• Journal of Web Engineering
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• v.14 no.15
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• pp.3206-3218
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• 2022

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a Gram-negative bacterium that colonizes the gastric mucosa and triggers various stomach diseases. H. pylori induces reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and DNA damage. The heterodimeric Ku70/Ku80 protein plays an essential role in the repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSB). Oxidative stress stimulate apoptosis and DNA damage that can be repaired by Ku70/80. However, excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) can cause Ku protein degradation, resulting in DNA fragmentation and apoptosis. α-lipoic acid (α-LA), which is found in organ meats such as liver and heart, spinach, broccoli, and potatoes, quenches free radicals, chelates metal ions, and reduces intracellular DNA damage induced by oxidative stress. Here, we investigated whether H. pylori decreases Ku70/80 and induces apoptosis, and whether α-LA inhibits changes induced by H. pylori. We analyzed ROS, DNA damage markers (γ-H2AX, DNA fragmentation), levels of Ku70/80, Ku-DNA binding activity, Ku80 ubiquitination, apoptosis indices (Bcl-2, Bax, apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF), and caspase-3), and viability in a human gastric epithelial adenocarcinoma cell line (AGS). H. pylori increased ROS, DNA damage markers, Ku80 ubiquitination, and consequently induced apoptosis. It also decreased nuclear Ku70/80 levels and Ku-DNA-binding activity; increased Bax expression, caspase-3 cleavage, and truncated AIF; but decreased Bcl-2 expression. These H. pylori-induced alterations were inhibited by α-LA. The antioxidant N-acetylcysteine and proteasome inhibitor MG-132 suppressed H. pylori-induced cell death and decreased nuclear Ku70/80 levels. The results show that oxidative stress induced Ku70/80 degradation via the ubiquitin-proteasome system, leading to its nuclear loss and apoptosis in H. pylori-infected cells. In conclusion, α-LA inhibited apoptosis induced by H. pylori by reducing ROS levels and suppressing the loss of Ku70/80 proteins in AGS cells.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.351-363
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• 2023

Visual structural inspections are an inseparable part of post-earthquake damage assessments. With unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) establishing a new frontier in visual inspections, there are major computational challenges in processing the collected massive amounts of high-resolution visual data. We propose twin deep learning models that can provide accurate high-resolution structural components and damage segmentation masks efficiently. The traditional approach to cope with high memory computational demands is to either uniformly downsample the raw images at the price of losing fine local details or cropping smaller parts of the images leading to a loss of global contextual information. Therefore, our twin models comprising Trainable Resizing for high-resolution Segmentation Network (TRS-Net) and DmgFormer approaches the global and local semantics from different perspectives. TRS-Net is a compound, high-resolution segmentation architecture equipped with learnable downsampler and upsampler modules to minimize information loss for optimal performance and efficiency. DmgFormer utilizes a transformer backbone and a convolutional decoder head with skip connections on a grid of crops aiming for high precision learning without downsizing. An augmented inference technique is used to boost performance further and reduce the possible loss of context due to grid cropping. Comprehensive experiments have been performed on the 3D physics-based graphics models (PBGMs) synthetic environments in the QuakeCity dataset. The proposed framework is evaluated using several metrics on three segmentation tasks: component type, component damage state, and global damage (crack, rebar, spalling). The models were developed as part of the 2^nd International Competition for Structural Health Monitoring.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.315-341
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• 2007

A sudden change of stiffness in a structure, associated with the events such as weld fracture and brace breakage, will cause a discontinuity in acceleration response time histories recorded in the vicinity of damage location at damage time instant. A new damage index is proposed and implemented in this paper to detect the damage time instant, location, and severity of a structure due to a sudden change of structural stiffness. The proposed damage index is suitable for online structural health monitoring applications. It can also be used in conjunction with the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) for damage detection without using the intermittency check. Numerical simulation using a five-story shear building under different types of excitation is executed to assess the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed damage index and damage detection approach for the building at different damage levels. The sensitivity of the damage index to the intensity and frequency range of measurement noise is also examined. The results from this study demonstrate that the damage index and damage detection approach proposed can accurately identify the damage time instant and location in the building due to a sudden loss of stiffness if measurement noise is below a certain level. The relation between the damage severity and the proposed damage index is linear. The wavelet-transform (WT) and the EMD with intermittency check are also applied to the same building for the comparison of detection efficiency between the proposed approach, the WT and the EMD.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2011

It is a significant issue for several country including Korea, where the natural and the weather conditions are severe, to keep the safety against disasters which occur frequently every year, especially in urban region crowded with population. In order to implement suitable and effective measures against various disasters in such area, development of method for evaluation of disaster prevention performance based on various disaster risks and effective disaster damage mitigation technologies is independable. In this paper, methods for hazard evaluation, vulnerability evaluation and loss evaluation, and damage technologies are proposed targetting man-made disaster and natural one like flood, earthquake and tsunami and so on. The method proposed in this paper is based on the research of USA and Japan for man-made disaster and natural disaster. The proposed method will be developed in detail in four years during research period funded by government.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.197-214
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• 2010

