• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.247-257
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• 2023

In structural health monitoring of large-scale structures, optimal sensor placement plays an important role because of the high cost of sensors and their supporting instruments, as well as the burden of data transmission and storage. In this study, a vibration sensor placement algorithm based on deep reinforcement learning (DRL) is proposed, which can effectively solve non-convex, high-dimensional, and discrete combinatorial sensor placement optimization problems. An objective function is constructed to estimate the quality of a specific vibration sensor placement scheme according to the modal assurance criterion (MAC). Using this objective function, a DRL-based algorithm is presented to determine the optimal vibration sensor placement scheme. Subsequently, we transform the sensor optimal placement process into a Markov decision process and employ a DRL-based optimization algorithm to maximize the objective function for optimal sensor placement. To illustrate the applicability of the proposed method, two examples are presented: a 10-story braced frame and a sea-crossing bridge model. A comparison study is also performed with a genetic algorithm and particle swarm algorithm. The proposed DRL-based algorithm can effectively solve the discrete combinatorial optimization problem for vibration sensor placements and can produce superior performance compared with the other two existing methods.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.285-294
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• 2023

Porous ceramics are used in various industrial applications based on their physical properties, including isolation, storage, and thermal barrier properties. However, traditional manufacturing environments require additional steps to control artificial pores and limit deformities, because they rely on limited molding methods. To overcome this drawback, many studies have recently focused on fabricating porous structures using additive manufacturing techniques. In particular, the binder jet technology enables high porosity and various types of designs, and avoids the limitations of existing manufacturing processes. In this study, we investigated process optimization for manufacturing porous ceramic filters using the binder jet technology. In binder jet technology, the flowability of the powder used as the base material is an important factor, as well as compatibility with the binder in the process and for the final print. Flow agents and secondary binders were used to optimize the flowability and compatibility of the powders. In addition, the effects of the amount of added glass frit, and changes in sintering temperature on the microstructure, porosity and mechanical properties of the final printed product were investigated.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.675-684
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• 2023

In this study, the water supply reliability of the andong and Imha dam was analyzed using inflow data for 360 months from 1993 to 2022 through allocation model. First, in the analysis results of additional water supply to Deagu city, the water supply reliability of Rule (B) was the highest at 86% for andong dam, 84% for imha dam, and 80% for the control point. However, when the planned supply was supplied, the analysis results showed 94%, 93%, and 90%. Next, in the quantitative reliability analysis results, when considering additional water supply to Deagu city, Rule (A), Rule (B), and Rule (C) were analyzed as 88%, 88%, and 88%, respectively, based on the control point. When supplying the planned water supply, the quantitative reliability analysis results were 95% equally based on Rule (A), Rule (B), and Rule (C). Because of evaluating the two reliability methods, the number of shortages increases significantly when additional water is supplied to Daegu City, but the shortage is generally 5-7%, resulting in a relatively small shortage compared with the increase in the number of shortages. In the case of resilience and vulnerability, additional water supply to Daegu City takes more than two months to restore than the existing planned water supply, and the average shortage was calculated to be smaller than that of supplying the planned water. According to the results of the analysis, Andong dam has an average water storage of 130x106 m² and Imha dam has 50x106 m². In this deficient water supply can be compensated by water from the Nakdong river.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2023.04a
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• pp.33-33
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• 2023

Potatoes are the world's 4th major food crop after maize, rice, and wheat and also are a staple food for 1.3 billion people. Due to their wide adaptability to various environmental conditions, their yeild capacity, and high commercial value, potatoes have contributed to global food security. Many potato germplasms are commonly preserved as whole plants in fields or in storage to maintain their particular genetic combinations. However, field maintenance is expensive and has the risk of potential losses from diseases, pests, plant ageing and climate change. Over the past four decades, meaningful efforts have been made toward the safe long-term conservation of potatoes through cryopreservation methods such as droplet-vitrification. In this study, we tested 4 Korean potato varieties('Golden Egg', 'Golden Ball', 'Ja-Young' and 'Ha-Ryeong') with the modified potato droplet -vitrification protocol. Potato shoot tips are precultured in a sucrose-enriched medium(0.3 and 0.7M for 7 and 17hrs, respectively) and submitted to a loading step with C4 solution for osmoprotection. The treated explants were dehydrated with Plant Vitrification Solution(PVS)2 which is 80% A3 solution in ice for 30 minutes. Thawing and unloading steps were performed with 0.8M sucrose solution for 30 sec(40℃) followed by 30min(25℃, room temperature). In a potato post-culture medium(MS+0.1 mg·L^-1 GA₃+0.1 mg·L^-1 kinetin), we obtained a survival rates of post-thawed explants ranging 16.1-82.2%. The results suggest that modified and optimized protocols are required dependinig on every cultivar, genetic and ecological types. To achieve higher survival and regeneration rates, each step within the cryoprocedure must be carefully optimized.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.784-794
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• 2023

