Photonic crystals (PCs) have been of interest to scientists for over 20 years because their poten... more Photonic crystals (PCs) have been of interest to scientists for over 20 years because their potential optical properties offer ways of controlling light by disallowing the propagation of photons of certain energies. Based on theoretical predictions, promising applications of PCs have been proposed in photonic devices that use 3D, 2D, and 1D photonic bandgap (PBG) materials. 1D PC materials have many applications, are easy to make, and, hence, are potentially inexpensive. Cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs) are an interesting type of 1D PCs and are characterized by their spontaneous self-assembly into periodic helical structures. CLCs have the unusual optical property of selectively reflecting circularly polarized light; only light that has a different handedness from the CLC helix can propagate in the PBG frequency range. These optical characteristics make the CLCs attractive for many applications, such as in mirrorless lasing, reflective color displays, circular polarizers, and color filters. Mirrorless lasing is of particular interest because the group velocity of the photon approaches zero at the edges of the PBG and, thus, a low-threshold laser may be possible.
Fusion hybrid yeast, CHFY0321, was obtained by protoplast fusion between non-flocculent-high etha... more Fusion hybrid yeast, CHFY0321, was obtained by protoplast fusion between non-flocculent-high ethanol fermentative Saccharomyces cerevisiae CHY1011 and flocculent-low ethanol fermentative Saccharomyces bayanus KCCM12633. The hybrid yeast was used together ...
In this paper, we propose and implement an efficient robot name registration and recognition syst... more In this paper, we propose and implement an efficient robot name registration and recognition system in order to provide a call-and-come service for home robots. The service is designed to enable a robot to come to a user when its name is called correctly by the user. Therefore, techniques such as voice detection, robust speech recognition and detection of the location of the use are required. For efficient robot name registration by voice, the proposed method first restricts the search space for name registration by using monophonebased acoustic models. Then, the registration of robot names is completed using triphone-based acoustic models in the restricted search space. In order to provide a reliable service, the parameters for the robot name verification are calculated to reduce the acceptance rate of false calls. In addition, acoustic models are adapted by using a distance speech database to improve the performance of distance speech recognition. Moreover, the location of the user is estimated by using a microphone array. The experimental results for the registration and recognition of robot names show that the average word error rate (WER) of speech recognition is 1.7% in home environments, which is an acceptable WER for a real calland-come service. 1
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 2006
Swim training for 6 weeks significantly decreased body weight gain, adipose tissue mass, and adip... more Swim training for 6 weeks significantly decreased body weight gain, adipose tissue mass, and adipocyte size in both sexes of genetically obese db/db mice compared with their respective sedentary controls. Swim training also caused significant decreases in serum levels of free fatty acids, triglycerides, and total cholesterol in both sexes of obese mice. Concomitantly, hepatic mRNA levels of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor a (PPARa) target enzymes responsible for mitochondrial and peroxisomal fatty acid b-oxidation were significantly increased by swim training. Moreover, mRNA levels of uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) in liver were also markedly increased by swim training. In conclusion, these results suggest that swim training-induced transcriptional activation of hepatic PPARa target enzymes and UCP2 may effectively prevent body weight gain, adiposity, and lipid disorders caused by leptin receptor deficiency in both sexes of mice.
