• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.15
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• pp.6651-6661
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• 2015

Breast cancer is a global health concern and is a major cause of death among women. In Oman, it is the most common cancer in women, with an incidence rate of 15.6 per 100,000 Omani females. Various anticancer remedies have been discovered from natural products in the past and the search is continuing for additional examples. Cytotoxic natural compounds may have a major role in cancer therapy either in potentiating the effect of chemotherapy or reducing its harmful effects. Recently, a few studies have reported advantages of using crude camel milk in treating some forms of cancer. However, no adequate data are available on the lyophilised camel's milk responsibility for triggering apoptosis and oxidative stress associated with human breast cancer. The present study aimed to address the role of the lyophilised camel's milk in inducing proliferation repression of BT-474 and HEp-2 cells compared with the non-cancer HCC1937 BL cell line. Lyophilized camel's milk fundamentally repressed BT-474 cells growth and proliferation through the initiation of either the intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic pathways as indicated by both caspase-3 mRNA and its action level, and induction of death receptors in BT-474 but not the HEp-2 cell line. In addition, lyophilised camel's milk enhanced the expression of oxidative stress markers, heme-oxygenase-1 and reactive oxygen species production in BT-474 cells. Increase in caspase-3 mRNA levels by the lyophilised camel's milk was completely prevented by the actinomycin D, a transcriptional inhibitor. This suggests that lyophilized camel's milk increased newly synthesized RNA. Interestingly,it significantly (p<0.003) repressed the growth of HEp-2 cells and BT-474 cells after treatment for 72 hours while 24 hours treatment repressed BT-474 cells alone. This finding suggests that the lyophilised camel's milk might instigate apoptosis through initiation of an alternative apoptotic pathway.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.228-235
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• 2016

Aquatic ecosystems are receiving various harmful effects due to anthropogenic chemical pollutions. To protect wildlife, risk assessments of the chemicals are conducted using reference indexes of toxicity estimated by species-level laboratory tests and/or micro-/mesocosm community-level studies. However, the existing micro-/mesocosm communities are structurally too complicated, and it is also difficult to compare the experimental results directly with those from species-level tests. Here, we developed a procedure of a simple bi-trophic microcosm experiment which contains the common species (a green algae, Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata and a cladoceran, Daphnia magna) for testing chemical toxicities. For the proper operation of bitrophic microcosm experiment, the minimum required concentration of primary producer (P. subcapitata) is $5{\times}10^5cells\;mL^{-1}$. The microcosm system showed higher stability when the initially introduced D. magna population was composed of neonates (<24-h old) than adults and those mixture. This simple microcosm system would be an applicable tool to estimate the disturbing impacts of pollutants on plant-herbivore interactions, and linking the species- and population-/community level risk assessments in the future studies.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.111-117
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• 2018

Disinfection of ballast water using chlorine dioxide was investigated under various initial microorganism contents, dose concentrations and pH values. Kinetics of microorganism inactivation and byproduct generation of chlorine dioxide treatment were compared with the chlorine treatment. Results of treatments with chlorine dioxide concentrations of 0 to $10mg\;Cl_2/L$ showed that The optimum concentration of chlorine dioxide required for disinfection of ballast water was 1 mg/L. The difference among the second order reaction constants for bacterial disinfection at pH 7.2 to 9.2 for chlorine dioxide was less than 5% for both bacteria. This result implied that the bactericidal effects of chlorine dioxide was independent of the pH in the examined range. On the other hand, the inactivation kinetics of chlorine for E. coli and Enterococcus decreased by 17% and 25%, respectively, when pH increased from 7.2 to 9.2. The bactericidal power of chlorine dioxide was superior to sodium hypochlorite above pH 8.2, the average pH value of sea water. Furthermore, treatments of chlorine dioxide generated less harmful byproducts than chlorine and had a long-term disinfection effect on bacteria and phytoplankton from the results of experiment for 30 days. Chlorine dioxide would be a promising alternative disinfectant for ballast water.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.21 no.2 s.24
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• pp.329-339
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• 1988

The study is carried out to investigate the effect of drinking and smoking for the activities of aspartate aminotransferase(AST, or GOT) and alanine aminotransferase(ALT or GPT), from December 25, 1986 to April 30, 1987. The male physical examinees for employment, 900 who had visited to the Taegu Medical Center were subjected. And the positive cases of HBs-Ag, Anti-HBs and skin test for Clonorchis sinensis were excluded. The general characters of drinking and smoking pattern were introduced by interview with questionnaire provided for. In drinking cases, the longer duration was significantly effected the higher rate of abnormality in AST and ALT level. But the amount and the frequency were not. It was not appeared effects by mackgulri which is a Korean traditional wine and small amount of beers. In smoking cases, also same pattern. The age was related in all cases. By the way, when the effect is related the positive results with other factors: HBs-Ag, Anti-HBs, skin test for Clonorchiasis and harmful occupational history, it is higher abnormal rate of AST and ALT in the duplicated cases with two factors or more. Particularly in HBs-Ag positive cases, those who had smoking was the highest in rate of abnormality, and drinking was the follows. In correlation matrix among seven factors; HBs-Ag, age, drinking amount, drinking period, drinking frequency, smoking amount and smoking period, correlation coefficient was significant between the abnormal rate and to with age, drinking period, smoking period, and smoking amount.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.84-92
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• 2018

