• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.58 no.5
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• pp.81-90
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• 2016

Due to droughts and water shortages causing severe damage to crops and other vegetations, much attention has been given to efficient irrigation for upland farming. However, little information has been known to measure soil moisture levels in a field scale and apply their spatial variability for proper irrigation scheduling. This study aimed to characterize the spatial variability and temporal stability of soil water contents at depths of 10 cm, 20 cm and 30 cm on flat (loamy soil) and hill-slope fields (silt-loamy soil). Field monitoring of soil moisture contents was used for variogram analysis using GS+ software. Kriging produced from the structural parameters of variogram was applied for the means of spatial prediction. The overall results showed that the surface soil moisture presented a strong spatial dependence at the sampling time and space in the field scale. The coefficient variation (CV) of soil moisture was within 7.0~31.3 % in a flat field and 8.3~39.4 % in a hill-slope field, which was noticeable in the dry season rather than the rainy season. The drought assessment analysis showed that only one day (Dec. 21st) was determined as dry (20.4 % and 24.5 % for flat and hill-slope fields, respectively). In contrary to a hill-slope field where the full irrigation was necessary, the centralized irrigation scheme was appeared to be more effective for a flat field based on the spatial variability of soil moisture contents. The findings of this study clearly showed that the geostatistical analysis of soil moisture contents greatly contributes to proper irrigation scheduling for water-efficient irrigation with maximal crop productivity and environmental benefits.

• International Journal of Railway
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.33-44
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• 2013

In recent years, energy consumption in the transportation sector by expanding motorization continues to increase in almost every country in the world. Moreover, the growth rate of the transportation energy consumption is significantly higher than those of the civilian and industrial sectors. Therefore, every country strives to reduce its dependence on private transport, which is the main contributor to the transportation energy consumption. In many countries, concepts such as Transit Oriented Development (TOD) or New Urbanism, which controls road traffic by increasing the proportion of the public transportation significantly, have been implemented to encourage a modal shift to public transport. However, the level of change required for eliminating environmental problems is a challenging task. Minimizing transportation energy consumption by controlling the increase of the traffic demand and maintaining the level of urban mobility simultaneously is a pressing dilemma for each city. Grasping the impact of the diversity of the urban transport and infrastructure is very important to improve transportation energy efficiency. However, the potential for reducing urban transportation energy consumption has often been ineffectively demonstrated by the diversity of cities. Therefore, the accuracy of evaluating the current efficiency rate of the urban energy consumption is necessary. Nevertheless, quantitative analyses related to the efficiency of transportation energy consumption are scarce, and the research on the current condition of consumption efficiency based on international quantitative analysis is almost nonexistent. On the basis of this background problem definitions, this research first built a database of the transportation energy consumption of private modes in 119 cities, with an attempt to reflect individual travel behaviors calculated by Person Trip data. Subsequently, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used as an assessment method to evaluate the efficiency of transportation energy consumption by considering the diversity of the urban traffic features in the world cities. Finally, we clarified the current condition of consumption efficiency by attempting to propose a target values for improving transportation energy consumption.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.116-122
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• 2014

This study proposes a system reliability analysis of rack storage facilities subjected to forklift colliding events. The proposed system reliability analysis consists of two steps: the first step is to identify dominant failure modes that most contribute to the failure of the whole rack facilities, and the second step is to evaluate the system failure probability. In the first step, dominant failure modes are identified by using a simulation-based selective searching technique where the contribution of a failure mode to the system failure is roughly estimated based on the distance from the origin in the space of the random variables. In the second step, the multi-scale system reliability method is used to compute the system reliability where the first-order reliability method (FORM) is initially used to evaluate the component failure probability (failure probability of one member), and then the probabilities of the identified failure modes and their statistical dependence are evaluated, which is called as the lower-scale reliability analysis. Since the system failure probability is comprised of the probabilities of the failure modes, a higher-scale reliability analysis is performed again based on the results of the lower-scale analyses, and the system failure probability is finally evaluated. The illustrative example demonstrates the results of the system reliability analysis of the rack storage facilities subjected to forklift impact loadings. The numerical efficiency and accuracy of the approach are compared with the Monte Carlo simulations. The results show that the proposed two-step approach is able to provide accurate reliability assessment as well as significant saving of computational time. The results of the identified failure modes additionally let us know the most-critical members and their failure sequence under the complicated configuration of the member connections.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.223.1-223.1
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• 2013

