In Vivo Two-Photon Imaging Analysis of Dynamic Degradation of Hepatic Lipid Droplets in MS-275-Treated Mouse Liver

The accumulation of hepatic lipid droplets (LDs) is a hallmark of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Appropriate degradation of hepatic LDs and oxidation of complete free fatty acids (FFAs) are important for preventing the development of NAFLD. Histone deacetylase (HDAC) is involved in the impaired lipid metabolism seen in high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese mice. Here, we evaluated the effect of MS-275, an inhibitor of HDAC1/3, on the degradation of hepatic LDs and FFA oxidation in HFD-induced NAFLD mice. To assess the dynamic degradation of hepatic LDs and FFA oxidation in fatty livers of MS-275-treated HFD C57BL/6J mice, an intravital two-photon imaging system was used and biochemical analysis was performed. The MS-275 improved hepatic metabolic alterations in HFD-induced fatty liver by increasing the dynamic degradation of hepatic LDs and the interaction between LDs and lysozyme in the fatty liver. Numerous peri-droplet mitochondria, lipolysis, and lipophagy were observed in the MS-275-treated mouse fatty liver. Biochemical analysis revealed that the lipolysis and autophagy pathways were activated in MS-275 treated mouse liver. In addition, MS-275 reduced the de novo lipogenesis, but increased the mitochondrial oxidation and the expression levels of oxidation-related genes, such as PPARa, MCAD, CPT1b, and FGF21. Taken together, these results suggest that MS-275 stimulates the degradation of hepatic LDs and mitochondrial free fatty acid oxidation, thus protecting against HFD-induced NAFLD.     

Detection Technique of Software-Induced Rowhammer Attacks

Side-channel attacks have recently progressed into software-induced attacks. In particular, a rowhammer attack, which exploits the characteristics of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), can quickly and continuously access the cells as the cell density of DRAM increases, thereby generating a disturbance error affecting the neighboring cells, resulting in bit flips. Although a rowhammer attack is a highly sophisticated attack in which disturbance errors are deliberately generated into data bits, it has been reported that it can be exploited on various platforms such as mobile devices, web browsers, and virtual machines. Furthermore, there have been studies on bypassing the defense measures of DRAM manufacturers and the like to respond to rowhammer attacks. A rowhammer attack can control user access and compromise the integrity of sensitive data with attacks such as a privilege escalation and an alteration of the encryption keys. In an attempt to mitigate a rowhammer attack, various hardware- and software-based mitigation techniques are being studied, but there are limitations in that the research methods do not detect the rowhammer attack in advance, causing overhead or degradation of the system performance. Therefore, in this study, a rowhammer attack detection technique is proposed by extracting common features of rowhammer attack files through a static analysis of rowhammer attack codes.     

Different sensing durations‐based cooperative spectrum sensing in cognitive radio systems

In order to provide more accurate detection of the primary user's activity in cognitive radio (CR) systems, cooperative spectrum sensing is proposed. The transmit diversity can also be employed by cooperative spectrum sensing to improve the performance of decision reporting. Hence, in the reporting channels between the cognitive users and the base station (BS), space time block code (STBC) scheme is considered in each cluster with time division multiple access (TMDA) method. In this paper, to improve the time efficiency in the case that one cluster makes sensing report, whereas the others do nothing but wait for their orders, we set each cluster with different sensing durations and the clusters will not stop the spectrum sensing until their results are reported. Furthermore, we also adopt the flexible sensing durations to decrease unnecessary energy consumption based on the clusters’ sensing sensitivities. Simulation results and analysis show the better detection performance and time efficiency of the proposed scheme. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Commissioning of the first KSTAR neutral beam injection system and beam experiments

The neutral beam injection (NBI) system was designed to provide plasma heating and current drive for high performance and long pulse operation of the Korean Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) device using two co-current beam injection systems. Each neutral beam injection system was designed to inject three beams using three ion sources and each ion source has been designed to deliver more than 2.0 MW of deuterium neutral beam power for the 100-keV beam energy. Consequently, the final goal of the KSTAR NBI system aims to inject more than 12 MW of deuterium beam power with the two NBI for the long pulse operation of the KSTAR. As an initial step toward the long pulse (～300 s) KSTAR NBI system development, the first neutral beam injection system equipped with one ion source was constructed for the KSTAR 2010 campaign and successfully commissioned. During the KSTAR 2010 campaign, a MW-deuterium neutral beam was successfully injected to the KSTAR plasma with maximum beam energy of 90 keV and the L-H transition was observed with neutral beam heating. In recent 2011 campaign, the beam power of 1.5 MW is injected with the beam energy of 95 keV. With the beam injection, the ion and electron temperatures increased significantly, and increase of the toroidal rotation speed of the plasma was observed as well. This paper describes the design, construction, commissioning results of the first NBI system leading the successful heating experiments carried in the KSTAR 2010 and 2011 campaign and the trial of 300-s long pulse beam extraction.     