Bearings are essential for reducing vibration and wear, in order to achieve high durability and increase longevity. White metal treatment of tilting pads via centrifugal casting method has the possibility of increasing durability. However, this manufacturing method has drawbacks such as long processing time, high defect rate, and harmful health effects. Laser cladding deposition technique is a powerful method that can address these issues by decreasing the processing time and providing good adhesion. In this study, we suggest optimum conditions for laser cladding deposition that can be used in industrial applications. We deposited a soft white metal layer on SCM440 that is primarily used in shafts to minimize wear of bearing pads. During the laser deposition process, we controlled factors such as laser power, powder feed rate, and laser head speed to determine the optimum conditions. In addition, we measured the hardness using micro Vickers, and performed field emission scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and friction tests to investigate the mechanical properties and surface characteristics for different parameters. Based on the experimental results, we suggest that laser power, powder feed rate, and laser head speed of 1.3 kW, 2.5 rpm, and 10 mm/s, respectively, constitute the optimum conditions for producing white metals using laser cladding.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.5941-5948
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• 2013

Tumor response to antineoplastic drugs is not always predictable. This is also true for bladder carcinoma, a highly recurrent neoplasia. Currently, the combination of cisplatin and gemcitabine is well accepted as a standard protocol for treating bladder carcinoma. However, in some cases, this treatment protocol causes harmful side effects. Therefore, we investigated the roles of the genes TP53, RASSF1A (a tumor suppressor gene) and hMLH1 (a gene involved in the mismatch repair pathway) in cell susceptibility to cisplatin/gemcitabine treatment. Two bladder transitional carcinoma cell (TCC) lines, RT4 (wild-type TP53) and 5637 (mutated TP53), were used in this study. First, we evaluated whether the genotoxic potential of cisplatin/gemcitabine was dependent on TP53 status. Then, we evaluated whether the two antineoplastic drugs modulated RASSF1A and hMLH1 expression in the two cell lines. Increased DNA damage was observed in both cell lines after treatment with cisplatin or gemcitabine and with the two drugs simultaneously, as depicted by the comet assay. A lack of RASSF1A expression and hypermethylation of its promoter were observed before and after treatment in both cell lines. On the other hand, hMLH1 downregulation, unrelated to methylation status, was observed in RT4 cells after treatment with cisplatin or with cisplatin and gemcitabine simultaneously (wild-type TP53); in 5637 cells, hMLH1 was upregulated only after treatment with gemcitabine. In conclusion, the three treatment protocols were genotoxic, independent of TP53 status. However, cisplatin was the most effective, causing the highest level of DNA damage in both wild-type and mutated TP53 cells. Gemcitabine was the least genotoxic agent in both cell lines. Furthermore, no relationship was observed between the amount of DNA damage and the level of hMLH1 and RASSF1A expression. Therefore, other alternative pathways might be involved in cisplatin and gemcitabine genotoxicity in these two bladder cancer cell lines.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.903-907
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• 2015

Background: Among human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer, more than half are also hormone receptor (HR)-positive. Although HR is a predictive factor for the efficacy of hormone therapy, there are still some uncertainties in regard to the effects on patients with HR-positive and HER2-positive metastatic breast cancers due to the potential resistance to hormone therapy caused by co-expression of HR and HER2. There are no clinical trials directly comparing the efficacy of hormonal therapy with chemotherapy. Materials and Methods: To examine the real-world effect of hormone therapy on patients with HR-positive and HER2-positive metastatic breast cancers, a cross-sectional study of a representative sample of the Chinese population was conducted. The study included 113 patients who received first-line and second-line palliative treatment between 2005 and 2010 in the Cancer Institute and Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Science. The effect of hormone therapy on overall survival (OS) was studied. Results: The patients who received hormone therapy (n=51) had better overall survival in contrast to those who received chemotherapy with anti-HER2 therapy (n=62) in first- or second-line treatment. The difference was of borderline statistical significance (51.8m vs 31.9m, p=0.065). In addition, the effect of hormone therapy did not differ significantly with other prognostic factors, including age (${\leq}50$ years or >50 years), disease free survival (${\geq}2$ years or < 2 years) and site of metastasis (visceral or bone/soft tissue). On multivariate analysis, administration of hormone therapy was associated with a trend toward a favorable prognosis (p=0.148, HR=0.693, 95%CI 0.422-1.139). Age more than 50 years was the sole independent harmful prognostic factor (p<0.001, HR=2.797, 95%CI 1.676-4.668). Conclusions: Our data suggest that hormonel therapy may improve outcomes of the patients with ER-positive and HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.896-902
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• 2015

