Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation

Although the important role of amyloid precursor protein (APP) in vascular diseases associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been demonstrated, the underlying molecular mechanisms and physiological consequences are unclear. We aimed to evaluate vascular inflammation and atherosclerosis in Swedish mutant of human APP transgenic (APPsw-Tg) and ApoE -/-/APPsw-Tg mice. We also aimed to explore the mechanisms underlying any changes observed in these mice compared with non-Tg controls. Methods: The transgenic and non-Tg mouse strains were subjected to partial ligation of the left carotid artery to induce atherosclerotic changes, which were measured using histological approaches, immunohistochemistry, quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and gene expression microarrays. Results: Our results showed increased vascular inflammation, arterial wall thickness, and atherosclerosis in APPsw-Tg and ApoE -/-/APPsw-Tg mice. We further found that the expression of chitinase-3-like-1 (Chi3l1) is increased in the APPsw-Tg mouse artery and Chi3l1 mediates endothelial cell (EC) inflammation and vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) activation, which in turn exacerbates atherosclerosis. In addition, using two publicly available microarray datasets from the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of people with AD and unaffected controls as well as inflamed human umbilical vein endothelial cells, we found that Chi3l1 and associated inflammatory gene were significantly associated with AD, evaluated by co-expression network analysis and functional annotation. Knockdown of Chi3l1 in the arterial endothelium in vivo suppressed the development of atherosclerosis. We also show that microRNA 342-3p (miR-342-3p) inhibits EC inflammation and VSMC activation through directly targeting Chi3l1, and that APPsw increased Chi3l1 expression by reducing miR-342-3p expression in the arterial endothelium, promoting atherosclerosis. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that targeting Chi3l1 might provide new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for vascular diseases in patients with AD.

Patent text is a rich source to discover technological progresses, useful to understand the trend and forecast upcoming advances. For the importance in mind, several researchers have attempted textual-data mining from patent documents. However, previous mining methods are limited in terms of readability, domain-expertise, and adaptability. In this paper, we first formulate the task of technological trend discovery and propose a method for discovering such a trend. We complement a probabilistic approach by adopting linguistic clues and propose an unsupervised procedure to discover technological trends. Based on the experiment, our method is promising not only in its accuracy, 77 % in R-precision, but also in its functionality and novelty of discovering meaningful technological trends.

Rotor-type small size Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for recreational purposes have threatened people in public area by flying over them and crashing accidently without any safe mechanisms. In order to offset such threats, we investigated various types of sensors to detect airborne objects and propose a combination of radar and acoustic sensors. The proposed combination is able not only to detect an object, but also to identify whether the object is a threat or an uninterested object (e.g., birds). Moreover, we used inexpensive COTS components to reduce the cost of a system that uses the sensors. Preliminary experiments show an initial configuration of the system and the results that the sensors are able to identify a pre-profiled UAVs flying over the surveillance area.

This study aims to analyze how the quality of leadership and teamwork influences project success in information systems development (ISD). The proposed research model endeavors to substantiate the heterogeneity of project success in the public and private sectors to assist project managers. We surveyed experienced Korean project managers in both the public and private sectors and applied a partial least squares method to the data to empirically prove our hypotheses. According to the results, the network governance, entrepreneur, and transactional leadership styles have a significant and positive influence on teamwork quality, while teamwork is a mediator that determines an ISD project’s success. The comparative analysis of the public and private sectors showed that transactional and entrepreneurial leadership styles are efficient in ISD projects in the public sector, while transformational and network governance leadership styles are more appropriate in the private sector.

The MPEG-21 Multimedia Framework allows visually impaired users to have an improved access to visual content by enabling content adaptation techniques such as color compensation. However, one important issue is the method to create and interpret the standardized CVD descriptions when making the use of generic color vision tests. In Part I of our study to tackle the issue, we present a novel computerized hue test (CHT) to examine and quantify CVD, which allows reproducing and manipulating test colors for the purposes of computer simulation and analysis of CVD. Both objective evaluation via color difference measurement and subjective evaluation via clinical experiment showed that the CHT works well as a color vision test: it is highly correlated with the Farnsworth-Munsell 100 Hue (FM100H) test and allows for a more elaborate and correct color reproduction than the FM100H test. Copyright (C) 2008 Seungji Yang et al.

