• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.1672-1677
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• 2008

IscR (iron-sulfur cluster regulator) has been reported to be a repressor of the iscRSUA operon, and in vitro transcription reactions have revealed that IscR has a repressive effect on the iscR promoter in the case of [$Fe_{2}S_{2}$] cluster loading. In the present study, the iscR gene from A. ferrooxidans ATCC 23270 was cloned and successfully expressed in Escherichia coli, and then purified by one-step affinity chromatography to homogeneity. The molecular mass of the IscR was 18 kDa by SDS-PAGE. The optical and EPR spectra results for the recombinant IscR confirmed that an iron-sulfur cluster was correctly inserted into the active site of the protein. However, no [$Fe_{2}S_{2}$] cluster was assembled in apoIscR with ferrous iron and sulfide in vitro. Therefore, the [$Fe_{2}S_{2}$] cluster assembly in IscR in vivo would appear to require scaffold proteins and follow the Isc "AUS" pathway.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.399-406
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• 2009

A three-dimensional panel system, which was offered as a new method for construction in Jordan using relatively high strength modular panels for walls and ceilings, is investigated in this paper. The panel consists of two steel meshes on both sides of an expanded polystyrene core and connected together with a truss wire to provide a 3D system. The top face of the ceiling panel was pored with regular concrete mix, while the bottom face and both faces of the wall panels were cast by shotcreting (dry process). To investigate the structural performance of this system, an extensive experimental testing program for ceiling and wall panels subjected to static and dynamic loadings was conducted. The load-deflection curves were obtained for beam and shear wall elements and wall elements under transverse and axial loads, respectively. Static and dynamic analyses were conducted, and the performance of the proposed structural system was evaluated and compared with a typical three dimensional reinforced concrete frame system for buildings of the same floor areas and number of floors. Compressive strength capacity of a ceiling panel is determined for gravity loads, while flexural capacity is determined under the effect of wind and seismic loading. It was found that, the strength and serviceability requirements could be easily satisfied for buildings constructed using the three-dimensional panel system. The 3D panel system is superior to that of conventional frame system in its dynamic performance, due to its high stiffness to mass ratio.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.95-104
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• 1997

The objectives of this study are to investigate the effect of media on the removal efficiency of nitrate-nitrogen and the biofilm thickness in the fluidized bed biofilm reactor(FBBR) used for the high rate denitrification of nitric acid wastewater. Granular activated carbon(GAC) of 1.274 mm diameter and sand of 0.455 mm diameter were used as the media in the FBBR of 0.05 m diameter and 1.5 m height. As the nitrate-nitrogen concentration of the influent was increased stepwise from 600 to 4800 mg/l, the nitrate- and nitrite-nitrogen concentration of the effluent, biofilm thickness and biofilm dry density were measured to study the effects of media on the denitrification efficiency. The biofilm thickness increased with the substrate loading rate, and the biofilm dry density decreased with the increase of the biofilm thickness. At the influent nitrate-nitrogen concentration of 2400 mg/l, the removal efficiency in the FBBR with GAC was 88%, while that in the FBBR with sand was 99.6%. The biofilm in the FBBR with GAC was so thick, 754.9 $\mu$m, as to increase the mass transfer resistance, compared to that, 143.7 $\mu$m, in the FBBR with sand. The maximum specific denitrification rate in the FBBR with GAC was 15.0 kg-N/m$^3\cdot$ day, while that in the FBBR with sand was 18.0 kg-N/m$^3\cdot$ day. The biomass concentration in the FBBR with sand exhibited the high value 37 kg/m$^3$.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.320-325
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• 2013

TUnitized reversible fuel cells (URFC) combine the functionality of a fuel cell and electrolyzer in one unitized device. For a URFC with proton exchange membrane, a titanium (Ti)-felt is applied to the gas diffusion layer (GDL) substrate at the oxygen electrode, and additionally titanium (Ti)-powders and TiN-powders are loaded in the GDL substrate as a micro porous layer (MPL). Double porous layer with TiN MPL was not acceptable for the URFC because both of fuel cell performance and electrolysis performance are degraded. The double porous layer with Ti-powder loading in the Ti-felt substrate influence rearly for the electrolysis performance. In contrast, the change of pore-size distribution brings a significant improvement of fuel cell performance under fully humidification conditions. This fact indicates that the hydrophobic meso-pores in the GDL play an important role for mass transport.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.29 no.12 s.243
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• pp.1335-1343
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• 2005

The calibration technique of Time Resolved Laser Induced Incandescence was investigated both experimentally and numerically by using standard-sized carbon black particles for the instantaneous soot measurement at exhaust tail pipe in engine. The carbon black particles (19nm, 25nm, 45nm and 58nm) used in this study are similar, though not identical, to soot particle generated from flame not only in morphology but also in micro-structure. The amount of soot loading in flow was controled by a diluted gas (nitrogen) and was measured by the gravimetric method at exhaust pipe in calibrator. The successful calibrations of primary particle size and soot mass fraction were carried out at the range from 19nm to 58nm and from $0.25mg/m^3$ to $37mg/m^3$ respectively. And based on these results the numerical simulation of LII signal was tuned and the effect of an exhaust temperature variation on the decay rate of LII signal was corrected.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.328-334
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• 2003

