• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.397-409
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• 2007

Owing to needs of biomechanical comprehension and analysis to obtain various medical treatment designs which are related with the spine in order to cure and diagnose LBP patients, the FE modeling and nonlinear analysis of lumbosacrum including a partial ilium and iliolumbar ligaments, were carried out. First, we investigated whether the geometrical configuration of vertebrae displayed by DICOM slice files is regular and normal condition. After constructing spinal vertebrae including a partial ilium, a sacrum and five lumbars (from L1 to L5)with anatomical shape reconstructed using softwares such as image modeler and CAD modeler, we added iliolumbar ligaments, lumbar ligaments, discs and facet joints, etc.. And also, we assigned material property and discretized the model using proper finite element types, thus it was completely modeled through the above procedure. For the verification of each segment, average sagittal ROM, average coronal ROM and average transversal ROM under various loading conditions(${\pm}10Nm$), average vertical displacement under compression(400N), ALL(Anterior Longitudinal Ligament) and PLL(Posterior Longitudinal Ligament) force at L12 level, strains of seven ligaments on sagittal plane at L45 level and maximal strain of disc fibers according to various loading conditions at L45 level, etc., they were compared with experimental results. For the verification of multilevel-lumbosacrum spine including partial ilium and iliolumbar ligaments, the cases with and without iliolumbar ligaments were compared with ROM of experiment. The results were obtained from analysis of the verified FE model as follows: I) Iliolumbar ligaments played a stabilizing role as mainly posterior iliolumbar ligaments under flexion and as both posterior and anterior iliolumbar ligaments of one side under lateral bending. 2) The iliolumbar ligaments decreased total ROM of 1-8% in total model according to various motion conditions, which changed facet contact forces of L5S level by approximately 0.8-1.4 times and disc forces of L5S level by approximately 0.8-1.5 times more than casewithout ilioligaments, under various loading conditions. 3) The force of lower discs such as L45 and L5S was bigger than upper discs under flexion, left and right bending and left and right twisting, except extension. 4) It was predicted that strains of posterior ligaments among iliolumbar ligaments would produce the maximum 16% under flexion and the maximum 10% under twisting. 5) It's expected that this present model applies to the development and design of artificial disc, since it was comparatively in agreement with the experimental datum.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.359-371
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• 2008

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the stress distribution in mandibular implant overdentures with telescopic crowns compared to bar attachment. Material and methods: Three-dimensional finite element models consisting of the mandibular bone, 4 implants, and primary bar-splinted superstructure or secondary splinted superstructure with telescopic crowns were created. Vertical and oblique loads were directed onto the occlusal areas of the superstructures to simulate the maximal intercuspal contacts and working contacts such as group function occlusion. Maximum stress and stress distribution were analysed in mandibular bone, implant abutments, and superstructures. Results: 1. In comparison of von Mises stress on mandibular bone, telescopic overdenture had a little lower stress values in vertical load and working side load except oblique load. In the mandible, the telescopic overdenture distributed more uniform stress than the bar overdenture. 2. In comparison of von Mises stress on implant abutments, telescopic overdenture had much lower stress values in all load conditions. In implant abutments, the telescopic overdenture distributed stress similar to the bar overdenture. Stress was concentrated on the distal surfaces of the posterior implant abutments in both mandibular overdentures. 3. In comparison of von Mises stress on superstructures, the telescopic overdenture had much more stress values in all load conditions. However, the telescopic overdenture distributed more uniform stress on superstructure than the bar overdenture. In the bar overdenture, stress was concentrated on each cental area of bar structures and connected area between implant abutments and bar structures. Conclusion: In the results of this study, the telescopic overdenture had lower stress values than the bar overdenture in mandibular bone and implant abutments, but more stress values in superstructures. However, if optimal material was selected in making superstructures, the telescopic overdenture was compared to the bar overdenture in stress distribution.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.479-489
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• 2008

