• Composites Research
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.224-229
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• 2023

Due to the increasing demand for wearable devices and miniaturization of various electronic devices, the trend of nanofabrication in IT devices is underway. In order to overcome the limitations of battery size and capacity, there has been a lot of research interest in energy harvesting technology, also known as triboelectric nanogenerator. AAO(Anodic Aluminum oxide) coated with fluoride is a structure that includes an anode layer with high properties in the triboelectric series, an dielectric layer that helps transfer the triboelectrically generated charges to the electrode without loss, and the electrode. For these reasons, AAO has been a lot of research on its application to frictional energy harvesting nanogenerators. In this work, we analyzed the correlation of AAO between the surface morphology and thickness of the insulating layer by utilizing aluminum oxide, which is advantageous for the application of triboelectric nanogenerators, and adjusting the thickness of the insulating layer.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.413-419
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• 2011

Corporate governance is a system articulating the division of responsibilities among different company members, and defining the running rules and procedures for making decisions on corporate affairs. The separation of ownership and management in modern enterprises brings agency problems to the company shareholders, and it is wildly believed that good practice on corporate governance is essential to prevent managers from taking actions by which profiteering their own benefits but compromising the interests of shareholders. This research investigates the level of companies' compliance with the corporate governance codes to find whether significant differences in corporate governance practice exist between the listed construction companies and the national leading companies in Taiwan. Further exploration focuses on the correlation between the compliance level and the industrial features. The investigation finds that: (1)Construction companies display lower levels of corporate governance compliance; (2)Construction companies display lower levels of structural board independence and respect for stakeholders; (3)Compliance levels of construction companies are correlated with the number of employees and the ownership concentration; (4)Compliance levels of the whole sample companies are correlated with the factors representing firm size, such as turnover, capital and number of employees, but are independent of profitability as well as stock price volatility. The above empirical evidence characterizes the features of corporate governance in Taiwan listed construction companies, including: (1)Large companies lurking high risk of agency problems have more willingness to conduct corporate governance and meanwhile can afford higher costs for the conduction, so that their compliance level would be higher than smaller companies; (2)Construction companies in Taiwan have higher ownership concentration, on account of the industrial tradition of family business, and therefore pay less attention to the compliance with structural board independence and respect for stakeholders. However, the conclusions indicate that further studies are essential to clarify whether the above disparities would lead to a negative cycle of corporate governance practice in construction industry. The benefits of corporate governance should unfold more evidently to convince construction companies for improving their investment environment and stimulating their healthy growth.

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.763-769
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• 2023

Flight control computers for unmanned aerial vehicles are avionics that require high reliability and are generally designed to be multiplexed for margins on failures. The multiplexed flight control computer should include an interface through discrete signals and CCDL for synchronization and fault separation between channels. With the development of unmanned aerial vehicle technology, various types of platforms such as AAM and LPI are being developed in the private and military, which require advanced control performance for high-performance flight control and SWaP optimization of onboard equipment. In this paper, we designed a optimized flight control computer architecture for unmanned aerial vehicles for multiplexing processing and performed a software design for input and output control. In addition, input/output processing performance was evaluated through the implemented flight control computer and input/output software.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.19-30
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• 2024

Background: Although an understanding of the proliferation and differentiation of fish female germline stem cells (GSCs) is very important, an appropriate threedimensional (3D) research model to study them is not well established. As a part of the development of stable 3D culture system for fish female GSCs, we conducted this study to establish a 3D aggregate culture system of ovarian cells in marine medaka, Oryzias dancena. Methods: Ovarian cells were separated by Percoll density gradient centrifugation and two different cell populations were cultured in suspension to form ovarian cell aggregates to find suitable cell populations for its formation. Ovarian cell aggregates formed from different cell populations were evaluated by histology and gene expression analyses. To evaluate the media supplements, ovarian cell aggregate culture was performed under different media conditions, and the morphology, viability, size, gene expression, histology, and E2 secretion of ovarian cell aggregates were analyzed. Results: Ovarian cell aggregates were able to be formed well under specific culture conditions that used ultra-low attachment 96 well plate, complete mESM2, and the cell populations from top to 50% layers after separation of ovarian cells. Moreover, they were able to maintain minimal ovarian function such as germ cell maintenance and E2 synthesis for a short period. Conclusions: We established basic conditions for the culture of O. dancena ovarian cell aggregates. Additional efforts will be required to further optimize the culture conditions so that the ovarian cell aggregates can retain the improved ovarian functions for a longer period of time.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.8
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• pp.1580-1591
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• 2024

