• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems Conference
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• 1993.06a
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• pp.1041-1043
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• 1993

Fuzzy logic based Control Theory has gained much interest in the industrial world, thanks to its ability to formalize and solve in a very natural way many problems that are very difficult to quantify at an analytical level. This paper shows a solution for treating membership function inside hardware circuits. The proposed hardware structure optimizes the memoried size by using particular form of the vectorial representation. The process of memorizing fuzzy sets, i.e. their membership function, has always been one of the more problematic issues for the hardware implementation, due to the quite large memory space that is needed. To simplify such an implementation, it is commonly [1,2,8,9,10,11] used to limit the membership functions either to those having triangular or trapezoidal shape, or pre-definite shape. These kinds of functions are able to cover a large spectrum of applications with a limited usage of memory, since they can be memorized by specifying very few parameters ( ight, base, critical points, etc.). This however results in a loss of computational power due to computation on the medium points. A solution to this problem is obtained by discretizing the universe of discourse U, i.e. by fixing a finite number of points and memorizing the value of the membership functions on such points [3,10,14,15]. Such a solution provides a satisfying computational speed, a very high precision of definitions and gives the users the opportunity to choose membership functions of any shape. However, a significant memory waste can as well be registered. It is indeed possible that for each of the given fuzzy sets many elements of the universe of discourse have a membership value equal to zero. It has also been noticed that almost in all cases common points among fuzzy sets, i.e. points with non null membership values are very few. More specifically, in many applications, for each element u of U, there exists at most three fuzzy sets for which the membership value is ot null [3,5,6,7,12,13]. Our proposal is based on such hypotheses. Moreover, we use a technique that even though it does not restrict the shapes of membership functions, it reduces strongly the computational time for the membership values and optimizes the function memorization. In figure 1 it is represented a term set whose characteristics are common for fuzzy controllers and to which we will refer in the following. The above term set has a universe of discourse with 128 elements (so to have a good resolution), 8 fuzzy sets that describe the term set, 32 levels of discretization for the membership values. Clearly, the number of bits necessary for the given specifications are 5 for 32 truth levels, 3 for 8 membership functions and 7 for 128 levels of resolution. The memory depth is given by the dimension of the universe of the discourse (128 in our case) and it will be represented by the memory rows. The length of a world of memory is defined by: Length = nem (dm(m)＋dm(fm) Where: fm is the maximum number of non null values in every element of the universe of the discourse, dm(m) is the dimension of the values of the membership function m, dm(fm) is the dimension of the word to represent the index of the highest membership function. In our case then Length=24. The memory dimension is therefore 128*24 bits. If we had chosen to memorize all values of the membership functions we would have needed to memorize on each memory row the membership value of each element. Fuzzy sets word dimension is 8*5 bits. Therefore, the dimension of the memory would have been 128*40 bits. Coherently with our hypothesis, in fig. 1 each element of universe of the discourse has a non null membership value on at most three fuzzy sets. Focusing on the elements 32,64,96 of the universe of discourse, they will be memorized as follows: The computation of the rule weights is done by comparing those bits that represent the index of the membership function, with the word of the program memor . The output bus of the Program Memory (μCOD), is given as input a comparator (Combinatory Net). If the index is equal to the bus value then one of the non null weight derives from the rule and it is produced as output, otherwise the output is zero (fig. 2). It is clear, that the memory dimension of the antecedent is in this way reduced since only non null values are memorized. Moreover, the time performance of the system is equivalent to the performance of a system using vectorial memorization of all weights. The dimensioning of the word is influenced by some parameters of the input variable. The most important parameter is the maximum number membership functions (nfm) having a non null value in each element of the universe of discourse. From our study in the field of fuzzy system, we see that typically nfm 3 and there are at most 16 membership function. At any rate, such a value can be increased up to the physical dimensional limit of the antecedent memory. A less important role n the optimization process of the word dimension is played by the number of membership functions defined for each linguistic term. The table below shows the request word dimension as a function of such parameters and compares our proposed method with the method of vectorial memorization[10]. Summing up, the characteristics of our method are: Users are not restricted to membership functions with specific shapes. The number of the fuzzy sets and the resolution of the vertical axis have a very small influence in increasing memory space. Weight computations are done by combinatorial network and therefore the time performance of the system is equivalent to the one of the vectorial method. The number of non null membership values on any element of the universe of discourse is limited. Such a constraint is usually non very restrictive since many controllers obtain a good precision with only three non null weights. The method here briefly described has been adopted by our group in the design of an optimized version of the coprocessor described in [10].

