• Journal of Preventive Veterinary Medicine
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.157-162
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• 2018

This study evaluated the protective effects of a combination of eight B. abortus recombinant proteins that were cloned and expressed into a pMal vector system and $DH5{\alpha}$: nucleoside diphosphate kinase (rNdk), 50S ribosomal protein (rL7/L12), malate dehydrogenase (rMDH), DNA starvation/stationary phase protection protein (rDps), elongation factor (rTsf), arginase (rRocF), superoxide dismutase (rSodC), and riboflavin synthase subunit beta (rRibH). The proteins were induced, purified, and administered intraperitoneally into BALB/c mice. The mice were immunized three times at weeks 0, 2, and 5 and then infected intraperitoneally (IP) with $5{\times}10^4CFU$ of virulent B. abortus 544 one week after the last immunization. The spleens were collected and the bacterial burden was evaluated at four weeks post-infection. The results showed that this combination produced a significant reduction of the bacterial burden in the spleen with a log reduction of 1.01 compared to the PBS group. Cytokine analysis revealed induction of the cell-mediated immune response in that TNF (tumor necrosis factor) and proinflammatory cytokines IL-6 (Interleukin 6) and MCP-1 (macrophage chemoattractant protein-1) were elevated significantly. In summary, vaccination with a combination of eight different proteins induced a significant protective effect indicative of a cell mediated immune response.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.1982-1991
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• 2018

Ethanol accumulation inhibited the growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae during wine fermentation. Autophagy and the release of reactive oxygen species (ROS) were also induced under ethanol stress. However, the relation between autophagy and ethanol stress was still unclear. In this study, expression of the autophagy genes ATG1 and ATG8 and the production of ROS under ethanol treatment in yeast were measured. The results showed that ethanol stress very significantly induced expression of the ATG1 and ATG8 genes and the production of hydrogen peroxide ($H_2O_2$) and superoxide anion (${O_2}^{{\cdot}_-}$). Moreover, the atg1 and atg8 mutants aggregated more $H_2O_2$ and ${O_2}^{{\cdot}_-}$ than the wild-type yeast. In addition, inhibitors of the ROS scavenging enzyme induced expression of the ATG1 and ATG8 genes by increasing the levels of $H_2O_2$ and ${O_2}^{{\cdot}_-}$. In contrast, glutathione (GSH) and N-acetylcystine (NAC) decreased ATG1 and ATG8 expression by reducing $H_2O_2$ and ${O_2}^{{\cdot}_-}$ production. Rapamycin and 3-methyladenine also caused an obvious change in autophagy levels and simultaneously altered the release of $H_2O_2$ and ${O_2}^{{\cdot}_-}$. Finally, inhibitors of the mitochondrial electron transport chain (mtETC) increased the production of $H_2O_2$ and ${O_2}^{{\cdot}_-}$ and also promoted expression levels of the ATG1 and ATG8 genes. In conclusion, ethanol stress induced autophagy which was regulated by $H_2O_2$ and ${O_2}^{{\cdot}_-}$ derived from mtETC, and in turn, the autophagy contributed to the elimination $H_2O_2$ and ${O_2}^{{\cdot}_-}$.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.494-500
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• 2018

In this study, the effect of the content of $MgO-CaO-Al_2O_3-SiO_2$ (MCAS) glass additives on the properties of AlN ceramics is investigated. Dilatometric analysis and isothermal sintering for AlN compacts with MCAS contents varying between 5 and 20 wt% are carried out at temperatures ranging up to $1600^{\circ}C$. The results showed that the shrinkage of the AlN specimens increases with increasing MCAS content, and that full densification can be obtained irrespective of the MCAS content. Moreover, properties of the AlN-MCAS specimens such as microhardness, thermal conductivity, dielectric constant, and dielectric loss are analyzed. Microhardness and thermal conductivity decrease with increasing MCAS content. An acceptable candidate for AlN application is obtained: an AlN-MCAS composite with a thermal conductivity over $70W/m{\cdot}K$ and a dielectric loss tangent (tan ${\delta}$) below $0.6{\times}10^{-3}$, with up to 10 wt% MCAS content.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.29-37
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• 2019

