• Title/Summary/Keyword: University of British Columbia

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Shrimp (Pandalopsis dispar) waste hydrolysate as a source of novel β-secretase inhibitors

  • Li-Chan, Eunice C.Y.;Cheung, Imelda W.Y.;Byun, Hee-Guk
    • Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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    • v.19 no.2
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    • pp.11.1-11.7
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    • 2016
  • In this study, purified peptides from shrimp waste hydrolysates (SWHs) were examined for their inhibitory effects against ${\beta}$-secretase. During consecutive purification using a Sephadex G-25 column chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography on a C18 column, a potent ${\beta}$-secretase inhibitory peptide Asp-Val-Leu-Phe-His (629 Da) was isolated and identified from SWH24 by Q-TOF MS/MS and the $IC_{50}$ value was determined to be $92.70{\mu}M$. The ${\beta}$-secretase inhibition patterns of the purified peptides were found to be competitive. Among synthesized ${\beta}$-secretase inhibitory peptides, Leu-Phe-His had higher ${\beta}$-secretase inhibitory activity than the others. The result of this study suggests that the ${\beta}$-secretase inhibitory peptide derived from SWH24 could be potential candidates to develop nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals.

Effects of Dietary Inclusion of Palm Kernel Cake and Palm Oil, and Enzyme Supplementation on Performance of Laying Hens

  • Chong, C.H.;Zulkifli, I.;Blair, R.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.21 no.7
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    • pp.1053-1058
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    • 2008
  • A total of 392 twenty eight week-old laying hens was used to study the effects of dietary inclusion of solvent-extracted palm kernel cake (PKC) (0%, 12.5% and 25%) and enzyme (mixture of mannanase, ${\alpha}$-galactosidase and protease) supplementation (0 kg/t, 1 kg/t and 2 kg/t) on the performance of laying hens. The levels of PKC did not significantly influence nitrogen corrected true metabolizable energy (TMEn) of the diets. Enzyme-supplemented PKC had significantly higher AME and TMEn values than PKC diets with no enzyme supplementation. Dietary inclusion of 12.5% and 25% PKC in the diets of laying hens did not adversely affect mean egg production or daily egg mass. However, layers consumed significantly more PKC-based diets and had significantly poorer feed conversion ratios (FCR) than controls. However, the feed intake and FCR of hens provided the 12.5% PKC-based diets with enzyme supplementation at 1 kg/t did not differ from the controls. Dietary inclusion of PKC or enzyme did not affect eggshell quality, but egg yolk colour was significantly paler when layers were fed the 25% PKC diet.

Incidental findings in a consecutive series of digital panoramic radiographs

  • MacDonald, David;Yu, Warrick
    • Imaging Science in Dentistry
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    • v.50 no.1
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    • pp.53-64
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    • 2020
  • Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of incidental findings(IFs) on digital dental panoramic radiographs(DPRs) of asymptomatic patients attending a general dental practice. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective study of 6,252 consecutive digital (photostimulatable phosphor) DPRs of patients who visited a Canadian general dental practice for a complete new patient examination. The IFs were grouped into dental-related anomalies, radiopacities and radiopacities in the jaws, changes in the shape of the condyles, and other findings in the jaws, such as tonsilloliths and mucosal antral pseudocysts. Their prevalence was determined. Results: Thirty-two percent of the DPRs showed at least 1 IF. The highest prevalence was found for dental-related anomalies(29% of all DPRs), of which impacted teeth were the most prevalent finding (24% of all DPRs), followed by idiopathic osteosclerosis(6% of all DPRs). A lower prevalence was noted for tonsilloliths(3%), and the prevalence of root tips, mucosal antral pseudocysts, and anomalies in condylar shape was approximately 1% each. Conclusion: The observed prevalence of 32.1% for IFs of any type underscores the need for a dental practitioner to review the entire DPR when a patient presents for an initial dental examination (or check-up) or for dental hygiene. Only a single IF (a central giant cell granuloma) provoked alarm, as it was initially considered malignant. Similarly, impacted teeth and suspected cysts need careful evaluation upon discovery to determine how they may be optimally managed.

