• Nutritional Sciences
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.201-207
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• 2004

The current study examined the effects of freeze-dried mulberry fruit on disaccharidase activity in the small intestine and the lowering of blood glucose in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. Sprague-Dawley male rats were randomly assigned to one normal and three streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic groups. The diabetic groups were fed a mulberry fruit-free diet (DM-group), 0.3% mulberry fruit diet (DM-F group) or 0.6% mulberry fruit diet (DM-2F group). After they were fed the experimental diets for three weeks, diabetes was induced with an intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin 50 mg/kg b.w before sacrificing 9 days later using the same experimental treatments. Analyses of anthocyanins, flavonoid and 1-deoxynojirimycin (DNJ) of lyophilized mulberry fruit were carried out and the major anthocyanins were rutin (142.5 mg), isoquercitrin (10.3 mg), quercetin (5.8 mg), morin (1.6 mg) dihydroquercetin (3.83 mg), cy-3-O-glucopyranoside (230.45 mg) and cy-3-O-rutinoside (131.5 mg) on the basis of 100 g dry weight. Total DNJ content was 2.39 mg/g dry weight of lyophilized mulberry fruit. Blood glucose level decreased in the diabetic mts fed the mulberry fruit supplement. The content of the liver glycogen increased in the diabetic mts fed the mulberry fruit supplement. Disaccharidase activity in the proximal part of the intestine, such as that of maltase, sucrase and lactase in the mulberry fruit supplementation groups, were lower than that of the DM group. These results suggest that mulberry fruit possess a suppressive effect on hyperglycemia, possibly by inhibiting the activity of disaccharidase in the small intestine of rats.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.13-19
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• 2006

Background: Granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) is known as a cytokine central to the hematopoiesis of blood cells and to modulate their cellular functions. Besides granulocytes and their precursors, monocytes/macrophages and endothelial cells are direct target cells of G-CSF action. G-CSF influences immune cells in an anti inflammatory way. Methods: To evaluate whether G-CSF has a potential for preventing or ameliorating diseases characterized by mucosal inflammation, we used a mouse model with trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS)-induced inflammatory colitis. To the mice model G-CSF was administrated daily by intraperitoneal injection. Macroscopic evaluation and immunohistochemical analysis of colonic tissues were performed. Results: Re combinant human G-CSF significantly inhibited LPS-induced TNF-${\alpha}$ mRNA expression in THP-1 cells. As for in vivo relevance, G-CSF dramatically reduced the weight loss of mice, colonic damage, and mucosal ulceration that characterize TNBS colitis. Moreover, G-CSF suppressed the expression of tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$, interleukin-$1{\beta}$, and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 in TNBS colitis. Conclusion: Current results demonstrate that G-CSF may be an effective agent for the treatment of diseases characterized by mucosal inflammation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.241.1-241.1
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• 2014

The large-area high-power radio-frequency (RF) driven ion sources based on the negative hydrogen (deuterium) ion beam extraction are the major components of neutral beam injection (NBI) systems in future large-scale fusion devices such as an ITER and DEMO. Positive hydrogen (deuterium) RF ion sources were the major components of the second NBI system on ASDEX-U tokamak. A test large-area high-power RF ion source (LAHP-RaFIS) has been developed for steady-state operation at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) to extract the positive ions, which can be used for the NBI heating and current drive systems in the present fusion devices, and to extract the negative ions for negative ion-based plasma heating and for future fusion devices such as a Fusion Neutron Source and Korea-DEMO. The test RF ion source consists of a driver region, including a helical antenna and a discharge chamber, and an expansion region. RF power can be transferred at up to 10 kW with a fixed frequency of 2 MHz through an optimized RF matching system. An actively water-cooled Faraday shield is located inside the driver region of the ion source for the stable and steady-state operations of RF discharge. The characteristics and uniformities of the plasma parameter in the RF ion source were measured at the lowest area of the expansion bucket using two RF-compensated electrostatic probes along the direction of the short- and long-dimensions of the expansion region. The plasma parameters in the expansion region were characterized by the variation of loaded RF power (voltage) and filling gas pressure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.246.1-246.1
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• 2014

