• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.651-661
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• 2019

Targeting the pathogen viability using drugs is associated with development of drug resistance due to selective pressure. Hence, there is an increased interest in developing agents that target bacterial virulence. In this study, the inhibitory effect of ciclopirox, an antifungal agent with iron chelation potential, on the microbial virulence factors was evaluated in 26 clinical MDR Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates collected from Alexandria Main University Hospital, a tertiary hospital in Egypt. Treatment with 9 ㎍/ml ciclopirox inhibited the hemolytic activity in 70% isolates, reduced pyocyanin production, decreased protease secretion in 46% isolates, lowered twitching and swarming motility, and decreased biofilm formation by 1.5- to 4.5-fold. The quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed that treatment with ciclopirox downregulated the expression levels of alkaline protease (aprA) and pyocyanin (phzA1). Ciclopirox is used to treat hematological malignancies and the systemic administration of ciclopirox is reported to have adequate oral absorption with a satisfactory drug safety profile. It is important to calculate the appropriate clinical dose and therapeutic index to reposition ciclopirox from a topical antifungal agent to a promising virulence-modifying agent agent against P. aeruginosa, a problematic Gram-negative pathogen.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.176-183
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• 2017

Although it is well known that rain plays an important role in capturing air pollutants, its quantitative evaluation has not been done enough. In this study, the effect of raindrop size on pollutant scavenging was investigated by clarifying the chemical nature of individual size-resolved raindrops and their residual particles. Raindrops as a function of their size were collected using the raindrop collector devised by our oneself in previous study (Ma et al., 2000) during high atmospheric loading for $PM_{2.5}$. Elemental analyses of solid residues and individual residual particles in raindrops were subsequently analyzed by Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis (EDX), respectively. The raindrop number concentration ($m^{-2}h^{-1}$) tended to drastically decrease as the drop size goes up. Particle scavenging rate, $R_{sca.}$ (%), based on the actual measurement values were 38.7, 69.5, and 80.8% for the particles with 0.3-0.5, 0.5-1.0, and $1.0-2.0{\mu}m$ diameter, respectively. S, Ca, Si, and Al ranked relatively high concentration in raindrops, especially small ones. Most of the element showed a continuous decrease in concentration with increasing raindrop diameter. The source profile by factor analysis for the components of residual particles indicated that the rainfall plays a valuable role in scavenging natural as well as artificial particles from the dirty atmosphere.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.23-30
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• 2005

A numerical scheme is proposed which is applicable to the evaluation of wave field containing floating structures, and the method is utilized to estimate the effect of the floating breakwaters to be installed in Wonjeon port near Masan. The model is based on the mild-slope equation which is widely accepted for the calculation of wave modulation near shores and an additional term is introduced to consider the wave scattering associated with the thin floating structures such as floating breakwaters. The tranquility in Wonjeon port with the floating breakwater in the east side is calculated and compared with the one with a bottom-fixed breakwater. The present method is believed to provide an efficient way of quantitative measurement of the performance of floating breakwaters.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.265-270
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• 1991

Since advent of the prosthetic cardiac valve replacement, much efforts for accurate assessing value function in-vivo have been attempted. To evaluate the postoperative functional and morphological status of the replaced cardiac valve prosthesis, 33 patients with valve replacement were studied by transthoracic and transesophageal 2-dimensional echocardiac imaging as well as by color Doppler flow velocity imaging. Twenty four patients had mitral valve replacement. 6 patients had aortic valve replacement and 3 patients had both mitral and aortic valve replacement. There were 34 mechanical and 2 biological prosthesis. Comparing to transthoracic echocardiography, transesophageal approach showed transvalvular regurgitant jet flow amid the prosthetic mitral valve ring during. systole and much clear visualization of cardiac chamber behind prosthesis which could give shadowing effect to ultrasound beam. According to the quantitative grading by the length and area of mitral regurgitant flow, 24 out of 27 mitral valves revealed mild degree regurgitation considered as physiological after prosthetic bileaflet valve replacement and the other 3 valves including 2 biological prosthesis had moderate degree regurgitation which was regarded as pathologic one. 2 cases of left atrial thromboses and 1 case of paravalvular leakage which were not visible by transthoracic approach were identified by transesophageal echocardiography in patients with mitral valve replacement and patients with aortic valve replacement respectively. We conclude that in patients with prosthetic mitral valve replacement, transesophageal 2-dimensional imaging with color Doppler can suggest reliable information beyond that available from the transthoracic access even though it gives patient some discomfort to proceed.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.391-401
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• 2016

Objective: This study aims to examine domestic literature on eye-tracking in the design area, and to present new eye-tracking application directions. Background: Eye-tracking was introduced in the experimental psychology field for the first time in the 1950s. Eye-tracking has high utilization values in the design application area because eye-tracking can accumulate data on what people see, providing the quantitative values on eye movement. Method: This study examined the papers published in domestic journals, as well as the papers presented in conferences from 2000 to 2016 through DBPIA. Results: Although the use of eye-tracking technology was slightly meager in the product design area, it has been actively used for the evaluation analyses of preference and attention in architecture/public design. Eye-tracking also presented a method to design advertisement that is helpful to advertisement effect measurement, and product salesin the advertisement design area. Since detail psychological analysis is possible, the application of eye-tracking in the studies related with user interface has been active. Conclusion: The eye-tracking technology is projected to be actively used as a new interface means, such as in helping in disabled people's communication and in device control, in addition to conventional application areas. Application: This study would be of help to find future research areas of eye-tracking.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.65-71
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• 2001

