• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.11
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• pp.3711-3716
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• 2021

The addition of ferric ferrocyanide (Prussian blue; PB) to adsorbents could enhance the adsorption performance of ¹³³Cs. Toward this goal, we present a heterogeneously integrated carbonaceous material platform consisting of PB in direct contact with CO₂-activated carbon filters (PB-CACF). The resulted sample retains 24.39% more PB than vice versa probed by the ultraviolet-visible spectrometer. We leverage this effect to capture ¹³³Cs in the aqueous environment via the increase in ionic strength and micropores. We note that the amount of PB was likely to be the key factor for ¹³³Cs adsorption compared with specific surface characteristics. The revealed adsorption capacity of PB-CACF was 21.69% higher than the bare support. The adsorption characteristics were feasible and spontaneous. Positive values of 𝜟H^o and 𝜟S^o show the endothermic nature and increased randomness. Based on the concept of capturing hazardous materials via hazardous materials, our work will be of interest within the relevant academia for collecting radionuclides in a sufficient manner.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.1280-1286
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• 2023

MgF₂ as a moderator material has been extensively used in the beam shaping assembly (BSA) that plays an important role in the boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). Regarded as important for applications, the thermal neutron scattering data of MgF₂ were calculated, based on the phonon expansion model. The structural properties of MgF₂ were researched by the VASP code based on the ab-initio methods. The PHONOPY code was employed to calculate the phonon density of states. Furthermore, the NJOY code was used to calculate the thermal neutron scattering data of MgF₂. The calculated inelastic cross sections plus absorption cross sections are in agreement with the available experimental data. The neutron transport in the BSA has been simulated by using a hybrid Monte-Carlo-Deterministic code NECP-MCX. The results indicated that compared with the calculation of the free gas model, the thermal neutron flux and epithermal neutron flux at the BSA exit port calculated by using the thermal neutron scattering data of MgF₂ were reduced by 27.7% and 8.2%, respectively.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.693-697
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• 2015

Our aims were to evaluate the clinical performance of human telomerase RNA gene component (hTERC gene) amplification assay with high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) DNA test of Hybrid Capture 2 DNA test (HC2), for the detection of high grade cervical precancerous lesions and cancer (CIN 2+). In addition, the association shown between hTERC gene amplification and HPV DNA test positive in women with and without cervical neoplasia was assessed. There were 92 women who underwent cytology, HR-HPV DNA test, hTERC gene amplification test, colposcopy and biopsy. We compared the clinical performance of hTERC gene test along with HR-HPV DNA test of women with colposcopy and routine screening. The samples were histology-confirmed high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN 2) or worse (CIN2+) as the positive criterion. The test of hTERC gene showed the hTERC gene amplification positivity increased with the severity of histological abnormality and cytological abnormality. The test of hTERC gene showed higher specificity than HR-HPV DNA test for high-grade lesions (84.4% versus 50%) and also higher positive predictive value (90.4% versus 76.5%). Our results predicted that hTERC gene amplification demonstrated more specific performance for predicting the risk of progression and offer a strong potential as a tool for triage in cervical cancer screening, with the limited sensitive as HR-HPV DNA test.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.14
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• pp.5843-5846
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• 2015

Background: Detection of cervical high grade lesions in patients with atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) is still a challenge. Our study tested the efficacy of the paired boxed gene 1 (PAX1) methylation analysis by methylation-sensitive high-resolution melting (MS-HRM) in the detection of high grade lesions in ASCUS and compared performance with the hybrid capture 2 (HC2) human papillomavirus (HPV) test. Materials and Methods: A total of 463 consecutive ASCUS women from primary screening were selected. Their cervical scrapings were collected and assessed by PAX1 methylation analysis (MS-HRM) and high-risk HPV-DNA test (HC2). All patients with ASCUS were admitted to colposcopy and cervical biopsies. The Chisquare test was used to test the differences of PAX1 methylation or HPV infection between groups. Results: The specificity, sensitivity, and accuracy for detecting CIN2 + lesions were: 95.6%, 82.4%, and 94.6%, respectively, for the PAX1 MS-HRM test; and 59.7%, 64.7%, and 60.0% for the HC2 HPV test. Conclusions: The PAX1 methylation analysis by MS-HRM demonstrated a better performance than the high-risk HPV-DNA test for the detection of high grade lesions (CIN2 +) in ASCUS cases. This approach could screen out the majority of low grade cases of ASCUS, and thus reduce the referral rate to colposcopy.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.16
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• pp.7271-7275
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• 2015