A practical optical backplane system was prepared with transmitter-receiver processing boards and an optical backplane made from polymeric-waveguide-embedded optical printed-circuit boards. Optical slots were used as connection components between the transmitter-receiver processing boards and the backplane board to permit easy and repeatable insertion and extraction of the boards with micrometer precision. We report 10 Gbit/s data transmission between an optical backplane and the transmitter-receiver processing boards.

Abstract A molecular diagnosis of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) without bulky and expensive instrumentation is of great importance for the early detection and prevention in a fast‐spreading pandemic. However, the current representative diagnostic methods have the limitation of being time‐consuming, cost, the processing time for polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and inaccurate for lateral flow assay (LFA), representatively. Herein, an integrated photonic digital PCR (dPCR) is developed with high‐velocity photonic scanner for in situ fluorescence detection by introducing the N‐heterocyclic carbene self‐assembled monolayer‐based Au film to prevent the quenching effect. The on‐site rapid molecular diagnostic platform shows the driving of 40 cycles in under 8 min and fluorescence scanning in under 7 min, resulting in a total analysis time within 15 min. In particular, the technology clearly demonstrates the classification of SARS‐CoV‐2 patients and healthy controls (99% in sensitivity, 98.6% in specificity, and 96.4% in accuracy with RdRp gene), comparing with standard RT‐qPCR. This platform can be utilized for prompt point‐of‐care molecular diagnostics in early diagnosis and large‐scale prevention of next pandemic spreading for upcoming infectious diseases and for the distinction diagnosis with other RSV.

<p>Abstract</p> <p>A color compensation scheme has been developed to enhance the perception of people with color vision deficiency (CVD) and for people suffering from anomalous trichromacy. It is operated within the MPEG-21 Multimedia Framework, which provides a standardized description of CVD. The basic idea behind the proposed color compensation consists of simulating the path of human color perception. As such, compensated color is realized by relying on the spectral cone sensitivities of the human eye and the spectral emission functions of the display device. For quantified color compensation, the spectral sensitivity of anomalous cones has been modeled according to the deficiency degree of the standardized CVD description. The latter is based on the error score of a computerized hue test (CHT), developed in Part I of our study. Given the anomalous cone spectra, the reduction of error score on the CHT after color compensation was measured in each deficiency degree. The quantitative relationship of color compensation with the error score is linearly regressed, based on the deficiency degree with the least error score after color compensation as well as the error score before color compensation.</p>

BACKGROUND: In metastatic colorectal cancer, the location of the primary tumor has been suggested to have biological significance. In this study, we investigated whether primary tumor location affects cetuximab efficacy in patients with RAS wild-type metastatic colorectal cancer. METHODS: Genotyping by the SequenomMassARRAY technology platform (OncoMap) targeting KRAS, NRAS, PIK3CA, and BRAF was performed in tumors from 307 patients who had been given cetuximab as salvage treatment. Tumors with mutated RAS (KRAS or NRAS; n = 127) and those with multiple primary location (n = 10) were excluded. Right colon cancer was defined as a tumor located in the proximal part to splenic flexure. RESULTS: A total of 170 patients were included in the study (right versus left, 23 and 147, respectively). Patients with right colon cancer showed more mutated BRAF (39.1% vs. 5.4%), mutated PIK3CA (13% vs. 1.4%), poorly differentiated tumor (17.4% vs. 3.4%), and peritoneal involvement (26.1% vs. 8.8%) than those with left colon and rectal cancer. Right colon cancer showed poorer progression-free survival (2.0 vs.5.0 months, P = 0.002) and overall survival (4.1 months and 13.0 months, P < 0.001) than the left colon and rectal cancer. By multivariable analysis, BRAF mutation, right colon primary, poorly differentiated histology, and peritoneal involvement were associated with risk of death. CONCLUSIONS: In RAS wild-type colon cancer treated with cetuximab as salvage treatment, right colon primary was associated with poorer survival outcomes than left colon and rectal cancer.

