Compressive Behavior and Mechanical Characteristics and Their Application to Stress-Strain Relationship of Steel Fiber-Reinforced Reactive Powder Concrete

Although mechanical properties of concrete under uniaxial compression are important to design concrete structure, current design codes or other empirical equations have clear limitation on the prediction of mechanical properties. Various types of fiber-reinforced reactive powder concrete matrix were tested for making more usable and accurate estimation equations for mechanical properties for ultra high strength concrete. Investigated matrix has compressive strength ranged from 30 MPa to 200 MPa. Ultra high strength concrete was made by means of reactive powder concrete. Preventing brittle failure of this type of matrix, steel fibers were used. The volume fraction of steel fiber ranged from 0 to 2%. From the test results, steel fibers significantly increase the ductility, strength and stiffness of ultra high strength matrix. They are quantified with previously conducted researches about material properties of concrete under uniaxial loading. Applicability of estimation equations for mechanical properties of concrete was evaluated with test results of this study. From the evaluation, regression analysis was carried out, and new estimation equations were proposed. And these proposed equations were applied into stress-strain relation which was developed by previous research. Ascending part, which was affected by proposed equations of this study directly, well fitted into experimental results

Anti-photoaging effect of fermented agricultural by-products on ultraviolet B-irradiated hairless mouse skin

Processed products from agricultural produce generate a large number of agricultural by‑products that contain a number of functional substances. These are often discarded owing to the lack of suitable processing methods. The present study investigated the anti‑photoaging properties of fermented rice bran (FRB), soybean cake (FSB) and sesame seed cake (FSC) on ultraviolet B (UVB)‑irradiated hairless mouse skin. Results indicated that the oral administration of FRB, FSB and FSC effectively inhibited the UVB irradiation‑induced expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)‑2, MMP‑9, MMP‑3 and MMP‑13. Reverse transcription‑quantitative polymerase chain reaction results also demonstrated that FRB, FSB and FSC significantly inhibited the UVB‑induced expression of the genes encoding tumor necrosis factor‑α, inducible nitric oxide synthase, interleukin (IL)‑6 and IL‑1β when compared with the UVB‑vehicle group (P\u3c0.05). Additionally, collagen degradation and mast cell infiltration were reduced in hairless mouse skin. Furthermore, UVB‑induced wrinkle formation was also significantly reduced in mouse skin compared with the UVB‑vehicle group (P\u3c0.05). These results reveal that fermented agricultural by‑products may serve as potential functional materials with anti‑photoaging activities

Kinematics Characteristic of Lower Extremity during Simulated Skiing Exercise

We analyze the kinematic factors of sectional and total movements in healthy participants to providing group dependent information during simulated exercise. Participants in this study's experiment were 26 male adults, the elapsed times in each phase, the difference in the lower extremity angles, and muscle activity were computed through analysis of kinematic factors. We revealed that motions of the experts took shorter to perform than non-experts, and showed larger variation of lower limb joint angle in most events during simulated skiing. There were also significant group dependent differences in the peak and mean EMG values during simulated skiing. Referring to these results, such a non-expert's posture leads to enhance muscle activity to keep the lower body in balance. Non-experts should maintain appropriate ROM with lower-intensity exercise to improve muscle endurance initially, and it can be useful in providing preliminary data for future training and rehabilitation studies, as well as improvements in muscle strength

Successful Treatment of Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy Combined with Transarterial Chemolipiodolization for Hepatocellular Carcinoma with Biliary Obstruction

Conventional radiation therapy (RT) is a widely recognized treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, conventional RT plays only a limited role in HCC treatment because of its low efficacy and the low tolerance of the liver for this modality. Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) was recently developed and represents the most advanced radiation therapy technique currently available. It can deliver a high dose in a short time to well-defined hepatic tumors, with rapid dose fall-off gradients. We believe that SBRT with transarterial chemolipiodolization (TACL) may prove promising as a combined treatment modality for HCC due to its precision and relative safety. Here we present a case of successful treatment of advanced HCC with obstructive jaundice using this combined modality

Downregulation of Protein Kinase CK2 Activity Facilitates Tumor Necrosis Factor-α-Mediated Chondrocyte Death through Apoptosis and Autophagy

Despite the numerous studies of protein kinase CK2, little progress has been made in understanding its function in chondrocyte death. Our previous study first demonstrated that CK2 is involved in apoptosis of rat articular chondrocytes. Recent studies have suggested that CK2 downregulation is associated with aging. Thus examining the involvement of CK2 downregulation in chondrocyte death is an urgently required task. We undertook this study to examine whether CK2 downregulation modulates chondrocyte death. We first measured CK2 activity in articular chondrocytes of 6-, 21- and 30-month-old rats. Noticeably, CK2 activity was downregulated in chondrocytes with advancing age. To build an in vitro experimental system for simulating tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α-induced cell death in aged chondrocytes with decreased CK2 activity, chondrocytes were co-treated with CK2 inhibitors and TNF-α. Viability assay demonstrated that CK2 inhibitors facilitated TNF-α-mediated chondrocyte death. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, nuclear staining, flow cytometry, TUNEL staining, confocal microscopy, western blot and transmission electron microscopy were conducted to assess cell death modes. The results of multiple assays showed that this cell death was mediated by apoptosis. Importantly, autophagy was also involved in this process, as supported by the appearance of a punctuate LC3 pattern and autophagic vacuoles. The inhibition of autophagy by silencing of autophage-related genes 5 and 7 as well as by 3-methyladenine treatment protected chondrocytes against cell death and caspase activation, indicating that autophagy led to the induction of apoptosis. Autophagic cells were observed in cartilage obtained from osteoarthritis (OA) model rats and human OA patients. Our findings indicate that CK2 down regulation facilitates TNF-α-mediated chondrocyte death through apoptosis and autophagy. It should be clarified in the future if autophagy observed is a consequence versus a cause of the degeneration in vivo

Trends in radiotherapy administration in the management of hepatocellular carcinoma: Analysis of a Korean tertiary hospital registry of hepatocellular carcinoma patients diagnosed between 2005 and 2017

PurposeTo present the trends in radiotherapy for the management of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) at a single tertiary referral hospital in South Korea.Materials and MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed prospectively collected registry data of patients newly diagnosed with HCC between January 2005 and December 2017 at the Samsung Medical Center. Trends in radiotherapy, delivery techniques, tumor stage, and age were evaluated.ResultsDuring the study period, 9,132 patients were newly diagnosed with HCC at our institution. Of these, 2,445 patients (26.8%) received radiotherapy for all lesions, including extrahepatic metastases; 1,865 patients (20.4%) received radiotherapy for intrahepatic lesions alone, and 469 patients (5.1%) received radiotherapy as initial management. Although the proportion of patients receiving radiotherapy increased slightly over the study period (24.2% vs. 26.6%), the proportions of patients receiving radiotherapy for intrahepatic lesions (16.8% vs. 21.9%) and as initial management (0.1% vs. 12.5%) increased dramatically. The majority of patients treated between 2005 and 2008 received three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (56.3%), whereas the majority of patients treated between 2018 and 2021 received proton beam therapy (43.6%). With the technical developments, the overall survival (OS) of patients who received radiotherapy as initial management increased significantly (5-year OS: from 5.4% to 30.1%), and the OS difference between patients who did and did not receive radiotherapy as initial management significantly decreased (ratio of restricted mean survival time: from 0.383 to 0.544).ConclusionThis registry-based, retrospective study indicated an increasing trend in the utilization of radiotherapy, adoption of advanced radiotherapy techniques, and OS improvements in patients with HCC