Numerical simulation on structural behavior of UHPFRC beams with steel and GFRP bars

  • Yoo, Doo-Yeol;Banthia, Nemkumar
    • Computers and Concrete
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    • v.16 no.5
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    • pp.759-774
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    • 2015
  • This study simulates the flexural behavior of ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) beams reinforced with steel and glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) rebars. For this, micromechanics-based modeling was first carried out on the basis of single fiber pullout models considering inclination angle. Two different tension-softening curves (TSCs) with the assumptions of 2-dimensional (2-D) and 3-dimensional (3-D) random fiber orientations were obtained from the micromechanics-based modeling, and linear elastic compressive and tensile models before the occurrence of cracks were obtained from the mechanical tests and rule of mixture. Finite element analysis incorporating smeared crack model was used due to the multiple cracking behaviors of structural UHPFRC beams, and the characteristic length of two times the element width (or two times the average crack spacing at the peak load) was suggested as a result of parametric study. Analytical results showed that the assumption of 2-D random fiber orientation is appropriate to a non-reinforced UHPFRC beam, whereas the assumption of 3-D random fiber orientation is suitable for UHPFRC beams reinforced with steel and GFRP rebars due to disorder of fiber alignment from the internal reinforcements. The micromechanics-based finite element analysis also well predicted the serviceability deflections of UHPFRC beams with GFRP rebars and hybrid reinforcements.

A Structure-Function Relationship Exists for Ginsenosides in Reducing Cell Proliferation and Inducing Apoptosis in THP-1 Cells

  • Popovich David G.;Kitts David D.
    • Proceedings of the Ginseng society Conference
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    • 2002.10a
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    • pp.545-555
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    • 2002
  • Ginsenosides of 20(S)-protopanaxadiol and 20(S)-protopanaxatriol classification including the aglycones, PD, PI and ginsenosides Rh2, Rhl were shown to posses characteristic effects on proliferation of THP-l human leukaemia cells. A similar result was not apparent for ginsenoside Rg3 or dexamathasone. The concentration to inhibit $50\%$ of cells $(LC_{50})$ for PD, Rh2, PI and Rhl were 13 ${\mu}g/mL,\;15{\mu}g/mL,\;19{\mu}g/mL\;and\;210\;{\mu}g/mL$ respectively. Cell cycle analysis showed apoptosis with PD and PI treatment of THP-1 cells resulting in a build up of sub-G1 cells after 24, 48 and 72 hours of treatment. Rh2, and dexamathasone treatments also increased apoptotic cells after 24 hours, where as Rhl did not. After 48 and 72 hours Rh2, Rhl and dexamathasone similarly increased apoptosis, but these effects were significantly (P<0.05) lower than observed for both PD and PI treatments. Furthermore, treatments that produced the largest build up of apoptotic cells were also found to have the largest release of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). It can be concluded from these studies that the presence of sugars to PD and PI aglycone structure reduces the potency to induce apoptosis, and alternately alter membrane integrity. These cytotoxic effects to THP-l cells were different from dexamethasone.

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Healthcare Systems and COVID-19 Mortality in Selected OECD Countries: A Panel Quantile Regression Analysis

  • Jalil Safaei;Andisheh Saliminezhad
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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    • v.56 no.6
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    • pp.515-522
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    • 2023
  • Objectives: The pandemic caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has exerted an unprecedented impact on the health of populations worldwide. However, the adverse health consequences of the pandemic in terms of infection and mortality rates have varied across countries. In this study, we investigate whether COVID-19 mortality rates across a group of developed nations are associated with characteristics of their healthcare systems, beyond the differential policy responses in those countries. Methods: To achieve the study objective, we distinguished healthcare systems based on the extent of healthcare decommodification. Using available daily data from 2020, 2021, and 2022, we applied quantile regression with non-additive fixed effects to estimate mortality rates across quantiles. Our analysis began prior to vaccine development (in 2020) and continued after the vaccines were introduced (throughout 2021 and part of 2022). Results: The findings indicate that higher testing rates, coupled with more stringent containment and public health measures, had a significant negative impact on the death rate in both pre-vaccination and post-vaccination models. The data from the post-vaccination model demonstrate that higher vaccination rates were associated with significant decreases in fatalities. Additionally, our research indicates that countries with healthcare systems characterized by high and medium levels of decommodification experienced lower mortality rates than those with healthcare systems involving low decommodification. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that stronger public health infrastructure and more inclusive social protections have mitigated the severity of the pandemic's adverse health impacts, more so than emergency containment measures and social restrictions.