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.426-436
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• 2001

Background : Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD) is one of the major contributors to morbidity and mortality among the adult population. Cigarette smoking(CS) is undoubtedly the single most important factor in the pathogenesis of COPD. However, its mechanism is unclear. The current hypothesis regarding the pathogenesis of COPD postulates that an imbalance between proteases and antiproteases leads to the destructive changes in the lung parenchyma. This study had two aims. First, to evaluate the effect of CS exposure on histologic changes of the lung parenchyme, and second, to evaluate the effect of CS exposure on the expression of the gelatinolytic enzymes in BAL fluid cells in guinea pigs. Methods : Two groups of five guinea pigs were exposed to the whole smoke of 20 commercial cigarettes per day, 5 hours/day, 5 days/week, for 6weeks, and 12 weeks, respectively, using a smoking apparatus. Five age-matched guinea pigs exposed to room air were used as controls. Five or more sections were microscopically extamined(${\times}400$) and the number of cellular infiltration of the alveolar wall was measured in order to evaluate the effect of CS exposure on the histologic changes of lung parenchyme. The statistical significance was analyzed by a linear regression method. To evaluate the expression of the gelatinolytic enzymes in intraalveolar cells, BAL fluid was obtained and the intraalveolar cells were separated by centrifugation (500 g for 10 min at $4^{\circ}C$). Two sets of culture plates were loaded with $1{\times}10^6$ intraalveolar cells. One plate, contained O.1mM EDTA, a inhibitor of matrix metalloproteases(MMPs), and the other plate had no EDTA. Both plates were incubated for 48 hours at $37^{\circ}C$. After incubation, gelatinolytic protease expression in the supernatants was analyzed by gelatin zymography. Results : At the end of CS exposure, the level of blood carboxy Hb had increased significantly(4.1g/dl in control group, 24g/dl immediately after CS exposure, 18g/dl 30 min after CS exposure, 15g/dl 1 hour after CS exposure). Alveolar inflammatory cells were identified in the CS exposed guinea pigs. The number of alveolar cellular cells observed in a microscopic field ($400{\times}$) was $121.4{\pm}7.2$, $158.0{\pm}20.2$, $196.8{\pm}32.8$, in the control, the 6 weeks, and the 12 weeks group, respectively. The increased extent of inflammatory cellular infiltration of the lung parenchema showed a statistically significant linear relationship with the duration of CS exposure(p=0.001, $r^2=0.675$). Several types of gelatinolytic enzymes in the intraalveolar cells of CS exposed guinea pigs were expressed, of which some were inhibited by EDT A. However, the gelatinolytic enzymes were not expressed in the control groups. Conclusion : CS exposure increases inflammatory cellular infiltration of the alveolar wall and the expression of gelatinolytic proteases in guinea pigs. EDTA inhibits some of the gelatinolytic proteases. These findings suggest a possibility that CS exposure may increase MMP expression in the lungs of guinea pigs.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.60 no.4
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• pp.510-517
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• 2015

