• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• 제21권5호
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• pp.588-597
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• 2020

Objective: To investigate the value of combined chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) and conventional magnetization transfer imaging (MT) in detecting metabolic and structural changes of renal fibrosis in rats with unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) at 3T MRI. Materials and Methods: Thirty-five Sprague-Dawley rats underwent UUO surgery (n = 25) or sham surgery (n = 10). The obstructed and contralateral kidneys were evaluated on days 1, 3, 5, and 7 after surgery. After CEST and MT examinations, ¹⁸F-labeled fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography was performed to quantify glucose metabolism. Fibrosis was measured by histology and western blots. Correlations were compared between asymmetrical magnetization transfer ratio at 1.2 ppm (MTR_asym(1.2ppm)) derived from CEST and maximum standard uptake value (SUV_max) and between magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) derived from MT and alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA). Results: On days 3 and 7, MTR_asym(1.2ppm) and MTR of UUO renal cortex and medulla were significantly different from those of contralateral kidneys (p < 0.05). On day 7, MTR_asym(1.2ppm) and MTR of UUO renal cortex and medulla were significantly different from those of sham-operated kidneys (p < 0.05). The MTR_asym(1.2ppm) of UUO renal medulla was fairly negatively correlated with SUV_max (r = -0.350, p = 0.021), whereas MTR of UUO renal medulla was strongly negatively correlated with α-SMA (r = -0.744, p < 0.001). Conclusion: CEST and MT could provide metabolic and structural information for comprehensive assessment of renal fibrosis in UUO rats in 3T MRI and may aid in clinical monitoring of renal fibrosis in patients with chronic kidney disease.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.205-216
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• 2022

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: While many obesity studies have pointed out the importance of meal regularity, few have conducted empirical analyses using data from food diaries. We examined the association between meal regularity (i.e., meal time regularity [MTR] and calorie intake regularity [CIR]) and weight loss. SUBJECTS/METHODS: We collected food diary data from 637 women who had participated in commercial weight loss programs for 28-168 days (4-24 weeks). This study defined "meal regularity" in terms of two concepts: MTR and CIR. MTR refers to how regularly people eat their meals (i.e., at certain times each day), whereas CIR refers to how regularly people consume a certain amount of calories at each meal. We conducted multiple regression analyses. RESULTS: MTR (model 1: β = -2,576.526, P < 0.001; model 2: β = -1511.447, P < 0.05; model 3: β = -1,721.428, P < 0.05) and CIR (model 1: β = -1,231.551, P < 0.01; model 2: β = -2,082.353, P < 0.001; model 3: β = -1,343.490, P < 0.01) turned out to be significant determinants of the amount of weight loss in breakfast, lunch, and dinner contexts. While meal regularity (i.e., MTR and CIR) was significantly associated with weight loss, daily calorie intake from meals was not significantly associated with the amount of weight loss (model 1: β = 0.13, P > 0.05; model 2: β = 0.11, P > 0.05; model 3: β = 0.14, P > 0.05). Subjects who consumed an equal amount of calories per meal throughout the day lost more weight than those who did not (model 4: β = -3,675.51, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Eating each meal (i.e., breakfast, lunch, and dinner) at a certain time every day may increase weight loss success. Also, consuming the same amount of calories at each meal may help weight loss success.

• Environmental Sciences Bulletin of The Korean Environmental Sciences Society
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• 제3권1호
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• pp.23-31
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• 1999

An advanced mobile technology is described for saturating water with oxygen. The MTR(Mass Transfer Reactor) is 2~10 times more effective in dissolving oxygen in water compared to most other systems used in aquaculture, because it can generate extremely small(0.005~0.05mm) bubbles. New fish farming facilities could make use of this technology to build deeper ponds for raising multiple species with optimized conditions for DO(dissolved oxygen), food, light, etc. The proposed technology offers higher DO levels with minimal operating costs. It is easy to use and maintain, with a high reproducibility. Accordingly, the MTR can be industrially applied in the treatment of fish waste and reduction of water consumption during fish farming.

