• Title/Summary/Keyword: brain structure

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Improved Degradation Characteristics in n-TFT of Novel Structure using Hydrogenated Poly-Silicon under Low Temperature (낮은 온도 하에서 수소처리 시킨 다결정 실리콘을 사용한 새로운 구조의 n-TFT에서 개선된 열화특성)

  • Song, Jae-Ryul;Lee, Jong-Hyung;Han, Dae-Hyun;Lee, Yong-Jae
    • Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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    • 2008.05a
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    • pp.105-110
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    • 2008
  • We have proposed a new structure of poly-silicon thin film transistor(TFT) which was fabricated the LDD region using doping oxide with graded spacer by etching shape retio. The devices of n-channel poly-si TFT's hydrogenated by $H_2$ and $HT_2$/plasma processes are fabricated for the devices reliability. We have biased the devices under the gate voltage stress conditions of maximum leakage current. The parametric characteristics caused by gate voltage stress conditions in hydrogenated devices are investigated by measuring /analyzing the drain current, leakage current, threshold voltage($V_{th}$), sub-threshold slope(S) and transconductance($G_m$) values. As a analyzed results of characteristics parameters, the degradation characteristics in hydrogenated n-channel polysilicon TFT's are mainly caused by the enhancement of dangling bonds at the poly-Si/$SiO_2$ interface and the poly-Si Brain boundary due to dissolution of Si-H bonds. The structure of novel proposed poly-Si TFT's are the simplity of the fabrication process steps and the decrease of leakage current by reduced lateral electric field near the drain region.

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The Principles of Fractal Geometry and Its Applications for Pulp & Paper Industry (펄프·제지 산업에서의 프랙탈 기하 원리 및 그 응용)

  • Ko, Young Chan;Park, Jong-Moon;Shin, Soo-Jung
    • Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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    • v.47 no.4
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    • pp.177-186
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    • 2015
  • Until Mandelbrot introduced the concept of fractal geometry and fractal dimension in early 1970s, it has been generally considered that the geometry of nature should be too complex and irregular to describe analytically or mathematically. Here fractal dimension indicates a non-integer number such as 0.5, 1.5, or 2.5 instead of only integers used in the traditional Euclidean geometry, i.e., 0 for point, 1 for line, 2 for area, and 3 for volume. Since his pioneering work on fractal geometry, the geometry of nature has been found fractal. Mandelbrot introduced the concept of fractal geometry. For example, fractal geometry has been found in mountains, coastlines, clouds, lightning, earthquakes, turbulence, trees and plants. Even human organs are found to be fractal. This suggests that the fractal geometry should be the law for Nature rather than the exception. Fractal geometry has a hierarchical structure consisting of the elements having the same shape, but the different sizes from the largest to the smallest. Thus, fractal geometry can be characterized by the similarity and hierarchical structure. A process requires driving energy to proceed. Otherwise, the process would stop. A hierarchical structure is considered ideal to generate such driving force. This explains why natural process or phenomena such as lightning, thunderstorm, earth quakes, and turbulence has fractal geometry. It would not be surprising to find that even the human organs such as the brain, the lung, and the circulatory system have fractal geometry. Until now, a normal frequency distribution (or Gaussian frequency distribution) has been commonly used to describe frequencies of an object. However, a log-normal frequency distribution has been most frequently found in natural phenomena and chemical processes such as corrosion and coagulation. It can be mathematically shown that if an object has a log-normal frequency distribution, it has fractal geometry. In other words, these two go hand in hand. Lastly, applying fractal principles is discussed, focusing on pulp and paper industry. The principles should be applicable to characterizing surface roughness, particle size distributions, and formation. They should be also applicable to wet-end chemistry for ideal mixing, felt and fabric design for papermaking process, dewatering, drying, creping, and post-converting such as laminating, embossing, and printing.

