• Title/Summary/Keyword: Cost Reduction Effect

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Antifungal Activity of Silver Salts of Keggin-Type Heteropolyacids Against Sporothrix spp.

  • Mathias, Luciana Da Silva;Almeida, Joao Carlos De Aquino;Passoni, Luis Cesar;Gossani, Cristiani Miranda David;Taveira, Gabriel Bonan;Gomes, Valdirene Moreira;Vieira-Da-Motta, Olney
    • Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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    • v.30 no.4
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    • pp.540-551
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    • 2020
  • Sporotrichosis is a chronic and subacute mycosis causing epidemiological outbreaks involving sick cats and humans in southeastern Brazil. The systemic disease prevails in cats and in humans, with the symptoms restricted to the skin of immunocompetent individuals. Under these conditions, the prolonged treatment of animals and cases of recurrence justify the discovery of new treatments for sporotrichosis. This work addresses the antifungal activity of silver salts of Keggin-type heteropolyacid salts (Ag-HPA salts) such as Ag3[PW12O40], Ag6[SiW10V2O40], Ag4[SiW12O40] and Ag3[PMo12O40] and interactions with the antifungal drugs itraconazole (ITC), terbinafine (TBF) and amphotericin B (AMB) on the yeast and mycelia forms of Sporothrix spp. Sporothrix spp. yeast cells were susceptible to Ag-HPA salts at minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values ranging from 8 to 128 ㎍/ml. Interactions between Ag3[PW12O40] and Ag3[PMo12O40] with itraconazole and amphotericin B resulted in higher antifungal activity with a reduction in growth and melanization. Treated cells showed changes in cell membrane integrity, vacuolization, cytoplasm disorder, and membrane detachment. Promising antifungal activity for treating sporotrichosis was observed for the Ag-HPA salts Ag3[PMo12O40] and Ag3[PW12O40], which have a low cost, high yield and activity at low concentrations. However, further evaluation of in vivo tests is still required.

A Study on the Properties of High-Fluidity Concrete with Low Binders Using Viscosity Agent (증점제를 사용한 저분체 고유동 콘크리트의 특성에 관한 연구)

  • Park, Gi-Joon;Park, Jung-Jun;Kim, Sung-Wook;Lee, Dong-Gyu
    • Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.689-696
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    • 2017
  • The practical applications of ordinary high-fluidity concrete have been limited due to several drawbacks, such as high hydration heat, high amount of shrinkage, and non-economic strength development. On the other hand, due to its advantages, such as improvement of construction quality, reduction of construction cost and period, the development of high-fluidity concrete is a pressing need. This study examined the properties of high-fluidity concrete, which can be manufactured on the low binders using a viscosity agent to prevent the segregation of materials. The optimal viscosity agent was selected by an evaluation of the mechanical properties of high-fluidity concrete among six viscosity agents. The acrylic type and urethane type viscosity agents showed the best performance within the range where no material separation occurred. The mechanical properties were evaluated to examine the optimal amount of AC and UT viscosity agent added by mixing two viscosity agents according to the adding ratio and blending them together with high performance water reducing agent. When the ratio of the AC : UT viscosity agents was 5:5, it was most suited for high-fluidity concrete with low binders by increasing the workability and effect of the reducing viscosity.