• 융합신호처리학회논문지
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• 제15권2호
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• pp.37-41
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• 2014

The vector Taylor series (VTS) based method usually employs clean speech Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) when compensating speech feature vectors or adapting the parameters of trained HMMs. It is well-known that noisy speech HMMs trained by the Multi-condition TRaining (MTR) and the Multi-Model-based Speech Recognition framework (MMSR) method perform better than the clean speech HMM in noisy speech recognition. In this paper, we propose a method to use the noise-adapted HMMs in the VTS-based speech feature compensation method. We derived a novel mathematical relation between the train and the test noisy speech feature vector in the log-spectrum domain and the VTS is used to estimate the statistics of the test noisy speech. An iterative EM algorithm is used to estimate train noisy speech from the test noisy speech along with noise parameters. The proposed method was applied to the noise-adapted HMMs trained by the MTR and MMSR and could reduce the relative word error rate significantly in the noisy speech recognition experiments on the Aurora 2 database.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• 제40권5호
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• pp.483-494
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• 1993

석탄산으로 사멸한 균으로 감작시켜 얻은 토끼 항혈청으로 주요 병원성 mycobacteria의 세포 표면항원간의 항원적 상관관계를 효소결합면역분석법으로 관찰하였다. M, avium-intracellulare(MAI) 항혈청을 이용한 동종 및 이종반응 분석결과를 보면 동종내 항원적 상관관계는 매우 가깝고 M. scrofulaceum(MG)을 포함하면 MAIS군내 종간 항원적 관계도 가까웠다. MAI 혈청이 M. chelonei(MC), fortuitum(MF), nonchromogenicum(MNC), terrae(MTR) 및 triviale(MTV)와는 반응하지 않거나 미약하게 반응하지만 M. kansasii(MK)와 결핵균과는 강하게 반응했다. 그러나 후자의 두균종으로 흡수해도 MAI 혈청의 동종반응은 감소되지 않았다. M. avium(MA) (K40004) 항혈청은 M. intracellulare(MI) 균주를 제외한 다른 균들과는 미약하게 반응했고 항원적 상관관계가 가까운 MI와 MG로 흡수하면 동종반응의 50~89%가 감소했다. MI 혈청의 종내반응이 종간반응보다 물론 더 강하지만 공유항원량의 크기에 따라 달랐다. MI균주 중 N-260D, N-260R, N-260T 및 K41014간의 항원적 상관관계가 N-242D, N257T, N281D 및 N275T와의 관계보다 더 가깝게 나타났다. MNC 항혈청은 MC와 MTV를 제외하고는 강한 교차반응을 보여주었다. 종내 항원적 상관관계 다음으로는 MTR와 MG(K30003)과 가까웠다. NC-3 혈청은 MA, MC 및 MF와 상당한 반응력을 나타내지만 NC-11은 그렇지 않았다. MTR 항혈청은 MI와 강하게 반응하지만 MI로 흡수한다고 해서 그들의 동종반응이 감소하지 않는 것으로 보아 MTR 표면에 공유항원이 많지 않음을 보여주었다. MTR과 MNC, MC 및 MF 사이에도 상당량의 공유항원이 있음이 알려졌다. MTR 가운데 T-8 혈청과는 달리 T-13 항혈청은 MA, MG, MK 및 MTB와 강하게 교차반응하였다. 이상의 실험으로 밝혀진 mycobacteria의 항원적 상관관계가 각종 생물학적 및 생화학적 방법으로 갈라놓은 분류군과 잘 일치하고 있었다.

• 한국의학물리학회지:의학물리
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• 제30권4호
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• pp.139-149
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• 2019

Purpose: With neurodegeneration, the signal intensity of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the brain increases. The objective of this study was to evaluate chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) signals with and without the contribution of CSF signals in elderly human brains using two different 3T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences Methods: Full CEST signals were acquired in ten subjects (Group I) with a three-dimensional (3D)-segmented gradient-echo echo-planar imaging (EPI) sequence and in ten other subjects (Group II) with a 3D gradient and spin-echo (GRASE) sequence using two different 3T MRI systems. The segmented tissue compartments of gray and white matter were used to mask the CSF signals in the full CEST images. Two sets of magnetization transfer ratio asymmetry (MTR_asym) maps were obtained for each offset frequency in each subject with and without masking the CSF signals (masked and unmasked conditions, respectively) and later compared using paired t-tests. Results: The region-of-interest (ROI)-based analyses showed that the MTR_asym values for both the 3D-segmented gradient-echo EPI and 3D GRASE sequences were altered under the masked condition compared with the unmasked condition at several ROIs and offset frequencies. Conclusions: Depending on the imaging sequence, the MTR_asym values can be overestimated for some areas of the elderly human brain when CSF signals are unmasked. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a method to minimize this overestimation in the case of elderly patients.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• 제10권3호
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• pp.184-193
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• 2012

