• The Korean Journal of Pain
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.23-29
• /
• 1998

Background: The present study was conducted to investigate effects of microinjection of bicuculline, GABA-A receptor antagonist, into the brain stem nuclei on the dorsal horn neuron responsiveness in rats with an experimental peripheral neuropathy. Methods: An experimental neuropathy was induced by a unilateral ligation of L5~L6 spinal nerves of rats. After 2~3 weeks after the surgery, single-unit recording was made from wide dynamic range (WDR) neurons in the spinal cord dorsal horn. Results: Responses of WDR neurons to both noxious and innocuous mechanical stimuli applied to the somatic receptive fields were enhanced on the nerve injured side. These enhanced responsiveness of WDR neurons were suppressed by microinjection of bicuculline into periaqueductal gray(PAG) or nucleus reticularis gigantocellularis(Gi). A similar suppression was also observed when morphine was microinjected into PAG or Gi. Suppressive action by Gi-bicuculline was reversed by naloxonazine, ${\mu}$-opioid receptor antagonist, microinjected into PAG whereas PAG-bicuculline induced suppression was not affected by naloxonazine injection into Gi. Gi-bicuculline induced suppression were reversed by a transection of dorsolateral funiculus(DLF) of the spinal cord. Conclusions: The results suggest that endogenous opioids, via acting on GABAergic interneurons in PAG and Gi, may be involved in the control of neuropathic pain by activating the descending inhibitory pathways that project to the spinal dorsal horn through DLF to inhibit the responsiveness of WDR neurons.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.38-44
• /
• 2008

The freight vehicle is mostly used to transport the fruit. Shock and impact generated by the freight vehicle may give serious damage to fruits hence to reduce the fruits damage, the optimum packaging design during transportation by vehicle is required. In order to design the packaging system for fruit transportation optimally, the comprehension of characteristic for vibration and shock acting on vehicles under various road conditions and loading methods is required. This research was performed to analyze the shock characteristics, acceleration level and power spectral density (PSD) of the fruit transportation vehicles under several travel roads and positions. The vibration signal was measured and analyzed at the transportation vehicle operating on the road of three different surface conditions. The maximum acceleration was measured at the rear-end of the vehicle, and the acceleration in the direction of up-and-down (z-axis) was much greater than those in the directions of back-and-forth (x-axis) or right-and-left (y-axis). The peak acceleration in the direction of up-and-down (z-axis) at the vehicle driving on the expressway, the local road paved with concrete, and unpaved local road were 5.3621 G, 8.232 G, and 14.162 G respectively. PSD at 2.44 Hz showed maximum value at all road conditions. The maximum values of PSD on the expressway, a local road paved with concrete, and unpaved local road were 0.0075222 $G^2/Hz$, 0.058655 $G^2/Hz$, and 0.24598 $G^2/Hz$ respectively. The value of PSD decreased with an increase of the vibration frequency of the transportation vehicle. In most cases, the vibration frequency was below 20 Hz during transportation.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.293-297
• /
• 1998

Hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, or the lack of function of the testis or ovary secondary to the lack of pituitary and or hypothalamic trophic hormones, is also sometimes generally termed Kallmann's syndrome. Whether such deficiencies arise from an inborn error of hypothalamic organization and pituitary connection or damage to the hypothalamic pituitary system in prepubertal life, the manifestations of a eunuchoid or apubertal individual with potentially competent pituitary and gonadal function will result. Beyond the achievement of puberty, a similar situation can be recreated by the administration of a long-acting GnRH analog or by conditions of secondary hypothalamic dysfunction such as anorexia nervosa where shutdown of GnRH and its resultant effects cause cessation of gonadal function and even a regression of secondary sexual characteristics. Technically, these conditions are not Kallmann's syndrome but one must recognize the similarities. We have experienced a case of isolated gonadotropin deficiency which showed a negative KALIG-1 gene in infertile patient with primary amenorrhea. So we report this case with a brief review of literatures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.8 no.5
• /
• pp.1215-1240
• /
• 2015

