• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.380-380
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• 2010

Currently, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have been proven of their readiness for commercialization in terms of lifetime and efficiency. In accordance with emerging new technologies, enhancement of light efficiency and extension of application fields are required. Particularly inverted structures, in which electron injection occurs at bottom and hole injection on top, show crucial advantages due to their easy integration with Si-based driving circuits for active matrix OLED as well as large open area for brighter illumination. In order to get better performance and process reliability, usually a proper buffer layer for carrier injection is needed. In inverted top emission OLED, the buffer layer should protect underlying organic materials against destructive particles during the electrode deposition, in addition to increasing their efficiency by reducing carrier injection barrier. For hole injection layers, there are several requirements for the buffer layer, such as high transparency, high work function, and reasonable electrical conductivity. As a buffer material, a few kinds of transition metal oxides for inverted OLED applications have been successfully utilized aiming at efficient hole injection properties. Among them, we chose 2 nm of $WO_3$ between NPB [N,N'-bis(1-naphthyl)-N,N'-diphenyl-1,1'-biphenyl-4,4'-diamine] and Au (or Al) films. The interfacial energy-level alignment and chemical reaction as a function of film coverage have been measured by using in-situ ultraviolet and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It turned out that the $WO_3$ interlayer substantially reduces the hole injection barrier irrespective of the kind of electrode metals. It also avoids direct chemical interaction between NPB and metal atoms. This observation clearly validates the use of $WO_3$ interlayer as hole injection for inverted OLED applications.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.20-25
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• 2015

TGF-${\beta}$ regulates pleiotropic cellular responses including cell growth, differentiation, migration, apoptosis, extracellular matrix production, and many other biological processes. Although non-Smad signaling pathways are being increasingly reported to play many roles in TGF-${\beta}$-mediated biological processes, Smads, especially receptor-regulated Smads (R-Smads), still play a central mediatory role in TGF-${\beta}$ signaling for epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Thus, the biological activities of R-Smads are tightly regulated at multiple points. Inhibitory Smad (I-Smad also called Smad7) acts as a critical endogenous negative feedback regulator of Smad-signaling pathways by inhibiting R-Smad phosphorylation and by inducing activated type I TGF-${\beta}$ receptor degradation. Roles played by Smad7 in health and disease are being increasingly reported, but the molecular mechanisms that regulate Smad7 are not well understood. In this study, we show that E3 ubiquitin ligase Itch acts as a positive regulator of TGF-${\beta}$ signaling and of subsequent EMT-related gene expression. Interestingly, the Itch-mediated positive regulation of TGF-${\beta}$ signaling was found to be dependent on Smad7 ubiquitination and its subsequent degradation. Further study revealed Itch acts as an E3 ubiquitin ligase for Smad7 polyubiquitination, and thus, that Itch is an important regulator of Smad7 activity and a positive regulator of TGF-${\beta}$ signaling and of TGF-${\beta}$-mediated biological processes. Accordingly, the study uncovers a novel regulatory mechanism whereby Smad7 is controlled by Itch.

• Biomaterials Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.235-248
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• 2018

