• Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry
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• 제68권
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• pp.399-405
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• 2018

We report the fabrication of organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) via spray coating of electrochemically exfoliated graphene (EEG) and conducting polymer hybrid as electrodes. To reduce the roughness and sheet resistance of the EEG electrodes, subsequent coating of conducting polymer (poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS)) and acid treatment was performed. After that, active channel layer was developed by spin coating of semiconducting poly(3-hexylthiophene) on the hybrid electrodes to define the bottom gate bottom contact configuration. The OFET devices with the EEG/PEDOT:PSS hybrid electrodes showed a reasonable electrical performances (field effect mobility = $0.15cm^2V^{-1}\;s^{-1}$, on/off current ratio = $10^2$, and threshold voltage = -1.57V). Furthermore, the flexible OFET devices based on the Polydimethlsiloxane (PDMS) substrate and ion gel dielectric layer exhibited higher electrical performances (field effect mobility = $6.32cm^2V^{-1}\;s^{-1}$, on/off current ratio = $10^3$, and threshold voltage = -1.06V) and excellent electrical stability until 1000 cycles of bending test, which means that the hybrid electrode is applicable to various organic electronic devices, such as flexible OFETs, supercapacitors, organic sensors, and actuators.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• 제20권9호
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• pp.1078-1084
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• 1999

A synthetic cecropin A(1-13)-melittin(1-13) [CA-ME] hybrid peptide was known to be an antimicrobial peptide having strong antibacterial, antifungal and antitumor activity with minimal cytotoxic effect against human erythrocyte. Analogues were synthesized to investigate the influences of the flexible hinge region of CA-ME on the antibiotic activity. Antibiotic activity of the peptides was measured by the growth inhibition against bac-terial, fungal and tumor cells and vesicle-aggregating or disrupting activity. The deletion of Gln-Gly-Ile (P1) or Gly-Gln-Gly-Ile-Gly (P3) from CA-ME brought about a significant decrease on the antibiotic activities. In contrast, Gly-Ile-Gly deletion (P2) from CA-ME or Pro insertion (P5) instead of Gly-Gln-Gly-Ile-Gly of CA-ME retained antibiotic activity. This result indicated that the flexible hinge or β-bend structure provided by Gly-Gln-Gly-Ile-Gly, Gln-Gly, or Pro in the central region of the peptides is requisite for its effective antibiotic activity and may facilitate easily the hydrophobic C-terminal region of the peptide to penetrate the lipid bilayers of the target cell membrane. In contrast, P4 and P6 with Gly-Gln-Gly-Pro-Gly or Gly-Gln-Pro in the central region of the peptide caused a drastic reduction on the antibiotic activities. This result suggested that the con-secutive β-bend structure provided by Gly-Gln-Gly-Pro-Gly or Gly-Gln-Pro in the central hinge region of the peptide seems to interrupt the ion channel/pore formation on the target cell membranes.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권10호
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• pp.3406-3412
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• 2021

A real-time digital time-stamp sorting algorithm used in the In-Beam positron emission tomography (In-Beam PET) is presented. The algorithm is operated in the field programmable gate array (FPGA) and a small amount of registers, MUX and memory cells are used. It is developed for sorting the data of annihilation event from front-end circuits, so as to identify the coincidence events efficiently in a large amount of data. In the In-Beam PET, each annihilation event is detected by the detector array and digitized by the analog to digital converter (ADC) in Data Acquisition Unit (DAQU), with a resolution of 14 bits and sampling rate of 50 MS/s. Test and preliminary operation have been implemented, it can perform a sorting operation under the event count rate up to 1 MHz per channel, and support four channels in total, count rate up to 4 MHz. The performance of this algorithm has been verified by pulse generator and ²²Na radiation source, which can sort the events with chaotic order into chronological order completely. The application of this algorithm provides not only an efficient solution for selection of coincidence events, but also a design of electronic circuit with a small-scale structure.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• 제23권5호
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• pp.393-402
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• 2019

Aurora kinases inhibitors, including ZM447439 (ZM), which suppress cell division, have attracted a great deal of attention as potential novel anti-cancer drugs. Several recent studies have confirmed the anti-cancer effects of ZM in various cancer cell lines. However, there have been no studies regarding the cardiac safety of this agent. We performed several cytotoxicity, invasion and migration assays to examine the anti-cancer effects of ZM. To evaluate the potential effects of ZM on cardiac repolarisation, whole-cell patch-clamp experiments were performed with human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) and cells with heterogeneous cardiac ion channel expression. We also conducted a contractility assay with rat ventricular myocytes to determine the effects of ZM on myocardial contraction and/or relaxation. In tests to determine in vitro efficacy, ZM inhibited the proliferation of A549, H1299 (lung cancer), MCF-7 (breast cancer) and HepG2 (hepatoma) cell lines with $IC_{50}$ in the submicromolar range, and attenuated the invasive and metastatic capacity of A549 cells. In cardiac toxicity testing, ZM did not significantly affect $I_{Na}$, $I_{Ks}$ or $I_{K1}$, but decreased $I_{hERG}$ in a dose-dependent manner ($IC_{50}$: $6.53{\mu}M$). In action potential (AP) assay using hiPSC-CMs, ZM did not induce any changes in AP parameters up to $3{\mu}M$, but it at $10{\mu}M$ induced prolongation of AP duration. In summary, ZM showed potent broad-spectrum anti-tumor activity, but relatively low levels of cardiac side effects compared to the effective doses to tumor. Therefore, ZM has a potential to be a candidate as an anti-cancer with low cardiac toxicity.