Since sapphire single crystal is one of the materials that have excellent mechanical and optical properties, the single crystal is widely used in various fields, and the demand for the use of substrate of LED devices is increasing rapidly. However, crystal defects such as dislocations and stacking faults worsen the properties of the single crystal intensely. When sapphire wafer of single crystal is used as LED substrate, especially, crystal defects have a strong influence on the characteristics of a film deposited on the wafer. In such a case quantitative assessment of the defects is essential, and the evaluation technique is now becoming one of the most important factors in commercialization of sapphire wafer. Wet etching is comparatively easy and accurate method to estimate dislocation density of single crystal because etching reaction primarily takes place where dislocations reached crystal surface which are chemically weak points, and produces etch pit. In the present study, the formation behavior of etch pits and etching time dependence were studied systematically. Etch pit density(EPD) analysis using optical microscope was also conducted and measurement uncertainty of EPD was studied to confirm the reliability of the results. EPDs and measurement uncertainties for 4 inch sapphire wafers were analyzed in terms of 5 and 21 points EPD readings. EPDs and measurement uncertainties in terms of 5 points readings for 4 inch wafers were compared by 2 organizations. We found that the average EPD value in terms of 5 points readings for a 4 inch sapphire wafer may represent the EPD value of the wafer.

• Laboraroty Animal Research
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.185-194
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• 2018

The different polymorphisms of the transcription factor 7-like 2 (TCF7L2) gene promote variances in diabetes susceptibility in humans. We investigated whether these genotypes also promote differences in diabetic susceptibility in commercial pigs. Growing pigs (Landrace, both sex, 50-60 kg) with the C/C (n=4) and T/T (n=5) TCF7L2 genotypes were identified and intravenously injected with streptozotocin (STZ, 40 mg/kg) twice in weekly intervals, then a high-energy diet was offered. Oral glucose tolerance tests, blood analyses and the homeostasis model assessment-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) index calculations were performed. The animals were sacrificed at the end of 12 weeks of treatment to reveal the pancreas histomorphometry. The results showed that all of the treated pigs grew normally despite exhibiting hyperglycemia at two weeks after the induction. The glycemic level of the fasting or postprandial pigs gradually returned to normal. The fasting insulin concentration was significantly decreased for the T/T carriers but not for the C/C carriers, and the resulting HOMA-IR index was significantly increased for the C/C genotype, indicating that the models of insulin dependence and resistance were respectively developed by T/T and C/C carriers. The histopathological results illustrated a significant reduction in the pancreas mass and insulin active sites, which suggested increased damage. The results obtained here could not be compared with previous studies because the TCF7L2 background has not been reported. Growing pigs may be an excellent model for diabetic in children if the animals are genetically pre-selected.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.596-605
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• 2022

This study aimed to introduce research on coerced debt victimization and interventions in the context of domestic violence. To achieve the aim, this study reviewed existing studies on coerced debt conducted in the US. This study discussed the followings: First, coerced debt was theorized by coerced control theory of domestic violence and control mechanisms of economic abuse and conceptualized as fraud and force. Second, the effects of coerced debt included credit damage, economic dependence, and barriers to housing, employment, and safety. Third, to intervene the victimization, service providers should endure uncertainty and its time consuming process of recovering, provide an intense and personalized advocacy, and overcome the problems of absence of policies to support the victims. Finally, service providers should have educations and training programs on the assessment and intervention skills of coerced debt acknowledging empowerment and safety of the victims as the most important.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.1991-1999
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• 2021

