• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.257-269
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• 2001

Numerical simulation is performed to understand the structural behavior of an underground radwaste repository, assumed to be located at the depth of 500 m, in a granitic rock mats, in which a fault intersects the roof of the repository cavern. Two dimensional universal distinct element code, UDEC is used in the analysis. The numerical model includes a granitic rock mass, a canister with PWR spent fuels surrounded by the compacted bentonite inside the deposition hole, and the mixed bentonite backfilled in the rest of the space within the repository cavern. The structural behavior of three different cases, each case with a fault of an angle of $33^{\circ},\;45^{\circ},\;and\;58^{\circ}$ passing through the cavern roof-wall intersection, has been compared. And then fro the case with the $45^{\circ}$ fault, the hydro-mechanical, thermo-mechanical, and thermo-hydro-mechanical interaction behavior have been studied. The effect of the time-dependent decaying heat, from the radioactive materials in PWR spent fuels, on the repository and its surroundings has been studied. The groundwater table is assumed to be located 10m below the ground surface, and a steady state flow algorithm is used.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.38-58
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• 2018

The ventilation system plays a crucial role in underground mine safety. The main objective of the ventilation system is to supply sufficient air to dilute the contaminated air at working places and consequently provide tenable environment during the normal operation, while it also should be capable of controlling the fire propagation and facilitate rescue conditions in case of fire in mines. In this study, a smoke control fan was developed for the auxiliary ventilation as well as the fire smoke exhaust. It works as a free-standing auxiliary fan without tubing to dilute or exhaust the contaminated air from the working places. At the same time, it can be employed to extract the fire smoke. This paper aims to examine the smoke control efficiency of the fan when combined with the current ventilation system in mines. A series of the site experiments and numerical simulations were made to evaluate the fan performance in blind entry development sites. The tracer gas method with SF6 was applied to investigate the contaminant behavior at the study sites. The results of the site study at a large-opening limestone mine were compared with the CFD analysis results with respect to the airflow pattern and the gas concentration. This study shows that in blind development entry, the most polluted and risky place, the smoke fan can exhaust toxic gases or fire smoke effectively if it is properly combined with an additional common auxiliary fan. The venturi effect for smoke exhaust from the blind entry was also observed by the numerical analysis. The overall smoke control efficiency was found to be dependent on the fan location and operating method.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.48-53
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• 1995

This study investigates a simple mathematical model for the quantitative estimation of regional myocardial blood flow in experimental canine coronary artery thrombosis using Rb-82 dynamic myocardial positron emission tomography. The coronary thrombosis was induced using the new catheter technique by narrowing the lumen of coronary vessel gradually, which finally led to partial obstruction of coronary artery. Ten Rb-82 dynamic myocardial PET scans were performed sequentially for each experiment using our 5, 10 and 20 second acquisition protocol, respectively, and three regions of interest were drawn on the transaxial slices, one on left ventricular chamber for input function and the other two on normal and decreased perfusion segments for the flow estimation in those regions. Single compartment model has been applied to the measured sets of regional PET data, and the rate constants of influx to myocardial tissue were calculated for regional myocardial flow estimates with the three parameter fits of raw data by the Levenberg-Marquardt method. The results showed that, (1) single compartment model suggested by Kety-Schmidt could be used for the simple estimation of regional myocardial blood flow, (2) the calculated regional myocardial blood flow estimates were dependent on the selection of input function, which reflected partial volume effect and left ventricular wall motion, and (3) mathematically fitted input and tissue time activity curves were more suitable than the direct application of the measured data in terms of convergence.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.103-110
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• 2010

