• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.155-170
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• 2010

Availability of economic and efficient energy resources is crucial to a nation's development. Because of their low cost and advancement in drilling and exploration technologies, oil and gas based energy systems are the most widely used energy source throughout the world. The inexpensive oil and gas based energy systems are used for everything, i.e., from transportation of goods and people to the harvesting of crops for food. As the energy demand continues to rise, there is strong need for inexpensive energy solutions. An offshore platform is a large structure that is used to house workers and machinery needed to drill wells in the ocean bed, extract oil and/or natural gas, process the produced fluids, and ship or pipe them to shore. Depending on the circumstances, the offshore platform can be fixed (to the ocean floor) or can consist of an artificial island or can float. Semi-submersibles are used for various purposes in offshore and marine engineering, e.g. crane vessels, drilling vessels, tourist vessels, production platforms and accommodation facilities, etc. The challenges of deepwater drilling have further motivated the researchers to design optimum choices for semi-submersibles for a chosen operating depth. In our series of eight papers, we discuss the design and production aspects of all the types of offshore platforms. In the present part I, we present an introduction and critical analysis of semi-submersibles.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.10
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• pp.1736-1745
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• 2016

The interactions of microbiota in the gut play an important role in promoting or maintaining the health of hosts. In this study, in order to investigate and compare the effects of dietary supplementation with Lactobacillus pentosus HC-2 (HC-2), Enterococcus faecium NRW-2, or the bacteria-free supernatant of a HC-2 culture on the bacterial composition of Litopenaeus vannamei, Illumina sequencing of the V1-V2 region of the 16S rRNA gene was used. The results showed that unique species exclusively existed in specific dietary groups, and the abundance of Actinobacteria was significantly increased in the intestinal bacterial community of shrimp fed with the bacteria-free supernatant of an HC-2 culture compared with the control. In addition, the histology of intestines of the shrimp from the four dietary groups was also described, but no obvious improvements in the intestinal histology were observed. The findings in this work will help to promote the understanding of the roles of intestinal bacteria in shrimps when fed with probiotics or probiotic supernatant.

• Journal of KIISE:Computing Practices and Letters
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.657-668
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• 2008

Traditional off-the-shelf file server has several potential drawbacks to store data blocks. A first drawback is a lack of practical de-duplication consideration for storing data blocks, which leads to worse storage capacity waste. Second drawback is the requirement for high performance computer system for processing large data blocks. To address these problems, this paper proposes a clustering backup system that exploits file fingerprinting mechanism for block-level de-duplication. Our approach differs from the traditional file server systems in two ways. First, we avoid the data redundancy by multi-level file fingerprints technology which enables us to use storage capacity efficiently. Second, we applied a cluster technology to I/O subsystem, which effectively reduces data I/O time and network bandwidth usage. Experimental results show that the requirement for storage capacity and the I/O performance is noticeably improved.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.2276-2291
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• 2017

Data protection of removable storage devices is an important issue in information security. Unfortunately, most existing data protection mechanisms are aimed at protecting computer platform which is not suitable for ultra-low-power devices. To protect the flash disk appropriately and efficiently, we propose a trust based USB flash disk, named UTrustDisk. The data protection technologies in UTrustDisk include data authentication protocol, data confidentiality protection and data leakage prevention. Usually, the data integrity protection scheme is the bottleneck in the whole system and we accelerate it by WH universal hash function and speculative caching. The speculative caching will cache the potential hot chunks for reducing the memory bandwidth pollution. We adopt the symmetric encryption algorithm to protect data confidentiality. Before mounting the UTrustDisk, we will run a trusted virtual domain based lightweight virtual machine for preventing information leakage. Besides, we prove formally that UTrustDisk can prevent sensitive data from leaking out. Experimental results show that our scheme's average writing throughput is 44.8% higher than that of NH scheme, and 316% higher than that of SHA-1 scheme. And the success rate of speculative caching mechanism is up to 94.5% since the access pattern is usually sequential.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.7-13
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• 2003

A hot press method was use for the optimal manufacturing condition for a shape memory alloy(SMA) composite. The bonding between the matrix and the reinforcement within the SMA composite by the hot press method was strengthened by cold rolling. In this study, the objective was to develop an on-line monitoring system for the prevention of the crack initiation and propagation by shape memory effort of SMA composite. Shape memory effect was used to prevent the SMA composite from cracking. For the system to be developed, an optimal hE parameter should be determined based on the degree of damage and crack initiation. When the SHA composite was heated by the plate heater attached at the composite, the propagating cracks appeared to be controlled by the compressive force of SMA.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.19-25
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• 2014

An extracellular agarase was purified from Bacillus sp. BI-3, a thermophilic agar-degrading bacterium isolated from a hot spring in Indonesia. The purified agarase revealed a single band on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, with an apparent molecular mass of 58 kDa. The optimum pH and temperature of the agarase were 6.4 and $70^{\circ}C$, respectively. The activity of the agarase was stable at high temperatures, and more than 50% activity was retained at $80^{\circ}C$ for 15 min. Furthermore, the enzyme was stable in the pH range of 5.8-8.0, and more than 60% of the residual activity was retained. Significant activation of the agarase was observed in the presence of $K^+$, $Na^+$, $Ca^{2+}$, $Mg^{2+}$, and $Sr^{2+}$; on the other hand, $Ba^{2+}$, $Zn^{2+}$, $Cu^{2+}$, $Mn^{2+}$, $Co^{2+}$, $Fe^{2+}$, and EDTA inhibited or inactivated the enzyme activity. The components of the hydrolytic product analyzed by thin-layer chromatography showed that the agarase mainly produced neoagarobiose. This study is the first to present evidence of agarolytic activity in aerobic thermophilic bacteria.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.1919-1924
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• 2014

