• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.110-116
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• 2022

Objective: Sperm vitrification leads to the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that can damage the functional parameters of sperm. The present study aimed to investigate the antioxidant effect of Nigella sativa extract on motility, plasma membrane function, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), DNA damage, and intracellular ROS production. Methods: A total of 20 sperm samples were used. Samples were divided into six experimental groups, including groups with aqueous extract from N. sativa seeds at concentrations of 1% to 6%, a cryopreserved control group, and a fresh control group. Results: Statistical analysis showed significantly higher total sperm motility at concentrations of 3% to 6% than in the vitrified semen control group. Additionally, progressive motility and all motion characteristics at all concentrations were significantly higher than in the vitrified semen control group. The presence of N. sativa seed extract also improved the quality of the sperm parameters assayed in all experimental groups (1%-6%; intracellular ROS production, DNA damage, MMP, and sperm membrane function) compared to the control group. Conclusion: Higher concentrations of N. sativa led to improvements in all sperm parameters and sperm quality. These findings indicate that N. sativa seed extract is effective for improving the quality of sperm after vitrification.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.80 no.6
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• pp.737-747
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• 2021

The objective of seismic resilience is to maintain or rapidly restore the function of a building after an earthquake. An efficient tilt mechanism at the member level is crucial for the restoration of the main structure function; however, the damage resistance of the members should be the main focus. In this study, through a comparison with the classical Flamant theory of local loading in the elastic half-space, an elastomechanical solution for the axial-stress distribution of a reinforced-concrete (RC) rocking column was derived. Furthermore, assuming that the lateral displacement of the rocking column is determined by the contact surface rotation angle of the column end and bending and shear deformation of the column body, the load-lateral displacement mechanical model of the RC rocking column was established and validated through a comparison with finite-element simulation results. The axial-compression ratio and column-end strength were analyzed, and the results indicated that on the premise of column damage resistance, simply increasing the axial-compression ratio increases the lateral loading capacity of the column but is ineffective for improving the lateral-displacement capacity. The lateral loading and displacement of the column are significantly improved as the strength of the column end material increases. Therefore, it is feasible to improve the working performance of RC rocking columns via local reinforcement of the column end.

• Journal of Korean Medicine for Obesity Research
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.167-172
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• 2022

Obesity is known as the most common risk factor for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Weight loss is needed to prevent liver function damage from progressing to non-alcoholic hepatosteatosis (NASH) and NASH-related liver cirrhosis. The purpose of this study was to observe the recovery of liver function in obese patients with liver dysfunction through traditional Korean obesity treatment. Body weight, liver function levels and renal function levels were examined by prescribing traditional Korean medicine in obese patients with mild elevation of liver function test. Blood tests were conducted at intervals of one month, and it was observed that liver function recovered to the normal range in three patients.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.359-366
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• 2020

In this study, a simulation-based damage estimation method for helidecks is proposed using an artificial neural network. The structural members that share a connecting node in the helideck are regarded as a damage group, and a total of 37,400 damage scenarios are numerically generated by applying randomly assigned damage to up to three damage groups. Modal analysis is then performed for all the damage scenarios, which are selectively used as either training or validation or verification sets based on the purpose of use. An artificial neural network with three hidden layers is constructed using a PyTorch program to recognize the patterns of the modal responses of the helideck model under both damaged and undamaged states, and the network is successively trained to minimize the loss function. Finally, the estimated damage rate from the proposed artificial neural network is compared to the actual assigned damage rate using 400 verification scenarios to show that the neural network is able to estimate the location and amount of structural damage precisely.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.292-296
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• 2008

A new method of evaluating critical damage values of commercial materials is presented in this paper. The method is based on the previous study of the methodology [1] of acquisition of true stress-strain curves or flow stress curves over large strain from the tensile test in which the flow stress is described by the Hollomon law-like form, that is, by the strain dependent strength coefficient and the strain hardening exponent. The strain hardening exponent is calculated from the true strain at the necking point to meet the Considere condition. The strength coefficient is assumed to be constant before necking and represented by a piecewise linear function of strain after necking. With the predicted flow stress, a tensile test is simulated by a rigid-plastic finite element method with higher accuracy of less than 0.5% error between experiments and predictions. The instant when the fracture begins and thus the critical damage is obtained is determined by observing the stress variation at the necked region. It is assumed that the fracture due to damage begins when the pattern of stress around the necked region changes radically. The method is applied to evaluate the critical damage of a low carbon steel.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.4 no.6
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• pp.613-637
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• 2017