The electromagnetic field in the air generated by a dipole source over an electrically spherical Earth coated with n ‐layered dielectric is determined for continuous‐wave excitation. The region of interest consists of the spherical dielectric Earth, coated with the dielectric layer composing a succession of n spherically bounded layer under the air. In this paper, the surface impedance at any point in the n ‐layered dielectric for the electromagnetic field of electric type is presented, and the formulas are derived for the electromagnetic field in the air of a vertical electric dipole. Similarly, the surface admittance for the electromagnetic field of magnetic type is presented, and the formulas are derived for the electromagnetic field of a vertical magnetic dipole. Based on the above results, using reciprocity theorem, the formulas are derived readily for the six components of the electromagnetic field generated by a horizontal electric dipole.

Aberrant cell death induced by ischemic stress is implicated in the pathogenesis of ischemic diseases. Fas-associated factor 1 (FAF1) has been identified as a death-promoting protein. This study demonstrates that FAF1 functions in death signaling triggered by ischemic insult. The expression changes of FAF1 and phophorylated JNK1 were detected by Western blotting. Immunoprecipitation was employed to investigate protein-protein interaction. We determined the cell death using flow cytometry and lactate dehydrogenase release measurement. To validate the death-promoting role of FAF1 in the retina, we generated conditional retinal FAF1 knockout mice. We used hematoxylin and eosin staining to detect retinal cell death in retinal ganglion cell layer. FAF1 was found to function upstream of c-Jun N-terminal kinase 1 (JNK1), followed by mitochondrial dysregulation and necrotic cell death processes upon ischemic insult. We investigated whether FAF1 is involved in the pathogenesis of ischemic diseases using a retinal ischemia model. Indeed, FAF1 potentiated necrosis through JNK1 activation upon ischemic stress in retinal cells demonstrating retinal ganglion–like character. Conditional FAF1 depletion attenuated JNK1 activation in the retinas of Dkk3-Cre; Faf1 flox/flox mice and ameliorated death of retinal cells due to elevated intraocular pressure (IOP). Our results show that FAF1 plays a key role in ischemic retinal damage and may be implicated in the pathogenesis of retinal ischemic disease.

A new on-chip linearizer self-adapting to the input power has been devised and implemented on a highly linear monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) power amplifier for 1.95 GHz wide-band code division multiple-access (W-CDMA) systems. The linearizer consists of an InGaP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) active bias circuit and reverse biased junction diode for which the dynamic admittance to input power level varies adaptively to control RF transmission power to the bias circuit. The proposed linearizer effectively improves the gain compression with little insertion power loss, and more importantly, it consumes no additional die area and DC power. The HBT MMIC power amplifier with the integrated linearizer exhibits a maximum output power of 30.3 dBm, a power gain of 27.5 dB, a power added efficiency of 42% at the maximum output power under an operation voltage of 3.4 V, and adjacent channel leakage power ratio of -38 dBc at 27 dBm of output power.

In this paper, we propose a provision of user-centric home photo album system and albuming functions to support it. The main idea of the user-centric photo album is to enable users to organize and browse their photos along the semantically meaningful axes that are situation, person-identity, and category. Experiment results showed that the proposed method would be useful to album photos based on human perception.

A steam generator at a nuclear power plant consists of thousands of thin tubes, and is a highly important component in operation. Also, steam generator tubes play a critical role in maintaining pressure boundaries of the primary and secondary sides, and can be easily damaged due to operation conditions caused by high temperature and pressure. Therefore, considerable amount of efforts are being committed to evaluating structural integrity of steam generators during in-service inspection. Eddy current testing is the commonly used inspection technique to evaluate a steam generator tube's integrity, but it has limitations in accurately sizing flaws due to the nature of the technique which determines size based on the entire volume of a flaw. In this study, experiments were performed by using ultrasonic testing instead of eddy current testing for the inspection of steam generator tubes to detect various kinds of flaws and to see if the detected flaws can be sized accurately. Consequently, the ultrasonic testing technique could detect various types of flaw, and the flaw sizing results were reliable in length and depth.

Photonic Digital PCR In article number 2303728, Sang Hun Lee, Oh Seok Kwon, and co-workers introduce a novel interfacial chemical, N-Heterocyclic Carbene (NHC), for binding stability between Au and the anti-quenching layer under high-temperature based on the self-assembled monolayer. This technology overcomes the limitation of quenching issues in the plasmonic-based digital polymerase chain reaction (dPCR) field. The novel interfacial chemical-based photonic dPCR is promising for applications in the next PCR system and the molecular diagnosis field.