The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of significant lesions defined as high grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL), adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS) and invasive carcinoma in women who had HPV-positive and cytology negative co-testing screening results. This retrospective study was conducted in Chiang Mai University Hospital between May, 2013 and August, 2014. Hybrid capture 2 (HC2) was used for HPV testing and conventional Pap smears for cytologic screening. A repeat liquid-based cytology (LBC) was performed in women with such co-testing results followed by colposcopy. Random biopsy was performed in cases of normal colposcopic findings. Further investigations were carried out according to the biopsy or the repeat LBC results. During the study period, 273 women met the criteria and participated in the study. The mean age of these women was 46.4 years with 30% of them reporting more than one partner. The median interval time to colposcopy was 165 days. About 40% showed an abnormality in the repeat cytology. Significant cervical lesions were found in 20 (7.3%) women, including 2 invasive cancers. Of interest was that only 2 of 20 significant lesions were diagnosed by colposcopic examination while the remainder were initially detected by cervical biopsy and abnormal repeat cytology. In conclusion, the prevalence of significant cervical lesions in HPV positive and cytology negative women in Northern Thailand was 7.3%. Further diagnostic work up with repeat cytology follow by colposcopy is recommended. Random biopsy should be performed even when the colposcopic findings are normal.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.91-96
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• 2012

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of HPV and cervical neoplasia among HIV-infected women in southwestern China. Methods: Cervical cytology, HPV detection by Hybrid Capture-$2^{TM}$ assay, and diagnostic colposcopy were followed by cervical biopsy if indicated. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze associations between HPV co-infection and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), and HIV-related clinical and laboratory parameters. Results: Colposcopic-histopathologically proven CIN2+ lesions were present in 7/83 (8.4%) HIV-infected women. Nearly half (41/83, 43%) were co-infected with carcinogenic HPV genotypes. HPV co-infection was higher in women with colposcopic-histopathologically proven CIN2+ lesions than women with $cells/{\mu}L$ had higher CIN2+ prevalence after adjusting for current ART status and age (adjusted OR: 6.3, 95% CI: 1.1, 36.5). Conclusions: HIV/AIDS care and treatment programs should integrate effective cervical cancer prevention services to mitigate the risk of invasive cervical cancer among HIV-infected women in China.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.18
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• pp.7971-7975
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• 2014

Background: From our previous study, we established that cyclin A1 (CCNA1) promoter methylation is strongly correlated with multistep progression of HPV-associated cervical cancer, suggesting potential use as a diagnostic maker of disease. Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to assess the prevalence of CCNA1 promoter methylation in residual cervical cells isolated from liquid-based cytology that underwent hrHPV DNA screening for cervical cancer, and then to evaluate this marker for diagnostic accuracy using parameters like sensitivity, specificity, predictive values and likelihood ratio. Methods: In this retrospective study, histopathology was used as the gold standard method with specimens separated into the following groups: negative (n=31), low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL, n=34) and high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions or worse (HSIL+, n=32). The hrHPV was detected by Hybrid Capture 2 (HC2) and CCNA1 promoter methylation was examined by CCNA1 duplex methylation specific PCR. Results: The results showed the frequencies of CCNA1 promoter methylation were 0%, 5.88% and 83.33%, while the percentages of hrHPV were 66.67%, 82.35% and 100% in the negative, LSIL and HSIL+ groups, respectively. Although hrHPV infection showed high frequency in all three groups, it could not differentiate between the different groups and grades of precancerous lesions. In contrast, CCNA1 promoter methylation clearly distinguished between negative/LSIL and HSIL+, with high levels of all statistic parameters. Conclusion: CCNA1 promoter methylation is a potential marker for distinguishing between histologic negative/LSIL and HSIL+using cervical cytology samples.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.45.1-45.1
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• 2021