Gastric cancer is ranked as the most common cancer in Koreans. A recent molecular biological study about the folate pathway gene revealed the correlation with a couple of cancer types. In the folate pathway, several genes are involved, including methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR), methyltetrahydrofolate-homocysteine methyltransferase reductase (MTRR), and methyltetrahydrofolate-homocysteine methyltransferase (MTR). The MTHFR gene has been reported several times for the correlation with gastric cancer risk. However, the association of the MTRR or MTR gene has not been reported to date. In this study, we investigated the association between the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the MTHFR, MTRR, and MTR genes and the risk of gastric cancer in Koreans. To identify the genetic association with gastric cancer, we selected 17 SNPs sites in folate pathway-associated genes of MTHFR, MTR, and MTRR and tested in 1,261 gastric cancer patients and 375 healthy controls. By genotype analysis, estimating odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI), rs1801394 in the MTRR gene showed increased risk for gastric cacner, with statistical significance both in the codominant model (odds ratio [OR], 1.39; 95% CI, 1.04 to 1.85) and dominant model (OR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.75). Especially, in the obese group (body mass index ${\geq}25kg/m^2$), the codominant (OR, 9.08; 95% CI, 1.01 to 94.59) and recessive model (OR, 3.72; 95% CI, 0.92 to 16.59) showed dramatically increased risk (p < 0.05). In conclusion, rs1801394 in the MTRR gene is associated with gastric cancer risk, and its functional significance need to be validated.

• Carbon letters
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• 제11권3호
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• pp.206-210
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• 2010

Removal of dyes Reactive Blue 221, N Blue RGB and Acid Blue MTR using two different samples of activated carbon by static batch method was studied. Experimental data on optical density of solutions at different concentrations ranging from 10 to 100 mg/L and of solutions after adsorption on activated carbon samples were measured. Calibration curves were plotted and the amount of dye $q_e$ adsorbed was calculated. The data was fitted to Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms for two different carbon samples and different concentration and pH values. Constants were calculated from the slope and intercept values of the isotherms. Coefficient of correlation $R_2$ and Standard Deviation SD were also noted. The data fitted well to the isotherms. Carbon sample $C_1$ showed higher potential to adsorb all the three dyes. Adsorption was higher at lower concentrations. Carbon sample $C_2$ showed better adsorption in acidic pH as compared to in alkaline pH. From the analysis of the data capacity of $C_1$ and $C_2$ to remove the dyes from water have been compared.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• 제59권3호
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• pp.467-479
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• 2021

Abstract: A kinetic model was developed for the dehydration of ethanol to ethylene based on two parallel reaction pathways. Kinetic parameters were estimated by fitting experimental data of powder catalysts in a lab-scale test, and the effectiveness factor was determined using data from pellet-type catalysts in bench-scale experiments. The developed model was used to design a multitubular fixed-bed reactor (MTR) and an adiabatic reactor (AR) at a 10 ton per day scale. The two different reactor types resulted in different process configurations: the MTR consumed the ethanol completely and did not produce the reaction intermediate, diethyl ether (DEE), resulting in simple separation trains at the expense of high equipment cost for the reactor, whereas the AR required azeotropic distillation and cryogenic distillation to recycle the unreacted ethanol and to separate the undesired DEE, respectively. Quantitative analysis based on the equipment and annual energy costs showed that, despite high equipment cost of the reactor, the MTR process had the advantages of high productivity and simple separation trains, whereas the use of additional separation trains in the AR process increased both the total equipment cost and the annual energy cost per unit production rate.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제44권5호
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• pp.585-600
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• 2012

This paper presents a Modified Tikhonov Regularization (MTR) method in model updating for damage identification with model errors and measurement noise influences consideration. The identification equation based on sensitivity approach from the dynamic responses is ill-conditioned and is usually solved with regularization method. When the structural system contains model errors and measurement noise, the identified results from Tikhonov Regularization (TR) method often diverge after several iterations. In the MTR method, new side conditions with limits on the identification of physical parameters allow for the presence of model errors and ensure the physical meanings of the identified parameters. Chebyshev polynomial is applied to approximate the acceleration response for moderation of measurement noise. The identified physical parameter can converge to a relative correct direction. A three-dimensional unsymmetrical frame structure with different scenarios is studied to illustrate the proposed method. Results revealed show that the proposed method has superior performance than TR Method when there are both model errors and measurement noise in the structure system.