Miscanthus has been considered as the most promising bioenergy crop for lignocellulosic biomass production. In Korea, M. sacchariflorus and M. sinensis can be found easily in all regions. It is a great advantage to utilize as important species with respect to genetic and cross-breeding programs materials for creation of novel hybrids. For successful breeding programs, it is important to precisely understand the variability of flowering traits among Miscanthus species as breeding parents materials. In this study, flowering traits were observed daily in 960 germplasms of two Miscanthus species (M. sacchariflorus and M. sinensis) for growing seasons over 2 years. The flowering process was divided into three stages. ST (sprouting time) was recorded when first leaf of the plant emerged on soil. FS1 (flowering stage 1) and FS2 (flowering stage 2) were recorded when flag leaf was firstly observed, and 1 cm of panicle was showing on at least one stem, respectively. For 2013 and 2014, the latest germplasms exerted flag leaf, i.e. September 30 (DOY of FS1 164.1) and September 4 (DOY of FS1 141.0) occurred M. sacchariflorus cv. Geodae 1 and M. sacchariflorus cv. Uram collected from Southern Korea (Jeollanam-do), while Miscanthus germplasms collected from northern Korea (Gyeonggi-do) which emerged the earliest flag leaf in July and August, significantly decreased DOY. For DOY from ST to FS2, M. sacchriflorus germplasms ranged from 140 to 190 days, and 110 to 170 days for 2013 and 2014. The highest frequency showed to 160 days for 2013, and 150 days for 2014. In M. sinensis germplasms, the highest frequency showed to 180 days for 2013, and 170 days for 2014. In the results of correlation between the day of years from ST to FS2 for 2013 and 2014, M. sacchriflorus and M. sinensis showed high coefficient of correlation (0.70 and 0.89). It can be supposed that flowering characteristics of Miscanthus are largely affected by the unique phenotypic characteristic of native habitat than environmental factors of the current planted site. This study for flowering traits of Miscanthus may provides an important information in order to expedite the introduction as breeding materials for creation of new hybrid.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.154-160
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• 2017

BACKGROUND:This study was carried out to establish an efficient sample preparation for the simultaneous determination of bisphenols (BPs) in river water samples using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Sample preparation was examined with conventional extraction methods, such as solid-phase extraction (SPE) and liquid-liquid extraction (LLE), and their efficiency was compared with validation results, including linearity of calibration curve, method detection limit (MDL), limit of quantification (LOQ), accuracy, and precision. METHODS AND RESULTS:The BPs (bisphenol A, BPA; bisphenol B, BPB; bisphenol C, BPC; bisphenol E, BPE; bisphenol F, BPF; bisphenol S, BPS) were analyzed using GC-MS. The range of MDLs by SPE and LLE methods was $0.0005{\sim}0.0234{\mu}g/L$ and $0.0037{\sim}0.2034{\mu}g/L$, and that of LOQs was $0.0015{\sim}0.0744{\mu}g/L$ and $0.0117{\sim}0.6477{\mu}g/L$, respectively. The calibration curve obtained from standard solution of $0.004{\sim}4.0{\mu}g/L$ (SPE) and $0.016{\sim}16{\mu}g/L$ (LLE) showed good linearity with $r^2$ value of 0.9969 over. Accuracy was 93.2~108% and 97.4~120%, and precision was 1.7~4.6% and 0.7~6.5%, respectively. The values of MDL and LOQ resulted from the SPE method were higher than those from the LLE method, particularly those values of BPA were highest among the BPs. Based on the results, the SPE method was applied to determine the BPs in river water samples. Water samples were collected from mainstream, tributary and sewage wastewater treatment plants (SWTPs) in the Yeongsan river basin. The concentration of BPB, BPC, BPE, BPF and BPS were not detected in all sites, whereas BPA was ranged $0.0095{\sim}0.2583{\mu}g/L$, which was $0.0166{\sim}0.0810{\mu}g/L$ for mainstreams, $0.0095{\sim}0.2583{\mu}g/L$ for tributaries, $0.0352{\sim}0.1217{\mu}g/L$ for SWTPs. CONCLUSION: From these results, the SPE method was very effective for the simultaneous determination of BPs in river water samples using GC-MS. We provided that it is a convenient, reliable and sensitive method enough to monitor and understand the fate of the BPs in aquatic ecosystems.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.272-289
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• 2017

