Culturally-constructed barriers

I have traveled to and lived in many different countries outside my native country of Korea. These opportunities have allowed me to meet diverse people and learn about their unique cultures. While living in the United States, I have experienced culture shock in such everyday activities as observing students eating food during class, wearing pajamas at school, and other similar displays of informal behavior. I was taught to follow Confucian ideas; the basic principles being to respect one¡¯s elders and to be considerate of other people. Compared to Korean culture, Western culture seems very open-minded and individualistic. Adjusting to the West has challenged me to negotiate conflicting impulses to reveal or conceal my emotions. I have experienced both confidence and insecurity speaking English and I have felt a sense of belonging and isolation, resulting from my appearance as an Asian. Having these experiences, I have come to realize that invisible barriers exist between me and other people from different cultures. Before coming to the United States, I ascribed commonplace stereotypes to Americans. I believed that they all possessed guns, were tall and big, and ate hamburgers everyday, etc. These stereotypes and cultural barriers may have been created not only by cultural differences, but also through my own preconceptions. The Korean culture that I grew up in has impeded my full comprehension and assimilation into Western culture. I want to integrate the traditions of my Korean culture with aspects of western culture in order to illustrate how both cultures are a part of me. Through the use of many different display techniques, I have created partially permeable barriers, such as a fence, a door and blinds from ordinary Korean objects like Kimchi jars, rice bowls, side-dish plates, and spoons. I have also invented a pattern as a hidden icon. I want to understand and make elements of Western life my own in the process. My thesis exhibition demonstrates this desire by creating partially open barriers to signal my cultural adjustment to life in the West

Theoretical and Experimental Investigation of N-Bit Reconfigurable Retrodirective Metasurface

The PIN diode-based N-bit reconfigurable retrodirective metasurface (N-bit RRDM) is a next-generation retro-reflector that offers the advantages of effective electronical control of the retro-reflection angle, low loss, and thin planar structure. However, since the unit cell of an N-bit RRDM is controlled by a quantized N-bit phase (360°/2N), it encounters operational errors, such as beam gain reduction and spurious beams. This can be a fatal disadvantage in military radar or satellite communication, which requires accurate beam tracking. This paper theoretically analyzes the operation of the N-bit RRDM by utilizing generalized Snell’s law and array factor theory. The analysis results present the design criteria for an N-bit RRDM that eliminates issues related to beam gain reduction and spurious beam errors. Furthermore, to verify the theoretical analysis results, High-Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS) full-wave simulation and experimentation are conducted using the 1-bit RRDM

Effective Computer-Assisted Automatic Cervical Vertebrae Extraction with Rehabilitative Ultrasound Imaging by using K-means Clustering

Neck pain is one of most common musculoskeletal condition resulting in significant clinical, social and economic costs. Muscles around cervical spine including deep neck flexors play a key role to support and control its stability, thus monitoring such muscles near cervical vertebrae is important. In this paper, we propose a fully automated computer assisted method to detect cervical vertebrae with K-means pixel clustering from ultrasonography. The method also applies a series of image processing algorithms to remove unnecessary organs and noises in the process. The experiment verifies that our approach is consistent with human medical experts’ decision to locate key measuring point for muscle analysis and successful in detecting cervical vertebrae accurately – successful in 48 out of 50 test cases (96%)

Materials and extracellular matrix rigidity highlighted in tissue damages and diseases: Implication for biomaterials design and therapeutic targets

Rigidity (or stiffness) of materials and extracellular matrix has proven to be one of the most significant extracellular physicochemical cues that can control diverse cell behaviors, such as contractility, motility, and spreading, and the resultant pathophysiological phenomena. Many 2D materials engineered with tunable rigidity have enabled researchers to elucidate the roles of matrix biophysical cues in diverse cellular events, including migration, lineage specification, and mechanical memory. Moreover, the recent findings accumulated under 3D environments with viscoelastic and remodeling properties pointed to the importance of dynamically changing rigidity in cell fate control, tissue repair, and disease progression. Thus, here we aim to highlight the works related with material/matrix-rigidity-mediated cell and tissue behaviors, with a brief outlook into the studies on the effects of material/matrix rigidity on cell behaviors in 2D systems, further discussion of the events and considerations in tissue-mimicking 3D conditions, and then examination of the in vivo findings that concern material/matrix rigidity. The current discussion will help understand the material/matrix-rigidity-mediated biological phenomena and further leverage the concepts to find therapeutic targets and to design implantable materials for the treatment of damaged and diseased tissues

Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome in young people, from childhood to young adulthood: relationships between age and clinical and electrophysiological findings

PurposeThe aim of the present study was to evaluate the characteristics of electrophysiologic studies (EPS) and radiofrequency ablation (RFA) performed in subjects aged less than 30 years with Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome, particularly pediatric patients under 18 years of age, based on our experience.MethodsTwo hundred and one consecutive patients with WPW syndrome were recruited and divided to 3 groups according to age: group 1, 6 to 17 years; group 2, 18 to 29 years; and group 3, 30 to 60 years. The clinical, electrophysiological, and therapeutic data for these patients were evaluated by a retrospective medical record review.ResultsA total of 73 (36%) of these patients were <30 years of age. Although there were more males than females in group 2 (male:female, 31:11), there was no sex difference in group 1 (male:female, 16:15). Left accessory pathway was detected less frequently in group 1 (32%, 10/31) than in group 2 (57%, 24/42) and group 3 (63%, 81/128) (P=0.023 and P=0.002, respectively).ConclusionThe present study describes several different electrophysiological characteristics in children and adolescents with WPW syndrome. Therefore, when EPS and RFA are performed in children and adolescence with WPW syndrome, we recommend that these characteristics be considered