• Title/Summary/Keyword: Genetic assessment

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Performance assessment of buildings isolated with S-FBI system under near-fault earthquakes

  • Ozbulut, Osman E.;Silwal, Baikuntha
    • Smart Structures and Systems
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    • v.17 no.5
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    • pp.709-724
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    • 2016
  • This study investigates the optimum design parameters of a superelastic friction base isolator (S-FBI) system through a multi-objective genetic algorithm to improve the performance of isolated buildings against near-fault earthquakes. The S-FBI system consists of a flat steel-PTFE sliding bearing and superelastic NiTi shape memory alloy (SMA) cables. Sliding bearing limits the transfer of shear across the isolation interface and provides damping from sliding friction. SMA cables provide restoring force capability to the isolation system together with additional damping characteristics. A three-story building is modeled with S-FBI isolation system. Multiple-objective numerical optimization that simultaneously minimizes isolation-level displacements and superstructure response is carried out with a genetic algorithm in order to optimize S-FBI system. Nonlinear time history analyses of the building with optimal S-FBI system are performed. A set of 20 near-fault ground motion records are used in numerical simulations. Results show that S-FBI system successfully control response of the buildings against near-fault earthquakes without sacrificing in isolation efficacy and producing large isolation-level deformations.

Preventive and Risk Reduction Strategies for Women at High Risk of Developing Breast Cancer: a Review

  • Krishnamurthy, Arvind;Soundara, Viveka;Ramshankar, Vijayalakshmi
    • Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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    • v.17 no.3
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    • pp.895-904
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    • 2016
  • Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed invasive cancer among women. Many factors, both genetic and non-genetic, determine a woman's risk of developing breast cancer and several breast cancer risk prediction models have been proposed. It is vitally important to risk stratify patients as there are now effective preventive strategies available. All women need to be counseled regarding healthy lifestyle recommendations to decrease breast cancer risk. As such, management of these women requires healthcare professionals to be familiar with additional risk factors so that timely recommendations can be made on surveillance/risk-reducing strategies. Breast cancer risk reduction strategies can be better understood by encouraging the women at risk to participate in clinical trials to test new strategies for decreasing the risk. This article reviews the advances in the identification of women at high risk of developing breast cancer and also reviews the strategies available for breast cancer prevention.

Eye Movement and Schizophrenia (안구운동과 정신분열병)

  • Kim, Chul-Eung
    • Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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    • v.3 no.1
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    • pp.3-14
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    • 1996
  • Eye movement dysfunction has been found in large numbers of schizophrenia patients and their first-degree relatives and can be studied without the interference of deficits in attention, motivation, clinical status and medication effects with relatively easy method. Eye movement dysfunction has been proposed as a useful way of expanding the schizophrenia phenotype in genetic studies. I review the literature on eye movement dysfunction with respect to syndrome and familial specificity and the quantitative assessment of eye tracking. I hope that the etiology and the pathophysiology of schizophrenia can be clarified through this eye movement study.

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Hysteretic model for stud connection in composite structures

  • Xi Qin;Guotao Yang
    • Steel and Composite Structures
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    • v.47 no.5
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    • pp.587-599
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    • 2023
  • The establishment of a hysteretic model which can accurately predict the hysteretic characteristics of the stud connection is of utmost importance for the seismic assessment of composite structures. In this paper, the Bouc-Wen-Baber-Noori(BWBN) model was adopted to describe the typical hysteretic characteristics of stud connections. Meanwhile, the Newton-Raphson iterative procedure and the Backward Euler method were used to determine the restoring force, and the Genetic Algorithm was employed to identify the parameters of the BWBN model based on the experimental data consisting of eight specimens. The accuracy of the identified parameters was demonstrated by comparison with the experimental data. Finally, prediction equations for the BWBN model parameters were developed in terms of the physical parameters of stud connections, which provides an approach to get the hysteretic response of stud connections conveniently.