The Effects of Microcurrent Stimulation on the Astrocytes Proliferation at Injured Brain of Rabbit (극저전류자극이 손상된 토끼 뇌의 별아교세포 증식에 미치는 효과)

  • Kim, Ji-Sung;Min, Kyoung-Ok
    • Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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    • v.9 no.3
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    • pp.107-119
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    • 2002
  • Astrocyte, which shares the greatest part of the brain (about 25%), is a land of glial cell that composes the central nervous system along with microglia, ependymal cell and oligodendroglia. It has 7-9nm of fibers in its cytoplasma, which are composed of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and vimentin. As for the functions of the astrocyte, it has, so far, been supposed that the astrocyte will play a cytoskeletal role in maintaining the structure of the cerebrum, play a role as a blood-brain barrier so that it can induce migration of the neuron in its development and substances in the blood cannot go into the nervous tissue, and a role of immunology and phagocytosis. However, it was revealed today that it will be a role in preventing expansion of injury by attaching itself to the connective tissue such as the vessel and the pia mater when the nervous tissue or the arachnoid is injured. Microcurrent stimulation can control current, on the basis of A unit. That is, with such devices using it, it is possible to sense, from the outside, the injured current(wound current) of the lesion and to change it into the normal current, thereby promoting the restoration of the cells. In order to examine the effects of microcurrent stimulation on the injured astrocytes in the rabbits, this study was conducted with 24 New Zealand White Rabbit as its subjects, which were divided into 8 animals of the experiment group and 16 animals of the control group. After the animals in the experiment group were fixed to the stereotaxic apparatus, their hair was removed and their premotor area(association area) perforated by the micro-drill for skull-perforation with the depth of 8mm from the scalp. In one week after the injury, 4 animals in the control group and 8 animals in the experiment group were sacrificed and examined with immunohistochemical method. And in three weeks, the remaining 4 animals in the control group and 8 animals in the experiment group were also sacrificed and examined with the same way. The conclusion has been drawn as follows : In the control group sacrificed in one week after the injury, the astrocytes somewhat increased, compared with the normal animals, and in the group sacrificed in three weeks after the injury, they increased more (p < 0.05). The experiment group A in one week showed a little increase, but there was no significant differences, but the experiment group in three weeks showed more increase, compared with the experiment group in one week (p < 0.05). The experiment group B in one week showed more increase than the control group or the experiment group A, and the experiment group in three weeks showed more increase than the experiment group in one week (p < 0.05). Among the astrocytes, fibrous astrocytes were mostly observed, increasing as they are close to the lesion, and decreasing as they are remote from it. The findings show that microcurrent can cause the astrocytes to proliferate and that it will be more effective to stimulate the cervical part somewhat remote from the lesion rather than to directly stimulate the part of the lesion. Thus, microcurrent stimulation can be one of the methods that can activate the reaction of astrocytes, which is one of the mechanism for treating cerebral injury with hemorrhage. Therefore, this study will be used as basic research data for promoting restoration of functions in the patient with injury in the central nervous system.

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Current Status and Future Perspective of PET (PET 이용 현황 및 전망)

