• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제10권4호
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• pp.939-963
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• 2016

According to the new directives about the rational and efficient use of energy, thermal bridges in buildings have to be avoided, and the thermal insulation (TI) layer should run without interruptions all around the building - even under its foundations. The paper deals with the seismic response of multi-storeyed reinforced concrete (RC) frame building structures founded on an extruded polystyrene (XPS) layer placed beneath the foundation slab. The purpose of the paper is to elucidate the problem of buildings founded on a TI layer from the seismic resistance point of view, to assess the seismic behaviour of such buildings, and to search for the critical parameters which can affect the structural and XPS layer response. Nonlinear dynamic and static analyses were performed, and the seismic response of fixed-base (FB) and thermally insulated (TI) variants of nonlinear RC building models were compared. Soil-structure interaction was also taken into account for different types of soil. The results showed that the use of a TI layer beneath the foundation slab of a superstructure generally induces a higher peak response compared to that of a corresponding system without TI beneath the foundation slab. In the case of stiff structures located on firm soil, amplification of the response might be substantial and could result in exceedance of the superstructure's moment-rotation plastic hinge capacities or allowable lateral roof and interstorey drift displacements. In the case of heavier, slenderer, and higher buildings subjected to stronger seismic excitations, the overall response is governed by the rocking mode of oscillation, and as a consequence the compressive strength of the XPS could be insufficient. On the other hand, in the case of low-rise and light-weight buildings, the friction capacity between the layers of the applied TI foundation set might be exceeded so that sliding could occur.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• 제4권2호
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• pp.153-173
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• 2017

An improved method is presented to estimate the axial force of a bar member with vibrational measurements based on modified Timoshenko beam theory. Bending stiffness effects, rotational inertia, shear deformation, rotational inertia caused by shear deformation are all taken into account. Axial forces are estimated with certain natural frequency and corresponding mode shape, which are acquired from dynamic tests with five accelerometers. In the paper, modified Timoshenko beam theory is first presented with the inclusion of axial force and rotational inertia effects. Consistent mass and stiffness matrices for the modified Timoshenko beam theory are derived and then used in finite element simulations to investigate force identification accuracy under different boundary conditions and the influence of critical axial force ratio. The deformation coefficient which accounts for rotational inertia effects of the shearing deformation is discussed, and the relationship between the changing wave speed and the frequency is comprehensively examined to improve accuracy of the deformation coefficient. Finally, dynamic tests are conducted in our laboratory to identify progressive axial forces of a steel plate and a truss structure respectively. And the axial forces identified by the proposed method are in good agreement with the forces measured by FBG sensors and strain gauges. A significant advantage of this axial force identification method is that no assumption on boundary conditions is needed and excellent force identification accuracy can be achieved.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제12권6호
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• pp.689-697
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• 2017

Nowadays, there are a great number of various structures that have been retrofitted by using different FRP Composites. Due to this, more researches need to be conducted to know more the characteristics of these structures, not only that but also a comparison among them before and after the retrofitting is needed. In this research, a model steel structure is tested using a bench-scale earthquake simulator on the shake table, using recorded micro tremor data, in order to get the dynamic behaviors. Beams of the model steel structure are then retrofitted by using CFRP composite, and then tested on the Quanser shake table by using the recorded micro tremor data. At this stage, it is needed to evaluate the dynamic behaviors of the retrofitted model steel structure. Various types of methods of OMA, such as EFDD, SSI, etc. are used to take action in the ambient responses. Having a purpose to learn more about the effects of FRP composite, experimental model analysis of both types (retrofitted and no-retrofitted models) is conducted to evaluate their dynamic behaviors. There is a provision of ambient excitation to the shake table by using recorded micro tremor ambient vibration data on ground level. Furthermore, the Enhanced Frequency Domain decomposition is used through output-only modal identification. At the end of this study, moderate correlation is obtained between mode shapes, periods and damping ratios. The aim of this research is to show and determine the effects of CFRP Composite implementation on structural responses of the model steel structure, in terms of changing its dynamical behaviors. The frequencies for model steel structure and the retrofitted model steel structure are shown to be 34.43% in average difference. Finally, it is shown that, in order to evaluate the period and rigidity of retrofitted structures, OMA might be used.

