• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.100-105
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• 2010

Reel-to-reel deposition of $Y_2O_3$ has been performed on Ni-5%W metal substrates using the RF-sputtering method. The epitaxial orientation of $Y_2O_3$ buffer layers to the base bi-axially textured substrate was well identified using ${\theta}-2{\theta}$, out-of-plane ($\omega$), and in-plane ($\phi$) scans in X-ray diffraction analysis. The optimization of $Y_2O_3$ seed layers in reel-to-reel fashion were investigated varying the deposition temperature, sputtering power, and pressure for its significant roles for the following buffer stacks and superconducting layers. $Y_2O_3$ were all grown epitaxially on bi-axially textured metal substrates at 380 watts and 5 mTorr in the temperature range of $600-740^{\circ}C$ with higher $Y_2O_3$ (400) intensities at ${\sim}710^{\circ}C$. It was found that the $\Delta\omega$ values were $1-2^{\circ}$ lower but the $\Delta\phi$ values were above $1^{\circ}$ higher than that of Ni-W substrates. As the sputtering power increased from 340 to 380 watts, $\Delta\omega$ and $\Delta\phi$ values showed decreased tendency. Even in the small window of deposition pressure of 3-7 mTorr, the $Y_2O_3$ (400) intensities increased and $\Delta\omega$ and $\Delta\phi$ values were reduced as sputtering pressure increased.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.41.1-41.1
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• 2010

IGRINS (the Immersion GRating Infrared Spectrograph) is a high resolution infrared spectrograph which is being developed by a collaboration of the University of Texas, the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, and Kyung Hee University. The wavelength calibration unit of IGRINS will be situated between the telescope flange and IGRINS dewar. It will include Th-Ar hallow cathode lamp, optical elements, and gas absorption cell for the case that requires precise calibration (e.g., radial velocity observation). The system will also use a tungsten halogen lamp in an integrating sphere as a blackbody source for the flat-field imaging. IGRINS will be placed initially on the McDonald 2.7m Harlan J. Smith telescope and later on 4-8m class telescopes. We present an overview of the plan for the wavelength calibration sources and of the development process for the optical and mechanical design of the IGRINS calibration system.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.5245-5249
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• 2012

Background: Opisthorchis viverrini infection is a serious public-health problem in Southeast Asia especially in Lao PDR and Thailand. It is associated with a number of hepatobiliary diseases and the evidence strongly indicates that liver fluke infection is the major etiology of cholangiocarcinoma. Objectives: This study aimed to determine actual levels of Opisthorchis viverrini infection in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Northeast Thailand. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted during a one year period from October 2010 to September 2011. O. viverrini infection was determined using a modified Kato's thick smear technique and socio-demographic data were collected using predesigned semi-structured questionnaires. Results: A total of 1,168 stool samples were obtained from 516 males and 652 females, aged 5-90 years. Stool examination showed that 2.48% were infected with O. viverrini. Males were slightly more likely to be infected than females, but the different was not statistically significant. O. viverrini infection was most frequent in the 51-60 year age group and was found to be positively associated with education and occupation. Positive results were evident in 16 of 32 districts, the highest prevalence being found in Non Daeng with 16.7%, followed by Pra Thai with 11.1%, Kaeng Sanam Nang with 8.33%, and Lam Ta Men Chai (8.33%) districts. Conclusion: This study indicates that O viverrini is still a problem in some areas of Nakhon Ratchasima, the patients in this study bing suitable for the purpose of monitoring projects.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.1771-1777
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• 2012

