• Journal of Service Research and Studies
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.75-85
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• 2016

Coal can be divided into thermal coal and coking coal. The price of thermal coal is basically affected by demand and supply. However, many other factors with regard to economic condition such as exchange rate, economy growth rate also make an influence on the price. This study is targeted to develop a forecast model for thermal coal price by using System Dynamics Method. System dynamics provides results that better reflect the real world by employing an inter-dependent system of variables. This study found out that 8 factors have important influence on the thermal coal price. Most of the data of the variables were acquired from the Bloomberg Database. The period extends to 2 years and 4 months, from May of 2011 to August of 2013. The causal relations among the variables were acquired by regression analysis

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.101-106
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• 2001

Present study was aimed to verify the role of insulin and TNF-$\alpha$ in development of preimplantation embryos. Mouse morula were cultured for 40 hr in the presence or absence of insulin(400 ng/ml) and TNF-$\alpha$ (50 ng/ml). The morphological development, cell number of blastomeres per blastocyst, and mitogen activated protein kinase(MAPK) activity were examined. The developmental rate and cell number per embryo were the highest in insulin treatment group and the lowest in TNF-$\alpha$ treatment group. There was no significant difference in developmental rate between control and insulin plus TNF-$\alpha$ group. Taken together, it suggested that TNF-$\alpha$ impaired embryonic development and that insulin rescued developmental impairment imposed by TNF-$\alpha$. In blastocysts, insulin treatment significantly increased MAPK activity. TNF-$\alpha$ decreased the MAPK activity in a concentration-dependent manner. In the TNF-$\alpha$(50 ng/ml) -primed embryos, activation of MAPK by insulin was attenuated. In conclusion, these results suggest that there was a cross talk between insulin and TNF-$\alpha$ by means of activation of MAPK in preimplantation embryos and that insulin might rescue damage of embryos exposed to TNF-$\alpha$.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.85-94
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the hollowization in rural villages which causes marginal villages appears in Korean rural villages and whether the hollowization has relation with decrease and aging of population or not. For achieving the research objective, survey was carried out focused on Geumsan-gun. As a result, it confirmed that rural out-migration and rural decline especially in 'people', 'land(economic situation)' and 'community' have being progressed. Also variance analysis and regression analysis were executed with using the number of population and the ratio of people over 65 as dependent variables and using each survey contents(variables) as independent variables. The results of analysis showed that the ratio of people over 65(+), the income level per household(-), the rate of fallow lands(+), the number of empty houses(+), programs for urban-rural interchange(+), and the implementing public projects(+), etc. have a relation with the number of population(-) and the number of population(-), the income level per household(-), the rate of fallow lands(+), the number of empty houses(+), activities of communities(+), and the implementing public projects(+), etc. have a relation with the ratio of people over 65(+) (+: increase, -: decrease). So the hollowization in people', 'land(economic situation)' and 'community' has direct relation with decrease and aging of population in rural areas.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.523-527
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• 1991

The effects of ethylene glycol, DMSO and glycerol as cryoprotectants and the effect of concentrations(0, 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0M) of sucrose in the diluent on the viability of the aggregated morulae frozen rapidly in liquid nitrogen$(LN_2)$ vapour were examined. The morulae were produced by aggregation of ICR and CBA mice embryos at 8-cell stage. Before freezing the embryos were equilibrated in 1.5M cryoprotectants+0.25M sucrose in oae-step or in 3.0M cryoprotectants+0.25M sucrose in two-steps. The embryos were pipetted into the freezing medium fraction of 0.25ml plastic straws. The straws were frozeu by directly transfer into $LN_2$ vapour(about lcm above $LN_2$) for 2 minutes, and then plunged into $LN_2$. After thawing the cryoprotectants were diluted with 0, 0.25, 0.5 or 1.0M sucrose solution. The post-thawed in vitro viability of the aggregated embryos was significantly dependent on the type and concentration of cryoprotectants in the freezing medium and also on the concentration of sucrose in the diluent. When the aggregated embryos were equilibrated in 1.5M cryoprotectants +0.25M sucrose in one-step and diluted with 0.5M sucrose after thawing, the survival rate of the embryo5 was significantly(p<0.05) higher in DMSO(62.5%) or ethylene glycol(52.2%) than in glycerol(33.3 %). In the case that the concentration of the cryoprotectants was raised to 3.0M in two-steps, thc higher survival rate of the embryos was obtained in ethylene glycol or glycerol than in DMSO followed by diluting them with 0.5 or 1.0M sucrose after thawing(p<0.01).

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.347-355
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to determine the biomechanical effect of wearing the mouthguard on the lower limb during drop landing. Nine male university students who have no musculoskeletal disorder were recruited as the subjects. Linear velocity, angular velocity, vertical GRF, loading rate, joint moment, and lower extremity muscle activity were determined for each subject. For each dependent variable, paired t-test was performed to test if significant difference existed between with mouthguard (WM) and without mouthguard (WOM) conditions (p<.05). The results showed that linear velocity, angular velocity, vertical GRF and loading rate were no significant difference between the two groups. The inversion moment of the ankle joint was increased in WM compared to WOM. Average IEMG values from BF, TA, and LG in WM were significantly greater than corresponding values in WOM during IP phase. This indicates that wearing mouthguard played a vital role in muscle tuning for maintaining joint stability of the lower limb and preventing injury.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea TC
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• v.37 no.9
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• pp.11-23
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• 2000

Multicarrier DS-CDMA is an effective approach to realize wideband CDMA system in a multipath fading channel. In this paper, we propose a convolutionally-coded overlapped multicarrier DS-CDMA system, and analyze the performance with subband overlapping variation to determine the overlapping percentage showing best performance. Given a total number of subcarriers M*R, we will show that the BER variation is highly dependent on the rolloff factor P of raised-cosine chip wave-shaping filter irrespective of convolutional encoding rate I/M and repetition coding rate 1/R. We also analyze the possibility of reduction in total MUI by considering both variation of a rolloff factor (0 ($\beta$ :1) and variation of subband overlapping factor (0 ( A :2), and show that the proposed system may outperform the multicarrier DS-CDMA system in [1, 12].