In this paper, the Theory of Plastic Mechanism Control (TPMC) is applied to the seismic design of dual systems composed by moment-resisting frames and Chevron braced frames. The application of TPMC is aimed at the design of dual systems able to guarantee, under seismic horizontal forces, the development of a collapse mechanism of global type. This design goal is of primary importance in seismic design of structures, because partial failure modes and soft-storey mechanisms have to be absolutely prevented due to the worsening of the energy dissipation capacity of structures and the resulting increase of the probability of failure during severe ground motions. With reference to the examined structural typology, diagonal and beam sections are assumed to be known quantities, because they are, respectively, designed to withstand the whole seismic actions and to withstand vertical loads and the net downward force resulting from the unbalanced axial forces acting in the diagonals. Conversely column sections are designed to assure the yielding of all the beam ends of moment-frames and the yielding and the buckling of tensile and compressed diagonals of the V-Braced part, respectively. In this work, a detailed designed example dealing with the application of TPMC to moment frame-chevron brace dual systems is provided with reference to an eight storey scheme and the design procedure is validated by means of non-linear static analyses aimed to check the actual pattern of yielding. The results of push-over analyses are compared with those obtained for the dual system designed according to Eurocode 8 provisions.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.64 no.6
• /
• pp.703-721
• /
• 2017

The experimental study of the behavior of dry medium and loose sandy soil under the action of a single impulsive load is carried out. Different falling masses from different heights were conducted using the falling weight deflectometer (FWD) to provide the single pulse energy. The responses of soils were evaluated at different locations (vertically below the impact plate and horizontally away from it). These responses include; displacements, velocities, and accelerations that are developed due to the impact acting at top and different depth ratios within the soil using the falling weight deflectometer (FWD) and accelerometers (ARH-500A Waterproof, and Low capacity Acceleration Transducer) that are embedded in the soil and then recorded using the multi-recorder TMR-200. The behavior of medium and loose sandy soil was evaluated with different parameters, these are; footing embedment, depth ratios (D/B), diameter of the impact plate (B), and the applied energy. It was found that increasing footing embedment depth results in: amplitude of the force-time history increases by about 10-30%. due to increase in the degree of confinement with the increasing in the embedment, the displacement response of the soil will decrease by about 25-35% for loose sand, 35-40% for medium sand due to increase in the overburden pressure when the embedment depth increased. For surface foundation, the foundation is free to oscillate in vertical, horizontal and rocking modes. But, when embedding a footing, the surrounding soil restricts oscillation due to confinement which leads to increasing the natural frequency, moreover, soil density increases with depth because of compaction, that is, tendency to behave as a solid medium.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.13-21
• /
• 2017

Recent seismic events occurred in Italy (Emilia-Romagna 2012, Abruzzo 2009) and worldwide (New Zealand 2010 and 2011) highlighted some of the weaknesses of precast concrete industrial buildings, especially those related to the connecting systems traditionally employed to fasten the cladding panels to the internal framing. In fact, one of the most commons fails it is possible to observe in such structural typologies is related to the out-of-plane collapse of the external walls due to the unsatisfactory behaviour of the connectors used to join the panels to the perimeter beams. In this work, the strengthening of a traditional industrial building, assumed as a case study, made by precast reinforced concrete is proposed by the adoption of a dual system allowing the reinforcement of the structure by acting both internally; by pendular columns and, externally, on the walls. In particular, traditional connections at the top of the walls are substituted by devices able to work as a slider with vertical axis while, the bottom of the walls is equipped with two or more hysteretic dampers working on the uplift of the cladding panels occurring under seismic actions. By means of this approach, the structure is stiffened; obtaining a reduction of the lateral drifts under serviceability limit states. In addition, its seismic behaviour is improved due to the additional source of energy dissipation represented by the dampers located at the base of the walls. The effectiveness of the suggested retrofitting approach has been checked by comparing the performance of the retrofitted structure with those of the structure unreinforced by means of both pushover and Incremental Dynamic Analyses (IDA) in terms of behaviour factor, assumed as a measure of the ductility capacity of the structure.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.16 no.6
• /
• pp.952-960
• /
• 2006