ZnO nanostructures for e-paper and field emission display applications

  • Sun, X.W.
    • 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 2008.10a
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    • pp.993-994
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    • 2008
  • Electrochromic (EC) devices are capable of reversibly changing their optical properties upon charge injection and extraction induced by the external voltage. The characteristics of the EC device, such as low power consumption, high coloration efficiency, and memory effects under open circuit status, make them suitable for use in a variety of applications including smart windows and electronic papers. Coloration due to reduction or oxidation of redox chromophores can be used for EC devices (e-paper), but the switching time is slow (second level). Recently, with increasing demand for the low cost, lightweight flat panel display with paper-like readability (electronic paper), an EC display technology based on dye-modified $TiO_2$ nanoparticle electrode was developed. A well known organic dye molecule, viologen, was adsorbed on the surface of a mesoporous $TiO_2$ nanoparticle film to form the EC electrode. On the other hand, ZnO is a wide bandgap II-VI semiconductor which has been applied in many fields such as UV lasers, field effect transistors and transparent conductors. The bandgap of the bulk ZnO is about 3.37 eV, which is close to that of the $TiO_2$ (3.4 eV). As a traditional transparent conductor, ZnO has excellent electron transport properties, even in ZnO nanoparticle films. In the past few years, one-dimension (1D) nanostructures of ZnO have attracted extensive research interest. In particular, 1D ZnO nanowires renders much better electron transportation capability by providing a direct conduction path for electron transport and greatly reducing the number of grain boundaries. These unique advantages make ZnO nanowires a promising matrix electrode for EC dye molecule loading. ZnO nanowires grow vertically from the substrate and form a dense array (Fig. 1). The ZnO nanowires show regular hexagonal cross section and the average diameter of the ZnO nanowires is about 100 nm. The cross-section image of the ZnO nanowires array (Fig. 1) indicates that the length of the ZnO nanowires is about $6\;{\mu}m$. From one on/off cycle of the ZnO EC cell (Fig. 2). We can see that, the switching time of a ZnO nanowire electrode EC cell with an active area of $1\;{\times}\;1\;cm^2$ is 170 ms and 142 ms for coloration and bleaching, respectively. The coloration and bleaching time is faster compared to the $TiO_2$ mesoporous EC devices with both coloration and bleaching time of about 250 ms for a device with an active area of $2.5\;cm^2$. With further optimization, it is possible that the response time can reach ten(s) of millisecond, i.e. capable of displaying video. Fig. 3 shows a prototype with two different transmittance states. It can be seen that good contrast was obtained. The retention was at least a few hours for these prototypes. Being an oxide, ZnO is oxidation resistant, i.e. it is more durable for field emission cathode. ZnO nanotetropods were also applied to realize the first prototype triode field emission device, making use of scattered surface-conduction electrons for field emission (Fig. 4). The device has a high efficiency (field emitted electron to total electron ratio) of about 60%. With this high efficiency, we were able to fabricate some prototype displays (Fig. 5 showing some alphanumerical symbols). ZnO tetrapods have four legs, which guarantees that there is one leg always pointing upward, even using screen printing method to fabricate the cathode.

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Influence and Application of an External Variable Magnetic Field on the Aqueous HCl Solution Behavior: Experimental Study and Modelling Using the Taguchi Method (염산 수용액 거동에 대한 가변 외부 자기장의 적용과 영향: 실험 연구 및 Taguchi 법을 이용한 모델링)

  • Hashemizadeh, Abbas;Ameri, Mohammad Javad;Aminshahidy, Babak;Gholizadeh, Mostafa
    • Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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    • v.29 no.2
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    • pp.215-224
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    • 2018
  • Influences of the magnetic field on 5, 10 and 15 wt% (1.5, 3 and 4.5 M) HCl solution behaviour, which has widespread applications in petroleum well acidizing, were investigated in various conditions. Differences in the pH of magnetized hydrochloric acid compared to that of normal hydrochloric acid were measured. Taguchi design of experimental (DoE) method were used to model effects of the magnetic field intensity, concentration, velocity and temperature of acid in addition to the elapsed time. The experimental results showed that the magnetic field decreases [$H^+$] concentration of hydrochloric acid up to 42% after magnetization. Increasing the magnetic field intensity (with 28% contribution), concentration (with 42% contribution), and velocity of acid increases the effect of magnetic treatment. The results also demonstrated that the acid magnetization was-not influenced by the fluid velocity and heating. It was also displayed that the acid preserves its magnetic memory during time. The optimum combination of factors with respect to the highest change of [$H^+$] concentration was obtained as an acid concentration of 10% and an applied magnetic field of 4,300 Gauss. Due to the reduction of HCl reaction rate under the magnetization process, it can be proposed that the magnetized HCl is a cost effective and reliable alternative retarder in the matrix acidizing of hydrocarbon (crude oil and natural gas) wells.