Menopause is induced by spontaneous ovarian failure and leads to life quality deterioration with various irritating symptoms. Hormonal treatment can alleviate these symptoms, but long-term treatment is closely associated with breast and uterine cancer, and stroke. Therefore, developing alternative therapies with novel anti-menopausal substances and improved safety is needed. In our study, heat-killed Bifidobacterium breve HDB7040 significantly promoted MCF-7 cell proliferation in a dose-dependent manner under estrogen-free conditions, similar to 17β-estradiol. This strain also triggered ESR2 expression, but not ESR1, in MCF-7 cells. Moreover, administrating HDB7040 to ovariectomized (OVX) Sprague-Dawley (SD) female rats reduced estrogen deficiency-induced weight gain, fat mass, blood triglyceride, and total cholesterol levels. It also recovered collapsed trabecular microstructure by improving trabecular morphometric parameters (bone mineral density, bone volume per tissue volume, trabecular number, and trabecular separation) and decreasing blood alkaline phosphatase levels with no significant changes in uterine size and blood estradiol. HDB7040 also significantly regulated the expression of Tff1, Pgr, and Esr2, but not Esr1 in uteri of OVX rats. Heat-killed B. breve HDB7040 exerts an anti-menopausal effect via the specific regulation of ERβ in vitro and in vivo, suggesting its potential as a novel substance for improving and treating menopausal syndrome.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.34-40
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• 2014

SPLITT fractionation (SF) allows continuous (and thus a preparative scale) separation of micronsized particles into two size fractions ('fraction-a' and 'fraction-b'). SF is usually carried out in a thin rectangular channel with two inlets and two outlets, which is equipped with flow stream splitters at the inlet and the outlet of the channel, respectively. A new large scale splitter-less gravitational SF (GSF) system had been assembled, which was designed to eliminate the flow stream splitters and thus is operated by the full feed depletion (FFD) mode (FFD-GSF). In the FFD mode, there is only one inlet through which the sample is fed. There is no carrier liquid fed into the channel, and thus prevents the sample dilution. The effects of the sample-feeding flow rate, the channel thickness on the fractionation efficiency (FE, number % of particles that have the size predicted by theory) of FFD-GSF was investigated using industrial polyurethane (PU) latex beads. The carrier liquid was water containing 0.1% FL-70 (particle dispersing agent) and 0.02% sodium azide (used as bactericide). The sample loading rate was varied from about 4 to 7 L/hr with the sample concentration fixed at 0.01%. The GSF channel thickness was varied from 900 to $1300{\mu}m$. Particles exiting the GSF channel were collected and monitored by optical microscopy (OM). Sample recovery was monitored by collecting the fractionated particles on a $0.45{\mu}m$ membrane filter. It was found that FE of fraction-a was increased as the channel thickness increases, and FE of fraction-b was increased as the flow rate was increased. In all cases, the sample recovery has higher than 95%. It seems the new splitter-less FFD GSF system could become a useful tool for large scale separations of various types of micron-sized particles.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.83-89
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• 2018

Hydrophobic porous PVDF hollow fiber membranes for Membrane Distillation (MD) were fabricated by a combination of thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) and stretching. The purpose of this study is to investigate the shape and operating conditions of the module and the effect of piping size on parallel connection. In the optimization experiment of the vacuum membrane distillation module, the flux decreased as the packing density and length of the membrane in the module increased. When the module was connected vertically, it was confirmed that the nearest to the inlet of the vacuum port was the highest flux. In selecting the size of the header pipe of the module, it was confirmed that the maximum flux is shown when the inner diameter area of the hollow fiber membrane and the inner diameter area of the header pipe are the same. Also, it is necessary to find the optimal linear velocity because the higher the linear velocity in the module, the higher the flux, but the pressure acting on the module also increases proportionally.

• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.149-182
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• 2007

This study examines the determinants of the long-run stock price performance of the firms that granted stock options between 1997 and 2002. We divide the sample into the firms run by the owner and those run by the professional manager. If the primary reason for granting stock options is reduction of the agency costs between the manager and shareholders, the effect of stock options is likely to be more pronounced in the firms run by the professional manager. We find that the long-run abnormal returns of the firms run by the professional manager are negatively associated with the shareholdings by the manager and the book-to-market value and are positively associated with the earnings growth and the size of the outstanding stock options. In contrast, the long-run abnormal returns of the firms run by the owner are negatively associated with the cash flows rate and the sales growth rate and are positively associated with the firm size. This is consistent with the argument that the agency costs arising from the conflicts between the manager and shareholders are an important determinant of the post-stock option granting long-run stock price performance only in the firms run by the professional manager. The results also suggest that stock options in the firms run by the owner are likely to be used for the purposes such as additional compensation, a signaling device, a means that reduce the agency costs within firms.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.352-358
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• 2000

Preparation for the simplified separation of chitosandoligosaccharides from enzymatic hydrolysate was investigated. Two different types of chitosan beads as substrate were prepared as organic-based bead by W/O emulsion method and water-based bead by alkaline treatement. The average size of organic-based bead was $200{\mu}m$, and that of water based beads were $4000{\mu}m$, $100{\mu}m$, $30{\mu}m$, in diameter respectively. Enzyme stability was maintained over 80% at PH 6 after 24 hours. The optimal condition for the production of chitosanoligosaccharides was at pH 6.0, $50^{\circ}C$ and 40U (200U/g-chitosan) According to final oligosaccharide concentration water-based bed showed the similar result with that of organic-based bead even through it had smaller surface area attacked by chitosanse than that of organic-based bead. It is probable that the structure of water-based chitosan bead was looser than that of organic-based bead so enzyme penetrated easily into the bead structure. For the oligosaccharide production versus surface area the different size of water-based beads was investigated, Maxiaml production yield was observed in the $30{\mu}m$ beads. Consequently the water-based chitosan bead was better than the organic-based bead in this reaction system.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.257-262
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• 2019

Lattice steel towers for overhead transmission lines have been replaced by tubular steel poles due to the visual impact of large and complex shape of truss type. Demand for tubular steel poles consisting of a single frame member continues to grow because of its advantages such as visual minimization, architectural appeal and minimal site consumptions. However, there are some constraints on the transportation and construction. As the diameter of tower base has been enlarged, it may exceed minimum height limit required to pass the tunnel in case of land transportation. Also, in a narrow place where it is not easy to secure the installation areas such as mountainous places, there might be some areas wherein it must secure a wide working space so that large vehicles and working cranes will be allowed to enter. In this paper, we presented a vertical separated tubular steel pole, which is a new type of support that can be implemented for general purpose such as mountainous areas or narrow areas to improve the issues raised by breaking away from the conventional design and fabrication methods. Technical approaches for overcoming the limit of the cross-sectional size is to separate and modularize the cross-section of the tubular steel pole designed with a size that cannot be carried or assembled, and to lighten it with a weight capable of being transported and assembled in a narrow space or mountainous area. As a result of this research, it will be possible to enter small and medium sized vehicles in locations where it is restricted to transport by large-sized vehicles. In the case of mountainous areas, it will be possible to divide it into a weight capable of being carried by a helicopter and it will be easy to adjust and fabricate it with individual modules. Furthermore, in order to break away from the traditional construction method, we proposed the equipment that can be applied to the assembly of Tubular Steel Pole without using a large crane in locations where there is no accessible road or in locations wherein large cranes cannot enter. In particular, this paper shows the movable assembling equipment and some methods that are specialized for vertical separated tubular steel pole consisting of members with reduced weight. The proposed assembly equipment is a device for assembling the body of the Tubular Steel Poles. It will be installed inside the support and the modules can be lifted by using the support itself.