• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.74.1-74.15
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• 2023

Background: Antibiotic beads are used to treat local bacterial infections by delivering high drug concentrations to infected tissue. Objectives: This study examined the elution characteristics of metronidazole from metronidazole-calcium sulfate (MCa) and metronidazole-calcium-potassium sulfate (MCaK) beads over 20 days and the antibacterial efficacy of the beads after storage. Methods: The MCa and MCaK beads were prepared by mixing 250 mg of metronidazole and 10 g of calcium sulfate hemihydrate with water and a 3% potassium sulfate solution, respectively. The beads were placed in phosphate-buffered saline for the elution study. The metronidazole eluents were determined using high-performance liquid chromatography. The microstructures were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the antimicrobial activity was evaluated by a microbioassay. Results: For the 20-day study, the total amount of metronidazole released was greater in the MCa beads than in the MCaK beads by 6.61 ± 0.48 mg (89.11% ± 3.04%) and 4.65 ± 0.36 mg (73.11% ± 4.38%), respectively. The amounts of eluted drugs from the MCa and MCaK beads were higher than the minimum inhibitory concentration at 0.5 ㎍/mL against anaerobic bacteria at both 20 days and 14 days. SEM showed that calcium crystals on the outer surface had dissolved after elution, and thinner calcium crystals were prominent in the MCaK beads. The MCa and MCaK beads exhibited antibacterial activity after setting, followed by storage at room temperature or 4℃ for 21 days. Conclusions: The MCa beads could release more drug than the MCaK beads, but all eluted metronidazole amounts were effective in controlling bacterial infections. Both metronidazole beads could be stored at ambient temperature or in a refrigerator.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.481-501
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• 2023

Over-coating is one of the most popular engineering practices to strengthen Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures, due to the relative quickness and ease of construction. It consists of an external coat bonded to the outer surface of the structural RC element, either by the use of chemical adhesives, mechanical anchor bolts or simply mortar injection. In contrast to these constructive advantages, the numerical estimation of the bearing capacity of the strengthened reinforced concrete element is still complicated, not only for the complexity of modelling a flexible membrane or plate attached to a quasi-rigid solid, but also for the difficulties that raise of simulating any potential delamination between both materials. For these reasons, the standard engineering calculations used in the practice remain very approximated and clumsy. In this work, we propose the formulation of a new 2D solid-layer finite element capable to link a solid body with a flexible thin layer, as it were the "skin" of the body, allowing the potential delamination between both materials. In numerical terms, this "skin" element is intended to work as a transitional region between a solid body (modelled with a classical formulation of a standard quadrilateral four-nodes element) and a flexible coat layer (modelled with cubic beam element), dealing with the incompatibility of Degrees-OfFreedom between them (two DOF for the solid and three DOF for the beam). The aim of the solid-layer element is to simplify the mesh construction of the strengthened RC element being aware of two aspects: a) to prevent the inappropriate use of very small solid elements to simulate the coat; b) to improve the numerical estimation of the real bearing capacity of the strengthened element when the coat is attached or detached from the solid body.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.351-358
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• 2023

Bearings are mechanical components that support loads and transmit rotation. The inner and outer rings come into contact with the rotating mechanism, requiring a very high level of hardness. To meet this requirement, heat treatment is commonly performed. The heat treatment process inherently involves thermal deformation. Particularly in the case of large bearings, significant deformation relative to the bearing's shape can occur, making accurate deformation prediction during heat treatment essential. However, predicting deformation in heat treatment is challenging due to the simultaneous consideration of phase transformation, heat transfer, and bearing deformation. In this study, an analysis of heat treatment-induced deformation in bearings was conducted, taking phase transformation into account. The thermal and mechanical properties were calculated based on the chemical composition of the bearing material. This information was then used to perform a deformation-heat transfer-phase transformation analysis. To validate the reliability of the analysis, experiments were conducted under the same conditions. When comparing the analysis and experimental results, differences in deformation were observed. These differences were attributed to variations in phase transformation conditions between the analysis and experiments. Consequently, it is anticipated that supplementing these results will enable the prediction of deformation while considering phase transformation conditions in bearings.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.83-91
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• 2024