Principal Component and Multiple Regression Analysis for Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete (SFRC) Beams

  • Islam, Mohammad S.;Alam, Shahria
    • International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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    • v.7 no.4
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    • pp.303-317
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    • 2013
  • This study evaluates the shear strength of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) beams from a database, which consists of extensive experimental results of 222 SFRC beams having no stirrups. In order to predict the analytical shear strength of the SFRC beams more precisely, the selected beams were sorted into six different groups based on their ultimate concrete strength (low strength with $f_c^{\prime}$ <50 MPa and high strength with $f_c^{\prime}$ <50 MPa), span-depth ratio (shallow beam with $a/d{\geq}2.5 $and deep beam with a/d<2.5) and steel fiber shape (plain, crimped and hooked). Principal component and multiple regression analyses were performed to determine the most feasible model in predicting the shear strength of SFRC beams. A variety of statistical analyses were conducted, and compared with those of the existing equations in estimating the shear strength of SFRC beams. The results showed that the recommended empirical equations were best suited to assess the shear strength of SFRC beams more accurately as compared to those obtained by the previously developed models.

Low Complexity Zero-Forcing Beamforming for Distributed Massive MIMO Systems in Large Public Venues

  • Li, Haoming;Leung, Victor C.M.
    • Journal of Communications and Networks
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    • v.15 no.4
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    • pp.370-382
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    • 2013
  • Distributed massive MIMO systems, which have high bandwidth efficiency and can accommodate a tremendous amount of traffic using algorithms such as zero-forcing beam forming (ZFBF), may be deployed in large public venues with the antennas mounted under-floor. In this case the channel gain matrix H can be modeled as a multi-banded matrix, in which off-diagonal entries decay both exponentially due to heavy human penetration loss and polynomially due to free space propagation loss. To enable practical implementation of such systems, we present a multi-banded matrix inversion algorithm that substantially reduces the complexity of ZFBF by keeping the most significant entries in H and the precoding matrix W. We introduce a parameter p to control the sparsity of H and W and thus achieve the tradeoff between the computational complexity and the system throughput. The proposed algorithm includes dense and sparse precoding versions, providing quadratic and linear complexity, respectively, relative to the number of antennas. We present analysis and numerical evaluations to show that the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) increases linearly with p in dense precoding. In sparse precoding, we demonstrate the necessity of using directional antennas by both analysis and simulations. When the directional antenna gain increases, the resulting SIR increment in sparse precoding increases linearly with p, while the SIR of dense precoding is much less sensitive to changes in p.

Cutter-workpiece engagement determination for general milling using triangle mesh modeling

  • Gong, Xun;Feng, Hsi-Yung
    • Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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    • v.3 no.2
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    • pp.151-160
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    • 2016
  • Cutter-workpiece engagement (CWE) is the instantaneous contact geometry between the cutter and the in-process workpiece during machining. It plays an important role in machining process simulation and directly affects the calculation of the predicted cutting forces and torques. The difficulty and challenge of CWE determination come from the complexity due to the changing geometry of in-process workpiece and the curved tool path of cutter movement, especially for multi-axis milling. This paper presents a new method to determine the CWE for general milling processes. To fulfill the requirement of generality, which means for any cutter type, any in-process workpiece shape, and any tool path even with self-intersections, all the associated geometries are to be modeled as triangle meshes. The involved triangle-to-triangle intersection calculations are carried out by an effective method in order to realize the multiple subtraction Boolean operations between the tool and the workpiece mesh models and to determine the CWE. The presented method has been validated by a series of case studies of increasing machining complexity to demonstrate its applicability to general milling processes.