• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.221-228
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• 2015

It is possible to prevent a piston from contacting the cylinder by changing the shape of the piston or by applying micro-textures, such as micro-grooves or micro-holes, over the piston surface. Usually, the minimum radial clearance reaches its minimum value at the beginning of the suction stroke because the pressure around the piston is low and almost axisymmetric such that the net pressure force on the piston is not sufficiently high to support the piston from touching the cylinder. In this study, we apply a series of saw-tooth-shaped grooves on the piston surface, and numerically investigate the effects of groove depth, groove angle, and the number of grooves with radial clearance variations using a finite difference method. We conduct a dynamic analysis of the piston for various changes in groove geometries to obtain the minimum radial clearance variation for the entire compression cycle. The minimum radial clearance increases while friction loss decreases when we apply the series of saw-tooth-shaped grooves on the piston. In addition, we analyze the impact of the change in the groove shape variable due to changes in radial clearance. Leakage variations are relevant to radial clearance, but have almost no effect on the groove parameters.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.183-188
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• 2005

Defect on the temporal area caused by, surgical ablation of a tumor or an infection should be reconstructed immediately to prevent potentially life-threatening complications such as meningitis and cerebrospinal fluid leakage. The defect on the temporal area usually presents as a typical 'cone-shape'. Successful reconstruction requires sufficient volume of well-vascularized soft tissue to cover the exposed bone and dura. From 1994 through 2003, the authors applied rectus abdominis free flap for the reconstruction of the temporal defect from 1994 through 2003. There were 10 patients with a mean age of 52.1 years. Of these 10 patients, external auditory canal cancer was present in four patients, temporal bone cancer in two, parotid gland cancer in one and three patients were reconstructed after debridement of infection(destructive chronic otitis media). All the free flaps survived, and flap-related complications did not occur. Compared to a local flap, the rectus abdominis free flap can provide sufficient volume of well-vascularized tissue to cover the large defect and can be well-tolerated during an adjuvant radiation therapy. The long and flat muscle can be easily molded to fit in to the 'cone-shape' temporal defect without dead space. It is also preferred because of the low donor site morbidity, a large skin island and an excellent vascular pedicle. Two-team approach without position change is possible. In conclusion, the authors think that rectus abdominis free flap should be considered as one of the most useful method for the reconstruction of a cone-shaped temporal defect.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.142-145
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• 2005

Background: Vertebroplasty that is performed in the upper and middle thoracic spine presents technical challenges that are different from those in the lower thoracic or lumbar region due to the small pedicle size and angular severity for thoracic kyphosis. We report the results of percutaneous vertebroplasty and review its effectiveness in treating intractable osteoporotic compression fractures in the upper and middle thoracic spine. Methods: Patients who underwent vertebroplasty due to painful osteoporotic compression fractures at T3 T8 were retrospectively analyzed. The compression rate, volume of injected cement, clinical outcome (VAS score) and complications were analyzed. Results: Forty-three vertebral bodies from 41 patients (32 females and 9 males, age from 64 to 78 years old) underwent vertebroplasty. The mean compression rate improved from 35% to 17%. Bipedicular injections of bone cement were performed at 3 levels of 2 patients, and unipedicular injections were performed in 40 levels of 39 patients. The mean VAS score prior to surgery was 7.7, which improved to 2.4 within 48 hours after surgery, and the mean VAS score after 6 months was 1.5, which was significantly lower. All patients recovered uneventfully, and the neurological examination revealed no deficits. Cement leakage to the adjacent disc (9 levels) and paravertebral soft tissues (10 levels) developed. However, there were no significant complications related to the procedure such as a pneumothorax or pulmonary embolism. Conclusions: Transpedicular vertebroplasty is a safe and effective treatment for the upper and middle thoracic regions, and has a low complication rate.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.43-52
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• 2018

This paper presents the performance of a Phase Shift Full Bridge (PSFB) converter with inductive load and a new current control scheme to improve dynamic response of output current with various inductive loads. Enhanced dynamic model is used which includes leakage inductance and inductive load. Effect of changing of inductive load was analyzed in detail. Proposed current control scheme is designed based on phase margin specifications. As a result, the proposed current control scheme helps to improve the dynamic response in comparison with the existing current control scheme. The performance of the designed controller is verified by a 500 A PSFB converter. The results will be utilized for high current applications with high inductive load such as superconducting devices.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.2405-2425
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• 2014

Radiation exposure leads to several pathophysiological conditions, including oxidative damage, inflammation and fibrosis, thereby affecting the survival of organisms. This review explores the radiation countermeasure properties of fourteen (14) plant extracts or plant-derived compounds against these cellular manifestations. It was aimed at evaluating the possible role of plants or its constituents in radiation countermeasure strategy. All the 14 plant extracts or compounds derived from it and considered in this review have shown some radioprotection in different in vivo, ex-vivo and or in vitro models of radiological injury. However, few have demonstrated advantages over the others. C. majus possessing antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects appears to be promising in radioprotection. Its crude extracts as well as various alkaloids and flavonoids derived from it, have shown to enhance survival rate in irradiated mice. Similarly, curcumin with its antioxidant and the ability to ameliorate late effect of radiation exposure, combined with improvement in survival in experimental animal following irradiation, makes it another probable candidate against radiological injury. Furthermore, the extracts of P. hexandrum and P. kurroa in combine treatment regime, M. piperita, E. officinalis, A. sinensis, nutmeg, genistein and ginsan warrants further studies on their radioprotective potentials. However, one that has received a lot of attention is the dietary flaxseed. The scavenging ability against radiation-induced free radicals, prevention of radiation-induced lipid peroxidation, reduction in radiation cachexia, level of inflammatory cytokines and fibrosis, are some of the remarkable characteristics of flaxseed in animal models of radiation injury. While countering the harmful effects of radiation exposure, it has shown its ability to enhance survival rate in experimental animals. Further, flaxseed has been tested and found to be equally effective when administered before or after irradiation, and against low doses (${\leq}5Gy$) to the whole body or high doses (12-13.5 Gy) to the whole thorax. This is particularly relevant since apart from the possibility of using it in pre-conditioning regime in radiotherapy, it could also be used during nuclear plant leakage/accidents and radiological terrorism, which are not pre-determined scenarios. However, considering the infancy of the field of plant-based radioprotectors, all the above-mentioned plant extracts/plant-derived compounds deserves further stringent study in different models of radiation injury.