Relationships between Genetic Diversity and Fusarium Toxin Profiles of Winter Wheat Cultivars

  • Goral, Tomasz;Stuper-Szablewska, Kinga;Busko, Maciej;Boczkowska, Maja;Walentyn-Goral, Dorota;Wisniewska, Halina;Perkowski, Juliusz
    • The Plant Pathology Journal
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    • v.31 no.3
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    • pp.226-244
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    • 2015
  • Fusarium head blight is one of the most important and most common diseases of winter wheat. In order to better understanding this disease and to assess the correlations between different factors, 30 cultivars of this cereal were evaluated in a two-year period. Fusarium head blight resistance was evaluated and the concentration of trichothecene mycotoxins was analysed. Grain samples originated from plants inoculated with Fusarium culmorum and naturally infected with Fusarium species. The genetic distance between the tested cultivars was determined and data were analysed using multivariate data analysis methods. Genetic dissimilarity of wheat cultivars ranged between 0.06 and 0.78. They were grouped into three distinct groups after cluster analysis of genetic distance. Wheat cultivars differed in resistance to spike and kernel infection and in resistance to spread of Fusarium within a spike (type II). Only B trichothecenes (deoxynivalenol, 3-acetyldeoxynivalenol and nivalenol) produced by F. culmorum in grain samples from inoculated plots were present. In control samples trichothecenes of groups A (H-2 toxin, T-2 toxin, T-2 tetraol, T-2 triol, scirpentriol, diacetoxyscirpenol) and B were detected. On the basis of Fusarium head blight assessment and analysis of trichothecene concentration in the grain relationships between morphological characters, Fusarium head blight resistance and mycotoxins in grain of wheat cultivars were examined. The results were used to create of matrices of distance between cultivars - for trichothecene concentration in inoculated and naturally infected grain as well as for FHB resistance Correlations between genetic distance versus resistance/mycotoxin profiles were calculated using the Mantel test. A highly significant correlation between genetic distance and mycotoxin distance was found for the samples inoculated with Fusarium culmorum. Significant but weak relationships were found between genetic distance matrix and FHB resistance or trichothecene concentration in naturally infected grain matrices.

Analysis of Genetic Variation Among Popcorn Inbred Lines by SSR Markers (튀김용 옥수수 자식계통들에 대한 유전적 변이성)

  • Jang, Jin-Sun;Chang, Eun-Ha;Sa, Kyu-Jin;Kim, Jong-Hwa;Lee, Ju Kyong
    • Korean Journal of Breeding Science
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    • v.43 no.5
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    • pp.405-412
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    • 2011
  • Knowledge of genetic diversity and genetic relationships among inbred lines gives a significant impact on the selection of parental lines for hybrid maize varieties. Genetic diversity and genetic relationships among 86 popcorn inbred lines were analyzed using 50 SSR markers distributed over the whole genome. A total of 256 alleles were identified at all the SSR loci with an average of 5.1 and a range between two and sixteen per locus. The gene diversity values varied from 0.21 to 0.831 with an average of 0.579. The cluster tree generated using the described SSR markers recognized three major groups at 35.8% genetic similarity. Groups I, II, III respectively included 40, 39 and 7 inbred lines. The present study indicates that the SSR markers chosen for this analysis are effective for the assessment of genetic diversity and genetic relationships among 86 popcorn inbred lines in Korea.

First Report of Rust Disease on Fringe Tree by Puccinia sp. and Its Alternative Host (Puccinia sp.에 의한 이팝나무 잎녹병 발생 및 중간기주 보고)

  • Yu, Nan Hee;Park, Ae Ran;Yoon, Hyeokjun;Son, Youn Kyoung;Lee, Byoung-Hee;Kim, Jin-Cheol
    • Research in Plant Disease
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    • v.26 no.3
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    • pp.179-182
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    • 2020
  • In July 2018, a serious rust symptom was found throughout the fringe trees planted in Gangjin-gun, Korea. Yellow and brown spots were observed on the adaxial (topside) surface of the collected fringe tree leaves, and yellow color aecia were observed on the abaxial (underside) surface leaves. The size of aeciospore and urediniospores of JCK-KCFR1 strain were measured to 41.2 ㎛ (Φ) and 28.84 ㎛ (Φ) with a light microscope. Phylogenetic analysis of the small subunit rRNA, internal transcribed spacer, and large subunit rRNA region indicated that JCK-KCFR1 strain is novel species of the genus Puccinia and closely related to Puccinia kusanoi, which has been reported a rust pathogen on bamboo. In May 2019, rust symptoms were also discovered on the bamboo leaves planted around the fringe tree on Muwisa-ro, and their telia and teliospores were observed on the abaxial leaf surfaces of the bamboo with 100% sequence homology with the rust of the fringe tree. This is the first report that Puccinia sp. JCK-KCFR1 is a new species that requires both primary (fringe tree) and alternative (bamboo) host plants to complete its life cycle in Korea.