The impact of anatomic resection (AR) as compared to non-anatomic resection (NAR) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) as a factor for preventing intra-hepatic and local recurrence after the initial surgical procedure remains controversial. A systematic review and meta-analysis of nonrandomized trials comparing anatomic resection with non-anatomic resection for HCC published from 1990 to 2010 in PubMed and Medline, Cochrane Library, Embase, and Science Citation Index were therefore performed. Intra-hepatic recurrence, including early and late, and local recurrence were considered as primary outcomes. As secondary outcomes, 5 year survival and 5 year disease-free survival were considered. Pooled effects were calculated utilizing either fixed effects or random effects models. Eleven non-randomized studies including 1,576 patients were identified and analyzed, with 810 patients in the AR group and 766 in the NAR group. Patients in the AR group were characterized by lower prevalence of cirrhosis, more favorable hepatic function, and larger tumor size and higher prevalence of macrovascular invasion compared with patients in the NAR group. Anatomic resection significantly reduced the risks of local recurrence and achieved a better 5 years disease-free survival. Also, anatomic resection was marginally effective for decreasing the early intra-hepatic recurrence. However, it was not advantageous in preventing late intra-hepatic recurrence compared with non-anatomic resection. No differences were found between AR and NAR with respect to postoperative morbidity, mortality, and hospitalization. Anatomic resection can be recommended as superior to non-anatomic resection in terms of reducing the risks of local recurrence, early intra-hepatic recurrence and achieving a better 5 year disease-free survival in HCC patients.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.2723-2729
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• 2013

Background: To investigate the internal validity of a food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) developed for use in Chinese women and to compare habitual dietary intakes between population and hospital controls measured by the FFQ. Materials and Methods: A quantitative FFQ and a short food habit questionnaire (SFHQ) were developed and adapted for cancer and nutritional studies. Habitual dietary intakes were assessed in 814 Chinese women aged 18-81 years (407 outpatients and 407 population controls) by face-to-face interview using the FFQ in Shenyang, Northeast China in 2009-2010. The Goldberg formula (ratio of energy intake to basal metabolic rate, EI/BMR) was used to assess the validity of the FFQ. Correlation analyses compared the SFHQ variables with those of the quantitative FFQ. Differences in dietary intakes between hospital and population controls were investigated. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were obtained using conditional logistic regression analyses. Results: The partial correlation coefficients were moderate to high (0.42 to 0.80; all p<0.05) for preserved food intake, fat consumption and tea drinking variables between the SFHQ and the FFQ. The average EI/BMR was 1.93 with 88.5% of subjects exceeding the Goldberg cut-off value of 1.35. Hospital controls were comparable to population controls in consumption of 17 measured food groups and mean daily intakes of energy and selected nutrients. Conclusions: The FFQ had reasonable validity to measure habitual dietary intakes of Chinese women. Hospital outpatients provide a satisfactory control group for food consumption and intakes of energy and nutrients measured by the FFQ in a Chinese hospital setting.

• Journal of KIISE:Computing Practices and Letters
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.336-340
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• 2010

Flash storages are prevalent as portable storage in computing systems. When we consider the detachability of Flash storage devices, data integrity becomes an important issue. To assure extreme data integrity, file systems synchronously write all file data to storage accompanying hot write references. In this study, we concentrate on the effect of hot write references on Flash storage, and we consider the effect of absorbing the hot write references via nonvolatile write cache on the performance of the FTL schemes in Flash storage. In 80 doing, we quantify the performance of typical FTL schemes for workloads that contain hot write references through a wide range of experiments on a real system environment. Through the results, we conclude that the impact of the underlying FTL schemes on the performance of Flash storage is dramatically reduced by absorbing the hot write references via nonvolatile write cache.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.147-155
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• 2012

This study was to investigate the understand learning motivation, self-directed learning ability and problem solving process of fundamentals of nursing course using role play in evaluating the course. The subjects were 289 nursing students in year 1 in J college taking fundamental nursing practice course from Nov. 22 to Dec. 10. 2010. After setting hospital context and preparing scenario with patient and nurse roles, the evaluation of fundamentals of nursing practice was performed. For learning motivation and self-directed learning ability, there were significant differences by application motivation, a group intending further study and a group positive in role play evaluation. For problem solving process, there were significant differences in male group and a group positive in role play evaluation. Learning motivation had significant positive correlation between self-directed learning ability and between self-directed learning ability and problem solving process. This evaluation had correlation between learning motivation, self-directed learning ability and problem solving process.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.602-608
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• 2010