A CMOS direct-conversion receiver including a low noise amplifier and a novel single transistor stacked mixer is proposed in this paper. The LNA has a small signal gain of 12-10 dB and a noise figure of 4.2-4.8 dB in 3-7 GHz range. The conversion gain and the input P1dB of the mixer are 3-6.5 dB and -10 dBm, respectively with the multiband RF signals. The LNA consumes 9.2 mA and the mixer consumes 4.3 mA under 1.8 V supply voltage, respectively.

Enhancing the value of fine chemicals based on biomass resources is an important objective for addressing environmental and other concerns such as demand for renewable or green products, as well as from the political perspective to reduce dependence on fossil feedstock associated with the use of petroleum-based products. Based on these considerations, we studied the synthesis of estolide using waste plant-based oil materials and their application as lubricants and pour point depressants. Five estolides were prepared by varying molar ratio of palmitic acid (PA) to oleic acid (OA) using a reaction time of 48 h. The estolides were characterized by size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The isolated yields were in the range of 57-78 % and purity was 93-97%, showing iodine values of 18.2-37.8, total acid numbers (TANs) of 75.6-94.2 mg KOH/g and estolide numbers (ENs) of 1.2-1.8. Increasing the ratio of OA to PA in the synthesis decreased the kinematic viscosity and clouding point of the estolides. Four ball wear test of the estolides as a base oil demonstrated that the wear scar diameter (WSD) of the estolides was significantly lower (0.320-0.495 mm) than the WSD of general base oils such as 150N and Yubase (0.735 and 0.810 mm, respectively), indicating better wear resistance of the estolides. However, the lubricant property was found to be independent of the amount of OA in the estolides. These new materials are prospective candidates for application as a lubricant base oil.

Critical technologies in knowledge economy may advance at an exponential rate of improvement. The best known example of such exponential trend of improvement has been provided by Moore's law. First, this paper shows that Moore's law is still valid by examining the development of microprocessor technology for the period from 1971 to 2010. Second, this paper finds that such exponential rate of improvement can be found in other technologies such as mobile cellular and genome sequencing technologies. However, their exponential improvement rates vary from technology to technology. Lastly, this paper examines whether the improvement rate has been slowed down in recent years. This paper finds that the improvement rate has been slowed down in the clock speed of microprocessors. However, there is no such downward trend in transistor density, million instructions per second and mobile cellular technology. On the other hand, the improvement rate became higher over the last ten years in genome sequencing technology which is in the early stages of development.

As much more robots are connected to IoT, finding the intended things becomes a more difficult and fundamental function. When people want to instruct a robot in doing its specialties, we can easily know a service name such as printing and moving but it's hard to get the information of intended service providers if either it's the first time to use or servide provider's information is not cached. To cope with this, in this paper, we suggested discovery protocols in two different circumstances. One is to use postal address and DNS system over Internet, and another is to adopt maximum hop counts based on AODV routing protocol, which showed both no effect on the network size and diminution of overhead with same success probability.

Face anti-spoofing (FAS) has become a crucial component in securing face recognition systems against presentation attacks, such as printed photos, replay videos, and 3D masks. While recent advances have improved generalization to unseen spoofing attempts, many existing methods remain black-box models that provide binary decisions without interpretable reasoning. In this paper, we investigate explainable face anti-spoofing from a supervision-centric perspective, using a vision-language model (VLM) to analyze how natural language explanations influence model behavior. To enable this study under controlled conditions, we construct an explanation-augmented benchmark by enriching four standard FAS datasets-MSU-MFSD, CASIA-FASD, Replay-Attack, and OULU-NPU-with both vanilla and reasoning-structured captions generated via the GPT-4o API. We further adopt a dual-objective training strategy that combines spoof classification loss with explanation generation loss, allowing us to examine the effect of explanation-based supervision while keeping the backbone architecture fixed. Through extensive cross-dataset evaluations, we show that reasoning-style captions can enhance detection performance and domain generalization in many settings, while also introducing inductive biases that may degrade performance when emphasized cues are misaligned with unseen attack types. These findings suggest that explanations in FAS should be viewed not only as interpretable outputs, but also as controllable training signals that shape generalization behavior. To support reproducibility, we publicly release the explanation annotations and associated metadata-excluding all face images-via a Hugging Face repository at https://huggingface.co/datasets/DescriptiveFAS/MCIO_public.