Seoul National University

About: Seoul National University is a education organization based out in Seoul, South Korea. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Catalysis. The organization has 65879 authors who have published 138759 publications receiving 3715170 citations. The organization is also known as: SNU & Seoul-dae.

Feedback linearization vs. adaptive sliding mode control for a quadrotor helicopter

Abstract: This paper presents two types of nonlinear controllers for an autonomous quadrotor helicopter. One type, a feedback linearization controller involves high-order derivative terms and turns out to be quite sensitive to sensor noise as well as modeling uncertainty. The second type involves a new approach to an adaptive sliding mode controller using input augmentation in order to account for the underactuated property of the helicopter, sensor noise, and uncertainty without using control inputs of large magnitude. The sliding mode controller performs very well under noisy conditions, and adaptation can effectively estimate uncertainty such as ground effects.

Electronic mechanism of hardness enhancement in transition-metal carbonitrides

Abstract: Transition-metal carbides and nitrides are hard materials widely used for cutting tools and wear-resistant coatings. Their hardness is not yet understood at a fundamental level. A clue may lie in the puzzling fact that transition-metal carbonitrides that have the rock-salt structure (such as TiCxN1−x) have the greatest hardness for a valence-electron concentration of about 8.4 per cell1,2,3, which suggests that the hardness may be determined more by the nature of the bonding than by the conventional microstructural features that determine the hardness of structural metals and alloys. To investigate this possibility, we have evaluated the shear modulus of various transition-metal carbides and nitrides using ab initio pseudopotential calculations. Our results show that the behaviour of these materials can be understood on a fundamental level in terms of their electronic band structure. The unusual hardness originates from a particular band of σ bonding states between the non-metal p orbitals and the metal d orbitals that strongly resists shearing strain or shape change. Filling of these states is completed at a valence-electron concentration of about 8.4, and any additional electrons would go into a higher band which is unstable against shear deformations.

Neuron-released oligomeric α-synuclein is an endogenous agonist of TLR2 for paracrine activation of microglia

Abstract: Abnormal aggregation of α-synuclein and sustained microglial activation are important contributors to the pathogenic processes of Parkinson's disease. However, the relationship between disease-associated protein aggregation and microglia-mediated neuroinflammation remains unknown. Here, using a combination of in silico, in vitro and in vivo approaches, we show that extracellular α-synuclein released from neuronal cells is an endogenous agonist for Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2), which activates inflammatory responses in microglia. The TLR2 ligand activity of α-synuclein is conformation-sensitive; only specific types of oligomer can interact with and activate TLR2. This paracrine interaction between neuron-released oligomeric α-synuclein and TLR2 in microglia suggests that both of these proteins are novel therapeutic targets for modification of neuroinflammation in Parkinson's disease and related neurological diseases.

Ion Concentration Polarization by Bifurcated Current Path.

Abstract: Ion concentration polarization (ICP) is a fundamental electrokinetic process that occurs near a perm-selective membrane under dc bias. Overall process highly depends on the current transportation mechanisms such as electro-convection, surface conduction and diffusioosmosis and the fundamental characteristics can be significantly altered by external parameters, once the permselectivity was fixed. In this work, a new ICP device with a bifurcated current path as for the enhancement of the surface conduction was fabricated using a polymeric nanoporous material. It was protruded to the middle of a microchannel, while the material was exactly aligned at the interface between two microchannels in a conventional ICP device. Rigorous experiments revealed out that the propagation of ICP layer was initiated from the different locations of the protruded membrane according to the dominant current path which was determined by a bulk electrolyte concentration. Since the enhancement of surface conduction maintained the stability of ICP process, a strong electrokinetic flow associated with the amplified electric field inside ICP layer was significantly suppressed over the protruded membrane even at condensed limit. As a practical example of utilizing the protruded device, we successfully demonstrated a non-destructive micro/nanofluidic preconcentrator of fragile cellular species (i.e. red blood cells).