The purpose of this study was to determine the doppler fluid effects of carbonated water (CBW) in a bi-directional flow phantom model. A bi-directional flow phantom model was chosen to realize arterial and venous flow, and the structure of the inner and outer tanks allowed for fluid circulation and also made the size of the phantom small. Carbonated water (CBW), salt fluid (SAF), sugar fluid (SUF), and distilled water (DW) were used as fluids, and ultrasound scans were performed at depths of 1.5 cm and 3.0 cm from the surface of the tank, using B-mode and color Doppler effects. All fluids tested showed color Doppler effects, but CBW had the highest doppler shift and the least variation with depth. In conclusion, we determined that CBW was the most suitable fluid to be used as a doppler fluid and confirmed that the bubbles dissolved in CBW act as doppler scatterers, just like red blood cells inside human blood. Therefore, it is possible that CBW can be used as a blood-mimicking fluid in doppler ultrasound phantoms through further research, and this study will provide basic data.

• Anatomy and Cell Biology
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.259-267
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• 2023

Stature is an essential component of biological profile analysis since it determines an individual's physical identity. Long bone dimensions are generally used to estimate the stature of skeletal remains; however, non-long bones such as the sternum, cranium, and sacrum may be necessary for some forensic situations. This study aimed to generate a regression equation for stature estimation of the skeletal remains in the Thai population. Ten measurements of the sacrum were measured from 200 dry sacra. The results revealed that the maximum anterior breadth (MAB) provided the most accurate stature prediction model among males (correlation coefficient [r]=0.53), standard error of estimation (SEE=5.94 cm), and females (r=0.48, SEE=6.34 cm). For the multiple regression model, the best multiple regression models were stature equals 41.2+0.374 (right auricular surface height [RASH])+1.072 (anterior-posterior outer diameter of S₁ vertebra corpus [APOD])+0.256 (dorsal height [DH])+0.417 (transverse inner diameter of S₁ vertebra corpus [TranID])+0.2 (MAB) with a SEE of 6.42 cm for combined sex. For males, stature equals 63.639+0.478 (MAB)+0.299 (DH)+0.508 (APOD) with a SEE of 5.35, and stature equals 75.181+0.362 (MAB)+0.441 (RASH)+0.132 (maximum anterior height [MAH]) with a SEE of 5.88 cm for females. This study suggests that regression equations derived from the sacrum can be used to estimate the stature of the Thai population, especially when a long bone is unavailable.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.310-317
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• 2024

In this study, Aimed to develop technology to ensure the safety of firefighters responding to hydrogen incidents and to review the performance of protective super absorbent polymer (SAP) that could help maintain the thermal protection performance of equipment with protective properties. Tests were conducted, including bench-scale and full-scale thermal exposure tests, to review the protective performance of SAP using firefighting garments commonly used by firefighters. The results showed that without SAP application, 2nd degree burn areas were measured at 9.4%, and 3rd degree burn areas at 7.7%. In contrast, when SAP was applied, the percentage of 2nd degree burn areas decreased to 7% on the lower body, and there was no temperature rise causing 3rd degree burns. Therefore, it is expected that by applying SAP to the outer surface of firefighter garments, even under temporarily high temperature conditions such as hydrogen jet flames, thermal damage to firefighters could be protected for a certain period.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.155-164
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• 2024

There are two primary sludge drying methods such as the direct heating microwave method and the indirect heating steam one. In this study, the drying treatment facility at sewage treatment plant A applied both of these drying methods. The research aimed to investigate the optimal operation approach for the drying facility, considering the input sludge and the moisture content data after the drying process. Moisture content and removal rate data were executed at the research facility from January 2016 to December 2018. First, the microwave, a direct heating drying method, performed intensive drying only on the outer surface of the sludge by directly applying heat to the sludge using far infrared rays, so effective sludge drying was not achieved. On the other hand, the steam method of the indirect heating method used steam from a gas boiler to maximize the utilization of the heat transfer area and reduce energy of the dryer, resulting in an effective sludge drying efficiency. The sludge moisture content brought into the sludge drying facility was about 80%, but the moisture content of the sludge that went through the drying facility was less than 10% of the design standard. Therefore, the steam method of the indirect heating method is more effective than the microwave method of the previous direct heating method and is more effective for maintenance It has proven that it is an efficient method of operating construction facilities.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.399-414
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• 2024

