• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.393-397
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• 2016

Low parasitemic condition in malaria remains a diagnostic challenge; as the available diagnostic methods failed to detect. Currently, hemozoin (Hz) pigment is gaining attention in the diagnosis of malaria. The major drawback is ease of detection of Hz in routine practice. A pilot study was conducted to evaluate the role of Hz pigment and to compare the performance of quantitative buffy coat assay (QBC) and PCR in such conditions. Clinically suspected cases of malaria were examined by both Giemsa stain and immunochromatographic test (ICT). Samples positive by ICT and negative by Giemsa stain were further examined by nested PCR targeting 18S rRNA and QBC for the presence of malaria parasites and pigments. Thirty blood samples fulfilled the inclusion criteria out of which 23 were Plasmodium vivax (Pv), 4 Plasmodium falciparum (Pf), and 3 mixed (Pv and Pf) by immunochromatographic test. Twenty-one out of 30 (70%) were positive by nested PCR in comparison to 25/30 (83%) by QBC. Samples containing both malaria parasites and Hz pigment by QBC completely showed concordance with the PCR result. However, 61% of total samples containing only Hz pigment were observed positive by PCR. Hz pigment remains an important tool for malaria diagnosis. Identification of leukocytes containing pigments by QBC not only indicates recent malarial infections but also puts light on severity of the disease. QBC assay is a rapid, highly sensitive, and cost-effective method to detect malaria parasites and Hz pigment especially in low parasitemic conditions.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.217-229
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• 2024

This paper presents results of visual analysis of cracks formation and propagation of concretes made of quaternary binders (QBC). A composition of the two most commonly used mineral additives, i.e. fly ash (FA) and silica fume (SF) in combination with nanosilica (nS), has been proposed as a partial replacement of the cement. The principal objective of the present study is to achieve information about the effect of simultaneous incorporation of three pozzolans as partial replacement to the OPC on the fracture processes in concretes made from quaternary binders (QBC). The modern and precise non-contact measurement method (NCMM) via digital image correlation (DIC) technique was used, during the studies. In the course of experiments it was established that the substitution of OPC with three pozzolans including the nanoadditive in FA+SF+nS FA+SF+nS combination causes a clear change of brittleness and behavior during fractures in QBCs. It was found that the shape of cracks in unmodified concrete was quasi-linear. Substitution of the binder by SCMs resulted in a slight heterogeneity of the structure of the QBC, including only SF and nS, and clear heterogeneity for concretes with the FA additive. In addition, as content of FA rises throughout each of QBC series, material becomes more ductile and shows less brittle failure. It means that an increase in the FA content in the concrete mix causes a significant change in fracture process in this composite in comparison to concrete with the addition of silica modifiers only.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.313-322
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• 2020

Eukaryotes transport biomolecules between intracellular organelles and between cells and the environment via vesicle trafficking. Soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptors (SNARE proteins) play pivotal roles in vesicle and membrane trafficking. These proteins are categorized as Qa, Qb, Qc, and R SNAREs and form a complex that induces vesicle fusion for targeting of vesicle cargos. As the core components of the SNARE complex, the SNAP25 Qbc SNAREs perform various functions related to cellular homeostasis. The Arabidopsis thaliana SNAP25 homolog AtSNAP33 interacts with Qa and R SNAREs and plays a key role in cytokinesis and in triggering innate immune responses. However, other Arabidopsis SNAP25 homologs, such as AtSNAP29 and AtSNAP30, are not well studied; this includes their localization, interactions, structures, and functions. Here, we discuss three biological functions of plant SNAP25 orthologs in the context of AtSNAP33 and highlight recent findings on SNAP25 orthologs in various plants. We propose future directions for determining the roles of the less well-characterized AtSNAP29 and AtSNAP30 proteins.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.152-162
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• 2003

In this paper, Binary to Quaternary Converter(BQC), Quaternary to Binary Converter(QBC) and Quaternary inverter circuit, which is the basic logic gate, have been proposed based on voltage mode. The BQC converts the two bit input binary signals to one digit quaternary output signal. The QBC converts the one digit quaternary input signal to two bit binary output signals. And two circuits consist of Down-literal circuit(DLC) and combinational logic block(CLC). In the implementation of quaternary inverter circuit, DLC is used for reference voltage generation and control signal, only switch part is implemented with conventional MOS transistors. The proposed circuits are simulated in 0.35 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ N-well doubly-poly four-metal CMOS technology with a single +3V supply voltage. Simulation results of these circuit show 250MHz sampling rate, 0.6mW power consumption and maintain output voltage level in 0.1V.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.23-48
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• 2013