An atrazine-degrading bacterium, strain KU001, was obtained from a sugarcane field at the Cane and Sugar Research and Development Center at the Kasetsart University, Kamphaeng Saen Campus, Thailand. Strain KU001 had a rod-to-coccus morphological cycle during growth. Biolog carbon source analysis indicated that the isolated bacterium was Arthrobacter histidinolovorans. Sequence analysis of the PCR product indicated that the 16S rRNA gene in strain KU001 was 99% identical to the same region in Arthrobacter sp. The atrazine degradation pathway in strain KU001 consisted of the catabolic genes trzN, atzB, and atzC. Strain KU001 was able to use atrazine as a sole nitrogen source for growth, and surprisingly, atrazine degradation was not inhibited in cells grown on ammonium, nitrate, or urea, as compared with cells cultivated on growth-limiting nitrogen sources. During the atrazine degradation process, the supplementation of nitrate completely inhibited atrazine degradation activity in strain KU001, whereas ammonium and urea had no effect on atrazine degradation activity. The addition of strain KU001 to sterile or nonsterile soils resulted in the disappearance of atrazine at a rate that was 4- to 5-fold more than that achieved by the indigenous microbial community. The addition of citrate to soils resulted in enhanced atrazine degradation, where 80% of atrazine disappeared within one day following nutrient supplementation.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.447-459
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• 2010

Bacterial diversity of two distinct wastewater treatment systems, conventional activated sludge (CAS) and membrane bioreactor (MBR), of petroleum refineries were investigated through 16S rRNA gene libraries. Sequencing and phylogenetic analysis showed that the bacterial community composition of sludge samples was distinct between the two wastewater treatment systems. MBR clones belonged predominantly to Class Betaproteobacteria, represented mainly by genera Thiobacillus and Thauera, whereas CAS clones were mostly related to Class Alphaproteobacteria, represented by uncultured bacteria related to Order Parvularculales. Richness estimators ACE and Chao revealed that the diversity observed in both libraries at the species level is an underestimate of the total bacterial diversity present in the environment and further sampling would yield an increased observed diversity. Shannon and Simpson diversity indices were different between the libraries and revealed greater bacterial diversity for the MBR library, considering an evolutionary distance of 0.03. LIBSHUFF analyses revealed that MBR and CAS communities were significantly different at the 95% confidence level ($P{\leq}0.05$) for distances $0{\leq}D{\leq}0.20$. This work described, qualitatively and quantitatively, the structure of bacterial communities in industrial-scale MBR and CAS processes of the wastewater treatment system from petroleum refineries and demonstrated clearly differentiated communities responsible for the stable performance of wastewater treatment plants.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.1491-1499
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• 2010

Rhizosphere microorganisms possessing phytase activity are considered important for rendering phytate-phosphorus (P) available to plants. In the present study, the Citrobacter braakii phytase gene (appA) was overexpressed in rhizobacteria possessing plant growth promoting (PGP) traits, for increasing their potential as bioinoculants. AppA was cloned under the lac promoter in the broadhost-range expression vector pBBR1MCS-2. Transformation of the recombinant construct pCBappA resulted in high constitutive phytase activity in all of the eight rhizobacterial strains belonging to genera Pantoea, Citrobacter, Enterobacter, Pseudomonas (two strains), Rhizobium (two strains), and Ensifer that were studied. Transgenic rhizobacterial strains were found to display varying levels of phytase activity, ranging from 10-folds to 538-folds higher than the corresponding control strains. The transgenic derivative of Pseudomonas fluorescens CHA0, a well-characterized plant growth promoting rhizobacterium, showed the highest expression of phytase (~8 U/mg) activity in crude extracts. Although all transformants showed high phytase activity, rhizobacteria having the ability to secrete organic acid showed significantly higher release of P from Ca-phytate in buffered minimal media. AppA overexpressing rhizobacteria showed increased P content, and dry weight (shoot) or shoot/ root ratio of mung bean (Vigna radiata) plants, to different extents, when grown in semisolid agar (SSA) medium containing Na-phytate or Ca-phytate as the P sources. This is the first report of the overexpression of phytase in rhizobacterial strains and its exploitation for plant growth enhancement.