Our previous study suggested that fenofibrate affects obesity and lipid metabolism in a sexually ... more Our previous study suggested that fenofibrate affects obesity and lipid metabolism in a sexually dimorphic manner in part through the differential activation of hepatic peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha) in male and female C57BL/6J mice. To determine whether fenofibrate reduces body weight gain and adiposity in female sham-operated (Sham) and ovariectomized (OVX) C57BL/6J mice, the effects of fenofibrate on not only body weight, white adipose tissue (WAT) mass, and food intake, but also the expression of both leptin and PPARalpha target genes were measured. Compared to their respective low-fat diet-fed controls, both Sham and OVX mice exhibited increases in body weight and WAT mass when fed a high-fat diet. Fenofibrate treatment decreased body weight gain and WAT mass in OVX, but not in Sham mice. Furthermore, fenofibrate increased the mRNA levels of PPARalpha target genes encoding peroxisomal enzymes involved in fatty acid beta-oxidation, and reduced apolipoprotein C-III (apo C-III) mRNA, all of which were expressed at higher levels in OVX compared to Sham mice. However, leptin mRNA levels were found to positively correlate with WAT mass, and food intake was not changed in either OVX or Sham mice following fenofibrate treatment. These results suggest that fenofibrate differentially regulates body weight and adiposity due in part to differences in PPARalpha activation, but not to differences in leptin production, between female OVX and Sham mice.
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 2006
AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activation increases fatty acid oxidation in skeletal muscle ... more AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activation increases fatty acid oxidation in skeletal muscle by decreasing malonyl CoA concentrations. However, this may not explain the long-term effects of AMPK activation. Here we show that AMPK activation by 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleoside (AICAR) increases mRNA expression of PPARa target genes and PGC-1 in cultured muscle cells and mouse skeletal muscle, and that inhibition of PPARa and PGC-1 by siRNAs prevents AICAR-stimulated increase in fatty acid oxidation. These data suggest that a novel transcriptional regulatory mechanism involving PPARa and PGC-1 exists that is responsible for long-term stimulation of fatty acid oxidation in skeletal muscle by AICAR.
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 2003
We investigated whether fenofibrate improves lipid metabolism and obesity in female ovariectomize... more We investigated whether fenofibrate improves lipid metabolism and obesity in female ovariectomized (OVX) or sham-operated (SO) low density lipoprotein receptor-null (LDLR-null) mice. All mice fed a high-fat diet exhibited increases in serum triglycerides and cholesterol as well as in body weight and white adipose tissue (WAT) mass compared to mice fed a low fat control diet. However, fenofibrate prevented high-fat diet-induced increases in body weight and WAT mass in female OVX LDLR-null mice, but not in SO mice. In addition, administration of fenofibrate reduced serum lipids and hepatic apolipoprotein C-III mRNA while increasing the mRNA of acyl-CoA oxidase in both groups of mice, however, these effects were more pronounced in OVX LDLR-null mice. The results of this study provide first evidence that fenofibrate improves both lipid metabolism and obesity, in part through PPARalpha activation, in female OVX LDLR-null mice.
Our previous study demonstrated that fenofibrate improves both lipid metabolism and obesity, in p... more Our previous study demonstrated that fenofibrate improves both lipid metabolism and obesity, in part through hepatic peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha) activation, in female ovariectomized, but not in sham-operated, low-density lipoprotein receptor-null (LDLR-null) mice. The aim of this study was to determine whether fenofibrate prevents obesity and hypertriglyceridemia in male LDLR-null mice. Mice fed a high-fat diet for 8 weeks exhibited increases in body and white adipose tissue (WAT) weights and developed severe hypertriglyceridemia compared with mice fed a low-fat control diet. However, these effects were effectively prevented by fenofibrate. Mice given a fenofibrate-supplemented high-fat diet showed significantly reduced body weight, WAT weight, and serum triglycerides versus high-fat diet-fed animals. Triton WR1339 study showed that fenofibrate-induced reduction in circulating triglycerides was due to the decreased secretion of triglycerides from the liver. Moreover, the administration of fenofibrate not only resulted in liver hypertrophy and reduction in hepatic lipid accumulation, but also regulated the transcriptional expression of PPARalpha target genes, such as hepatic acyl-coenzyme A (CoA) oxidase and apolipoprotein C-III (apoC-III). Therefore, our results suggest that alterations in hepatic PPARalpha action by fenofibrate seem to suppress diet-induced obesity and severe hypertriglyceridemia caused by LDLR deficiency in male mice.