The response changes of the specific growth rate of Lemna minor duckweed was modeled using the logarithms of frond numbers on tritium activity concentration and gamma radiation dose from cobalt 60. The concept of average specific growth rate depends on the general exponential growth pattern, where toxicity is estimated based on the effect on the growth rate. One of the main questions of the effect of the radiation dose on duckweed is how to correlate the effect of beta radiation with the effect of any other radiation for modeling radiation on Lemna minor. Experimental data were extrapolated by utilizing the OECD guidelines. A linear relationship of absorbed dose and activity concentration was obtained for the average dependency growth rate of Lemna minor as D = (0.1257)·A^0.585. The dose rate of gamma irradiation from ⁶⁰Co increases with tritium activity dependence, on the specific growth rate of the Lemna minor duckweed. An increase in the tritium activity causes a decrease in the specific growth rate of the Lemna minor duckweed. It indicates that as the quantity of the beta radiation dose increase in Lemna minor duckweed, a higher quantity of gamma radiation will be required to cause the same effect in the specific growth rate of Lemna minor duckweed. The relation between the inhibition of the Lemna minor seedling growth and gamma and beta radiation dosage agrees roughly with that between the decrease of survival rate or fertility and dosage.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.32-40
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• 2023

Background: Equating is a statistical procedure used to create a common measurement scale across two instruments. Item-level information should be taken into consideration so that scores can communicate interchangeably across the instruments. Objects: To investigate a common measurement scale across two health-related quality of life questionnaires (HRQOL) applied to various cancer survivors who underwent palliative care in healthcare institutions. Methods: A total of 139 cancer survivors who underwent palliative care were recruited from two rehabilitation hospitals and an oriental medicine hospital. Participants consisted of various cancer survivors who presented to the sites for palliative care. They were asked to fill out Korean versions of the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) and EuroQOL-5 dimension (EQ-5D) questionnaires following the palliative care. For the item level comparison, the Rasch rating scale model was used to investigate how participants regarded individual test items of two instruments in relation to item difficulty calibrations. Results: All items except the three items fit the Rasch model. One item (anxiety/depression) of the EQ-5D and two items (dependence on medical aids and negative feelings) of the WHOQOL-BREF are misfit. The WHOQOL-BREF targets the survivors well, while the EQ-5D is able to target the survivors with lower HRQOL levels with some ceiling effects. By inspecting the item difficulty calibrations of the two instruments, five items of the WHOQOL-BREF are selected as common items in relation to the EQ-5D. These five items are considered compatible with each other. Differential item functioning (DIF) analysis reveals that the healthcare item of the WHOQOL-BREF vs the self-care item of the EQ-5D exhibits significant DIF. Conclusion: Findings suggest that one paired item should be taken into consideration when equating the WHOQOL-BREF and the EQ-5D applied to cancer survivors who underwent palliative care.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.249-255
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• 2007

Objectives : The aim of this prospective study is to investigate predictors estimating relapse in Korean alcohol-dependent patients using variables like alcohol history, drinking craving, treatment motivation and insight. Methods : Alcohol dependent patients(N=48) who completed questionnaires about sociodemographic variables and drinking history, Timeline Follow-Back(TLFB), Obsessive-Compulsive Drinking Scale(OCSD), Alcohol Urge Questionnaire(AUQ), Pennsylvania Alcohol Craving Scale(PACS), University of Rhode Island Change Assessment(URICA), Hanil Alcohol Insight Scale(HAIS) were followed-up for 24weeks. Subjects who drank heavily(5 standard drinking or more/day) or were not followed up anymore were classified as the relapse group. We used logistic regression analysis with backward elimination of SPSS PC+11.5 to investigate relapse estimate predictors. Results : Average drinking amount per drinking day for last 1 year and HAIS score were predictors of relapse in alcohol-dependent patients. Conclusions : Our findings suggest that therapist should give more attention to alcohol-dependent patients who had more drinks per drinking day for last 1 year and had lower insight level.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.129-136
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• 2020

In this study, we develop a sampling-based seismic probabilistic risk assessment (SPRA) quantification technique that can accurately consider a partially dependent condition of component seismic fragility information. Specifically, the SPRA quantification method is proposed by combining the advantages of two representative methodologies: EPRI seismic fragility and JAERI seismic fragility input-based quantification. The most important feature of the proposed method is that it performs a SPRA using a sampling technique by transforming the EPRI seismic fragility input into JAERI seismic fragility input. When the proposed sampling-based approach was applied to an example of simple system and to a SPRA problem of a nuclear power plant, it was observed that the proposed method yields approximately similar system seismic fragility and seismic risk results as those of the exact solution. Therefore, it is believed that the approach proposed in this study can be used as a useful tool for accurately assessing seismic risks, considering the partial seismic dependence among the components; the existing SPRA method cannot handle such partial dependencies.