386 research outputs found
Anti-Limit Pricing
Extending Milgrom and Roberts (1982), we analyze an infinite horizon entry model where an incumbent may use its current price to signal its strength, in order to deter entry. In contrast with conventional limit pricing, we show the entry of weaker firms. We also provide necessary and sufficient conditions for this phenomenon to arise in equilibrium, in the benchmark cases that no second entry is profitable.Dynamic Signaling, Limit Pricing, Entry Deterrence
Use of mineral trioxide aggregrate in the non-surgical repair of perforating invasive cervical resorption
Mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) has shown potential as a repair material for perforations. This clinical case demonstrates that when MTA was used as a repair material for root perforation due to invasive cervical resorption, the tooth was well in function for 27 months. Both clinical and radiographic follow-up showed a stable condition without any probing defect, ongoing root resorption, or apical pathosis
Vision-based Crack Identification on the Concrete Slab Surface using Fuzzy Reasoning Rules and Self-Organizing
Identifying cracks on the surface of concrete slab structure is important for structure stability maintenance. In order to avoid subjective visual inspection, it is necessary to develop an automated identification and measuring system by vision based method. Although there have been some intelligent computerized inspection methods, they are sensitive to noise due to the brightness contrast and objects such as forms and joints of certain size often falsely classified as cracks. In this paper, we propose a new fuzzy logic based image processing method that extracts cracks from concrete slab structure including small cracks that were often neglected as noise. We extract candidate crack areas by applying fuzzy method with three color channel values of concrete slab structure. Then further refinement processes are performed with Self Organizing Map algorithm and density based noise removal process to obtain basic crack characteristic attributes for further analysis. Experimental result verifies that the proposed method is sufficiently identified cracks with various sizes with high accuracy (97.3%) among 1319 ground truth cracks from 30 images
Prevalence of Korean cats with natural feline coronavirus infections
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Feline coronavirus is comprised of two pathogenic biotypes consisting of feline infectious peritonitis virus (FIPV) and feline enteric coronavirus (FECV), which are both divided into two serotypes. To examine the prevalence of Korean cats infected with feline coronavirus (FCoV) type I and II, fecal samples were obtained from 212 cats (107 pet and 105 feral) in 2009.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Fourteen cats were FCoV-positive, including infections with type I FCoV (n = 8), type II FCoV (n = 4), and types I and II co-infection (n = 2). Low seroprevalences (13.7%, 29/212) of FCoV were identified in chronically ill cats (19.3%, 16/83) and healthy cats (10.1%, 13/129).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Although the prevalence of FCoV infection was not high in comparison to other countries, there was a higher prevalence of type I FCoV in Korean felines. The prevalence of FCoV antigen and antibody in Korean cats are expected to gradually increase due to the rising numbers of stray and companion cats.</p
Unleashing the full potential of Hsp90 inhibitors as cancer therapeutics through simultaneous inactivation of Hsp90, Grp94, and TRAP1
Cancer therapeutics: Extending a drug's reach A new drug that blocks heat shock proteins (HSPs), helper proteins that are co-opted by cancer cells to promote tumor growth, shows promise for cancer treatment. Several drugs have targeted HSPs, since cancer cells are known to hijack these helper proteins to shield themselves from destruction by the body. However, the drugs have had limited success. Hye-Kyung Park and Byoung Heon Kang at Ulsan National Institutes of Science and Technology in South Korea and coworkers noticed that the drugs were not absorbed into mitochondria, a key cellular compartment, and HSPs in this compartment were therefore not being blocked. They identified a new HSP inhibitor that can reach every cellular compartment and inhibit all HSPs. Testing in mice showed that this inhibitor effectively triggered death of tumor cells, and therefore shows promise for anti-cancer therapy. The Hsp90 family proteins Hsp90, Grp94, and TRAP1 are present in the cell cytoplasm, endoplasmic reticulum, and mitochondria, respectively; all play important roles in tumorigenesis by regulating protein homeostasis in response to stress. Thus, simultaneous inhibition of all Hsp90 paralogs is a reasonable strategy for cancer therapy. However, since the existing pan-Hsp90 inhibitor does not accumulate in mitochondria, the potential anticancer activity of pan-Hsp90 inhibition has not yet been fully examined in vivo. Analysis of The Cancer Genome Atlas database revealed that all Hsp90 paralogs were upregulated in prostate cancer. Inactivation of all Hsp90 paralogs induced mitochondrial dysfunction, increased cytosolic calcium, and activated calcineurin. Active calcineurin blocked prosurvival heat shock responses upon Hsp90 inhibition by preventing nuclear translocation of HSF1. The purine scaffold derivative DN401 inhibited all Hsp90 paralogs simultaneously and showed stronger anticancer activity than other Hsp90 inhibitors. Pan-Hsp90 inhibition increased cytotoxicity and suppressed mechanisms that protect cancer cells, suggesting that it is a feasible strategy for the development of potent anticancer drugs. The mitochondria-permeable drug DN401 is a newly identified in vivo pan-Hsp90 inhibitor with potent anticancer activity
??????????????? ????????? ????????? ?????? ??? ????????????
