• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.688-703
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• 1997

The effect of glossopharyngeal nerve transection on the taste buds of the rat vallate papilla was examined by using the method of DNA nick-end labeling (TUNEL) and standard electron microscopic technique at 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 days after denervation. In general, the number and size of taste buds decreased as more days passed after denervation. They started decreasing on day 3 post denervation and virtually all taste buds were disappeared on day 9 post denervation. In studies using TUNEL method, TUNEL postive cells markedly increased in their numbers one day post denervation, as compared with controls. The number of apoptotic taste bud cells per taste bud profile was averaged to be 0.64 and 0.44 for day 1 and 3 post denervation, respectively, whereas it was 0.10 in controls. In electron microscopy, apoptotic cells were identified by the presence of condensed and fragmentary nuclei in a cytoplasm, which resulted in increased density. In control rats, only few apoptotic cells were found. On days 1 and 3 post denervation, nerve fibers almost disappeared from the taste buds and some apoptotic cells were apparent. On days 7 and 9 post denervation, a few taste bud cells were still present in the epithelium of the bottom of the trench wall of the vallate papilla and most of them showed apoptotic changes. The results indicate that the death of taste bud cells in normal conditions is controlled by apoptosis and the decrease and disappearance of taste buds after denervation is also caused by apoptosis of taste bud cells.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.196-202
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• 2016

Background: Ginsenoside Rd (GSRd), a main component of the root of Panax ginseng, exhibits anti-inflammation functions and decreases infarct size in many injuries and ischemia diseases such as focal cerebral ischemia. M1 Macrophages are regarded as one of the key inflammatory cells having functions for disease progression. Methods: To investigate the effect of GSRd on renal ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) and macrophage functional status, and their regulatory role on mouse polarized macrophages in vitro, GSRd (10-100 mg/kg) and vehicle were applied to mice 30 min before renal IRI modeling. Renal functions were reflected by blood serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen level and histopathological examination. M1 polarized macrophages infiltration was identified by flow cytometry analysis and immunofluorescence staining with $CD11b^+$, $iNOS^+$/interleukin-12/tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$ labeling. For the in vitro study, GSRd ($10-100{\mu}g/mL$) and vehicle were added in the culture medium of M1 macrophages to assess their regulatory function on polarization phenotype. Results: In vivo data showed a protective role of GSRd at 50 mg/kg on Day 3. Serum level of serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen significantly dropped compared with other groups. Reduced renal tissue damage and M1 macrophage infiltration showed on hematoxylin-eosin staining and flow cytometry and immunofluorescence staining confirmed this improvement. With GSRd administration, in vitro cultured M1 macrophages secreted less inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-12 and tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$. Furthermore, macrophage polarization-related pancake-like morphology gradually changed along with increasing concentration of GSRd in the medium. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that GSRd possess a protective function against renal ischemia/reperfusion injury via downregulating M1 macrophage polarization.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.35-43
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• 2004

In this paper, we proposed a vehicle recognition and electronic toll collection system with detection and classification of vehicle identification mark and emblem as well as recognition of vehicle license plate to unman toll fee collection system or incoming/outcoming vehicles to an institution. In the proposed algorithm, we first process pre-processing step such as noise reduction and thinning from the rear side input image of vehicle and detect vehicle mark, emblem and license plate region using intensity variation informations, template masking and labeling operation. And then, we classify the detected vehicle features regions into vehicle mark and emblem as well as recognize characters and numbers of vehicle license plate using hybrid and seven segment pattern vector. To show the efficiency of the proposed algorithm, we tested it on real vehicle images of implemented vehicle recognition system in highway toll gate and found that the proposed method shows good feature detection/classification performance regardless of irregular environment conditions as well as noise, size, and location of vehicles. And also, the proposed algorithm may be utilized for catching criminal vehicles, unmanned toll collection system, and unmanned checking incoming/outcoming vehicles to an institution.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.36 no.9C
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• pp.546-554
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• 2011

Near targets in the infrared (IR) images have the steady feature for inner region and the transient feature for the boundary region. Based on these features, this paper proposes a new method to extract the fine target shape of near targets in the IR images. First, we detect the boundary region of the candidate targets using the local variance weighted information entropy (WIE) of the original images. And then, a coarse target region can be estimated based on the labeling of the boundary region. For the coarse target region, we use the opening filter with an adaptive structure element to extract the fine target shape. The decision of the adaptive structure element size is optimized for the width information of target boundary by calculating the average WIE in the enlarged windows. The experimental results show that a proposed method has better extraction performance than the previous threshold algorithms.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.367-375
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• 2019

Pufferfish (Takifugu spp.) are economically important edible marine fish. Mistakes in pufferfish classification can lead to poisoning; therefore, accurate species identification is critical. In this study, we used the mtDNA cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene (COI) to design specific primers for six Takifugu species among the 21 domestic or imported pufferfish species legally sold for consumption in Korea. We rapidly and simultaneously identified these pufferfish species using a highly efficient, multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system with the six species-specific primers. The results showed that species-specific multiplex PCR (multiplex species-specific polymerase chain reaction; MSS-PCR) either specifically amplified PCR products of a unique size or failed. MSS-PCR yielded amplification fragment lengths of 897 bp for Takifugu pardalis, 822 bp for T. porphyreus, 667 bp for T. niphobles, 454 bp for T. poecilonotus, 366 bp for T. rubripes, and 230 bp for T. xanthpterus using the species-specific primers and a control primer (ca. 1,200 bp). We visualized the results using agarose gel electrophoresis to obtain accurate contrasts of the six Takifugu species. MSS-PCR analysis is easily performed and provides identification results within 6 h. This technique is a powerful tool for the discrimination of Takifugu species and will help prevent falsified labeling, protect consumer rights, and reduce the risk of pufferfish poisoning..