Over the past several years, colloidal core/shell type quantum dots lighting-emitting diodes (QDLEDs) have been extensively studied and developed for the future of optoelectronic applications. In the work, we fabricate an inverted CdSe/ZnS quantum dot (QD) based light-emitting diodes (QDLED). In order to reduce work function of indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode for inverted structure, a very thin (<10 nm) polyethylenimine ethoxylated (PEIE) is used as surface modifier[1] instead of conventional metal oxide electron injection layer. The PEIE layer substantially reduces the work function of ITO electrodes which is estimated to be 3.08 eV by ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS). From transmission electron microscopy (TEM) study, CdSe/ZnS QDs are uniformly distributed and formed by a monolayer on PEIE layer. In this inverted QDLEDs, blend of poly (9,9-di-n-octyl-fluorene-alt-benzothiadiazolo) and poly(N,N'-bis(4-butylphenyl)-N,N'-bis(phenyl)benzidine] are used as hole transporting layer (HTL) to improve hole transporting property. At the operating voltage of 8 V, the QDLED device emitted spectrally orange color lights with high luminance up to 2450 cd/m2, and showed current efficacy of 0.6 cd/A, respectively.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.144-150
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• 2020

This study examined the current status of ATE in the development stage of the domestic guided weapons field, including the re-establishment of automatic test equipment (ATE), and attempted to develop methods to verify the validity of ATE in the defense sector. This study includes methods for confirming the repeatability and reproducibility of newly manufactured or replaced ATE. An error injection test is required for validation in the development phase. And pre-inspection steps are required for validation. When developing ATE, the use of an international standard testing script language ensures efficient validation and SW reliability. This ensures interoperability between the main and test equipment, and the tester can secure a test system platform that supports standardized testing methods, which is considered to be effective in validating specific ATE for each weapon system.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.461-468
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• 2009

Magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography (MREIT) enables us to perform high-resolution conductivity imaging of an electrically conducting object. Injecting low-frequency current through a pair of surface electrodes, we measure an induced magnetic flux density using an MRI scanner and this requires a sophisticated MR phase imaging method. Applying a conductivity image reconstruction algorithm to measured magnetic flux density data subject to multiple injection currents, we can produce multi-slice cross-sectional conductivity images. When there exists a local region of fat, the well-known chemical shift phenomenon produces misalignments of pixels in MR images. This may result in artifacts in magnetic flux density image and consequently in conductivity image. In this paper, we investigate chemical shift artifact correction in MREIT based on the well-known three-point Dixon technique. The major difference is in the fact that we must focus on the phase image in MREIT. Using three Dixon data sets, we explain how to calculate a magnetic flux density image without chemical shift artifact. We test the correction method through imaging experiments of a cheese phantom and postmortem canine head. Experimental results clearly show that the method effectively eliminates artifacts related with the chemical shift phenomenon in a reconstructed conductivity image.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.313-322
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• 2013

Previous studies have demonstrated that repeated administration of the exogenous stress hormone corticosterone (CORT) induces dysregulation in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and results in depression and anxiety. The current study sought to verify the impact of catechin (CTN) administration on chronic CORT-induced behavioral alterations using the forced swimming test (FST) and the elevated plus maze (EPM) test. Additionally, the effects of CTN on central noradrenergic systems were examined by observing changes in neuronal tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunoreactivity in rat brains. Male rats received 10, 20, or 40 mg/kg CTN (i.p.) 1 h prior to a daily injection of CORT for 21 consecutive days. The activation of the HPA axis in response to the repeated CORT injections was confirmed by measuring serum levels of CORT and the expression of corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF) in the hypothalamus. Daily CTN administration significantly decreased immobility in the FST, increased open-arm exploration in the EPM test, and significantly blocked increases of TH expression in the locus coeruleus (LC). It also significantly enhanced the total number of line crossing in the open-field test (OFT), while individual differences in locomotor activities between experimental groups were not observed in the OFT. Taken together, these findings indicate that the administration of CTN prior to high-dose exogenous CORT significantly improves helpless behaviors, possibly by modulating the central noradrenergic system in rats. Therefore, CTN may be a useful agent for the treatment or alleviation of the complex symptoms associated with depression and anxiety disorders.

