• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Near Infrared Spectroscopy Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.1612-1612
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• 2001

The production of grain for export and domestic use is one of Australia's most important agricultural industries, and the NIR technique has been used extensively over many years for the routine monitoring of grain quality, particularly moisture and protein content. Because most Australian grain is intended for human food production, the determinants of grain quality for livestock feed, apart from protein, have been largely ignored. However the increasing use of grain for feeding to pigs, poultry, beef cattle and dairy cows has led to an important national research project entitled “Premium Grains for Livestock”. Two of the objectives of this project are to determine the compositional and functional characteristics of grains which influence their nutritional quality for the various classes of livestock, and to adopt rapid and objective analytical tests for these quality criteria. NIR has been used in this project firstly to identify a set of grain samples from a large population of breeders' lines which showed a wide spectral variation, and hence a potentially wide variation in nutritional value. The selected samples were not only subjected to an extensive array of chemical, physical and in vitro analyses, but also were grown out to produce sufficient quantities of grain to feed to animals in vivo studies. Additional grains were also strategically selected from farms in order to include the effect of weather damage, such as rain, drought and frost. In this study to date, NIR calibrations have been derived or attempted, on both ground and whole grains, for in vivo dry matter digestibility (DMD), pepsin-cellulase dry matter disappearance, protein, fat, acid detergent fibre, neutral detergent fibre, starch, in sacco DMD and in vitro assays to simulate starch digestion in the lumen and small intestine. Results so far indicate high calibration accuracy for chemical components (SECV 0.3 to 2.6%) and very promising statistics for in vivo DMD (SECV 1.8, $R^2$ 0.93, SD 7.0, range 61.9 to 92.3, n=60). There appears to be some potential for NIR to estimate some in vitro properties, depending upon the accuracy of reference methods and appropriate sample populations. Current work is in progress to extend the range of grains with in vivo DMD values (a very laborious and expensive process) and to increase the robustness of the various NIR calibrations, with the aim of implementing uniform testing procedures for nutritional value of grains throughout Australia.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.24 no.7
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• pp.563-567
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• 2011

The most widely used piezoelectric ceramics are lead oxide based ferroelectrics (PZT). However, the toxicity of lead oxide and its high vapor pressure during processing have led to a demand for alternative lead-free piezoelectric materials. We synthesized Lead-free piezoelectric ceramics of $0.96(K_{0.5}Na_{0.5})NbO_3-0.04SrZrO_3+x$ mol% $ZrO_2$ [KNN-SZ+$xZrO_2$; x= 0~0.10] doped with 0.1 wt% $MnO_2$ by a conventional solid state method. We investigated the piezoelectric properties and microstructures of these disk samples sintered in reduced atmosphere in order to evaluate the possibility of the multilayered piezoelectric ceramics having the base metal such as Ni as a internal electrode. All of these KNN-SZ samples sintered in 3%$H_2-97%N_2$ atmosphere at $1,140^{\circ}C$ exhibit pure perovskite structure irrespective of the content of $ZrO_2$. Meanwhile, the sintering denisty and piezoelectric properties such as $K_p$, $Q_m$ and $d_{33}$ of KNN-SZ samples as a function of $ZrO_2$ content show the maxima ($k_p$=28.07%, $Q_m$= 101.34, $d_{33}$= 156 pC/N) at x= 0.04 and it is likely that there is some morphotropic phase boundary(MPB) in this KNN-SZ+$xZrO_2$ composition system. These results indicate that the ceramic composition is a promising candidate material for applications in lead free multilayer piezoelectric ceramics.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.22 no.2 s.73
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• pp.145-154
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• 2004

