

• The Transactions of the Korea Information Processing Society
• /
• v.6 no.8
• /
• pp.2188-2195
• /
• 1999

This paper proposes a new call admission control scheme utilizing an inverse fuzzy vector quantizer(IFVQ) and neuralnet, which combines benefits of IFVQ and flexibilities of FCM(Fuzzy-C-Means) arithmetics, to decide whether a requested call not to be trained in learning phase to be connected or not. The system generates the estimated traffic pattern for the cell stream of a new call, using feasible/infeasible patterns in codebook, fuzzy membership values that represent the degree to which each pattern of codebook matches input pattern, and FCM arithmetics. The input to the NN is the vector consisted of traffic parameters which are the means and variances of the number of cells arriving in decision as to whether to accept or reject a new call depends on whether the NN is used for decision threshold(+0.5). This method is a new technique for call admission control using the membership values as traffic parameter which declared to CAC at the call set up stage, and this is valid for a very general traffic model in which the calls of a stream can belong to an unlimited number of traffic classes. Through the simulations, it is founded the performance of the suggested method outperforms compared to the conventional NN method.

• The Transactions of the Korea Information Processing Society
• /
• v.7 no.4
• /
• pp.1211-1216
• /
• 2000

Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) can be efficiently used to transport packet data services. The switching system will support voice and packet data services simultaneously from end to end applications. To guarantee quality of service (QoS) of the offered services, source rateot send packet data is needed to control the network overload condition. Most existing control algorithms are shown to provide the threshold-based feedback control technique. However, real-time voice calls can be dynamically connected and released during data services in the network. If the feedback control information delays, quality of the serviced voice can be degraded due to a time delay between source and destination in the high speed link. An adaptive algorithm based on the optimal least mean square error technique is presented for the predictive feedback control technique. The algorithm attempts to predict a future buffer size from weight (slope) adaptation of unknown functions, which are used fro feedback control. Simulation results are presented, which show the effectiveness of the algorithm.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.18-25
• /
• 2011

In a manufacturing process of metal coins, surface defects of coins are manually detected. This paper describes an new method for detecting surface defects of metal coins on a moving conveyor belt using image processing. This method consists of multiple procedures: segmentation of a coin from the background, alignment of the coin to the model, projection of the aligned coin to the best eigen image space, and detection of defects by comparison of the projection error with an adaptive threshold. In these procedures, the alignement and the projection are newly developed in this paper for the detection of coin surface defects. For alignment, we use the histogram of the segmented coin, which converts two-dimensional image alignment to one-dimensional alignment. The projection reduces the intensity variation of the coin image caused by illumination and coin rotation change. For projection, we build multiple eigen image spaces and choose the best eigen space using estimated coin direction. Since each eigen space consists of a small number of eigen image vectors, we can implement the projection in real- time.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.109-118
• /
• 2015

Open raceway ponds are cost-efficient for mass cultivation of microalgae compared with photobioreactors. Although low-cost options like wastewater as nutrient source is studied to overcome the commercialization threshold for biodiesel production from microalgae, a cost analysis on the use of wastewater and other incremental increases in productivity has not been elucidated. We determined the effect of using wastewater and wavelength filters on microalgal productivity. Experimental results were then fitted into a model, and cost analysis was performed in comparison with control raceways. Three different microalgal strains, Chlorella vulgaris AG10032, Chlorella sp. JK2, and Scenedesmus sp. JK10, were tested for nutrient removal under different light wavelengths (blue, green, red, and white) using filters in batch cultivation. Blue wavelength showed an average of 27% higher nutrient removal and at least 42% higher chemical oxygen demand removal compared with white light. Naturally, the specific growth rate of microalgae cultivated under blue wavelength was on average 10.8% higher than white wavelength. Similarly, lipid productivity was highest in blue wavelength, at least 46.8% higher than white wavelength, whereas FAME composition revealed a mild increase in oleic and palmitic acid levels. Cost analysis reveals that raceways treating wastewater and using monochromatic wavelength would decrease costs from 2.71 to 0.73 $/kg biomass. We prove that increasing both biomass and lipid productivity is possible through cost-effective approaches, thereby accelerating the commercialization of low-value products from microalgae, like biodiesel.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.411-420
• /
• 2011

In this study, a digital elevation model (DEM) in tidal flat of Suncheon Bay, one of the most ecological preserved area in the world, was generated from digital aerial stereo-images. The focal lengths for the aerial stereo-images were adjusted using ground control points (GCPs) in order to improve the accuracy of camera parameters. We proposed matching sizes suitable for generating DEM in tidal flat and a method for eliminating excessive position errors using intersection-distance($P_R$) threshold value. The accuracies of the DEM generated from the proposed method as well as the commercial S/W were compared with the elevation profiles measured by Total Station in the filed. As the results, the DEM generated by the proposed method showed better result (maximum deviation is a -21 centimeters) with detailed topography than DEM by the commercial S/W in the region. These results suggest that the DEM of tidal flat, which hardly obtained with the traditional methods, can be generated from digital aerial images by applying the proposed method in this study. We believe that the generated DEM in tidal flat can be an essential data for monitoring the sediment erosion and deposit of the tidal flat.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.41 no.3
• /
• pp.165-172
• /
• 2008

Objectives : Despite various government initiatives, including the expansion of national health insurance coverage, health inequality has been a key health policy issue in South Korea during the past decade. This study describes and compares the extent of the total health inequality and the income-related health inequality over time among Korean adults. Methods : This study employs the 1998, 2001 and 2005 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (KNHANESs). The self-assessed health (SAH) ordinal responses, measured on a five-point scale, resealed to cardinal values to measure the health inequalities with using interval regression. The boundaries of each threshold for the interval regression analysis were obtained from the empirical distribution of the EuroQol-5 Dimension (EQ-5D) valuation weights estimated from the 2005 KNHANES. The final model predicting the individuals' health status included age, gender, educational attainment, occupation, income, and the regional prosperity index. The concentration index was used to measure and analyze the health inequality. Results : The KNHANES data showed an unequal distribution of the total health inequality in favor of the higher income groups, and this is getting worse over time (0.0327 in 1998, 0.0393 in 2001 and 0.0924 in 2005). The income-related health inequality in 2005 was 0.0278, indicating that 30.1% of the total health inequality can be attributed to income. Conclusions : The findings indicate there are health inequalities across the sociodemographic and income groups despite the recent government's efforts. Further research is warranted to investigate what potential policy actions are necessary to decrease the health inequality in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.263-270
• /
• 2016

This paper suggests techniques to enhance coding time which is a problem in traditional fractal compression and to improve fidelity of reconstructed images by determining fractal coefficient through adaptive selection of block approximation formula. First, to reduce coding time, we construct a linear list of domain blocks of which characteristics is given by their luminance and variance and then we control block searching time according to the first permissible threshold value. Next, when employing three-level block partition, if a range block of minimum partition level cannot find a domain block which has a satisfying approximation error, There applied to 24-bpp color image compression and image techniques. The result did not occur a loss in the image quality of the image when using the encoding method, such as almost to the color in the YIQ image compression rate and image quality, such as RGB images and showed good.