• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• 제23권3호
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• pp.48.1-48.12
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• 2022

Background: The poor intracellular concentration of enrofloxacin might lead to treatment failure of cow mastitis caused by Staphylococcus aureus small colony variants (SASCVs). Objectives: In this study, enrofloxacin composite nanogels were developed to increase the intracellular therapeutic drug concentrations and enhance the efficacy of enrofloxacin against cow mastitis caused by intracellular SASCVs. Methods: Enrofloxacin composite nanogels were formulated by an electrostatic interaction between gelatin (positive charge) and sodium alginate (SA; negative charge) with the help of CaCl₂ (ionic crosslinkers) and optimized by a single factor test using the particle diameter, zeta potential (ZP), polydispersity index (PDI), loading capacity (LC), and encapsulation efficiency (EE) as indexes. The formation mechanism, structural characteristics, bioadhesion ability, cellular uptake, and the antibacterial activity of the enrofloxacin composite nanogels against intracellular SASCVs strain were studied systematically. Results: The optimized formulation was comprised of 10 mg/mL (gelatin), 5 mg/mL (SA), and 0.25 mg/mL (CaCl₂). The size, LC, EE, PDI, and ZP of the optimized enrofloxacin composite nanogels were 323.2 ± 4.3 nm, 15.4% ± 0.2%, 69.6% ± 1.3%, 0.11 ± 0.02, and -34.4 ± 0.8 mV, respectively. Transmission electron microscopy showed that the enrofloxacin composite nanogels were spherical with a smooth surface and good particle size distributions. In addition, the enrofloxacin composite nanogels could enhance the bioadhesion capacity of enrofloxacin for the SASCVs strain by adhesive studies. The minimum inhibitory concentration, minimum bactericidal concentration, minimum biofilm inhibitory concentration, and minimum biofilm eradication concentration were 2, 4, 4, and 8 ㎍/mL, respectively. The killing rate curve had a concentration-dependent bactericidal effect as increasing drug concentrations induced swifter and more radical killing effects. Conclusions: This study provides a good tendency for developing enrofloxacin composite nanogels for treating cow mastitis caused by intracellular SASCVs and other intracellular bacterial infections.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• 제25권6호
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• pp.441-452
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• 2022

Congenital diarrheal disorders (CDDs) with genetic etiology are uncommon hereditary intestinal diseases characterized by chronic, life-threatening, intractable watery diarrhea that starts in infancy. CDDs can be mechanistically divided into osmotic and secretory diarrhea. Congenital tufting enteropathy (CTE), also known as intestinal epithelial dysplasia, is a type of secretory CDD. CTE is a rare autosomal recessive enteropathy that presents with intractable neonatal-onset diarrhea, intestinal failure, severe malnutrition, and parenteral nutrition dependence. Villous atrophy of the intestinal epithelium, crypt hyperplasia, and irregularity of surface enterocytes are the specific pathological findings of CTE. The small intestine and occasionally the colonic mucosa include focal epithelial tufts. In 2008, Sivagnanam et al. discovered that mutations in the epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM, MIM# 185535) were the genetic cause of CTE (MIM# 613217). More than a hundred mutations have been reported to date. Furthermore, mutations in the serine peptidase inhibitor Kunitz type 2 (SPINT2, MIM# 605124) have been linked to syndromic CTE. In this study, we report the case of a 17-month-old male infant with congenital diarrhea. Despite extensive etiological workup, no etiology could be established before admission to our center. The patient died 15 hours after being admitted to our center in a metabolically decompensated state, probably due to a delay in admission and diagnosis. Molecular autopsy with exome sequencing revealed a previously reported homozygous missense variant, c.757G>A, in EpCAM, which was confirmed by histopathological examination.

• 지질공학
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• 제33권1호
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• pp.137-149
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• 2023

구조물에 작용하는 토압의 방향과 장기변위상태변화를 직관적으로 파악하기 위해 수평, 수직방향의 변위 데이터를 시그모이드 함수를 이용하여 가공하고 각각 좌표계의 한 축으로 하여 변위좌표계 시스템을 설정하였다. 이러한 변위좌표계에 변위상태(압축 또는 팽창) 구분영역과 관리단계 구분영역 설정하여 각 계측지점의 변위상태와 관리단계를 직관적으로 확인할 수 있었다. 관측점을 연속적으로 나타내어 변위경로를 나타내었으며, 변위경로를 통해 변위이력, 변위추세, 지반에 작용하는 응력방향 등을 알 수 있었다. 흙막이 가시설의 실계측데이터 분석 결과 모든 계측지점에서 응력해방 방향으로 변위가 일어났으며, 정상관리상태에 위치하였다. 또한 공간적 상관성이 높은 계측지점 간 거동은 비슷한 거동추세를 보였으며, 공간적 상관성이 낮은 계측지점 간에는 상이한 거동 추세를 보였다. 공간적으로 연속되어 분포하는 지표침하데이터를 변위좌표계를 이용하여 전조현상과 거동영역에 대한 상관성 분석을 수행하면 파괴시간, 영역 예측이 가능 할 것으로 판단된다.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제31권5호
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• pp.519-527
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• 2022

