• Molecules and Cells
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• 제28권4호
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• pp.365-368
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• 2009

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play an important role in host defense by sensing invading microbial pathogens and initiating innate immune responses. The stimulation of TLRs by microbial components triggers the activation of myeloid differential factor 88 (MyD88)- and toll-interleukin-1 receptor domain-containing adapter inducing interferon-${\beta}$ (TRIF)-dependent downstream signaling pathways. Isoliquiritigenin (ILG), an active ingredient of Licorice, has been used for centuries to treat many chronic diseases. ILG inhibits the MyD88-dependent pathway by inhibiting the activity of inhibitor-${\kappa}B$ kinase. However, it is not known whether ILG inhibits the TRIF-dependent pathway. To evaluate the therapeutic potential of ILG, we examined its effect on signal transduction via the TRIF-dependent pathway of TLRs induced by several agonists. ILG inhibited nuclear factor-${\kappa}B$ and interferon regulatory factor 3 activation induced by lipopolysaccharide or polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid. ILG inhibited the lipopolysaccharide-induced phosphorylation of interferon regulatory factor 3 as well as interferon-inducible genes such as interferon inducible protein-10, and regulated activation of normal T-cell expressed and secreted (RANTES). These results suggest that ILG can modulate TRIF-dependent signaling pathways of TLRs, leading to decreased inflammatory gene expression.

• 천문학회보
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• 제41권1호
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• pp.70.4-71
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• 2016

The links between super-massive black hole masses and their host galaxy properties are observed, indicating that black hole growth and host galaxy evolution are closely related. Reverberation mapping, which uses the time delay from the central black hole to broad line regions, is one of the best methods to estimate masses of black holes of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). However, only masses of about 50 black holes have been determined in reverberation mapping studies so far, and most of them are limited to optical luminosities below 10^45 erg/s due to the challenges of long-term time domain observations in both photometry and spectroscopy. In this project, we expand reverberation mapping samples to higher luminosities of > 10^44.5 erg/s at 0.1 < z < 0.35, that have expected time lags of 40 - 250 light days. Photometric (using LOAO 1-m and MDM 1.3-m) and spectroscopic (using MDM 2.4-m and Lick 3-m) monitoring campaigns are being conducted for a 3 year duration and 20 day cadence. Precedent photometric observations in 2015B show some targets with variability and follow-up spectroscopic observations are on-going. In this presentation, we introduce our project, present reverberation mapping simulation results, and preliminary results on photometry. These reverberation mapping masses of relatively high luminous AGNs will provide a strong constraint on black hole mass calibration, e.g., the single-epoch mass estimation.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제39권1호
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• pp.47-75
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• 2011

An accurate substructural synthesis method including random responses synthesis, frequency-response functions synthesis and mid-order modes synthesis is developed based on rigorous substructure description, dynamic condensation and coupling. An entire structure can firstly be divided into several substructures according to different functions, geometric and dynamic characteristics. Substructural displacements are expressed exactly by retained mid-order fixed-interfacial normal modes and residual constraint modes. Substructural interfacial degree-of-freedoms are eliminated by interfacial displacements compatibility and forces equilibrium between adjacent substructures. Then substructural mode vibration equations are coupled to form an exact-condensed synthesized structure equation, from which structural mid-order modes are calculated accurately. Furthermore, substructural frequency-response function equations are coupled to yield an exact-condensed synthesized structure vibration equation in frequency domain, from which the generalized structural frequency-response functions are obtained. Substructural frequency-response functions are calculated separately by using the generalized frequency-response functions, which can be assembled into an entire-structural frequency-response function matrix. Substructural power spectral density functions are expressed by the exact-synthesized substructural frequency-response functions, and substructural random responses such as correlation functions and mean-square responses can be calculated separately. The accuracy and capacity of the proposed substructure synthesis method is verified by numerical examples.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.319-328
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• 2016

In this study, we first briefly introduce the effect of circulating current control on the modulation signal of a modular multilevel converter (MMC). The maximum modulation index is also theoretically derived. According to the optimal modulation index analysis and the model in the continuous domain, different DC-side output impedance equivalent models of MMC with/without compensating component are derived. The DC-side impedance of MMC inverter station can be regarded as a series xR + yL + zC branch in both cases. The compensating component of the maximum modulation index is also related to the DC equivalent impedance with circulating current control. The frequency characteristic of impedance for MMC, which is observed from its DC side, is analyzed. Finally, this study investigates the prediction of the DC voltage ripple transfer between two-terminal MMC high-voltage direct current systems under unbalanced conditions. The rationality and accuracy of the impedance model are verified through MATLAB/Simulink simulations and experimental results.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.202-215
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• 2015

This paper investigates the stability and performance of model predictive controlled active-front-end (AFE) rectifiers for energy storage systems, which has been increasingly applied in power distribution sectors and in renewable energy sources to ensure an uninterruptable power supply. The model predictive control (MPC) algorithm utilizes the discrete behavior of power converters to determine appropriate switching states by defining a cost function. The stability of the MPC algorithm is analyzed with the discrete z-domain response and the nonlinear simulation model. The results confirms that the control method of the active-front-end (AFE) rectifier is stable, and that is operates with an infinite gain margin and a very fast dynamic response. Moreover, the performance of the MPC controlled AFE rectifier is verified with a 3.0 kW experimental system. This shows that the MPC controlled AFE rectifier operates with a unity power factor, an acceptable THD (4.0 %) level for the input current and a very low DC voltage ripple. Finally, an efficiency comparison is performed between the MPC and the VOC-based PWM controllers for AFE rectifiers. This comparison demonstrates the effectiveness of the MPC controller.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• 제15권4호
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• pp.994-1005
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• 2015