• Yonsei Medical Journal
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• 제59권9호
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• pp.1131-1137
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• 2018

Purpose: Previous reports have shown that hyperglycemia-induced inhibition of transient receptor potential vanilloid sub type 4 (TRPV4), a transient receptor potential ion channel, affects the severity of hearing impairment (HI). In this study, we explored the role of TRPV4 in HI using HEI-OC1 cells exposed to high glucose (HG). Materials and Methods: HEI-OC1 cells were cultured in a HG environment (25 mM D-glucose) for 48 hours, and qRT-PCR and Western blotting were used to analyze the expression of TRPV4 at the mRNA and protein level. TRPV4 agonist (GSK1016790A) or antagonist (HC-067047) in cultured HEI-OC1 cells was used to obtain abnormal TRPV4 expression. Functional TRPV4 activity was assessed in cultured HEI-OC1 cells using the MTT assay and a cell death detection ELISA. Results: TRPV4 agonists exerted protective effects against HG-induced HI, as evidenced by increased MTT levels and inhibition of apoptosis in HEI-OC1 cells. TRPV4 overexpression significantly increased protein levels of phosphorylated p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p-p38 MAPK), while TRPV4 antagonists had the opposite effect. Our results indicated that TRPV4 is a hyperglycemia-related factor that can inhibit cell proliferation and promote cell apoptosis by activating the MAPK signaling pathway in HEI-OC1 cells. Conclusion: Our results show that the overexpression of TRPV4 can attenuate cell death in HEI-OC1 cells exposed to HG.

• 전력전자학회논문지
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• 제26권3호
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• pp.192-198
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• 2021

The battery's State of Health (SOH) is a critical parameter in the process of battery use, as it represents the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) of the battery. Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) is a widely used technique in observing the state of the battery. The measured impedance at certain frequencies can be used to evaluate the state of the battery, as it is intimately tied to the underlying chemical reactions. In this work, a low-cost portable EIS instrument is developed on the basis of the ARM Cortex-M4 Microcontroller Unit (MCU) for measuring the impedance spectrum of Li-ion battery packs. The MCU uses a built-in DAC module to generate the sinusoidal sweep perturbation signal. Moreover, it performs the dual-channel acquisition of voltage and current signals, calculates impedance using a Digital Lock-in Amplifier (DLA), and transmits the result to a PC. By using LabVIEW, an interface was developed with the real-time display of the EIS information. The developed instrument was suitable for measuring the impedance spectrum of the battery pack up to 1000 V. The measurement frequency range of the instrument was from 1 hz to 1 Khz. Then, to prove the performance of the developed system, the impedance of a Samsung SM3 battery pack and a Bexel pouch module were measured and compared with those obtained by the commercial instrument.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• 제27권1호
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• pp.39-48
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• 2023

Spinal nerve injury causes mechanical allodynia and structural imbalance of neurotransmission, which were typically associated with calcium overload. Storeoperated calcium entry (SOCE) is considered crucial elements-mediating intracellular calcium homeostasis, ion channel activity, and synaptic plasticity. However, the underlying mechanism of SOCE in mediating neuronal transmitter release and synaptic transmission remains ambiguous in neuropathic pain. Neuropathic rats were operated by spinal nerve ligations. Neurotransmissions were assessed by whole-cell recording in substantia gelatinosa. Immunofluorescence staining of STIM1 with neuronal and glial biomarkers in the spinal dorsal horn. The endoplasmic reticulum stress level was estimated from qRT-PCR. Intrathecal injection of SOCE antagonist SKF96365 dose-dependently alleviated mechanical allodynia in ipsilateral hind paws of neuropathic rats with ED₅₀ of 18 ㎍. Immunofluorescence staining demonstrated that STIM1 was specifically and significantly expressed in neurons but not astrocytes and microglia in the spinal dorsal horn. Bath application of SKF96365 inhibited enhanced miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents in a dosage-dependent manner without affecting miniature inhibitory postsynaptic currents. Mal-adaption of SOCE was commonly related to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in the central nervous system. SKF96365 markedly suppressed ER stress levels by alleviating mRNA expression of C/ EBP homologous protein and heat shock protein 70 in neuropathic rats. Our findings suggested that nerve injury might promote SOCE-mediated calcium levels, resulting in long-term imbalance of spinal synaptic transmission and behavioral sensitization, SKF96365 produces antinociception by alleviating glutamatergic transmission and ER stress. This work demonstrated the involvement of SOCE in neuropathic pain, implying that SOCE might be a potential target for pain management.

• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제37권1호
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• pp.101-105
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• 2024

4H-SiC power metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) have been developed to achieve lower specific-on-resistance (R_on,sp), and the gate oxides have been thermally grown. The poor channel mobility resulting from the high interface trap density (D_it) at the SiO₂/4H-SiC interface significantly affects the higher switching loss of the power device. Therefore, the development of novel fabrication processes to enhance the quality of the SiO₂/4H-SiC interface is required. In this paper, NO post-oxidation annealing (POA) by using the conditions of N₂ diluted NO at a high temperature (1,300℃) is proposed to reduce the high interface trap density resulting from thermal oxidation. The NO POA is carried out in various NO ambient (0, 10, 50, and 100% NO mixed with 100, 90, 50, and 0% of high purity N₂ gas to achieve the optimized condition while maintaining a high temperature (1,300℃). To confirm the optimized condition of the NO POA, measuring capacitance-voltage (C-V) and current-voltage (I-V), and time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) are employed. It is confirmed that the POA condition of 50% NO at 1,300℃ facilitates the equilibrium state of both the oxidation and nitridation at the SiO₂/4H-SiC interface, thereby reducing the D_it.

• 대한치과교정학회지
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• 제54권5호
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• pp.284-302
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• 2024

Objective: External apical root resorption (EARR) is characterized by permanent loss of dental structure at the root apex. This study aimed to systematically review gene polymorphisms associated with EARR in orthodontic patients. Methods: Electronic database searches were performed across several databases. Results: This systematic review included 21 studies. Outcome measures were based on tooth dimensions observed on radiographs obtained before and after treatment. Polymorphisms in the following genes were genotyped using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis: purinergic-receptor-P2X, ligand-gated ion channel 7 (P2RX7), caspase-1/interleukin-converting enzyme (CASP1/ICE), caspase-5 (CASP5), IL-1beta (IL1B), IL-1alpha (IL1A), interleukin-1 receptor antagonist gene (IL1RN), tissue non-specific alkaline phosphatase (TNSALP), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα), tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily gene member 11a (TNFRSF11A), secreted phosphoprotein 1 (SPP1), tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily gene member 11b (TNFRSF11B), interleukin 17A (IL17), interleukin 6 (IL6), receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappa B (RANK), osteoprotegerin (OPG), stromal antigen 2 (STAG2), vitamin D receptor (VDR), cytochrome P450 family 24 subfamily A member 1 (CYP24A1), cytochrome P450 family 27 subfamily B (CYP27B1), group-specific component (GC), and interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinases 1 (IRAK1). Conclusions: Almost all studies suggested that IL1 gene is associated with EARR. Additionally, P2RX7 may be an important factor contributing to the etiopathogenesis of EARR. TNFRSF11A, SPP1, IL1RN, IL6, TNFRSF11B, STAG2, VDR, IRAK1, IL-17, CASP1/ICE and CASP5 have been identified in isolated studies. Further observational studies are needed to better explain the association between these genes and EARR.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• 제52권5호
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• pp.632-637
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• 2014

본 논문은 가교제의 물질전달을 통한 실시간 생체고분자의 젤화 과정으로 단분산성을 갖는 구형의 알지네이트 하이드로젤을 미세유체 채널 내에서 제조하는 방법에 관한 연구이다. 먼저 미세유체 채널 내에서 단분산성 알지네이트 액적들을 형성하고 연속상에 분산된 염화칼슘 분자들의 물질전달 과정을 통해 실시간 젤화과정이 이루어지게 하여 알지네이트 하이드로젤 입자를 제조하였다. 이때, 미세유체 채널에서 형성되는 액적의 크기는 손쉽게 케필러리 수(capillary number)와 분산상의 유속 조절을 통하여 제어할 수 있다. 본 방법은 미세유체 채널 내에서 안정적인 액적을 형성할 수 있고 칼슘 가교제로 제조된 알지네이트 하이드로젤 입자들은 균일한 크기 분포를 가지며(C.V=2.71%) 유속, 점도, 및 계면장력의 조절을 통하여 $30{\mu}m$에서 $60{\mu}m$까지의 다양한 크기의 알지네이트 하이드로젤 입자를 제조할 수 있다. 본 논문에서 제시한 간단한 미세유체 접근방법을 통해 제조되는 단분산성을 갖는 알지네이트 하이드로젤 입자는 생체물질들을 손쉽게 함입(encapsulation)할 수 있으며 이는 식품, 화장품, 잉크 및 약물 등의 전달체로 활용이 가능하고 생체적합성이 뛰어나 세포이식 분야에도 활용될 가능성이 있다.