• Computers and Concrete
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• 제26권2호
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• pp.127-136
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• 2020

There is an inherent randomness for concrete microstructure even with the same manufacturing process. Meanwhile, the concrete material under the aqueous environment is usually not fully saturated by water. This study aimed to develop a stochastic micromechanical framework to investigate the probabilistic behavior of the unsaturated concrete from microscale level. The material is represented as a multiphase composite composed of the water, the pores and the intrinsic concrete (made up by the mortar, the coarse aggregates and their interfaces). The differential scheme based two-level micromechanical homogenization scheme is presented to quantitatively predict the concrete's effective properties. By modeling the volume fractions and properties of the constituents as stochastic, we extend the deterministic framework to stochastic to incorporate the material's inherent randomness. Monte Carlo simulations are adopted to reach the different order moments of the effective properties. A distribution-free method is employed to get the unbiased probability density function based on the maximum entropy principle. Numerical examples including limited experimental validations, comparisons with existing micromechanical models, commonly used probability density functions and the direct Monte Carlo simulations indicate that the proposed models provide an accurate and computationally efficient framework in characterizing the material's effective properties. Finally, the effects of the saturation degrees and the pore shapes on the concrete macroscopic probabilistic behaviors are investigated based on our proposed stochastic micromechanical framework.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제30권1호
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• pp.94-99
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• 2017

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of heat shock protein (HSP) 90, 70, and 60 in chicken muscles and their possible relationship with quality traits of meat. Methods: The breast muscles from one hundred broiler chickens were analyzed for drip loss and other quality parameters, and the levels of heat shock protein (HSP) 90, 70, and 60 were determined by immunoblots. Results: Based on the data, chicken breast muscles were segregated into low (drip loss${\leq}5%$), intermediate (5%${\geq}9.5$) drip loss groups. The expression of HSP90 and HSP60 were significantly lower in the high drip loss group compared to that in the low and intermediate drip loss group (p<0.05), while HSP70 was equivalent in abundance in all groups (p>0.05). Conclusion: Results of this study suggests that higher levels of HSP90 and HSP60 may be advantageous for maintenance of cell function and reduction of water loss, and they could act as potential indicator for better water holding capacity of meat.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제15권22호
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• pp.9945-9948
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• 2014

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate Tim-3 expression on peripheral CD3-CD56+ natural killer (NK) cells and CD3+CD56+ natural killer T (NKT) cells in lung cancer patients. Materials and Methods: We analyzed Tim-3+CD3-CD56+ cells, Tim-3+CD3-$CD56^{dim}$ cells, Tim-3+CD3-$CD56^{bright}$ cells, and Tim-3+CD3+CD56+ cells in fresh peripheral blood from 79 lung cancer cases preoperatively and 53 healthy controls by flow cytometry. Postoperative blood samples were also analyzed from 21 members of the lung cancer patient cohort. Results: It was showed that expression of Tim-3 was significantly increased on CD3-CD56+ cells, CD3-$CD56^{dim}$ cells and CD3+CD56+ cells in lung cancer patients as compared to healthy controls (p=0.03, p=0.03 and p=0.04, respectively). When analyzing Tim-3 expression with cancer progression, results revealed more elevated Tim-3 expression in CD3-CD56+ cells, CD3-$CD56^{dim}$ cells and CD3+CD56+ cells in cases with advanced stages (III/IV) than those with stage I and II (p=0.02, p=0.04 and p=0.01, respectively). In addition, Tim-3 expression was significantly reduced on after surgical resection of the primary tumor (p<0.01). Conclusions: Tim-3 expression in natural killer cells from fresh peripheral blood may provide a useful indicator of disease progression of lung cancer. Furthermore, it was indicated that Tim-3 might be as a therapeutic target.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제15권12호
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• pp.5023-5028
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• 2014

