• Current Applied Physics
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.1294-1299
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• 2018

In this paper, we demonstrate the feasibility of constructing DNA nanostructures (i.e. DNA rings and double-crossover (DX) DNA lattices) with appropriate doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) concentration and reveal significant characteristics for specific applications, especially in the fields of biophysics, biochemistry and medicine. DOX-intercalated DNA rings and DX DNA lattices are fabricated on a given substrate using the substrateassisted growth method. For both DNA rings and DX DNA lattices, phase transitions from crystalline to amorphous, observed using atomic force microscopy (AFM) occurred above a certain concentration of DOX (at a critical concentration of DOX, $30{\mu}M$ of $[DOX]_C$) at a fixed DNA concentration. Additionally, the coverage percentage of DNA nanostructures on a given substrate is discussed in order to understand the crystal growth mechanism during the course of annealing. Lastly, we address the significance of optical absorption and photoluminescence characteristics for determining the appropriate DOX binding to DNA molecules and the energy transfer between DOX and DNA, respectively. Both measurements provide evidence of DOX doping and $[DOX]_C$ in DNA nanostructures.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.157-166
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• 2021

This paper aims at the temperature and slenderness ratio effects on physical and mechanical properties of Beishan granite. A series of uniaxial compression tests with various slenderness ratios and temperatures were carried out, and the acoustic emission signal was also collected. As the temperature increases, the fracture aperture of intercrystalline cracks gradually increases, and obvious transcrystalline cracks occurs when T > 600℃. The failure patterns change from tensile failure mode to ductile failure mode with the increasing temperature. The elastic modulus decreases with the temperature and increases with slenderness ratio, then tends to be a constant value when T = 1000℃. However, the peak strain has the opposite evolution as the elastic modulus under the effects of temperature and slenderness ratio. The uniaxial compression strength (UCS) changes a little for the low-temperature specimens of T < 400℃, but a significant decrease happens when T = 400℃ and 800℃ due to phase transitions of mineral. The evolution denotes that the critical brittle-ductile transition temperature increases with slenderness ratio, and the critical slenderness ratio corresponding to the characteristic mechanical behavior tends to be smaller with the increasing temperature. Additionally, the AE quantity also increases with temperature in an exponential function.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.211-218
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• 2022

This study characterizes Proctor and geophysical properties in a broad range of grading and fines contents. The results show that soil index properties such as uniformity and fines plasticity control the optimum water content and peak dry unit trends, as well as elastic wave velocity. The capillary pressure at a degree of saturation less than S = 20% plays a critical role in determining the shear wave velocity for poorly graded sandy soils. The reduction in electrical resistivity with a higher water content becomes pronounced as the water phase is connected A parallel set of compaction and geophysical properties of sand-kaolinite mixtures reveal that the threshold boundaries computed from soil index properties adequately capture the transitions from sand-controlled to kaolinite-controlled behavior. In the transitional fines fraction zone between F_F ≈ 20 and 40%, either sand or kaolinite or both sand and kaolinite could dominate the geophysical properties and all other properties associated with soil compaction behavior. Overall, the compaction and geophysical data gathered in this study can be used to gain a first-order approximation of the degree of compaction in the field and produce degree of compaction maps as a function of water content and fines fraction.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.35-41
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• 2012