Milking center wastewater (MCW) has a relatively low ratio of carbon to nitrogen (C/N ratio), which should be separately managed from livestock manure due to the negative impacts of manure nutrients and harmful effects on down-stream in the livestock manure process with respect to the microbial growth. Simultaneous nitrification and denitrification (SND) is linked to inhibition of the second nitrification and reduces around 40% of the carbonaceous energy available for denitrification. Thus, this study was conducted to find the optimal operational conditions for the treatment of MCW using an attached-growth biofilm reactor; i.e., nitrogen loading rate (NLR) of 0.14, 0.28, 0.43, and $0.58kg\;m^{-3}\;d^{-1}$ and aeration rate of 0.06, 0.12, and $0.24\;m^3\;h^{-1}$ were evaluated and the comparison of air-diffuser position between one-third and bottom of the reactor was conducted. Four sand packed-bed reactors with the effective volume of 2.5 L were prepared and initially an air-diffuser was placed at one third from the bottom of the reactor. After the adaptation period of 2 weeks, SND was observed at all four reactors and the optimal NLR of $0.45kg\;m^{-3}\;d^{-1}$ was found as a threshold value to obtain higher nitrogen removal efficiency. Dissolved oxygen (DO) as one of key operational conditions was measured during the experiment and the reactor with an aeration rate of $0.12\;m^3\;h^{-1}$ showed the best performance of $NH_4-N$ removal and the higher total nitrogen removal efficiency through SND with appropriate DO level of ${\sim}0.5\;mg\;DO\;L^{-1}$. The air-diffuser position at one third from the bottom of the reactor resulted in better nitrogen removal than at the bottom position. Consequently, nitrogen in MCW with a low C/N ratio of 2.15 was successfully removed without the addition of external carbon sources.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.191-196
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• 2017

Owing to the harmful environmental effects of HCFC and CFC refrigerants discovered in the late 20th century, the need for environmentally friendly refrigerants such as $CO_2$ in cooling systems has increased. Air-source $CO_2$ heat pumps that utilize ambient heat in cold winter are less efficient because of a higher evaporation temperature, and it is difficult to manufacture the components of the heat pump owing to a super critical pressure of over 130 bar. This research aims to overcome these disadvantages and improve energy efficiency by introducing a new lower-pressure $CO_2$ auto-cascade heat pump system. $CO_2$-R32 zeotropic refrigerants were considered for two-stage expansion and effective cooling heat exchanging system configurations of the new auto-cascade heat pump. The results indicated that the efficiency of the two-stage expansion system was higher than that of the original one-stage expansion system. Furthermore, the two-stage expansion system showed significant performance improvements when the two-stage expansion stage from highest pressure of 70bar, intermediate expansion pressure of 25bar, and final low pressure of 10bar is applied. The COP of the new two-stage auto-cascade system (2.332) was 43.15% higher than that of the present simple auto-cascade system (1.629). Refrigerants having an evaporation temperature of $-10^{\circ}C$ or lower can be obtained that can be easily evaporated in an evaporator even at a low temperature.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.33-54
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• 1995

The degree of conversion of composite resin was known to have influence on the mechanical properties of composite materials such as hardness, strength, wear resisitance, dimensional and color stability. Also unreacted monomer was reported to be harmful to the pulp. So the degree of conversion was a very important factor in the success of composite resin restorations. In recent, the dual cure resin cement was developed with the advocations that it could increase the curing rates in the sites where the curing ligt could not reach. Moreover many manufactors added some adhesive components in the resin cement. This study was undertaken to observe the effects of curing depth and light curing times on the degree of conversion of dual cure resin cements. CR INLAY CEMENT, DUAL CEMENT and OPTEC BOND, by the Fourier transform Infrared analysis, changing the curing depth 1mm, 2mm and 3mm, and varying the light curing time 20 seconds, 40 seconds and 80 seconds at each depth. The cytotoxicity of dual cure resin cements was tested by the in vitro MTT method using L929 cell. The results was evaluated and compared statistically. The results were obtained as follows : 1. The dual cure resin cements reavealed various degree of conversion, CR INLAY CEMENT and DUAL CEMENT had a tendency to be more reactive to the light cure and OPTEC BOND was a more chemical one. 2. CR INLAY CEMENT and DUAL CEMENT showed the lowest degree of conversion in 2 mm depth, and in 3mm depth the degree of conversion increased, which were due to the chemical cure of dual cures, but OPTEC BOND showed decreasing degree of conversion with increasing curing dept h and all experimental groups showed lower degree of conversion than CHEMICAL group which cured in dark room with no light, so the weak light-curing of dual cure resin cement prevented the chemical cure. (P<0.05) 3. CR INLAY CEMENT and DUAL CEMENT showed increasing degree of conversion in 1 mm and 3 mm, according to the increasing cure times, but in 2 mm depth the degree of conversion decreased with increasing light-curing times and OPTEC BOND showed contrary tendency, but there was no ststistical importance in the differences among the experimental group.(P>0.05) 4. The optical density by MTT assay of extractions of CR INLAY CEMENT, DUAL CEMENT and OPTEC BOND revealed no statitically important differences comparing with optical density of negative control.(P>0.05) 5. CR INLAY CEMENT showed a tendency of increaing cytotoxicity with days and DUAL CEMENT and OPTEC BOND showed higher cytotoxicity in 2 days than in 4 days, but there was no statistical importance in the differences.(P>0.05).