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.97-103
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• 2011

This paper presents a dual-band balanced mixer using nonlinear phase characteristic of composite right/left-handed (CRLH) transmission line. This metamaterial structure provides low LO leakage and high RF to LO isolation without additional filters for LO and RF path. The balanced mixer consists of balun and Wilkinson divider with dual-band characteristic of unit-cell which behaves like a CRLH metamaterial. Experimental results are used to verify the proposed metamaterial functions. The balanced mixer design results in an operating frequency of 870 MHz and 1660 MHz with an optimum mixer conversion loss of 15.2 dB at 870 MHz and 21.2 dB at 1660 MHz.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.36-41
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• 2015

Objective : To investigate the causes for failed anterior cervical surgery and the outcomes of secondary laminoplasty. Methods : Seventeen patients failed anterior multilevel cervical surgery and the following conservative treatments between Feb 2003 and May 2011 underwent secondary laminoplasty. Outcomes were evaluated by the Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) Scale and visual analogue scale (VAS) before the secondary surgery, at 1 week, 2 months, 6 months, and the final visit. Cervical alignment, causes for revision and complications were also assessed. Results : With a mean follow-up of $29.7{\pm}12.1$ months, JOA score, recovery rate and excellent to good rate improved significantly at 2 months (p< 0.05) and maintained thereafter (p>0.05). Mean VAS score decreased postoperatively (p<0.05). Lordotic angle maintained during the entire follow up (p>0.05). The causes for secondary surgery were inappropriate approach in 3 patients, insufficient decompression in 4 patients, adjacent degeneration in 2 patients, and disease progression in 8 patients. Complications included one case of C5 palsy, axial pain and cerebrospinal fluid leakage, respectively. Conclusion : Laminoplasty has satisfactory results in failed multilevel anterior surgery, with a low incidence of complications.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.75-81
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• 2007

This paper dealt with the design and implementation of an expert system to monitor and diagnose the lightning arresters in GIS substations. The expert system consists of a data acquisition module(DAM) based on microprocessor and diagnostic algorithms. The DAM measures and analyzes several parameters necessary for the arrester diagnosis such as system voltages, leakage current components, and temperatures. Also, it includes an intelligent surge counter which can record the date and tin, the polarity, and the amplitude of surge currents. All the data acquired is transmitted to a remote computer by a low rate wireless network specified in IEEE 802.15.4 to avoid electromagnetic intereference under high voltage and large current environments. The decision-making for the arrester diagnosis completes with a Java Expert System Shell(JESS) which is composed of a knowledge base, an inference engine and a graphic user interface(GUI).

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.160-168
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• 2010

This paper presents the analysis of the current as stray current and supplied current of the substation, on the DC railway power system. In DC railway power supply system, the running rails are usually used as the return conductor(negative-polarity) for traction load current. This condition mainly focuses on economic considerations, since it does not require the installation of an additional return conductor. But, problems of low resistance between the running rails for the return conductor and earth allows a significant part of the return load current to leak into the earth. This current is normally called to as leakage or stary current. This stary currents creates serious problems for any electrified matter in the underground. Therefore, reduction of stray current of the DC railway power supply system is also of direct benefit to the operational and safety aspects of the DC railway systems. In this paper, deal with the analysis of the current distribution on the DC railway power system applied the common grounding system, using SPLIT of CDEGS program.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.11
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• pp.1707-1716
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• 2019

The development of new antimicrobial agents is essential for the effective treatment of diseases such as sepsis. We previously developed a new short peptide, Pap12-6, using the 12 N-terminal residues of papiliocin, which showed potent and effective antimicrobial activity against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. Here, we investigated the antimicrobial mechanism of Pap12-6 and a newly designed peptide, Pap12-7, in which the 12^th Trp residue of Pap12-6 was replaced with Val to develop a potent peptide with high bacterial selectivity and a different antibacterial mechanism. Both peptides showed high antimicrobial activity against Gram-negative bacteria, including multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. In addition, the two peptides showed similar anti-inflammatory activity against lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells, but Pap12-7 showed very low toxicities against sheep red blood cells and mammalian cells compared to that showed by Pap12-6. A calcein dye leakage assay, membrane depolarization, and confocal microscopy observations revealed that the two peptides with one single amino acid change have different mechanisms of antibacterial action: Pap12-6 directly targets the bacterial cell membrane, whereas Pap12-7 appears to penetrate the bacterial cell membrane and exert its activities in the cell. The therapeutic efficacy of Pap12-7 was further examined in a mouse model of sepsis, which increased the survival rate of septic mice. For the first time, we showed that both peptides showed anti-septic activity by reducing the infiltration of neutrophils and the production of inflammatory factors. Overall, these results indicate Pap12-7 as a novel non-toxic peptide with potent antibacterial and anti-septic activities via penetrating the cell membrane.