Effect of Phase Feeding on the Growth Performance, Nutrient Utilization and Carcass Characteristics in Finishing Pigs

  • Lee, J.H.;Kim, J.D.;Kim, J.H.;Jin, J.;Han, In K.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.13 no.8
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    • pp.1137-1146
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    • 2000
  • This study was carried out to establish an optimum number of phase feeding regimen which enable to reduce nutrients excretion without affecting growth performance and to investigate the effects of different feeding regimens on growth performance, nutrients excretion and carcass characteristics in finishing pigs. A total of 120 finishing pigs (an average initial body weight of 54.3 kg) were assigned to the feeding trial and 12 pigs were assigned to the metabolic trial. Treatments included one phase (54 to 104 kg), two phase (54 to 80 and 80 to 104 kg), three phase (54 to 70, 70 to 90 and 90 to 104 kg) and four phase (54 to 65, 65 to 80, 80 to 95, 95 to 104 kg) feeding regimens. Experimental diets were formulated to contain 16% crude protein for one phase feeding regimen, 16% and 12% crude protein for two phase feeding regimen, 16%, 14% and 12% crude protein for three phase feeding regimen, and 16%, 14.7%, 13.4% and 12% crude protein for four phase feeding regimen, respectively. Although there were no significant differences in any criteria measured during the entire experimental period, pigs reared in three phase feeding regimen grew slightly faster than those reared in other feeding regimens and showed a tendency to increase ADFI during the whole experimental period. The metabolic trial indicated that there were no significant differences in DM (dry matter), CP (crude protein) and P (phosphorus) digestibilities. However, fecal nutrient excretion except P was significantly influenced by feeding regimens. DM excretion of one phase feeding group was significantly higher than that of three phase feeding group and daily fecal N (nitrogen) excretion of one phase feeding group was higher than that of other phase feeding groups (p<0.05). Three and four phase feeding regimens resulted in 12% lower fecal N and DM excretion than one phase feeding regimen. Blood urea concentrations were lower for pigs reared in two, three and four phase feeding regimens than for those reared in one phase feeding regimen (p<0.05). Three phase feeding regimen for the finishing period showed better carcass grade than one phase feeding regimen, though the difference was not significant. The tenth rib fat thickness of pigs fed on four phase feeding regimen was reduced most and there was a trend that backfat thickness decreased as the number of phases increased. Feed cost per kg weight gain was significantly low in four phase feeding group than one phase feeding group (p<0.05). In summary, it seemed that producers generally oversupply the expensive nutrients for the finishing pigs. High nutrient diets do not always guarantee high growth rate of pigs and cause more unwanted nutrient excretion. It rather seems that meeting nutrient requirements for the each growth phase is more important for the reduction of pollutants and economical pork production.

The Effect of Cloud Service Risks on the Intention of Purchasing Real Options: Focusing on Public Cloud Service of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (클라우드 서비스 위험이 실물옵션 채택의도에 미치는 영향: 중소기업의 퍼블릭 클라우드 서비스를 중심으로)

  • Kim, Jeong-eun;Yang, Hee-dong
    • Information Systems Review
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    • v.17 no.1
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    • pp.117-140
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    • 2015
  • Cloud Computing has drawn attention as one of 10 IT strategic technology trends and has various advantages such as cost reduction and enhancing business flexibility. However, corporations hesitate to adopt the service because of unexpected risks. Especially compared to large firm, medium and small ones use public cloud that security risk is high. Meanwhile, real option strategy has drawn attention as the method to hedge uncertainty in IT projects. Therefore, in this study causal relationships among technical, security, relational, and economic risks of cloud service will be investigated. Eventually, this study investigates how those risks influence the intention to choose the real option about the cloud service. For this study, five hypotheses is drawn, and a survey is conducted about the medium and small firms which are currently using cloud service to examine hypotheses. Since the study is at organizational level, 287 questionnaire replies are recalculated to 120 firms. For statistical analysis, Smart PLS and SPSS Statistics18 are used. As a result, technical risk of cloud service has significantly positive influence on security risk. Second, security risk and relational risk of cloud service has significantly positive influence on economic risk. Third, economic risk of cloud service has significantly positive influence on the intention to purchase the delay option or abandon option. Based on this result, this research discussed practical and academic implications and the limitations.

