• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.354-360
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• 2021

Background: Protopanaxatriol (PPT) is a secondary intestinal metabolite of ginsenoside in ginseng. Although the effects of PPT have been reported in various diseases including cancer, diabetes and inflammatory diseases, the skin protective effects of PPT are poorly understood. Methods: HaCaT cells were treated with PPT in a dose-dependent manner. mRNA and protein levels which related to skin barrier and hydration were detected compared with retinol. Luciferase assay was performed to explore the relative signaling pathway. Western blot was conducted to confirm these pathways and excavated further signals. Results: PPT enhanced the expression of filaggrin (FLG), transglutaminase (TGM)-1, claudin, occludin and hyaluronic acid synthase (HAS) -1, -2 and -3. The mRNA expression levels of FLG, TGM-1, HAS-1 and HAS-2 were suppressed under NF-κB inhibition. PPT significantly augmented NF-κB-luc activity and upregulated Src/AKT/NF-κB signaling. In addition, PPT also increased phosphorylation of the mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) ERK, JNK and p38 and upstream MAPK activators (MEK and MKK). Furthermore, transcriptional activity of AP-1 and CREB, which are downstream signaling targets of MAPK, was enhanced by PPT. Conclusion: PPT improves skin barrier function and hydration through Src/AKT/NF-κB and MAPK signaling. Therefore, PPT may be a valuable component for cosmetics or treating skin disorders.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.13-21
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• 2023

We have investigated the acceptance angle and imaging performance of a curved artificial compound eye (ACE), depending on the sag height of the microlens array to maximize its sensitivity to light. When the h/r values increased from 0.22 to 0.37, the acceptance angle of the curved ACE was expanded from 28.70° to 49.02°, which is an enhancement by 70.8%. With the designed optical system, it was demonstrated that a microlens located at the 23rd position from the center of the main lens could still focus an incident beam tilted at 56.35°, so that the letter F was clearly observed.

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.105-111
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• 2023

Recently, there has been a growing interest in low biofouling coatings for various industrial applications including precious metal and jewelry applications. Contaminations including cells and bacteria of the metallic substrates (i.e., accessories, earring, and piercings) may irritate the contacted tissue surfaces or induce an abnormal reaction. In this study, catechol-conjugated polyethylene glycol (PEG-C) was synthesized as low bio-fouling coating materials inspired by mussel-adhesion. PEG-C-coated copper-zinc alloy surfaces showed excellent cell viability and significant inhibitions of protein and cell adhesions to metal surfaces. Thus, PEG-C coating methods and PEG-C-coated metallic substrates can be usefully exploited for versatile industrial applications, particularly for precious metal and jewelry industries.

• Journal of KIISE
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• v.41 no.9
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• pp.652-665
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• 2014

Many important terminologies in biomedical text are expressed as abbreviations or acronyms. We newly suggest a semantic link topic model based on the concepts of topic and dependency link to disambiguate biomedical abbreviations and cluster long form variants of abbreviations which refer to the same senses. This model is a generative model inspired by the latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic model, in which each document is viewed as a mixture of topics, with each topic characterized by a distribution over words. Thus, words of a document are generated from a hidden topic structure of a document and the topic structure is inferred from observable word sequences of document collections. In this study, we allow two distinct word generation to incorporate semantic dependencies between words, particularly between expansions (long forms) of abbreviations and their sentential co-occurring words. Besides topic information, the semantic dependency between words is defined as a link and a new random parameter for the link presence is assigned to each word. As a result, the most probable expansions with respect to abbreviations of a given abstract are decided by word-topic distribution, document-topic distribution, and word-link distribution estimated from document collection though the semantic dependency link topic model. The abstracts retrieved from the MEDLINE Entrez interface by the query relating 22 abbreviations and their 186 expansions were used as a data set. The link topic model correctly predicted expansions of abbreviations with the accuracy of 98.30%.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.25-33
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• 2019

This paper presents a novel evolutionary framework for optimizing a bio-inspired fully dynamic neurocontroller for the maneuverable flapping flight of a simulated bird-sized ornithopter robot which takes advantage of the morphological computation and mechansensory feedback to improve flight stability. In order to cope with the difficulty of generating robust flapping flight and its maneuver, the wing of robot is modelled as a series of sub-plates joined by passive torsional springs, which implements the simplified version of feathers attached to the forearm skeleton. The neural controller is designed to have a bilaterally symmetric structure which consists of two fully connected neural network modules receiving mirrored sensory inputs from a series of flight navigation sensors as well as feather mechanosensors to let them participate in pattern generation. The synergy of wing compliance and its sensory reflexes gives a possibility that the robot can feel and exploit aerodynamic forces on its wings to potentially contribute to the agility and stability during flight. The evolved robot exhibited target-following flight maneuver using asymmetric wing movements as well as its tail, showing robustness to external aerodynamic disturbances.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.389-399
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• 2018