Sendai virus strain Tianjin is a novel genotype. Here, we investigate the antitumor and proapoptotic effects of ultraviolet-inactivated Sendai virus strain Tianjin (UV-Tianjin) on human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells in vitro, as well as the involvement of the apoptotic pathway in the mechanism of UV-Tianjin-induced antitumor effects. MTT assays showed that treatment with UV-Tianjin dose-dependently inhibited the proliferation of MDA-MB-231 cells but not normal MCF 10A breast epithelium cells. Hoechst staining and flow cytometric analysis revealed that UV-Tianjin induced apoptosis of MDA-MB-231 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, UV-Tianjin treatment resulted in reduction in the mitochondria membrane potential (MMP) and release of cytochrome complex (cyt c) via regulation of Bax and Bcl-2, as well as activation of caspase-9, caspase-3, Fas, FasL and caspase-8 in MDA-MB-231 cells. In summary, our study suggests that UV-Tianjin exhibits anticancer activity in human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells through inducing apoptosis, which may involve both the endogenous mitochondrial and exogenous death receptor pathways.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제14권12호
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• pp.7137-7141
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• 2013

Several studies have shown that nemo-like kinase (NLK) plays a vital role in apoptosis of cancer cells. The present research concerned effects and mechanisms of Taxol on NLK knockdown human laryngeal cancerHep-2 cell lines in vitro. Using RNAi, methyl-thiazoltetrazolium (MTT) assays, real-time RT-PCR, Western blotting and flow cytometry analysis, growth and the cell cycle progression of NLK knockdown Hep-2 cells and expression of downstream molecules were observed. Cell growth was obviously suppressed in the Taxol treated group (P<0.001, 48 hours). Cell numbers of combined Taxol-based chemotherapy with lentivirus mediated RNAi treatment group (Lv-shNLK+Taxol goup) were significantly different from NLK-specific siRNA lentivirus infected group (Lv-shNLK group) (p<0.001). Flow cytometry analysis revealed that Lv-shNLK+Taxol caused the G0/G1-phase DNA content to decrease from 44.1 to 3.33% (p<0.001) and the S-phase DNA content to increase from 38.4 to 82.0% (p<0.001), in comparison with the Lv-shNLK+Taxol group. Immunoblot analysis showed that knockdown of NLK led to significant reduction in the levels of cyclin D1, PCNA and PARP, whereas cyclin B1 was elevated in. Cell growth was also obviously suppressed in the Hep-2 cell line, knockdown of NLK making them more sensitive to Taxol treatment. NLK is expected to become a target of new laryngeal cancer gene therapies.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제25권7호
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• pp.1093-1100
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• 2015

Acetate and lactate in growth media are detrimental to the production of Thermus maltogenic amylase (ThMA), a heterologous protein, as well as to the growth of recombinant Escherichia coli. Only 50 mM of acetate or 10 mM of lactate reduced 90% of specific ThMA activity. In this study, mutant E. coli strains blocked in the ackA-pta or ackA-pta and ldh pathways were created, characterized, and assessed for their culture performace in 300 L-scale fermentation. The ackApta and ldh double-mutant strain formed significantly less lactate and acetate, and produced a concomitant increase in the excretion of pyruvate (17.8 mM) under anaerobic conditions. The ackA-pta mutant strain accumulated significant acetate but had an approximately 2-fold increase in the formation of lactate. The ackA-pta and ldh double-mutant strain had superior overall performance in large-scale culture under suboptimal conditions, giving 67% higher cell density and 66% higher ThMA activity compared with those of the control strain. The doublemutant strain also achieved a 179% improvement in volumetric ThMA production.

• Nutritional Sciences
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• 제7권2호
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• pp.83-87
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• 2004

To investigate the effects of dietary phytate reduction and zinc supplementation on biochemical iron parameters in elderly Korean women consuming inadequate iron, fifteen healthy women aged 64-75 years were recruited for a feeding study. A high-phytate diet (27.8 phytate:zinc molar ratio) was provided for 9 days, followed by a nine-day low-phytate diet(12.3) and a subsequent 28-day period of unregulated meals with zinc supplementation (22 mg/d as zinc gluconate). Serum iron increased significantly with the low-phytate diet (130.4 $\mu g$/L) but returned to the level observed during the high-phytate diet (113.0 $\mu g$ /L) period when subjects were taking zinc supplements (105.8 $\mu g$ /L). However, serum ferritin in the subjects decreased significantly with the low-phytate diet (73.8 $\mu g$ /L) as well as with zinc supplementation (57.2 $\mu g$ /L), compared to levels following consumption of the high-phytate diet (89.6 $\mu g$ /L). Transferrin receptor and transferrin saturation were unchanged with the treatments. In summary, zinc supplementation might result in deteriorated iron status in elderly Korean women who consume inadequate iron, while there was no significant effect from reducing dietary phytate.