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) observations are powerful tools to monitor surface's displacement very accurately, induced by earthquake, volcano, ground subsidence, glacier movement, etc. Especially, radar interferometry (InSAR) which utilizes phase information related to distance from sensor to target, can generate displacement map in line-of-sight direction with accuracy of a few cm or mm. Due to decorrelation effect, however, degradation of coherence in the InSAR application often prohibit from construction of differential interferogram. Offset tracking method is an alternative approach to make a two-dimensional displacement map using intensity information instead of the phase. However, there is limitation in that the offset tracking requires very intensive computation power and time. In this paper, efficiency of parallel computing has been investigated using high performance computer for estimation of glacier velocity. Two TanDEM-X SAR observations which were acquired on September 15, 2013 and September 26, 2013 over the Narsap Sermia in Southwestern Greenland were collected. Atotal of 56 of 2.4 GHz Intel Xeon processors(28 physical processors with hyperthreading) by operating with linux environment were utilized. The Gamma software was used for application of offset tracking by adjustment of the number of processors for the OpenMP parallel computing. The processing times of the offset tracking at the 256 by 256 pixels of window patch size at single and 56 cores are; 26,344 sec and 2,055 sec, respectively. It is impressive that the processing time could be reduced significantly about thirteen times (12.81) at the 56 cores usage. However, the parallel computing using all the processors prevent other background operations or functions. Except the offset tracking processing, optimum number of processors need to be evaluated for computing efficiency.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.35-39
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• 2019

In this study, we investigated the optimum calcination temperature of lead-free $0.74(Bi_{0.5}Na_{0.5})TiO_3-0.26SrTiO_3$(BNST) piezoelectric ceramics by analyzing the crystal structure, dielectric properties, and electric field-induced strain behavior. BNST ceramics prepared by conventional solid-state reaction methods at various calcination temperatures according to the industrial standard. All samples of BNST ceramics were subsequently sintered at $1,175^{\circ}C$ for 2 h. Crystal structure classification of the ceramics showed a single perovskite phase, with no second phase detectable for the samples calcined at $750^{\circ}C$ or higher. BNST samples calcined at $850^{\circ}C$ exhibited the most optimal values for itsand the common physical parameters of $density=5.518g/cm^3$, ${\varepsilon}=1,871.837$, $tan{\delta}=0.047$, and ${d_{33}}^*=874pm/V$.

• Advances in materials Research
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.47-73
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• 2019

Joining of Mg/Ti hybrid structures by welding for automotive and aerospace applications has attracted great attention in recent years due mainly to its potential benefit of energy saving and emission reduction. However, joining them has been hampered with many difficulties due to their physical and metallurgical incompatibilities. Different joining processes have been employed to join Mg/Ti, and in most cases in order to get a metallurgical bonding between them was the use of an intermediate element at the interface or mutual diffusion of alloying elements from the base materials. The formation of a reaction product (in the form of solid solution or intermetallic compound) along the interface between the Mg and Ti is responsible for formation of a metallurgical bond. However, the interfacial bonding achieved and the joints performance depend significantly on the newly formed reaction product(s). Thus, a thorough understanding of the interaction between the selected intermediate elements with the base metals along with the influence of the associated welding parameters are essential. This review is timely as it presents on the current paradigm and progress in welding and joining of Mg/Ti alloys. The factors governing the welding of several important techniques are deliberated along with their joining mechanisms. Some opportunities to improve the welding of Mg/Ti for different welding techniques are also identified.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.265-272
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• 2019

In this paper, a vision-based deep learning algorithm and image processing method are proposed to detect bolt-loosening in steel connections. To achieve this objective, the following approaches are implemented. First, a bolt-loosening detection method that includes regional convolutional neural network(RCNN)-based deep learning algorithm and Hough line transform(HLT)-based image processing algorithm are designed. The RCNN-based deep learning algorithm is developed to identify and crop bolts in a connection image. The HLT-based image processing algorithm is designed to estimate the bolt angles from the cropped bolt images. Then, the proposed vision-based method is evaluated for verifying bolt-loosening detection in a lab-scale girder connection. The accuracy of the RCNN-based bolt detector and HLT-based bolt angle estimator are examined with respect to various perspective distortions.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.202-209
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• 2019

