Experimental Study on Coordinated Heading Control of Four Vessels Moored Side by Side

A floating type liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering terminal has been under development in Korea since 2014; the terminal is designed to receive LNG from an LNG carrier (LNGC) and transfer it to two other LNG bunkering shuttles (LNGBS) simultaneously. The operational feasibility of the LNG loading and unloading processes has been confirmed. When four vessels are moored side by side with mooring ropes and fenders, their positions must be maintained within the designed allowable criteria. In addition, the floating bunkering terminal (FLBT) has its own mooring system, an internal turret with catenary mooring lines and stern tunnel thrusters to maintain its own position and control the vessel heading. In this study, we investigated the operational feasibility of the FLBT during the LNG loading and unloading operations with four vessel mooring configurations and heading controls. A series of model tests was done in the ocean engineering basin of the Korea Research Institute of Ships and Ocean engineering. The motion responses of the four vessels were determined using an optical measurement system, and the tensile loads on ship-to-ship mooring ropes and the compressive loads on ship-to-ship fenders were measured using one-axis load cells. A white noise test was done and the results were compared with the numerical results for the purpose of validation. Then, four combined environmental conditions were presented both without heading control and with several heading control cases. Finally, we determined the available safe bunkering heading ranges taking into account the tensile loads on the mooring ropes

Evaluation of demands, usage and unmet needs for emergency care in Yaoundé, Cameroon: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the burden of emergent illnesses and emergency care system usage by Yaoundé residents and to evaluate unmet needs for emergency care and associated barriers. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study using a community-based survey. SETTING: Yaoundé, Cameroon. PARTICIPANTS: All residents living in Yaoundé were selected as the target population to investigate the needs and usage of emergency care in Yaoundé. 14 households in every health area (47 in total) were selected using 2-stage sampling. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Unmet needs for emergency care. RESULTS: Among the 3201 participants from 619 households who completed the survey, 1113 (34.8%) with median age of 22 experienced 1 or more emergency conditions in the previous year. Respondents who experienced emergency conditions used emergency units (7.0%), outpatient clinics (46.5%) or hospitalisation (13.0%), and in overall, 68.8% of them reported unmet needs for emergency care. The primary reasons for not seeking healthcare were economic issues (37.2%) and use of complementary medicine (22.2%). Young age (adjusted OR (95% CI) 1.80 (1.23 to 2.62)), rental housing (1.50 (1.11 to 2.03)) and moderate household income (0.60 (0.36 to 0.99)) were associated with unmet needs for emergency care. CONCLUSIONS: Residents of Yaoundé had a high demand for emergency care, and high unmet needs were observed due to low emergency care usage. Development of a cost-effective, universal emergency care system is urgently needed in Cameroon

Oral microbiome correlates with selected clinical biomarkers in individuals with no significant systemic disease

The oral microbiome is an important component of the microbiome in the human body. Although the association of the oral microbiome with various diseases, including periodontitis and cancer, has been reported, information on how the oral microbiome is related to health-related indicators in healthy populations is still insufficient. In this study, we examined the associations of the oral microbiome with 15 metabolic and 19 complete blood count (CBC)-based markers in 692 healthy Korean individuals. The richness of the oral microbiome was associated with four CBC markers and one metabolic marker. Compositional variation in the oral microbiome was significantly explained by four markers: fasting glucose, fasting insulin, white blood cell count, and total leukocyte count. Furthermore, we found that these biomarkers were associated with the relative abundances of numerous microbial genera, such as Treponema, TG5, and Tannerella. By identifying the relationship between the oral microbiome and clinical biomarkers in a healthy population, our study presents a direction for future studies on oral microbiome-based diagnosis and interventions

A New Hardware Correlator in Korea: Performance Evaluation using KVN observations

We report results of the performance evaluation of a new hardware correlator in Korea, the Daejeon correlator, developed by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). We conducted Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations at 22~GHz with the Korean VLBI Network (KVN) in Korea and the VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA) in Japan, and correlated the aquired data with the Daejeon correlator. For evaluating the performance of the new hardware correlator, we compared the correlation outputs from the Daejeon correlator for KVN observations with those from a software correlator, the Distributed FX (DiFX). We investigated the correlated flux densities and brightness distributions of extragalactic compact radio sources. The comparison of the two correlator outputs show that they are consistent with each other within $<8\%$, which is comparable with the amplitude calibration uncertainties of KVN observations at 22~GHz. We also found that the 8\% difference in flux density is caused mainly by (a) the difference in the way of fringe phase tracking between the DiFX software correlator and the Daejeon hardware correlator, and (b) an unusual pattern (a double-layer pattern) of the amplitude correlation output from the Daejeon correlator. The visibility amplitude loss by the double-layer pattern is as small as 3\%. We conclude that the new hardware correlator produces reasonable correlation outputs for continuum observations, which are consistent with the outputs from the DiFX software correlator.Comment: 13 pagee, 9 figures, 3 tables, to appear in JKAS (received February 9, 2015; accepted March 16, 2015

Bone marrow-derived, alternatively activated macrophages enhance solid tumor growth and lung metastasis of mammary carcinoma cells in a Balb/C mouse orthotopic model

INTRODUCTION: Tumor-associated macrophages, which are derived from the infiltration of circulating bone marrow-derived monocytes, consist primarily of a polarized M2 macrophage (M2-Mϕ) population and are associated with poor prognosis in various cancers. In the present study, we attempted to assess whether M2-Mϕs derived from bone marrow stimulate the promotion and progression of mammary tumors. METHODS: 4T1 murine mammary carcinoma cells were injected either alone or coupled with M2-Mϕs into the mammary fat pads of syngeneic female Balb/C mice. M2-Mϕs were prepared by treating monocytes isolated from female Balb/C mouse bone marrow with IL-4. Tumor cell growth was determined using an in vivo imaging system and the expression of cell proliferation-related, angiogenesis-related, and lymphangiogenesis-related proteins in tumor tissues was immunohistochemically analyzed. To evaluate the effects of the crosstalk between 4T1 cells and M2-Mϕs on the secretion and mRNA expression of cytokines and the migration of monocytes, 4T1 cells and M2-Mϕs were co-cultured and cytokine antibody array, real-time RT-PCR, and trans-well migration assays were conducted. RESULTS: The co-injection of M2-Mϕs into the mammary fat pads of mice increased solid tumor growth and lung metastasis of 4T1 cells as well as the infiltration of CD45(+ )leukocytes into tumor tissues. The proportions of Ki-67(+ )proliferating cells and the expression of hypoxia inducible factor-1α, vascular endothelial cell growth factor A, CD31, vascular endothelial cell growth factor C, and lymphatic vessel endothelial receptor-1 were increased significantly in the tumor tissues of mice co-injected with 4T1 cells and M2-Mϕs. The in vitro results revealed that the proliferation of 4T1 cells, the migration of monocytes, and the secretion of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, IFNγ, IL-1α, IL-2, IL-16, IFNγ-induced protein-10, keratinocyte-derived chemokine, macrophage colony-stimulating factor, monocyte chemotactic protein-1, macrophage inflammatory protein-1α, and RANTES were increased when 4T1 cells were co-cultured with M2-Mϕs, as compared with when the 4T1 cells were cultured alone. CONCLUSION: The crosstalk between 4T1 cells and M2-Mϕs increased the production of cytokines, which may have induced immune cell infiltration into tumor tissues, tumor cell proliferation, angiogenesis, and lymph angiogenesis, thereby increasing solid tumor growth and lung metastasis