Statement of the problem: Under anatomical limitations on maxillary posterior region, a poor crown-to root ratio acting on dental implants can result in undesirable stress in surrounding bone, which in turn can cause bone defects and eventual failure of implants. Purpose: The purpose is to compare stress distribution due to different crown-root ratio and effect of splinting between natural teeth and implants in maxillary molar area under different loads. Material and methods: Analysis of stress arising supporting bone of the natural teeth and the implant was made with 3-dimensional finite element method. The model simulated naturel teeth was made with 2nd premolar and 1st molar in the maxillary molar region (Model T). The model simulated implants placed on same positions with two parallel implants of Straumann Dental Implant cemented abutment (Model I). Each model was designed in different crown-root ratio (0.7:1, 1:1, 1.25:1) and set cement type gold crown to make it non-splinted or splinted. After that, 300 N force was loaded to each model in five ways (Load 1: middle of occlusal table, Load 2: middle of buccal cusp, Load 3: middle of lingual cusp, Load 4: horizontal load to buccal cusp of anterior abutment only, Load 5: horizontal load to middle of buccal cusp of each abutment), and stress distribution was analyzed. Results and conclusion: On all occasions, stress was concentrated at the cervical region of the implant. Under load 1, 2 and 3, stress was not increased even when crown-root ratio increases, but under load 4 and 5, when crown-root ratio increases, stress also increased. There was difference in stress values between natural teeth and implants when crown-root ratio gradually increases; In case of natural teeth, splinting decreased stress under vertical and horizontal loads. In case of implants, splinting decreased stress under vertical loads 1,2 and 3, but increased maximal stress under loads 2 and 3. Under horizontal loads, splinting decreased stress, however the effect of splinting decreased under load 5 than load 4. Furthermore, the stress was increased, when crown-root ratio is 1.25:1. Clinical implications: This limited finite element study suggests that the stress on supporting bone may be increased under non-axial loads and poor crown-root ratio. Under poor crown-root ratio, excessive stress was generated at the cervical region of the implant, and decreased splinting effect for stress distribution, which can be related to clinical failure.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.252-260
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• 2008

This study was conducted to observe the characteristics of mineral nutrient uptake of single-node cutting rose 'Versilla' and to determine optimal nutrient solution control method for soilless culture of 'Versilla' in a closed hydroponic system. Nutrient solution was managed by five different control methods: macro- and micro-element control in aeroponic system (M&M), macroelement control in aeroponic system (M), nutrient solution supplement in aeroponic system (S); electrical conductivity (EC) control in aeroponic system(EC-A); EC control in deep flow technique system(EC-D). The concentration of $NO_3$-N exceeds optimal range whereas P and Mg decreased at the later stage of plant growth with the EC control method, EC-A and EC-D. The overall mineral nutrient content increased with S. On the other hand the nutrient content at the root environment was maintained optimal with M&M and M. The nutrient solution control methods had significantly effect on the cut-flower quality. In the M&M and M, flower length, fresh weight and root activity were higher than those with the other mineral nutrients control methods. The maximal efficiency of photochemistry (Fv/Fm) was higher for M&M, M and S than that with EC-A and EC-D. Based on the above results, it is highly recommended to control nutrient solution by mineral nutrient control methods (M&M and M) in a closed hydroponic system for single-node cutting rose, 'Versillia'.

• KIISE Transactions on Computing Practices
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.126-131
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• 2015

As flash-based storage systems have been actively employed in large-scale servers and data centers, reliability has become an indispensable element. One promising technique for enhancing reliability is static wear-leveling, which distributes erase operations evenly among blocks so that the lifespan of storage systems can be prolonged. However, increasing the capacity makes the processing overhead of this technique non-trivial, mainly due to searching for blocks whose erase count would be minimum (or maximum) among all blocks. To reduce this overhead, we introduce a new randomized block selection method in static wear-leveling. Specifically, without exhaustive search, it chooses n blocks randomly and selects the maximal/minimal erased blocks among the chosen set. Our experimental results revealed that, when n is 2, the wear-leveling effects can be obtained, while for n beyond 4, the effect is close to that obtained from traditional static wear-leveling. For quantitative evaluation of the processing overhead, the scheme was actually implemented on an FPGA board, and overhead reduction of more than 3 times was observed. This implies that the proposed scheme performs as effectively as the traditional static wear-leveling while reducing overhead.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2013.04a
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• pp.835-841
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• 2013