Presently, the most promising family of lead-free piezoelectric ceramics is based on $K_{0.5}Na_{0.5}NbO_3$(KNN). Lithium, silver and antimony co-doped KNN ceramics show high piezoelectric properties at room temperature, but often suffer from abnormal grain growth. In the present work, the $(Ba_{0.85}Ca_{0.15})(Ti_{0.88}Zr_{0.12})O_3$ component, which has relaxor ferroelectric characteristics, was doped to suppress the abnormal grain growth. To investigate this effect, Lead-Free $0.95(K_{0.5}Na_{0.5})_{0.95}Li_{0.05}NbO_3-(0.05-x)AgSbO_3-x(Ba_{0.85}Ca_{0.15})(Ti_{0.88}Zr_{0.12})O_3$[KNLN-AS-xBCTZ] piezoelectric ceramics were synthesized by ball mill and nanosized-milling processes in lead-Free $0.95(K_{0.5}Na_{0.5})_{0.95}Li_{0.05}NbO_3-(0.05-x)AgSbO_3$ in order to suppress the abnormal grain growth. The nanosized milling process of calcined powders enhanced the sintering density. The phase structure, microstructure, and ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties of the KNLN-AS ceramics were systematically investigated. XRD patterns for the doped and undoped samples showed perovskite phase while tetragonality was increased with increasing BCZT content, which increase was closely related to the decrease of TO-T. Dense and uniform microstructures were observed for all of the doped BCZT ceramics. After the addition of BCTZ, the tetragonal-cubic and orthorhombic-tetragonal phase transitions shifted to lower temperatures compared to those for the pure KNNL-AS. A coexistence of the orthorhombic and tetragonal phases was hence formed in the ceramics with x = 0.02 mol at room temperature, leading to a significant enhancement of the piezoelectric properties. For the composition with x = 0.02 mol, the piezoelectric properties showed optimum values of: $d_{33}$ = 185 pC/N, $k_P$ = 41%, $T_C=325^{\circ}C$, $T_{O-T}=-4^{\circ}C$.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.57 no.5
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• pp.330-336
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• 2013

"The Act on Medication Treatment of Sexual Impulse of Sex Offenders" known as chemical castration has been effective since July 2011 in Korea. According to the law, monitoring of male sex hormone in urine is enforced to request National Forensic Service more than once a month after injection of medicine designed to reduce sex impulse. We established a rapid and sensitive method for the monitoring of testosterone (T) and epitestosterone (E) in human urine by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Three mL of urine was pretreated by solid-phase extraction for purification and performed enzymatic hydrolysis. The pretreated samples were extracted twice with 2 ml of ethyl acetate and n-hexane (2 : 3). The separation was applied on Thermo Hypersil GOLD C18 column ($1.9{\mu}m$, $100{\times}2.1mm$). A gradient elution of methanol and water of 0.1% formic acid were used as mobile phase and the retention time was less than 10 min. LC-MS/MS system coupled with an electrospray ionization source was performed in multiple reaction monitoring mode. The transitions of the analytes executed as following: m/z $289{\rightarrow}97$, 109 for T and E, m/z $292{\rightarrow}109$ for $T-d_3$ and $E-d_3$ as internal standards. The validation results of the method were satisfactory. The limits of detection were 0.05 ng/ml and the limits of quantification were 0.1 ng/ml. This method was successfully applied to real human urine sample. The developed method will be useful for monitoring T/E ratio in urine of sex offenders.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.239-245
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• 2005

Factor for inversion stimulation (FIS), the Escherichia coli protein, is a positive regulator of the transcription of genes that encode stable RNA species, such as rRNA and tRNA. Transcription of the rnpB gene encoding M1 RNA, the catalytic subunit of E. coli RNase P, rapidly declines under stringent conditions, as does that of other stable RNAs. There are multiple putative FIS binding sites upstream of the rnpB promoter. We tested whether FIS binds to these sites, and if so, how it affects rnpB transcription. In vitro binding assays revealed specific binding of FIS to multiple sites in the rnpB promoter region. Interestingly, FIS bound not only to the upstream region of the promoter, but also to the region from +4 to +18. FIS activated rnpB transcription in vitro, but the level of activation was much lower than that of the rrnB promoter for rRNA. We also examined the effects of FIS on rnpB transcription in vivo using isogenic $fis^+$ and $fis^-$ strains. rnpB transcription was higher in the $fis^-$ than the $fis^+$ cells during the transitions from lag to exponential phase, and from exponential to stationary phase.

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.1-7
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• 1996

Thermotropic liquid-crystalline polyurethanes were synthesized by the polyaddition reaction of such para-substiuted diisocyanate monomer as 1,4-phenylene diisocyanate(1,4-PDI) and 2,5-tolylene diisocyanate(2,5-TDI), with 4,4'-bis($\omega$-hydroxyalkoxy)biphenyls(BPm: $HOC_{m}OC_{6}H_{4}C_{6}H_{4}OC_{m}H_{2m}OH$; m is the carbon number of the hydroxyalkoxy group). These polyurethanes have mesogenic biphenyl units in the main chain. Properties of polymers were studied by differential scanning calorimetry, wide-angle X-ray scattering, thermogravimetic analysis, polarizing microscopy, and infraed spectroscopy. DSC thermograms for these polymers exhibited two endothermic peaks corresponding to phase transitions of melting and isotropization. Mesomorphic behavior of the polyurethanes were also observed under the polarizing microscope. For example, polyurethane 2,5-YDI/BP5 with [$\theta$]=0.44 prepared from 2,5-TDI and BP5 exhibited a liquid crystalline phase from 194 to 205$^{\circ}C$. Infrared spectrum study indicated that the hydrogen bonding between urethane linkages affected the mesomorphism. The thermostabilities of polyurethanes 2,5-TDI/BP5 and 1,4-PDI/BP5 were measured at a heating rate of 1$0^{\circ}C$/min in air. The temperatures of 5% weight loss for 2,5-TDI/BP5 and 1,4-PDI/BP5 were 297 and 334$^{\circ}C$, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.30 no.11
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• pp.710-716
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• 2017