Horizon Run 5 (HR5) is a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation which captures the properties of the Universe on aGpc scale while achieving a resolution of 1kpc. This enormous dynamic range allows us to simultaneously capture the physics of the cosmic web on very large scales and account for the formation and evolution of dwarf galaxies on much smaller scales. On the back of a remarkable achievement of this, we have finished to run follow-up simulations which have 2 times larger volume than before and are expected to complementary to some limitations of previous HR simulations both for the study on the large scale features and the expansion history in a distant Universe. For these simulations, we consider the sub-grid physics of radiative heating/cooling, reionization, star formation, SN/AGN feedbacks, chemical evolution and the growth of super-massive blackholes. In order to do this project, we implemented a hybrid MPI-OpenMP version of the RAMSES code, 'RAMSES-OMP', which is specifically designed for modern many-core many thread parallel systems. These simulation successfully reproduce various observation result and provide a large amount of statistical samples of Lyman-alpha emitters and protoclusters which are important to understand the formation and expansion history of early universe. These are invaluable assets for the interpretation of current ΛCDM cosmology and current/upcoming deep surveys of the Universe, such as the world largest narrow band imaging survey, ODIN (One-hundred-square-degree Dark energy camera Imaging in Narrow band).

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.38.2-38.2
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• 2020

Horizon Run 5 (HR5) is a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation which captures the properties of the Universe on a Gpc scale while achieving a resolution of 1 kpc. This enormous dynamic range allows us to simultaneously capture the physics of the cosmic web on very large scales and account for the formation and evolution of dwarf galaxies on much smaller scales. Inside the simulation box. we zoom-in on a high-resolution cuboid region with a volume of 1049 × 114 × 114 Mpc3. The subgrid physics chosen to model galaxy formation includes radiative heating/cooling, reionization, star formation, supernova feedback, chemical evolution tracking the enrichment of oxygen and iron, the growth of supermassive black holes and feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the form of a dual jet-heating mode. For this simulation we implemented a hybrid MPI-OpenMP version of the RAMSES code, specifically targeted for modern many-core many thread parallel architectures. For the post-processing, we extended the Friends-of-Friend (FoF) algorithm and developed a new galaxy finder to analyse the large outputs of HR5. The simulation successfully reproduces many observations, such as the cosmic star formation history, connectivity of galaxy distribution and stellar mass functions. The simulation also indicates that hydrodynamical effects on small scales impact galaxy clustering up to very large scales near and beyond the baryonic acoustic oscillation (BAO) scale. Hence, caution should be taken when using that scale as a cosmic standard ruler: one needs to carefully understand the corresponding biases. The simulation is expected to be an invaluable asset for the interpretation of upcoming deep surveys of the Universe.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.2643-2646
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• 2012

Objectives: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the major etiological agent of cervical cancer, a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in women worldwide. Screening strategies for reducing the burden of HPV-mediated carcinogenesis are emerging as an effective means for cervical cancer control and prevention in developing countries. Our study, therefore, aimed to identify HPV infection status in North Indian women during random population screening. Methodology: Cervical/vaginal exfoliated cells and/or Pap smear specimens were collected from 890 women of North Indian ethnicity residing in Lucknow and adjoining areas, during random population screening from June 2009-March 2012. HPV viral loads in clinical specimens were determined by the Hybrid Capture (hc)-2 HPV DNA assay, and subsequently, positive/negative/borderline HPV status was calculated. Results: The HPV incidence in the present study was 11.7%. 751 out of a total of 890 women (84.4%) participating in our HPV screening program were HPV negative (HPV -), 104 (11.7%) tested positive (HPV +) while 35 (3.9%) showed borderline (HPV $^*$) infection status. Furthermore, in the HPV + subjects (N=104), 18 (17.3%) showed strong positivity. We observed that HPV positivity tends to increase with age in North Indian women; the higher the viral load with increasing age, higher is the susceptibility to HPV-mediated cervical cancer. Conclusions: HPV viral load/genotyping may help in identifying women at risk of developing cervical cancer. However, cost-effective HPV screening protocols with a wider population coverage are warranted so as to reduce the burden of cervical cancer in women worldwide in the vaccine-era.