• 한국방재학회 논문집
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• 제4권2호
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• pp.47-52
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• 2004

조적조 건축물은 작은 인장력과 연성능력으로 인해 지진발생시 심각한 피해상황을 나타내고 있다. 국외의 경우 조적조 건축물에 대한 여러 가지 보강방법이 사용되고 있으나, 국내의 경우 여러 가지 제약에 의하여 유리섬유보강방법을 사용하는 것이 적절하다. 본 논문에서는 유리섬유보강을 통한 지진피해를 입은 조적조 건축물의 내진성능에 관해 평가하였다. 실험결과 유리섬유보강 실험체의 최대 밑면 전단력과 변형이 현저하게 증가하였다. 파괴이후에도 유리섬유보강 실험체는 계속 하중에 저항하는 것으로 나타났다. 유리섬유보강 실험체는 전반적으로 pier 부분에서 Rocking 거동을 보였다.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제61권2호
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• pp.245-253
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• 2017

The increasing lack of good quality soils allowing the development of roadway, motorway, or railway networks, as well as large scale industrial facilities, necessitates the use of reinforcement techniques. Their aim is the improvement of the global performance of compressible soils, both in terms of settlement reduction and increase of the load bearing capacity. Among the various available techniques, the improvement of soils by incorporating vertical stiff piles appears to be a particularly appropriate solution, since it is easy to implement and does not require any substitution of significant soft soil volumes. The technique consists in driving a group of regularly spaced piles through a soft soil layer down to an underlying competent substratum. The surface load being thus transferred to this substratum by means of those reinforcing piles, which illustrates the case of a piled embankment. The differential settlements at the base of the embankment between the soft soil and the stiff piles lead to an "arching effect" in the embankment due to shearing mechanisms. This effect, which can be accentuated by the use of large pile caps, allows partial load transfer onto the pile, as well as surface settlement reduction, thus ensuring that the surface structure works properly. A technique for producing rigid piles has been developed to achieve in a single operation a rigid circular pile associated with a cone shaped head reversed on the place of a rigid circular pile. This technique has been used with success in a pile-supported road near Bourgoin-Jallieu (France). In this article, a numerical study based on this real case is proposed to highlight the functioning mode of this new technique in the case of industrial slabs.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제12권4호
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• pp.723-738
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• 2017

Rock is a heterogeneous material, which introduces complexity in the analysis of rock slopes, since both the existing discontinuities within the rock mass and the intact rock contribute to the degradation of strength. Rock failure is often catastrophic due to the brittle nature of the material, involving the sliding along structural planes and the fracturing of rock bridge. This paper proposes an advanced discretization method of rock mass based on block theory. An in-house software, GeoSMA-3D, has been developed to generate the discrete fracture network (DFN) model, considering both measured and artificial joints. Measured joints are obtained from the photogrammetry analysis on the excavation face. Statistical tools then facilitate to derive artificial joints within the rock mass. Key blocks are searched to provide guidance on potential reinforcement measures. The discretized blocky system is subsequently implemented into a discontinuous deformation analysis (DDA) code. Strength reduction technique is employed to analyze the stability of the slope, where the factor of safety can be obtained once excessive deformation of slope profile is observed. The combined analysis approach also provides the failure mode, which can be used to guide the choice of strengthening strategy if needed. Finally, an illustrated example is presented for the analysis of a rock slope of 20 m height inclined at $60^{\circ}$ using combined GeoSMA-3D and DDA calculation.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제67권4호
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• pp.347-358
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• 2018

The main aim of this research was to investigate the shear strength of non-prismatic steel fiber reinforced concrete beams under monotonic loading considering different parameters. Experimental program included tests on fifteen non-prismatic reinforced concrete beams divided into three groups. For the first and the second groups, different parameters were taken into consideration which are: steel fibers content, shear span to minimum depth ratio ($a/d_{min}$) and tapering angle (${\alpha}$). The third group was designed mainly to optimize the geometry of the non-prismatic concrete beams with the same concrete volume while the steel fiber ratio and the shear span were left constant in this group. The presence of steel fibers in concrete led to an increase in the load-carrying capacity in a range of 10.25%-103%. Also, the energy absorption capacity was increased due to the addition of steel fibers in a range of 18.17%-993.18% and the failure mode was changed from brittle to ductile. Tapering angle had a clear effect on the shear strength of test specimens. The increase in tapering angle from ($7^{\circ}$) to ($12^{\circ}$) caused an increase in the ultimate shear capacity for the test specimens. The maximum increase in ultimate load was 45.49%. The addition of steel fibers had a significant impact on the post-cracking behavior of the test specimens. Empirical equation for shear strength prediction at cracking limit state was proposed. The predicted cracking shear strength was in good agreement with the experimental findings.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제15권3호
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• pp.335-350
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• 2018