The development systems for the Structural Health Monitoring has attracted considerable interest from several engineering fields during the last decades and more specifically in the aerospace one. In fact, the introduction of those systems could allow the transition of the maintenance strategy from a scheduled basis to a condition-based approach providing cost benefits for the companies. The research presented in this paper consists of a definition and next comparison of four methods applied to numerical measurements for the extraction of damage features. The first method is based on the determination of the Structural Intensity field at the on-resonance condition in order to acquire information about the dissipation of vibrational energy throughout the structure. The Damage Quantification Indicator and the Average Integrated Global Amplitude Criterion methods need the evaluation of the Frequency Response Function for a healthy plate and a damaged one. The main difference between these two parameters is their mathematical definition and therefore the accuracy of the scalar values provided as output. The fourth and last method is based on the Mode-shape Curvature, a FRF-based technique which requires the application of particular finite-difference schemes for the derivation of the curvature of the plate. All the methods have been assessed for several damage conditions (the shape, the extension and the intensity of the damage) on two test plates: an isotropic (steel) plate and a 4-plies composite plate.

• Advanced Composite Materials
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 2009

This paper describes the results of experiments and numerical simulation studies on the impact and indentation damage created by low-velocity impact subjected onto honeycomb sandwich panels for application to the BIMODAL tram. The test panels were subjected to low-velocity impact loading using an instrumented testing machine at six energy levels. Contact force histories as a function of time were evaluated and compared. The extent of the damage and depth of the permanent indentation was measured quantitatively using a 3-dimensional scanner. An explicit finite element analysis based on LS-DYNA3D was focused on the introduction of a material damage model and numerical simulation of low-velocity impact responses on honeycomb sandwich panels. Extensive material testing was conducted to determine the input parameters for the metallic and composite face-sheet materials and the effective equivalent damage model for the orthotropic honeycomb core material. Good agreement was obtained between numerical and experimental results; in particular, the numerical simulation was able to predict impact damage area and the depth of indentation of honeycomb sandwich composite panels created by the impact loading.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.709-729
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• 2004

This paper presents numerical and experimental investigations on damage detection of mono-coupled multistory buildings using natural frequency as only diagnostic parameter. Frequency equation of a mono-coupled multistory building is first derived using the transfer matrix method. Closed-form sensitivity equation is established to relate the relative change in the stiffness of each story to the relative changes in the natural frequencies of the building. Damage detection is then performed using the sensitivity equation with its special features and minimizing the norm of an objective function with an inequality constraint. Numerical and experimental investigations are finally conducted on a mono-coupled 3-story building model as an application of the proposed algorithm, in which the influence of modeling error on the degree of accuracy of damage detection is discussed. A mono-coupled 10-story building is further used to examine the capability of the proposed algorithm against measurement noise and incomplete measured natural frequencies. The results obtained demonstrate that changes in story stiffness can be satisfactorily detected, located, and quantified if all sensitive natural frequencies to damaged stories are available. The proposed damage detection algorithm is not sensitive to measurement noise and modeling error.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.148-154
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• 2010

It is necessary to develop new methods to prevent catastrophic failure of structural material in order to avoid accidents and conserve natural and energy resources. Design of intelligent materials with a self-diagnosing function to prevent fatal fracture of structural materials was achieved by smart composites consisting of carbon fiber tows or carbon powders with a small value of ultimate elongation and glass fiber tows with a large value of ultimate elongation. The changes in electrical resistance of CF-GFRP/GFRP (carbon fiber and glass fiber-reinforced plastics/glass fiber-reinforced plastics) composites increased abruptly with increasing strain, and a tremendous change was seen at the transition point where carbon fiber tows were broken. Therefore, the composites were not to monitor damage from the early stage. On the other hand, the change in electrical resistance of CP-GFRP/GFRP (carbon powder dispersed in glass fiber-reinforced plastics/glass fiber-reinforced plastics) composites increased almost linearly in proportion to strain. CP-GFRP/GFRP composites are superior to CF-GFRP/GFRP composites in terms of their capability to monitor damage by measuring change in electrical resistance from the early stage of damage. However, the former was inferior to the latter as an application because of the difficulties of mass production and high cost. A method based on monitoring damage by measuring changes in the electrical resistance of structural materials is promising for improved reliability of the material.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.24 no.11
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• pp.840-845
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• 2014

Vibration profiles consist of two kinds of pattern, random and harmonic, at general engineering problems and the detailed vibration test mode of a target system is decided by the spectral condition that is exposed under operation. In moving mobility, random responses come generally from road source; whereas the harmonic responses are triggered from rotating machinery parts, such as combustion engine or drive shaft. Different spectral input may accumulate different damage in frequency domain since the accumulated fatigue damage dependent on the pattern of input spectrum in high cyclic loading condition. To evaluate the sensitivity of spectral damage according to different loading conditions, a linear elastic system is introduced to conduct a uniaxial vibration testing. Measured data, acceleration and strain, is analyzed using energy isocline function and then, the calculated fatigue damage is compared by different loading cases, random and harmonic.