The growing demand for customer-responsive, made-to-order manufacturing is stimulating the need for improved dynamic decision-making processes in commercial fleet operations. Moreover, the rapid growth of electronic commerce through the internet is also requiring advanced and precise real-time operation of vehicle fleets. Accompanying these demand side developments/pressures, the growing availability of technologies such as AVL(Automatic Vehicle Location) systems and continuous two-way communication devices is driving developments on the supply side. These technologies enable the dispatcher to identify the current location of trucks and to communicate with drivers in real time affording the carrier fleet dispatcher the opportunity to dynamically respond to changes in demand, driver and vehicle availability, as well as traffic network conditions. This research investigates key aspects of real time dynamic routing and scheduling problems in fleet operation particularly in a truckload pickup-and-delivery problem under various settings, in which information of stochastic demands is revealed on a continuous basis, i.e., as the scheduled routes are executed. The most promising solution strategies for dealing with this real-time problem are analyzed and integrated. Furthermore, this research develops. analyzes, and implements hybrid algorithms for solving them, which combine fast local heuristic approach with an optimization-based approach. In addition, various partitioning algorithms being able to deal with large fleet of vehicles are developed based on 'divided & conquer' technique. Simulation experiments are developed and conducted to evaluate the performance of these algorithms.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.381-386
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• 2011

We fabricated the ZnO (zinc oxide)/$SiO_2$ (silicon dioxide) branch hierarchical nanostructures by the e-beam evaporation of $SiO_2$ onto the surface of the electrochemically grown ZnO nanorods on Si substrate, which leads to the self-assembled $SiO_2$ nanorods by oblique angle deposition between vapor flux and vertically aligned ZnO nanorods. In order to investigate the effects of $SiO_2$ deposition on the morphology and optical property of ZnO/$SiO_2$ branch hierarchical nanostructures, the evaporation time of $SiO_2$ was varied under a fixed deposition rate of 0.5 nm/s. The vertically aligned ZnO nanorods on Si substrate exhibited a low reflectance of <10% in the wavelength range of 300~535 nm. For ZnO/$SiO_2$ branch hierarchical nanostructures at 100 s of evaporation time of $SiO_2$, the more improved antireflective property was achieved. From these results, ZnO/$SiO_2$ branch hierarchical nanostructures are very promising for optoelectronic and photovoltaic device applications.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.238-246
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• 2005

Rice yield and protein content have been shown to be highly variable across paddy fields. In order to characterize this spatial variability of rice within a field, two-year experiments were conducted in 2002 and 2003 in a large-scale rice field of $6,600m^2$ In year 2004, an experiment was conducted to know if variable rate treatment (VRT) of N fertilizer, that was prescribed for site-specific management at panicle initiation stage, could reduce spatial variation in yield and protein content of rice while increasing yield compared to conventional uniform N topdressing (UN, 33kg N/ha at PIS) method. VRT nitrogen prescription for each grid was calculated based on the nitrogen (N) uptake (from panicle initiation to harvest) required for target rice protein content of $6.8\%$, natural soil N supply, and recovery of top-dressed N fertilizer. The required N uptake for target rice protein content was calculated from the equations to predict rice yield and protein content from plant growth parameters at panicle initiation stage (PIS) and N uptake from PIS to harvest. This model· equations were developed from the data obtained from the previous two-year experiments. The plant growth parameters for the calculation of the required N were predicted non-destructively by canopy reflectance measurement. Soil N supply for each grid was obtained from the experiment of year 2003, and N recovery was assumed to be $60\%$ according to the previous reports. The prescribed VRT N ranged from 0 to 110kg N/ha with an average of 57kg/ha that was higher than 33 kg/ha of UN. The results showed that VRT application successfully worked not only to reduce spatial variability of rice yield and protein content but also to increase rough rice yield by 960kg/ha. The coefficient of variation (CV) for rice yield and protein content was reduced significantly to $8.1\%$ and $7.1\%$ in VRT from $14.6\%$ and $13.0\%$ in UN, respectively. And also the average protein content of milled rice in VRT showed very similar value of target protein content of $6.8\%$. In conclusion the procedure used in this paper was believed to be reliable and promising method for reducing within-field spatial variability of rice yield and protein content. However, inexpensive, reliable, and fast estimation methods of natural N supply and plant growth and nutrition status should be prepared before this method could be practically used for site-specific crop management in large-scale rice field.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.75-83
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• 2004

