• Journal of Communications and Networks
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.253-265
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• 2010

The problem of pricing for a telecommunication network is investigated with respect to the users' sensitivity to the pricing structure. A functional optimization problem is formulated, in order to compute price reallocations as functions of data collected in real time during the network evolution. No a-priori knowledge about the users' utility functions and the traffic demands is required, since adaptive reactions to the network conditions are sought in real time. To this aim, a neural approximation technique is studied to exploit an optimal pricing control law, able to counteract traffic changes with a small on-line computational effort. Owing to the generality of the mathematical framework under investigation, our control methodology can be generalized for other decision variables and cost functionals.

• Carbon letters
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• v.20
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• pp.19-25
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• 2016

Activated carbon fiber (ACF) surfaces are modified using an electron beam under different aqueous solutions to improve the NO gas sensitivity of a gas sensor based on ACFs. The oxygen functional group on the ACF surface is changed, resulting in an increase of the number of non-carbonyl (-C-O-C-) groups from 32.5% for pristine ACFs to 39.53% and 41.75% for ACFs treated with hydrogen peroxide and potassium hydroxide solutions, respectively. We discover that the NO gas sensitivity of the gas sensor fabricated using the modified ACFs as an electrode material is increased, although the specific surface area of the ACFs is decreased because of the recovery of their crystal structure. This is attributed to the static electric interaction between NO gas and the non-carbonyl groups introduced onto the ACF surfaces.

• BMB Reports
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.172-177
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• 2023

BEST family is a class of Ca²⁺-activated Cl- channels evolutionary well conserved from bacteria to human. The human BEST paralogs (BEST1-BEST4) share significant amino acid sequence homology in the N-terminal region, which forms the transmembrane helicases and contains the direct calcium-binding site, Ca²⁺-clasp. But the cytosolic C-terminal region is less conserved in the paralogs. Interestingly, this domain-specific sequence conservation is also found in the BEST1 orthologs. However, the functional role of the C-terminal region in the BEST channels is still poorly understood. Thus, we aimed to understand the functional role of the C-terminal region in the human and mouse BEST1 channels by using electrophysiological recordings. We found that the calcium-dependent activation of BEST1 channels can be modulated by the C-terminal region. The C-terminal deletion hBEST1 reduced the Ca²⁺-dependent current activation and the hBEST1-mBEST1 chimera showed a significantly reduced calcium sensitivity to hBEST1 in the HEK293 cells. And the C-terminal domain could regulate cellular expression and plasma membrane targeting of BEST1 channels. Our results can provide a basis for understanding the C-terminal roles in the structure-function of BEST family proteins.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.435-447
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• 1999

It is main objective of this approach to present a method to analyse stochastic design sensitivity for problems of structural dynamics with randomness in design parameters. A combination of the adjoint variable approach and the second order perturbation method is used in the finite element approach. An alternative form of the constant functional that holds for all times is introduced to consider the time response of dynamic sensitivity. The terminal problem of the adjoint system is solved using equivalent homogeneous equations excited by initial velocities. The numerical procedures are shown to be much more efficient when based on the fold superposition method: the generalized co-ordinates are normalized and the correlated random variables are transformed to uncorrelated variables, whereas the secularities are eliminated by the fast Fourier transform of complex valued sequences. Numerical algorithms have been worked out and proved to be accurate and efficient : they can be readily adapted to fit into the existing finite element codes whose element derivative matrices can be explicitly generated. The numerical results of two cases -2 dimensional portal frame for the comparison with reference and 3-dimensional frame structure - for the deterministic sensitivity analysis are presented.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.8
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• pp.2256-2260
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• 2013

A new quinoline-based acylhydrazone (1) has been synthesized and applied as a fluorescent probe. Probe 1 exhibits high selectivity and sensitivity to $Cu^{2+}$ with fluorescence "ON-OFF" behavior in HEPES buffered (1‰ DMSO, HEPES 20 mM, pH = 7.4) solution. The on-site generated 1-$Cu^{2+}$ complex displays excellent selectivity to sulfide ions with fluorescence "OFF-ON" performance through copper displacement approach.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.233-241
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• 2008

