• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.125-140
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• 2018

Tianjin, which is located on the west shore of the Bohai Sea, is part of China's Circum-Bohai-Sea Region, where very weak clay is deposited. From the 1970s to the early $21^{st}$ century, Tianjin marine clay deposits have been the subject of numerous geotechnical investigations. Because of these deposits' geological complexity, great depositional thickness, high water content, large void ratio, excessive settlement, and low shear strength, the geotechnical properties of Tianjin marine clay need to be summarized and evaluated based on various in situ and laboratory tests so that Tianjin can safely and economically sustain more infrastructure in the coming decades. In this study, the properties of Tianjin marine clay, especially its consolidation properties, are summarized, evaluated and discussed. The focus is on establishing correlations between the geotechnical property indexes and mechanical parameters of Tianjin marine clay. These correlations include the correlations between the water content and the void ratio, the depth and the undrained shear strength, the liquid limit and the compression index, the tip resistance and the constrained modulus, the plasticity index and the ratio of undrained shear strength and the preconsolidation pressure. In addition, the primary consolidation properties of Tianjin marine clay, such as the intrinsic compression line (ICL), sedimentation compression line (SCL), compression index, $C_c$, coefficient of consolidation, $C_v$, and hydraulic conductivity change index, $C_{kv}$, are evaluated and discussed. A secondary consolidation property, i.e., the secondary compression index, $C_a$, is also investigated, and the results show that the ratio of $C_a/C_c$ for Tianjin marine clay can be used to calculate $C_a$ in secondary consolidation settlement predictions.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.1049-1057
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• 2016

The waveform micropile is a type of foundation that has a single or multiple shear keys on the pile shaft, and it is constructed through a jet grouting method as a way to increase the shaft resistance of the bonded area between the pile and the soil. In this paper, a geotechnical centrifuge test was performed to study the axial performance of the waveform micropile from other models. The six test models consisted of three waveform micropiles with a single shear key at three different depths, a waveform micropile with multiple shear keys, a conventional micropile, and a jet grouting micropile. Based on the test results, it was clearly shown that the waveform micropile increased in its bearing capacity compared to the other models without the shear key. Additionally, it was observed that the confining pressure for the location of a shear key is directly related to the increase of the bearing capacity.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.876-887
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• 2015

Dicer, an ribonuclease type III type endonuclease, is the key enzyme involved in biogenesis of microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), and thus plays a critical role in RNA interference through post transcriptional regulation of gene expression. This enzyme has not been well studied in the Indian water buffalo, an important species known for disease resistance and high milk production. In this study, the primary coding sequence (5,778 bp) of bubaline dicer (GenBank: AB969677.1) was determined and the bubaline Dicer1 biocomputationally characterized to determine the phylogenetic signature among higher eukaryotes. The evolutionary tree revealed that all the transcript variants of Dicer1 belonging to a specific species were within the same node and the sequences belonging to primates, rodents and lagomorphs, avians and reptiles formed independent clusters. The bubaline dicer1 is closely related to that of cattle and other ruminants and significantly divergent from dicer of lower species such as tapeworm, sea urchin and fruit fly. Evolutionary divergence analysis conducted using MEGA6 software indicated that dicer has undergone purifying selection over the time. Seventeen divergent sequences, representing each of the families/taxa were selected to study the specific regions of positive vis-$\grave{a}$-vis negative selection using different models like single likelihood ancestor counting, fixed effects likelihood, and random effects likelihood of Datamonkey server. Comparative analysis of the domain structure revealed that Dicer1 is conserved across mammalian species while variation both in terms of length of Dicer enzyme and presence or absence of domain is evident in the lower organisms.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.33 no.8
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• pp.505-511
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• 2009

Vessels on anchoring are frequently dragged due to the increased area of wind pressure by enlargement of ship's size and sudden gust of winds in recent years. In the view point of the ship's navigators, the proper measurements corresponding to the dragging of anchor should be taken into account concerned about the time for the occurring of dragging by the external forces such as wind and wave, the pattern and speed of dragging and the possibility of collisions with any other vessels or obstacles. In this paper, it was examined the actual dragging anchor in T.S. HANBADA due to the wind and waves. From this case, it was found the critical external forces by which she was begun to dragged comparing the force by the wind, frictional resistance, drifting force and ship motion moment with the holding power. Also, through the analysis of the dragging pattern, it was known the alteration range of heading angle, swinging width and dragging speed etc.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.201-209
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• 2005

This study aimed to investigate the cerebroprotective effect of nociceptin on transient focal cerebral ischemia in Sprague-Dawley rats by determining the changes in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and the infarct size. Right middle cerebral artery (MCA) was occluded for 2 hours, and thereafter was followed by reperfusion by an intraluminal monofilament technique. An open cranial window was made on the right parietal bone for determination of continuous changes in rCBF by laser-Doppler flowmetry. The infarct size was morphometrically determined using the 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride technique. In normal rats, nociceptin ($0.01\~100\;nmol/kg$, Lv.) increased rCBF and decreased cerebral arterial resistance in a dose-dependent manner. Systemic arterial blood pressure was little affected by nociceptin at the doses of 0.01 and 0.1nmol/kg, but dose-dependently reduced at the doses of 1 nmol/kg or more. In transient cerebral ischemic rats, nociceptin ($0.01\~0.1$ nmol/kg, i.p.) significantly attenuated the postischemic cerebral hyperemia, and progressively increased rCBF. The improving effect of nociceptin on the postischemic rCBF response was markedly blocked by pretreatment with $[Nphe^1]nociceptin(1-13)NH_2$ (1 nmol/kg, i.p.), a selective nociceptin receptor antagonist, but not by naloxone ($3{\mu}mol/kg$, i.p.), a selective opioid receptor antagonist. The cerebral infarct size was significantly reduced by nociceptin ($0.01\~0.1$ nmol/kg) administered i.p. 5 min after MCA occlusion in transient cerebral ischemia of 2-hour MCA occlusion and 22-hour reperfusiion. It is suggested that nociceptin improves the postischemic cerebral hemodynamics and thereby has a cerebroprotective effect in transient focal cerebral ischemia.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.384-390
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• 2012

