• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.66-72
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• 2024

Background: This study examines the relationship between functional disability and work ability in workers affected by low back pain (LBP) through an analysis of correlations between the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and Work Ability Index (WAI). The role of personal and work factors on functional disability/work ability levels has also been studied. LBP is the most common musculoskeletal problem and a major disabling health problem worldwide. Its etiology is multifactorial. Multidisciplinary approaches may help reduce the burden of pain and disability and improve job continuity and reintegration at work. Methods: A cohort of 264 patients affected by LBP from an Italian outpatient clinic were included in a clinical diagnostic/therapeutic trial aiming at rehabilitation and return to work through an integrated investigation protocol. Data were collected during the first medical examination using anamnestic and clinical tools. The final sample is composed of 252 patients, 57.1% man, 44.0 % blue collars, 46.4% with the high school degree, 45.6% married. Results: WAI and ODI reported a negative and fair correlation (r = -0.454; p = .000). Workers with acute LBP symptoms have a higher probability of severe disability than those with chronic LBP symptoms. White collars without depressive symptoms reported higher work ability - even in chronic disability conditions-than those with depressive symptoms. Conclusion: The study found that ODI and WAI have a convergent validity and this suggests that the two tools measure capture distinctive aspects of disability related to personal, environmental, and occupational characteristics. The most important and modifiable prognostic factors found for ODI and WAI were depressive symptoms, workday absence, and intensity of back pain. The study also found a mild association between age and ODI. The study's findings highlight the importance of using a multidisciplinary approach to manage and prevent disability due to LBP.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.39-58
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• 2024

Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM) use multiple disc cutters to excavate tunnels through rock. These cutters wear out due to continuous contact and friction with the rock, leading to decreased cutting efficiency and reduced excavation performance. The rock's abrasivity significantly affects cutter wear, with highly abrasive rocks causing more wear and reducing the cutter's lifespan. The Cerchar Abrasivity Index (CAI) is a key indicator for assessing rock abrasivity, essential for predicting disc cutter life and performance. This study aims to develop a new method for effectively estimating CAI using rock strength, petrological characteristics, linear regression, and machine learning. A database including CAI, uniaxial compressive strength, Brazilian tensile strength, and equivalent quartz content was created, with additional derived variables. Variables for multiple linear regression were selected considering statistical significance and multicollinearity, while machine learning model inputs were chosen based on variable importance. Among the machine learning prediction models, the Gradient Boosting model showed the highest predictive performance. Finally, the predictive performance of the multiple linear regression analysis and the Gradient Boosting model derived in this study were compared with the CAI prediction models of previous studies to validate the results of this research.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.155-164
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• 2015

In Kang (2015) we calculated the acceleration of cosmic-ray electrons at weak spherical shocks that are expected to form in the cluster outskirts, and estimated the diffuse synchrotron radiation emitted by those electrons. There we demonstrated that, at decelerating spherical shocks, the volume integrated spectra of both electrons and radiation deviate significantly from the test-particle power-laws predicted for constant planar shocks, because the shock compression ratio and the flux of inject electrons decrease in time. In this study, we consider spherical blast waves propagating through a constant density core surrounded by an isothermal halo with ρ ∝ r⁻ⁿ in order to explore how the deceleration of the shock affects the radio emission from accelerated electrons. The surface brightness profile and the volumeintegrated radio spectrum of the model shocks are calculated by assuming a ribbon-like shock surface on a spherical shell and the associated downstream region of relativistic electrons. If the postshock magnetic field strength is about 0.7 or 7 µG, at the shock age of ∼ 50 Myr, the volume-integrated radio spectrum steepens gradually with the spectral index from α_inj to α_inj + 0.5 over 0.1–10 GHz, where α_inj is the injection index at the shock position expected from the diffusive shock acceleration theory. Such gradual steepening could explain the curved radio spectrum of the radio relic in cluster A2266, which was interpreted as a broken power-law by Trasatti et al. (2015), if the relic shock is young enough so that the break frequency is around 1 GHz.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.618-624
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• 2013

Hydroquinone bis(trimellitic anhydride) (HQ-TA) was synthesized from trimellitic anhydride chloride and hydroquinone. Poly(amic acid)s (PAAs) were synthesized by reacting a HQ-TA with six different diamines, which were cyclized to yield polyimides (PIs) containing ester linkages by chemical- and thermal-imidization methods. The various PIs were synthesized from structurally different aromatic diamines. The glass transition temperatures ($T_g$) were in the range of 167-$215^{\circ}C$, and the decomposition temperatures (${T_D}^i$) were in the range of $364-451^{\circ}C$. The maximum improvements in coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and barrier to oxygen permeation were observed in PIs using TFB (3.23 $ppm/^{\circ}C$) and 4,4-ODA (< $10^{-2}cc/m^2/day$), respectively. The PI films possessed a transmittance of 65-89% at 500 nm and had a yellowish color with a yellow index (YI) of 3.01-69.52.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.11 no.9
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• pp.777-781
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• 2001

