Proactive Travel Time Predictions Under Interrupted Flow Condition

This research is focused on the development of a model for estimating arterial travel time by utilizing an automatic vehicle location (AVL) system-equipped bus as a probe vehicle. As an initial achievement, a prototype arterial travel time estimation model, applied to the bus arrival time estimation, was developed. The methodology adopted in this phase of the travel time estimation model was the online parameter adaptation algorithm. Three objectives were identified for this phase of the research. These were: (1) studying dynamics of bus behavior at a single bus stop; (2) extending the dynamics of bus behavior study to multiple bus stops; and (3) developing a prototype bus arrival time prediction model. The prototype travel time estimation was tested and evaluated through the simulation

Gene Expression Profile of the Hypothalamus in DNP-KLH Immunized Mice Following Electroacupuncture Stimulation

Clinical evidence indicates that electroacupuncture (EA) is effective for allergic disorder. Recent animal studies have shown that EA treatment reduces levels of IgE and Th2 cytokines in BALB/c mice immunized with 2,4-dinitrophenylated keyhole limpet protein (DNP-KLH). The hypothalamus, a brain center of the neural-immune system, is known to be activated by EA stimulation. This study was performed to identify and characterize the differentially expressed genes in the hypothalamus of DNP-KLH immunized mice that were stimulated with EA or only restrained. To this aim, we conducted a microarray analysis to evaluate the global gene expression profiles, using the hypothalamic RNA samples taken from three groups of mice: (i) normal control group (no treatments); (ii) IMH group (DNP-KLH immunization + restraint); and (iii) IMEA group (immunization + EA stimulation). The microarray analysis revealed that total 39 genes were altered in their expression levels by EA treatment. Ten genes, including T-cell receptor alpha variable region family 13 subfamily 1 (Tcra-V13.1), heat shock protein 1B (Hspa1b) and 2′–5′ oligoadenylate synthetase 1F (Oas1f), were up-regulated in the IMEA group when compared with the IMH group. In contrast, 29 genes, including decay accelerating factor 2 (Daf2), NAD(P)H dehydrogenase, quinone 1 (Nqo1) and programmed cell death 1 ligand 2 (Pdcd1lg2) were down-regulated in the IMEA group as compared with the IMH group. These results suggest that EA treatment can modulate immune response in DNP-KLH immunized mice by regulating expression levels of genes that are associated with innate immune, cellular defense and/or other kinds of immune system in the hypothalamus

Unveiling the carrier transport mechanism in epitaxial graphene for forming wafer-scale, single-domain graphene

Graphene epitaxy on the Si face of a SiC wafer offers monolayer graphene with unique crystal orientation at the wafer-scale. However, due to carrier scattering near vicinal steps and excess bilayer stripes, the size of electrically uniform domains is limited to the width of the terraces extending up to a few microns. Nevertheless, the origin of carrier scattering at the SiC vicinal steps has not been clarified so far. A layer-resolved graphene transfer (LRGT) technique enables exfoliation of the epitaxial graphene formed on SiC wafers and transfer to flat Si wafers, which prepares crystallographically single-crystalline monolayer graphene. Because the LRGT flattens the deformed graphene at the terrace edges and permits an access to the graphene formed at the side wall of vicinal steps, components that affect the mobility of graphene formed near the vicinal steps of SiC could be individually investigated. Here, we reveal that the graphene formed at the side walls of step edges is pristine, and scattering near the steps is mainly attributed by the deformation of graphene at step edges of vicinalized SiC while partially from stripes of bilayer graphene. This study suggests that the two-step LRGT can prepare electrically single-domain graphene at the wafer-scale by removing the major possible sources of electrical degradation

A Functional Polymorphism on Chromosome 15q25 Associated with Survival of Early Stage Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer

Introduction:The 15q25 region has been associated with lung-cancer risk and might also be associated with the prognosis of lung cancer. This study was conducted to determine the impact of a functional polymorphism in the CHRNA3 gene on chromosome 15q25 in the survival of patients with early-stage non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Methods:Five hundred and eighty-three consecutive patients with surgically resected NSCLC were enrolled. The rs6495309C > T polymorphism in the promoter of the CHRNA3 gene was investigated. The association between genotype and overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) was analyzed.Results:Patients with the rs6495309 CT or TT genotype had a significantly better OS and DFS than the rs6495309 CC genotype (adjusted hazard ratio for OS = 0.56, 95% confidence interval = 0.41–0.75, p = 0.0001; and adjusted hazard ratio for DFS = 0.61, 95% confidence interval = 0.48–0.79, p = 0.0001). An association between the rs6495309C > T polymorphism and survival outcome was demonstrated in smokers and never-smokers, and in squamous-cell carcinomas and adenocarcinomas.Conclusion:The CHRNA3 rs6495309C > T polymorphism may affect survival in patients with early-stage NSCLC. Analysis of the rs6495309C > T polymorphism can help identify patients at high risk of a poor disease outcome

Genome-wide analysis of DNA methylation patterns in horse

Background: DNA methylation is an epigenetic regulatory mechanism that plays an essential role in mediating biological processes and determining phenotypic plasticity in organisms. Although the horse reference genome and whole transcriptome data are publically available the global DNA methylation data are yet to be known. Results: We report the first genome-wide DNA methylation characteristics data from skeletal muscle, heart, lung, and cerebrum tissues of thoroughbred (TH) and Jeju (JH) horses, an indigenous Korea breed, respectively by methyl-DNA immunoprecipitation sequencing. The analysis of the DNA methylation patterns indicated that the average methylation density was the lowest in the promoter region, while the density in the coding DNA sequence region was the highest. Among repeat elements, a relatively high density of methylation was observed in long interspersed nuclear elements compared to short interspersed nuclear elements or long terminal repeat elements. We also successfully identified differential methylated regions through a comparative analysis of corresponding tissues from TH and JH, indicating that the gene body regions showed a high methylation density. Conclusions: We provide report the first DNA methylation landscape and differentially methylated genomic regions (DMRs) of thoroughbred and Jeju horses, providing comprehensive DMRs maps of the DNA methylome. These data are invaluable resource to better understanding of epigenetics in the horse providing information for the further biological function analyses.open1

Additional Effects of Back-Shu Electroacupuncture and Moxibustion in Cardioprotection of Rat Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury

Many preclinical studies show that electroacupuncture (EA) on PC6 and ST36 can reduce infarct size after ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury. Yet studies to enhance the treatment effect size are limited. The purpose of this study was to explore whether EA has additional myocardial protective effects on an ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury rat model when back-shu EA and moxibustion are added. SD rats were divided into several groups and treated with either EA only, EA + back-shu EA (B), or EA + B + moxibustion (M) for 5 consecutive days. Transthoracic echocardiography and molecular and immunohistochemical evaluations were performed. It was found that although myocardial infarct areas were significantly lower and cardiac function was also significantly preserved in the three treatment groups compared to the placebo group, there were no additional differences between the three treatment groups. In addition, HSP20 and HSP27 were expressed significantly more in the treatment groups. The results suggest that adding several treatments does not necessarily increase protection. Our study corroborates previous findings that more treatment, such as prolonging EA duration or increasing EA intensity, does not always lead to better results. Other methods of increasing treatment effect size should be explored

Genome-Wide Analysis of DNA Methylation before- and after Exercise in the Thoroughbred Horse with MeDIP-Seq