This study compared and analyzed 15 CBMR (Content-based Music Retrieval) systems accessible on the web in terms of DB size and type, query type, access point, input and output type, and search functions, with reviewing features of music information and techniques used for transforming or transcribing of music sources, extracting and segmenting melodies, extracting and indexing features of music, and matching algorithms for CBMR systems. Application of text information retrieval techniques such as inverted indexing, N-gram indexing, Boolean search, truncation, keyword and phrase search, normalization, filtering, browsing, exact matching, similarity measure using edit distance, sorting, etc. to enhancing the CBMR; effort for increasing DB size and usability; and problems in extracting melodies, deleting stop notes in queries, and using solfege as pitch information were found as the results of analysis.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.195-206
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• 2022

Crack detection is essential for inspection of existing structures and crack segmentation based on deep learning is a significant solution. However, datasets are usually one of the key issues. When building a new dataset for deep learning, laborious and time-consuming annotation of a large number of crack images is an obstacle. The aim of this study is to develop an approach that can automatically select a small portion of the most informative crack images from a large pool in order to annotate them, not to label all crack images. An active learning method with difficulty learning mechanism for crack segmentation tasks is proposed. Experiments are carried out on a crack image dataset of a steel box girder, which contains 500 images of 320×320 size for training, 100 for validation, and 190 for testing. In active learning experiments, the 500 images for training are acted as unlabeled image. The acquisition function in our method is compared with traditional acquisition functions, i.e., Query-By-Committee (QBC), Entropy, and Core-set. Further, comparisons are made on four common segmentation networks: U-Net, DeepLabV3, Feature Pyramid Network (FPN), and PSPNet. The results show that when training occurs with 200 (40%) of the most informative crack images that are selected by our method, the four segmentation networks can achieve 92%-95% of the obtained performance when training takes place with 500 (100%) crack images. The acquisition function in our method shows more accurate measurements of informativeness for unlabeled crack images compared to the four traditional acquisition functions at most active learning stages. Our method can select the most informative images for annotation from many unlabeled crack images automatically and accurately. Additionally, the dataset built after selecting 40% of all crack images can support crack segmentation networks that perform more than 92% when all the images are used.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.4781-4786
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• 2015

Siberian ginseng (Eleutherococcus senticosus) is used primarily as an adaptogen herb and also for its immune stimulant properties in Western herbal medicine. Another closely related species used in East Asian medicine systems i.e. Kampo, TCM (Manchuria, Korea, Japan and Ainu of Hokkaido) and also called Siberian ginseng (Acanthopanax senticosus) also displays immune-stimulant and anti-cancer properties. These may affect tumour growth and also provide an anti-fatigue effect for cancer patients, in particular for those suffering from lung cancer. There is some evidence that a carbohydrate in Siberian ginseng may possess not only immune stimulatory but also anti-tumour effects and also display other various anti-cancer properties. Our study aimed to determine the inhibitory and also proliferative effects of a methanol plant extract of Siberan ginseng (E. senticosus) on various cancer and normal cell lines including: A-549 (small cell lung cancer), XWLC-05 (Yunnan lung cancer cell line), CNE (human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line), HCT-116 (human colon cancer) and Beas-2b (human lung epithelial). These cell lines were treated with an extract from E. senticosus that was evaporated and reconstituted in DMSO. Treatment of A-549 (small cell lung cancer) cells with E. senticosus methanolic extract showed a concentration-dependent inhibitory trend from $12.5-50{\mu}g/mL$, and then a plateau, whereas at 12.5 and $25{\mu}g/mL$, there is a slight growth suppression in QBC-939 cells, but then a steady suppression from 50, 100 and $200{\mu}g/mL$. Further, in XWLC-05 (Yunnan lung cancer cell line), E. senticosus methanolic extract displayed an inhibitory effect which plateaued with increasing dosage. Next, in CNE (human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line) there was a dose dependent proliferative response, whereas in Beas-2 (human lung epithelial cell line), an inhibitory effect. Finally in colon cancer cell line (HCT-116) we observed an initially weak inhibitory effect and then plateau.