Numerical modeling and global performance analysis of a 15-MW Semisubmersible Floating Offshore Wind Turbine (FOWT)

Da Li,Ikjae Lee,Cong Yi,Wei Gao,Chunhui Song,Shenglei Fu,Moohyun Kim,Alex Ran,Tuanjie Liu Techno-Press 2023 Ocean systems engineering Vol.13 No.3

The global performance of a 15 MW floating offshore wind turbine, a newly designed semisubmersible floating foundation with multiple heave plates by CNOOC, is investigated with two independent turbine-floater-mooring coupled dynamic analysis programs CHARM3D-FAST and OrcaFlex. The semisubmersible platform hosts IEA 15 MW reference wind turbine modulated for VolturnUS-S and hybrid type (chain-wire-chain with clumps) 3×2 mooring lines targeting the water depth of 100 m. The numerical free-decay simulation results are compared with physical experiments with 1:64 scaled model in 3D wave basin, from which appropriate drag coefficients for heave plates were estimated. The tuned numerical simulation tools were then used for the feasibility and global performance analysis of the FOWT considering the 50-yr-storm condition and maximum operational condition. The effect of tower flexibility was investigated by comparing tower-base fore-aft bending moment and nacelle translational accelerations. It is found that the tower-base bending moment and nacelle accelerations can be appreciably increased due to the tower flexibility.

Attention and Working Memory Task- Load Dependent Activation Increase with Deactivation Decrease after Caffeine Ingestion

Wei Peng,Jian Zhang,Da Chang,Zhuo-Wen Shen,Yuanqi Shang,Donghui Song,Qiu Ge,Xuchu Weng,Ze Wang 대한자기공명의과학회 2017 Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging Vol.21 No.4

Purpose: Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychostimulant. It is often adopted as a tool to modulate brain activations in fMRI studies. However, its pharmaceutical effect on task-induced deactivation has not been fully examined in fMRI. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of caffeine on both activation and deactivation under sustained attention. Materials and Methods: Task fMRI was acquired from 26 caffeine naive healthy volunteers before and after taking caffeine pill (200 mg). Results: Statistical analysis showed an increase in cognition-load dependent task activation but a decrease in load dependent de-activation after caffeine ingestion. Increase of attention and memory task activation and its load-dependence suggest a beneficial effect of caffeine on the brain even though it has no overt behavior improvement. The reduction of deactivation by caffeine and its load-dependence indicate reduced facilitation from task-negative networks. Conclusion: Caffeine affects brain activity in a load-dependent manner accompanied by a disassociation between task-positive network and task-negative network.

Attention and Working Memory Task-Load Dependent Activation Increase with Deactivation Decrease after Caffeine Ingestion

Peng, Wei,Zhang, Jian,Chang, Da,Shen, Zhuo-Wen,Shang, Yuanqi,Song, Donghui,Ge, Qiu,Weng, Xuchu,Wang, Ze Korean Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 2017 Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging Vol.21 No.4

Purpose: Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychostimulant. It is often adopted as a tool to modulate brain activations in fMRI studies. However, its pharmaceutical effect on task-induced deactivation has not been fully examined in fMRI. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of caffeine on both activation and deactivation under sustained attention. Materials and Methods: Task fMRI was acquired from 26 caffeine naive healthy volunteers before and after taking caffeine pill (200 mg). Results: Statistical analysis showed an increase in cognition-load dependent task activation but a decrease in load dependent de-activation after caffeine ingestion. Increase of attention and memory task activation and its load-dependence suggest a beneficial effect of caffeine on the brain even though it has no overt behavior improvement. The reduction of deactivation by caffeine and its load-dependence indicate reduced facilitation from task-negative networks. Conclusion: Caffeine affects brain activity in a load-dependent manner accompanied by a disassociation between task-positive network and task-negative network.

Overexpression of Hiwi Promotes Growth of Human Breast Cancer Cells

Wang, Da-Wei,Wang, Zhao-Hui,Wang, Ling-Ling,Song, Yang,Zhang, Gui-Zhen Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.18