This paper presents an image contrast enhancement technique for improving the low contrast images using the improved IAFC(Integrated Adaptive Fuzzy Clustering) model. The low pictorial information of a low contrast image is due to the vagueness or fuzziness of the multivalued levels of brightness rather than randomness. Fuzzy image processing has three main stages, namely, image fuzzification, modification of membership values, and image defuzzification. Using a new model of automatic crossover point selection, optimal crossover point is selected automatically. The problem of crossover point selection can be considered as the two-category classification problem. The improved IAFC model is used to classify the image into two classes. The proposed method is applied to several experimental images with 256 gray levels and the results are compared with those of the histogram equalization technique. We utilized the index of fuzziness as a measure of image quality. The results show that the proposed method is better than the histogram equalization technique.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.93-102
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to find out how to measure the stress related to accidents at the construction site promptly and conveniently to prevent safety accidents of construction workers. Accordingly, we analyzed the correlations between the questionnaire tool index that measures the stress associated with complex psychology of humans by integrating emotion, cognition, physical and behavioral responses, and basic brain waves, SEF-90, concentration, stress index from brain wave. As a result, which had the highest correlation with the stress measured through the questionnaire, was the SEF-90, and the regression analysis between two independent variables yielded a specific regression equation. This suggests the possibility of measuring the integrated stress of construction workers through the EEG signal at the construction site, and it can be used for the safety management of the construction site in the future.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.38 no.12
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• pp.1017-1026
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• 2014

A multi-perforated tube is generally installed between the muffler inlet and in front of selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalysts in the integrated urea-SCR muffler system in order to disperse the urea-water solution spray uniformly and to make better use of the SCR catalyst, which would result in an increase nitrogen oxide ($NO_x$) reduction efficiency and a decrease in the ammonia slip. The effects of the multi-perforated tube orifice area ratios on the internal flow characteristics were investigated analytically by using a general-purpose commercial software package. From the results, it was clarified that the multi-perforated tube geometry sensitively affected the generation of the bulk swirling motion inside the plenum chamber set in front of the SCR catalyst and to the uniformity index of the velocity distribution produced at the inlet of the catalyst. To verify the analytical results, engine tests were carried out in the ESC and ETC modes. Results of these tests indicated that the larger flow model in the longitudinal direction showed the highest NOx reduction efficiency, which was a good agreement with the analytical results.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2019

River water quality and organisms have a very close relationship with the human living environment and health, so it is very important to ensure and maintain the ecological integrity of the aquatic ecosystem. In that sense, benthic diatoms have relatively little mobility, can explain the effects of long-term exposed pollution sources, and are very suitable indicator organisms for river ecosystem evaluation. Diatom ecologists have been developed various diatom indices to assess water quality and stream ecosystem over the world. However, they so far have insufficient identification of taxa, are strongly regional, and are difficult to apply as they are domestically. Unfortunately, there has not been developed an independent diatom index suitable for the Korean stream. Therefore, management of water quality and aquatic ecosystem suitable for domestic rivers can be made, and development or improvement of comprehensive multivariate diatom index for the integrated assessment of water quality and aquatic ecosystem is urgently needed.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2022

Fusarium culmorum is one of the most important causal agents of root rot of wheat. In this study, 10 F. culmorum isolates were collected from farms located in five agro-ecological regions of Morocco. These were used to challenge 20 durum wheat genotypes via artificial inoculation of plant roots under controlled conditions. The isolate virulence was determined by three traits (roots browning index, stem browning index, and severity of root rot). An alpha-lattice design with three replicates was used, and the resulting ANOVA revealed a significant (P < 0.01) effect of isolate (I), genotype (G), and G × I interaction. A total of four response types were observed (R, MR, MS, and S) revealing that different genes in both the pathogen and the host were activated in 53% of interactions. Most genotypes were susceptible to eight or more isolates, while the Moroccan cultivar Marouan was reported resistant to three isolates and moderately resistant to three others. Similarly, the Australian breeding line SSD1479-117 was reported resistant to two isolates and moderately resistant to four others. The ICARDA elites Icaverve, Berghisyr, Berghisyr2, Amina, and Icaverve2 were identified as moderately resistant. Principal component analysis based on the genotypes responses defined two major clusters and two sub-clusters for the 10 F. culmorum isolates. Isolate Fc9 collected in Khemis Zemamra was the most virulent while isolate Fc3 collected in Haj-Kaddour was the least virulent. This work provides initial results for the discovery of differential reactions between the durum lines and isolates and the identification of novel sources of resistance.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.27-43
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• 2023

The maritime industry is playing an increasingly vital part in global economic expansion. Specifically, the Baltic Dry Index is highly correlated with global commodity prices. Hence, the importance of BDI prediction research increases. But, since the global situation has become more volatile, it has become methodologically more difficult to predict the BDI accurately. This paper proposes an integrated machine-learning strategy for accurately forecasting BDI trends. This study combines the benefits of a convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term memory neural network (LSTM) for research on prediction. We collected daily BDI data for over 27 years for model fitting. The research findings indicate that CNN successfully extracts BDI data features. On this basis, LSTM predicts BDI accurately. Model R2 attains 94.7 percent. Our research offers a novel, machine-learning-integrated approach to the field of shipping economic indicators research. In addition, this study provides a foundation for risk management decision-making in the fields of shipping institutions and financial investment.