• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.143-153
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• 2008

Objective: To investigate the effects of aromatase inhibitor on reproductive hormone profiles and evaluate it's ovulation inducing capability in anovulatory infertile women. Methods: We quantified the blood levels of reproductive hormones from 30 healthy normal cycling women in natural cycle (control) and letrozole medicated cycle (study). LH, FSH, estradiol, testosterone, DHEA-S were quantified on third, 11th, 21th day in both cycles, and on 21th day, progesterone was added. Sixth anovulatory infertile women received either letrozole or clomiphene citrate for ovulation induction (n=30 in each groups). We compared the clinical parameters such as ovulation rate, pregnancy rate, the day of LH surge, number of follicles and endometrial thickness, cervical mucus amount, spinnbarkeit, mean diameter of follicles on the day of LH surge. Results: Letrozole had no effect on the LH, FSH, estradiol, DHEA-S secretion but there were significant increase in testosterone level on day 11 and progesterone level on day 21 in letrozole medicated cycle compared than control cycle ($0.40{\pm}0.16$ vs $0.28{\pm}0.11\;ng/ml$, p=0.002, $18.18{\pm}13.07$ vs $8.38{\pm}7.64\;ng/ml$, p=0.001, respectively). In comparison between letrozole and clomiphene groups, there were no significant difference in ovulation rate, pregnancy rate, number of mature follicle, mean diameter of follicles, but showed earlier LH surge, thicker endometrium, more cervical mucus, and higher spinnbarkeit in letrozole group ($12.12{\pm}2.46$ vs $14.52{\pm}3.18$ days, p=0.006, $10.48{\pm}1.23$ vs $8.52{\pm}0.93\;mm$, p=0.000, $2.04{\pm}0.61$ vs $1.57{\pm}0.59$, p=0.012, $6.00{\pm}1.12$ vs $4.95{\pm}1.61\;cm$, p=0.003, respectively). Conclusion: Letrozole may augment folliculogenesis and improve the endometrial condition for implantation in normal cycling women. Ovulation efficacy of letrozole in anovulatory women was comparable to clomiphene citrate and letrozole may be more physiological in ovulation induction.

• Journal of Dental Rehabilitation and Applied Science
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.337-349
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• 2008

Despite an improved bone reactions of Mg-incorporated implants in the animals, little yet has been carried out by the experimental investigations in functional loading conditions. This study investigated the clinical and histologic parameters of osseointegrated Mg-incorporated implants in delayed loading conditions. A total of 36 solid screw implants (diameter 3.75 mm, length 10mm) were placed in the mandibles of 6 beagle dogs. Test groups included 18 Mg-incorporated implants. Turned titanium Implants served as control. Gold crowns were inserted 3 months. Radiographic assessments and stabilitytests were performed at the time of fixture installation, $2^{nd}$ stage surgery, 1 and 3 months after loading. Histological observations and morphometrical measurements were also performed. Of 36 implants, 32 displayed no discernible mobility, corresponding to successful clinical function. There was no statistically significant difference between test implants and controls in marginal bone levels (p=0.413) and RFA values. The mean BIC % in the Mg-implants was $54.4{\pm}20.2%$. The mean BIC % in the turned implant was $48.9{\pm}8.0%$. These differences between the Mg-implant and control implant were not statistically significant (P=0.264). In the limitation of this study, bone-to-implant contact (BIC) and bone area of Mg-incorporated oxidized implant were similar to machine-turned implant. The stability analysis showed no significantly different ISQ values and marginal bone loss between two groups. Considering time-dependent bone responses of Mg-implant, it seems that Mg-implants enhanced bone responses in early loading conditions and osseointegrated similarly to cp Ti implants in delayed loading conditions. However, further investigations are necessary to obtain long-term bone response of the Mg-implant in human.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems Conference
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• 1993.06a
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• pp.975-976
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• 1993