Background: Injectable hydrogels have been extensively researched for the use as scaffolds or as carriers of therapeutic agents such as drugs, cells, proteins, and bioactive molecules in the treatment of diseases and cancers and the repair and regeneration of tissues. It is because they have the injectability with minimal invasiveness and usability for irregularly shaped sites, in addition to typical advantages of conventional hydrogels such as biocompatibility, permeability to oxygen and nutrient, properties similar to the characteristics of the native extracellular matrix, and porous structure allowing therapeutic agents to be loaded. Main body: In this article, recent studies of injectable hydrogel systems applicable for therapeutic agent delivery, disease/cancer therapy, and tissue engineering have reviewed in terms of the various factors physically and chemically contributing to sol-gel transition via which gels have been formed. The various factors are as follows: several different non-covalent interactions resulting in physical crosslinking (the electrostatic interactions (e.g., the ionic and hydrogen bonds), hydrophobic interactions, ${\pi}$-interactions, and van der Waals forces), in-situ chemical reactions inducing chemical crosslinking (the Diels Alder click reactions, Michael reactions, Schiff base reactions, or enzyme-or photo-mediated reactions), and external stimuli (temperatures, pHs, lights, electric/magnetic fields, ultrasounds, or biomolecular species (e.g., enzyme)). Finally, their applications with accompanying therapeutic agents and notable properties used were reviewed as well. Conclusion: Injectable hydrogels, of which network morphology and properties could be tuned, have shown to control the load and release of therapeutic agents, consequently producing significant therapeutic efficacy. Accordingly, they are believed to be successful and promising biomaterials as scaffolds and carriers of therapeutic agents for disease and cancer therapy and tissue engineering.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.223-234
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• 2018

Estimation of future land cover based on climate change scenarios is an important factor in climate change impact assessment and adaptation policy. This study estimated future land cover considering Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP) using Scenario Generators. Based on the storylines of SSP1-3, future population and estimated urban area were adopted for the transition matrix, which contains land cover change trends of each land cover class. In addition, limits of land cover change and proximity were applied as spatial data. According to the estimated land cover maps from SSP1-3 in 2030, 2050, and 2100, respectively, urban areas near a road were expanded, but agricultural areas and forests were gradually decreased. More drastic urban expansion was seen in SSP3 compared to SSP1 and SSP2. These trends are similar with previous research with regard to storyline, but the spatial results were different. Future land cover can be easily adjusted based on this approach, if econometric forecasts for each land cover class added. However, this requires determination of econometric forecasts for each land cover class.

• Composites Research
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.163-169
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• 2019

In this paper, we constructed a molecular dynamics (MD) polymer model of PMMA with 95% of conversion by using dynamic polymerization algorithm of a thermoplastic polymer based on free radical polymerization. In this algorithm, we introduced a united-atom level coarse-grained force field that combines the non-bonded terms from the TraPPE-UA force field and the bonded terms from the PCFF force field to alleviate the computation efforts. The molecular weight distribution and the average molecular weight of the polymer were calculated by investigating each chain generated from the free radical polymerization simulation. The molecular weight of the polymer was controlled by the number of initiator radicals presented in the initial state and molecular weight effect to the density, the glass transition temperature, and the mechanical properties were studied.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.439-446
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• 2019

In this paper, we propose a encryption method using C-MLCA and 1D CAT to secure medical image for efficiently. First, we generate a state transition matrix using a Wolfram rule and create a sequence of maximum length. By operating the complemented vector, it converts an existing sequence to a more complex sequence. Then, we multiply the two sequences by rows and columns to generate C-MLCA basis images of the original image size and go through a XOR operation. Finally, we will get the encrypted image to operate the 1D CAT basis function created by setting the gateway values and the image which is calculated by transform coefficients. By comparing the encrypted image with the original image, we evaluate to analyze the histogram and PSNR. Also, by analyzing NPCR and key space, we confirmed that the proposed encryption method has a high level of stability and security.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.449-455
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• 2021

Composite materials are substances that are configured to have excellent physical properties by combining the properties of a single substance, and are in the limelight as materials that exceed the performance of metals and polymers. However, it has the disadvantages of long cycle time and high unit price, and much research is being performed to overcome these disadvantages. In this study, we developed an epoxy resin curing agent that can shorten the time required for mass production of composite materials, and tried to expand the applicability of objections by imparting flame retardancy. The epoxy resin used as a basic substance utilized two types of bisphenol F and resorcinol structure, which was further modified using 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenantrene-10-oxide (DOPO) to impart flame retardancy. Triethylphosphate (TEP) and bis [(5-ethyl-2-methyl-1,3,2-dioxaphosphorinan-5-yl)methyl] methyl phosphonate P,P'-dioxide (FR-001) were used as additives, seven kinds of compositions were blended, thermal characteristics (gelation time, glass transition temperature) and flame retardant performance were evaluated. We successfully developed an epoxy matrix that can be applied to high pressure resin transfer molding (HP-RTM) process.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.634-645
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• 2011