Purpose: To investigate the temperature-based differences of cortical bone ultrashort echo time MRI (UTE-MRI) biomarkers between body and room temperatures. Investigations of ex vivo UTE-MRI techniques were performed mostly at room temperature however, it is noted that the MRI properties of cortical bone may differ in vivo due to the higher temperature which exists as a condition in the live body. Materials and Methods: Cortical bone specimens from fourteen donors ($63{\pm}21$ years old, 6 females and 8 males) were scanned on a 3T clinical scanner at body and room temperatures to perform T1, $T2^*$, inversion recovery UTE (IR-UTE) $T2^*$ measurements, and two-pool magnetization transfer (MT) modeling. Results: Single-component $T2^*$, $IR-T2^*$, short and long component $T2^*s$ from bi-component analysis, and T1 showed significantly higher values while the noted macromolecular fraction (MMF) from MT modeling showed significantly lower values at body temperature, as compared with room temperature. However, it is noted that the short component fraction (Frac1) showed higher values at body temperature. Conclusion: This study highlights the need for careful consideration of the temperature effects on MRI measurements, before extending a conclusion from ex vivo studies on cortical bone specimens to clinical in vivo studies. It is noted that the increased relaxation times at higher temperature was most likely due to an increased molecular motion. The T1 increase for the studied human bone specimens was noted as being significantly higher than the previously reported values for bovine cortical bone. The prevailing discipline notes that the increased relaxation times of the bound water likely resulted in a lower signal loss during data acquisition, which led to the incidence of a higher Frac1 at body temperature.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.209-221
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• 2019

Graphene, with impressive electronic properties, have high potential in the microelectronic field. However, graphene itself is a zero bandgap material which is not suitable for digital logic gates and its application. Thus, much focus is on graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) that are narrow strips of graphene. During GNRs fabrication process, the occurrence of defects that ultimately change electronic properties of graphene is difficult to avoid. The modelling of GNRs with defects is crucial to study the non-idealities effects. In this work, nearest-neighbor tight-binding (TB) model for GNRs is presented with three main simplifying assumptions. They are utilization of basis function, Hamiltonian operator discretization and plane wave approximation. Two major edges of GNRs, armchair-edged GNRs (AGNRs) and zigzag-edged GNRs (ZGNRs) are explored. With single vacancy (SV) defects, the components within the Hamiltonian operator are transformed due to the disappearance of tight-binding energies around the missing carbon atoms in GNRs. The size of the lattices namely width and length are varied and studied. Non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) formalism is employed to obtain the electronics structure namely band structure and density of states (DOS) and all simulation is implemented in MATLAB. The band structure and DOS plot are then compared between pristine and defected GNRs under varying length and width of GNRs. It is revealed that there are clear distinctions between band structure, numerical DOS and Green's function DOS of pristine and defective GNRs.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.482-495
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• 2019

This study compared the productivity of fish and vegetables grown using the hybrid biofloc technology-aquaponics (HBFT-AP), a semi-recirculating aquaculture system (SRAS), and hydroponics (HP). For the study of fish productivity (HBFT-AP vs. SRAS), fish were provided feed containing 3.0% monobasic potassium phosphate (MKP) for 18 weeks. After the 18-week feeding trial, the average weight of the sampled population (n=100) was not significantly different (P>0.05), while hematocrit (PCV, %), hemoglobin (Hb, g/dL), and plasma K (mEq/L) were significantly different (P<0.05) between the two groups (HBFT-AP: 47.83%, 15.48 g/dL, and 1.39 mEq/L; SRAS 34.83%, 11.81 g/dL, and 2.48 mEq/L). Leaf vegetable productivity (HBFT-AP vs. HP) was compared in three experiments (EXP 1-3), and slower growth was observed in both groups in EXP 2, in which pH was maintained at 5.0 or less throughout the experiment. During the 18-week feeding trial, total ammonia nitrogen (TAN), $NO_3-N$, and $PO_4-P$ levels increased with time in the HBFT-AP system, while the concentration of $NO_2-N$ remained below 0.1 mg/L throughout the study.