• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.141-157
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• 2014

The Conditional Mean Spectrum represents a powerful link between the seismic hazard information and the selection of strong ground motion records at a particular site. The scope of the paper is to apply for the city of Bucharest for the first time the method to obtain the Conditional Mean Spectrum (CMS) presented by Baker (2011) and to select, on the basis of the CMS, a suite of strong ground motions for performing elastic and inelastic dynamic analyses of buildings and structures with fundamental periods of vibration in the vicinity of 1.0 s. The major seismic hazard for Bucharest and for most of Southern and Eastern Romania is dominated by the Vrancea subcrustal seismic source. The ground motion prediction equation developed for subduction-type earthquakes and soil conditions by Youngs et al. (1997) is used for the computation of the Uniform Hazard Spectrum (UHS) and the CMS. The disaggregation of seismic hazard is then performed in order to determine the mean causal values of magnitude and source-to-site distance for a particular spectral ordinate (for a spectral period T = 1.0 s in this study). The spectral period of 1.0 s is considered to be representative for the new stock of residential and office reinforced concrete (RC) buildings in Bucharest. The differences between the Uniform Hazard Spectrum (UHS) and the Conditional Mean Spectrum (CMS) are discussed taking into account the scarcity of ground motions recorded in the region of Bucharest and the frequency content characteristics of the recorded data. Moreover, a record selection based on the criteria proposed by Baker and Cornell (2006) and Baker (2011) is performed using a dataset consisting of strong ground motions recorded during seven Vrancea seismic events.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.347-355
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• 1994

Indolo[3,2-b]carbazole(ICZ) is a potent Ah receptor agonist with biological activities similar in several respects to those of the potent environmental toxin, TCDD. ICZ is produced during the oilgomerization of indole-3-carbinol(I3C), a breakdown product of the glucobrassicin present in food plants of the Brassica genus. In the present study we examined ICZ levels in tissues and excreta of rats treated with I3C or dietary cabbage of established glucobrasicin content, and in feces of conventional and germfree rats fed on a basal diet, and of humans. We also examined the levels of cytochrome P4501A1 induction, as determined by the ethoxyresorufin ο-deethylase assay, in tissues of animals that received cabbage-supplemented diets, or which were treated with purified I3C or ICZ. Our findings indicated that incorporation of either homogenized or whole freeze-dried cabbage in the feed led to large increases(16-60 fold) in the levels of ICZ in the feces and lower gastrointestinal tract of rats. We observed that whereas ICZ is readily detectable at about the same levels(2.00$\pm$0.50 ppb) in the feces of conventional rats fed on a purified diet and in human feces, levels of ICZ in the feces of germfree animals fed on the basal diet were at the limits of detection(0.40$\pm$0.20 ppb), indication that gut bacteria are important for the production of ICZ from essential dietary constituents in the basal diet. We showed that in contrast to the near 7000-fold difference in CYP1A1 inducing potencies of ICZ and TCDD in cells in culture, their inducing potencies differ by only about an order of magnitude in rats. Nonetheless, the levels of ICZ remaining in livers twenty hours after I3C treatment appear too low to account for the induced activity. This result indicates that ICZ may be rapidly cleared from the liver or that substances other than, or in addition to, ICZ be responsible for the enzyme-inducing activity of orally administered I3C or its precursors.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.159-159
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• 2013

Atomically thin graphene is the ideal model system for studying nanoscale friction due to its intrinsic two-dimensional anisotropy. Furthermore, modulating its tribological properties could be an important milestone for graphene-based micro and nano-mechanical devices. Here, we report that the tribological properties can be easily altered via simple chemical modifications of the graphene surface. Friction force microscopy measurements show that hydrogenated, fluorinated, and oxidized graphenes exhibit, 2-, 6-, and 7-fold enhanced nanoscale friction on their surfaces, respectively, compared to pristine graphene. The measured nanoscale friction should be associated with the adhesive and elastic properties of the chemically modified graphenes. Density functional theory calculations suggest that, while the adhesive properties of chemically modified graphenes are marginally reduced down to ~30%, the out-of-plane elastic properties are drastically increased up to 800%. Based on these findings, we propose that nanoscale friction on graphene surfaces is characteristically different from that on conventional solid surfaces; stiffer graphene exhibits higher friction, whereas a stiffer three-dimensional solid generally exhibits lower friction. The unusual friction mechanics of graphene is attributed to the intrinsic mechanical anisotropy of graphene, which is inherently stiff in plane, but remarkably flexible out of plane. The out-of-plane flexibility can be modulated up to an order of magnitude by chemical treatmentof the graphene surface. The correlation between the measured nanoscale friction and the calculated out-of-plane flexibility suggests that the frictional energy in graphene is mainly dissipated through the out-of-plane vibrations, or the flexural phonons of graphene.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.207-230
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• 2012

