• BMB Reports
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.577-583
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• 2005

Subtilisin QK, which is newly identified as a fibrinolytic enzyme from Bacillus subtilis QK02, has the ability of preventing nitrotyrosine formation in bovine serum albumin induced by nitrite, hydrogen peroxide and hemoglobin in vitro verified by ELISA, Western-blot and spectrophotometer assay. Subtilisin QK also attenuates the fluorescence emission spectra of bovine serum albumin in the course of oxidation caused by nitrite, hydrogen peroxide and hemoglobin. Furthermore, subtilisin QK could suppress the transformation of oxy-hemoglobin to met-hemoglobin caused by sodium nitrite, but not the heat-treated subtilisn QK. Compared with some other fibrinolytic enzymes and inactivated subtilisin QK treated by phenylmethylsulfonylfluoride, the ability of inhibiting met-hemoglobin formation of subtilisin QK reveals that the anti-oxidative ability of subtilisin QK is not concerned with its fibrinolytic function. Additionally, nitrotyrosine formation in proteins from brain, heart, liver, kidney, and muscle of mice that is intramuscular injected the mixture of nitrite, hydrogen peroxide and hemoglobin is attenuated by subtilisin QK. Subtilisin QK can also protect Human umbilical vein endothelial cell (ECV-304) from the damage caused by nitrite and hydrogen peroxide.

• BMB Reports
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.214-222
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• 2003

A lectin named AAL has been purified from the fruiting bodies of the edible mushroom Agrocybe aegerita. AAL consisted of two identical subunits of 15.8 kDa, its pI was about 3.8 determined by isoelectric focusing, and no carbohydrate was discerned. Being treated by pyrogultamate aminopeptidase, the blocked N-terminus of AAL was sequenced as QGVNIYNI. AAL agglutinated human and animal erythrocytes regardless of blood type or animal species. Its hemagglutinating activity was unaffected by acid or alkali treatment and demetalization or addition of divalent metals $Mg^{2+}$, $Ca^{2+}$ and $Zn^{2+}$. AAL was toxic to mice: its LD50 was 15.85 mg per kilogram body weight by intraperitoneal injection. In this study, two novel activities of AAL were proved. It showed inhibition activity to infection of tobacco mosaic virus on Nicotiana glutinosa. The result of IEF suggested that AAL attached to TMV particles. Mycelia differentiation promotion was the other interesting activity. AAL promoted the differentiation of fruit body primordia from the mycelia of Agrocybe aegerita and Auricularia polytricha. AAL antiserum was prepared and immunologically cross-reactived with several proteins from five other kinds of mushrooms. These results suggested that AAL probably was a representative of a large protein family, which plays important physiological roles in mushroom.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.3350-3365
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• 2020

A considerable literature has recently grown up on the theme of ship wireless communications. However, much of the research up to now has been descriptive in the offshore area. There has been little quantitative analysis of wireless communication in inland waterways, which has received considerable attention lately. Until now, only the effects on inland river environment are examined. What is less clear is the nature of channel change caused by the antenna movement. Here we explore the moving ship-to-fixed-ship fading characteristics at 5.9 GHz for an inland waterway in the city center of China. The ship motion trajectory is designed in order to determine the effect of changes in the antenna position. We evaluate the channel fading characteristics of inland waterway, which are highly correlated with the distance between transmitter and receiver. We demonstrate that the line-of-sight component, as well as the components from multipath with obstruction reflections, contributes largely to the mean power gap. Our findings reveal critical ship-to-ship characteristics in inland waterway, which definitely contribute to the field of ship wireless communications.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.57 no.6
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• pp.1085-1105
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• 2016

The drainage problem in bifurcations causes pecuniary losses when hydropower stations are undergoing periodic overhaul. A new design philosophy for Y-typed bifurcations that are flat-bottomed is proposed. The bottoms of all pipe sections are located at the same level, making drainage due to gravity possible and shortening the draining time. All fundamental curves were determined, and contrastive analysis with a crescent-rib reinforced bifurcation in an actual project was conducted. Feasibility demonstrations were researched including structural characteristics based on finite element modeling and hydraulic characteristics based on computational fluid dynamics. The new bifurcation provided a well-balanced shape and reasonable stress state. It did not worsen the flow characteristics, and the head loss was considered acceptable. The proposed Y-typed bifurcation was shown to be suitable for pumped storage power stations.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1563-1566
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• 2014

