• Macromolecular Research
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.71-77
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• 2004

We have synthesized various types of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-ibuprofen conjugates by nucleophilic substitution of bromo-terminated PEG with ibuprofen-Cs salt. The conversion of the terminal hydroxyl groups to bromo-termini was quantitative, as was the drug conjugation process, which suggests that the present synthetic method is very useful for the preparation of PEG-based prodrugs from pharmaceuticals having carboxyl functionalities. The drug-release behavior of the prodrugs was examined in both phosphate buffer (PBS, pH 7.4) and rat plasma. From the drug-release behavior in PBS, we determined that each prodrug has high storage stability. The drug-release rate was observed to be much faster in rat plasma than in buffer solution as a result of the acceleration effect provided by enzymes present in the plasma. The drug-release rate in rat plasma depends on the degree of molecular aggregation of the prodrugs, which can be changed effectively by the nature of their spacer groups or by the use of Pluronic as the polymer carrier.

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.251-256
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• 1996

Effect of mixed grinding with a planetary ball mill of starting materials before heat treatment on the crystal structure and superconduction properties in the YBaCu composite oxide was studied. The size reduction of powders too place in the early stage of grinding, followed by aggregation of the resultant fine particles. The uniformity of the composition in the mixture was improved with grinding, which later decreased in the crystal grain size and well distribution of twin phase in the sintered bodies. The critical current density of the sintered bodies obtained from the mixture ground for 60 minutes showed the maximum value about 150 A/$\textrm{cm}^2$, while critical temperatures were around 90K and were independent of the grinding time.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.483-489
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• 2007

We have investigated quantitative measurement techniques of the degree of dispersion of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). SWNTs were suspended in aqueous media using a sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) surfactant. SWNTs with different dispersion states were prepared by controlling the intensity and time of sonication and centrifugation. The laser spectroscopic techniques were employed to characterize the dispersion state; i.e., raman fluorescence and absorption spectroscopic techniques. Raman spectroscopy has been used to probe the dispersion and aggregation state of SWNTs in solution. Individually suspended SWNTs show increased fluorescence peaks and decreased roping peaks at a raman shift 267 $cm^{-1}$ compared with the samples containing bundles of SWNTs. The ultraviolet-visible-near infrared (UV-vis-NIR) absorption spectrum of decanted supernatant samples show sharp van Hove singularity peaks

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.434-440
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• 2010

In this paper, we define generalized induced linguistic aggregation operator called generalized induced linguistic ordered weighted harmonic mean(GILOWHM) operator. Each object processed by this operator consists of three components, where the first component represents the importance degree or character of the second component, and the second component isused to induce an ordering, through the first component, over the third components which are linguistic variables and then aggregated. It is shown that the induced linguistic ordered weighted harmonic mean(ILOWHM) operator and linguistic ordered weighted harmonic mean(LOWHM) operator are the special cases of the GILOWHM operator. Based on the GILOWHM and LWHM operators, we develop an approach to group decision making with linguistic preference relations. Finally, a numerical example is used to illustrate the applicability of the proposed approach.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.696-699
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• 1996

Silicate and borosilicate gels were prepared by the sol-gel process and thermally treated in the 150-850 ℃ temperature range. Solid-state 1H MAS and 29Si CP/MAS NMR spectroscopy were used to investigate the effects of heat treatments on the silicate gel to glass conversion process. The 1H NMR isotropic chemical shifts and the relative intensities of hydrogen bonded and isolated silanol groups have been used to access the information concerning the dehydration process on the silicate gel surface. The 29Si NMR isotropic chemical shifts affected by the local silicon environment have been used to determine the degree of crosslinking, i.e. the number of siloxane bonds. These NMR results suggest that the silicate gel to glass conversion process is occurred by two stages which are dependent on the temperature; (1) the formation of particles up to 450 ℃ and (2) the formation of large particles by aggregation of each separated single particle above 450 ℃. In addition, the effects of B atom on the formation of borosiloxane bonds in borosilicates have been discussed.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers A
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• v.49 no.8
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• pp.399-404
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• 2000

This paper presents new algorithms equivalencing large-scale power systems. Generators are identified to the coherent groups according to the relation factors, which represent the relative coupling degree between the generators. While the groups are identified, participation numbers, which are the measure of the relative participation of the generators in the group, are obtained. All generators and controllers in the group are weighted by participation numbers and aggregated to construct a dynamic equivalent. The proposed algorithms are applied to a 272-machine Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO)'s system. The enclosed results indicate the accuracy and usefulness of the algorithms.

