• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제51권4호
• /
• pp.1060-1068
• /
• 2019

This work aims to establish a model of a primary water stress corrosion crack growth rate of Alloy 690 material for the head penetration nozzles of Korean pressurized water reactors. The test material had an inhomogeneous microstructure with bands of fine-grains and intragranular carbides in the matrix of coarse-grains, which was similar to the archive materials of the head penetration nozzles. The crack growth rate was measured from the strain-hardened materials as a function of the stress intensity factor in simulated primary water at various temperatures and dissolved hydrogen contents. The effects of strain-hardening, temperature, and dissolved hydrogen on the crack growth rate were analyzed independently, and were then introduced as normalizing factors in the crack growth rate model. The crack growth rate model proposed in this work provides a key element of the tools needed to assess the progress of a stress corrosion crack when detected in thick-wall Alloy 690 components in Korean reactors.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
• /
• 제23권6호
• /
• pp.571-581
• /
• 2015

${\beta}$-asarone (BAS) is an active component of Acori graminei rhizoma, a traditional medicine used clinically in treating dementia and chronic stress in Korea. However, the cognitive effects of BAS and its mechanism of action have remained elusive. The purpose of this study was to examine whether BAS improved spatial cognitive impairment induced in rats following chronic corticosterone (CORT) administration. CORT administration (40 mg/kg, i.p., 21 days) resulted in cognitive impairment in the avoidance conditioning test (AAT) and the Morris water maze (MWM) test that was reversed by BAS (200 mg/kg, i.p). Additionally, as assessed by immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR analysis, the administration of BAS significantly alleviated memory-associated decreases in the expression levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and cAMP-response element-binding protein (CREB) proteins and mRNAs in the hippocampus. Also, BAS administration significantly restored the expression of Bax and Bcl-2 mRNAs in the hippocampus. Thus, BAS may be an effective therapeutic for learning and memory disturbances, and its neuroprotective effect was mediated, in part, by normalizing the CORT response, resulting in regulation of BDNF and CREB functions and anti-apoptosis in rats.

• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
• /
• 제1권2호
• /
• pp.118-125
• /
• 1999

Background and Aims : Nerve conduction study is invaluable in clinical neurology, especially for assessing peripheral neuropathies. Abnormal nerve conduction studies may result not only from peripheral nerve dysfunction itself, but also from other various mechanical, technical, and physiological factors such as age, sex, height and temperature. So we conducted this study to establish the our own normal values. Methods : In this study, from March. 1997 to July. 1998, 40 Korean adults among person came to Health Promotion Center over the age of 20 without any suspicion of neurological deficits were analysed to determine the effect of compound effects of several physiological factors. Results : The nerve conduction velocities of the upper extremity and proximal segments were faster than those of the lower extremity and distal segments. Physiological factors such as age, height and temperature affect the results of nerve conduction studies in multiple regression analysis. The sex difference is recognized over peroneal motor nerve. There are no sex differences in amplitude transformed into normal distribution. The significant physiological factor affecting the amplitude of nerve conduction is age, whereas height and temperature play no role. Conclusions : In multiple regression analysis, height is widespread variable for the nerve conduction velocities and temperature is important variable for lower extremities. The parametric statistical analysis cannot be applied to the amplitude of the compound muscle or nerve action potentials because of marked left shift in distribution. Sqareroot transformation of the CMAP and CNAP may be useful in normalizing the distribution. The most significant physiological factor affection the amplitude is age. Sex differences are not seen in nerve conduction study.

• 한국통신학회논문지
• /
• 제16권5호
• /
• pp.458-467
• /
• 1991

본 논문에서는 기존의 선형예측기법의 문제점을 선형예측계수, ar필터의 POLE위치, 포만트-밴드폭의 관점에서 분석하고, 정문반사계수의 영향을 정도추정이론에 따라 분석했으며, 이러한 분석을 근거로 하여 포만트 밴드폭 정규화 방법을 보완하였다. 정분반사계수를 1로 변경하여 정문의 영향을 정규화되어 포만트가 최적으로 강조된 스펙트럽이 된다. 이 전형예측계수는 앞뒤로 대칭되면서, 표준편차가 정문반사계수를 변경시키지 않은 성형예측계수보다 증가하므로써, 음성부호화시에 bit rate을 50%로 줄일 수있으면서 정보의 양을 그대로 보존하고 있음을 알수 있었다. 이러한 포만트 밴드폭을 0으로 정규화하는 방법을 이용하여 한국어 5개 모음을 포만트에 의해서 소음환경에서 인식하기 위한 실험을 실시하여 96.7%의 인식율을 얻을 수 있었다.

