KINEMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE MOVEMENT PATTERNS OF STROKE PATIENTS USING AN AQUA-REHABILITATION PROGRAM

This study analyzed the effect of a BK Aquatic Protocol (aqua-rehabilitation program) on the gait patterns of stroke patients. Seven subjects were divided into three stages on the basis of initial assessment of motor ability. The program varied on the basis of motor ability group. The subjects exercised three times a week for 12 weeks. Each exercise bout lasted 50 minutes. The BK Aquatic Protocol (as the motor skills improved, the graded exercise program appropriately changed) was followed. Four digital camcorders were used to obtain the kinematics of the patients’ gait before and after participation in the aqua-rehabilitation program. Several positive kinematic changes occurred in the gait patterns of the stroke patients from pre- to post test in association with the intervention of the aqua-rehabilitation program

Soil-Pile Interaction Analysis using FE-BE Coupling in Frequency Domain

In this study, a numerical method for soil-pile interaction problems in multi-layered half-plane is developed in frequency domain using FE-BE coupling technique. The soil-pile interaction system is divided into two parts, so-called near field and far field. In the near field, beam elements are used for modeling pile and plane-strain finite elements for surrounding soil media. Also, a superstructure is considered as a lumped mass on a pile. In the far field, layered soil media is modeled by boundary element formulation using the dynamic fundamental solution. Then, these two fields are assembled using FE-BE coupling technique. This coupled numerical method automatically satisfies the radiation conditions because the far field boundary element formulation can handle the radiation conditions in a half plane. Additionally, the difference of relative displacement at the interface between soil and pile is considered by applying interface spring elements. In order to verify the proposed method for soil-pile interaction system, the dynamic responses of a pile in a multi-layered half-plane are performed and the numerical results are compared with the measured values from experiments. It is shown that the developed method can be an efficient numerical tool to solve the dynamic response of a pile buried in a multi-layered half plane

A Study to Verify the Practicality of Introducing an Arson Dog (K-9) Unit in Field Investigations

Combustion improvers are often found in acts of arson. Until recently, in fire investigations in Korea, these substances have been identified only by the olfactory sense of the fire inspectors or conventional gas detectors. These methods are neither efficient nor feasible in damaged buildings or large areas. Research on the canine sense of smell has shown that a dog can distinguish the remains of combusted hydrocarbon compounds, even in a large, open area. Field tests confirmed that arson dogs can find combustion improvers at fire sites in about five to 77 s. Therefore, this study verified the practicality of introducing arson dog units in field investigations of fire sites to identify combustion improvers sprayed for committing arson

MDR-1 gene expression is a minor factor in determining the multidrug resistance phenotype of MCF7/ADR and KB-V1 cells

AbstractThe relevance of MDR-1 gene expression to the multidrug resistance phenotype was investigated. Drug-resistant cells, KB-V1 and MCF7/ADR, constantly expressed mRNA of the MDR-1 gene and were more resistant to vinblastine and adriamycin than drug-sensitive cells, KB-3–1 and MCF7. The drug efflux rate of KB-V1 was the same as KB-3–1 although the MDR-1 gene was expressed in only the resistant cell. The higher intracellular drug concentration of KB-3–1 than KB-V1 was due to the large drug influx. In the case of MCF7 and MCF7/ADR, the influx and efflux of the drug had nearly the same pattern and drug efflux was not affected by verapamil. The amount of ATP, cofactor of drug pumping activity of P-glycoprotein, was not changed by the resistance. These observations suggested that drug efflux mediated by MDR-1 gene expression was not a major determining factor of drug resistance in the present cell systems, and that the drug resistance could be derived from the change in drug uptake and other mechanisms

Change in gene expression of mouse embryonic stem cells derived from parthenogenetic activation

