• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.146-153
• /
• 2007

A mathematical competition model between normal flora and an invading pathogen was devised to allow analysis of bacterial infections in a host. The normal flora includes the various microorganisms that live on or within the host and act as a primary human immune system. Despite the important role of the normal flora, no mathematical study has been undertaken on models of the interaction between it and invading pathogens against a background of antibiotic treatment. To quantify key elements of bacterial behavior in a host, pairs of nonlinear differential equations were used to describe three categories of human health conditions, namely, healthy, latent infection, and active infection. In addition, a cutoff value was proposed to represent the minimum population level required for survival. The recovery of normal flora after antibiotic treatment was also included in the simulation because of its relation to human health recovery. The significance of each simulation parameter for the bacterial growth model was investigated. The devised simulation showed that bacterial proliferation rate, carrying capacity, initial population levels, and competition intensity have a significant effect on bacterial behavior. Consequently, a model was established to describe competition between normal flora and an infiltrating pathogen. Unlike other population models, the recovery process described by the devised model can describe the human health recovery mechanism.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.25 no.5
• /
• pp.307-318
• /
• 2016

This research examines the impacts of urban population growth on per capita $CO_2$ emissions with particular focus on the interaction effect between urbanization and income levels. Employing the Panel Fixed Effects model together with the Pooled LS and Panel GLS models, the research reported here analyzes the relevant data on 84 countries. The statistical results show a nonlinear(an inverted-U) relationship between urbanization and per capita $CO_2$ emissions; that is, while the urban agglomeration leads to increases in per capita $CO_2$ emissions for low income countries, this adverse impact does not hold true for high income countries. The research findings can contribute to addressing broad issues of urban compactness and patterns of energy consumption that should be considered by those concerned about the sustainable urban development.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.789-830
• /
• 2015

The recent re-assessment of the seismic hazard in Europe led for many regions of low to moderate seismicity to an increase in the seismic demand. As a consequence, several modern unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings, constructed with reinforced concrete (RC) slabs that provide an efficient rigid diaphragm action, no longer satisfy the seismic design check and have been retrofitted by adding or replacing URM walls with RC walls. Of late, also several new construction projects have been conceived directly as buildings with both RC and URM walls. Despite the widespread use of such construction technique, very little is known about the seismic behaviour of mixed RC-URM wall structures and codes do not provide adequate support to designers. The aim of the paper is therefore to propose a displacement-based design methodology for the design of mixed RC-URM edifices and the retrofit of URM buildings by replacing or adding selected URM walls with RC ones. The article describes also two tools developed for estimating important quantities relevant for the displacement-based design of structures with both RC and URM walls. The tools are (i) a mechanical model based on the shear-flexure interaction between URM and RC walls and (ii) an elastic model for estimating the contribution of the RC slabs to the overturning moment capacity of the system. In the last part of the article the proposed design method is verified through nonlinear dynamic analyses of several case studies. These results show that the proposed design approach has the ability of controlling the displacement profile of the designed structures, avoiding concentration of deformations in one single storey, a typical feature of URM wall structures.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
• /
• v.3 no.4
• /
• pp.257-273
• /
• 2013

Top tensioned riser (TTR) is often used in a floating oil/gas production system deployed in deep water for oil/gas transport. This study focuses on the extension of the existing numerical code, known as CABLE3D, to allow for static and dynamic simulation of a TTR connected to a floating structure through a tensioner system or buoyancy can, and restrained by riser guides at different elevations. A tensioner system usually consists of three to six cylindrical tensioners. Although the stiffness of individual tensioner is assumed to be linear, the resultant stiffness of a tensioner system may be nonlinear. The vertical friction between a TTR and the hull at its riser guide is neglected assuming rollers are installed there. Near the water surface, a TTR is forced to move horizontally due to the motion of the upper deck of a floating structure as well as related riser guides. The extended CABLE3D is then integrated into a numerical code, known as COUPLE, for the simulation of the dynamic interaction among the hull of a floating structure, such as spar or TLP, its mooring system and riser system under the impact of wind, current and waves. To demonstrate the application of the extended CABLE3D and its integration with COUPLE, the numerical simulation is made for a truss spar under the impact of Hurricane "Ike". The mooring system of the spar consists of nine mooring lines and the riser system consists of six TTRs and two steel catenary risers (SCRs).

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.8 no.5
• /
• pp.1069-1089
• /
• 2015

This paper presents average numerical results of 2128 nonlinear dynamic finite element (FE) analyses of lightweight acceleration-sensitive non-structural components (NSCs) attached to the floors of one-bay three-storey reinforced concrete (RC) primary structures (P-structures) with different eccentricity ratios. The investigated parameters include the NSC to P-structure vibration period ratio, peak ground acceleration, P-structure eccentricity ratio, and NSC damping ratio. Appropriate constitutive relationships were used to model the behaviour of the RC P-structures. The NSCs were modelled as vertical cantilevers fixed at their bases with masses on the free ends and varying lengths so as to match the vibration periods of the P-structures. Full dynamic interaction was considered between the NSCs and P-structures. A set of seven natural bi-directional ground motions were used to evaluate the seismic response of the NSCs. The numerical results show that the acceleration response of the NSCs depends on the investigated parameters. The accelerations of the NSCs attached to the flexible sides of the P-structures increased with the increase in peak ground acceleration and P-structure eccentricity ratio but decreased with the increase in NSC damping ratio. Comparison between the FE results and Eurocode 8 (EC8) predictions suggests that, under tuned conditions, EC8 provisions underestimate the seismic response of the NSCs mounted on the flexible sides of the plan-irregular RC P-structures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.71-87
• /
• 2014