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.350-355
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• 2009

This study was performed to evaluate the sodium and potassium content of the 19 kinds of side dish purchased from traditional market and super market in Daejeon area. The results are summarized as follows. Sodium content(mg/100 g) among samples was the highest in the Jangachies. The sodium contents of Yeongeun jorim, Bellflower saengchae, Kkaetip jangachies, Chonggak kimchi, Changranjut in super market were significantly higher than those of the traditional market (p<0.05). On the other hand, the sodium contents of the other side dishes in traditional market were significantly higher those in super market. These results suggested that the sodium content of side dishes in the traditional market were higher than those in the super market. Sodium intake from Kimchi and Jangachies per one serving size is estimated significantly highest among samples. Also, potassium content of side dishes were low detected compare to sodium content and potassium content of side dishes in the traditional market were higher than those in the super market. From these results, it was suggested that food labeling (Na content) on the package of side dishes is to be required for lowering Na intake, and standard cooking methods is to be established.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.198-204
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• 2012

Tracking and recognition of robots are required for the cooperation task of robots in various environments. In the paper, a tracking control system of moving robot using stereo image processing, code-book model and fuzzy controller is proposed. First, foreground and background images are separated by using code-book model method. A candidate region is selected based on the color information in the separated foreground image and real distance of the robot is estimated from matching process of depth image that is acquired through stereo image processing. The open and close processing of image are applied and labeling according to the size of mobile robot is used to recognize the moving robot effectively. A fuzzy tracking controller using distance information and mobile information by stereo image processing is designed for effective tracking according to the movement velocity of the target robot. The proposed fuzzy tracking control method is verified through tracking experiments of mobile robots with stereo camera.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.147-157
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• 2017

In recent years, Super-pixels have become very popular for use in computer vision applications. Super-pixel algorithm transforms pixels into perceptually feasible regions to reduce stiff features of grid pixel. In particular, super-pixels are useful to depth estimation, skeleton works, body labeling, and feature localization, etc. But, it is not easy to generate a good super-pixel partition for doing these tasks. Especially, super-pixels do not satisfy more meaningful features in view of the gestalt aspects such as non-sum, continuation, closure, perceptual constancy. In this paper, we suggest an advanced algorithm which combines simple linear iterative clustering with fuzzy clustering concepts. Simple linear iterative clustering technique has high adherence to image boundaries, speed, memory efficient than conventional methods. But, it does not suggest good compact and regular property to the super-pixel shapes in context of gestalt aspects. Fuzzy similarity measures provide a reasonable graph in view of bounded size and few neighbors. Thus, more compact and regular pixels are obtained, and can extract locally relevant features. Simulation shows that fuzzy similarity based super-pixel building represents natural features as the manner in which humans decompose images.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.31-39
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• 2010

The paper proposes the median filter based Retinex algorithm to detect the lanes in a foggy image. Whether an input image is foggy or not is determined by analyzing the histogram in the pre-defined ROI(Region of Interest). If the image is determined as a foggy one, then it is improved by the median filter based Retinex algorithm. By replacing the Gaussian filter by the median filter in the Retinex algorithm, the processing time can be reduced and the lane features can be detected more robustly. Once the enhanced image is acquired, the binarization based on multi-threshold and the labeling operations are applied. Finally, it detects the lane information using the size and direction parameters of the detected lane features. The proposed algorithm has been evaluated by using various foggy images collected on different road conditions to prove that it detects lanes more robustly in most cases than the conventional methods.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.44 no.9
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• pp.627-636
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• 2021

The three-dimensional organization of chromatin and its time-dependent changes greatly affect virtually every cellular function, especially DNA replication, genome maintenance, transcription regulation, and cell differentiation. Sequencing-based techniques such as ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq, and Hi-C provide abundant information on how genomic elements are coupled with regulatory proteins and functionally organized into hierarchical domains through their interactions. However, visualizing the time-dependent changes of such organization in individual cells remains challenging. Recent developments of CRISPR systems for site-specific fluorescent labeling of genomic loci have provided promising strategies for visualizing chromatin dynamics in live cells. However, there are several limiting factors, including background signals, off-target binding of CRISPR, and rapid photobleaching of the fluorophores, requiring a large number of target-bound CRISPR complexes to reliably distinguish the target-specific foci from the background. Various modifications have been engineered into the CRISPR system to enhance the signal-to-background ratio and signal longevity to detect target foci more reliably and efficiently, and to reduce the required target size. In this review, we comprehensively compare the performances of recently developed CRISPR designs for improved visualization of genomic loci in terms of the reliability of target detection, the ability to detect small repeat loci, and the allowed time of live tracking. Longer observation of genomic loci allows the detailed identification of the dynamic characteristics of chromatin. The diffusion properties of chromatin found in recent studies are reviewed, which provide suggestions for the underlying biological processes.