Identification and Biochemical Characterization of Xylanase-producing Streptomyces glaucescens subsp. WJ-1 Isolated from Soil in Jeju Island, Korea (제주도 토양에서 분리한 xylanase 생산균주 Streptomyces glaucescens subsp. WJ-1의 동정 및 효소의 생화학적 특성 연구)

  • Kim, Da Som;Jung, Sung Cheol;Bae, Chang Hwan;Chi, Won-Jae
    • Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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    • v.45 no.1
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    • pp.43-50
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    • 2017
  • A xylan-degrading bacterium (strain WJ-1) was isolated from soil collected from Jeju Island, Republic of Korea. Strain WJ-1 was characterized as a gram-positive, aerobic, and spore-forming bacterium. The predominant fatty acid in this bacterium was anteiso-$C_{15:0}$ (42.99%). A similarity search based on 16S rRNA gene sequences suggested that the strain belonged to the genus Streptomyces. Further, strain WJ-1 shared the highest sequence similarity with the type strains Streptomyces spinoveruucosus NBRC 14228, S. minutiscleroticus NBRC 13000, and S. glaucescens NBRC 12774. Together, they formed a coherent cluster in a phylogenetic tree based on the neighbor-joining algorithm. The DNA G+C content of strain WJ-1 was 74.7 mol%. The level of DNA-DNA relatedness between strain WJ-1 and the closest related species S. glaucescens NBRC 12774 was 85.7%. DNA-DNA hybridization, 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, and the phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics suggest that strain WJ-1 constitutes a novel subspecies of S. glaucescens. Thus, the strain was designated as S. glaucescens subsp. WJ-1 (Korean Agricultural Culture Collection [KACC] accession number 92086). Additionally, strain WJ-1 secreted thermostable endo-type xylanases that converted xylan to xylooligosaccharides such as xylotriose and xylotetraose. The enzymes exhibited optimal activity at pH 7.0 and $55^{\circ}C$.

Safety Assessment of Foods Produced Using Recombinant DNA Techniques

  • Toyoda, Masatake
    • Toxicological Research
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    • v.17
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    • pp.167-171
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    • 2001
  • The introduction of genetically modified crops has raised concerns regarding safety issues over the insertion of foreign genes into plant genomes using recombinant DNA technology. Since 1991 in Japan, 29 foods and 6 food additives have been evaluated, based on the "Guideline for Safety Assessment", before these foods were marketed. The MHW, however, decided that safety assessment of such foods and food additives should be legally imposed. because soon such foods and food additives are expected to circulate globally and a new system for assessing safety of such foods and food additives at a pre-market stage is necessary, in order to avoid the distribution of any genetically modified foods that have had no safety assessment. The MHW published relevant announcements to amend existing regulations on 1 May 2000. "Standards for safety assessment of seed plant" is established based on a concept of substantial equivalence, and applicable to the products which are regarded as equivalent to the existing products used as foods and food additives. The characterization of the food products entails consideration of the molecular characterization. phenotypic and compositional characteristics, key nutrients and toxicants, and toxicity and allergenicity of the introduced proteins, and if there are indications of unintended effects of the modification, whether further safety testing (animal studies etc.) is needed should be considered. Safety and wholesomeness studies with whole foods should be care fully designed in order to avoid nutritional imbalances causing artifacts and uninterpretable results as was the case of Dr. Pusztaiis report. A case study of genetically modified soybeans (glyphosate-tolerant soybeans) on the immune system of rats and mice is shown. Chemical compositions were also compared with those of the non-GM soybeans. The studies failed to detect any differences in immuno-toxic activity.muno-toxic activity.

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