Analysis of color symbology from the perspective of cultural semiotics focused on Korean costume colors according to the cultural changes

The purpose of this study was to analyze the symbolization of colors as cultural codes, based on costume colors. In order to study the significance of colors in cultural changes, we carried out a quantitative analysis and interpreted it from the perspective of cultural semiotics. The range of this study was focused on Korean costume colors, over diverse diachronic stages of Korean culture. For this study 1535 color samples were collected, measured with a spectrophotometer, and analyzed quantitatively according their diachronic stages of origin. As a result, red, blue, and yellow were found to be the most frequently used colors during the Chosun Dynasty, a period based on Confucianism. These colors acted as cultural codes with cultural significance. During the Modern times pink, light blue, and black increased in frequency and represented the reception of western culture, the changing sex role of women in society, and utilitarianism. In these days, neutral colors and grayish tones of all colors are the most significant colors of high frequency. The use of such colors is closely related to industrialization, mechanization, functionalism, and the changes of women's sex roles in the societies. They are used as cultural codes, especially to emphasize a rational and masculine image rather than a feminine image. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 32, 71–79, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/col.20290     

A resource allocation policy for delay minimization in fetching capacitated feeds

As social media services such as Twitter and Facebook are gaining popularity, the amount of information published from those services is explosively growing. Most of them use feeds to facilitate distribution of a huge volume of content they publish. In this context, many users subscribe to feeds to acquire up-to-date information through feed aggregation services, and recent real-time search engines also increasingly utilize feeds to promptly find recent web content when it is produced. Accordingly, it is necessary for such services to effectively fetch feeds for minimizing fetching delay, while at the same time maximizing the number of fetched entries. Fetching delay is a time lag between entry publication and retrieval, which is primarily incurred by finiteness of fetching resources. In this paper, we consider a polling-based approach among the methods applicable to fetching feeds, which bases on a specific schedule for visiting feeds. While the existing polling-based approaches have focused on the allocation of fetching resources to feeds in order to either reduce the fetching delay or increase the number of fetched entries, we propose a resource allocation policy that can optimize both objectives. Extensive experiments have been carried out to evaluate the proposed model, in comparison with the existing alternative methods.     

Similarity assessment of design behavior data

Understanding the cognitive aspects of design behavior is important in understanding the nature of design ability, and various studies are being conducted to understand the underlying cognitive aspects of design abilities and to develop methods to enhance them. While simple visualization supports in graphical forms are helpful in finding characteristics in protocol analysis, similarity assessment of the protocol data of various designers and various design tasks and situations will also help to understand designers and design problem characteristics. In this paper, we propose similarity assessment methods of design behavior data as support tools for understanding and analysis of the nature of design ability.     

Cognitive,social and teaching presence in a virtual world and a text chat

Using a framework of cognitive, social, and teaching presence, the nature of learning experiences in a three-dimensional virtual world environment (Second Life) and a text-chat learning environment without visuals (TeachNet) were investigated. A mixed method of code frequencies, coherence graphs, interviews, and a survey was used. The results revealed that the TeachNet debates included more cognitive presence codes that indicate higher levels of cognitive processing than in SL debates. The teams were significantly different from each other in the collaboration style for developing arguments and in the ways to use utterances associated with cognitive, social, and teaching presences, and the groups’ collaboration style became more established with more experience with the tasks. The three critical factors–tool, tasks and group cohesion–that affect cognitive, teaching, and social presence are discussed.     

Atractylodin Ameliorates Colitis via PPARα Agonism

Atractylodin is a major compound in the rhizome of Atractylodes lancea, an oriental herbal medicine used for the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases, including dyspepsia, nausea, and diarrhea. Recent studies have shown that atractylodin exerts anti-inflammatory effects in various inflammatory diseases. Herein, we investigated the anti-colitis effects of atractylodin and its molecular targets. We determined the non-cytotoxic concentration of atractylodin (50 μM) using a cell proliferation assay in colonic epithelial cells. We found that pretreatment with atractylodin significantly inhibits tumor necrosis factor-α-induced phosphorylation of nuclear factor-κ-light-chain-enhancer of activated B in HCT116 cells. Through docking simulation analysis, luciferase assays, and in vitro binding assays, we found that atractylodin has an affinity for peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα). Daily administration of atractylodin (40 mg/kg) increased the survival rate of mice in a dextran sodium sulfate-induced colitis mouse model. Thus, atractylodin can be a good strategy for colitis therapy through inducing PPARα-dependent pathways.     

