• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.206-211
• /
• 2017

Background: Self-reported low back pain (LBP) has been evaluated in relation to material handling lifting tasks, but little research has focused on relating quantifiable stressors to LBP at the individual level. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Composite Lifting Index (CLI) has been used to quantify stressors for lifting tasks. A chemical exposure can be readily used as an exposure metric or stressor for chemical risk assessment (RA). Defining and quantifying lifting nonchemical stressors and related adverse responses is more difficult. Stressor-response models appropriate for CLI and LBP associations do not easily fit in common chemical RA modeling techniques (e.g., Benchmark Dose methods), so different approaches were tried. Methods: This work used prospective data from 138 manufacturing workers to consider the linkage of the occupational stressor of material lifting to LBP. The final model used a Bayesian random threshold approach to estimate the probability of an increase in LBP as a threshold step function. Results: Using maximal and mean CLI values, a significant increase in the probability of LBP for values above 1.5 was found. Conclusion: A risk of LBP associated with CLI values > 1.5 existed in this worker population. The relevance for other populations requires further study.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.49 no.2
• /
• pp.327-334
• /
• 2017

Common-cause failure (CCF) events can significantly impact the availability of safety systems of nuclear power plants. For this reason, the International Common Cause Data Exchange (ICDE) project was initiated by several countries in 1994. Since 1997 it has been operated within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)/Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) framework and has successfully been operated over six consecutive terms (the current term being 2015-2017). The ICDE project allows multiple countries to collaborate and exchange CCF data to enhance the quality of risk analyses, which include CCF modeling. As CCF events are typically rare, most countries do not experience enough CCF events to perform meaningful analyses. Data combined from several countries, however, have yielded sufficient data for more rigorous analyses. The ICDE project has meanwhile published 11 reports on the collection and analysis of CCF events of specific component types (centrifugal pumps, emergency diesel generators, motor operated valves, safety and relief valves, check valves, circuit breakers, level measurement, control rod drive assemblies, and heat exchangers) and two topical reports. This paper presents recent activities and lessons learnt from the data collection and the results of topical analysis on emergency diesel generator CCF impacting entire exposed population.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
• /
• 2017.06a
• /
• pp.315-315
• /
• 2017

In Japan, more than 80 % of soybean growing area is converted fields and excess water is one of the major problems in soybean production. For example, recent study (Yoshifuji et al., 2016) suggested that in the fields of shallow groundwater level (GWL) (< 1m depth), rising GWL even in a short period (e.g. 1 day) causes inhibition of soybean growth. Thus it becomes more and more important to predict GWL and soil moisture in detail. In addition to conventional surface drainage and underdrain, FOEAS (Farm Oriented Enhancing Aquatic System), which is expected to control GWL in fields adequately, has been developed recently. In this study we attempted to predict GWL and soil moisture condition at the converted field with FOEAS in Biwa lake reclamation area, Shiga prefecture, near the center of the main island of Japan. Two dimensional HYDRUS model (Simuinek et al., 1999) based on common Richards' equation, was used for the calculation of soil water movement. The calculation domain was considered to be 10 and 5 meter in horizontal and vertical direction, respectively, with two layers, i.e. 20cm-thick of plowed layer and underlying subsoil layer. The center of main underdrain (10 cm in diameter) was assumed to be 5 meter from the both ends of the domain and 10-60cm depth from the surface in accordance with the field experiment. The hydraulic parameters of the soil was estimated with the digital soil map in "Soil information web viewer" and Agricultural soil-profile physical properties database, Japan (SolphyJ) (Kato and Nishimura, 2016). Hourly rainfall depth and daily potential evapo-transpiration rate data were given as the upper boundary condition (B.C.). For the bottom B.C., constant upward flux, which meant the inflow flux to the field from outside, was given. Seepage face condition was employed for the surrounding of the underdrain. Initial condition was employed as GWL=60cm. Then we compared the simulated and observed results of volumetric water content at depth of 15cm and GWL. While the model described the variation of GWL well, it tended to overestimate the soil moisture through the growing period. Judging from the field condition, and observed data of soil moisture and GWL, consideration of soil structure (e.g. cracks and clods) in determination of soil hydraulic parameters at the plowed layer may improve the simulation results of soil moisture.