Functional feeding groups (FFGs) of benthic macroinvertebrates are guilds of invertebrate taxa that obtain food in similar ways, regardless of their taxonomic affinities. They can represent a heterogeneous assemblage of benthic fauna and may indicate disturbances of their habitats. The proportion of different groups can change in response to disturbances that affect the food base of the system, thereby offering a means of assessing disruption of ecosystem functioning. In this study, we used benthic macroinvertebrate communities collected at 650 sites of 23 different water types in the province of Overijssel, The Netherlands. Physical and chemical environmental factors were measured at each sampling site. Each taxon was assigned to its corresponding FFG based on its food resources. A multilayer perceptron (MLP) using a backpropagation algorithm, a supervised artificial neural network, was applied to evaluate the influence of environmental variables to the FFGs of benthic macroinvertebrates through a sensitivity analysis. In the evaluation of input variables, the sensitivity analysis with partial derivatives demonstrates the relative importance of influential environmental variables on the FFG, showing that different variables influence the FFG in various ways. Collector-filterers and shredders were mainly influenced by $Ca^{2+}$ and width of the streams, and scrapers were influenced mostly with $Ca^{2+}$ and depth, and predators were by depth and pH. $Ca^{2+}$ and depth displayed relatively high influence on all four FFGs, while some variables such as pH, %gravel, %silt, and %bank affected specific groups. This approach can help to characterize community structure and to ecologically assess target ecosystems.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.950-957
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to develop generalized validity evaluation indexes for the Sasang type diagnostic test. As a generalized evaluation index for Sasang type diagnostic test, Generalized Squared Correlation (GC2), Mutual Information (I) and Mutual Information Coefficient (IC) as overall validity index, and Correlation Coefficient (C) and Mutual Information Contribution (ID) as type-specific validity index were suggested and the practicability of these indexes was assessed along with Percentage Correctly Predicted (PCP), adjusted PCP, type-specific sensitivity and type-specific specificity which was proposed previously. The usefulness of the nine validity indexes was examined using previously reported data and three mock Sasang type diagnosis results. We demonstrated here that the PCP is not adequate for the analysis of validity. We also showed that our validity index is recommendable for the comparison and improvement of Sasang type diagnosis. The generalized validity analysis of Sasang type diagnosis can provide a guideline for the development of new Sasang type diagnosis or pattern identification. The working sheet for calculating validity indexes can be acquired at http://www.sasangtypology.org/validity.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.941-948
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• 1996

The accuracy of rectal palpation and ultrasonography for predicting the presence of a functional corpus luteum in subestrous dairy cows was investigated, using the result of a radioimmunoassay for progesterone in plasma. Luteal status (high or low progesterone concentrations) was diagnosed in 820 cows, using rectal palpation and B-mode transrectal ultrasonography, and the results of rectal palpation and ultrasonography were compared in $2{\times}2$ contingency table with plasma progesterone concentrations. A $2{\times}2$ contingency table analysis allowed the calculation of sensitivity, specificity and predictive values for rectal palpation and ultrasonography. The sensitivity, specificity, predictive value of a positive test and predictive value of a negative test were 81.9%, 67.5%, 79.0% and 71.4% for rectal palpation, and 96.3%, 88.8%, 94.5% and 92.4% for ultrasonography, respectively. The percentages of observed agreement and expected agreement between rectal palpation and ultrasonography were 71.8% and 57.1%, respectively. An evaluation of agreement between rectal palpation and ultrasonography, the value of Kappa was 0.34. It was concluded that a ultrasonography was more sensitive and specific than rectal palpation in predicting the presence of a functional corpus luteum. Therefore, ultrasonographic examination is a reliable method for assessing the functional status of ovarian structures in subestrous dairy cows.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.1852-1860
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• 1991

A shape design sensitivity of the elastic deformation due to a change of traction boundary condition is presented. The solution of governing equations for a linear elasticity problem is obtained by finite element method and the traction boundary is defined by design variables. The performance functional to be considered involves both the domain and boundary integral. Variations of geometry can be defined as design velocity. Using material derivative concept and adjoint equations, the design sensitivity is derived by Lagrange multiplier method. For a given geometry of a structure, the change of traction boundary is described by the tangential component of the design velocity only. The final result for the shape design sensitivity is formulated as the boundary integral form, the integrand is defined by tangential component of design velocity and first order derivatives of parameters. Numerical implementation of design sensitivity is discussed and is compared with the difference of the actual values.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.28 no.9
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• pp.1320-1327
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• 2004

An efficient boundary-based technique is developed for addressing shape design sensitivity analysis in supercavitating flow problem. An analytical sensitivity formula in the form of a boundary integral is derived based on the continuum formulation for a general functional defined in potential flow problems. The formula, which is expressed in terms of the boundary solutions and shape variation vectors, can be conveniently used for gradient computation in a variety of shape design in potential flow problems. While the sensitivity can be calculated independent of the analysis means, such as the finite element method (FEM) or the boundary element method (BEM), the FEM is used for the analysis in this study because of its popularity and easy-to-use features. The advantage of using a boundary-based method is that the shape variation vectors are needed only on the boundary, not over the whole domain. The boundary shape variation vectors are conveniently computed by using finite perturbations of the shape geometry instead of complex analytical differentiation of the geometry functions. The supercavitating flow problem is chosen to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed methodology. Implementation issues for the sensitivity analysis and optimization procedure are also addressed in this flow problem.