This study discusses the long-term deformation monitoring and shape sensing of bridge girder surfaces with an automated extraction scheme for point clouds in the Region Of Interest (ROI), invariant to the position of a Light Detection And Ranging system (LiDAR). Advanced smart construction necessitates continuous monitoring of the deformation and shape of bridge girders during the construction phase. An automated scheme is proposed for reconstructing geometric model of ROI in the presence of noisy non-stationary background. The proposed scheme involves (i) denoising irrelevant background point clouds using dimensions from the design model, (ii) extracting the outer boundaries of the bridge girder by transforming and processing the point cloud data in a two-dimensional image space, (iii) extracting topology of pre-defined targets using the modified Otsu method, (iv) registering the point clouds to a common reference frame or design coordinate using extracted predefined targets placed outside ROI, and (v) defining the bounding box in the point clouds using corresponding dimensional information of the bridge girder and abutments from the design model. The surface-fitted reconstructed geometric model in the ROI is superposed consistently over a long period to monitor bridge shape and derive deflection during the construction phase, which is highly correlated. The proposed scheme of combining 2D-3D with the design model overcomes the sensitivity of 3D point cloud registration to initial match, which often leads to a local extremum.

• 한국해양학회지
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.303-310
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• 1992

Studies on the distribution of nitrogenous compounds, and respiratory oxygen consumption rate were carried out in Masan Bay, Korea where large amount of industrial and domestic wastewaters are discharged. In August 1986 the surface layer was significantly influenced by freshwater input. Below the seasonal pycnocline, an oxygen-deficient condition developed in a large area of Masan Bay. Concentrations of DIN, DON and PN were 735.6, 1261.8 and 48.5 umol/l at the head, and 79.1, 73.0 and 39.5 umol/l at the mouth of the inner Masan Bay, respectively. Phytoplankton carbon production was 2,695 mgC/m$^2$/day at the mouth of inner Masan Bay. Dissolved oxygen contents were lower than 1 ml/l from 3 m depth in inner Masan Bay and from 10 m depth in the outer Masan Bay. The high concentration of ammonium and phosphate in the lower layer suggests the active degradation of organic materials in the bottom waters and leaching from sediments. The ERS activity was 232.1 ul O$_2$/l/h in the surface waters of the innermost part of Masan Bay and respiratory oxygen consumption is likely to proceed at a rate of 442 ml O$_2$/m$^2$/day in the bottom waters of this bay. Nitrate removal rate was estimated to be 0.25 umol/l/day via denitrification in the bottom waters of the Masan Waterway. It is estimated from the ETS activity that, at the mouth of inner Masan Bay, 9.3-10.5% of carbon fixed in the upper layer was decomposed below the themocline.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.126-131
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• 2019

Real-scale fire tests were performed on animal-origin foods using a gas stove with no overheating prevention device. When the animal-origin foods were ignited, a large quantity of white smoke and steam was generated from them; however, when they became dry and began to carbonize, a dark smoke was generated. Even after the gas stove was overheated for more than 5400 s, mackerel, pollack, chicken, etc., did not ignite. However, pork, beef, and tuna caught fire after 2643 s, 2819 s, and 6492 s of heating, respectively. The flame patterns of animal-origin foods were in the forms of a mixed laminar flow and a turbulent flow, and a halo pattern was produced. A sand glass form of the flame pattern was generated when a kitchen hood was operated, but a triangular flame pattern was produced when the kitchen hood was not operated. When the tuna in the pot was overheated, it spontaneously ignited after 6492 s, with the surface temperature of the kitchen hood rapidly rising to 464.5 ℃. Moreover, the temperature at the back of the pot, which was 6 cm away from the outer surface of the upper part of the pot, was 869 ℃ after 6660 s because of the radiant heat. The flame formed a sand glass pattern on the kitchen wall. When the kitchen hood was not operated, or when the flame grew lower than the height of the ceiling, a triangular pattern was formed.