In situ,quantitative characterization of gelation and fusion mechanism in poly(vinyl chloride) plastisols by small angle light scattering (SALS)

The present paper explores an effective means of characterizing structural changes of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) particles during gelation and fusion of PVC plastisols with small angle light scattering (SALS). The SALS method was shown to provide an in situ observation of swelling of PVC particles as well as quantitative information of average size of swollen particles while they are in progress of gelation and fusion. In addition, the SALS method enabled one to evaluate the relative solvent power of plasticizers from the manner of increase in the correlation distances.     

Effect of intravenous immunoglobulin G on natural killer cell cytotoxicity in vitro in women with recurrent spontaneous abortion

Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) has been used to treat women with recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA), particularly for women with elevated natural killer (NK) cells. We investigated the effect of IVIg on peripheral blood NK cell activity in vitro in women with RSA. 51Cr-release assays using K562 in the presence of varying concentrations of IVIg were performed using PBL from 16 women with RSA. Antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) was evaluated using Daudi cells. Effectors and targets were preincubated with IVIg. Binding of IVIg to K562 and Daudi was evaluated by flow cytometry. The effect of K562 absorbed IVIg on NK activity was compared to that of non-absorbed IVIg. NK cytotoxicity and ADCC in the presence of F(ab')2 fragments were compared with those in the presence of intact IVIg. IVIg produced a significant, dose dependent inhibition of NK activity in vitro. Inhibition of NK activity occurred when effectors but not targets were preincubated with IVIg. IVIg binds to K562 and Daudi. IVIg increased ADCC when targets but not effectors were incubated with IVIg. K562 absorbed IVIg produced more inhibition of NK cytotoxicity than non-absorbed IVIg. Suppression of NK cytotoxicity by F(ab')2 was as effective as that of IVIg. However, F(ab')2 did not increase ADCC. IVIg effectively reduces peripheral blood NK cytotoxicity in vitro. Inhibition of NK cytotoxicity is mediated at the effector cell level through the antigen binding portion of the immunoglobulins. Women with RSA and elevated NK cells may benefit from IVIg treatment.     

Robust control of robot manipulator by model-based disturbance attenuation

In this letter, a model-based disturbance attenuator (MBDA) for robot manipulators is proposed and the stability of the MBDA in robot positioning problems is proved via Liapunov's direct method. This method does not require an accurate model of a robot manipulator and takes care of disturbances or modeling errors so that the plant output remains relatively unaffected by them. The output error due to the gravity or constant disturbance can be effectively eliminated by this method.     

The First Inert and Photostable Encapsulated Lanthanide(III) Complexes Based on Dendritic 9,10‐Diphenylanthracene Ligands: Synthesis,Strong Near‐Infrared Emission Enhancement,and Photophysical Studies

A series of inert and photostable encapsulated lanthanide(III) complexes—based on dendritic anthracene ligands—is shown for the first time to exhibit strong near‐IR emission bands via efficient energy transfer from the excited states of the peripheral antenna to the Ln³⁺ ions (Er³⁺, Yb³⁺, and Nd³⁺). A significant decrease in the fluorescence of the anthracene ligand is accompanied by a strong increase in the near‐IR emission of the Ln³⁺ ions. The near‐IR emission intensities of Ln³⁺ ions in the encapsulated Ln³⁺–dendrimer complexes are dramatically enhanced on increasing the generation number (n) of dendrons, owing to site‐isolation and light‐harvesting effects. Furthermore, a first attempt is made to distinguish between the site‐isolation and light‐harvesting effects in the present complexes. Photophysical studies indicate the sensitization of Ln³⁺ luminescence by energy transfer through the excited singlet state of the anthracene ligands, and the energy‐transfer efficiency between the dendritic anthracene ligands and the Ln³⁺ ion is evaluated to be in the range of 90 to 97 %. Their energy‐transfer efficiency is in good agreement with the result that the biexponential decays contain a radiative decay of anthracene units (< ca. 10 %) and an energy‐transfer component (> ca. 90 %) from the excited state of anthracene ligands to the Ln³⁺ ions. Time‐resolved luminescence spectra show monoexponential decays with a lifetime of 2 μs for the Er³⁺ ion 11 μs for the Yb³⁺ ion and 0.7 μs for the Nd³⁺ ion in thin films, and calculated intrinsic quantum yields of the Ln³⁺ ions are in the range of ca. 0.025 to 0.55 %.     

The analysis of ultrasonic signals by partial discharge and noise from the transformer

This paper presents the analysis of ultrasonic signals by the partial discharge in a model transformer as well as by corona in the air at a shielded high-voltage laboratory. In addition, various noises onsite, a 345-kV substation, were measured and analyzed, for example, the vibration by core magnetostriction, cooling pump, cooling fan, onload tap changer (OLTC) operation, OLTC filtering unit operation, and air discharge pulse by corona on the transmission line. Therefore, electrical and mechanical noises onsite were removed using the proper narrow bandpass filter and the noise discrimination algorithm. Also, the developed online ultrasonic detector was applied to detect partial discharge in a 154-kV transformer with a warning level in C/sub 2/H/sub 2/ gas. As a result of an internal inspection, the source of partial discharge was found at the estimated position based on ultrasonic detection and its reliability was verified.