Shear failure in soil is the primary cause of most geotechnical structure failures or instability. Soil water content is a significant factor affecting soil shear strength. In this study, the shear strength of samples with different water contents was tested. The shear strength, cohesion, and internal friction angle decreased with increasing water content. Based on the variation of cohesion and internal friction angle, the water content zone was divided into a high-water content zone and low-water content zone with a threshold water content of 15.05%. Cohesion and internal friction angle have a good linear relationship with water content in both zones. Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy (ESEM) test presented that the aggregates size of the compacted loess gradually increases with increasing water content. Meanwhile, the clay in the compacted loess forms a matric that envelops around the surface of the aggregates and fills the inter-aggregates pores. A quantitative analysis of bound water and free water under different water contents using a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) test was carried out. The threshold water content between bound water and free water was slightly below the plastic limit, which is consistent with the results of shear strength parameters. Combined with the T2 distributions obtained by NMR, one can define a T2 relaxation time of 1.58 ms as the boundary point for bound water distribution without free water. Finally, the effects of bound water and free water on shear strength parameters were analyzed using linear regression analysis.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권8호
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• pp.3017-3029
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• 2023

In the late in-vessel phase of a nuclear reactor severe accident, the internal heat transfer and crust evolution during the debris bed melting process have important effects on the thermal load distribution along the vessel wall, and further affect the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) failure mode and the state of melt during leakage. This study coupled the phase change model and large eddy simulation to investigate the variations of the temperature, melt liquid fraction, crust and heat flux distributions during the debris bed melting process in the hypothetical severe accident of HPR1000. The results indicated that the heat flow towards the vessel wall and upper surface were similar at the beginning stage of debris melting, but the upward heat flow increased significantly as the development of the molten pool. The maximum heat flux towards the vessel wall reached 0.4 MW/m². The thickness of lower crust decreased as the debris melting. It was much thicker at the bottom region with the azimuthal angle below 20° and decreased rapidly at the azimuthal angle around 20-50°. The maximum and minimum thicknesses were 2 and 90 mm, respectively. By contrast, the distribution of upper crust was uniform and reached stable state much earlier than the lower crust, with the thickness of about 10 mm. Moreover, the sensitivity analysis of initial condition indicated that as the decrease of time interval from reactor scram to debris bed dried-out, the maximum debris temperature and melt fraction became larger, the lower crust thickness became thinner, but the upper crust had no significant change. The sensitivity analysis of in-vessel retention (IVR) strategies indicated that the passive and active external reactor vessel cooling (ERVC) had little effect on the internal heat transfer and crust evolution. In the case not considering the internal reactor vessel cooling (IRVC), the upper crust was not obvious.

• 국제학술발표논문집
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• The 9th International Conference on Construction Engineering and Project Management
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• pp.328-335
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• 2022

With the advance of robot capabilities and functionalities, construction robots assisting construction workers have been increasingly deployed on construction sites to improve safety, efficiency and productivity. For close-proximity human-robot collaboration in construction sites, robots need to be aware of the context, especially construction worker's behavior, in real-time to avoid collision with workers. To recognize human behavior, most previous studies obtained 3D human poses using a single camera or an RGB-depth (RGB-D) camera. However, single-camera detection has limitations such as occlusions, detection failure, and sensor malfunction, and an RGB-D camera may suffer from interference from lighting conditions and surface material. To address these issues, this study proposes a novel method of 3D human pose estimation by extracting 2D location of each joint from multiple images captured at the same time from different viewpoints, fusing each joint's 2D locations, and estimating the 3D joint location. For higher accuracy, the probabilistic representation is used to extract the 2D location of the joints, considering each joint location extracted from images as a noisy partial observation. Then, this study estimates the 3D human pose by fusing the probabilistic 2D joint locations to maximize the likelihood. The proposed method was evaluated in both simulation and laboratory settings, and the results demonstrated the accuracy of estimation and the feasibility in practice. This study contributes to ensuring human safety in close-proximity human-robot collaboration by providing a novel method of 3D human pose estimation.

• 한국지반공학회논문집
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• 제24권11호
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• pp.55-60
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• 2008

본 논문에서는 앵커로 보강된 사면에 대한 안정해석시 앵커의 하중전이 메커니즘이 사면의 전체 안전율에 어떻게 영향을 미치는지를 알아보았다. 사면안정해석 방법에는 한계평형해석범, 유한요소해석법 및 스프레드시트를 이용하는 방법이 있으며 각각의 방법을 통해 안전율을 산정하여 서로 비교하였다. 앵커로 보강된 사면의 안정해석을 위해 가장 널리 사용되고 있는 방법은 한계평형해석 법으로 사용이 간편하다는 특징을 가지고 있다. 그러나 한계평형해석방법에서는 사면의 파괴면이 정착장을 통과하거나 정착장 바깥쪽을 지날 때에는 사면의 전체 안전율에 아무런 영향을 주지 못 하기 때문에 실제보다 보수적인 설계가 이루어질 수 있다. 따라서 본 논문에서는 각각의 해석방법을 이용하여 앵커로 보강된 사면의 안정해석을 수행하고 안전율을 비교하였다.

