• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.151-156
• /
• 2013

Hanwoo (Also known as Korean native cattle; Bos taurus coreanae) have been used for transportation and farming for a long time in South Korea. It has been about 30 yrs since Hanwoo improvement began in earnest as beef cattle for meat yield. The purpose of this study was to determine the trend of improvement as well as to estimate genetic parameters of the traits being used for seedstock selection based on the data collected from the past. Hanwoo proven bulls in South Korea are currently selected through performance and progeny tests. National Hanwoo genetic evaluations are implemented with yearling weight (YW), carcass weight (CW), eye muscle area (EMA), backfat thickness (BF) and marbling score (MS). Yearling weights and MS are used for selecting young bulls, and EMA, BF, and MS are used for selecting proven bulls. One individual per testing room was used for performance tests, and five individuals per room for progeny tests. Individuals tested were not allowed to graze pasture, but there was enough space for them to move around in the testing room. Feeds including roughages and minerals were fed ad libitum, and concentrates were provided at the rate of about 1.8% of individual weight. Overall means of the traits were $352.8{\pm}38.56$ kg, $335.09{\pm}44.61$ kg, $77.85{\pm}8.838\;cm^2$, $8.6{\pm}3.7$ mm and $3.293{\pm}1.648$ for YW, CW, EMA, BF and MS. Heritabilities estimated in this study were 0.30, 0.30, 0.42, 0.50 and 0.63 in YW, CW, EMA, BF and MS, respectively, which are similar to results from previous research. Yearling weight was 315.54 kg in 1998, and had increased to 355.06 kg in 2011, resulting in about 40 kg of improvement over 13 yrs. YW and CW have improved remarkably over the past 15 yrs. Breeding values between 1996 and 2000 decreased or did not change much, but have moved in a desirable direction since 2001. These improvements correspond with the substantial increase in use of animal models since the late 1990s in Korea. Hanwoo testing programs have practically contributed to the improvement in aspects of quality and quantity. In sum, the current selection system is good enough to accommodate circumstances where fewer sires are used on many more cows. Although progeny tests take longer and cost more, they seem to be appropriate under the circumstances of the domestic market with its higher requirement for better meat quality. Consequently, accumulative data collection, genetic evaluation model development, revision of selection indices, as well as cooperation among farms, associations, National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, universities, research institutes, and government agencies must be applied to the Hanwoo selection program. All these efforts will assist the domestic market to secure a competitive position against imported beef under Free Trade Agreement trade system and will provide farmers with higher profits as well as the public with a higher quality of beef.

• Progress in Medical Physics
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.172-177
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study was to analyze $^{68}Ga$-BAPEN dynamic PET image in rat myocardium to evaluate potential of this radiotracer as a perfusion imaging agent. Animal PET/CT scan was done in 9 rats during 120 minutes. Especially we synthesized $^{68}Ga$-BAPEN with kit which is simple and low cost method. PET images showed the in vivo dynamic distribution of $^{68}Ga$-BAPEN in the chest region of rats. Initially $^{68}Ga$-BAPEN PET images showed aorta and liver activities and a few minutes later, $^{68}Ga$-BAPEN moved to myocardium. Regions of interest were drawn on myocardium, liver, lung and blood pool. Time-activity curves showed significant uptake of $^{68}Ga$-BAPEN in myocardium. The contrast ratios of myocardial to blood pool, lung and liver at 60 minutes after injection were 1.66, 2.82 and 0.60. To estimate accurate kinetic parameters, 60 minutes after injection was required to PET scan as myocardium image contrast ratios reached to constant values. As a result, $^{68}Ga$-BAPEN would be suitable radiotracer for PET which can applied to diagnosis of myocardial perfusion diseases after further preclinical and clinical investigations.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.369-374
• /
• 2015

In this paper, an EM sensing based prestressing force estimation method is proposed, in which it can estimate tensile force of PS tendon for PSC girder. The PSC girder has more improved performance than the general concrete girder by introducing the prestressing to the concrete. Thus the PSC girder bridge is widely constructed due to its high performance and low cost. However, the prestressing force has not been managed nevertheless it is major factor for the maintenance of the PSC girder bridge. The prestressing force was just measured during construction using jacking device and after that, it can not be managed. For this reason, this paper proposes a tensile force estimation method of PS tendon based on EM sensor. The permeability of ferroelectric material is changed according to the induced stress to the material, in which it can be measured using EM sensor. To measure the permeability of PS tendon, the EM sensor was fabricated and verified by performing the MTS test. The test was performed using 7-wire steel tendon under the 0, 40, 80, 120, 160, 200 KN of tensile force. The permeability of PS tendon was gradually decreased according to the increasement of tensile force. The regression method was used to find the relation between permeability and stress. As a result, the permeability has linear relation with the tensile force of PS tendon and the pre-stressing force can be estimated by the derived estimation equation.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.13 no.9
• /
• pp.47-57
• /
• 2015