The Piwi subfamily comprises two argonaute (Ago) family proteins, which are defined by the presence of PAZ and Piwi domains, with well known roles in RNA silencing. Hiwi, a human Piwi subfamily member, has been shown to play essential roles in stem cell self-renewal and gametogenesis. Recently, accumulating reports have indicated that abnormal hiwi expression is associated with poorer prognosis of multiple types of human cancers, including examples in the breast. However, little is known about details of the oncogenic role of hiwi in breast cancers. In present study, we confirmed overexpression of hiwi in breast cancer specimens and breast cancer cell lines at both mRNA and protein levels. Thus both RT-qPCR and Western blot data revealed significantly higher hiwi in intratumor than peritumor specimens, overexpression being associated with tumor size, lymph node metastasis and histological grade. Hiwi overexpression was also identified in breast cancer cell lines, MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7, and gain-of-function and loss-of-function strategies were adopted to identify the role of hiwi in the MCF-7 cell growth. Results demonstrated that hiwi expression in MCF-7 cells was significantly up- or down-regulated by the two strategies. We next evaluated the influence of hiwi overexpression or knockdown on the growth of breast cancer cells. Both cell count and colony formation assays confirmed promoting roles of hiwi in MCF-7 cells, which could be inhibited by hiwi specific blockage by siRNAs. In summary, the present study confirmed overexpression of hiwi in breast cancer specimens and breast cancer cell lines, and provided e vidence of promotion by hiwi of cell growth. The results imply an oncogenic role of hiwi in breast cancers.

New Therapeutic Schedule for Prostatic Cancer-3 Cells with ET-1 RNAi and Endostar

Zhang, Hao-Jie,Qian, Wei-Qing,Chen, Ran,Sun, Zhong-Quan,Song, Jian-Da,Sheng, Lu Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.23

Background: Endothelin-1 and Endostar are both significant for the progression, proliferation, metastasis and invasion of cancer. In this paper, we studied the effect of ET-1 RNAi and Endostar in PC-3 prostatic cancer cells. Materials and Methods: The lentiviral vector was used in the establishment of ET-1 knockdown PC-3 cells. Progression and apoptosis were assessed by CKK-8 and flow cytometry, respectively. Transwell assay was used to estimate invasion and signaling pathways were studied by Western blotting. Results: ET-1 mRNA and protein in ET-1 knockdown PC-3 cells were reduced to 26.4% and 22.4% compared with control group, respectively. ET-1 RNAi and Endostar both were effective for the suppression of progression and invasion of PC-3 cells. From Western blotting results, the effects of ET-1 regulation and Endostar on PC-3 cells were at least related to some signaling pathways involving PI3K/Akt/Caspase-3, Erk1/2/Bcl-2/Caspase-3 and MMPs (MMP-2 and MMP-9). Furthermore, combined treatment of ET-1RNAi and Endostar was found to be more effective than single treatment. Conclusions: Both ET-1 RNAi and Endostar can inhibit the progression and invasion of PC-3 cells, but combined treatment might be a better therapeutic schedule.

An 8-Week Low-Intensity Progressive Cycling Training Improves Motor Functions in Patients with Early-Stage Parkinson’s Disease

Hsiu-Chen Chang,Chin-Song Lu,Wei-Da Chiou,Chiung-Chu Chen,Yi-Hsin Weng,Ya-Ju Chang 대한신경과학회 2018 Journal of Clinical Neurology Vol.14 No.2

Background and Purpose The effects of high-intensity cycling as an adjuvant therapy forearly-stage Parkinson’s disease (PD) were highlighted recently. However, patients experience difficultiesin maintaining these cycling training programs. The present study investigated the efficacyof cycling at a mild-to-moderate intensity in early-stage PD. Methods Thirteen PD patients were enrolled for 16 serial cycling sessions over a 2-month period. Motor function was assessed using the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale part III(UPDRS III) and Timed Up and Go (TUG) test as primary outcomes. The Montreal CognitiveAssessment (MoCA), modified Hoehn and Yahr Stage (mHYS), total UPDRS, Falls EfficacyScale, New Freezing of Gait Questionnaire, Schwab and England Activities of Daily Living, 39-item Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire, Patient Global Impression of Change, and gait performancewere assessed as secondary outcomes. Results The age and the age at onset were 59.67±7.24 and 53.23±10.26 years (mean±SD), respectively. The cycling cadence was 53.27±8.92 revolutions per minute. The UPDRS III scoreimproved significantly after 8 training sessions (p=0.011) and 16 training sessions (T2) (p=0.001) in the off-state, and at T2 (p=0.004) in the on-state compared to pretraining (T0). TheTUG duration was significantly shorter at T2 than at T0 (p<0.05). The findings of MoCA, totalUPDRS, double limb support time, and mHYS (in both the off- and on-states) also improvedsignificantly at T2. Conclusions Our pioneer study has demonstrated that a low-intensity progressive cycling exercisecan improve motor function in PD, especially akinesia. The beneficial effects were similarto those of high-intensity rehabilitation programs.