Modern solid-state gyroscopes (HRG) with hemispherical resonators from high-purity quartz glass and special surface superfinishing and ultrathin gold coating become the best instruments for precise-grade inertial reference units (IRU) targeting long-term space missions. Designing of these sensors could be a notable contribution into development of Korea as a space nation. In participial, 40mm diameter thin-shell resonator from high-purity fused quartz, fabricated as a single-piece with its supporting stem has been designed, machined, etched, tuned, tested, and delivered by STM Co. (ATS of Ukraine) several years ago; an extremely-high Q-factor (upto 10~20 millions) has been shown. Understanding of the best way how to match such a unique sensor with inner glass assembly of the gyro means how to use the high potential in a maximal extent; and this has become the urgent task. Inner quartz glass assembly has a very thin indium (In) layer soldered the resonator and its silica base (case), but effects of internal resonances between operational modal pair of the shell-cup and its side (parasitic) modes can notable degrade the potential of the sensor as a whole, instead of so low level of resonator's intrinsic losses. Unfortunately, there are special combinations of dimensions of the parts (so-called, "resonant sizes"), when intensive losses of energy occurs. The authors proposed to use the length of stem's fixture as an additional design parameter to avoid such cases. So-called, a cyclic scheme of finite element method (FEM) and ANSYS software were employed to estimate different combinations of gyro assembly parameters. This variant has no mismatches of numerical origin due to FEM's discrete mesh. The optimum length and dangerous "resonant lengths" have been found. The special attention has been paid to analyses of 3D effects in a cup-stem transient zone, including determination of a difference between the positions of geometrical Pole of the resonant hemisphere and of its "dynamical Pole", i.e., its real zone of oscillation node. Boundary effects between the shell (cup) and 3D short "beams" (inner and outer stems) have been ranged. The results of the numerical experiments have been compared with the classic model of a quasi-hemispherical shell band with inextensional midsurface, and the solution using Rayleigh's functions of the $1^{st}$ and $2^{nd}$ kinds. To guarantee the truth of the recommended sizes to a designer of the real device, the analytical and FEM results have been compared with experimental data for a party of real resonators. The consistency of the results obtained by different means has been shown with errors less than 5%. The results notably differ from the data published earlier by different researchers.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.373-379
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• 2015

Pyruvate kinase M2 isoform (PKM2), a rate-limiting enzyme in the final step of glycolysis, is known to be associated with the metabolic rewiring of cancer cells, and considered an important cancer therapeutic target. Herein, we report a novel PKM2 activator, PA-12, which was identified via the molecular docking-based virtual screening. We demonstrate that PA-12 stimulates the pyruvate kinase activity of recombinant PKM2 in vitro, with a half-maximal activity concentration of $4.92{\mu}M$, and effectively suppresses both anchorage-dependent and -independent growth of lung cancer cells in non-essential amino acid-depleted medium. In addition, PA-12 blocked the nuclear translocalization of PKM2 in lung cancer cells, resulting in the inhibition of hypoxia response element (HRE)-mediated reporter activity as well as hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) target gene expression, eventually leading to the suppression of cell viability under hypoxia. We also verified that the effects of PA-12 were dependent on PKM2 expression in cancer cells, demonstrating the specificity of PA-12 for PKM2 protein. Taken together, our data suggest that PA-12 is a novel and potent PKM2 activator that has therapeutic implications for lung cancer.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.360-372
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• 2010

Concentrations of ambient air particles such as total suspended particulates (TSP), particulate matter $(PM)_{10}$, and $PM_{2.5}$, were monitored simultaneously from May to June, 2007, at four locations at Alashan and Beijing in China, and Seoul and Gosan in South Korea. These monitoring sites are in the pathway of Asian dust (AD) storms traveling from China to the Korean peninsula. An AD event was observed in the Korean peninsula on May 25-26. During the sampling period, the average concentrations of TSP and PM10 were each higher than $150\;{\mu}g/m^3$ in Alashan and Beijing, but not in Seoul and Gosan. The concentration of TSP in Alashan (where the dust storm originated) on the day of the AD event reached $1824.7\;{\mu}g/m^3$, this being the highest concentration of air particles observed during the sampling period. The level was decreased to 15% of this ($274.7\;{\mu}g/m^3$) in Seoul and to 8.7% ($159.0\;{\mu}g/m^3$) in Gosan when the AD was observed two days later in Korea. Gosan, a representative background site in East Asia, displayed the lowest concentration of particles, with this maximal TSP concentration of $159\;{\mu}g/m^3$. Inorganic element contents in the air particles were also measured, and the concentrations in the four different regions compared. Concentrations of anthropogenically-enriched heavy metals in $PM_{10}$ and $PM_{2.5}$, such as lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury, were higher in the metropolitan cities of Beijing and Seoul compared to non-industrialized regions of Alashan and Gosan. However, the concentrations of inorganic soil elements including iron, magnesium, aluminum sodium, and manganese, were higher in Alashan compared to those in other sampling sites.