• Proceedings of the Technology Innovation Conference
• /
• 1999.12a
• /
• pp.216-239
• /
• 1999

Korean government has planned a large scale multidepartment-participated national R&D program to advance and improve her science and technology and the quality of life In the level of advanced(especially G-7) countries in the forthcoming 21st century. It is called as "Highly Advanced National projects" or "G7 projects", which was initiated in 1991 with 18 sub-programs to date. It has planned to be continued until 2001 with its total fund of 4, 591 billion Won, comprised of 2, 033 billion Won from the public sector and 2, 558 billion Won from the private sector. Evaluation activities, the country has carried out to date, for national R&D programs including HAN projects are focused mainly on the assessment of scientific and technological results to decide that a specific program should be continued, terminated, or modified. Thus, it is necessary for national R&D programs to be evaluated socioeconomically for the purpose of assessing the nationwide economic and social impact from the program. Socioeconomic evaluation would be told how and where the program contributed to the society, and what the socioeconomic impacts are resulted from the program. It would be useful for the means of (ⅰ) fulfillment of public accountability to legitimate the program and to reveal the expenditure of pubic fund, and (ⅱ) managemental and strategical learning to give information necessary to improve the making. program and policy decision making, The objectives of the study are to develop the methodology of modeling the socioeconomic evaluation, and build up the practical socioeconomic evaluation model of the HAN projects including scientific and technological effects. Since the HAN projects consists of 18 subprograms, it is difficult In evaluate all the subprograms simultaneously. Despite, each program is being performed under the category of HAN projects, so the common socioeconomic issues are existing, The followings are main results of the study. First, the hierarchical structure of the socioeconomic evaluation are constructed; Evaluation Perspective, Evaluation Bounds, and Evaluation Aspect. Second, based on the goals of the HAN projects, the evaluation perspectives are established as (ⅰ) the strengthening of industrial competitiveness, (ⅱ) the enhancement of national scientific and technological capability, (ⅲ) the improvement of quality of life. Third, the evaluation bounds for each evaluation objective are defined to specify the affected area. Finally, the evaluation aspects for each evaluation bounds are formulated containing essential elements describing the evaluation bounds.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.1-7
• /
• 2020

In structures excavated in rock mass, load progressively increases to a level and remains constant during the construction. Rocks display different elastic properties such as E_i and ʋ under different loading conditions and this requires to use the true values of elastic properties for the design of safe structures in rock. Also, rocks will undergo horizontal and vertical deformations depending on the amount of load applied. However, under constant loads, values of E_i and ʋ will vary in time and induce variations in the behavior of the rock mass. In some empirical equations in which deformation modulus of the rock mass is taken into consideration, elastic parameters of intact rock become functions in the equation. Hence, the use of time dependent elastic properties determined under constant loading will yield more reliable results than when only constant elastic properties are used. As well known, rock material will play an important role in the deformation mechanism since the discontinuities will be closed due to the load. In this study, E_i and ʋ values of intact rocks were investigated under different constant loads for certain rocks with high deformation capabilities. The results indicated significant time dependent variations in elastic properties under constant loading conditions. E_i value obtained from deformability test was found to be higher than the E_i value obtained from the constant loading test. This implies that when static values of elastic properties are used, the material is defined as more elastic than the rock material itself. In fact, E_i and ʋ values embedded in empirical equations are not static. Hence, this workattempts to emerge a new understanding in designing of safer structures in rock mass by numerical methods. The use of time-dependent values of E_i and ʋ under different constant loads will yield more accurate results in numerical modeling analysis.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
• /
• v.17 no.5 s.108
• /
• pp.408-415
• /
• 2006

This paper suggests an improved system-level model of RF power amplifiers(PAs) including memory effects, and validates the suggested model by analyzing the power spectral density of the output signal with a predistortion linearizer. The original three-box(Wiener-Hammerstein) model uses input and output filters to capture RF frequency response of PAs. The adjacent spectral regrowth that occurs in three-box model can be perfectly removed by Hammerstein structure predistorter. However, the predistorter based on Hammerstein structure achieves limited performance in real PA applications due to other memory effects except RF frequency response. The spectrum of the output signal can be predicted accurately using the suggested model that changes a memoryless block in a three-box model with a memory polynomial. The proposed model accurately predicts the output spectrum density of PA with Hammerstein structure predistorter with less than 2 dB errors over ${\pm}30$ MHz adjacent channel ranges for IEEE 802.11 g WLAN signal.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.23-31
• /
• 2012

The purpose of this study is to analyze earth pressure acting on a circular shaft-tunnel considering arching effect by centrifuge modeling test on sands. The centrifuge testing method provides a way to model an in-situ stress state condition with a stress gradient within a laboratory specimen. A small-scale model of circular shaft-tunnel, which has a real diameter of 6.0 m and height of 15.0 m, was designed and tested twice under 75g-level. Additionally, an effect of excavation was presented by separating two segments of circular shaft wall to find behavioral properties and strength of earth pressure along with excavating ground. The test results were compared with those of the proposed earth pressure equation. The test results showed that earth pressure decreased by about 70% in comparison with existing two-dimensional earth pressure. This fact might be attributed to three-dimensional arching effects.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.34 no.5
• /
• pp.625-641
• /
• 2020

