• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.98-108
• /
• 2013

The number of Hi-Pass lanes became 793 lanes at 316 expressway tollgates in 2011 due to the increase in the Hi-Pass use. In spite of the increase in the number of Hi-Pass lanes, there have been increased potential risks in tollgates where vehicles using a Hi-Pass lane must weave with other vehicles using a TCS lane. Therefore, there is a need for study on the safety in tollgates. To this end, this study aims at developing a methodology to evaluate the performance measures of diverse location countermeasures of Hi-Pass lanes in an efficient and systematic way. This study measured the mobility, safety and the convenience of installation and operation of Hi-Pass lanes using a microscopic traffic simulation tool, the surrogate safety assessment model and survey. In addition, this study aggregated the above three performance indexes using weight factors estimated using the AHP technique. For the test site, Dongsuwon interchange was selected. After building the microscopic traffic simulation model for the test site, the location countermeasures of Hi-Pass lanes applicable to the test site were compared with each other in terms of the mobility, safety and installing and operating convenience. As a result, there has been no apparent difference in mobility index based on delays. However, the countermeasures where Hi-Pass lanes are located in inside lanes generally showed better safety performance based on the number of conflicts. In addition, countermeasures with neighboring Hi-Pass lanes were favorable in terms of the safety and the convenience of installation and operation. The methodology proposed in this study was found to be useful to support decision makings by providing critical and quantitative information regarding the mobility, safety and the convenience of installation and operation.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.17 no.7
• /
• pp.265-274
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study was to know the difference in pain, sleep, self-care behavior in patients performed by sternotomy and robotic minimally invasive cardiac surgeries. The participants were 64 patients with sternotomy and 64 patients with minimal thoracotomy in heart valve surgeries at a tertiary hospital in Seoul. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, ${\chi}^2$ test, paired t-test. with SPSS/WIN(22.0). The participants with minimally invasive thoracotomy felt severe pain than the patients with thoracotomy at post operation day 2 & 5. The severe pain site were the surgical site in both groups. The participants with sternotomy had better sleep than minimally invasive thoracotomy patients. Self-care behavior was higher in the minimally invasive thoracotomy group. Therefore, despite the many advantages of robotic surgery such as rapid recovery and shortening of length of stay in hospital, accurate pain assessment and application of differentiated protocols are needed for the management of pain in the patients with robotic minimally invasive cardiac surgeries. In addition, a structured education program intervention is needed to improve comfort by considering gender, age, and method of operation.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.28-39
• /
• 2013

The most common housing type in Korea is low-rise buildings with unreinforced masonry walls (UMWs) that have been known as a vulnerable seismic-force-resisting system (SFRS) due to the lack of ductility capacities compared to high lateral stiffness of an UMW. However, there are still a little experimental investigation on the shear strength and stiffness of UMWs and on the seismic performance of buildings using UMWs as a SFRS. In Korea, the shear strength and stiffness of UMWs have been evaluated with the equations suggested in FEMA 356 which can not reflect the structural and material characteristics, and workmanship of domestic UMW construction. First of all, this study demonstrates the differences in shear strength and stiffness of UMWs obtained from between FEMA 356 and test results. The influence of these differences on the seismic performance of UMW buildings is then discussed with incremental dynamic analyses results of a prototype UMW building that were selected by the site survey of more than 200 UMW buildings and existing test results of UMWs. The seismic performance assessment of the prototype UMW building are analyzed based on collapse margin ratios and beta values repesenting uncertainty of seismic capacity. Analysis results show that the seismic performance of the UMW building estimated using the equations in FEMA 356 underestimates both a collapse margin ratio and a beta value compared to that estimated by test results. Whatever the estimation is carried out two cases, the seismic performance of the prototype building does not meet the criteria prescribed in a current Korean seismic code and about 90% collapse probability presents for more than 30-year-old UMW buildings under earthquakes with 2400 return years.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.355-363
• /
• 2023

