• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제61권4호
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• pp.418-427
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• 2023

Toxoplasma gondii infections are primarily diagnosed by serological assays, whereas molecular and fluorescence-based techniques are garnering attention for their high sensitivity in detecting these infections. Nevertheless, each detection method has its limitations. The toxoplasmosis detection capabilities of most of the currently available methods have not been evaluated under identical experimental conditions. This study aimed to assess the diagnostic potential of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), immunohistochemistry (IHC), and immunofluorescence (IF) in BALB/c mice experimentally infected with various doses of T. gondii ME49. The detection of toxoplasmosis from sera and brain tissues was markedly enhanced in mice subjected to high infection doses (200 and 300 cysts) compared to those subjected to lower doses (10 and 50 cysts) for all the detection methods. Additionally, increased B1 gene expression levels and cyst sizes were observed in the brain tissues of the mice. Importantly, IHC, IF, and ELISA, but not RT-PCR, successfully detected T. gondii infections at the lowest infection dose (10 cysts) in the brain. These findings may prove beneficial while designing experimental methodologies for detecting T. gondii infections in mice.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• 제25권2호
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• pp.28.1-28.11
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• 2024

Background: Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) infection is ubiquitous around the world. Diagnosis of the porcine circovirus-associated disease requires clinic-pathological elements together with the quantification of viral loads. Furthermore, given pig farms in regions lacking access to sufficient laboratory equipment, developing diagnostic devices with high accuracy, accessibility, and affordability is a necessity. Objectives: This study aims to investigate two newly developed diagnostic tools that may satisfy these criteria. Methods: We collected 250 specimens, including 170 PCV2-positive and 80 PCV2-negative samples. The standard diagnosis and cycle threshold (Ct) values were determined by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Then, two point-of-care (POC) diagnostic platforms, convective polymerase chain reaction (cPCR, qualitative assay: positive or negative results are shown) and EZtargex (quantitative assay: Ct values are shown), were examined and analyzed. Results: The sensitivity and specificity of cPCR were 88.23% and 100%, respectively; the sensitivity and specificity of EZtargex were 87.65% and 100%, respectively. These assays also showed excellent concordance compared with the qPCR assay (κ = 0.828 for cPCR and κ = 0.820 for EZtargex). The statistical analysis showed a great diagnostic power of the EZtargex assay to discriminate between samples with different levels of positivity. Conclusions: The two point-of-care diagnostic platforms are accurate, rapid, convenient and require little training for PCV2 diagnosis. These POC platforms can discriminate viral loads to predict the clinical status of the animals. The current study provided evidence that these diagnostics were applicable with high sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of PCV2 infection in the field.

• 폴리머
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• 제39권3호
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• pp.403-411
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• 2015

A series of hydrophobically associating fluorinated amphiphilic polyacrylamide copolymers with remarkably high heat resistance and salt tolerance were synthesized by free radical micellar copolymerization, using acrylamide (AM) and sodium 2-acrylamido-tetradecane sulfonate ($AMC_{14}S$) as amphiphilic monomers, and 2-(perfluorooctyl) ethyl acrylate (PFHEA) as hydrophobic monomer. The structure of the terpolymer was characterized by FTIR, $^1H$ NMR and $^{19}F$ NMR. The solution properties of the terpolymers were investigated in details, and the results showed that the terpolymer solution had strong intermolecular hydrophobic association as the concentration exceeded the critical association concentration 1.5 g/L. The terpolymer solution possessed high surface activity, viscoelasticity, excellent heat resistance, salt tolerance and shearing resistance. The viscosity retention rate of copolymer solution was as high as 59.9% under the condition of fresh wastewater, $85^{\circ}C$ and a 60-days aging test.

• 대한족부족관절학회지
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.108-115
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• 2012

Purpose: To evaluate several risk factors related to re-ulceration of diabetic foot including psychosocial aspects such as familial support and degree of independence of patients' activity. Materials and Methods: We reviewed medical records and performed telephone interview with eighty-five patients who had a history of hospitalization in our hospital due to diabetic foot ulceration from year 2002 to 2010. Based on the collected data, we analyzed several factors such as age, gender, prevalence duration, accompanying diseases, HbA1c level, degree of independence and familial support. Results: The mean age was 61.4 years and most common in the 4th decade. There were 57 cases (67%) of recurrence, predominance of male. Eleven patients with recurrent diabetic foot ulceration had undergone major amputations. Psychosocial problems such as depression, insufficient familial support and mortality were more frequently observed in recurrent group. Conclusion: This study shows that psychosocial factor such as familial support for patient with diabetic foot could be important to reduce the recurrence rate of diabetic foot ulceration. Therefore, we should pay attention to strategic plans for prevention, screening, treatment, and aftercare through the prospective studies including psychosocial risk factor in diabetic foot ulceration.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제12권6호
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• pp.619-640
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• 2013

It is highly desirable to explore efficient algorithms for detecting structural damage of large size structural systems with limited input and output measurements. In this paper, a new structural damage detection algorithm based on substructure approach is proposed for large size structural systems with limited input and output measurements. Inter-connection effect between adjacent substructures is treated as 'additional unknown inputs' to substructures. Extended state vector of each substructure and its unknown excitations are estimated by sequential extended Kalman estimator and least-squares estimation, respectively. It is shown that the 'additional unknown inputs' can be estimated by the algorithm without the measurements on the substructure interface DOFs, which is superior to previous substructural identification approaches. Also, structural parameters and unknown excitation are estimated in a sequential manner, which simplifies the identification problem compared with other existing work. Structural damage can be detected from the degradation of the identified substructural element stiffness values. The performances of the proposed algorithm are demonstrated by several numerical examples and a lab experiment. Measurement noise effect is considered. Both the simulation results and experimental data validate that the proposed algorithm is viable for structural damage detection of large size structural systems with limited input and output measurements.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제17권11호
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• pp.1479-1483
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• 2004