The Relationship between Offline Trust and Online Transaction in Internet Banking (인터넷 뱅킹에서 오프라인 신뢰와 온라인 거래의 관계)

  • Lee, Woong-Kyu
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.29-47
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    • 2007
  • Owing to the rapid growth of using the Internet, not only click-and-mortar companies but also brick-and-mortar ones have been expanding their distribution channels into online, Moreover, since online channels are more attractive than offline ones in control and maintenance, switching customers into online ones is emerged as one of very important managerial issues in a view of reduction of cost as well as expansion of services. However, the switched customers should be faced by uncertainties which could not have been experienced in offline. Specifically, in online channels, buyers and sellers are separated temporally and spacially and there are always so many kinds of threat for security as well as not enough systems and conventions for them yet. Therefore, trust has been considered as one of the most critical mechanisms for resolution of such uncertainties in online transactions. However, it is not easy to build and maintain the relationships in online since most of them are virtual and indirect generally. Therefore, in order to switch offline customers into online ones, it is very important to make strategies based on identification of the relationship between online transaction and offline trust which has been built in offline business. Generally offline trust, which has been built independent of online, could not include trust for online-dependent activities such as payment security during or after transactions, while most of online trust include it. Therefore, a customer with high offline trust does not always perceive high security and assure safe transactions. Accordingly, while online trust, where technical capabilities for online security is one of main bases, includes control trust implicitly or explicitly, offline trust does not. However. in spite of such clear discrimination and independence between offline trust and perceived security, there can be the significant dependency between these two beliefs. The customers with high offline trust believe that the company would do some activities for online security for customers' safe transactions since it has been believed of doing well for customers' trust. Theoretically, users' perception of security is interpreted as a kind of control trus, which is trust for company's technical control capacities in order to resolve technical uncertainties in online. Therefore, the relationship between two beliefs can be considered as transference from offline trust to another type trust. that is, control trust. The objective of this study is to analyze the effect of offline trust on online transaction uses mediated by perceived security. For this purpose, we suggest a research model based on technology acceptance model (TAM). Reuse intention is adopted as a dependent variable and TAM is modified by adding perceived risk (PR) as well as two beliefs of using Internet banking, perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU). Moreover, perceive security (PS) is adopted as an external variable for PR and PU, while offline trust (OT) is an antecedent of PS. For an empirical test, sampling from 108 visitors to the banks in Daegu, Korea, we analyze our model by partial least square (PLS) approach. In result, our model is shown to explain 51.4% of the variance in reuse intention and all hypothesis are supported statistically. A theoretical implication of this study is to identify a role of PS between offline trust and reuse intention of using online transaction services. According to our result, PS can be considered as a mediation variable for bridging between two different concepts: trust that explains social aspects of customers and companies, and TAM that explains customers' reuse intention.

Effect of low-dose Aprotinin on Postoperative Bleeding and Renal Function after Cardiopulmonary Bypass (체외순환후 출혈감소와 신기능에 미치는 저용량 aprotinin효과)