??????????????? ????????? ???????????? ???????????? ?????? ?????????????????? ??????????????? ?????? ???????????? ??????. ??? ??????????????? ??????????????? ??? ?????? ????????? ???????????? ????????? ??????????????? ????????? ???????????????. ?????? ??????????????? ????????? ??? ?????? ????????? ???????????????, ??? ?????? ????????? diethylnitrosamine (DEN)??? C3H/HeN ?????? ?????? ?????? ???????????? ??? ?????? ????????? ????????? ???????????????. DEN?????? ????????? ???????????? ?????? alkaline phosphatase (ALP) ??????, TUNEL positive ???????????? ??????, ??? ???????????? ?????? ???????????? duct??? ??????, ?????????????????? ????????????, Masson???s trichrome ???????????? ????????? ???????????? ???, ?????? ?????? ?????? ??? ????????? ????????? ???????????? ?????? ???????????? ?????? ?????? ????????? ??? ?????????. ?????????, ??????????????? ?????? ???????????? ????????? ?????? ?????????????????? ??????, ?????? ?????? ??? ????????? ???????????? ??????????????? ???????????? ???????????? ???????????? ?????? ?????? ????????? ??? ?????????. ???????????? ???????????? ????????? ???????????? ??????, ???????????? ???????????? ???????????? ?????? ????????? ???, solvent partition ????????? ???????????? ????????? ???????????? hexane, ethyl acetate, water ???????????? ???????????????. ?????? ??????????????? ?????? ????????? ??????????????? ??????????????? ???, ethyl acetate ???????????? ??????????????? ????????? ?????????????????? ??????????????? ?????? ??????????????? ???????????? ????????? ????????? ????????? ??? ?????????. ????????? ethyl acetate???????????? ???????????? ????????? ????????? ??? ?????????, ??????????????? ????????? ??? ?????? ????????? ????????? ?????????. ???????????????, ??????????????? ????????? ????????????????????? ?????? ????????? ??? ?????? ????????? ???????????? ?????? ??????????????? ????????? ??? ?????? ????????? ????????? ????????? ?????? ???????????????. ?????????, ?????? ??????????????? ?????? ???????????? ?????? ??? ?????? ?????? ???????????? ??????????????? ?????? ????????? ????????? ??? ?????? ????????? ???????????? ??????.clos
Computer Vision Based Automatic Extraction and Thickness Measurement of Deep Cervical Flexor from Ultrasonic Images
Deep Cervical Flexor (DCF) muscles are important in monitoring and controlling neck pain. While ultrasonographic analysis is useful in this area, it has intrinsic subjectivity problem. In this paper, we propose automatic DCF extractor/analyzer software based on computer vision. One of the major difficulties in developing such an automatic analyzer is to detect important organs and their boundaries under very low brightness contrast environment. Our fuzzy sigma binarization process is one of the answers for that problem. Another difficulty is to compensate information loss that happened during such image processing procedures. Many morphologically motivated image processing algorithms are applied for that purpose. The proposed method is verified as successful in extracting DCFs and measuring thicknesses in experiment using two hundred 800 × 600 DICOM ultrasonography images with 98.5% extraction rate. Also, the thickness of DCFs automatically measured by this software has small difference (less than 0.3 cm) for 89.8% of extracted DCFs
Automatic Segmentation of Brachial Artery based on Fuzzy C-Means Pixel Clustering from Ultrasound Images
Automatic extraction of brachial artery and measuring associated indices such as flow-mediated dilatation and Intima-media thickness are important for early detection of cardiovascular disease and other vascular endothelial malfunctions. In this paper, we propose the basic but important component of such decision-assisting medical software development – noise tolerant fully automatic segmentation of brachial artery from ultrasound images. Pixel clustering with Fuzzy C-Means algorithm in the quantization process is the key component of that segmentation with various image processing algorithms involved. This algorithm could be an alternative choice of segmentation process that can replace speckle noise-suffering edge detection procedures in this application domain
Two-gap and paramagnetic pair-breaking effects on upper critical field of SmFeAsO and SmFeAsOF single crystals
We investigated the temperature dependence of the upper critical field
[] of fluorine-free SmFeAsO and fluorine-doped
SmFeAsOF single crystals by measuring the resistive transition
in low static magnetic fields and in pulsed fields up to 60 T. Both crystals
show that 's along the c axis [] and in an -planar
direction [] exhibit a linear and a sublinear increase,
respectively, with decreasing temperature below the superconducting transition.
's in both directions deviate from the conventional one-gap
Werthamer-Helfand-Hohenberg theoretical prediction at low temperatures. A
two-gap nature and the paramagnetic pair-breaking effect are shown to be
responsible for the temperature-dependent behavior of and
, respectively.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figure
- …