Milk protein polymorphisms were genotyped by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) from 109 Maiwa and 100 Jiulong yaks. The relationships between milk protein polymorphisms and 3 milking traits were studied. The results showed that $\beta$-CN, $\kappa$-CN and $\alpha$-La were monomorphic, and ${\alpha}_{s1}$-CN and $\beta$-Lg were polymorphic, with ${\alpha}_{s1}$-CN D and $\beta$-Lg E as dominant genes, respectively. The frequencies of ${\alpha}_{s1}$-CN D were 0.8073 and 0.6000 in two populations and $\beta$-Lg E were 0.9770 and 0.9700. The mean heterozygosities were 0.1021 and 0.1867 in the two populations. No significant effects on milking traits and milk protein compositions were observed except for ${\alpha}_{s1}$-CN locus on fat percentage in Jiulong yak.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• 제10권3호
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• pp.152-158
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• 2002

The present study elucidated the effect of $\beta$-carbolines (harmaline and harmalol) on brain mitochondlial dysfunction caused by the tyrosinase-induced oxidation of dopamine. Harmaline, harmalol and antioxidant enzymes (SOD and catalase) attenuated the dopamine-induced alteration of membrane potential, cytochrome c release and thiol oxidation in mitochondria. In contrast, antioxidant enzymes failed to reverse mitochondrial dysfunction induced by dopmnine plus tyrosinase. $\beta$-Carbolines decreased the damaging effect of dopamine plus tyrosinase against mitochondria, except no effect of harmalol on thiol oxidation. Antioxidant enzymes decreased the melanin formation from dopamine in the reaction mixture containing mitochondria but did not reduce the formation of dopamine quinone caused by tyrosinase. Both harmalol and harmaline inhibited the formation of reactive quinone and melanin. Harmalol being more effective for quinone formation and vise versa. The results indicate that compared to MAO-induced dopamine oxidation, the toxic effect of dopamine in the presence of tyrosinase against mitochondria may be accomplished by the dopamine quinone and toxic substances other than reactive oxygen species. $\beta$-Carbolines may decrease the dopamine plus tyrosinase-induced brain mitochondrial dysfunction by inhibition of the formation of reactive quinone and the change in membrane permeability.

• BMB Reports
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• 제37권2호
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• pp.148-152
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• 2004

A new molecular-baiting method was studied by retrieving targeted gene fragments from an oligonucleotide microarray bait after hybridization. To make the microarray bait, 70-mer oligonucleotides that were designed to specifically represent the SSA1 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae were printed on the slide. Samples of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae mRNA were extracted and labeled by the RD-PCR (Restriction Display PCR) method using the Cy5-labelled universal primer, then applied for hybridization. The sample fragments that hybridized to the microarray were stripped, and the eluted cDNAs were retrieved and cloned into the pMD 18-T vector for transformation, plasmid preparation, and sequencing. BLAST searching of the GenBank database identified the retrieved fragments as being identical to the SSA1 gene (from 2057-2541bp). A new method is being established that can retrieve the sample fragments using an oligo-microarray-bait.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제86권1호
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• pp.49-68
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• 2023

This study investigates the static and dynamic structural analysis of symmetrical and asymmetrical coupled shear walls using the continuous and modified transfer matrix methods by idealizing the coupled shear wall as a three-field CTB-type replacement beam. The coupled shear wall is modeled as a continuous structure consisting of the parallel coupling of a Timoshenko beam in tension (with axial extensibility in the shear walls) and a shear beam (replacing the beam coupling effect between the shear walls). The variational method using the Hamilton principle is used to obtain the coupled differential equations and the boundary conditions associated with the model. Using the continuous method, closed-form analytical solutions to the differential equation for the coupled shear wall with uniform properties along the height are derived and a numerical solution using the modified transfer matrix is proposed to overcome the difficulty of coupled shear walls with non-uniform properties along height. The computational advantage of the modified transfer matrix method compared to the classical method is shown. The results of the numerical examples and the parametric analysis show that the proposed analytical and numerical model and method is accurate, reliable and involves reduced processing time for generalized static and dynamic structural analysis of coupled shear walls at a preliminary stage and can used as a verification method in the final stage of the project.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제32권3호
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• pp.179-193
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• 2023

This study explores an alternative to the existing centralized process for data anomaly detection in modern Internet of Things (IoT)-based structural health monitoring (SHM) systems. An edge intelligence framework is proposed for the early detection and classification of various data anomalies facilitating quality enhancement of acquired data before transmitting to a central system. State-of-the-art deep neural network pruning techniques are investigated and compared aiming to significantly reduce the network size so that it can run efficiently on resource-constrained edge devices such as wireless smart sensors. Further, depthwise separable convolution (DSC) is invoked, the integration of which with advanced structural pruning methods exhibited superior compression capability. Last but not least, quantization-aware training (QAT) is adopted for faster processing and lower memory and power consumption. The proposed edge intelligence framework will eventually lead to reduced network overload and latency. This will enable intelligent self-adaptation strategies to be employed to timely deal with a faulty sensor, minimizing the wasteful use of power, memory, and other resources in wireless smart sensors, increasing efficiency, and reducing maintenance costs for modern smart SHM systems. This study presents a theoretical foundation for the proposed framework, the validation of which through actual field trials is a scope for future work.