This study analyzed the status of the naturalized plants in islands in Jeollanamdo from an island biogeographic perspective. As a result of a floristic analysis at 47 inhabited islands and 194 uninhabited islands, 30 families and 134 species naturalized plants are reported. The most commonly occurring naturalized plant from 141 islands was Rumex crispus. The average number of naturalized plants by islands is 20.6 species (${\pm}14.22$) at the inhabited islands and 3.7 species (${\pm}3.89$) at the uninhabited islands. Presence of fifty nine naturalized species at Geumodo in Yeosu-si is the largest in number. The naturalization ratio, which is the ratio of naturalized plants to native plants, is 7.66% (${\pm}3.96$) in the inhabitable islands and 4.97% (${\pm}3.70$) in the uninhabitable islands. The naturalization ratio among islands of the West Sea in Jeollanam-do is 5.92% (${\pm}4.49$), and it is higher than 4.96% (${\pm}2.15$) in islands in the South Sea. Especially, the naturalization ratio at the inhabitable islands, i.e., 8.39% (${\pm}4.37$) at the islands of the West Sea is higher than 5.80% (${\pm}1.41$) at islands in the South Sea. The naturalization ratio of naturalized plants at the islands shows positive correlation with the size of the island (r=0.412, p<0.01), but the correlations with distance from the mainland and altitude above sea level are not significant. Eight ecosystem disturbing species designated by law are reported, and each species shows distinct distributional ranges. The regional differences in the number of naturalized plant species seem to be a result of the complex reflection of natural and human environmental factors, such as the degree of traffic between mainland and islands, degree of cultivation activities, along with the physical environmental differences. Since islands have limited habitats and resources, islands could be more vulnerable to the incoming species from outside, and environmental changes than mainland. Therefore, continuous monitoring and management against the naturalized plants in islands are needed.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.95-108
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• 1999

Field experiments were conducted in the 101 tobacco fields(51 fields in 1985 and 50 fields in 1986) of chief tobacco producing counties of Chungbuk province(Jincheon, Eumseong, Goesan, and Joongweon counties), Chungnam province(Cheonweon county), and Kyongbuk province (Cheongdo, Seongju, and Andong counties) for two years from 1985 to 1986 in order to evaluate soil fertility using chemical properties and soil map database. Pot experiments also on the same soils were conducted and the results were compared to those of field experiments. The yield of tobacco in the plots of no fertilization was considered as a basic factor representing the soil fertility and was evaluated by nineteen independent variables, that was 9 chemical properties and 10 soil map databases. These independent variables were classified into two groups, 11 quantitative indexes and 9 qualitative indexes, and were analyzed by multiple linear regression(MLR) of SAS by REG and GLM models. The yield of tobacco in the plot of no fertilization showed high variations, e.g. the difference between minimum and maximum yields was about 5.0-5.5 times in the pot experiment and 8.2-14.9 times in the field experiment. The indexes indicating close link between yield of tobacco and soil chemical indexes, was selected but it was not well matched by the years or between pot and field experiments. Also, the standardized partial regression coefficients of quantitative indexes for the yield of field were less than 1.0, suggesting that it is difficult to develop an available single index for the evaluation of soil fertility. Evaluation for the soil fertility of field by MLR was better than that of single regression and it was gradually improved by adding chemical properties, quantitative indexes, and qualitative indexes of soil map. For example, the coefficient of determination ($R^2$) of MLR for the yield of 1985 was increased to 0.422 with chemical indexes, 0.503 by addition of quantitative indexes, and 0.633 by the additional adding of qualitative indexes of soil map, compared to 0.244 of single index, $NO_3-N$ content of soil. Consequently, it is assumed that this approach by MLR with quantitative and qualitative indexes including chemical properties and soil map databases was available as an evaluation model of soil fertility for tobacco field.

• Korean Journal of Weed Science
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.50-59
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• 1991

Residual period and carry-over effect of some herbicides were determined using a bioassay method in six summer crops(potato, carrot, corn, water melon, soybean, and sesame). The effects were measured at regular time intervals after applying different rates of the herbicides. There were no great differences in residual period and carry-over injury between the soils and kinds of crops used. However, the residual period varied with the herbicides studied and the carry-over injury was dependent upon season and rate of the herbicide application, sampling depth of soil, and kind and seeding date of the test plant. When the residual herbicides were applied, the carry-over injury could be minimized by selecting tolernet crops, delaying seeding of the crops after application of the herbicides, and regulating the cultivation depth. Herbicides which showed no residual effect by the end of the cropping period(100-120 days for summer crops) and no carry-over effect were alachlor, trifluralin, ethalfluralin, metribuzin, and prometryn. When pendimethalin, metolachlor, linuron, methabenzthiazuron, and simazine were applied at the recommended rate or less, there was no carry -over injury at harvesting time. With doubling the recommended rate, however, the carry-over effect was found in sensitive crops. Napropamide applied at the rate of 300 g a.i./10 a brought about carry-over injury for Italian ryegrass and barley at 140 days in summer crops, whereas the injury was not found in Cruciferae (radish, Chinese cabbage). Nitralin applied at the rate of 150-300 g a.i./10a caused the carry-over injury for Italian ryegrass and barley at 140 days in summer crops. However, there was no injury for Cruciferae.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.265-273
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• 2000