This talk presents the overview of the author's research and development activities on fuzzy inference hardware. We involved it with two distinct approaches. The first approach is to use application specific integrated circuits (ASIC) technology. The fuzzy inference method is directly implemented in silicon. The second approach, which is in its preliminary stage, is to use more conventional microprocessor architecture. Here, we use a quantitative technique used by designer of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) to modify an architecture of a microprocessor. In the ASIC approach, we implemented the most widely used fuzzy inference mechanism directly on silicon. The mechanism is beaded on a max-min compositional rule of inference, and Mandami's method of fuzzy implication. The two VLSI fuzzy inference chips are designed, fabricated, and fully tested. Both used a full-custom CMOS technology. The second and more claborate chip was designed at the University of North Carolina(U C) in cooperation with MCNC. Both VLSI chips had muliple datapaths for rule digital fuzzy inference chips had multiple datapaths for rule evaluation, and they executed multiple fuzzy if-then rules in parallel. The AT & T chip is the first digital fuzzy inference chip in the world. It ran with a 20 MHz clock cycle and achieved an approximately 80.000 Fuzzy Logical inferences Per Second (FLIPS). It stored and executed 16 fuzzy if-then rules. Since it was designed as a proof of concept prototype chip, it had minimal amount of peripheral logic for system integration. UNC/MCNC chip consists of 688,131 transistors of which 476,160 are used for RAM memory. It ran with a 10 MHz clock cycle. The chip has a 3-staged pipeline and initiates a computation of new inference every 64 cycle. This chip achieved an approximately 160,000 FLIPS. The new architecture have the following important improvements from the AT & T chip: Programmable rule set memory (RAM). On-chip fuzzification operation by a table lookup method. On-chip defuzzification operation by a centroid method. Reconfigurable architecture for processing two rule formats. RAM/datapath redundancy for higher yield It can store and execute 51 if-then rule of the following format: IF A and B and C and D Then Do E, and Then Do F. With this format, the chip takes four inputs and produces two outputs. By software reconfiguration, it can store and execute 102 if-then rules of the following simpler format using the same datapath: IF A and B Then Do E. With this format the chip takes two inputs and produces one outputs. We have built two VME-bus board systems based on this chip for Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The board is now installed in a robot at ORNL. Researchers uses this board for experiment in autonomous robot navigation. The Fuzzy Logic system board places the Fuzzy chip into a VMEbus environment. High level C language functions hide the operational details of the board from the applications programme . The programmer treats rule memories and fuzzification function memories as local structures passed as parameters to the C functions. ASIC fuzzy inference hardware is extremely fast, but they are limited in generality. Many aspects of the design are limited or fixed. We have proposed to designing a are limited or fixed. We have proposed to designing a fuzzy information processor as an application specific processor using a quantitative approach. The quantitative approach was developed by RISC designers. In effect, we are interested in evaluating the effectiveness of a specialized RISC processor for fuzzy information processing. As the first step, we measured the possible speed-up of a fuzzy inference program based on if-then rules by an introduction of specialized instructions, i.e., min and max instructions. The minimum and maximum operations are heavily used in fuzzy logic applications as fuzzy intersection and union. We performed measurements using a MIPS R3000 as a base micropro essor. The initial result is encouraging. We can achieve as high as a 2.5 increase in inference speed if the R3000 had min and max instructions. Also, they are useful for speeding up other fuzzy operations such as bounded product and bounded sum. The embedded processor's main task is to control some device or process. It usually runs a single or a embedded processer to create an embedded processor for fuzzy control is very effective. Table I shows the measured speed of the inference by a MIPS R3000 microprocessor, a fictitious MIPS R3000 microprocessor with min and max instructions, and a UNC/MCNC ASIC fuzzy inference chip. The software that used on microprocessors is a simulator of the ASIC chip. The first row is the computation time in seconds of 6000 inferences using 51 rules where each fuzzy set is represented by an array of 64 elements. The second row is the time required to perform a single inference. The last row is the fuzzy logical inferences per second (FLIPS) measured for ach device. There is a large gap in run time between the ASIC and software approaches even if we resort to a specialized fuzzy microprocessor. As for design time and cost, these two approaches represent two extremes. An ASIC approach is extremely expensive. It is, therefore, an important research topic to design a specialized computing architecture for fuzzy applications that falls between these two extremes both in run time and design time/cost. TABLEI INFERENCE TIME BY 51 RULES {{{{Time }}{{MIPS R3000 }}{{ASIC }}{{Regular }}{{With min/mix }}{{6000 inference 1 inference FLIPS }}{{125s 20.8ms 48 }}{{49s 8.2ms 122 }}{{0.0038s 6.4㎲ 156,250 }} }}