  • Lee, Myung-Chul
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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    • v.36 no.1
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    • pp.1-7
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    • 2002
  • Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a nuclear medicine imaging modality that consists of systemic administration to a subject of a radiopharmaceutical labeled with a positron-emitting radionuclide. Following administration, its distribution in the organ or structure under study can be assessed as a function of time and space by (1) defecting the annihilation radiation resulting from the interaction of the positrons with matter, and (2) reconstructing the distribution of the radioactivity from a series of that used in computed tomography (CT). The nuclides most generally exhibit chemical properties that render them particularly desirable in physiological studies. The radionuclides most widely used in PET are F-18, C-11, O-15 and N-13. Regarding to the number of the current PET Centers worldwide (based on ICP data), more than 300 PET Centers were in operation in 2000. The use of PET technology grew rapidly compared to that in 1992 and 1996, particularly in the USA, which demonstrates a three-fold rise in PET installations. In 2001, 194 PET Centers were operating in the USA. In 1994, two clinical and research-oriented PET Centers at Seoul National University Hospital and Samsung Medical Center, was established as the first dedicated PET and Cyclotron machines in Korea, followed by two more PET facilities at the Korea Cancer Center Hospital, Ajou Medical Center, Yonsei University Medical Center, National Cancer Center and established their PET Center. Catholic Medical School and Pusan National University Hospital have finalized a plan to install PET machine in 2002, which results in total of nine PET Centers in Korea. Considering annual trends of PET application in four major PET centers in Korea in Asan Medical Center recent six years (from 1995 to 2000), a total of 11,564 patients have been studied every year and the number of PET studies has shown steep growth year upon year. We had 1,020 PET patients in 1995. This number increased to 1,196, 1,756, 2,379, 3,015 and 4,414 in 1996,1997,1998,1999 and 2000, respectively. The application in cardiac disorders is minimal, and among various neuropsychiatric diseases, patients with epilepsy or dementia can benefit from PET studios. Recently, we investigated brain mapping and neuroreceptor works. PET is not a key application for evaluation of the cardiac patients in Korea because of the relatively low incidence of cardiac disease and less costly procedures such as SPECT can now be performed. The changes in the application of PET studios indicate that, initially, brain PET occupied almost 60% in 1995, followed by a gradual decrease in brain application. However, overall PET use in the diagnosis and management of patients with cancer was up to 63% in 2000. The current medicare coverage policy in the USA is very important because reimbursement policy is critical for the promotion of PET. In May 1995, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) began covering the PET perfusion study using Rubidium-82, evaluation of a solitary pulmonary nodule and pathologically proven non-small cell lung cancer. As of July 1999, Medicare's coverage policy expanded to include additional indications: evaluation of recurrent colorectal cancer with a rising CEA level, staging of lymphoma and detection of recurrent or metastatic melanoma. In December of 2001, National Coverage decided to expand Medicare reimbursement for broad use in 6 cancers: lung, colorecctal, lymphoma, melanoma, head and neck, and esophageal cancers; for determining revascularization in heart diseases; and for identifying epilepsy patients. In addition, PET coverage is expected to further expand to diseases affecting women, such as breast, ovarian, uterine and vaginal cancers as well as diseases like prostate cancer and Alzheimer's disease.

Stage and Tissue Specific Expression of Four TCR Subunits in Olive Flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus)

  • Lee, Young Mee;Lee, Jeong-Ho;Noh, Jae Koo;Kim, Hyun Chul;Park, Choul-Ji;Park, Jong-Won;Hwang, In Joon;Kim, Sung Yeon
    • Development and Reproduction
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    • v.17 no.4
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    • pp.329-335
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    • 2013
  • TCR subunits are members of membrane-bound receptors which allow the fast and efficient elimination of the specific fish pathogens have regulated function in adaptive immunity. Sequence structure of TCR subunits have been reported for various teleosts, but the information of each TCR subunit functional characterization through expression analysis in fish was unknown. In this study, we examined the gene expression of TCR subunits in the early developmental stages and observed transcript levels in various tissues from healthy adult olive flounder by RT-PCR. The mRNA expression of alpha subunit was already detected in the previous hatching step. But the transcripts of another TCR subunit were not observed during embryo development and increased after hatching and maintained until metamorphosis at the same level. It was found that all TCR subunits mRNAs are commonly expressed in the immune-related organ such as spleen, kidney and gill, also weak expressed in fin and eye. TCR alpha and beta subunit were expressed in brain, whereas gamma and delta were not expressed same tissue. The sequence alignment analysis shows that there are more than 80% sequence homology between TCR subunits. Because it has a high similarity of amino acid sequence to expect similar in function, but expression analysis show that will have may functional diversity due to different time and place of expression.