• 한국지반공학회논문집
• /
• 제20권9호
• /
• pp.125-131
• /
• 2004

본 연구에서는 준설토와 시멘트, 기포를 이용하여 제작한 경량기포혼합토에 대한 일련의 일축압축시험으로 경량기포혼합토의 역학적 거동에 미치는 준설토의 초기 함수비 및 시멘트 함유율의 영향을 정량적으로 조사하였다 또한, 기존의 연구결과(윤과 김, 2004)와의 비교검토를 통해 광양항 중마지역의 준설토를 채취하여 지역에 따른 경량기포 혼합토의 역학적 특성의 차이를 분석하였다. 일축압축시험결과 경량기포 혼합토의 변형계수$(E_{50})$는 시멘트 함유량이 증가하면서 그 크기도 증가하나 준설토의 초기함수비가 클수록 작게 나타났다. 또한, 경량혼합토의 구성요소인 준설토의 초기 함수비, 시멘트 함유량, 기포 함유량을 고려한 정규화계수로 표현되는 일축압축강도의 적절한 회귀식을 제시하였다. 본 연구의 결과, 경량기포혼합토의 역학적 특성은 준설토의 채취지역에 따라 다르므로 설계반영을 위해서는 적절히 실내실험을 통하여 검토해야 할 필요성이 있음을 확인하였다.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• 제62권4호
• /
• pp.507-517
• /
• 2017

Due to the discontinuous nature of uncertainty quantification in conventional evidence theory(ET), the computational cost of reliability analysis based on ET model is very high. A novel ET model based on fuzzy distribution and the corresponding combination rule to synthesize the judgments of experts are put forward in this paper. The intersection and union of membership functions are defined as belief and plausible membership function respectively, and the Murfhy's average combination rule is adopted to combine the basic probability assignment for focal elements. Then the combined membership functions are transformed to the equivalent probability density function by a normalizing factor. Finally, a reliability analysis procedure for structures with the mixture of epistemic and aleatory uncertainties is presented, in which the equivalent normalization method is adopted to solve the upper and lower bound of reliability. The effectiveness of the procedure is demonstrated by a numerical example and an engineering example. The results also show that the reliability interval calculated by the suggested method is almost identical to that solved by conventional method. Moreover, the results indicate that the computational cost of the suggested procedure is much less than that of conventional method. The suggested ET model provides a new way to flexibly represent epistemic uncertainty, and provides an efficiency method to estimate the reliability of structures with the mixture of epistemic and aleatory uncertainties.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
• /
• 제38권4호
• /
• pp.287-295
• /
• 2022

Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) is efficiently transmitted in a semi-persistent manner by the brown citrus aphid (Toxoptera citricida (Kirkaldy)). Currently, the most sensitive method for detecting plant viruses in insect vectors is reverse-transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). In this study, the elongation factor-1 alpha (EF-1α) gene and acidic p0 ribosomal protein (RPAP0) gene were confirmed to be suitable reference genes for RT-qPCR normalization in viruliferous T. citricida aphids using the geNorm, NormFinder, and BestKeeper tools. Then the relative CTV titer in aphids (T. citricida) at different post-acquisition feeding times on healthy plants was quantified by RT-qPCR using EF-1α and RPAP0 as reference genes. The relative CTV titer retained in the aphids gradually decreased with increasing feeding time. During the first 0.5 h of feeding time on healthy plants, the remaining CTV titer in aphids showed about 80% rapid loss for the highly transmissible isolate CT11A and 40% loss for the poorly transmissible isolate CTLJ. The relative CTV titer in aphids during more than 12 h post-acquisition times for CT11A was significantly lower than at the other feeding times, which is similar to the trend found for CTLJ. To our knowledge, this is the first report about the relative titer variation of CTV remaining in T. citricida at different post-acquisition feeding times on healthy plants.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
• /
• 제21권6호
• /
• pp.91.1-91.15
• /
• 2020