• The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.153-194
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• 2009

The resources of outer space are for the common exploitation of mankind, and it is a common responsibility of mankind to protect the outer space environment. With the rapid development of space science and technology, and especially with the busy space activities of some major space powers, environmental contamination or space debris is steadily increasing in quantity and has brought grave potential threats and actual damage to the outer space environment and human activities in space. Especially We must mitigate and seek out a solution to remove space debris which poses a threat directly to man's exploitation and use of outer space activities in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and in the Geostationary Orbit (GEO), through international cooperation and agreement in the fields of space science, economics, politics and law, in order to safeguard the life and property of mankind and protect the earth's environment. While the issue of space debris has been the subject of scientific study and discussion for some time now, it has yet to be fully addressed within the context of an international legal framework. During the earlier stages of the space age, which began in the late 1950s, the focus of international lawmakers and diplomats was the establishment of basic rules which sought to define the legal nature of outer space and set out the parameters for space activities and the nature and scope of activities carried out in outer space were quite limited. Consequently, environmental issues and the risks that might arise from the generation of space debris did not receive priority attention within the context of the development international space law. In recent years, however, the world has seen dramatic advances in technology and increases in the type and number of space-related activities which are being carried out. In addition, the number of actors in this field has exploded from two highly developed States to a vast array of different States, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, including private industry. Therefore, the number of artificial objects in the near-Earth space is continually increasing. As has been previously mentioned, COPUOS was the entity that created the existing five treaties, and five sets of legal Principles, which form the core of space law, and COPUOS is clearly the most appropriate entity to oversee the creation of this regulatory body for the outer space environmental problem. This idea has been proposed by various States and also at the ILA Conference in Buenos Aires. The ILA Conference in Buenos Aires produced an extensive proposal for such a regulatory regime, dealing with space debris issues in legal terms This article seeks to discuss the status of international law as it relates to outer space environmental problem and space debris and indicate a course of action which might be taken by the international community to develop a legal framework which can adequately cope with the complexity of issues that have recently been recognized. In Section Ⅱ,Ⅲ and IV of this article discuss the current status of international space law, and the extent to which some of the issues raised by earth and space environment are accounted for within the existing United Nations multilateral treaties. Section V and VI discuss the scope and nature of space debris issues as they emerged from the recent multi-year study carried out by the ILA, Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, Legal Subcommittee of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space ("COPUOS") as a prelude to the matters that will require the attention of international lawmakers in the future. Finally, analyzes the difficulties inherent in the future regulation and control of space debris and the activities to protect the earth's environment. and indicates a possible course of action which could well provide, at the least, a partial solution to this complex challenge.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.11-21
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• 2007

Saengshik which is food not to apply heat is expected to have good effect on the body because metabolic enzymes are preserved in it. In fact, despite of enlargement of saengshik market, the researches on the effect of saengshik are insufficient. So, the aim of this study was to investigate the protective effect of saengshik against $CCl_4-inducing$ hepatotoxicity in ICR mice. As the result of serum biochemical parameters, AST (SGOT) and ALT (SGPT) were significantly decreased at the experimental group treated with saengshik and $CCl_4$ as compared with experimental group 1 treated with $CCl_4$ only (p<0.01). ALP was significantly higher at experimental group 2 compared with control and experimental group 1 (p<0.01). In histological study, experimental group 1 treated with $CCl_4$ only showed severe necrosis all over the liver at the gross observation, and showed severe perivenular necrosis and individual hepatocytic degeneration. However experimental group 2 was not nearly different from control group in appearance and showed mild perivenular necrosis and dominant sever neutrophil infiltration surrounding central veins. The result of this study showed the protective effect against $CCl_4-inducing$ hepatotoxicity and suggest the possibility of the functional health food. However, further studies about the effect of saengshik may be needed.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.106-113
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• 2005