The paper presents a methodology for developing earthquake damage and loss scenarios for urban areas, as well as its application to two cities located in Mediterranean countries, Grevena (in Greece) and D$\ddot{u}$zce (in Turkey), that were struck by strong earthquakes in the recent past. After compiling the building inventory in each city, fragility curves were derived using a hybrid approach previously developed by the authors, and a series of seismic scenarios were derived based on microzonation studies that were specifically conducted for each city (see companion paper by Pitilakis et al.). The results obtained in terms of damage estimates, required restoration times and the associated costs are presented in a GIS environment. It is deemed that both the results obtained, and the overall methodology and tools developed, contribute towards the enhancement of seismic safety in the Mediterranean area (as well as other earthquake-prone regions), while they constitute a useful pre-earthquake decision-making tool for local authorities.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.63 no.1
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• pp.58-68
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• 2021

Several herbs including Artemisia are known to possess conceptive property. In the present study, mouse spermatozoa were incubated with ethanol extract of Artemisia vulgaris leaves. The effect of extract on acrosome exocytosis was studied by labeling spermatozoa with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) peanut agglutinin and by staining with Coomassie blue. Viability and membrane integrity were studied by Trypan-blue staining and hypo-osmotic swelling test. Artemisia extract at very low concentration caused precocious acrosome reaction and loss of sperm viability. Acrosome reaction increased remarkably from 22.63% to 88.42% with increasing extract concentration from 0 to 2,000 ㎍/mL. However, the viability loss of spermatozoa was increased from 11.71% in control to 63.73% in samples treated, evaluated by Trypan-blue staining method. Membrane damage caused by the extract, evaluated by hypo-osmotic swelling test was even low, ranging from 2.27% to only 24.23%. These results indicate that Artemisia extract might block fertilization by causing precocious acrosome exocytosis in spermatozoa. A direct contraceptive effect was tested by injecting the plant extract into the vagina of female mice and then allowing them to mate with normal males. The treated female mice delivered significantly fewer litters in comparison to the control.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.3-18
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• 2012

Observed wall damage in recent earthquakes in Chile and New Zealand, where modern building codes exist, exceeded expectations. In these earthquakes, structural wall damage included boundary crushing, reinforcement fracture, and global wall buckling. Recent laboratory tests also have demonstrated inadequate performance in some cases, indicating a need to review code provisions, identify shortcomings and make necessary revisions. Current modeling approaches used for slender structural walls adequately capture nonlinear flexural behavior; however, strength loss due to buckling of reinforcement and nonlinear and shear-flexure interaction are not adequately captured. Additional research is needed to address these issues. Recent tests of reinforced concrete coupling beams indicate that diagonally-reinforced beams detailed according to ACI 318-$11^1$ can sustain plastic rotations of about 6% prior to significant strength loss and that relatively simple modeling approaches in commercially available computer programs are capable of capturing the observed responses. Tests of conventionally-reinforced beams indicate less energy dissipation capacity and strength loss at approximately 4% rotation.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.88-99
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• 2001

Objectives : This study was performed to determine if Orostachys japonicus A. Berger aquacupuncture (OjB) provides the protective effect against the loss of celi viability and DNA damage induced by oxidant in renal proximal tubular cells. Methods : The cell viability was evaluated by a MTT reduction assay and DNA damage was estimated by measuring double stranded DNA breaks in opossum kidney (OK) cells, an established proximal tubular cell line. Lipid peroxidation was determined by measuring malondialdehyde (MDA), a product of lipid peroxidation. Results : $H_2O_2$ increased the loss of cell viability in a time-dependent manner, which were prevented by 0.1% OjB. The protective effect of OjB was dose-dependent over concentration range of 0.05-0.5%. $H_2O_2$ caused ATP depletion and DNA damage, which were prevented by OjB and the hydrogen peroxide scavenger catalase. The loss of cell viability by $H_2O_2$ was not affected by the antioxidant DPPD, but lipid peroxidation by the oxidant was completely inhibited by DPPD. Conclusions : These data suggest that $H_2O_2$-induced death results from a lipid peroxidation-independent mechanism and the protective effect of OjB is not associated with its antioxidant activity.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.130-136
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• 2003

Crowbar system Vacuum switches, widely used In a pulsed power system, could use the magnetic force to prevent the electrode damage. Vacuum switches using the magnetic forces are classified roughly into RMF(Radial Magnetic Field) and AMF(Axial Magnetic Field) type. The RMF type switches restrain a main electrode from aging due to high temperature and high density arc by rotating the arc which is driven by the Lorenz force. The AMF type switches generate axial magnetic field which decreases the electrode damage by diffusing arc. In this paper, we present the energy loss characteristics of both RMF and AMF type switches which are made of CuCr(75:25 wt%) electrodes. The time-dependent dynamic arc resistance of high-current pulsed discharge in a high vacuum chamber(~10$^{-6}$ Torr). which occurs in RMF and AMF type switches, was obtained by solving the circuit equation using the measured values of the arc voltage and current. In addition, we compared energy loss characteristics of both switches. Based on our results, it was found that the arc voltage and the energy loss of an AMF type switch are lower than a RMF type switch.

• The Journal of Korea CHUNA Manual Medicine
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.55-65
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• 2003

The purpose of this article was to contribute to the knowledge of physiological and pathological changes of aging skeletal muscles, and of therapic method. By aging there were changes of distribution of muscle fibers, the loss of muscle mass, the loss of the number of muscle fibers, the loss of glycolysis capacity, the decrease of the oxidative enzymes and muscle vascularization in the skeletal muscles. And as a pathological change, the exhaustive maximal exercise increased oxidative stress that led to oxidative damage which were shown to be implicated in promoting aging. The property of intensity and duration exercise is important not only in keeping human health and physical fitness from oxidative stress, but also for the maintenance of well-being and quality of life.