• 한국지반공학회논문집
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• 제22권12호
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• pp.77-88
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• 2006

지중연속벽 시공을 위한 트렌치 굴착시 굴착배면지반의 침하거동을 규명하기 위한 모형실험을 실시하였다. 트렌치 굴착을 모사하는 모형실험장치를 제작하였으며 계측시스템을 이용하여 트렌치 굴착시 굴착배면지반의 침하를 측정하였다. 모형실험결과 트렌치 굴착시 굴착배면지반의 침하량은 굴착면에 가까워질수록 크게 증가하는 경향을 보이는 것으로 나타났다. 지반의 상대밀도가 작고, 지하수위가 높을수록 굴착시 배면지반에서의 침하량은 크게 발생하였다. 그리고, 굴착배면지반에서의 침하량은 최종 굴착깊이의 약40%에 해당하는 이격거리에서 급격하게 증가함을 알 수 있었다. 한편, 트렌치 굴착완료후 굴착면내 안정액의 수위를 저하시킬 경우 굴착측벽에서는 벌징(Bulging) 현상이 발생되고, 굴착배면지반에서는 침하현상이 발생되어 종국에는 굴착면 상부에서 지반붕괴가 발생되었다. 모형실험에서 측정된 굴착배면지반에서의 침하량은 Clough and O'Rourke(1990)에 의해 제안된 침하량보다 작게 발생하였으며, 굴착배면지반의 침하기준선은 굴착벽면 주변에서 급격하게 증가하는 쌍곡선형태로 관찰되었다.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제31권5호
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• pp.433-442
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• 2023

This study presents the visually observed behavior of fibers embedded in concrete samples that were subjected to a flexural bending test. Three types of fibers such as macro polypropylene, macro polyethylene, and the hybrid of steel and polyvinyl alcohol were mixed with cement by a designated mix ratio to prepare a total of nine specimens of each. The bending test was conducted by following ASTM C1609 with a net deflection of 2, 4, and 7 mm. The X-ray computed tomography (XCT) was carried out for 7 mm-deflection specimens. The original XCT images were post-processed to denoise the beam-hardening effect. Then, fiber, crack, and void were semi-manually segmented. The hybrid specimen showed the highest toughness compared to the other two types. Debonding based on 2D XCT sliced images was commonly observed for all three groups. The cement matrix near the crack surface often involved partially localized breakage in conjunction with debonding. The pullout was predominant for steel fibers that were partially slipped toward the crack. Crack bridging and rupture were not found presumably due to the image resolution and the level of energy dissipation for poly-fibers, while the XCT imaging was advantageous in evaluating the distribution and behavior of various fibers upon bending for fiber-reinforced concrete beam elements.

• 한국전문물리치료학회지
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• 제30권3호
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• pp.237-244
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• 2023

Background: The external rotation (ER) exercise in performed at a 90° abduction of the shoulder joint is an effective to strengthen the infraspinatus. However, failure of the humeral head to control axial rotation during exercise can be increased the posterior deltoid over activity. Biofeedback training is an effective method of promoting motor learning and control it could look forward to activate the infraspinatus selectively by controlling the humeral head during exercise. Objects: The aim of this study was investigated that whether biofeedback for axial rotation was effective to activate selectively the infraspinatus during ER exercise. Methods: The 15 healthy males participated, and all subjects performed both ER exercise in a sitting position with shoulder abducted 90° under conditions with and without axial rotation biofeedback. Exercise was performed in a range of 90° ER, divided into three phases: concentric, isometric, and eccentric. The infraspinatus and posterior deltoid muscle activity were observed using surface electromyography. Results: Both infraspinatus activity (p < 0.01) and infraspinatus to posterior deltoid activity ratio (p = 0.01) were significantly higher with biofeedback however, posterior deltoid activity was significantly lower with biofeedback (p = 0.01). The infraspinatus muscle activity and muscle activity ratio were the highest in the isometric contraction type, and there were significant differences for all contraction types (p < 0.05). Whereas, the posterior deltoid activity was the lowest in the isometric contraction type, and showed a significant difference between isometric and other two contraction types (p < 0.05), but no significant different between concentric and eccentric contraction. Conclusion: Our results indicate that the axial rotation biofeedback during sitting ER exercise might be effective method to activating selective infraspinatus muscle and recommended to enhance the dynamic stability of the shoulder joint.