This study was carried out to develop a novel hydroponic medium far fruit vegetable crops by using waste synthetic fibers. In physical analysis of the synthetic fiber medium (SFM), the bulk density and percent solid phase were lower, while the porosity and water content were greater in comparison with the rockwool slab. The SFM had pH of 6.5 and EC of $0.03dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$ both of which are similar to those of the rockwool slab. The CEC of 0.39me/100mL of the SFM was lower than compared with 3.29me/100mL of the rockwool slab. However, concentrations K, Ca, Mg and Na were slightly higher in the SFM than those in the rockwool slab. The 'Momotaro' tomato crop in the SFM gave comparable plant height, stem diameter, days to first flowering, fruit weight and percent marketable yield as the rockwool slab. In the SFM and in the rockwool slab, mean fiuit weight were 182g and 181g, percent marketable yield were $93.8\%$ and $92.0\%$, respectively. The marketable yield per 10a in the SFM was 12,799 kg, which was $97\%$ of that in the rockwool slab. Growth parameters such as leaf length and width, leaf number, stem diameter and chlorophyll content of an exportable cucumber crop grown in the SFM and the rockwool slab were not different. Fruit weight was greater in the rockwool slab, while percent marketable yield was greater in the SFM. The marketable fruit yield per 10a of 5,062kg in the SFM was $2\%$ greater than that in the rockwool slab. $NO_3$ concentration in nutrient solution during the crop cultivation was higher in the SFM than in the rockwool slab, while concentrations $NH_4$, K, Ca, Mg and $SO_4$ were not different between the two media.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.357-367
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• 2010

The pharmacokinetic properties of amoxicillin trihydrate (Amox) were studied after single oral administration and single intravenous injection to cultured eel, Anguilla japonica, respectively (average $220{\pm}10\;g$, $28{\pm}1^{\circ}C$). Plasma samples were taken at 3, 5, 10, 15, 24, 30, 48, 96 and 144 h post-dose. The kinetic profile of absorption, distribution and elimination of Amox in plasma were analyzed fitting to a two-compartment model by WinNonlin program. In oral dosage of 40 and 80 mg/kg body weight, the peak plasma concentrations of Amox, which attained at 3~12 h post-dose, were 3.4 and $3.3\;{\mu}g/ml$, respectively. In intravenous injection with 1 mg/kg, the peak plasma concentrations of Amox, which attained at 9 h post-dose, was $7.2\;{\mu}g/ml$. The following parmeters were calculated for a single oral dosage of 40 and 80 mg/kg body weight, respectively: AUC (the area under the concentration-time curve)= 464 and $667\;{\mu}g{\cdot}h/ml$; $T_{max}$ (time for maximum concentration)= 2.1 and 3.6 h; $C_{max}$ (maximum concentration)= 3.04 and $3.4\;{\mu}g/ml$. Following intravenous injection at 1 mg/kg, this parameters were AUC= $748\;{\mu}g{\cdot}h/ml$; $C_{max}=4.2\;{\mu}g/ml$. The apparent oral bioavailability at 40 and 80 mg/kg were 1.6 and 1.1%, respectively. Despite using the trihydrate form of amoxicillin, the oral bioavailability was low in eel.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.5_1
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• pp.1135-1147
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• 2021