Background: ginsenoside Rg5 is a rare ginsenoside with known hypoglycemic effects in diabetic mice. This study aimed to explore the effects of ginsenoside Rg5 on skin wound-healing in the Lepr^db/db mutant (db/db) mice (C57BL/KsJ background) model and the underlying mechanisms. Methods: Seven-week-old male C57BL/6J, SLC7A11-knockout (KO), the littermate wild-type (WT), and db/db mice were used for in vivo and ex vivo studies. Results: Ginsenoside Rg5 provided through oral gavage in db/db mice significantly alleviated the abundance of apoptotic cells in the wound areas and facilitated skin wound healing. 50 μM ginsenoside Rg5 treatment nearly doubled the efferocytotic capability of bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) from db/db mice. It also reduced NF-κB p65 and SLC7A11 expression in the wounded areas of db/db mice dose-dependently. Ginsenoside Rg5 physically interacted with SLC7A11 and suppressed the cystine uptake and glutamate secretion of BMDCs from db/db and SLC7A11-WT mice but not in BMDCs from SLC7A11-KO mice. In BMDCs and conventional type 1 dendritic cells (cDC1s), ginsenoside Rg5 reduced their glycose storage and enhanced anaerobic glycolysis. Glycogen phosphorylase inhibitor CP-91149 almost abolished the effect of ginsenoside Rg5 on promoting efferocytosis. Conclusion: ginsenoside Rg5 can suppress the expression of SLC7A11 and inhibit its activity via physical binding. These effects collectively alleviate the negative regulations of SLC7A11 on anaerobic glycolysis, which fuels the efferocytosis of dendritic cells. Therefore, ginsenoside Rg5 has a potential adjuvant therapeutic reagent to support patients with wound-healing problems, such as diabetic foot ulcers.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.35-57
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• 2023

Majority of the plastic produced each year is being disposed in land after single-use, which becomes waste and takes up a lot of storage space. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find alternative solutions instead of disposal. Recycling and reusing the PET plastic waste as aggregate replacement and fiber in concrete production can be one of the eco- friendly methods as there is a great demand for concrete around the world, especially in developing countries by raising human awareness of the environment, the economy, and Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Self-compacting concrete (SCC) is a key development in concrete technology that offers a number of attractive features over traditional concrete applications. Recently, in order to improve its durability and prevent such plastics from directly contacting the environment, various kinds of plastics have been added. This review article summarizes the latest evident on the performance of SCC containing recycled PET as eco-friendly aggregates and fiber. Moreover, it highlights the influence of substitution content, shape, length, and size on the fresh and properties of SCC incorporating PET plastic. Based on the findings of the articles that were reviewed for this study, it is observed that SCC made of PET plastic (PETSCC) can be employed in construction era owing to its acceptable mechanical and fresh properties. On the other hand, it is concluded that owing to the lightweight nature of plastic aggregate, Reusing PET waste in the construction application is an effective approach to reduces the earthquake risk of a building.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.30.1-30.11
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• 2023

Objectives: This study verified the possibility of cementing fiberglass-reinforced posts using a flowable bulk-fill composite (BF), comparing its push-out bond strength and microhardness with these properties of 3 luting materials. Materials and Methods: Sixty endodontically treated bovine roots were used. Posts were cemented using conventional dual-cured cement (CC); self-adhesive cement (SA); dual-cured composite (RC); and BF. Push-out bond strength (n = 10) and microhardness (n = 5) tests were performed after 1 week and 4 months of storage. Two-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), 1-way ANOVA, t-test, and Tukey post-hoc tests were applied for the push-out bond strength and microhardness results; and Pearson correlation test was applied to verify the correlation between push-out bond strength and microhardness results (α = 0.05). Results: BF presented higher push-out bond strength than CC and SA in the cervical third before aging (p < 0.01). No differences were found between push-out bond strength before and after aging for all the luting materials (p = 0.84). Regarding hardness, only SA presented higher values measured before than after aging (p < 0.01). RC and BF did not present 80% of the maximum hardness at the apical regions. A strong positive correlation was found between the luting materials' push-out bond strength and microhardness (p < 0.01, R² = 0.7912). Conclusions: The BF presented comparable or higher push-out bond strength and microhardness than the luting materials, which indicates that it could be used for cementing resin posts in situations where adequate light curing is possible.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.640-654
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• 2024