Interaction between closely-spaced buildings subject to earthquake induced strong ground motions, termed in the literature as "seismic pounding", occurs commonly during major seismic events in contemporary congested urban environments. Seismic pounding is not taken into account by current codes of practice and is rarely considered in practice at the design stage of new buildings constructed "in contact" with existing ones. Thus far, limited research work has been devoted to quantify the influence of slab-to-slab pounding on the inelastic seismic demands at critical locations of structural members in adjacent structures that are not aligned in series. In this respect, this paper considers a typical case study of a "new" reinforced concrete (R/C) EC8-compliant, torsionally sensitive, 7-story corner building constructed within a block, in bi-lateral contact with two existing R/C 5-story structures with same height floors. A non-linear local plasticity numerical model is developed and a series of non-linear time-history analyses is undertaken considering the corner building "in isolation" from the existing ones (no-pounding case), and in combination with the existing ones (pounding case). Numerical results are reported in terms of averages of ratios of peak inelastic rotation demands at all structural elements (beams, columns, shear walls) at each storey. It is shown that seismic pounding reduces on average the inelastic demands of the structural members at the lower floors of the 7-story building. However, the discrepancy in structural response of the entire block due to torsion-induced, bi-directionally seismic pounding is substantial as a result of the complex nonlinear dynamics of the coupled building block system.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.145-155
• /
• 2002

In content-based image retrieval (CBIR), most conventional approaches assume a linear relationship between different features and require users themselves to assign the appropriate weights to each feature. However, the linear relationship assumed between the features is too restricted to accurately represent high-level concepts and the intricacies of human perception. In this paper, a neural network-based image retrieval (NNIR) model is proposed. It has been developed based on a human-computer interaction approach to CBIR using a radial basis function network (RBFN). By using the RBFN, this approach determines the nonlinear relationship between features and it allows the user to select an initial query image and search incrementally the target images via relevance feedback so that more accurate similarity comparison between images can be supported. The experiment was performed to calculate the level of recall and precision based on a database that contains 1,015 images and consists of 145 classes. The experimental results showed that the recall and level of the proposed approach were 93.45% and 80.61% respectively, which is superior than precision the existing approaches such as the linearly combining approach, the rank-based method, and the backpropagation algorithm-based method.

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.440-448
• /
• 2012

Optimal net residual dispersion (NRD) and effective launching power range of optical transmission links with optical phase conjugator (OPC) and dispersion management (DM) for compensating the distorted wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) signals due to interaction of group velocity dispersion (GVD) and optical nonlinear effects. WDM systems considered in this research have optical links with the random distribution of residual dispersion per span (RDPS) in each single mode fiber (SMF) spans of only one half transmission section for designing the adaptive optical transmission system configurations. It is confirmed that optimal NRD is 10 ps/nm and effective launching power range is obtained to be -8~1 dBm under NRD = 10 ps/nm in optical links with total dispersion controlled by precompensation. And, it is also confirmed that optimal NRD is -10 ps/nm and effective launching power range is obtained to be -7.5~1 dBm under NRD = -10 ps/nm in optical links with total dispersion controlled by postcompensation.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.65-69
• /
• 2012

Objectives : Much is still unknown about the neurophysiological mechanisms or dynamics of the sleep onset process. Detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) is a new tool for the analysis of electroencephalography (EEG) that may give us additional information about electrophysiological changes. The purpose of this study is to analyze long-range correlations of electroencephalographic signals by DFA and their changes in the sleep onset process. Methods : Thirty channel EEG was recorded in 61 healthy subjects (male:female=34:27, age=$27.2{\pm}3.0$ years). The scaling exponents, alpha, were calculated by DFA and compared between four kinds of 30s sleep-wakefulness states such as wakefulness, transition period, early sleep, and late sleep (stage 1). These four states were selected by the distribution of alpha and theta waves in O1 and O2 electrodes. Results : The scaling exponents, alpha, were significantly different in the four states during sleep onset periods, and also varied with the thirty leads. The interaction between the sleep states and the leads was significant. The means (${\pm}$ standard deviation) of alphas for the states were 0.94 (${\pm}0.12$), 0.98 (${\pm}0.12$), 1.10 (${\pm}0.10$), 1.07 (${\pm}0.07$) in the wakefulness, transitional period, early sleep and late sleep state respectively. The mean alpha of anterior fifteen leads was greater than that of posterior fifteen leads, and the two regions showed the different pattern of changes of the alpha during the sleep onset periods. Conclusions : The characteristic findings in the sleep onset period were the increasing pattern of scaling exponent of DFA, and the pattern was slightly but significantly different between fronto-temporal and parieto-occipital regions. It suggests that the long-range correlations of EEG have a tendency of increasing from wakefulness to early sleep, but anterior and posterior brain regions have different dynamical process. DFA, one of the nonlinear analytical methods for time series, may be a useful tool for the investigation of the sleep onset period.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.78-85
• /
• 2016

While most AUV researches have concerned about single hydrofoil, practical AUV's are generally operated with multiple hydrofoils. Double hydrofoil study attempts to evaluate thrust and efficiency with various flapping motions, and carries out design optimization using parametric analysis. Flow patterns such as vortex shedding and wake-body interaction are carefully investigated during design variable sensitivity analysis. The purpose of this design optimization is to find out the optimal motion that yields maximum thrust and efficiency. The design optimization employes several techniques such as table of orthogonal arrays, Kriging method, ANOVA analysis and MGA. Throughout this research, it is possible to find the optimal values of heaving ratio, heaving shift and pitch shift: Heaving ratio 0.950, heaving shift $23.120^{\circ}$ and pitch shift $89.991^{\circ}$ are found to be optimal values in double hydrofoil motions. Thrust and efficiency are 16.7% and 35.1% higher than existing AUV that did not consider nonlinear dependency of motion parameters. This results may offer an effective framework that is applicable to various AUV motion analyses and designs.