The first morphogenetic event of preimplantation development, compaction, was required efficient production of porcine embryos in vitro. Compaction of the porcine embryo, which takes place at post 4-cell stage, is dependent upon the adhesion molecule E-cadherin. The E-cadherin through ${\beta}$-catenin contributes to stable cell-cell adhesion. Rho-associated kinase (ROCK) signaling was found to support the integrity of E-cadherin based cell contacts. In this study, we traced the effects of ROCK-1 on early embryonic development and structural integrity of blastocysts in pigs. Then, in order to gain new insights into the process of compaction, we also examined whether ROCK-1 signaling is involved in the regulation of the compaction mediated by E-cadherin of cellular adhesion molecules. As a result, real-time RT-PCR analysis showed that the expression of ROCK-1 mRNA was presented throughout porcine preimplantation stages, but not expressed as consistent levels. Thus, we investigated the blastocyst formation of porcine embryos treated with LPA and Y27632. Blastocysts formation and their qualities in LPA treated group increased significantly compared to those in the Y27632-treated group (p < 0.05). Then, to determine whether ROCK-1 associates embryonic compaction, we explored the effect of activator and/or inhibitor of ROCK-1 on compaction of embryos in pigs. The rate of compacted morula in LPA treated group was increased compared to that in the Y27632-treated group (39.7 vs 12.0%). Furthermore, we investigated the localization and expression pattern of E-cadherin at 4-cell stage porcine embryos in both LPA- and Y27632-treated groups by immunocytochemical analysis and Western blot analysis. The expression of E-cadherin was increased in LPA-treated group compared to that in the Y27632-treated group. The localization of E-cadherin in LPA-treated group was enriched in part of blastomere contacts compared to that Y27632-treated group. ROCK-1 as a crucial mediator of embryo compaction may plays an important role in regulating compaction through E-cadherin of the cell adhesion during the porcine preimplantation embryo. We concluded that ROCK-1 gene may affect the developmental potential of porcine blastocysts through regulating embryonic compaction.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.156-162
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• 2007

The parallel beam SPECT system acquires projection data by using collimators in conjunction with photon detectors. The projection data of the parallel beam SPECT system is, however, blurred by the point response function of the collimator that is used to define the range of directions where photons can be detected. By increasing the number of parallel holes per unit area in collimator, one can reduce such blurring effect. This approach also, however, has the blurring problem if the distance between the object and the collimator becomes large. In this paper we consider correction methods for artifacts caused by non-circular orbit of parallel beam SPECT with many parallel holes per detector cell. To do so, we model the relationship between the object and its projection data as a linear system, and propose an iterative reconstruction method including artifacts correction. We compute the projector and the backprojector, which are required in iterative method, as a sum of convolutions with distance-dependent point response functions instead of matrix form, where those functions are analytically computed from a single function. By doing so, we dramatically reduce the computation time and memory required for the generation of the projector and the backprojector. We conducted several simulation studies to compare the performance of the proposed method with that of conventional Fourier method. The result shows that the proposed method outperforms Fourier methods objectively and subjectively.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.486-491
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• 2015

The potential of applying cold plasma (CP) treatments to improve microbiological safety of powdered products has been investigated using infant milk powder (IMP) and onion powder (OP). Among the different kinds of CP-forming gases, He-$O_2$ (99.8:0.2) gas mixture and He gas were most effective in reducing the number of Cronobacter sakazakii in IMP and Bacillus cereus spores in OP, respectively. C. sakazakii counts in IMP decreased by $0.9{\pm}0.1{\log}\;CFU/g$ after CP treatment, and the extent of C. sakazakii inhibition increased in a time-dependent manner. CP treatment at 900 W for 20 min reduced the number of B. cereus spores by ~0.4 log spores/g. Treatments that integrated CP with microwave (MW-CP treatment) as well as those that integrated CP with heat and microwave (H-MW-CP treatment) resulted in a 90% reduction in the number of spores in OP. Thus, CP treatments demonstrated potential for decontaminating foodborne pathogens from powdered products, in combination with heat for improved effect.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.164-171
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• 2017