BACKGROUND We previously established parthenogenetic mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and this study was subsequently conducted for elucidating the influence of oocyte parthenogenesis on gene expression profile of ESCs. METHODS Gene expression of parthenogenetic ESC (pESC)-1 or pESC-2 was separately compared with that of two normally fertilized ESC (nfESC) lines (B6D2F1 and R1 strains), and quantification of mRNA expression was conducted for validating microarray data. RESULTS In two sets of comparison, reaction of 11 347 and 15 454 gene probes were altered by parthenogenesis, while strain difference changed the expression of 15 750 and 14 944 probes. Level of correlation coefficient was higher in the comparisons between normal fertilization and parthenogenesis (0.974-0.985) than in the comparisons between strains of nfESCs (0.97-0.971). Overall, the expression of 3276-3329 genes was changed after parthenogenesis, and 88% (96/109) of major functional genes differentially (P < 0.01) expressed in one comparison set showed the same change in the other. When we monitored imprinted genes, expression of nine paternal and eight maternal genes were altered after parthenogenesis and 88% (14/16) of these was confirmed by mRNA quantification. CONCLUSIONS The change in gene expression after parthenogenesis was similar to, or less than, the change induced by a strain difference under a certain genetic background. These results may suggest the clinical feasibility of parthenogenesis-derived, pluripotent cell

Design of Safety Assurance System of Specific Vehicle Information using ABPRE in the Fog Computing Environment

There would be high demand for technology that monitors illegal activity and detects risk with respect to vehicles on the road in a future urban traffic system, for accident prevention. However, there may be substantial overheads from the massive amount of data that would be required for the surveillance system as it would be automatically operated and used, as further advancements are made in sensor network technology and IoT (Internet of Things). In the transportation field, systems were mainly studied to measure the driver\u27s drowsiness or mobile phone use. These systems will collect information from several mobile devices at the same time, resulting in overhead of data. Fog computing reduces the overhead of data because it uses distributed proxy servers. However, security aspects were not considered. Encryption can be done to ensure the privacy of the information on the moving vehicles. However, in order to track a specific vehicle the data of the moving vehicles should be provided decrypted or decrypted by the secondary user. In this paper, to solve security aspects, we provide a new DSS model that utilizes ABPRE (Attribute Based Proxy Re-Encryption). The proposed system encrypts data sensed from moving vehicles. The cipher is configured to re-encrypt quickly at the proxy. The proposed method allows only users with access authority via secondary user\u27s properties to access data with attribute-based re-encryption. Therefore, safety is secured

A Study Using a Monte Carlo Method of the Optimal Configuration of a Distribution Network in Terms of Power Loss Sensing

Recently there have been many studies of power systems with a focus on “New and Renewable Energy” as part of “New Growth Engine Industry” promoted by the Korean government. “New And Renewable Energy”—especially focused on wind energy, solar energy and fuel cells that will replace conventional fossil fuels—is a part of the Power-IT Sector which is the basis of the SmartGrid. A SmartGrid is a form of highly-efficient intelligent electricity network that allows interactivity (two-way communications) between suppliers and consumers by utilizing information technology in electricity production, transmission, distribution and consumption. The New and Renewable Energy Program has been driven with a goal to develop and spread through intensive studies, by public or private institutions, new and renewable energy which, unlike conventional systems, have been operated through connections with various kinds of distributed power generation systems. Considerable research on smart grids has been pursued in the United States and Europe. In the United States, a variety of research activities on the smart power grid have been conducted within EPRI’s IntelliGrid research program. The European Union (EU), which represents Europe’s Smart Grid policy, has focused on an expansion of distributed generation (decentralized generation) and power trade between countries with improved environmental protection. Thus, there is current emphasis on a need for studies that assesses the economic efficiency of such distributed generation systems. In this paper, based on the cost of distributed power generation capacity, calculations of the best profits obtainable were made by a Monte Carlo simulation. Monte Carlo simulations that rely on repeated random sampling to compute their results take into account the cost of electricity production, daily loads and the cost of sales and generate a result faster than mathematical computations. In addition, we have suggested the optimal design, which considers the distribution loss associated with power distribution systems focus on sensing aspect and distributed power generation