H −/H ∞ sensor fault detection and isolation in linear time-invariant systems

This paper addresses sensor fault detection and isolation problems for continuous- and discrete-time linear time-invariant systems. To that end, we employ a bank consisting of the same number of observers as there are sensors. Both the observer gain and the residual gain are considered. Unlike earlier work, the design conditions with H _?/H _∞ performance are derived in terms of linear, rather than nonlinear, matrix inequalities. An illustrative example is provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.     

Optimization of conductivity and strength in Cu-Ni-Si alloys by suppressing discontinuous precipitation

Cu-Ni-Si alloys with and without Ti were solution treated at 980 °C for 1 h and cooled by air cooling and water quenching, after which the specimens were aged at 500 °C. The two alloys showed different aging characteristics with different cooling rates during the aging process. The conductivity of all alloys increased during aging; for alloys that were water quenched, hardness increased at the early stage of aging and then drastically decreased. The air-cooled Cu-Ni-Si alloy without Ti also experienced an increase in hardness, which then decreased during aging, but the air-cooled Cu-Ni-Si alloy with Ti did not show a drastic decrease in hardness during prolonged aging. A combination of yield strength and conductivity of 820 MPa and 42% IACS, respectively, was achieved in the air-cooled Cu-Ni-Si-Ti alloy after solution treatment.     

Single-atom Pd catalyst anchored on Zr-based metal-organic polyhedra for Suzuki-Miyaura cross coupling reactions in aqueous media

The challenge for single-atom catalysts in various C-C cross coupling reaction exists in the development of solid supporting materials.It has been desired tofind a supporting material designed in molecular level to anchor a single-atom catalyst and provide high degree of dispersion and substrate access in aqueous media.Here,we prepared discrete cages of metal-organic polyhedra anchoring single Pd atom(MOP-BPY(Pd))and successfully performed a Suzuki-Miyaura cross coupling reaction with various substrates in aqueous media.It was revealed that each tetrahedral cage of MOP-BPY(Pd)has 4.5 Pd atoms on average and retained its high degree of dispersion up to 3 months in water.The coupling efficiencies of the Suzuki-Miyaura cross coupling reaction exhibited more than 90.0%for various substrates we have tested in the aqueous media,which is superior to those of the molecular Pd complex and metal-organic framework(MOF)anchoring Pd atoms.Moreover,MOP-BPY(Pd)was successfully recovered and recycled without performance degradation.     

Experimental study on forced convective boiling heat transfer of pure refrigerants and refrigerant mixtures in a horizontal tube

Convective boiling heat transfer coefficients of pure refrigerants (R22, R32, R134A, R290, and R600a) and refrigerant mixtures (R32/R134a, R290/R600a, and R32/R125) are measured experimentally and compared with Gungor and Winterton correlation. The test section is made of a seamless stainless steel tube with an inner diameter of 7.7 mm and is uniformly heated by applying electric current directly to the tube. The exit temperature of the test section was kept at 12°C ± 0.5°C for all refrigerants in this study. Heat fluxes are varied from 10 to 30 kW m⁻² and mass fluxes are set to the discrete values in the range of 424–742 kg m⁻² s⁻¹ for R22, R32, R134a, R32/R134a, and R32/R125; 265–583 kg m⁻² s⁻¹ for R290, R600a, and R290/R600a. Heat transfer coefficients depend strongly on heat flux at a low quality region and become independent as quality increases. The Gungor and Winterton correlation for pure substances and the Thome-Shakil modification of this correlation for refrigerant mixtures overpredicts the heat transfer coefficients measured in this study.