The key targets of endocrine disruptors are nuclear hormone receptors, which bind to steroid hormones and regulate their gene transcription. A yeast-based steroid hormone receptor gene trascription assay was previously developed for the evaluation of chemicals with endocrine modulating activity. The yeast transformants used in this assay contain the human estrogen receptor along with the appropriate steroid response elements upstream of the $\beta$-galactosidase reporter gene. We tried to evaluate several natural and synthetic steroids of their potential to interact directly with the steroid receptor. Some putative endocrine disruptors, including nonylphenol, are weakly estrogenic. But the combined treatment oj these chemicals with di-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) significantly increased the $\beta$-galactosidase activity in the yeast transformant. These results suggest that we also have to consider the synergistic effects of endocrine disruptors. In this study, we showed that yeast-based bioassay is a valuable tool for screening potential endocrine disruptors and quantitative determination of estrogenicity. And the possibility that the estrogen receptor binds multiple environmental chemicals adds another level of complexity to the interaction between the endocrine disruptors and the human hormone system.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.336-339
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• 2008

Monthly mean data of Angstrom exponent and Aerosol optical thickness (AOT) from Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) measurements over the East Asian waters were analyzed. Increasing trend of the satellite-derived Angstrom exponent was found over 1998-2006 while AOT mean was observed stable during the same period. Statistical test showed that annual increase in Angstrom exponent of about 0.01 is statistically significant over three study sub-areas out of six surrounding waters of Japan. Comparison with Aqua/MODIS-derived Angstrom exponent time series over June 2002 through June 2008 showed consistent correlation, with similar statistical significance. The trend of Angstrom exponent was interpreted as increase in fraction of small aerosol particles to give quantitative estimates on the variability of aerosols. The mean increase is evaluated to be about +0.35%/yr or more in terms of the contribution of small particles to the total AOT, or sub-micron fraction (SMF).

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2018

Purpose - The purpose of the research is to further explore the understanding of the nature of the brand distribution service (i.e., service brand) by undertaking a quantitative investigation. We focus on the role of customer's perception of service brand on the customer value creation process. Research design, data, and methodology - This study used single cross-sectional design and 137 airline passengers as respondents using a convenience random sampling. We distributed the online questionnaires by email address. The empirical setting for this research is airline service in Indonesia with a consideration that airline service has the useful context for this research as the service delivery process involve extensive customer interactions with the airline and its employees. We then analyzed the data using multiple regression (step-wise) method to fulfill the research objectives. Results - Using the step-wise regression method, the result shows that the influential factors to create customer value are cost and company image. The result suggests a company to improve its costs components and its company image in order to increase the customer value. Conclusions - The research shows that costs play a critical role, and completed with the company image to form the customer value variable. This shows that mostly customer formed their value based on costs they sacrificed. Mainly, this evaluation is monetary cost based, while Indonesian customers tend to have a high value for money demands.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.9
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• pp.75-84
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• 2020

The study investigates and measures the impact of financial restructuring on overall financial performance of commercial banks in Vietnam. Survey data for this research were collected from audited financial reports of 28 commercial banks in Vietnam, for the period from 2008 to 2018. In the study, we have built a model of econometric regression with the dependent variable being financial results measured through ROA and ROE. The research methods used include Pooled Ordinary Least Square Model (POLS), Fixed Effects Model (FEM), Random Effects Model (REM), and different Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). The results showed that the account payables restructuring and owners' equity restructuring are much needed. Increasing the owners' equity, decreasing the account payables would improve the overall financial performance, bad debts restructuring to decrease bad debts would also improve the financial performance as well. However, the financial restructuring in the period 2012-2015 and 2016-2018, indeed worsen the financial performance during those times. The findings of this study suggest that the evaluation of the financial performance after restructuring of commercial banks in Vietnam must be based on longer data. At the same time, it is necessary to examine differences between various banking groups to draw accurate conclusions on financial performance.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.611-617
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• 2015

In the development of a vibration-based condition monitoring system in gearbox, one of the most important research topics is a quantitative analysis and test of the effect of gear damage on vibration of gearbox. This paper presents the evaluation result of vibration condition indicator according to the gear tooth damage through the vibration test of gearbox. The dynamic load test was performed with high speed railway (KTX)'s gearbox. The vibration of gearbox was measured according to a rotational speed change with the common gear fault modes, such as pitting and tooth breakage. The characteristics and the possibility of applying of vibration condition indicator on condition monitoring system were analyzed. As a result, the value of most condition indicator is gradually increased with the severity of gear faults. The NA6 indicator shows a low variation with the rotational speed change and high sensitivity in accordance with the gear fault.