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to investigate the explanatory power of the Pecking-order theory (the cost of financing increases with asymmetric information) among Korean retail firms from the perspective of debt capacity. According to the Pecking-order theory, a firm's first preference is to use internal funds for its capital needs, its next preference is the issuance of debt, and its last preference is the issuance of equity; this is due to the information asymmetry problem between existing shareholders and investors. However, prior empirical studies, such as Lemmon and Zender (2010), argue that the entire sample test for the Pecking-order theory could be misleading due to the different levels of debt issuance capability of each of the individual firms; in fact, they confirm that the explanatory power of the Pecking-order theory improves after taking into account the differences in debt capacity of the U.S. firms they examined. This paper implements a case study approach among Korean retail firms to examine the relationship between debt capacity and the explanatory power of the Pecking-order theory in Korea. Research design, data, and methodology - This study uses the sample of public retail firms on the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) from the time period of 1990 to 2013. We gather related financial and accounting statements from the financial information firm WISEfn. Credit rating information is provided by the Korea Investor Service. We employ the models of Lemmon and Zender (2010) and Son and Kim (2013) to measure a firm's debt capacity. Their logit models use the rating dummy variable as a dependent variable and incorporate other firm characteristics as independent variables to estimate debt capacity. To test the Pecking-order theory, we adopt variants of the financing deficit model of Shyam-Sunder and Myers (1999). In the test of the Pecking-order theory, we consider all of the changes in total debt obligations, current debt obligations, and long-term debt obligations. Results - Our main contribution to the literature is our confirmation of the predicted relationship between debt capacity and the explanatory power of the Pecking-order theory among Korean retail firms. The coefficients on financing deficits become greater as a firm's debt capacity improves. This is consistent with the results of Lemmon and Zender (2010). The coefficients on the square of the financing deficits are also negative for the firms in the largest debt capacity group, which is also consistent with the predictions in prior literature. Conclusions - This study takes a case study approach by examining Korean retail firms. We confirm that the Pecking-order theory explains the capital structure of retail firms more appropriately, after taking into account the debt capacity of each firm. This result suggests the importance of debt capacity consideration in the testing of the Pecking-order theory. Our result also implies that there has been a potential underestimation of the explanatory power of the Pecking-order theory in existing studies.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.21 no.5
• /
• pp.49-55
• /
• 2017

In the seventies, a number of researchers carried out experiments on pullout tests with prototype equipment, and the pullout test was certified as a reliable nondestructive testing(NDT) method for determining the strength of concrete. To estimate the strength of high-strength concrete, we propose a simplified pullout test that uses as a break-off bolt a standard 10mm bolt with a groove on the shaft, an insert nut, and a pullout instrument that includes a hydraulic oil pump without a load cell. To verify the advantages of the simplified pullout test(low cost, simplicity, and convenience), four wall specimens were tested with two levels of concrete strength, 30 MPa and 50 MPa, using a simplified pullout tester with a load cell. The pullout load and concrete compressive strength were measured every day until day 7, day 14, day 21 and day 28. It was found that the pullout load was very similar to the compressive strength. Therefore, we have verified that a simplified pullout test can be used to evaluate the in-place strength of high-strength concrete in structures. The prediction equation of the groove diameter of the break-off bolt(y) with the concrete strength(x) was derived as y=0.05x+3.79, with a coefficient of determination of 0.88 found through regression analysis.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.60-67
• /
• 2015

The finite element (FE) model updating is a commonly used approach in civil engineering, enabling damage detection, design verification, and load capacity identification. In the FE model updating, acceleration responses are generally employed to determine modal properties of a structure, which are subsequently used to update the initial FE model. While the acceleration-based model updating has been successful in finding better approximations of the physical systems including material and sectional properties, the boundary conditions have been considered yet to be difficult to accurately estimate as the acceleration responses only correspond to translational degree-of-freedoms (DOF). Recent advancement in the sensor technology has enabled low-cost, high-precision gyroscopes that can be adopted in the FE model updating to provide angular information of a structure. This study proposes a FE model updating strategy based on data fusion of acceleration and angular velocity. The usage of both acceleration and angular velocity gives richer information than the sole use of acceleration, allowing the enhanced performance particularly in determining the boundary conditions. A numerical simulation on a simply supported beam is presented to demonstrate the proposed FE model updating approach.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.39 no.6
• /
• pp.662-669
• /
• 2015

There has been an increased interest in the mitigation of wax deposition because wax, which usually accumulates in subsea oil-production systems, interrupts stable oil production and significantly increases the cost. To guarantee a required oil flow by mitigating wax deposition, we need to obtain a reliable estimation of the wax deposition. In this research, we perform simulations to understand the major mechanisms that lead to wax deposition, namely molecular diffusion, shear stripping reduction, and aging. While the model variables (shear reduction multiplier, wax porosity, wax thermal conductivity, and molecular diffusion multiplier) can be measured experimentally, they have high uncertainty. We perform an analysis of these variables and the amount of water and gas in the multiphase flow to determine these effects on the behavior of wax deposition. Based on the results obtained during this study for a higher wax porosity and molecular diffusion multiplier, we were able to confirm the presence of thicker wax deposits. As the shear reduction multiplier decreased, the thickness of the wax deposits increased. As the amount of water increased, there was also an increase in the amount of wax deposits until 40% water cut and decreased. As the amount of gas increased, the amount of wax deposits increased because of the loss of the light hydrocarbon component in the liquid phase. The results of this study can be utilized to estimate the wax deposition behavior by comparing the experiment (or field) and simulation data.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.643-661
• /
• 2015