A Study on the Tensor-Valued Median Filter Using the Modified Gradient Descent Method in DT-MRI (확산텐서자기공명영상에서 수정된 기울기강하법을 이용한 텐서 중간값 필터에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Sung-Hee;Kwon, Ki-Woon;Park, In-Sung;Han, Bong-Soo;Kim, Dong-Youn
    • Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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    • v.28 no.6
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    • pp.817-824
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    • 2007
  • Tractography using Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DT-MRI) is a method to determine the architecture of axonal fibers in the central nervous system by computing the direction of the principal eigenvector in the white matter of the brain. However, the fiber tracking methods suffer from the noise included in the diffusion tensor images that affects the determination of the principal eigenvector. As the fiber tracking progresses, the accumulated error creates a large deviation between the calculated fiber and the real fiber. This problem of the DT-MRI tractography is known mathematically as the ill-posed problem which means that tractography is very sensitive to perturbations by noise. To reduce the noise in DT-MRI measurements, a tensor-valued median filter which is reported to be denoising and structure-preserving in fiber tracking, is applied in the tractography. In this paper, we proposed the modified gradient descent method which converges fast and accurately to the optimal tensor-valued median filter by changing the step size. In addition, the performance of the modified gradient descent method is compared with others. We used the synthetic image which consists of 45 degree principal eigenvectors and the corticospinal tract. For the synthetic image, the proposed method achieved 4.66%, 16.66% and 15.08% less error than the conventional gradient descent method for error measures AE, AAE, AFA respectively. For the corticospinal tract, at iteration number ten the proposed method achieved 3.78%, 25.71 % and 11.54% less error than the conventional gradient descent method for error measures AE, AAE, AFA respectively.

Phosphorylation of AQP4 Water Channel Regulates Water Permeability (Aquaporin 4 water channel 인산화에 의한 수분 투과도의 조절)

  • 박권희;정동근;정진섭;이재숙;예운해;서덕준;배혜란
    • Journal of Life Science
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    • v.10 no.5
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    • pp.456-466
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    • 2000
  • Aquaperin 4 (AQP4) is the mercurial water channel expressed abundantly in brain, especially the region related with cerebrospinal fluid reabsorption and osmoregulation. The primary structure of AQP4 water channel was elucidated but the molecular mechanism of AQP4 channel regulation is still unknown. To investigate the possible regulation of AQP4 water channel by phosphorylation via various protein kinases, osmotic water permeability of AQP4 expressed in Xenopus oocytes was measured by videomicroscopy technique. Forskolin (10 $\mu$M) did not affect osmotic water permeability of oocytes injected with AQP4 cRNA, excluding the regulation of AQP4 water cnannel by protein kinase A. Osmotic water permeability (P아래첨자) of AQP4-expressed oocytes was ingibited by the pretreatmeat of BAPTA/AM (up to 500$\mu$M), an intracellular Ca윗첨자 chelator, and calmidazolium (100$\mu$M), a specific Ca윗첨자/calmodulin antagonist, in a dose-dependent manner. The inhibition of osmotic water permeability (P아래첨자) by the calmidazolium treatment was completely reversed by the addition of calyculin A (0.1$\mu$M), a nonspecific phosphatase inhibitor. Phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), a protein kinase C activator, had biphasic effects on osmotic water permeability in AQP4 cRNA injected oocytes depending on its concentration; 21% increase by 100 nM PMA, 35% decrease by 1$\mu$M PMA. These effects were reversed with 2$\mu$M staurosporine, a nonspecific PKC inhibitor. These results suggest that phosphorylation of AQP4 water channel by Ca윗첨자/calmodulin kinase and protein kinase C might regulate the osmotic water permeability.

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Proteomic Changes by Acupuncture Stimulation at HT7 in the Hippocampus of Rat Pups (신문혈 자침이 어린 백서 해마의 단백질 발현에 미치는 영향)

  • Bae, Chang-Hwan;Kim, Dong-Soo;Kim, Seung-Tae
    • Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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    • v.29 no.2
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    • pp.260-270
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    • 2012
  • Objectives : Hippocampus, a region of temporal lobe, plays an important role in the pathogenic mechanisms of brain diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, depression and temporal lobe epilepsy. This research is designed to investigate hippocampal changes after acupuncture stimulation at Shinmun(HT7) using 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis(2-DE). Methods : On postnatal-day 15, rat pups were randomly devided into Normal(NOR) or HT7 group. All of Pups kept with their mothers for 7 days, but pups in HT7 group received acupuncture stimulation at HT7 daily. On postnatal-day 21, hippocampus of each rat pup was dissceted 30 minutes after last acupuncture stimulation and the protein expressions were investigated using 2-DE. Results : After acupuncture stimulation at HT7, expression of 20 proteins were significantly increased. Succinate semialdehyde dehydrogenase, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase-like, transketolase, aconitate hydratase and phosphoglucomutase-1 were related to glucose methabolism. Eukaryotic initiation factor(eIF) 4A-II, eIF 4A-III, mitochondrial Tu translation elongation factor and chain A of crystal structure of the 70-Kda heat shock cognate protein involve in the protein synthesis in ribosome. Tubulin ${\beta}$-4 chain, tubulin T ${\beta}$-15 and tubulin ${\alpha}$-1B chain comprise cytoskeleton. Glutathione S-transferase(GST) ${\omega}$-1, GST P and GST Yb-3 can reduce oxidative stress. ${\beta}$-soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive fusion protein attachment protein is required for vesicular transport between the endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi apparatus, glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase plays a major role in lipid biosynthesis, creatine kinase U-type catalyses the conversion of creatine and consumes adenosine triphosphate to create phosphocreatine and adenosine diphosphate. Platelet-activating factor acetylhydrolase IB subunit alpha and voltage depedent anion-selective channel protein 2 were also increased. Conclusions : The results suggest that acupuncture stimulation at HT7 may enhance glucose and lipid metabolism, protein synthesis, cytoskeletal substance and anti-oxidative stress in hippocampus.

