• Wind and Structures
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.79-100
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• 2017

The use of wind energy resources is developing rapidly in recent decades. There is an increasing number of wind farms in high wind-velocity areas such as the Pacific Rim regions. Wind turbine towers are vulnerable to tropical cyclones and tower failures have been reported in an increasing number in these regions. Existing post-disaster failure case studies were mostly performed through forensic investigations and there are few numerical studies that address the collapse mode simulation of wind turbine towers under strong wind loads. In this paper, the wind-induced failure analysis of a conventional 65 m hub high 1.5-MW wind turbine was carried out by means of nonlinear response time-history analyses in a detailed finite element model of the structure. The wind loading was generated based on the wind field parameters adapted from the cyclone boundary layer flow. The analysis results indicate that this particular tower fails due to the formation of a full-section plastic hinge at locations that are consistent with those reported from field investigations, which suggests the validity of the proposed numerical analysis in the assessment of the performance of wind-farms under cyclonic winds. Furthermore, the numerical simulation allows to distinguish different failure stages before the dynamic collapse occurs in the proposed wind turbine tower, opening the door to future research on the control of these intermediate collapse phases.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.19-26
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• 2008

This study has been carried out to investigate the dynamic characteristics of RC slabs. For this purpose, the 20-node solid element has been used to discretize the RC slabs into two parts of concrete and rebar. The material non-linearity considering elasto-visco plastic model and the smeared crack model have been adopted in the finite element formulation. The applied load can handle step load, load intensity of harmonic load, area of distributed load and frequency. The frequency of harmonic load has an significant effect on dynamic behaviour in terms of displacement. As the frequency is increased, the effect of load amplitude is more serious. Especially, if the frequency of harmonic load exceeds 30 Hz, it is noted that the displacement by harmonic load is greater than that by step load. In case of harmonic load, the damping effect shows no certain tendency with respect to frequency of load. In details, the damping is effective when the frequency of harmonic load is 2 Hz, but there is no consistent tendency according to damping ratio. The dynamic response when the frequency of harmonic load is 3 Hz shows same result for undamped case as well as for damped case with 5% damping ratio. It is also noted that we can get the largest deflection for damped case with 1% damping ratio. However, there is not any damping effect when the frequency of harmonic load is greater than 4 Hz.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.1862-1867
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• 2007

An individual's immune response is critical for host protection from many different pathogens, and the responsiveness can be assessed by the amount of cytokine production upon stimulating bacterial components such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The difference between individuals in their peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) responsiveness to LPS, a Gram-negative endotoxin, was investigated from 27 healthy individuals. We observed a large variation in $IFN{\gamma}$ production among different individuals. The PBMC of the consistently three highest and three lowest $IFN{\gamma}$ producers were investigated. Since previous studies described that a single point mutation in the coding region of TLR2 and TLR4 is linked to the individual responsiveness to pathogenic bacterial infections, we first examined the known point mutations in the coding region of $TLR2^{Pro681His}$, $TLR4^{Pro714His}$ located in the cytoplasmic regions of the Toll-like domain as well as $TLR4^{Asp299Gly}$ located in the extracellular region. None of these mutations were associated with an individual's responsiveness to LPS, despite the presence of $TLR4^{Asp299Gly}$ mutation. Further investigation revealed that the variation of PBMC responsiveness to LPS among healthy individuals was due to constitutive expression levels of TLR4 and TLR2. This result is consistent with an aging-related low expression of Toll-like receptors in the mouse model of LPS responsiveness. The present study therefore suggests that the constitutive expression levels of TLR2 and TLR4 may contribute to the individual response to LPS.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.141-161
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• 2014

This article presents a new generation of empirical ground motion models for the prediction of response spectral accelerations in soil conditions, specifically developed for the Vrancea intermediate-depth seismic source. The strong ground motion database from which the ground motion prediction model is derived consists of over 800 horizontal components of acceleration recorded from nine Vrancea intermediate-depth seismic events as well as from other seventeen intermediate-depth earthquakes produced in other seismically active regions in the world. Among the main features of the new ground motion model are the prediction of spectral ordinates values (besides the prediction of the peak ground acceleration), the extension of the magnitudes range applicability, the use of consistent metrics (epicentral distance) for this type of seismic source, the extension of the distance range applicability to 300 km, the partition of total standard deviation in intra- and inter-event standard deviations and the use of a national strong ground motion database more than two times larger than in the previous studies. The results suggest that this model is an improvement of the previous generation of ground motion prediction models and can be properly employed in the analysis of the seismic hazard of Romania.

• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.77-83
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• 2012

We investigated the pulpal response to direct pulp capping in rat molar teeth using mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) and calcium hydroxide (CH). A palatal cavity was prepared in rat maxillary molar teeth. Either MTA or CH was placed on the exposed pulp and all cavities were restored with composite. Rats were sacrificed for histological evaluation after 12 hours and at 2, 7, 14 and 21 days. In both the MTA and CH groups, reparative dentin formation was clearly observed on histology after 14 days. The MTA-capped pulps were found to be mostly free from inflammation, and hard tissue of a tubular consistent barrier was observed. In contrast, in CH-capped teeth, excessive formation of reparative dentin toward residual pulp was evident. The pulpal cell response beneath the reparative dentin layer was examined by immunofluorescence using antibodies against DSP. After 2 days, a few DSP immunopositive cells, most of which showed a cuboidal shape, appeared beneath the predentin layer. At 7 days, DSP-immunopositive cells with columnar odontoblast-like cells were seen beneath the newly formed hard tissues. At 14 and 21 days, DSP was more abundant in the vicinity of the odontoblastic process along the dentinal tubules than in the mineralized reparative dentin. The CH group showed strong expression patterns in terms of DSP immunoreactivity. Our results thus indicate that MTA may be a more effective pulp capping material as it induces the differentiation of odontoblast-like cells and the formation of reparative dentin without the loss of residual pulp functions.

• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.273-278
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• 2006

95 squamous cell lung carcinoma samples (normal tissue: 40 samples, tumor: 55 samples) were analyzed with 8 K cDNA microarray. 1-way ANOVA test was employed to select differentially expressed genes in tumor with FDR<0.01. Among the selected 1,655 genes, final 212 genes were chosen according to the expression fold change and used for following analysis. The expression of up-regulated 64 genes was verified with Reverse Transcription PCR and 10 genes were identified as candidates for SCC markers. In our opinion, those candidates can be exploited as diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. Gene Ontology (GO) based analysis was performed using those 212 genes, and following categories were revealed as significant biological processes: Immune response (GO: 0006955), antigen processing (GO: 0030333), inflammatory response (GO: 0006954), Cell adhesion (GO: 0007155), and Epidermis differentiation (GO: 0008544). Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) also carried out on overall gene expression profile with 522 functional gene sets. Glycolysis, cell cycle, K-ras and amino acid biosynthesis related gene sets were most distinguished. These results are consistent with the known characteristics of SCC and may be interconnected to rapid cell proliferation. However, the unexpected results from ERK activation in squamous cell carcinoma gripped our attention, and further studies are under progress.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.270-276
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• 2006

We evaluated the effects of extracts of Tsunokaori tangor peel on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin $E_2\;(PGE_2)$ in RAW 264.7 cells. The ethyl acetate fraction of Tsunokaori tangor peel (EA-TTP) markedly inhibited the production of NO and $PGE_2$ in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. Consistent with these findings, the expression levels of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) proteins were down-regulated in a dose-dependent manner. Additionally, EA-TTP decreased the expression iNOS mRNA but not COX-2 mRNA. To determine the upstream signaling mechanism for the down-regulation of LPS-induced iNOS expression, we investigated the effect of EA-TTP on the degradation and re-synthesis of $I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$. EA-TTP dose-dependently delayed $I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$ degradation and increased $I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$ re-appearance following degradation, suggesting this as the mechanism by which EA-TTP suppressed iNOS gene expression. The EA-TTP also dose-dependently reduced the expression of the cellular stress-response protein heme oxygenase-1, and inhibited the LPS-induced sustained activation of extracellar signal-regulated kinase (ERK).

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.635-647
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• 2019

Tests and theoretical studies for seismic responses of a transmission tower-line system under coupled horizontal and tilt (CHT) ground motion were conducted. The method of obtaining the tilt component from seismic motion was based on comparisons from the Fourier spectrum of uncorrected seismic waves. The collected data were then applied in testing and theoretical analysis. Taking an actual transmission tower-line system as the prototype, shaking table tests of the scale model of a single transmission tower and towers-line systems under horizontal, tilt, and CHT ground motions were carried out. Dynamic equations under CHT ground motion were also derived. The additional P-∆ effect caused by tilt motion was considered as an equivalent horizontal lateral force, and it was added into the equations as the excitation. Test results were compared with the theoretical analysis and indicated some useful conclusions. First, the shaking table test results are consistent with the theoretical analysis from improved dynamic equations and proved its correctness. Second, the tilt component of ground motion has great influence on the seismic response of the transmission tower-line system, and the additional P-∆effect caused by the foundation tilt, not only increases the seismic response of the transmission tower-line system, but also leads to a remarkable asymmetric displacement effect. Third, for the tower-line system, transmission lines under ground motion weaken the horizontal displacement and acceleration responses of transmission towers. This weakening effect of transmission lines to the main structure, however, will be decreased with consideration of tilt component.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.11 no.8
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• pp.365-377
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• 2011

In conclusion, the systemic environment was shown that negative environment was being created to deepen conflict, and the conflict processes could be changed in either positive or negative directions by the psychological environment and psychological resolution mechanisms proposed afterward. As the result that the psychological environment was improved into aggressive mood with constant communication effort with the interested parties, the psychological resolution mechanism was also presented in the suitable forms of aggressive communication. On the contrary, if developed psychologically negative environment, the psychological resolution mechanism was also negatively affecting the conflict processes with dogmatic and consistent response rather than flexible response suitable to the situations.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.53-60
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• 1992

Many adaptive beamforming methods have been studied for interference cancellation and speech signal enhancement in telephone conference and auditorium. Main aspect of adaptive beamforming methods for speech signal processing is different from radar, sonar and seismic signal processing because desire output signal should be apt to the human ear. Considering that phase of speech is quite insensible to the human ear, Sondhi proposed a nonlinear constrained optimization technique whose constraint was on the magnitude transfer function from the source to the output. In real environment the phase response of the speech signal affects the human auditorium system. So it is desirable to design linear phase system. In this paper, linear phase beamformer is proposed and sample processing algorithm is also proposed for real time consideration Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm yields more consistent beam patterns and deep nulls to the noise direction than Sondhi's.