In safety assessment of a aged bridge, dynamic characteristics and displacement are directly related to the rigidity of the structural system, especially displacement is the most important factor as the physical quantity that the bridge user can directly detect. However, in order to measure the displacement of the bridge, it is difficult to install displacement sensors at the bottom of the bridge and conduct traffic blocking and loading tests, resulting in increased costs or impossible measurements depending on the bridge's environment. In this study, a method of measuring the displacement of a bridge using only accelerometers without installing displacement sensors and ambient vibration without a loading test was proposed. For the analysis of bridge dynamic characteristics and displacement using ambient vibration, the mode shape and natural frequency of the bridge were extracted using a TDD technique known to enable quick analysis with simple calculations, and the unit load displacement of the bridge was analyzed through flexibility analysis to calculate static displacement. To verify this proposed technology, an on-site test was conducted on C Bridge, and the results were compared with the measured values of the loading test and the structural analysis data. As a result, it was confirmed that the mode shape and natural frequency were 0.42 to 1.13 % error ratio, and the maximum displacement at the main span was 3.58 % error ratio. Therefore, the proposed technology can be used as a basis data for indirectly determine the safety of the bridge by comparing the amount of displacement compared to the design and analysis values by estimating the displacement of the bridge that could not be measured due to the difficulty of installing displacement sensors.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.25 no.6
• /
• pp.532-541
• /
• 2016

The National Environmental Specimen Bank (NESB) has been collecting broad leave samples to monitor environmental pollution from five different designated sampling areas. In order to ensure the reproducibility and comparability of the results, all the procedures from selecting trees and pooling leaves to make the representative sample are defined in the standard operation procedures(the SOP). The representative samples were subjected to the chemical analyses for some heavy minerals and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons(PAHs). The uncertainty levels involved in each step of the SOP, that is, the sampling and the chemical analysis, were derived using the Robust ANOVA, which enables the relative comparison among the different levels of pollutants concentrations with confidence. Furthermore, the effect of the varying degrees of precipitation on the pollutants concentration of the leaves was also examined. Overall, the biological difference estimated from the duplicate samples was found to exceed the variation across the site, implying even aerial deposition over site. Samples from Gwanak Mt. showed highest heavy metal concentrations than the other sites. Washing off effect of the pollutants adhering in the form of particles on the leaf surface was found to be affected by the cumulative precipitation.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.62 no.5
• /
• pp.93-103
• /
• 2020

In this study, we estimated soil moisture values using the Deep Neural Network(DNN) scheme at the mountainous regions. In order to test the sensitive analysis of DNN scheme, we collected the measured(at the soil depths of 10 cm and 30 cm) soil moisture and DNN input(weather and land surface) data at the Pyeongchang-gun(relatively flat) and Geochang-gun(steep slope) sites. Our findings indicated that the soil moisture estimates were sensitive to the weather variables(5 days-averaged rainfall, 5 days precedent rainfall, accumlated rainfall) and DEM. These findings showed that the DEM and weather variables play the key role in the processes of soil water flow at the mountainous regions. We estimated the soil moisture values at the soil depths of 10 cm and 30 cm using DNN at two study sites under different climate-landsurface conditions. The estimated soil moisture(R: 0.890 and RMSE: 0.041) values at the soil depth of 10 cm were comparable with the measured data in Pyeongchang-gun site while the soil moisture estimates(R: 0.843 and RMSE: 0.048) at the soil depth of 30 cm were relatively biased. The DNN-based soil moisture values(R: 0.997/0.995 and RMSE: 0.014/0.006) at the soil depth of 10 cm/30 cm matched well with the measured data in Geochang-gun site. Although uncertainties exist in the results, our findings indicated that the DNN-based soil moisture estimation scheme demonstrated the good performance in estimating soil moisture values using weather and land surface information at the monitoring sites. Our proposed scheme can be useful for efficient land surface management in various areas such as agriculture, forest hydrology, etc.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.214-219
• /
• 1997