Photonic crystals (PCs) have been of interest to scientists for over 20 years because their poten... more Photonic crystals (PCs) have been of interest to scientists for over 20 years because their potential optical properties offer ways of controlling light by disallowing the propagation of photons of certain energies. Based on theoretical predictions, promising applications of PCs have been proposed in photonic devices that use 3D, 2D, and 1D photonic bandgap (PBG) materials. 1D PC materials have many applications, are easy to make, and, hence, are potentially inexpensive. Cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs) are an interesting type of 1D PCs and are characterized by their spontaneous self-assembly into periodic helical structures. CLCs have the unusual optical property of selectively reflecting circularly polarized light; only light that has a different handedness from the CLC helix can propagate in the PBG frequency range. These optical characteristics make the CLCs attractive for many applications, such as in mirrorless lasing, reflective color displays, circular polarizers, and color filters. Mirrorless lasing is of particular interest because the group velocity of the photon approaches zero at the edges of the PBG and, thus, a low-threshold laser may be possible.
Fusion hybrid yeast, CHFY0321, was obtained by protoplast fusion between non-flocculent-high etha... more Fusion hybrid yeast, CHFY0321, was obtained by protoplast fusion between non-flocculent-high ethanol fermentative Saccharomyces cerevisiae CHY1011 and flocculent-low ethanol fermentative Saccharomyces bayanus KCCM12633. The hybrid yeast was used together ...
In this paper, we propose and implement an efficient robot name registration and recognition syst... more In this paper, we propose and implement an efficient robot name registration and recognition system in order to provide a call-and-come service for home robots. The service is designed to enable a robot to come to a user when its name is called correctly by the user. Therefore, techniques such as voice detection, robust speech recognition and detection of the location of the use are required. For efficient robot name registration by voice, the proposed method first restricts the search space for name registration by using monophonebased acoustic models. Then, the registration of robot names is completed using triphone-based acoustic models in the restricted search space. In order to provide a reliable service, the parameters for the robot name verification are calculated to reduce the acceptance rate of false calls. In addition, acoustic models are adapted by using a distance speech database to improve the performance of distance speech recognition. Moreover, the location of the user is estimated by using a microphone array. The experimental results for the registration and recognition of robot names show that the average word error rate (WER) of speech recognition is 1.7% in home environments, which is an acceptable WER for a real calland-come service. 1
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 2006
Swim training for 6 weeks significantly decreased body weight gain, adipose tissue mass, and adip... more Swim training for 6 weeks significantly decreased body weight gain, adipose tissue mass, and adipocyte size in both sexes of genetically obese db/db mice compared with their respective sedentary controls. Swim training also caused significant decreases in serum levels of free fatty acids, triglycerides, and total cholesterol in both sexes of obese mice. Concomitantly, hepatic mRNA levels of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor a (PPARa) target enzymes responsible for mitochondrial and peroxisomal fatty acid b-oxidation were significantly increased by swim training. Moreover, mRNA levels of uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) in liver were also markedly increased by swim training. In conclusion, these results suggest that swim training-induced transcriptional activation of hepatic PPARa target enzymes and UCP2 may effectively prevent body weight gain, adiposity, and lipid disorders caused by leptin receptor deficiency in both sexes of mice.