The realistic modeling of the beam-column semi-rigid connection in steel frames attracted the attention of many researchers in the past for the seismic analysis of semi-rigid frames. Comparatively less studies have been made to investigate the behavior of steel frames with semi-rigid connections under different types of earthquake. Herein, the seismic behavior of semi-rigid steel frames is investigated under both far and near-field earthquakes. The semi-rigid connection is modeled by the multilinear plastic link element consisting of rotational springs. The kinematic hysteresis model is used to define the dynamic behavior of the rotational spring, describing the nonlinearity of the semi-rigid connection as defined in SAP2000. The nonlinear time history analysis (NTHA) is performed to obtain response time histories of the frame under scaled earthquakes at three PGA levels denoting the low, medium and high-level earthquakes. The other important parameters varied are the stiffness and strength parameters of the connections, defining the degree of semi-rigidity. For studying the behavior of the semi-rigid frame, a large number of seismic demand parameters are considered. The benchmark for comparison is taken as those of the corresponding rigid frame. Two different frames, namely, a five-story frame and a ten-story frame are considered as the numerical examples. It is shown that semi-rigid frames prove to be effective and beneficial in resisting the seismic forces for near-field earthquakes (PGA ≈ 0.2g), especially in reducing the base shear to a considerable extent for the moderate level of earthquake. Further, the semi-rigid frame with a relatively weaker beam and less connection stiffness may withstand a moderately strong earthquake without having much damage in the beams.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
• /
• v.40 no.2
• /
• pp.196-202
• /
• 2016

Background: Ginsenoside Rd (GSRd), a main component of the root of Panax ginseng, exhibits anti-inflammation functions and decreases infarct size in many injuries and ischemia diseases such as focal cerebral ischemia. M1 Macrophages are regarded as one of the key inflammatory cells having functions for disease progression. Methods: To investigate the effect of GSRd on renal ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) and macrophage functional status, and their regulatory role on mouse polarized macrophages in vitro, GSRd (10-100 mg/kg) and vehicle were applied to mice 30 min before renal IRI modeling. Renal functions were reflected by blood serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen level and histopathological examination. M1 polarized macrophages infiltration was identified by flow cytometry analysis and immunofluorescence staining with $CD11b^+$, $iNOS^+$/interleukin-12/tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$ labeling. For the in vitro study, GSRd ($10-100{\mu}g/mL$) and vehicle were added in the culture medium of M1 macrophages to assess their regulatory function on polarization phenotype. Results: In vivo data showed a protective role of GSRd at 50 mg/kg on Day 3. Serum level of serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen significantly dropped compared with other groups. Reduced renal tissue damage and M1 macrophage infiltration showed on hematoxylin-eosin staining and flow cytometry and immunofluorescence staining confirmed this improvement. With GSRd administration, in vitro cultured M1 macrophages secreted less inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-12 and tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$. Furthermore, macrophage polarization-related pancake-like morphology gradually changed along with increasing concentration of GSRd in the medium. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that GSRd possess a protective function against renal ischemia/reperfusion injury via downregulating M1 macrophage polarization.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
• /
• 2020.06a
• /
• pp.116-116
• /
• 2020

Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) is a highly mountainous and remote region covering 45% of Upper Indus Basin (UIB) with around 1.8 million population is vulnerable to climate change and socio-economic growth makes water resources management and planning more complex. To understand the water scarcity in the region this study is carried out to project water supply and demand for agricultural and domestic sector under various climate-socio-economic scenarios in five sub catchments of GB i.e., Astore, Gilgit, Hunza, Shigar and Shyok for a period of 2015 to 2050 using Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) model. For climate change scenario ensembled mean of three global climate models (GCMs) was used under three different Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios (RCP2.6, RCP6.0 and RCP8.5). The Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and agricultural Land Development (LD) scenarios were combined with climate scenarios to develop climate-socio-economic scenario. Our results indicate that the climate change and socio-economic growth would create a gap between supply and demand of water in the region, with socio-economic growth (e.g. agricultural and population) as dominant external factor that would reduce food production and increase poverty level in the region. Among five catchments only Astore and Gilgit will face shortfall of water while Shyoke would face shortfall of water only under agricultural growth scenarios. We also observed that the shortfall of water in response to climate-socio-economic scenarios is totally different over two water deficient catchments due to its demography and geography. Finally, to help policy makers in developing regional water resources and management policies we classified five sub catchments of UIB according to its water deficiency level.