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is considered to be a serious metabolic disease which may cause systemic complications. The present study was designed to clarify a difference on stress, physiological variables and their correlation between diabetic (DM group) and nondiabetic adults (control group). The levels of body weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, body mass index, body fat mass, total cholesterol (TcH), triglyceride (TG), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT), total bilirubin (TB), autonomic balance (AB), stress index (SI), fatigue index (FI), and heart rate (HR) were all significantly higher in the DM group than in the control group. However, the levels of autonomic activity (AA), stress resistance (SR), and electrocardiac stability (ES) were significantly lower in the DM group than in the control group. The percentages of persons with abnormal levels in the Tch, high density lipoprotein, low density lipoprotein, TG, AST, ALT and GGT were significantly greater in the DM group than in the control group. In the correlation of glucose and hemoglobin A1c (HBA1c) to stress indices, the DM group had a significant relationship with AB, SR, SI, FI, ES, and HR, whereas the control group had no significant relationship with these, excepting AB. These results suggest that DM was harmfully associated with body, biochemical and stress indices and that blood glucose and HBA1c levels must be exhaustively regulated.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.629-635
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• 2010

Abstract In this study characteristics of Al-doped ZnO thin film by HIPIMS (High power impulse sputtering) are discussed. Deposition speed of HIPIMS with conventional balanced magnetic field is measured at about 3 nm/min, which is 30% of that of conventional RF sputtering process with the same working pressure. To generate additional magnetic flux and increase sputtering speed, electromagnetic coil is mounted at the back side of target. Under unbalanced magnetic flux from electromagnet with 1.5A coil current, deposition speed of AZO thin film is increased from 3 nm/min to 4.4 nm/min. This new value originates from the decline of particles near target surface due to the local magnetic flux going toward substrate from electromagnet. AZO film sputtered by HIPIMS process shows very smooth and dense film surface for which surface roughness is measured from 0.4 nm to 1 nm. There are no voids or defects in morphology of AZO films with varying of magnetic field. When coil current is increased from 0A to 1A, transmittance of AZO thin film decreases from 80% to 77%. Specific resistance is measured at about $2.9{\times}10-2\Omega{\cdot}cm$. AZO film shows C-axis oriented structure and its grain size is calculated at about 5.3 nm, which is lower than grain size in conventional sputtering.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.366-370
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• 2007

Silicon nitride ($Si_3N_4$) ceramics have been considered for various components of nuclear power plants such as the mechanical seal of a reactor coolant pump (RCP), the guide roller for a control rod drive mechanism (CRDM), and a seal support, etc. Corrosion behavior of $Si_3N_4$ ceramics in a high-temperature and high-pressure water must be elucidated before they can be considered as components for nuclear power plants. In this study, the corrosion behaviors of $Si_3N_4$ ceramics containing MgO and $Al_2O_3$ as sintering aids were investigated at a hydrothermal condition ($300^{\circ}C$, 9.0 MPa) in pure water and 35 ppm LiOH solution. The corrosion reactions were controlled by a diffusion of the reactive species and/or products through the corroded layer. The grain-boundary phase was preferentially corroded in pure water whereas the $Si_3N_4$ grain seemed to be corroded at a similar rate to the grain-boundary phase in LiOH solution. Flexural strengths of the $Si_3N_4$ ceramics were significantly degraded due to the corrosion reaction. Results of this study imply that a variation of the sintering aids and/or a control (e.g., crystallization) of the grain-boundary phase are necessary to increase the corrosion resistance of $Si_3N_4$ ceramics in a high-temperature water.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.168-172
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• 1999

We have studied the formation of Co/Ti bilayer silicide with low resistivity and good thermal stability on the heavily boron doped $\textrm{p}^{+}$-Si region. In this paper, Co/Ti bilayer silicides were fabricated by depositing Co($150\AA$)/Ti($50\AA$) films on the clean $\textrm{p}^{+}$-Si substrates in an E-beam evaporator and performing the two step RTA process (first annealing: 650$50^{\circ}C$/20sec, second annealing: $800^{\circ}C$/20sec) in a $N_2$ambient with the pressure of $\textrm{10}^{-1}$atm. Co/Ti bilayer silicides obtained from our experiments exhibited the low resistivity of about $18\mu\Omega$-cm and the uniform thickness of about $500\AA$ without change of sheet resistance and agglomeration under the long post0annealing time up to $1000^{\circ}C$.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.361-367
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• 2010

The principal objective of this paper was to evaluate the steering characteristics of a tandem tracked vehicle, each side of which features two tandem tracks, when crawling on extremely cohesive soft soil. The tandem tracked vehicle is assumed to be a rigid-body with 6-dof. The dynamic analysis program of the tandem tracked vehicle was developed via Newmark's method and the incremental-iterative method. A terra-mechanics model of extremely cohesive soft soil was implemented according to the relationships of normal pressure to sinkage, of shear resistance to shear displacement, and of dynamic sinkage to shear displacement. In order to simplify the characteristics of contact interaction between track segments and cohesive soft soil, the characteristics of soil are equated to the properties of intact soil. In an effort to evaluate the steering characteristics of a tandem tracked vehicle crawling on extremely cohesive soft soil, a series of dynamic simulations were conducted for a tandem tracked vehicle model with respect to the front and rear steering angle, the steering ratio, and the initial velocity.