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a highly prevalent, age-related disorder in men which place a considerable burden on health care resources worldwide. While BPH and hypertension are apparently diverse disease processes, they have some features in common(e.g. underlying etiology of the sympathetic nervous system). The purpose of this study is to estimate the prevalence of lower urinary tract symptoms using I-PSS(international prostate symptom score) and to investigate the association of hypertension with I-PSS. This study was carried out to 390 men(40~86 year old) at 3 Myun in Chungju City from July to August, 1997. Subjects answered on questionnaire for I-PSS and were checked age, education, marital status, annual income, blood pressure. The mean age of subjects was 59.8 year old. The mean of I-PSS were increased by age decades(40~49, 50~59, 60~69, 70~86) and it's scores were 4.4, 7.0, 8.2, 12.3 respectively. Strong correlations were observed between the I-PSS and the QUL(quality of life)(P=0.0001). I-PSS(mean-value) were 7.85 in hypertensive group and 8.39 in normotensive group but there was no statistically significance between the two groups(P>0.05). The proportion of mean scoring greater than 8 was 42.5%. There have been reports of association between lower urinary tract symptoms and hypertension, but there was no consistent suggestion that such an association could be casual. The need for high-quality epidemiological information and consequent increased prospects for prevention is obvious.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.67-76
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• 2021

Objectives : The aim of this study was to compare activities of daily living (ADLs) according to degenerative changes in brain [i.e., medial temporal lobe atrophy (MTA), white matter hyperintensities] and to examine the association between neurocognitive functions and ADLs in Korean patients with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods : Participants were 111 elderly subjects diagnosed with AD or MCI in this cross-sectional study. MTA in brain MRI was rated with standardized visual rating scales (Scheltens scale) and the subjects were divided into two groups according to Scheltens scale. ADLs was evaluated with the Korean version of Blessed Dementia Scale-Activity of daily living (BDS-ADL). Neurocognitive function was evaluated with the Korean version of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease assessment packet (CERAD-K). Independent t-test was performed to compare ADLs with the degree of MTA. Pearson correlation and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed to analyze the relationship between ADLs and neurocognitive functions. Results : The group with high severity of the MTA showed significantly higher BDS-ADL scores (p<0.05). The BDS-ADL score showed the strongest correlation with the word list recognition test among sub-items of the CERAD-K test (r=-0.568). Findings from the hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that the scores of MMSE-K and word list recognition test were factors that predict ADLs (F=44.611, p<0.001). Conclusions : ADLs of AD and MCI patients had significant association with MTA. Our study, which identifies factors correlated with ADLs can provide useful information in clinical settings. Further evaluation is needed to confirm the association between certain brain structures and ADLs.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.8-16
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• 2024

Limestone (CaCO₃, calcium carbonate), which is used as a raw material in the portland cement and steel industry, emits CO₂ through decarbonation by high temperatures in the manufacturing process. To reduce CO₂ emissions by the use of raw materials like limestone, it has been proposed to replace limestone with various industrial by-products that contain CaO but less or none of the carbonated minerals, that cause CO₂ emissions. Loss of Ignition (LOI), Thermogravimetric analysis (TG), and Infrared Spectroscopy (IR) are used to quantitative the amount of CO₂ emission by using these industrial by-products, but CO₂ emissions can be either over or underestimated depending on the characteristics of by-product materials. In this study, we estimated CO₂ contents by LOI, TG, IR and DTG(Differential Thermogravimetric analysis) of calcite(CaCO₃) and samples that contain CO₂ in the form of carbonate and whose weight increases by oxidation at high temperatures. The test results showed for CaCO₃ samples, all test methods have a sufficient level of reliability. On the other hand, for the CO₂ content of the sample whose weight increases at high temperature, LOI and TG did not properly estimate the CO₂ content of the sample, and IR tended to overestimate compared to the predicted value, but the estimated result by DTG was close to the predicted valu e. From these resu lts, in the case of samples that contain less than a few percent of CO₂ and whose weight increases during the temperature that carbonate minerals decompose, estimating the CO₂ content using DTG is a more reasonable way than LOI, TG, and IR.