Background: Epidural neural blockade with local anesthetics combined with steroids has been in clinical trials for patients with low back pain. But pain treatment of low back pain remains somewhat problematic. Many patients with low back pain have epidural fibrosis and adhesions proved with magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) examination. These findings might play an important role in the origin of back pain. Present study was aims to investigate the effect of epidural adhesiolysis in patients with low back pain. Methods: We investigated 76 patients suspected with epidural fibrosis and adhesion was suspected. Nerve pathology was demonstrated and epidural fibrosis suspected or proved with MRI examination. 17G needle specially designed by Racz was inserted at sacral hiatus and catheter was inserted untill its tip was located at lesion site under fluoroscopic guidance. Injection of contrast dye was achieved and prospected spread of agents. Injection of 0.25% bupivacaine, triamcinolone, and 10% hypertonic saline via catheter were carried out daily for 3 days. Evaluation included assessment of pain relief (Numerical Rating Scale; NRS) post-epidural adhesiolysis 3 days, 1 week, and 3 months. We also looked for complication of epidural adhesiolysis. Results: Statistical analysis(Friedman nonparametric repeated measures test and Dune's multiple comparison test) demonstrated NRS was significantly less during 3 months after epidural adhesiolysis(P<0.05). Especially, there is a extremely significance in post-epidural adhesiolysis 3 days (P<0.001). Only four patients reported any complications the most common symptom among three persistent headache but disappeared after a few months without residual sequelae. Conclusion: We conclude epidural adhesiolysis is a safe and effective method of pain therapy for low back pain with proven lumbo-sacral fibrosis and adhesion. A direct visualization by epiduroscopy may be more useful to the resulting functional changes after epidural adhesiolysis.

• Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.156-163
• /
• 2006

In this study, substrate removal characteristics were analyzed to reduce the cost of external carbon dosage at Sudokwon Landfill Site Management Corporation in Korea by utilizing oxygen uptake rate (OUR) and nitrate uptake rate (NUR) tests. To estimate and evaluate the substrate removal characteristics obtained by the batch tests, the lab-scale MLE process was operated. By-products of J Co. (sugar manufactory) and S Co. (fine chemical industry) were selected as the concerned carbon sources through a comparison of carbon and nitrogen contents. MeOH was tested as a control experiment. Until the steady state, the fraction of $RBDCOD_{OUR}$ concentration to COD concentration of J Co., S Co. by-products and MeOH increased and reached levels of 98%, 82%, and 100%, respectively. During the 20th operating day, the fraction of $RBDCOD_{NUR}$ concentration to COD concentration was 95%, 81%, and 83%, respectively. These fractions of $RBDCOD_{NUR}$ concentration to $RBDCOD_{OUR}$ concentration increased according to acclimation periods and reached levels of 99%, 97%, and 81%, respectively, on the 20th day. The results obtained from the lab-scale MLE process operation using the concerned carbon sources as external carbon were similar to that observed by OUR and NUR tests.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute Of Construction Engineering and Management
• /
• 2007.11a
• /
• pp.880-885
• /
• 2007

In the last decades, the resource used in the construction process has become much more various in kinds and increased in number as construction has become enlargement and complexity. Resource management on a construction site has been recognized as a detrimental factor to influence project success, therefore various technologies have been applied by the construction industry to streamline resource management. RFID/USN interworking system composed of RFID technology and sensor network supports automation of resource management and real-time information networking. Most of research efforts for RFID technology in the construction industry have been limited to object identification technology. The study proposed herein it to verify the applicability of RFID/USN interworking system to the construction industry. The identification rates of RFID/USN interworking system by distance and degree and by type of materials was identified and analyzed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.8-17
• /
• 2003

The butt lap joint structures which are usually designed by the concept of slow crack growth damage tolerance, show frequently the behaviors of multiple site fatigue crack growth around the fastener hole edges due to the fretting between the two jointed parts. In this paper, experimental tests of fatigue crack growth have been performed of a bolted butt lap joint structure having an initial corner crack at the fastener hole edge, with different fretting conditions under a flight load spectrum. The obtained test results were reviewed to investigate the effects of fretting fatigue cracks on the damage tolerance crack growth life. Computations of corner crack growth were also carried out using an existed model to compare with test results.