Korea Teachers Pension (private school pension) is a mandatory pension and a social security system for private school teachers to ensure the stability of subscribers by a supplying pension when they (and their dependents) face future economic risk due to retirement or death. Therefore, the Teachers Pension must provide stability and sustainability in regards to adequacy of income and to function as a pension. However, the Government Employees Pension System (GEPS) of Korea (the most representative special occupation pension) recorded a fiscal deficit in 2001 and with an accumulated deficit that is expected to grow; subsequently, various plans for the reform of GEPS have been actively discussed. The Korea Teachers Pension system is based on the GEPS scheme and is not free from the GEPS discussions on reforms of national pension. The current system for the Teachers Pension needs to be improved because it is expected to be depleted within the next 30 years due to low fertility and an aging population in Korea. This study discusses existing Teachers Pension schemes problems and suggests a projection method and revised plans to improve it. We use long-term financial projections of the Teachers Pension to estimate the fund exhaustion point and the minus balance of the financial scale as well as analyze the supply-demand burden structure that reflects the future population structure to propose Teachers Pension reforms that will improve stability and adequacy.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.21-28
• /
• 1998

This study was carried out to estimate the economic impacts on operation cost and curtail the bulking agent between two kinds of plants in swine farms. Bulking agents and Plants have a variety of roles in the fields of the composting for livestock manure and also represent an economic problem in terms of plant operation costs and compost production. Two farms which have rotary(size of reactor : 10${\times}$35${\times}$1.5m) or bucket(size of reactor : 10${\times}$68${\times}$2m) plants were used for 24 weeks for bucket conveyor system, which are composed of refilling rice hull as a bulking agent every 3 weeks till decreasing volume, for 4 weeks for rotary conveyor system, which has continuous compost production system without refilling rice hull, respectively. Composts was produced in 24 weeks in the bucket conveyor system, in 4 weeks in the rotary conveyor system, respectively. The results are as follows : 1. The tissue change of Rice hull at the composts of 45 days pursuant to composting steps was more crumbling in bucket conveyor system than in rotary conveyor system. 2. Microbial counts of the final composts for safety and quality showed that total bacteria counts was 1.01${\times}$108 cfu/g in bucket conveyor system, 2.82${\times}$108 cfu/g in rotary conveyor system, Salmonella was 0.3${\times}$102 cfu/g in bucket conveyor system, 7.6${\times}$102 cfu/g in rotary conveyor system, colifom bacteria was 0.5${\times}$106 cfu/g in bucket conveyor system, 1.5${\times}$106cfu/g in rotary conveyor system, fungi 1.24${\times}$106 cfu/g in bucket conveyor system, 0.01${\times}$106 cfu/g in rotary conveyor system, respectively. However, Any system used in this trial could not be met the regulation of A grade compost of EPA and USA. 3. C:N ratio according to the composting was more rapidly changed in bucket conveyor system with 64.5 of 5 days compost to 25.4 of final products than in rotary conveyor system with 26.7 of 5 days compost to 25.9 of final products. 4. Based on the mechanical characteristics of plants used in trial and compared with Rotary conveyor system, the Bucket conveyor system in which has 0.72 ㎥/㎥ of bulking agent capacity per slurry could be curtailed 1.78 ㎥of rice hull for disposal of waste, 1㎥. It was proper facilities to produce composts quantitative in Rotary conveyor system, and to treat waste quantitative and obtain good results in compost quality in Bucket conveyor system.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.37 no.4
• /
• pp.202-207
• /
• 2012

The radioactivity inventory significantly affects all steps of decommissioning projects including planning, cost estimation, risk assessment, waste management and site remediation. The decommissioning project of the KRR-2 was completed in 2009 and a large amount of activated concrete waste was generated. The bioshield concrete, containing minute amount of impurity elements, was activated by neutron reaction during the operation of the reactor. A variety radionuclides was generated in the concrete, including $^3H$, $^{14}C$, $^{55}Fe$, $^{60}Co$ $^{63}Ni$, $^{134}Cs$, $^{152}Eu$ and $^{154}Eu$. In this paper, the comparison between the calculated results and previous measured results was carried out to estimate the inventory of the bioshield concrete of the KRR-2. The combined computer codes of MCNP5 and ORIGEN 2.1 for calculation of the distribution of neutron flux, cross-section and generation of radionuclides were used. The results were shown that 99.8% of the total radioactivity of $^3H$, $^{55}Fe$, $^{60}Co$ and $^{152}Eu$ in the bioshield concrete 12 years after shutdown. The effects on the variation of inventory were analysed depending on the operation periods and the cooling times in the bioshield concrete.