Background: The antioxidant effects of Panax ginseng have been reported in several articles; however, little is known about the antimelanogenesis effect, skin-protective effect, and cellular mechanism of Panax ginseng, especially of P. ginseng calyx. To understand how an ethanol extract of P. ginseng berry calyx (Pg-C-EE) exerts skin-protective effects, we studied its activities in activated melanocytes and reactive oxygen species (ROS)-induced keratinocytes. Methods: To confirm the antimelanogenesis effect of Pg-C-EE, we analyzed melanin synthesis and secretion and messenger RNA and protein expression levels of related genes. Ultraviolet B (UVB) and hydrogen peroxide ($H_2O_2$) were used to induce cell damage by ROS generation. To examine whether this damage is inhibited by Pg-C-EE, we performed cell viability assays and gene expression and transcriptional activation analyses. Results: Pg-C-EE inhibited melanin synthesis and secretion by blocking activator protein 1 regulatory enzymes such as p38, extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERKs), and cyclic adenosine mono-phosphate response element-binding protein. Pg-C-EE also suppressed ROS generation induced by $H_2O_2$ and UVB. Treatment with Pg-C-EE decreased the expression of matrix metalloproteinases, mitogen-activated protein kinases, and hyaluronidases and increased the cell survival rate. Conclusion: These results suggest that Pg-C-EE may have antimelanogenesis properties and skin-protective properties through regulation of activator protein 1 and cyclic adenosine monophosphate response element-binding protein signaling. Pg-C-EE may be used as a skin-improving agent, with moisture retention and whitening effects.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.43-51
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• 2017

Background: BIOGF1K, a compound K-rich fraction prepared from the root of Panax ginseng, is widely used for cosmetic purposes in Korea. We investigated the functional mechanisms of the anti-inflammatory and antioxidative activities of BIOGF1K by discovering target enzymes through various molecular studies. Methods: We explored the inhibitory mechanisms of BIOGF1K using lipopolysaccharide-mediated inflammatory responses, reporter gene assays involving overexpression of toll-like receptor adaptor molecules, and immunoblotting analysis. We used the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay to measure the antioxidative activity. We cotransfected adaptor molecules, including the myeloid differentiation primary response gene 88 (MyD88) and Toll/interleukin-receptor domain containing adaptor molecule-inducing interferon-${\beta}$ (TRIF), to measure the activation of nuclear factor (NF)-${\kappa}B$ and interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3). Results: BIOGF1K suppressed lipopolysaccharide-triggered NO release in macrophages as well as DPPH-induced electron-donating activity. It also blocked lipopolysaccharide-induced mRNA levels of interferon-${\beta}$ and inducible nitric oxide synthase. Moreover, BIOGF1K diminished the translocation and activation of IRF3 and NF-${\kappa}B$ (p50 and p65). This extract inhibited the upregulation of NF-${\kappa}B$-linked luciferase activity provoked by phorbal-12-myristate-13 acetate as well as MyD88, TRIF, and inhibitor of ${\kappa}B$ ($I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$) kinase ($IKK{\beta}$), and IRF3-mediated luciferase activity induced by TRIF and TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1). Finally, BIOGF1K downregulated the NF-${\kappa}B$ pathway by blocking $IKK{\beta}$ and the IRF3 pathway by inhibiting TBK1, according to reporter gene assays, immunoblotting analysis, and an AKT/$IKK{\beta}$/TBK1 overexpression strategy. Conclusion: Overall, our data suggest that the suppression of $IKK{\beta}$ and TBK1, which mediate transcriptional regulation of NF-${\kappa}B$ and IRF3, respectively, may contribute to the broad-spectrum inhibitory activity of BIOGF1K.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.46 no.9
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• pp.712-722
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• 2018

This paper conducts parametric studies on flapping wing design, one of the most important design parameters of insect-mimicking aerial vehicles. Experimental study on wing shape was done through comparison and analysis of thrust, pitching moment, power consumption, and thrust-to-power ratio. A two-axis balance and hall sensor measure force and moment, and flapping frequency, respectively. Wing configuration is biplane configuration which can develop clap and fling effect. A reference wing shape is a simplified dragonfly's wing and studies on aspect ratio and wing area were implemented. As a result, thrust, pitching moment, and power consumption tend to increase as aspect ratio and area increase. Also, it is found that the flapping mechanism was not normally operated when the main wing has an aspect ratio or area more than each certain value. Finally, the wing shape is determined by comparing thrust-to-power ratio of all wings satisfying the required minimum thrust. However, the stability is not secured due to moment generated by disaccord between thrust line and center of gravity. To cope with this, aerodynamic dampers are used at the top and bottom of the fuselage; then, indoor flight test was attempted for indirect performance verification of the parametric study of the main wing.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.385-391
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• 2022

This paper presents to develop a path planning algorithm combining gradient descent-based path planning (GBPP) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) for considering prohibited flight areas, terrain information, and characteristics of fixed-wing unmmaned aerial vehicle (UAV) in 3D space. Path can be generated fast using GBPP, but it is often happened that an unsafe path can be generated by converging to a local minimum depending on the initial path. Bio-inspired swarm intelligence algorithms, such as Genetic algorithm (GA) and PSO, can avoid the local minima problem by sampling several paths. However, if the number of optimal variable increases due to an increase in the number of UAVs and waypoints, it requires heavy computation time and efforts due to increasing the number of particles accordingly. To solve the disadvantages of the two algorithms, hierarchical path planning algorithm associated with hierarchical particle swarm optimization (HPSO) is developed by defining the initial path, which is the input of GBPP, as two variables including particles variables. Feasibility of the proposed algorithm is verified by software-in-the-loop simulation (SILS) of flight control computer (FCC) for UAVs.