Full-scale shake table seismic experiments and low-amplitude vibration tests on a masonry building are carried out to assess its seismic performance as well as study the effectiveness of a new multifunctional textile material for retrofitting masonry structures against earthquakes. The un-reinforced and the retrofitted with glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) strips masonry building was subjected to a series of earthquake excitations of increasing magnitude in order to progressively induce various small, moderate and severe levels of damage to the masonry walls. The performance of the original and retrofitted building states is evaluated. Changes in the dynamic characteristics (lowest four modal frequencies and damping ratios) of the building are used to assess and quantify the damage states of the masonry walls. For this, the dynamic modal characteristics of the structure states after each earthquake event were estimated by performing low-amplitude impulse hammer and sine-sweep forced vibration tests. Comparisons between the modal results calculated using traditional accelerometers and those using Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors embedded in the reinforcing textile were carried on to investigate the reliability and accuracy of FBG sensors in tracking the dynamic behaviour of the building. The retrofitting actions restored the stiffness characteristics of the reinforced masonry structure to the levels of the original undamaged un-reinforced structure. The results show that despite a similar dynamic behavior identified, corresponding to reduction of the modal frequencies, the un-reinforced masonry building was severely damaged, while the reinforced masonry building was able to withstand, without visual damage, the induced strong seismic excitations. The applied GFRP reinforcement architecture for one storey buildings was experimentally proven reliable for the most severe earthquake accelerations. It was easily placed in a short time and it is a cost effective solution (covering only 20% of the external wall surfaces) when compared to the cost for full wall coverage by GFRPs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.415.2-415.2
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• 2016

Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is one of ways to convert mechanical energy sound, waves, wind, vibrations, and human motions to available electrical energy. The principal mechanism to generate electrical energy is based on contact electrification on material surface and electrostatic induction between electrodes. The performance of TENG are dependent on amount of the input mechanical energy and characteristics of triboelectric materials. Furthermore, the whole TENG system including mechanical structure and electrical system can effect on output performance of TENG. In this work, we investigated the effect of gear train on output performance and power conversion efficiency (PCE) of TENG under a given input energy. We applied the gear train on mechanical structure to improve the contact rate. We measured the output energy under a constant input energy by controlling the size of the working gear. We prepared gears with gear ratios (rin/rw) of 1, 1.7, and 5. Under the constant input energy, the voltage and current from our gear-based TENG system were enhanced up to the maximum of 3.6 times and 4.4 times, respectively. Also, the PCE was increased up to 7 times at input frequency of 1.5 Hz. In order to understand the effect of kinematic design on TENG system, we performed a capacitor experiment with rectification circuit that provide DC voltage and current. Under the input frequency of 4.5 Hz, we obtained a 3 times enhanced rectifying voltage at a gear ratio of 5. The measured capacitor voltage was enhanced up to about 8 fold in using our TENG system. It is attributed that our gear-based TENG system could improve simultaneously the magnitude as well as the generation time of output power, finally enhancing output energy. Therefore, our gear-based TENG system provided an effective way to enhance the PCE of TENGs operating at a given input energy.

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.87-100
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• 2007

Purpose: As body weight management is significantly important for women and newborn infants during pregnant and postpartum periods, there have been studies about changes of body weight during those periods. However, there are not enough studies about it which is based on the Sasang Constitution. The following is a result of the study which analyzes the changes with Sasang Constitution. Methods: This study investigated those who understand and agree this study#s purposes out of 109 primiparae who did normal delivery, who gave birth to a healthy infant and who are breastfeeding and who were treated by S postpartum care center from March 2005 to November 2005. The result of survey was collected from the questionnaires that included postpartum pattern and QSCC II. Results: There are remarkable changes of body weight and BMI based on the Sasang Constitution in pregnant and postpartum periods and they appear to be in order of Taeumin, Soyangin, Soeumin. In terms of the amount of milk according to the Constitution, there are no key changes between Soeumin and Taeumin, but there is a significance between Soyangin and Soeumin and Soyangin and Taeumin. In terms of the average body weight of infants according to the Constitution, there are no essential changes between Soeumin and Soyangin, but there is a magnitude between Soeumin and Taeumin and Soyangin and Taeumin. Conclusion: The changes of the body weight and BMI based on the Sasang Constitution appear to be the smallest for Soeumin, and the largest for Taeumin. The amount of milk from mothers did not affect on the changes and the weight of newborn infant did affect on the changes.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.419-426
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• 2002