Study for comparison with male & female rat locus coeruleus using confocal laser scanning microscopy (공초점현미경을 이용한 암수 흰쥐 청색반점의 비교연구)

  • Park, Il-kwon;Song, Chi-won;Lee, Kyung-youl;Kwon, Hyo-jung;Kim, Moo-kang;Lee, Kang-iee;Jeong, Young-gil;Lee, Nam-seob;Ha, Kwon-soo
    • Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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    • v.40 no.3
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    • pp.451-461
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    • 2000
  • The locus coeruleus(LG) is known to be observed a sexual dimorphism in rat CNS. LC is the largest collections of norepinephrine(NE)-containing neurons in the mammalian brain. Especially in rat, all LC neurons contained NE unlike other mammalians, so that specific reactions were found in the tyrosine-hydroxylase(TH) immunoreactive neurons. Sexual dimorphism of rat LC has affected by genes before sex hormone appeared, thereafter affected by sex hormones. In these day, many scientists founded morphological differences between male and female LC morphology, but differences of entire structure was not founded. Thus we investigated sex differences of the LC neuron's morphology in rat by three-dimensional(3-D) reconstruction using Confocal laser scanning microscopy(CLSM). We reported that neuron's shape was relatively-large multipolar neurons and neuron's processes in dorsal LC proceeded to ventral direction in the male and female rat. Male had a longer anterior-posterior length than female had in dorsal LC. In addition to middle-LC, male rat's LC had a more thicker posterior region but had not viewed in a previous study. In reverse, female rat's LC had a thicker anterior region like a previous study. This results using 3-D reconstruction by CLSM showed that the male's LC was more wide-ranging than female's relatively.

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Changes of LDH Subunit Combinations Induced by Tetrodotoxin (Tetrodotoxin에 의하여 유발되는 LDH 하부단위체 조합의 변화)

  • Kim, Sang-Yeop;Yum, Jung-Joo
    • The Korean Journal of Zoology
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    • v.28 no.4
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    • pp.227-236
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    • 1985
  • In an attempt to make a scrutiny into a mechanism for the formation of quaternary structure of LDH isozymes, male mice were intraperitoneally exposed to a wide range of tetrodotoxin concentration and the changes in relative percentage of the five isozymes were monitored by electrophoresis and subsequent densitometry. The observations that a conspicuous increase of the $H_4$ isozyme was demonstrated in nearly all brain tissues, that the $M_4$ isozyme of skeletal muscle tissue was slightly increased while the $M_3H$ and $M_2H_2$ isozymes were decreased, that the M/H ratio was strikingly reduced in heart tissue and that assembly of $H_4$ isozyme was revealed in liver tissue although its rate was extremely low suggest that new intracellular ionic environment established by compulsory change in Donnan equilibrium could alter the LDH isozyme distribution. The reduction of assembly of $M_3H$ isozyme found in mouse tissues exposed to tetrodotoxin also seems to suggest that the subunit combination of 3M+H is very unfavorable in an intracellular environment deviated from its accustomed one. It was reaffirmed that there might occur TTX-insensitive sodium channels in plasma membrane.

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