Temperature-phased anaerobic digestion (TPAD), anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR), and co-digestion technologies were combined together in order to overcome low efficiencies of conventional anaerobic sewage sludge digestion processes. In the performance, TPAD-ASBR process showed high VS removal efficiency over 60% up to the organic loading rate (OLR) of 2.7 g VS/L/d. The first-stage of TPAD-ASBR and control system played a most significant role in VS destruction and methane production. Methane production rate (0.79 l $CH_4/L/d$) of the system was higher than that (0.59 l $CH_4/L/d$) of the control system. The substrate characteristics of the sewage sludge, such as low VS concentration (1.5%, w/w) and biodegradability, were properly improved by the addition of food waste as a co-substrate, leading to more efficient VS removal and methane production. With several track studies, it was revealed that the independent solid retention time (SRT) of those systems prevented untreated particles from outflowing and also, extended the retention time of the active biomass for further degradation. Consequently, it was confirmed that the sequencing batch operation of the TPAD process using co-substrate was a promising alternative for the recycling of sewage sludge with low VS content.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.108-115
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• 2016

Purpose: Radio frequency (RF) heating is a promising thawing method, but it frequently causes undesirable problems such as non-uniform heating. This can occur because of the food shape, component distribution, and initial temperature differences between food parts. In this study, RF heating was applied to the thawing of cylindrically shaped pork sirloin by changing the shape of electrodes and the surrounding temperature. Methods: Curved electrodes were utilized to increase the thawing uniformity of cylindrically shaped frozen meat. Pork sirloin in the shape of a half-circle column was frozen in a deep freezer at $-70^{\circ}C$ and then thawed by RF heating with flat and curved electrodes. In order to prevent fast defrosting of the food surface by heat transfer from air to the food, the temperature of the thawing chamber was varied by -5, -10, and $-20^{\circ}C$. The temperature values of the frozen pork sirloin during RF thawing were measured using fiber-optic thermo sensors. Results: After multiple applications of curved electrodes resembling the food shape, and a cooled chamber at $-20^{\circ}C$ the half-cylindrically shaped meat was thawed without surface burning, and the temperature values of each point were similarly increased. However, with the parallel electrode, the frozen meat was partially burned by RF heating and the temperature values of center were overheated. The uniform heating rate and heat transfer prevention from air to the food were crucial factors for RF thawing. In this study, these crucial factors were accomplished by using a curved electrode and lowering the chamber temperature. Conclusions: The curved shape of the electrode and the equipotential surface calculated from the modeling of the parallel capacitor showed the effect of uniform heating of cylindrically shaped frozen food. Moreover, the low chamber temperature was effective on the prevention of the surface burning during RF thawing.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.8.1-8.6
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• 2014