Recently, due to the climate change, the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall events have been continuously increased in regions of South Korea. As a consequence, safety issues have been raised especially in the hydrologic safety of old dams designed and constructed by the old standards. In general, for improving hydrologic safety of existing dams, two options are considered: 1) raising dam crest; and 2) constructing or expanding an emergency spillway. In this process, the main criteria of alternative selection are overtopping possibility and cost efficiency of each alternative. This approach is easy to implement but it is subject to major limitation for the proper evaluation of alternatives, overlooking downstream flood damages by any controlled flow of water that is intentionally released from dams to eliminate the possibility of overtopping. Therefore, this study suggests a framework for evaluating the dam safety strengthening alternatives in terms of a comprehensive flood control by applying the concept of resilience. The case study shows that the resilience-based evaluation framework which considering downstream flood damages is effective in the selection of dam safety strengthening alternatives.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.9-27
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• 2003

In a wafer fabrication factory, the completion time of an order is affected by many factors related to the specifics of the order and the status of the system, so is difficult to predict precisely. The level of influence of each factor on the order completion time may also depend on the production system characteristics, such as the rules for releasing and dispatching. This paper presents a method to identify those factors that significantly impact upon the order completion time under various combinations of scheduling rules. Computer simulations and statistical analyses were used to develop effective due date assignment models for improving the due date related performances. The first step of this research was to select the releasing and dispatching rules from those that were cited so frequently in related wafer fabrication factory researches. Simulation and statistical analyses were combined to identify the critical factors for predicting order completion time under various combinations of scheduling rules. In each combination of scheduling rules, two efficient due date assignment models were established by using the regression method for accurately predicting the order due date. Two due date assignment models, called the significant factor prediction model (SFM) and the key factor prediction model (KFM), are proposed to empirically compare the due date assignment rules widely used in practice. The simulation results indicate that SFM and KFM are superior to the other due date assignment rules. The releasing rule, dispatching rule and due date assignment rule have significant impacts on the due date related performances, with larger improvements coming from due date assignment and dispatching rules than from releasing rules.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.757-762
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• 2004

The protective adaptive response to electrophiles and reactive oxygen species is mediated by the induction of phase II detoxifying genes including glutathione S-transferases (GSTs). NF-E2-related factor-2 (Nrf2) phosphorylation by protein kinase C (PKC) is a critical event for its nuclear translocation in response to oxidative stress. Previously, we have shown that peroxynitrite plays a role in activation of Nrf2 and Nrf2 binding to the antioxidant response element (ARE) via the pathway of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-kinase) and that nitric oxide synthase in hepatocytes is required for GSTA2 induction. In view of the importance of PKC and Pl3-kinase in Nrf2-mediated GST induction, we investigated the role of these kinases in peroxynitrite formation for GSTA2 induction by oxidative stress and determined the relationship between PKC and PI3-kinase. Although PKC activation by phorbol 12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA) did not increase the extents of constitutive and inducible GSTA2 expression, either PKC depletion by PMA or PKC inhibition by staurosporine significantly inhibited GSTA2 induction by tert-butylhydroquinone (t-SHa) a prooxidant chemical. Therefore, the basal PKC activity is req- uisite for GSTA2 induction. 3-Morpholinosydnonimine (SIN-1), which decomposes and yields peroxynitrite, induced GSTA2, which was not inhibited by PKC depletion, but slightly enhanced by PKC activation, suggesting that PKC promotes peroxynitrite formation for Nrf2-mediated GSTA2 induction. Treatment of cells with S-nitroso-N-acetyl-penicillamine (SNAP), an exogenous NO donor, in combination with t-BHQ may produce peroxynitrite. GSTA2 induction by SNAP ＋ t-BHQ was not decreased by PKC depletion, but rather enhanced by PKC activation, showing that the activity of PKC might be required for peroxynitrite formation. LY294002 a P13-kinase inhibitor blocked GSTA2 induction by t-BHQ, which was reversed by PMA-induced PKC activation. These results provide evidence that PKC may playa role in formation of peroxynitrite that activates Nrf2 for GSTA2 induction and that PKC may serve an activator for GSTA2 induction downstream of PI3-kinase.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.143-157
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• 2019

This study analyzed per capita expenditure (food expenses, housing expenses, health care costs, and cultural & entertainment expenses) by the consumption quintile for middle and older elderly households in addition to personal characteristics, household characteristics and economic factors affecting it. A sample collected from the 6th KLoSHA in 2016, was 2,983 households. First, among each per capita expenditure, the largest expenditure was food expenses, followed by housing expenses, health care costs and cultural & entertainment expenses. Compared with the first quintile of personal consumption expenditure, the largest increase in the fifth quintile was food expenses, followed by cultural & entertainment expenses, housing expenses, and health care costs. Second, compared to the fifth quintile of per capita food expenses, all other quintile had negative effects, and only the first quintile showed a negative effect compared to the fifth quintile of per capita housing expenses. The first, the second, and third quintile had a negative effect compared to the fifth quintile of per capita health care costs. Compared with the fifth quintile of per capita cultural & entertainment expenses, only the third quintile showed a negative effect. Third, in all quintile of per capita food expenses, the most influential variable from the first quintile to the third quintile was marital status, while in the fourth and fifth quintile included household income. In all quintile of per capita health care costs, health status was the most influential variable from the first quintile to the fourth quintile, and residence was in the fifth quintile.