The concentrations of three different fractions of particulate matters including PM2.5, PM10, and TSP were compared between the Asian Dust (AD) and non-AD (NAD) periods during the spring season of 2001. For the purpose of this comparative analysis, the data sets were obtained from four different observatory sites located within the city boundary of Seoul that concurrently measure those three fractions of PM at hourly intervals. According to our study, several conclusions can be drawn to describe relationships between the AD event and PM distribution characteristics. First of all, it is apparent that the concentrations of PM are distinctively distinguished between AD and NAD. If the extent of contribution to the AD events are assessed on the quantitative basis, it appears that their magnitude increases on the order of PM2.5, PM10, and TSP. As a result, the increase of PM observed during AD event is dominated by the coarse rather than fine fraction of PM. Moreover, when their relationships were assessed in terms of fractional ratios, it was found that TSP/PM10 ratios were almost constant, regardless of the occurrences of AD. On the other hand, the coarse/fine or TSP/PM2.5 ratios changed dramatically between AD and NAD periods. The results of our analysis cleary distinguishes quantitative role of each PM fraction between AD and NAD period, while suggesting indirectly the possible control of source processes on such relationships.

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.98-104
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• 2004

We analyzed a noise-sensitivity profile of a specific SQUID sensor system for the localization of brain activity. The location of a neuromagnetic current source is estimated from the recording of spatially distributed SQUID sensors. According to the specific arrangement of the sensors, each site in the source space has different sensitivity, that is, the difference in the lead field vectors. Conversely, channel noises on each sensor will give a different amount of the estimation error to each of the source sites. e.g., a distant source site from the sensor system has a small lead-field vector in magnitude and low sensitivity. However, when we solve the inverse problem from the recorded sensor data, we use the inverse of the lead-field vector that is rather large, which results in an overestimated noise power on the site. Especially, the spatial sensitivity profile of a gradiometer system measuring tangential fields is much more complex than a radial magnetometer system. This is one of the causes to make the solutions of inverse problems unstable on intervening of the sensor noise. In this study, in order to improve the localization accuracy, we calculated the noise-sensitivity profile of our 40-channel planar SQUID gradiometer system, and applied it as a normalization weight factor to the source localization using synthetic aperture magnetometry.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.224-231
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• 2013

The concept of the natural frequency is useful for understanding the characters of oscillating systems. However, when a circular cylinder floating horizontally on the water surface is heaving, due to the hydrodynamic forces, the system is not governed by the equation like that of the harmonic one. In this paper, in order to shed some lights on the more correct use of the concept of the natural frequency, a problem of the heaving circular cylinder is analyzed in the time domain. The equation of motion, an integro-differential equation, was derived following the fashion of Cummins (1962), and its coefficients including the retardation function were obtained using the numerical solution of Lee (2012). The equation was solved numerically, and the experiment was also carried out in the CNU flume. Using our numerical and experimental results, the natural frequency was defined as its average value given by the motion data excluding those of the initial stage. Our results were then compared with those of the existing investigations such as Maskell and Ursell (1970), Ito (1977) and Yeung (1982) as well as the newly obtained results of Lee (2012). Comparison showed that the natural frequency obtained here agrees well with that of Lee (2012), which was found through the frequency domain analysis. It was also shown that the approximation of heaving motion by a damped harmonic oscillation, which was regarded as suitable by most previous investigators, is not physically suitable for the reason that can be clearly shown through comparing the shape of MCFRs(Modulus of Complex Frequency Response). Furthermore, we found that although the previous approximations yield the damping ratio significantly different from our result the magnitude of natural frequency is not much different from our result.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.63 no.3
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• pp.13-26
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• 2021

Recent drought events in the South Korea and the magnitude of drought losses indicate the continuing vulnerability of the agricultural drought. Various studies have been performed on drought hazard assessment at the regional scales, but until recently, drought management has been response oriented with little attention to mitigation and preparedness. A vulnerability assessment is introduced in order to preemptively respond to agricultural drought and to predict the occurrence of drought. This paper presents a method for spatial, Geographic Information Systems-based assessment of agricultural drought vulnerability in South Korea. It was hypothesized that the key 14 items that define agricultural drought vulnerability were meteorological, agricultural reservoir, social, and adaptability factors. Also, this study is to analyze agricultural drought vulnerability by comparing vulnerability assessment according to weighting method. The weight of the evaluation elements is expressed through the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which includes subjective elements such as surveys, and the Entropy method using attribute information of the evaluation items. The agricultural drought vulnerability map was created through development of a numerical weighting scheme to evaluate the drought potential of the classes within each factor. This vulnerability assessment is calculated the vulnerability index based on the weight, and analyze the vulnerable map from 2015 to 2019. The identification of agricultural drought vulnerability is an essential step in addressing the issue of drought vulnerability in the South Korea and can lead to mitigation-oriented drought management and supports government policymaking.