Background: Artificial insemination (AI) can serve as a powerful tool to the sheep owners for making rapid genetic progress of their flock. The AI in sheep is mostly performed using fresh semen with two reasons i) lambing rate following trans-cervical AI with frozen semen is limited by the inability of frozen-thawed sperm to transit the cervix and ii) the need of circumventing the cervical barrier through laparoscope aided intrauterine AI. Therefore, AI with frozen-thawed semen is not as widespread in sheep as it is in other domestic species. However, to get maximum benefits through the use of AI, frozen-thawed semen is a prerequisite because instead of high fertility, the short shelf life of fresh semen coupled with a limitation on the number of insemination doses achievable per unit time restricts the widespread use of individual sires. Therefore, in order to enhance lambing rate, a total of 240 trans-cervical artificial inseminations with frozen-thawed semen were performed in Bharat Merino ewes during autumn season either once in the evening (G-I, 10 h after onset of estrus, n = 100) or twice (G-II, 14 h and 22 h after onset of estrus, n = 140) i.e. once in the morning and again in the evening. Results: The pregnancy rate (proportion of pregnant ewes confirmed by ultrasonography at day 40) and lambing rate (proportion of ewes lambed) were higher in G-II as compared to G-I (26.4 vs 20% and 19.3 vs 10%, respectively). The difference in lambing rates was statistically (P < 0.05) significant. The depth of insemination within cervico-uterine tract had no significant effect on pregnancy and lambing rates. Conclusions: The results indicate that lambing rate in sheep following TCAI with frozen-thawed semen was significantly influenced by time of inseminations. Two inseminations after 14 and 22 h of onset of estrus enhanced the lambing rates of Bharat Merino sheep as compare to single insemination after 10 h of onset of estrus. The TCAI technique with frozen-thawed ram semen is promising and may serve as a valuable tool for genetic improvement of sheep breeds. Research efforts are going on worldwide to overcome the poor fertility following TCAI with frozen-thawed semen.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.585-594
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• 2018

Virtual currencies have emerged along with new technologies such as block chain, artificial intelligence (AI), and big data. This study examines the benefits of a security-enhanced block chain resulting from individual trading, decentralized from governments, as well as the problems associated with misuse of virtual currencies. Virtual currencies, due to its anonymity, is vulnerable to financial crimes, such as ransom-ware, fraud, drug trafficking, tax evasion and money laundering. Use of virtual currencies can facilitate criminals avoid detection from investigative agencies. Government regulatory policy continues to address these concerns, and the virtual currency exchange has also announced a self-regulation proposal. However, a fundamental solution remains necessary. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the problems regarding abuse of virtual currency and to identify a practical system for transactions involving virtual currencies. However, in order to promote transactions involving virtual currencies and to institutionalize a governance system, multilateral cooperation is required. Although the restricting the use of virtual currencies regarding minors and foreign trade, as well as the introduction of a real-name system are considered promising prospects, many problems remain. Virtual currency is not a simple digital item but a method of redesigning the function of money. Coordinated efforts are needed globally to be able to further activate the positive aspects concerning the use of virtual currencies.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.743-767
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• 2020

Due to the impressive flexural performance, enhanced compressive strength and more constrained crack propagation, Fibre-reinforced concrete (FRC) have been widely employed in the construction application. Majority of experimental studies have focused on the seismic behavior of FRC columns. Based on the valid experimental data obtained from the previous studies, the current study has evaluated the seismic response and compressive strength of FRC rectangular columns while following hybrid metaheuristic techniques. Due to the non-linearity of seismic data, Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) has been incorporated with metaheuristic algorithms. 317 different datasets from FRC column tests has been applied as one database in order to determine the most influential factor on the ultimate strengths of FRC rectangular columns subjected to the simulated seismic loading. ANFIS has been used with the incorporation of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Genetic algorithm (GA). For the analysis of the attained results, Extreme learning machine (ELM) as an authentic prediction method has been concurrently used. The variable selection procedure is to choose the most dominant parameters affecting the ultimate strengths of FRC rectangular columns subjected to simulated seismic loading. Accordingly, the results have shown that ANFIS-PSO has successfully predicted the seismic lateral load with R² = 0.857 and 0.902 for the test and train phase, respectively, nominated as the lateral load prediction estimator. On the other hand, in case of compressive strength prediction, ELM is to predict the compressive strength with R² = 0.657 and 0.862 for test and train phase, respectively. The results have shown that the seismic lateral force trend is more predictable than the compressive strength of FRC rectangular columns, in which the best results belong to the lateral force prediction. Compressive strength prediction has illustrated a significant deviation above 40 Mpa which could be related to the considerable non-linearity and possible empirical shortcomings. Finally, employing ANFIS-GA and ANFIS-PSO techniques to evaluate the seismic response of FRC are a promising reliable approach to be replaced for high cost and time-consuming experimental tests.