Identification and expression analysis of grape LRK10L-2 genes during grape fruit development

Ma Jin-Ping,Yin Xue-Ren,Wei Tong-Lu,Liu Hai-Nan,Pei Mao-Song,Yang Sheng-Di,Jin Hui-Ying,He Guang-Qi,Guo Da-Long 한국식물생명공학회 2022 Plant biotechnology reports Vol.16 No.1

LRK10L-2 is known to be related to the plant disease response, little information is available about the relationship of LRK10L-2 and fruit ripening. The protein physicochemical properties, conserved domains, gene structures, subcellular locali- zation, expression patterns during grape fruit development and promoter activity of the members of grape LRK10L-2 gene family were explored in this study. A total of 109 LRK10L-2 family gene members were identified, and mainly distributed on chromosome 16. Almost all of them were located in the plasma membrane. Most of the LRK10L-2 genes contain four or five motifs, ranging from 0 to 5 introns and have the cis-acting elements related to hormones in their promoter regions. There were 20 pairs of tandem duplicates and 293 pairs of segmental duplication in LRK10L-2 family genes. It was proved that the expression of LRK10L-2 gene varied at the different fruit development stages of 'Kyoho' and its early-ripening bud mutant, ‘Fengzao’. The subcellular localization of VIT_16s0098g00160 and VIT_16s0098g00400 were in the plasma membrane, and had a significant enrichment of the GUS signal in N.benthamiana leaves for the promoter. The results lay a solid basis for the further functional researches of the LRK10L-2 genes for grape fruit ripening.

Comparison of Liver Transplantation and Liver Resection for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients with Portal Vein Tumor Thrombus Type I and Type II

Jia-Yu Lv,Ning-Ning Zhang,Ya-Wei Du,Ying Wu,Tian-Qiang Song,Ya-Min Zhang,Yan Qu,Yu-Xin Liu,Jie Gu,Ze-Yu Wang,Yi-Bo Qiu,Bing Yang,Da-Zhi Tian,Qing-Jun Guo,Li Zhang,Ji-San Sun,Yan Xie,Zheng-Lu Wang,Xin 연세대학교의과대학 2021 Yonsei medical journal Vol.62 No.1

Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of liver transplantation (LT) and liver resection (LR) for hepatocellularcarcinoma (HCC) patients with portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT) and to investigate risk factors affecting prognosis. Materials and Methods: A total of 94 HCC patients with PVTT type I (segmental PVTT) and PVTT type II (lobar PVTT) were involvedand divided into LR (n=47) and LT groups (n=47). Recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) were comparedbefore and after inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW). Prognostic factors for RFS and OS were explored. Results: Two treatment groups were well-balanced using IPTW. In the entire cohort, LT provided a better prognosis than LR. Among patients with PVTT type I, RFS was better with LT (p=0.039); OS was not different significantly between LT and LR(p=0.093). In subgroup analysis of PVTT type I patients with α-fetoprotein (AFP) levels >200 ng/mL, LT elicited significantly longermedian RFS (18.0 months vs. 2.1 months, p=0.022) and relatively longer median OS time (23.6 months vs. 9.8 months, p=0.065). Among patients with PVTT type II, no significant differences in RFS and OS were found between LT and LR (p=0.115 and 0.335,respectively). Multivariate analyses showed treatment allocation (LR), tumor size (>5 cm), AFP and aspartate aminotransferase(AST) levels to be risk factors of RFS and treatment allocation (LR), AFP and AST as risk factors for OS. Conclusion: LT appeared to afford a better prognosis for HCC with PVTT type I than LR, especially in patients with AFP levels>200 ng/mL.

Co3(PO4)2-Coated LiV3O8 as Positive Materials for Rechargeable Lithium Batteries

Ling-Ling Xie,Li-Qin You,Xiao-Yu Cao,Chao-Feng Zhang,Da-Wei Song,Ling-Bo Qu 대한금속·재료학회 2012 ELECTRONIC MATERIALS LETTERS Vol.8 No.4

Co3(PO4)2-coated LiV3O8 has been successfully synthesized and used as positive material for rechargeable lithium batteries by a facile liquid phase method. The as-prepared powders were characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), and the galvanostatic discharge/charge experiments. As-prepared Co3(PO4)2-coated LiV3O8 forms a good layered structure with a poor cyrstallinity. SEM reveals that Co3(PO4)2-coated LiV3O8 has uniform particle distribution and reduced particle size when compared with bare one. The Co3(PO4)2 coating layer is about 33 - 59 nm forming a continuous lumps attached to LiV3O8 particle surface. Co3(PO4)2-coated LiV3O8 electrode shows increased capacity and more stable cycling. The first and 35th discharge capacities of the Co3(PO4)2-coated LiV3O8electrode are 322.8 mAh g−1 and 235.7 mAh g−1 in the range of 4.0 - 1.8 V at a current rate of 30 mA g−1, respectively. The improved electrochemical performance is assigned to the greatly reduced LiV3O8 particle with uniform morphology. Co3(PO4)2-coating further benefits the phase transitions of LiV3O8 during discharge/charge while preventing parasite reactions between electrode surface and electrolyte.