As a unicellular green alga that possesses many of the metabolic pathways present in higher plants, Chlorelia offers many advantages for expression of heterologous proteins. Since strong and constitutive promoters are necessary for efficient expression in heterologous expression systems, the development of such promoters for use in the Chlorella system was the aim of this study. Proteins encoded by the early genes of algal viruses are expressed before viral replication, probably by the host transcriptional machinery, and the promoters of these genes might be useful for heterologous expression in Chlorella. In this study, putative promoter regions of DNA polymerase, ATP-dependent DNA ligase, and chitinase genes were amplified from eight Korean Chlorella virus isolates by using primer sets designed based on the sequence of the genome of PBCV-1, the prototype of the Phycodnaviridae. These putative promoter regions were found to contain several cis-acting elements for transcription factors, including the TATA, CAAT, NTBBF1, GATA, and CCAAT boxes. The amplified promoter regions were placed into Chlorella transformation vectors containing a green fluorescence protein (GFP) reporter gene and the Sh ble gene for phleomycin resistance. C. vulgaris protoplasts were transformed and then selected with phleomycin. The GFP fluorescence intensities of cells transformed with chitinase, DNA polymerase, and DNA ligase gene promoter-GFP fusion constructs were 101.5, 100.8, and 95.8%, respectively, of that of CaMV 35S-GFP-transformed Chlorella cells. These results demonstrate that these viral promoters are active in transformed Chlorella.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.32 no.12
• /
• pp.45-57
• /
• 2016

The Inclined Earth Retaining Structure (IER) is the structure using an integrated system of both front supports and inclined back supports to increase the stability for excavation. The IER is a structurally stable temporary excavation method using the back supports restraining the lateral displacement of the front supports as stabilizing piles. The back supports connected to the front supports significantly reduce the earth pressure acting on both the front wall and the front supports by distributing it to the back supports in order to increase the structural stability. In this study, mechanical behaviors of IER according to the head connection type using fixed- or hinge-connection were found by performing numerical analysis and laboratory model tests in the sandy ground. The maximum lateral displacement of fixed-connection was 88% of that of hinge-connection in the numerical analysis. The lateral displacement of fixed-connection was 7% of that of hinge-connection in the laboratory model test results. Furthermore, the earth pressure of the fixed-connection was 67% of that of the hinge-connection in the shear-strain analysis results of the model ground.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.111-124
• /
• 2009

Since the graphics of fashion items as a means to deliver messages suggest practical sections of the society while showing individual ideas and identity, they have values of promotion to attract attention by manifesting an effective function during the process of delivering intentions and the signification. Accordingly, this study aims to investigate the characteristics expressed with graphics shown on T-shirts of casual wear out of all the fashion items and analyze the social messages reflected on them. Using the Barthes' system of denotation and connotation, distinguished symbolic functions and meaning among graphics were analyzed through the analysis of expression methods of the graphics as the denotation of initial meaning and connotation of secondary meaning. Each casual brand has led the sale of casual markets by appealing consumers with graphic items with characters printed such as various kinds of animals and symbols or lettering printed such as hieroglyph and logos, as various expressive methods and social significance as well as a effective communicative means of graphics. As examined above, graphics expressed on fashion items have an informative characteristic and a persuasive characteristic in the aspect of contents, which has a single value as a communicative characteristic. Those characteristics have developed into the fashion graphic actively reflecting a designer's conviction, values, feelings and identity by acting on social issues and publicness. That is, in the age of information, effective messages delivered through the fashion graphic to the public have contributed to the establishment of an appropriate atmosphere of visual culture while maximizing the role and function as a social significance.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
• /
• v.29 no.8 s.104
• /
• pp.673-678
• /
• 2005

In order to improve the safety of ship berthing and the efficiency of berth operation in the harbour, the berthing energy acting on a ship in berthing maneuver need to be estimated properly. The berthing energy is used as one of the criteria to determine the maximum permissible load q{ fender as well as important factors to establish the berthing speed and the required power of tug-boat for pilot and ship operator. Some problems of berthing energy are discussed on the basis of the hydrodynamic aspects. Then, series calculations of berthing energy are carried out considering the effect of water depth on added mass and the ship shape for container series from 1,600TEU to 12,000TEU.