This paper presents a novel power control strategy for PWM current-source rectifiers (CSRs) in the stationary frame based on the instantaneous power theory. In the proposed control strategy, a virtual resistance based on the capacitor voltage feedback is used to realize the active damping. In addition, the proportional resonant (PR) controller under the two-phase stationary coordinate is designed to track the ac reference current and to avoid the strong coupling brought about by the coordinate transformation. The limitations on improving steady-state performance of the PR controller is investigated and mitigated using a cascaded lead-lag compensator. In the z-domain, a straightforward procedure is developed to analyze and design the control-loop with the help of MATLAB/SISO software tools. In addition, robustness against parameter variations is analyzed. Finally, simulation and experimental results verify the proposed control scheme and design method.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제2권2호
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• pp.127-140
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• 2006

In this study, a wavelet-based covariance-driven system identification technique is proposed for damage assessment of structures under ambient excitation. Assuming the ambient excitation to be a white-noise process, the covariance computation is shown to be able to separate the effect of random excitation from the response measurement. Wavelet transform (WT) is then used to convert the covariance response in the time domain to the WT magnitude plot in the time-scale plane. The wavelet coefficients along the curves where energy concentrated are extracted and used to estimate the modal properties of the structure. These modal property estimations lead to the calculation of the stiffness matrix when either the spectral density of the random loading or the mass matrix is given. The predicted stiffness matrix hence provides a direct assessment on the possible location and severity of damage which results in stiffness alteration. To demonstrate the proposed wavelet-based damage assessment technique, a numerical example on a 3 degree-of-freedom (DOF) system and an experimental study on a three-story building model, which are all under a broad-band excitation, are presented. Both numerical and experimental results illustrate that the proposed technique can provide an accurate assessment on the damage location. It is however noted that the assessment of damage severity is not as accurate, which might be due to the errors associated with the mode shape estimations as well as the assumption of proportional damping adopted in the formulation.

• Molecules and Cells
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• 제42권3호
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• pp.245-251
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• 2019

Ependymal cells constitute the multi-ciliated epithelium, which lines the brain ventricular lumen. Although ependymal cells originate from radial glial cells in the perinatal rodent brain, the exact mechanisms underlying the full differentiation of ependymal cells are poorly understood. In this report, we present evidence that the Anks1a phosphotyrosine binding domain (PTB) adaptor is required for the proper development of ependymal cells in the rodent postnatal brain. Anks1a gene trap targeted LacZ reporter analysis revealed that Anks1a is expressed prominently in the ventricular region of the early postnatal brain and that its expression is restricted to mature ependymal cells during postnatal brain development. In addition, Anks1a-deficient ependymal cells were shown to possess type B cell characteristics, suggesting that ependymal cells require Anks1a in order to be fully differentiated. Finally, Anks1a overexpression in the lateral wall of the neonatal brain resulted in an increase in the number of ependymal cells during postnatal brain development. Altogether, our results suggest that ependymal cells require Anks1a PTB adaptor for their proper development.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제31권4호
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• pp.277-292
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• 2023

Much of our experiments are designed to uncover the cause(s) and effect(s) behind a phenomenon (i.e., data generating mechanism) we happen to be interested in. Uncovering such relationships allows us to identify the true workings of a phenomenon and, most importantly, to realize and articulate a model to explore the phenomenon on hand and/or allow us to predict it accurately. Fundamentally, such models are likely to be derived via a causal approach (as opposed to an observational or empirical mean). In this approach, causal discovery is required to create a causal model, which can then be applied to infer the influence of interventions, and answer any hypothetical questions (i.e., in the form of What ifs? Etc.) that commonly used prediction- and statistical-based models may not be able to address. From this lens, this paper builds a case for causal discovery and causal inference and contrasts that against common machine learning approaches - all from a civil and structural engineering perspective. More specifically, this paper outlines the key principles of causality and the most commonly used algorithms and packages for causal discovery and causal inference. Finally, this paper also presents a series of examples and case studies of how causal concepts can be adopted for our domain.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• 제23권5호
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• pp.1-6
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• 2023

Text mining (TM) is most widely used to process the various unstructured text documents and process the data present in the various domains. The other name for text mining is text classification. This domain is most popular in many domains such as movie reviews, product reviews on various E-commerce websites, sentiment analysis, topic modeling and cyber bullying on social media messages. Cyber-bullying is the type of abusing someone with the insulting language. Personal abusing, sexual harassment, other types of abusing come under cyber-bullying. Several existing systems are developed to detect the bullying words based on their situation in the social networking sites (SNS). SNS becomes platform for bully someone. In this paper, An Enhanced text mining approach is developed by using Ensemble Algorithm (ETMA) to solve several problems in traditional algorithms and improve the accuracy, processing time and quality of the result. ETMA is the algorithm used to analyze the bullying text within the social networking sites (SNS) such as facebook, twitter etc. The ETMA is applied on synthetic dataset collected from various data a source which consists of 5k messages belongs to bullying and non-bullying. The performance is analyzed by showing Precision, Recall, F1-Score and Accuracy.