Our previous study suggested that S-allylcysteine (SAC) inhibits the proliferation of the human cervical cancer cell line, HeLa, at least in part through the induction of apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. To further analyze the specific molecular mechanism(s) by which SAC mediates its antiproliferative effects, this study examined the role of SAC in regulating the protein expression of initiator caspase (caspase-9), effector caspases (caspase-3 and caspase-7), and poly-ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) in HeLa. Western blot analysis showed that when cells were treated with 50 mM SAC for 48 hr, the expression of procaspase-3, -7, and -9 and PARP was reduced by 94%, 38%, 95%, and 64%, respectively, as compared to the untreated control. In contrast, the expression of caspase-3, -7, and -9 and cleaved-PARP was markedly increased by SAC treatment. The SAC-mediated changes in the expression of these proteins were correlated with the concomitant inhibition of cellular proliferation by SAC. The cell proliferation assay showed that HeLa treatment with more than 20 mM SAC for 6-48 hr resulted in both concentration- and time-dependent inhibition of cellular proliferation. These results indicate that the SAC-induced antiproliferative effect in HeLa may be mediated at least in part through the activation of caspase-9, followed by the activation of caspase-3 and caspase-7 as well as the inactivation of PARP, thus leading to cellular apoptosis.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.748-752
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• 1990

This paper was investigated to elucidate the nitrite-scavenging ability of roasted-barley extracts. Roasted-barley extracts exhibited nitrite-scavenging ability. The nitrite-scavenging ability of roasted-barley extracts showed pH-dependent, and did the highest at pH 1.2 and the lowest at pH 6.0. The roasting temperature and time of barley examined influenced the nitrite-scavenging ability of roasted-barley extracts. The water soluble fraction obtained from barley roasted at $230^{\circ}C$ for 90 min showed higher the nitrite-scavenging effect than the others. Ethanol soluble fraction which is further fractionated from water soluble fraction was most effective in nitrite-scavenging.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.417-425
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• 2013

The aim of this study was to examine improving effect of Platycodon extracts (PE) and/or Platycodon extracts jelly (PEJ) on cognitive impairment in vitro and in vivo. PC12 (Pheochromocytoma) cells were pretreated with PE for 1hr and than incubated with $50{\mu}M$ amyloid ${\beta}(A{\beta})_{25-35}$ for additional 48hr. Cell viability was assessed by WST-1. Animals for Morris water test and passive avoidance test were divided into normal, control and two Platycodon extracts treated groups that were named Normal (n=7), Control (0 mg/kg, n=7), PE (300 mg/kg, n=7), PEJ (10 g/kg, n=7). Cognitive impairment was induced by scopolamine (1 mg/kg/body weight, i.p.) in the three experimental groups but not the normal group. Pretretment of PE (0.01-1 mg/mL) were not induced cytotoxicity but observed in high dose-treated group (5 and 10 mg/mL) in PC12 cells. Protective effects of PE against $A{\beta}$-induced cytotoxicity were increased in dose dependent manner in PC12 cells. Administration of PE and PEJ were significantly reduced escape latency time on Morris water maze test and passive avoidance test in copolamine-induced cognitive impairment animal model. These results suggest that Platycodon extracts and its related product available to ameliorative purpose for cognitive ability impairments.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.256-263
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• 2014

Background: Korean Red Ginseng (KRG) is known to have antianxiety properties. This study was conducted to investigate the anxiolytic effects of KRG extract (KRGE) during ethanol withdrawal (EW) and the involvement of the mesoamygdaloid dopamine (DA) system in it. Methods: Rats were treated with 3 g/kg/d of ethanol for 28 d, and subjected to 3 d of withdrawal. During EW, KRGE (20 mg/kg/d or 60 mg/kg/d, p.o.) was given to rats once/d for 3 d. Thirty min after the final dose of KRGE, anxiety-like behavior was evaluated in an elevated plus maze (EPM), and plasma corticosterone (CORT) levels were determined by a radioimmunoassay (RIA). In addition, concentrations of DA and 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) in the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) were also measured by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Results: The EPM test and RIA revealed KRGE inhibited anxiety-like behavior and the over secretion of plasma CORT during EW. Furthermore, the behavioral effect was blocked by a selective DA D2 receptor (D2R) antagonist (eticlopride) but not by a selective DA D1 receptor (D1R) antagonist (SCH23390). HPLC analyses showed KRGE reversed EW-induced decreases of DA and DOPAC in a dose-dependent way. Additionally, Western blotting and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays showed that KRGE prevented the EW-induced reductions in tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) protein expression in the CeA and TH mRNA expression in the ventral tegmental area (VTA). Conclusion: These results suggest that KRGE has anxiolytic effects during EW by improving the mesoamygdaloid DA system.