Our previous study suggested that fenofibrate affects obesity and lipid metabolism in a sexually ... more Our previous study suggested that fenofibrate affects obesity and lipid metabolism in a sexually dimorphic manner in part through the differential activation of hepatic peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha) in male and female C57BL/6J mice. To determine whether fenofibrate reduces body weight gain and adiposity in female sham-operated (Sham) and ovariectomized (OVX) C57BL/6J mice, the effects of fenofibrate on not only body weight, white adipose tissue (WAT) mass, and food intake, but also the expression of both leptin and PPARalpha target genes were measured. Compared to their respective low-fat diet-fed controls, both Sham and OVX mice exhibited increases in body weight and WAT mass when fed a high-fat diet. Fenofibrate treatment decreased body weight gain and WAT mass in OVX, but not in Sham mice. Furthermore, fenofibrate increased the mRNA levels of PPARalpha target genes encoding peroxisomal enzymes involved in fatty acid beta-oxidation, and reduced apolipoprotein C-III (apo C-III) mRNA, all of which were expressed at higher levels in OVX compared to Sham mice. However, leptin mRNA levels were found to positively correlate with WAT mass, and food intake was not changed in either OVX or Sham mice following fenofibrate treatment. These results suggest that fenofibrate differentially regulates body weight and adiposity due in part to differences in PPARalpha activation, but not to differences in leptin production, between female OVX and Sham mice.
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 2006
AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activation increases fatty acid oxidation in skeletal muscle ... more AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activation increases fatty acid oxidation in skeletal muscle by decreasing malonyl CoA concentrations. However, this may not explain the long-term effects of AMPK activation. Here we show that AMPK activation by 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleoside (AICAR) increases mRNA expression of PPARa target genes and PGC-1 in cultured muscle cells and mouse skeletal muscle, and that inhibition of PPARa and PGC-1 by siRNAs prevents AICAR-stimulated increase in fatty acid oxidation. These data suggest that a novel transcriptional regulatory mechanism involving PPARa and PGC-1 exists that is responsible for long-term stimulation of fatty acid oxidation in skeletal muscle by AICAR.
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 2003
We investigated whether fenofibrate improves lipid metabolism and obesity in female ovariectomize... more We investigated whether fenofibrate improves lipid metabolism and obesity in female ovariectomized (OVX) or sham-operated (SO) low density lipoprotein receptor-null (LDLR-null) mice. All mice fed a high-fat diet exhibited increases in serum triglycerides and cholesterol as well as in body weight and white adipose tissue (WAT) mass compared to mice fed a low fat control diet. However, fenofibrate prevented high-fat diet-induced increases in body weight and WAT mass in female OVX LDLR-null mice, but not in SO mice. In addition, administration of fenofibrate reduced serum lipids and hepatic apolipoprotein C-III mRNA while increasing the mRNA of acyl-CoA oxidase in both groups of mice, however, these effects were more pronounced in OVX LDLR-null mice. The results of this study provide first evidence that fenofibrate improves both lipid metabolism and obesity, in part through PPARalpha activation, in female OVX LDLR-null mice.
Our previous study demonstrated that fenofibrate improves both lipid metabolism and obesity, in p... more Our previous study demonstrated that fenofibrate improves both lipid metabolism and obesity, in part through hepatic peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha) activation, in female ovariectomized, but not in sham-operated, low-density lipoprotein receptor-null (LDLR-null) mice. The aim of this study was to determine whether fenofibrate prevents obesity and hypertriglyceridemia in male LDLR-null mice. Mice fed a high-fat diet for 8 weeks exhibited increases in body and white adipose tissue (WAT) weights and developed severe hypertriglyceridemia compared with mice fed a low-fat control diet. However, these effects were effectively prevented by fenofibrate. Mice given a fenofibrate-supplemented high-fat diet showed significantly reduced body weight, WAT weight, and serum triglycerides versus high-fat diet-fed animals. Triton WR1339 study showed that fenofibrate-induced reduction in circulating triglycerides was due to the decreased secretion of triglycerides from the liver. Moreover, the administration of fenofibrate not only resulted in liver hypertrophy and reduction in hepatic lipid accumulation, but also regulated the transcriptional expression of PPARalpha target genes, such as hepatic acyl-coenzyme A (CoA) oxidase and apolipoprotein C-III (apoC-III). Therefore, our results suggest that alterations in hepatic PPARalpha action by fenofibrate seem to suppress diet-induced obesity and severe hypertriglyceridemia caused by LDLR deficiency in male mice.
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Papers by Mina Kim