• BMB Reports
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• v.54 no.7
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• pp.356-367
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• 2021

Cell-based therapy is a promising approach in the field of regenerative medicine. As cells are formed into spheroids, their survival, functions, and engraftment in the transplanted site are significantly improved compared to single cell transplantation. To improve the therapeutic effect of cell spheroids even further, various biomaterials (e.g., nano- or microparticles, fibers, and hydrogels) have been developed for spheroid engineering. These biomaterials not only can control the overall spheroid formation (e.g., size, shape, aggregation speed, and degree of compaction), but also can regulate cell-to-cell and cell-to-matrix interactions in spheroids. Therefore, cell spheroids in synergy with biomaterials have recently emerged for cell-based regenerative therapy. Biomaterials-assisted spheroid engineering has been extensively studied for regeneration of bone or/and cartilage defects, critical limb ischemia, and myocardial infarction. Furthermore, it has been expanded to pancreas islets and hair follicle transplantation. This paper comprehensively reviews biomaterials-assisted spheroid engineering for regenerative therapy.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.1369-1376
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• 2006

Self-organized nanogels were prepared from pullulan/biotin conjugates (PU/Bio) for the development of an effective anticancer drug delivery system. The degree of biotin substitution was 11, 19, and 24 biotin groups per 100 anhydroglucose units of pullulan. The physicochemical properties of the nanogels (PU/Bio1, 2 and 3) in aqueous media were characterized by dynamic light scattering, transmission electron microscopy, and fluorescence spectroscopy. The mean diameter of all the samples was less than 300 nm with a unimodal size distribution. The critical aggregation concentrations (CACs) of the nanoparticles in distilled water were $2.8{\times}10^{-2},\;1.6{\times}10^{-2}$, and $0.7{\times}10^{-2}mg/ml$ for the PU/Bio1, 2, and 3, respectively. The aggregation behavior of the nanogels indicated that biotin can perform as a hydrophobic moiety. To observe the specific interaction with a hepatic carcinoma cell line (HepG2), the conjugates were labeled with rhodamine B isothiocyanate (RITC) and their intensities measured using a fluorescence microplate reader. The HepG2 cells treated with the fluorescence-labeled PU/Bio nanoparticles were strongly luminated compared with the control (pullulan). Confocal laser microscopy also confirmed internalization of the PU/Bio nanogels into the cancer cells. Such results demonstrated that the biotin in the conjugate acted as both a hydrophobic moiety for self-assembly and a tumor-targeting moiety for specific interaction with tumor cells. Consequently, PU/Bio nanogels would appear to be a useful drug carrier for the treatment of liver cancer.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.1169-1176
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• 2014

In this study, water-dispersible ZnS:Mn nanocrystals were synthesized by capping the surface with conventional and simple structured amino acid ligands: $\small{L}$-Glycine and $\small{L}$-Alanine. The ZnS:Mn-Gly and ZnS:Mn-Ala nanocrystal powders were characterized by XRD, HR-TEM, EDXS, ICP-AES, and FT-IR spectroscopy. The optical properties were measured by UV-Visible and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The PL spectra for the ZnS:Mn-Gly and ZnS:Mn-Ala showed broad emission peaks at 599 nm and 607 nm with PL efficiencies of 6.5% and 7.8%, respectively. The measured average particle size from the HR-TEM images were $6.4{\pm}0.8$ nm (ZnS:Mn-Gly) and $4.1{\pm}0.5$ nm (ZnS:Mn-Ala), which were also supported by Debye-Scherrer calculations. In addition, the degree of aggregation of the nanocrystals in aqueous solutions were measured by a hydrodynamic light scattering method, which showed formation of sub-micrometer size aggregates for both ZnS:Mn-Gly ($273{\pm}94$ nm) and ZnS:Mn-Ala ($233{\pm}34$ nm) in water due to the intermolecular attraction between the capping amino acids molecules. Finally, the cytotoxic effects of ZnS:Mn-Gly and ZnS:Mn-Ala nanocrsystals over the growth of wild type E. coli were investigated. As a result, no toxicity was shown for the ZnS:Mn-Gly nanocrystal in the colloidal concentration region from 1 ${\mu}g/mL$ to 1000 ${\mu}g/mL$, while ZnS:Mn-Ala showed significant toxicity at 100 ${\mu}g/mL$.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.958-964
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• 2008

In this work, micro-sized dextran particles, which have recently been focused as one of the candidate materials for the Drug Delivery System(DDS), were prepared by means of the Supercritical Antisolvent (SAS) process with $CO_2$. With dimethyl sulfoxide(DMSO) as the solvent, effects of the operating variables such as temperature (308.15~323.15 K), pressure(90~130 bar), solute concentration(10~20 mg/ml), and the molecular weight of the solute(Mw=37,500, 450,000) on the size and morphology of the resulting particles were thoroughly observed. The higher solute concentration led to the larger particles, however, the injection velocity of the solution and pressure did not show significant effects on the resulting particle size. With dextran of the lower molecular weight, the smallest particles were obtained at 313.15 K. On the other hand, the size of the particles from the high molecular weight dextran ranged between $0.1{\sim}0.5{\mu}m$ with an incremental effect of the temperature and pressure. For the solute concentration of 5 mg/ml, the lower molecular weight dextran did not form discrete particles while aggregation of the particles appeared when the solute concentration exceeded 15 mg/ml for the higher molecular weight dextran. It is believed that if the solute concentration is too low, the degree of the supersaturation in the recrystallization chamber would not be sufficient for initiation of the nucleation and growth mechanism. Instead, the spinodal decomposition mechanism leads to formation of the island-like phase separation which appears similar to aggregation of the discrete particles. This effect would be more pronounced for the smaller molecular weight polymer system due to the narrower phase-splitting region.