Application of extended end composite pile design in pile foundation work

Pre-tensioned, spun, high-strength concrete (PHC) piles are the most commonly used type of pile in South Korea. Approximately 60% of the pile's strength is used in the design bearing capacity, and the rest is simply residing in the ground. Increasing the ground bearing capacity is crucial to reduce waste of the pile strength and to improve efficiency. Extended end (Ext) piles are a new kind of composite pile that can overcome the weakness of PHC piles. This study investigates the behaviour of Ext piles. Through field testing, it is confirmed that the bearing capacity of Ext piles is better than PHC piles by about 35% to 50%. Based on the study findings, the Ext pile design reduces the number of piles by around 38% compared to the PHC pile design through application in a selected construction site. The increased bearing capacity of Ext piles affects both work duration and project cost, which are 25% and 14% decreased, respectively

Liver transplantation for acute-on-chronic liver failure from erythropoietic protoporphyria

Erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP) is an inherited disorder of the heme metabolic pathway that is characterized by accumulation of protoporphyrin in the blood, erythrocytes, and tissues, and cutaneous manifestations of photosensitivity, all resulting from abnormalities in ferrochelatase (FECH) activity due to mutations in the FECH gene. Protoporphyrin is excreted by the liver, and excess protoporphyrin leads to cholelithiasis with obstructive episodes and chronic liver disease, finally progressing to liver cirrhosis. Patients with end-stage EPP-associated liver disease require liver transplantation. We describe here a 31-year-old male patient with EPP who experienced acute-on-chronic liver failure and underwent deceased-donor liver transplantation. Surgical and postoperative care included specific shielding from exposure to ultraviolet radiation to prevent photosensitivity-associated adverse effects. The patient recovered uneventfully and was doing well 24 months after transplantation. Future prevention and treatment of liver disease are discussed in detail

Clinical Experiences of Transforaminal Balloon Decompression for Patients with Spinal Stenosis

Lumbar spinal stenosis is a commonly treated with epidural injections of local anesthetics and corticosteroids, however, these therapies may relieve leg pain for weeks to months but do not influence functional status. Furthermore, the majority of patients report no substantial symptom change over the repeated treatment. Utilizing balloon catheters, we successfully treated with three patients who complained persistent symptoms despite repeated conventional steroid injections. Our results suggest that transforaminal decompression using a balloon catheter may have potential in the nonsurgical treatment of spinal stenosis by modifying the underlying pathophysiology

Chromosomal end fusion resulting from telomere erosion increases susceptibility to radiation via multinucleation: Effect of p53

and telomerase activation are frequently found in human cancers. p53 inactivation, however, eliminates or attenuates the biological responses to telomerase inhibition and the eventual telomere erosion. We show that telomere erosion can increase the susceptibility to radiation, irrespective of p53 status. Both telomerase inhibition and critically shortened telomere with significant change of chromosomal end-to-end fusion were essential for the enhancement of radiosensitivity. The enhancement was correlated with greater formation of multinucleated cells. p53 inactivation did not eliminate the observed generation of chromosomal fusion and multinucleation, and the resulting increased susceptibility to radiation, as opposed to the previously proved role of p53 in mediating cellular responses to telomere dysfunction. The present findings suggest the importance of chromosomal end fusion in modulating radiosensitivity rather than p53 DNA damage signaling. Thus, the suggested anticancer radiotherapeutic strategy combined with telomerase inhibition could clinically be applicable to cancers, irrespective of p53 status.We thank Professor Woon Ki Paik for critical reading of the manuscript and Eun-Ju Lee for assistance in the preparation of the manuscript. This work was supported by a grant from National Nuclear R&D program and Human Genome Project (FG-1-1), Korean Ministry of Science and Technology

Generation and analysis of large-scale expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from a full-length enriched cDNA library of porcine backfat tissue

BACKGROUND: Genome research in farm animals will expand our basic knowledge of the genetic control of complex traits, and the results will be applied in the livestock industry to improve meat quality and productivity, as well as to reduce the incidence of disease. A combination of quantitative trait locus mapping and microarray analysis is a useful approach to reduce the overall effort needed to identify genes associated with quantitative traits of interest. RESULTS: We constructed a full-length enriched cDNA library from porcine backfat tissue. The estimated average size of the cDNA inserts was 1.7 kb, and the cDNA fullness ratio was 70%. In total, we deposited 16,110 high-quality sequences in the dbEST division of GenBank (accession numbers: DT319652-DT335761). For all the expressed sequence tags (ESTs), approximately 10.9 Mb of porcine sequence were generated with an average length of 674 bp per EST (range: 200–952 bp). Clustering and assembly of these ESTs resulted in a total of 5,008 unique sequences with 1,776 contigs (35.46%) and 3,232 singleton (65.54%) ESTs. From a total of 5,008 unique sequences, 3,154 (62.98%) were similar to other sequences, and 1,854 (37.02%) were identified as having no hit or low identity (<95%) and 60% coverage in The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) gene index of Sus scrofa. Gene ontology (GO) annotation of unique sequences showed that approximately 31.7, 32.3, and 30.8% were assigned molecular function, biological process, and cellular component GO terms, respectively. A total of 1,854 putative novel transcripts resulted after comparison and filtering with the TIGR SsGI; these included a large percentage of singletons (80.64%) and a small proportion of contigs (13.36%). CONCLUSION: The sequence data generated in this study will provide valuable information for studying expression profiles using EST-based microarrays and assist in the condensation of current pig TCs into clusters representing longer stretches of cDNA sequences. The isolation of genes expressed in backfat tissue is the first step toward a better understanding of backfat tissue on a genomic basis

Early Motor Balance and Coordination Training Increased Synaptophysin in Subcortical Regions of the Ischemic Rat Brain

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of early motor balance and coordination training on functional recovery and brain plasticity in an ischemic rat stroke model, compared with simple locomotor exercise. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats with cortical infarcts were trained under one of four conditions: nontrained control, treadmill training, motor training on the Rota-rod, or both Rota-rod and treadmill training. All types of training were performed from post-operation day 1 to 14. Neurological and behavioral performance was evaluated by Menzies' scale, the prehensile test, and the limb placement test, at post-operation day 1, 7, and 14. Both Rota-rod and treadmill training increased the expression of synaptophysin in subcortical regions of the ischemic hemisphere including the hippocampus, dentate gyrus, and thalamus, but did not affect levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor or tyrosin kinase receptor B. The Rota-rod training also improved Menzies' scale and limb placement test scores, whereas the simple treadmill training did neither. The control group showed significant change only in Menzies' scale score. This study suggests that early motor balance and coordination training may induce plastic changes in subcortical regions of the ischemic hemisphere after stroke accompanied with the recovery of sensorimotor performance