• Rapid Communication in Photoscience
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.16-19
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• 2014

Anodic self-organized titania nanotube (TNT) arrays have a great potential as efficient electron-transport materials for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). Herewith we report the photovoltaic and kinetic investigations for a series of heteroleptic ruthenium complexes (RD16-RD18) sensitized on TNT films for DSSC applications. We found that the RD16 device had an enhanced short-circuit current density ($J_{SC}/mAcm^{-2}=15.0$) and an efficiency of power conversion (${\eta}=7.2%$) greater than that of a N719 device (${\eta}=7.1%$) due to the increasing light-harvesting and the broadened spectral features with thiophene-based ligands. However, the device made of RD17 (adding one more hexyl chain) showed smaller $J_{SC}(14.1mAcm^{-2})$ and poorer ${\eta}(6.8%)$ compare to those of RD16 due to smaller amount of dye-loading and less efficient electron injection for the RD17 device than for the RD16 device. For the RD18 dye (adding one more thiophene unit and one more hexyl chain), we found that the device showed even lower $J_{SC}(13.2mAcm^{-2}) $ that led to a poorest device performance (${\eta}=6.2%$) for the RD18 device. These results are against to those obtained from the same dyes sensitized on $TiO_2$ nanoparticle films and they can be rationalized according to the electron transport kinetics measured using the methods of charge extraction and transient photovoltage decays.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.167-172
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• 2012

Osteoarthritis (OA) is an age-related joint disease characterized by degradation of articular cartilage and its association with chronic pain. Purified Bee venom (PBV) has been traditionally used to the treatment for inflammatory diseases. The purpose of the current study is to examine whether PBV regulates the pro-inflammation against a mouse model of knee OA induced by papain. We studied the effect of PBV on papain-induced OA in the knee joints of mice. Mice were split into following groups: normal control, papain induced OA, OA treated with PBV, OA treated with meloxicam as positive control. Proteoglycan deposition was analyzed by safranin O-fast green staining and H&E staining. Papain injection significantly degraded the proteoglycan in OA mice at 42 days. Cartilage proteoglycan density was significantly higher in PBV treated OA group than those of the positive control groups. These results demonstrate that PBV efficiently suppresses pathological processes in an OA model. Thus, PBV could be a potential therapeutic strategy for the treatment of OA.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.75-76
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• 2006

LCD-BLU (Liquid Crystal Display - Back Light Unit) is one of kernel parts of LCD unit and it consists of several optical sheets(such as prism, diffuser and protector sheets), LCP (Light Guide Plate), light source (CCFL or LED) and mold frame. The LGP of LCD-BLU is usually manufactured by forming numerous dots with $50{\sim}200{\mu}m$ in diameter on it by erosion method. But the surface of the erosion dots of LGP is very rough due to the characteristics of the erosion process during the mold fabrication, so that its light loss is high along with the dispersion of light into the surface. Accordingly, there is a limit in raising the luminance of LCD-BLU. In order to overcome the limit of current dot patterned LGP, optical pattern design with $50{\mu}m$ micro-lens was applied in the present study. Especially, the negative and positive micro-lens pattern fabricated by modified LiGA with thermal reflow process was applied to the optical design of LGP. The attention was paid to the effects of different pattern conditions to the brightness distribution of BLU with micro-lens patterned LGP. Finally, negative micro-lens patterned LGP showed superior results to the one made by positive in average luminance.