  • 박철현;현성열;이현재;박국양;김주이;임창영
    • Journal of Chest Surgery
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    • v.31 no.1
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    • pp.32-39
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    • 1998
  • High-dose aprotinin(Hammersmith regimen) has been widely used for years to control postoperative bleeding and reduce blood consumption in cardiac surgery but had known to cause some side-effects and had disadvantage in cost-effectiveness. The prospective controlled study of 33 patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass was performed to evaluate the efficacy for reducing postoperative bleeding and unfavorable effects of low-dose aprotinin. The level of hemoglobin and platelet in the blood and the amount of postoperative bleeding were assessed preoperatively, and postoperatively for the study of hemostatic function. The level of BUN and serum creatinine in the blood, levels of urine creatinine, total protein, albumin, alpha-1-microglobulin and creatinine clearance were assessed before and after the operation for the study of renal function. The aprotinin group had a significant reduction in chest tube drainage; 243$\pm$ 123 ml versus 406$\pm$303 ml(P=0.037) during 6 hours immediate-postoperatively, 494$\pm$358 ml versus 869$\pm$570 ml(P=0.045) during 24 hours postoperatively. The ratio of alpha-1-microglobulin/creatinine and microalbumin/creatinine in the urine were slightly increased in the aprotinin group postoperatively in comparison with the control group but there were no statistically significant difference(55$\pm$23 versus 24$\pm$10 in the alpha-1-microglobulin/creatinine, 56$\pm$19 versus 38$\pm$25 in the microalbumin/creatinine at post- operative 3rd day). There were no significant difference between two groups in other parameters of renal function, too. This study showed that low-dose aprotinin is an effective means of reducing postoperative bleeding without inducing significant renal dysfunction.

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Reduction of Oxidative Stress by Chondroitin Sulfate in the Ovariectomy-Induced Aging Rat (난소절제로 유도한 노화쥐에서 chondroitin sulfate에 의한 산화 스트레스의 감소효과)

  • 이진영;하배진
    • Journal of Life Science
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    • v.14 no.2
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    • pp.280-285
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    • 2004
  • The ovarian hormone-deficiency induced ovariectomy rat is widely used as an aging model due to its practicality, convenience, and cost effectiveness. The surgically ovariectomized rat induces reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation like aging phenomena. Free oxygen radicals have been proposed as important causative agents of aging. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of chondroitin sulfate (CS) to prevent ovariectomy (OVX)-induced oxidative stress. The OVX rats were given intraperitoneally CS at doses of 100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg daily for fifteen weeks. Malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were determined as well as the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), reduced-glutathione (GSH), oxidized-glutathione (GSSG), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) in the liver. The liver antioxidative enzyme activity was elevated while MDA concentration decreased in all CS treated animals. The results demonstrated that CS reduced oxidative stress in a dose dependent manner. These results suggest that CS might be a useful candidate for antioxidative reagent.

Observing System Experiments Using KLAPS and 3DVAR for the Upper-Air Observations over the South and West sea during ProbeX-2009 (KLAPS와 3DVAR를 이용한 ProbeX-2009 남·서해상 고층관측자료의 관측 시스템 실험 연구)

  • Hwang, Yoon-Jeong;Ha, Jong-Chul;Kim, Yeon-Hee;Kim, Ki-Hoon;Jeon, Eun-Hee;Chang, Dong-Eon
    • Atmosphere
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    • v.21 no.1
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    • pp.1-16
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    • 2011
  • Numerical prediction capability has been improved over the decades, but progress of prediction for high-impact weather (HIW) was unsatisfactory. One reason of low predictability for HIW is lack of observation data. The National Institute of Meteorological Research (NIMR) has been performed observation program for improvement of predictability, and reduction in social and economical cost for HIW. As part of this observation program, summer intensive observation program (ProbeX-2009) was performed at the observation-gap areas from 25 August to 6 September 2009. Sounding observations using radiosonde were conducted in the Gisang2000 research vessel (R/V) from the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) over the West Sea and the Eardo R/V from the Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute (KORDI) over the South Sea. Observation System Experiment (OSE) is carried out to examine the effect of ProbeX-2009 data. OSEs using Korea Local Analysis and Prediction System (KLAPS) and Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model are conducted to investigate the predictability for a short time forecast. And, OSEs using WRF/3DVAR system and WRF forecast model are conducted to study the predictability for an extended time. Control experiment (K_CTL and CNTL) used only GTS observation and experiment (K_EXP and SWEXP) used ProbeX-2009 data from two system are performed. ETS for 3hr accumulated rainfall simulated by KLAPS-WRF shows that K_EXP is higher than K_CTL. Also, ETS for 12hr accumulated rainfall of SWEXP from 3DVAR-WRF is higher than CNTL. The results indicate that observation over the ocean has positive impact on HIW prediction.