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of sodium salicylate (SS) on semen preservation and metabolic regulation in goats. Methods: Under the condition of low temperature, SS was added to goat semen diluent to detect goat sperm motility, plasma membrane, acrosome, antioxidant capacity, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) and metabonomics. Results: The results show that at the 8th day of low-temperature storage, the sperm motility of the 20 μM SS group was 66.64%, and the integrity rates of the plasma membrane and acrosome were both above 60%, significantly higher than those of the other groups. The activities of catalase and superoxide dismutase in the sperm of the 20 μM SS group were significantly higher than those of the control group, the contents of reactive oxygen species and malondialdehyde were significantly lower than those in the control group, the MMP was significantly higher than that in the control group, and the contents of Ca²⁺ and total cholesterol were significantly higher than those in the control group. Through metabonomics analysis, there were significant metabolic differences between the control group and the 20 μM SS group. Twenty of the most significant metabolic markers were screened, mainly involving five metabolic pathways, of which nicotinic acid and nicotinamide metabolic pathways were the most significant. Conclusion: The results indicate that SS can effectively improve the low-temperature preservation quality of goat sperm.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.66-74
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• 2024

This study addresses the escalating issue of worldwide hydrogen gas accidents, which has seen a significant increase in occurrences. To comprehensively evaluate the risks associated with hydrogen, a two approach was employed in this study. Firstly, a qualitative risk assessment was conducted using the bow-tie method. Secondly, a quantitative consequence analysis was carried out utilizing the areal locations of hazardous atmospheres (ALOHA) model. The study applied this method to two incidents, the hydrogen explosion accident occurred at the Muskingum River power plant in Ohio, USA, 2007 and the hydrogen storage tank explosion accident occurred at the K Technopark water electrolysis system in Korea, 2019. The results of the risk assessments revealed critical issues such as deterioration of gas pipe, human errors in incident response and the omission of important gas cleaning facility. By analyzing the cause of accidents and assessing risks quantitatively, the effective accident response plans are proposed and the effectiveness is evaluated by comparing the effective distance obtained by ALOHA simulation. Notably, the implementation of these measures led to a significant 54.5% reduction in the risk degree of potential explosions compared to the existing risk levels.

• The Journal of Advanced Prosthodontics
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.115-125
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• 2024

PURPOSE. The purpose of this in vitro study was to investigate the fracture resistance, surface hardness, and color stain of 3D printed, CAD-CAM milled, and conventional interim materials. MATERIALS AND METHODS. A total of 80 specimens were fabricated from auto polymerizing polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), bis-acryl composite resin, CAD-CAM polymethyl methacrylate resin (milled), and 3D printed composite resin (printed) (n = 20). Forty of them were crown-shaped, on which fracture strength test was performed (n = 10). The others were disc-shaped specimens (10 mm × 2 mm) and divided into two groups for surface hardness and color stainability tests before and after thermal cycling in coffee solution (n = 10). Color parameters were measured with a spectrophotometer before and after each storage period, and color differences (CIEDE2000 [DE00]) were calculated. The distribution of variables was measured with the Kolmogorov Smirnov test, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Tukey HSD, Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney U tests were used in the analysis of quantitative independent data. Paired sample t-test was used in the analysis of dependent quantitative data (P < .05). RESULTS. The highest crown fracture resistance values were determined for the 3D printed composite resin (P < .05), and the lowest were observed in the bis-acryl composite resin (P < .05). Before and after thermal cycling, increase in mean hardness values were observed only in 3D printed composite resin (P < .05) and the highest ΔE₀₀ value were observed in PMMA resin for all materials (P < .05). CONCLUSION. 3D printing and CAD-CAM milled interim materials showed better fracture strength. After the coffee thermal cycle, the highest surface hardness value was again found in 3D printing and CAD-CAM milled interim samples and the color change of the bis-acryl resin-based samples and the additive production technique was higher than the PMMA resin and CAD-CAM milled resin samples.