• Journal of Dental Rehabilitation and Applied Science
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.109-123
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• 2009

The aim of the study was to assess the influence of insertion torque of bone quality and to compare axial force, moment and von Mises stress using finite element analysis of plastoelastic property for bone stress and strain by dividing bone quality to its thickness of cortical bone, density of trabecular bone and existence of lower cortical bone when implant inserted to mandibular premolar region. The $Br{\aa}nemark$ MKIII. RP implant and cylindrical bone finite model were designed as cortical bone at upper border and trabecular bone below the cortical bone. 7 models were made according to thickness of cortical bone, density of trabecular bone and bicortical anchorage and von Mises stress, axial force and moment were compared by running time. Dividing the insertion time, it seemed 300msec that inferior border of implant flange impinged the upper border of bone, 550msec that implant flange placed in middle of upper border and 800msec that superior border of implant flange was at the same level as bone surface. The maximum axial force peak was at about 500msec, and maximum moment peak was at about 800msec. The correlation of von Mises stress distribution was seen at both peak level. The following findings were appeared by the study which compared the axial force by its each area. The axial force was measured highest when $Br{\aa}nemark$ MKIII implant flange inserts the cortical bone. And maximal moment was measured highest after axial force suddenly decreased when the flange impinged at upper border and the concentration of von Mises stress distribution was at the same site. When implant was placed, the axial force and moment was measured high as the cortical bone got thicker and the force concentrated at the cortical bone site. The influence of density in trabecular bone to axial force was less when cortical bone was 1.5 mm thick but it might be more affected when the thickness was 0.5 mm. The total axial force with bicortical anchorage, was similar when upper border thickness was the same. But at the lower border the axial force of bicortical model was higher than that of monocortical model. Within the limitation of this FEA study, the insertion torque was most affected by the thickness of cortical bone when it was placed the $Br{\aa}nemark$ MKIII implant in premolar region of mandible.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.15 no.6 s.73
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• pp.994-1004
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• 2005

The dihydrofolate reductase (dhfr) promoter contains cis-acting element for the transcription factors Spl and E2F. Transcription of dhfr gene shows maximal activity during the Gl/S phase of cell cycle. The member of the Spl transcriptional factor family can act as both negative and positive regulators of gene expression. There was a report that Spl-Rb and E2F4-pl30 complexes cooperate to establish stable repression of dhfr gene expression in CHOC400 cells. Here, we examined the role of HDAC in dhfr, cyclin E, and cyclin A gene regulation using the histone deacetylation inhibitor, trichostatin A (TSA) in U2OS and C33A cells, a Rb-positive human osteosarcoma cell line, and a Rb-negative cervical carcinoma cell line, respectively. When the dhfr promoter constructs were applied in U2OS cells, TSA markedly stimulated over 14-fold of dhfr promoter activity through dhfr-Spl sites by the deletion of an E2F element. In contrast, the deletion of dhfr-Spl binding sites completely abolished promoter stimulation by TSA. The dhfr promoter activity including dhfr-Spl sites increased only 2-fold in C33A cells. Promoter activity containing only dhfr-E2F site did not have much effect by the treatment of TSA in both U2OS and C33A cells. On the other hand, treatment with TSA induced significantly mRNA expression of dhfr and cyclin E, whereas levels of cyclin A decreased in U2OS cells, but had no effect in C33A cells. These results indicate that TSA have contradictory effect, activation of dhfr and cyclin E genes on Gl phase, and down-regulation of cyclin A on G2 phase through transcriptional regulation in U2OS cells.