New white-light-emitting $SrSnO_3:Dy^{3+}$ phosphors were prepared using different concentrations of $Dy^{3+}$ ions via a solid-state reaction. The phase structure, luminescence, and morphological properties of the synthesized phosphors were investigated using X-ray diffraction analysis, fluorescence spectrophotometry, and scanning electron microscopy, respectively. All the synthesized phosphors crystallized in an orthorhombic phase with a major (020) diffraction peak, irrespective of the concentration of $Dy^{3+}$ ions. The excitation spectra were composed of a broad band centered at 298 nm, ascribed to the $O^2-Dy^{3+}$ charge transfer band and five weak bands in the range of 350~500 nm. The emission spectra of $SrSnO_3:Dy^{3+}$ phosphors consisted of three bands centered at 485, 577, and 665 nm, corresponding to the $^4F_{9/2}{\rightarrow}^6H_{15/2}$, $^4F_{9/2}{\rightarrow}^6H_{13/2}$, and $^4F_{9/2}{\rightarrow}^6H_{11/2}$ transitions of $Dy^{3+}$, respectively. As the $Dy^{3+}$ concentration increased from 1 to 15 mol%, the intensities of all the emission bands gradually increased, reached maxima at 15 mol% of $Dy^{3+}$ ions, and then decreased rapidly at 20 mol% due to concentration quenching. The critical distance between neighboring $Dy^{3+}$ ions for concentration quenching was calculated to be $9.4{\AA}$. The optimal white light emission by the $SrSnO_3:Dy^{3+}$ phosphors was obtained when the $Dy^{3+}$ concentration was 15 mol%.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.289-294
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• 2011

A rapid and specific high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass (LC/MS/MS) method for the analysis of montelukast in human plasma has been developed and validated. After cold acetonitrile-induced precipitation of the plasma samples, montelukast and glipizide (internal standard, IS) were eluted on a reverse-phase $C_{18}$ column by isocratic mobile phase consisted of 10 mM ammonium formate buffer (adjusted to pH 3.5 with formic acid) and acetonitrile (3:97, v/v). Acquisition was performed with multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode by monitoring the transitions: m/z 587.2${\rightarrow}$ 423.2 for montelukast and m/z 446.0${\rightarrow}$321.2 for IS. Ranges of concentration for calibration curves (10-1000 ng/mL) showed correlation coefficients ($r^2$) were better than 0.9948. Precision of intra- and inter-day ranged from 3.70 to 11.68% and from 3.04 to 12.95%, accuracy of intra-day and inter-day ranged from 93.34 to 102.75% and from 100.79 to 107.63%, respectively. The described method provides a fast and sensitive analytical tool for determining montelukast levels in plasma, and was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study in 16 healthy human subjects after oral administration of 10mg tablet formulation of montelukast sodium under fasting conditions.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.127-136
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• 2017

High pressure has been applied to check the pressure effect on the powdered $TiO_2$-complex, which was synthesized for ultra-violet rays cutoff and antimicrobial applications. $TiO_2$-complex consists of anatase, rutile and silver chloride. Grain size was determined to be ~34 nm. Both anatase and rutile begin structural phase transitions to $ZrO_2$ (baddeleyite)-type crystal structures at 14~16 GPa, then sustain their phases up to 22.7 GPa. Under decompression to 0.0001 GPa (ambient pressure), rutile transforms to another phase with ${\alpha}-PbO_2$ structure, while anatase retains its high pressure structure upon complete decompression. Silver chloride peaks disappear at the low pressures.