Evaluating stability of dam foundations is one of the prime areas of any rock engineering investigations. Despite best engineering efforts in the design and construction of dam foundations, the foundation regime of a constructed dam suffers deterioration due to continuous erosion from backwater current of dam discharge and dynamic effects of loading and unloading process. Even during construction, development of frequent cracks due to sudden thermal cooling of concrete blocks is not uncommon. This paper presents two case studies from India and Bhutan. In the first case, the back current of water discharge from the Srisailam dam in India had continuously eroded the apron and has eaten into the dam foundation. In the second case with dam construction at Tala Hydroelectric Project in Bhutan, sudden overflow of river during the construction stage of dam had led to development of three major cracks across the dam blocks. This was ascribed to adiabatic cooling effect of concrete blocks overlain by chilled water flow. Non-destructive evaluation of rock mass condition in the defect regime by the borehole GPR survey helped in arriving at the crux so as to formulate appropriate restoration plan.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.27 no.B
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• pp.83-89
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• 2007

We studied runoff characteristics of combined sewer overflows in a city while it was raining. The event mean concentration (EMC) of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand ($COD_{Cr}$), suspended solids (SS), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) in one of the combined sewer sites in Chuncheon was 63.5-211.6 mg/L, 114.9-523.8 mg/L, 70.3-436.4 mg/L, 6.4-33.0 mg/L, and 1.09-6.81 mg/L, respectively. In another combined sewer, the EMC of BOD, COD, SS, TN, and TP was 42.1-131.4 mg/L, 107.7-256.5 mg/L, 33.7-221.1 mg/L, 7.9-26.4 mg/L, and 1.16-3.91 mg/L, respectively. The ratio of the cumulative pollutant mass and the cumulative discharged volume determined using all parameters (BOD, $COD_{Cr}$, SS, TN, and TP) was over 1.0, which shows the first flush effect. Relationships between flow and loadings of BOD, $COD_{Cr}$, SS, TN, and TP were 0.90, 0.89, 0.88, 0.89, 0.92, respectively. Although the size of two areas was almost same, pollutant concentration and loading were different because of the amount of rainfall, rainfall intensity and basin area.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.255-270
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• 2014

Impact performance of high-performance concrete (HPC) and SFRC at 28-day and 56-day under the action of repeated dynamic loading was studied. Silica fume replacement at 10% and 15% by mass and crimped steel fiber ($V_f$ = 0.5%- 1.5%) with aspect ratios of 80 and 53 were used in the concrete mixes. Results indicated that addition of fibers in HPC can effectively restrain the initiation and propagation of cracks under stress, and enhance the impact strengths and toughness of HPC. Variation of fiber aspect ratio has minor effect on improvement in impact strength. Based on the experimental data, failure resistance prediction models were developed with correlation coefficient (R) = 0.96 and the estimated absolute variation is 1.82% and on validation, the integral absolute error (IAE) determined is 10.49%. On analyzing the data collected, linear relationship for the prediction of failure resistance with R= 0.99 was obtained. IAE value of 10.26% for the model indicates better the reliability of model. Multiple linear regression model was developed to predict the ultimate failure resistance with multiple R= 0.96 and absolute variation obtained is 4.9%.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.477-487
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• 2019

Understanding the behavior of skew bridges under the action of earthquakes is quite challenging due to the combined transverse and longitudinal responses even under unidirectional hit. The main goal of this research is to assess the response of skew bridges when subjected to longitudinal and transversal earthquake loading. The effect of skew on the response considering two- and three- span bridges with skew angles varying from 0 to 60 degrees is illustrated. Various pier fixities (and hence stiffness) and cross-section shapes, as well as different abutment's bearing articulations, are also studied. Finite-element models are established for modal and seismic analyses. Around 900 models are analyzed under the action of the code design response spectrum. $Vis-{\grave{a}}-vis$ modal properties, the higher the skew angle, the less the fundamental period. In addition, it is found that bridges with skew angles less than 30 degrees can be treated as straight bridges for the purpose of calculating modal mass participation factors. Other monitored results are bearings' reactions at abutments, shear and torsion demand in piers, as well as deck longitudinal displacement. Unlike straight bridges, it has been typically noted that skew bridges experience non-negligible torsion and bi-directional pier base shears. In a complementary effort to assess the accuracy of the conducted response spectrum analysis, a series of time-history analyses are applied under seven actual earthquake records scaled to match the code design response spectrum and critical comparisons are performed.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.127-140
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• 2006

In this study, a wavelet-based covariance-driven system identification technique is proposed for damage assessment of structures under ambient excitation. Assuming the ambient excitation to be a white-noise process, the covariance computation is shown to be able to separate the effect of random excitation from the response measurement. Wavelet transform (WT) is then used to convert the covariance response in the time domain to the WT magnitude plot in the time-scale plane. The wavelet coefficients along the curves where energy concentrated are extracted and used to estimate the modal properties of the structure. These modal property estimations lead to the calculation of the stiffness matrix when either the spectral density of the random loading or the mass matrix is given. The predicted stiffness matrix hence provides a direct assessment on the possible location and severity of damage which results in stiffness alteration. To demonstrate the proposed wavelet-based damage assessment technique, a numerical example on a 3 degree-of-freedom (DOF) system and an experimental study on a three-story building model, which are all under a broad-band excitation, are presented. Both numerical and experimental results illustrate that the proposed technique can provide an accurate assessment on the damage location. It is however noted that the assessment of damage severity is not as accurate, which might be due to the errors associated with the mode shape estimations as well as the assumption of proportional damping adopted in the formulation.