Background: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) accounts for most esophageal cancer in Asia, and is the sixth common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Previous studies indicated HOXB7 is overexpressed in ESCC tissues, but data on prognostic value are limited. Methods: A total of 76 advanced ESCC cases were investigated. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to detect the expression levels of HOXB7 and Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression models to determine prognostic significance. Stratified analysis was also performed according to lymph node (LN) status. Results: Kaplan-Meier curve analysis indicated that HOXB7 positive patients had significantly shorter overall survival (OS) than HOXB7 negative patients. Multivariate analysis using the Cox proportional hazards model indicated only TNM stage and HOXB7 expression to be independent predictors of overall survival of advanced ESCC patients. HOXB7 indicated poor OS in both lymph node negative (LN-) and lymph node positive (LN+) patients. Conclusion: HOXB7 predicts poor prognosis of advanced ESCC patients and can be applied as an independent prognostic predictor.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.1049-1052
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to evaluate expression and prognostic value of matrix metalloproteinase-7 (MMP-7) in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. CRC tissues and corresponding distal normal mucosa tissues of 118 CRC patients were assessed by immunohistochemistry. Correlations between MMP-7 expression, patients' clinic pathological features, and overall survival rate were analyzed. We found that positive expression of MMP-7 in CRC tissues was significantly higher than that in distal normal mucosa (61.0% vs. 39.8%, p =0.001). Poor histological differentiation, advanced clinical stage and lymph node metastasis were significantly correlated with MMP-7 expression in CRC. The overall survival rate was significantly higher in the MMP-7 negative group than the positive group (Log-rank test= 9.957, p= 0.002). MMP-7 appeared as a significant independent prognostic factor through multivariate survival analysis. Collectively, we found MMP-7 expression to be correlated with progression and metastasis of CRC and thus could be used as a predictive marker of prognosis in CRC patients.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.24
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• pp.10557-10563
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• 2015

It is well known that conventional chemotherapy and radiation therapy can result in toxicity to both normal cells and tumor cells, which causes limitations in the application of these therapeutic strategies for cancer control. Novel and effective therapeutic strategies for cancers with no or low toxicity for normal cells are a high priority. Therefore, natural products with anticancer activity have gained more and more attention due to their favorable safety and efficacy profiles. Pre-clinical and clinical studies have demonstrated that several representative natural compounds such as resveratrol, epigallocatechin-3-gallate, curcumin, allicin and ginsenosides have obvious anticancer potential. In this article, we summarize autophagy-associated targeting pathways of such natural products for inducing the death of cancer cells, and discuss the core autophagic pathways involved in cancer treatments. Recent advances in the discovery, evaluation and exploitation of natural compounds as therapeutic agents for cancers will provide references and support in pre-clinical and clinical application of novel natural drugs for the treatment of primary and metastatic tumors in the future.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.2539-2554
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• 2017

Regression-based image super resolution (SR) methods have shown great advantage in time consumption while maintaining similar or improved quality performance compared to other learning-based methods. In this paper, we propose a novel single image SR method based on hierarchical regression to further improve the quality performance. As an improvement to other regression-based methods, we introduce a hierarchical scheme into the process of learning multiple regressors. First, training samples are grouped into different clusters according to their geometry similarity, which generates the structure layer. Then in each cluster, a compact dictionary can be learned by Sparse Coding (SC) method and the training samples can be further grouped by dictionary atoms to form the detail layer. Last, a series of projection matrixes, which anchored to dictionary atoms, can be learned by linear regression. Experiment results show that hierarchical scheme can lead to regression that is more precise. Our method achieves superior high quality results compared with several state-of-the-art methods.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.315-334
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• 2015

This study's primary aim is to check the existence of a representative volume element for granular materials and determine the link between the properties (responses) of macro structures and the size of the discrete particle assembly used to represent a constitutive relation in a two-scale model. In our two-scale method the boundary value problem on the macro level was solved using finite element method, based on the Cosserat continuum; the macro stresses and modulus were obtained using a solution of discrete particle assemblies at certain element integration points. Meanwhile, discrete particle assemblies were solved using discrete element method under boundary conditions provided by the macro deformation. Our investigations focused largely on the size effects of the discrete particle assembly and the radius of the particle on macro properties, such as deformation stiffness, bearing capacity and the residual strength of the granular structure. According to the numerical results, we suggest fitting formulas linking the values of different macro properties (responses) and size of discrete particle assemblies. In addition, this study also concerns the configuration and displacement fluctuation of discrete particle assemblies on the micro level, accompanied with the evolution of bearing capacity and deformation on the macro level.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.1077-1094
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• 2015

This paper presents an experimental study on the effectiveness of simultaneous application of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) and steel jacket in strengthening slender reinforced concrete (RC) column. The columns were 200 mm square cross section with lengths ranging from 1600 to 3000 mm. Ten columns were tested under axial load. The effects of the strengthening technique, slenderness ratio, cross-section area of steel angle and CFRP layer number were examined in terms of axial load-axial strain curve, CFRP strain, steel strip strain and steel angle strain. The experiments indicate that strengthening RC columns with combined CFRP and steel jacket is effective in enhancing the load capacity, ductility and energy dissipation capacity of RC column. Based on the existing models for RC columns strengthened with CFRP and with steel jacket, a design formula considering a slenderness reduction factor is proposed to predict the load capacity of the RC columns strengthened with combined CFRP and steel jacket. The predictions agree well with the experimental results.