• International Journal of Stem Cells
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.123-134
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• 2023

Objective: The heart contains a pool of c-kit⁺ progenitor cells which is believed to be able to regenerate. The differentiation of these progenitor cells is reliant on different physiological cues. Unraveling the underlying signals to direct differentiation of progenitor cells will be beneficial in controlling progenitor cell fate. In this regard, the role of the mitochondria in mediating cardiac progenitor cell fate remains unclear. Specifically, the association between changes in mitochondrial morphology with the differentiation status of c-kit⁺ CPCs remains elusive. In this study, we investigated the relationship between mitochondrial morphology and the differentiation status of c-kit⁺ progenitor cells. Methods and Results: c-kit⁺ CPCs were isolated from 2-month-old male wild-type FVB mice. To activate differentiation, CPCs were incubated in α-minimal essential medium containing 10 nM dexamethasone for up to 7 days. To inhibit Drp1-mediated mitochondrial fragmentation, either 10 μM or 50 μM mdivi-1 was administered once at Day 0 and again at Day 2 of differentiation. To inhibit calcineurin, either 1 μM or 5 μM ciclosporin-A (CsA) was administered once at Day 0 and again at Day 2 of differentiation. Dexamethasone-induced differentiation of c-kit⁺ progenitor cells is aligned with fragmentation of the mitochondria via a calcineurin-Drp1 pathway. Pharmacologically inhibiting mitochondrial fragmentation retains the undifferentiated state of the c-kit⁺ progenitor cells. Conclusions: The findings from this study provide an alternative view of the role of mitochondrial fusion-fission in the differentiation of cardiac progenitor cells and the potential of pharmacologically manipulating the mitochondria to direct progenitor cell fate.

• Animal Bioscience
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• 제34권4호
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• pp.533-538
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• 2021

Objective: Pluripotent stem cell-derived lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs) show great promise in their therapeutic application in the field of regenerative medicine related to lymphatic vessels. We tested the approach of forced differentiation of mouse embryonal stem cells into LECs using biodegradable poly lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) nanospheres in conjugation with growth factors (vascular endothelial growth factors [VEGF-A and VEGF-C]). Methods: We evaluated the practical use of heparin-conjugated PLGA nanoparticles (molecular weight ~15,000) in conjugation with VEGF-A/C, embryoid body (EB) formation, and LEC differentiation using immunofluorescence staining followed by quantification and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis. Results: We showed that formation and differentiation of EB with VEGF-A/C-conjugated PLGA nanospheres, compared to direct supplementation of VEGF-A/C to the EB differentiation media, greatly improved yield of LYVE1(+) LECs. Our analyses revealed that the enhanced potential of LEC differentiation using VEGF-A/C-conjugated PLGA nanospheres was mediated by elevation of expression of the genes that are important for lymphatic vessel formation. Conclusion: Together, we not only established an improved protocol for LEC differentiation using PLGA nanospheres but also provided a platform technology for the mechanistic study of LEC development in mammals.

• 한국생활과학회지
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• 제22권4호
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• pp.539-558
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to examine relationships among university students' self-differentiation, self-esteem and mental health. The subjects were 400 students of four universities in Busan and Gyungnam area. A questionnaire survey was done. The results of this study are as follows : First, the levels of university students' self-differentiation and self-esteem were high. Second, university students' self-differentiation and self-esteem were correlated positively. Third, the levels of university students' depression and anxiety were relatively low. It showed that the subjects' mental health of this study were not bad. Fourth, depression had no significant difference by gender. However, female students had higher anxiety than male students had. Fifth, university students' self-differentiation and self-esteem had negative correlation with depression and anxiety, and self-esteem played a role of mediating variable between self-differentiation and mental health. Sixth, family projection, family regression and self integration of self-differentiation had indirect influence upon the students' mental health through self-esteem, while cognitive-emotional function had direct influence upon mental health and had indirect influence upon mental health through self-esteem as well. In this study, university students' self-differentiation and self-esteem were found to be important variables having influence upon mental health, and self-differentiation had indirect influence upon mental health through self-esteem. Counselling intervention strategies should be established considering self-differentiation and self-esteem of the students who complained about their maladjusted emotion and human relation problems at schools. Also, programs enhancing self-differentiation and self-esteem of university students should be developed and the execution of these programs will be needed to help the university students who experienced mental health problems such as depression, anxiety and so on.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• 제43권3호
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• pp.368-376
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• 2019