• 한국통신학회논문지
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• 제28권11B호
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• pp.1038-1049
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• 2003

트래픽 부하 측정은 네트웍 트래픽 엔지니어링의 기반이 된다. 그러나 고속 링크에서 트래픽 부하 정보를 얻기 위해 모든 패킷을 측정하는 것은, 라우터의 패킷 포워딩 성능을 저해시키므로 확장성이 결여된다. 이에 따라 샘플링 기법이 트래픽 측정의 대안으로 제시되었다. 샘플링은 라우터의 성능 저해를 최소화시킬 수 있으나 샘플링으로 예측되는 트래픽 부하는 실제 트래픽 부하와 차이를 보이게 되며, 이와 같은 오류가 제한되지 못한다면 측정값을 기반으로 하는 응용들에 부영향을 미치게 된다. 본 논문에서는 샘플링 오류를 오류 허용범위 내로 제한시킬 수 있는 적응성 있는 패킷 샘플링 기법을 제안한다. 제안 기법은 수학적 분석을 통해 얻어진 부하 예측 오류에 영향을 미치는 주요 트래픽 파라메터를 각 블록의 시작마다 예측하여 샘플링 확률을 동적으로 적응시킨다. 본 논문에서는 또한 실제 측정된 인터넷 트래픽을 이용하여 제안 기법의 확장성과 성능을 검증하였다

• 한국진공학회지
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• 제15권4호
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• pp.367-373
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• 2006

비스무스의 녹는점보다 3 도 낮은 온도인 $268^{\circ}C$에서 후열처리를 하여 비스무스 박막에서 자기저항의 큰 증가를 관측하였다. 레드텔러라이드 / 케드뮴텔러라이드 기판 위에서는 온도 5 K, 자기장 5T 하에서 190 에서 260으로, 마이카 기판 위에서는 620 에서 120 으로 자기저항의 큰 증가를 나타내었다. 이러한 자기저항의 큰 증가는, 열처리에 따른 결정도의 향상에 기인한 것으로 보인다. 하지만 일정 시간 이상의 오랜 시간의 열처리는 자기저항을 감소시키는 것으로 관측되었다.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제16권7호
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• pp.2751-2756
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• 2015

Background: Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) can specifically induce apoptosis limited to various cancer cells, so this reagent is considered a promising medicine for cancer therapy. TRAIL also exerts effects on non-apoptotic signals, relevant to processes such as metastasis, autophagy and proliferation in cancer cells. However, the mechanisms of TRAIL-regulated non-apoptotic signals are unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate MADD/CXCR7 effects in TRAIL-mediated breast cancer cell migration. Materials and Methods: The ability of MADD/CXCR7 to regulate MVP signaling in TRAIL-mediated breast cancer cells migration was evaluated by transwell migration assay, quantitative RT-PCR, Western blotting and knock down experiments. Results: In this study, we found that treatment with TRAIL resulted in induced expression levels of MADD and CXCR7 in breast cancer cells. Knock down of MADD followed by treatment with TRAIL resulted in increased cell migration compared to either treatment alone. Similarly, through overexpression and knockdown experiments, we demonstrated that CXCR7 also positively regulated TRAIL-inhibited migration. Surprisingly, knock down of MADD lead to inhibition of TRAIL-induced CXCR7 mRNA and protein expression and overexpression of CXCR7 lead to the reduction of MADD expression, indicating that MADD is an upstream regulatory factor of TRAIL-triggered CXCR7 production and a negative feedback mechanism between MADD and CXCR7. Furthermore, we showed that CXCR7 is involved in MADD-inhibited migration in breast cancer cells. Conclusions: Our work defined a novel signaling pathway implicated in the control of breast cancer migration.