A newly developed rainwater harvesting (RWH) system reliability model is evaluated for roof area of buildings in Haeundae District of Busan. RWH system is used to supply water for toilet flushing, back garden irrigation, and air cooling. This model is portable because it is based on a non-parametric precipitation generation algorithm using a markov chain. Precipitation occurrence is simulated using transition probabilities derived for each day of the year based on the historical probability of wet and dry day state changes. Precipitation amounts are selected from a matrix of historical values within a moving 30 day window that is centered on the target day. Then, the reliability of RWH system is determined for catchment area and tank volume ranges using synthetic precipitation data. As a result, the synthetic rainfall data well reproduced the characteristics of precipitation in Busan. Also the reliabilities of RWH system for each of demands were computed to high values. Furthermore, for study area using the RWH system, reduction efficiencies for rooftop runoff inputs to the sewer system and potable water demand are evaluated for 23%, 53%, respectively.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1293-1316
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• 2021

Using directional antennas in wireless Ad hoc networks has many superiorities, including reducing interference, extending transmission range, and increasing space division multiplexing. However, directional transmission introduces two problems: deafness and directional hidden terminals problems. We observe that these problems result in saturation throughput disparity among the competing flows in directional CSMA/CA based Ad hoc networks and bring challenges for modeling the saturation throughput of the flows. In this article, we concentrate on how to model and analyze the saturation throughput disparity of different flows in directional CSMA/CA based Ad hoc networks. We first divide the collisions occurring in the transmission process into directional instantaneous collisions and directional persistent collisions. Then we propose a four-dimensional Markov chain to analyze the transmission state for a specific node. Our model has three different kinds of processes, namely back-off process, transmission process and freezing process. Each process contains a certain amount of continuous time slots which is defined as the basic time unit of the directional CSMA/CA protocols and the time length of each slot is fixed. We characterize the collision probabilities of the node by the one-step transition probability matrix in our Markov chain model. Accordingly, we can finally deduce the saturation throughput for each directional data stream and evaluate saturation throughput disparity for a given network topology. Finally, we verify the accuracy of our model by comparing the deviation of analytical results and simulation results.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.380-388
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• 2022

Snail is implicated in tumour growth and metastasis and is up-regulated in various human tumours. Although the role of Snails in epithelial-mesenchymal transition, which is particularly important in cancer metastasis, is well known, how they regulate tumour growth is poorly described. In this study, the possible molecular mechanisms of Snail in tumour growth were explored. Baculoviral inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) repeat-containing protein 3 (BIRC3), a co-activator of cell proliferation during tumourigenesis, was identified as a Snail-binding protein via a yeast two-hybrid system. Since BIRC3 is important for cell survival, the effect of BIRC3 binding partner Snail on cell survival was investigated in ovarian cancer cell lines. Results revealed that Bax expression was activated, while the expression levels of anti-apoptotic proteins were markedly decreased by small interfering RNA (siRNA) specific for Snail (siSnail). siSnail, the binding partner of siBIRC3, activated the tumour suppressor function of p53 by promoting p53 protein stability. Conversely, BIRC3 could interact with Snail, for this reason, the possibility of BIRC3 involvement in EMT was investigated. BIRC3 overexpression resulted in a decreased expression of the epithelial marker and an increased expression of the mesenchymal markers. siSnail or siBIRC3 reduced the mRNA levels of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and MMP-9. These results provide evidence that Snail promotes cell proliferation by interacting with BIRC3 and that BIRC3 might be involved in EMT via binding to Snail in ovarian cancer cells. Therefore, our results suggested the novel relevance of BIRC3, the binding partner of Snail, in ovarian cancer development.