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.3817-3823
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• 2014

Background: The MDM2 oncogene, a negative regulator of p53, has a functional polymorphism in the promoter region (SNP309) that is associated with multiple kinds of cancers including non-melanoma skin cancer. SNP309 has been shown to associate with accelerated tumor formation by increasing the affinity of the transcriptional activator Sp1. It remains unknown whether there are other factors involved in the regulation of MDM2 transcription through a trans-regulatory mechanism. Methods: In this study, SNP309 was verified to be associated with overexpression of MDM2 in tumor cells. Bioinformatics predicts that the T to G substitution at SNP309 generates a stronger E2F1 binding site, which was confirmed by ChIP and luciferase assays. Results: E2F1 knockdown downregulates the expression of MDM2, which confirms that E2F1 is a functional upstream regulator. Furthermore, tumor cells with the GG genotype exhibited a higher proliferation rate than TT, correlating with cyclin D1 expression. E2F1 depletion significantly inhibits the proliferation capacity and downregulates cyclin D1 expression, especially in GG genotype skin fibroblasts. Notably, E2F1 siRNA effects could be rescued by cyclin D1 overexpression. Conclusion: Taken together, a novel modulator E2F1 was identified as regulating MDM2 expression dependent on SNP309 and further mediates cyclin D1 expression and tumor cell proliferation. E2F1 might act as an important factor for SNP309 serving as a rate-limiting event in carcinogenesis.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.24 no.9 s.180
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• pp.2326-2333
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• 2000

Creep tests for type 316L(N) stainless steel were carried out using constant-load creep machines at 55$0^{\circ}C$, 575$^{\circ}C$ and $600^{\circ}C$. Material constants necessary to predict creep rupture time were obtained from the experimental creep data. And the applicability of Monkman-Grant(M-G) and modified M-G relationships was discussed. The log-log plot of M-G relationship between the rupture time($t_r$,) and the minimum creep rate ($ $\varepsilon$ _m$) was dependent on test temperatures. The slope of m was 1,05 at 55$0^{\circ}C$ and m was 1.30 at $600^{\circ}C$. On the other hand, the log-log plot of modified M-G relationship between $t_r/$\varepsilon$_r$, and $ $\varepsilon$ _m$ was independent on stresses and temperatures. That is, the slope of m＇ was approximately 1.35 in all the data. Thus, modified M-G relationship for creep life prediction could be utilized more reasonably than that of M-G relationship for type 316L(N) stainless steel. It was analyzed that the constant slopes regardless of temperatures or applied stresses in the modified relationship were due to an intergranular fracture grown by wedge-type cavities.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.213-219
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• 2016

The position verification of the radiation source utilized in brachytherapy forms a critical factor in determining the therapeutic efficiency. Currently, films are used to verify the source position; however, this method is encumbered by the lengthy time interval required from film scanning to analysis, which makes real-time position verification difficult. In general, the source position accuracy is usually tested in a monthly quality assurance check. In this context, this study investigates the feasibility of the real-time position verification of the radiation source in high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy with the use of scintillating fibers. To this end, we construct a system consisting of scintillating fibers and a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM), optimize the dosimetric software setup and radiation system characteristics to obtain maximum measurement accuracy, and determine the relative ratio of the measured signals dependent upon the position of the scintillating fiber. According to the dosimetric results based on a treatment plan, in which the dwell time is set at 30 and 60 s at two dwell positions, the number of signals is 31.5 and 83, respectively. In other words, the signal rate roughly doubles in proportion to the dwell time. The source position can also be confirmed at the same time. With further improvements in the spatial resolution and scintillating fiber array, the source position can be verified in real-time in clinical settings with the use of a scintillating fiber-based system.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.5037-5042
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• 2012

Background: Tobacco contains agents which generate various potent DNA adducts that can cause gene mutations. Production of DNA adducts may be neutralized by glutathione S transferase (GST) along with other phase I and phase II enzyme systems. The existence of null type of GST among the population increases the susceptibility to various disorders and diseases. The present study focuses on the impact of high tobacco usage and possible null type mutation in GST loci. Methods: Genotypes of GST were detected by multiplex polymerase chain reaction in unrelated 504 volunteers of high tobacco using natives of Gujarat. Allelic frequencies were calculated using Statistical Package for Social Studies-16 software. Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE) was calculated using Chi square test. Two sided Fisher's significance test was used to compare allelic frequencies of different populations. Results: The frequency of homozygous null genotype of GSTM1 and GSTT1 were 20% (95% CI 16.7-23.9) and 35.5% (95% CI 31.4-39.9) respectively. The GSTM1 and GSTT1 null allele frequency distribution in the Gujarat population was significantly deviating from HWE. GSTT1 null frequency of Gujaratians was significantly higher and different to all reported low tobacco using Indian ethnics, while GSTM1 was not differing significantly. Conclusion: Tobacco usage significantly influences the rate of mutation and frequency of GSTT1 and M1 null types among the habituates. The rate of mutation in GSTT1 loci was an undeviating response to the dose of tobacco usage among the population. This mutational impact of tobacco on GSTT1 postulates the possible gene - environment interaction and selection of null genotype among the subjects to prone them under susceptible status for various cancers and even worst to cure the population with GSTT1 dependent drugs.