In order to geometrically correct high-resolution satellite imagery, the sensor modeling process that restores the geometric relationship between the satellite sensor and the ground surface at the image acquisition time is required. In general, high-resolution satellites provide RPC (Rational Polynomial Coefficient) information, but the vendor-provided RPC includes geometric distortion caused by the position and orientation of the satellite sensor. GCP (Ground Control Point) is generally used to correct the RPC errors. The representative method of acquiring GCP is field survey to obtain accurate ground coordinates. However, it is difficult to find the GCP in the satellite image due to the quality of the image, land cover change, relief displacement, etc. By using image maps acquired from various sensors as reference data, it is possible to automate the collection of GCP through the image matching algorithm. In this study, the RPC of KOMPSAT-3A satellite image was corrected through the extracted matching point using the UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehichle) imagery. We propose a pre-porocessing method for the extraction of matching points between the UAV imagery and KOMPSAT-3A satellite image. To this end, the characteristics of matching points extracted by independently applying the SURF (Speeded-Up Robust Features) and the phase correlation, which are representative feature-based matching method and area-based matching method, respectively, were compared. The RPC adjustment parameters were calculated using the matching points extracted through each algorithm. In order to verify the performance and usability of the proposed method, it was compared with the GCP-based RPC correction result. The GCP-based method showed an improvement of correction accuracy by 2.14 pixels for the sample and 5.43 pixelsfor the line compared to the vendor-provided RPC. In the proposed method using SURF and phase correlation methods, the accuracy of sample was improved by 0.83 pixels and 1.49 pixels, and that of line wasimproved by 4.81 pixels and 5.19 pixels, respectively, compared to the vendor-provided RPC. Through the experimental results, the proposed method using the UAV imagery presented the possibility as an alternative to the GCP-based method for the RPC correction.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.158-169
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• 2019

Ergot alkaloids are mycotoxin produced by fungi of the Claviceps genus, mainly by Claviceps purpurea in EU. Recently obtained informations indicates necessity for control the ergot in imported grains. Recent occurrence data of ergot alkaloids from EU countries indicate the necessities of management and control these toxins from the imported grains like rye, wheat, oat etc. The aim of this study is to optimize the liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for determination of ergot alkaloids (ergometrine, ergosine, ergotamine, ergocornine, ergocryptine, ergocristine and their epimers (-inines) from grain and grain-based food. The test method was optimized by extracting the sample with acetonitrile containing 2 mM ammonium carbonate, purification with Mycosep cartridge, and instrumental analysis by LC-MS/MS using Syncronis C18 column. The standard calibration curves showed linearity with correlation coefficents; $R^2$ >0.99. Mean recoveries ranged from 72.0 to 111.3% at three different fortified levels (20, 50, and $100{\mu}g/kg$). The correlation coefficient expressed as precision was within the range of 1.9-12.9%. The limit or quantifications (LOQ) ranged from 0.012 to $0.058{\mu}g/kg$. The developed analytical method met the criteria of AOAC Int. and CAC validation parameters like accuracy and sensitivity. As a result, it was confirmed that the test method developed in this study is suitable for the simultaneous analysis of six species of ergot alkaloid from grains and grain products.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.67-76
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• 2022

This study aimed to determine the photosynthesis and growth characteristics of Peucedanum japonicum T. grown under aquaponics in a plant factory (AP) by comparing those grown under hydroponic cultivation system (HP). The AP system raised 30 fishes at a density of 10.6 kg·m^-3 in a 367.5 L tank, and at HP, nutrient solution was controlled with EC 1.3 dS·m^-1 and pH 6.5. The pH level ranged from 4.0 to 7.1 for the AP system and 4.0 to 7.4 for the HP system. The pH level in the AP began to decrease with an increase in nitrate nitrogen (NO₃-N) and lasted bellower than pH 5.5 for 15-67 DAT. It was found that ammonium nitrogen (NH₄-N) continued to increase even under low pH conditions. EC was maintained at 1.3 to 1.5 dS·m^-1 in both systems. The concentration of major mineral elements in the fish tank was higher than that of the hydroponics, except for K and Mg. There was no significant difference in the photosynthesis characteristics, but the PIABS parameters were 30.4% lower in the AP compared to the HP at the 34DAT and 12.0% lower at the 74DAT. There was no significant difference in the growth characteristics, but the petiole length was 56% longer in the leaf grown under the AP system. While there was no significant difference in the fresh and dry weights of leaf and root, the leaf area ratio was 36.43% higher in the AP system. All the integrated results suggest that aquaponics is a highly-sustainable farming to safely produce food by recycling agricultural by-products, and to produce Peucedanum japonicum as much as hydroponics under a proper fish density and pH level.