Background: In the current phytochemical research on ginseng, the differentiation and structural identification of ginsenosides isomers remain challenging. In this paper, a two-dimensional mass spectrometry (2D-MS) method was developed and combined with statistical analysis for the direct differentiation, identification, and relative quantification of protopanaxadiol (PPD)-type ginsenoside isomers. Methods: Collision-induced dissociation was performed at successive collision energy values to produce distinct profiles of the intensity fraction (IF) and ratio of intensity (RI) of the fragment ions. To amplify the differences in tandem mass spectra between isomers, IF and RI were plotted against collision energy. The resulting data distributions were then used to obtain the parameters of the fitted curves, which were used to evaluate the statistical significance of the differences between these distributions via the unpaired t test. Results: A triplet and two pairs of PPD-type ginsenoside isomers were differentiated and identified by their distinct IF and RI distributions. In addition, the fragmentation preference of PPD-type ginsenosides was determined on the basis of the activation energy. The developed 2D-MS method was also extended to quantitatively determine the molar composition of ginsenoside isomers in mixtures of biotransformation products. Conclusion: In comparison with conventional mass spectrometry methods, 2D-MS provides more direct insights into the subtle structural differences between isomers and can be used as an alternative approach for the differentiation of isomeric ginsenosides and natural products.

• 한국동물번식학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국동물번식학회 2004년도 춘계학술발표대회
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• pp.272-272
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• 2004

The objective of this study is to test whether human embryonic stem cells expressing Nurr1 (Nurr1-transfected hES cells) could be expressed TH according to neuronal differentiation. As an effort to direct differentiation of hES (MB03 registered in NIH) cells to dopamine-producing neuronal cells, Nurr1 was transfected using conventional transfection protocol into MB03 cell and examined the expression of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) after differentiation induced by retinoic acid (RA) and ascorbic acid (AA). (omitted)

• 한국경영과학회지
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• 제31권2호
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• pp.57-67
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• 2006

One of challenging issues of market oriented manufacturing organization is product proliferation. However, increasing product variety not only incurs additional direct and indirect production cost, but also aggravates production system performance such as inventory level, customer lead time and fill rate. Recently, as one of the most beneficial strategic choices to menage the risks associateed with product variety and uncertain sales, special attention is focused on the product/process redesign to delayed product differentiation. In this paper, we develop an analytical model to demonstrate the existence of an optimal level of product differentiation, which can be used to provide theoretical basis in establishing market oriented SCM strategy.

• 가족자원경영과 정책
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• 제14권4호
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• pp.57-75
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• 2010

This study examined the effects of self-differentiation on family-life satisfaction and job satisfaction, and investigated the mediating effects of conflict-managing behavior. The participants in the present study were 196 married employees. LISREL was employed to test this hypothetical structural model. The results of this empirical study demonstrated that self-differentiation had positive effects on both family-life satisfaction and job satisfaction, which was mediated by the conflict-managing behavior but did not have a direct effect on either family-life satisfaction or job satisfaction. This study verified that conflict-managing behavior had mediating effects on the relationships among self-differentiation, family-life satisfaction, and job satisfaction. The results indicated that the higher the level of self-differentiation was, the more effective conflict-managing behavior was. And the more effective conflict-managing behavior was, the higher the levels of family-life satisfaction and job satisfaction were.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2001년도 춘계학술대회논문집C
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• pp.402-407
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• 2001

Sensitivity analysis scheme is developed in the elasto-plastic finite element method with explicit time integration using direct differentiation method. The direct differentiation is concerned with the time integration, constitutive relation, shell element with reduced integration and the contact scheme. Sensitivity analysis results are mainly examined with the highly nonlinear and quasi-static problem with the complicated contact condition. The result shows stable sensitivity especially in the sheet metal forming analysis.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2001년도 춘계학술대회논문집C
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• pp.398-401
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• 2001

There are two methods to calculate design sensitivity such as direct differentiation method and adjoint method. A sort of direct differentiation method for design sensitivity analysis costs too much when number of design variables is much larger than the number of response functions whose design sensitivity analyses are required. Therefore, an adjoint method is suggested for the case that the dimension of design variables is lager than the number of response function. An adjoint method is required to compute adjoint variables from the simultaneous linear system equation, the so-called adjoint equation, requiring only the eigenvalue and its associated eigenvectors for mode being differentiated. This method has been extended to the repeated eigenvalue problem. In this paper, we propose an adjoint method for deign sensitivity analysis of damped vibratory systems with distinct eigenvalues.

• 대한기계학회논문집A
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• 제26권11호
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• pp.2262-2269
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• 2002

Process optimization is carried out to determine process parameters which satisfy the given design requirement and constraint conditions in sheet metal forming processes. Sensitivity -based-approach is utilized for the optimum searching of process parameters in sheet metal forming precesses. The scheme incorporates an elasto-plastic finite element method with shell elements . Sensitivities of state variables are calculated from the direct differentiation of the governing equation for the finite element analysis. The algorithm developed is applied to design of the variablc blank holding force in deep drawing processes. Results show that determination of process parameters is well performed to control the major strain for preventing fracture by tearing or to decrease the amount of springback for improving the shape accuracy. Results demonstrate that design of process parameters with the present approach is applicable to real sheet metal forming processes.