This paper presents numerical modelling, modal testing, finite element model updating, linear and nonlinear earthquake behavior of a reinforced concrete building model. A 1/2 geometrically scale, two-storey, reinforced concrete frame model with raft base were constructed, tested and analyzed. Modal testing on the model using ambient vibrations is performed to illustrate the dynamic characteristics experimentally. Finite element model of the structure is developed by ANSYS software and dynamic characteristics such as natural frequencies, mode shapes and damping ratios are calculated numerically. The enhanced frequency domain decomposition method and the stochastic subspace identification method are used for identifying dynamic characteristics experimentally and such values are used to update the finite element models. Different parameters of the model are calibrated using manual tuning process to minimize the differences between the numerically calculated and experimentally measured dynamic characteristics. The maximum difference between the measured and numerically calculated frequencies is reduced from 28.47% to 4.75% with the model updating. To determine the effects of the finite element model updating on the earthquake behavior, linear and nonlinear earthquake analyses are performed using 1992 Erzincan earthquake record, before and after model updating. After model updating, the maximum differences in the displacements and stresses were obtained as 29% and 25% for the linear earthquake analysis and 28% and 47% for the nonlinear earthquake analysis compared with that obtained from initial earthquake results before model updating. These differences state that finite element model updating provides a significant influence on linear and especially nonlinear earthquake behavior of buildings.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제16권5호
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• pp.651-660
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• 2006

Natural products are a rich source of biologically active small molecules and a fertile area for lead discovery of new drugs [10, 52]. For instance, 5% of the 1,031 new chemical entities approved as drugs by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were natural products between 1981 and 2002, and another 23% were natural product-derived molecules [53]. These molecules have evolved through millions of years of natural selection to interact with biomolecules in the cells or organisms and offer unrivaled chemical and structural diversity [14, 37]. Nonetheless, a large percentage of nature remains unexplored, in particular, in the marine and microbial environments. Therefore, natural products are still major valuable sources of innovative therapeutic agents for human diseases. However, even when a natural product is found to exhibit biological activity, the cellular target and mode of action of the compound are mostly mysterious. This is also true of many natural products that are currently under clinical trials or have already been approved as clinical drugs [11]. The lack of information on a definitive cellular target for a biologically active natural product prevents the rational design and development of more potent therapeutics. Therefore, there is a great need for new techniques to expedite the rapid identification and validation of cellular targets for biologically active natural products. Chemical genomics is a new integrated research engine toward functional studies of genome and drug discovery [40, 69]. The identification and validation of cellular receptors of biologically active small molecules is one of the key goals of the discipline. This eventually facilitates subsequent rational drug design, and provides valuable information on the receptors in cellular processes. Indeed, several biologically crucial proteins have already been identified as targets for natural products using chemical genomics approach (Table 1). Herein, the representative case studies of chemical genomics using natural products derived from microbes, marine sources, and plants will be introduced.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• 제12권2호
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• pp.51-58
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• 2008

Cardiac fibroblasts constitute one of the largest cell populations in the heart, and contribute to structural, biochemical, mechanical and electrical properties of the myocardium. Nonetheless, their cardiac functions, especially electrophysiological properties, have often been disregarded in studies. $Ca^{2+}$-activated $K^+\;(K_{Ca})$ channels can control $Ca^{2+}$ influx as well as a number of $Ca^{2+}$-dependent physiological processes. We, therefore, attempted to identify and characterize $K_{Ca}$ channels in rat Cardiac fibroblasts. First, we showed that the cells cultured from the rat ventricle were cardiac fibroblasts by immunostaining for discoidin domain receptor 2 (DDR-2), a specific fibroblast marker. Secondly, we detected the expression of various $K_{Ca}$ channels by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and found all three family members of $K_{Ca}$ channels, including large conductance $K_{Ca}$ (BK-${\alpha}1-\;and\;-{\beta}1{\sim}4$subunits), intermediate conductance $K_{Ca}$ (IK), and small conductance $K_{Ca}$ (SK$1{\sim}4$ subunits) channels. Thirdly, we recorded BK, IK, and SK channels by whole cell mode patch clamp technique using their specific blockers. Finally, we performed cell proliferation assay to evaluate the effects of the channels on cell proliferation, and found that the inhibition of IK channel increased the cell proliferation. These results showed the existence of BK, IK, and SK channels in rat ventricular fibroblasts and involvement of IK channel in cell proliferation.