Athletic performance is an important criteria used for the selection of superior horses. However, little is known about exercise-related epigenetic processes in the horse. DNA methylation is a key mechanism for regulating gene expression in response to environmental changes. We carried out comparative genomic analysis of genome-wide DNA methylation profiles in the blood samples of two different thoroughbred horses before and after exercise by methylated-DNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (MeDIP-Seq). Differentially methylated regions (DMRs) in the pre- and post-exercise blood samples of superior and inferior horses were identified. Exercise altered the methylation patterns. After 30 min of exercise, 596 genes were hypomethylated and 715 genes were hypermethylated in the superior horse, whereas in the inferior horse, 868 genes were hypomethylated and 794 genes were hypermethylated. These genes were analyzed based on gene ontology (GO) annotations and the exercise-related pathway patterns in the two horses were compared. After exercise, gene regions related to cell division and adhesion were hypermethylated in the superior horse, whereas regions related to cell signaling and transport were hypermethylated in the inferior horse. Analysis of the distribution of methylated CpG islands confirmed the hypomethylation in the gene-body methylation regions after exercise. The methylation patterns of transposable elements also changed after exercise. Long interspersed nuclear elements (LINEs) showed abundance of DMRs. Collectively, our results serve as a basis to study exercise-based reprogramming of epigenetic traitsclose

Wearable electronics-based biomedical devices for sensors, vital sign tracking and therapy

The development of electronics has changed our daily life for last few decades. The conventional electronic devices are usually based on wafers; they are, in principle, rigid and in the planar form with Young’s modulus of a few hundreds GPa. On the other hand, our biology system is much soft with Young’s modulus within kPa range. Thus, there is mechanical mismatch between the electronic devices and soft human body, which tackles the use of the electronics as biomedical devices for diagnosis and therapy. In this study, we introduce a few approaches to minimize the mechanical mismatch by enhancing the flexibility of devices for electronics-based biomedical devices.In the first chapter, the In2O3 based conformal biomolecular sensors were introduced with highly robust and stable performance. The platform of biosensors was based on field effects transistors which is one of the most popular device types because of its sensitivity and selectivity. In addition, aqueous chemistry was utilized without organic solvent to eliminate organic byproduct, which ensures highly dense In2O3 film with ultrathin-thick (3.5 nm). Also, the oxide surface of In2O3 was able to be easily functionalized for selective detection. Glucose and pH were detected with the ultrathin In2O3 based transistor as a possible demonstration. In addition, we designed the structure of In2O3 based transistors with the ultra-low stiffness value, which ensures the extreme flexibility of the devices and conformal contact on unconventional substrates.In the second section, wearable pulse sensor was exploited with flexible waveguide plates and micro light emitting diodes (μ-LEDs). Since the pulse sensor is a non-invasive tool monitoring the heart rate and arterial blood oxygen concentration, the development of wearable pulse sensor can be useful for wearable biomedical devices to diagnose our body system. For flexible devices, the waveguide plates were made of soft elastomer. Through the pattern made on the elastomer, the condition for total reflection of emitted light from μ-LEDs was changed to emit more light from the surface of the waveguide plates. The flexible waveguide plates consisting of two different μ-LEDs were placed on one side and organic photodetectors were placed on another side to understand the arterial blood oxygen saturation. Also, breath condition was monitored by using the wearable biomedical devices to further conform the possibility of our devices for photodiagnosis. Also, devices worked well under 50 % stretching test.In the last section, the wearable light emission device was utilized for phototherapy which is to use light for clinical purpose. The bilirubin was chosen as a target molecule, known as an indicator of mal-function of liver. Using our flexible biomedical devices, we successfully triggered the reaction kinetic of bilirubin and control the level of bilirubin. In addition, it was used to give the drug selectivity using photon-accelerated caged molecules, a caged fluorophore (5-carboxyfluorescein-bis-(5-carboxymethoxy-2-nitrobenzyl) ether. This is a proof-of-concept for drug targeting. Recent advances for wearable clinics and healthcare systems have brought a new opportunity for new types of biomedical devices available for recognition, prevention, and treatment. I strongly believe that current our study in this dissertation will be helpful for biomedical devices to move forward toward to commercialization