Background: Sulforaphane (SFN) is an isothiocyanate compound present in cruciferous vegetables. Although the anti-inflammatory effects of SFN have been reported, the precise mechanism related to the inflammatory genes is poorly understood. Objectives: This study examined the relationship between the anti-inflammatory effects of SFN and the differential gene expression pattern in SFN treated ob/ob mice. Methods: Nitric oxide (NO) level was measured using a Griess assay. The inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression levels were analyzed by Western blot analysis. Pro-inflammatory cytokines (tumor necrosis factor [TNF]-α, interleukin [IL]-1β, and IL-6) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RNA sequencing analysis was performed to evaluate the differential gene expression in the liver of ob/ob mice. Results: The SFN treatment significantly attenuated the iNOS and COX-2 expression levels and inhibited NO, TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 production in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. RNA sequencing analysis showed that the expression levels of 28 genes related to inflammation were up-regulated (> 2-fold), and six genes were down-regulated (< 0.6-fold) in the control ob/ob mice compared to normal mice. In contrast, the gene expression levels were restored to the normal level by SFN. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network showed that chemokine ligand (Cxcl14, Ccl1, Ccl3, Ccl4, Ccl17) and chemokine receptor (Ccr3, Cxcr1, Ccr10) were located in close proximity and formed a "functional cluster" in the middle of the network. Conclusions: The overall results suggest that SFN has a potent anti-inflammatory effect by normalizing the expression levels of the genes related to inflammation that were perturbed in ob/ob mice.

• Anatomy and Cell Biology
• /
• 제56권1호
• /
• pp.69-85
• /
• 2023

Depression is one of the most common neuropsychiatric disorders and is associated with dysfunction of the neuroendocrine system and alterations in specific brain proteins. Boophone disticha (BD) is an indigenous psychoactive bulb that belongs to the Amaryllidacae family, which is widely used in Southern Africa to treat depression, with scientific evidence of potent antidepressant-like effects. The present study examined the antidepressant effects of BD and its mechanisms of action by measuring some behavioural parameters in the elevated plus maze, brain content of corticosterone, brain derived neurotropic factor (BDNF), and neuroblast differentiation in the hippocampus of Balb/c mice exposed to the five day repeated forced swim stress (5d-RFSS). Male Balb/c mice were subjected to the 5d-RFSS protocol to induce depressive-like behaviour (decreased swimming, increased floating, decreased open arm entry, decreased time spent in the open arms and decreased head dips in the elevated plus maze test) and treated with distilled water, fluoxetine and BD. BD treatment (10 mg/kg/p.o for 3 weeks) significantly attenuated the 5d-RFSS-induced behavioural abnormalities and the elevated serum corticosterone levels observed in stressed mice. Additionally, 5d-RFSS exposure significantly decreased the number of neuroblasts in the hippocampus and BDNF levels in the brain of Balb/c mice, while fluoxetine and BD treatment attenuated these changes. The antidepressant effects of BD were comparable to those of fluoxetine, but unlike fluoxetine, BD did not show any anxiogenic effects, suggesting better pharmacological functions. In conclusion, our study shows that BD exerted antidepressant-like effects in 5d-RFSS mice, mediated in part by normalizing brain corticosterone and BDNF levels.

• 한국지반공학회논문집
• /
• 제27권6호
• /
• pp.39-48
• /
• 2011

본 논문에서는 모형실험과 수치해석을 수행하여 유한한 두께의 모래지반 위에 놓인 얕은 띠기초의 지지력 평가방법을 제안하였다. 모형실험은 현장에서 채취한 모래시료를 사용하여 모래지반의 상대밀도와 대상 기초폭(B) 에 대한 모래층 두께(H)의 비(H/B)를 변화시키면서 1g와 20g 중력수준의 원심모형실험을 실시하였다. 실험결과, H/B가 감소함에 따라 지지력은 증가하고 침하는 감소하는 경향을 보였으며, 상대밀도 증가에 따라 지지력이 증가하는 경향도 나타났다. 강성지반 위 두께가 얇은 모래층의 지지력 평가방법을 제안하기 위하여 실험 결과 얻은 지지력 계수를 H/B의 영향을 고려한 Mandel & Salencon(1972)의 수정지지력계수와 비교 분석하였다. H/B에 따른 지지력계수비 관계를 제안하여 보수적인 설계에 적용할 수 있도록 하였다. 기초 제원, 사질토 상대밀도, H/B를 변화시킨 수치해석을 실시한 결과, 제시된 관계식과 유사한 경향성을 확인하였다.