• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.12.01-12.10
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• 2022

Background: Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus agalactiae are the main cause of clinical mastitis in dairy cattle in Argentina, whereas coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) and environmental streptococci are the main cause of subclinical mastitis. Bacteria isolated from infected animals show increasing antimicrobial resistance. Objectives: This study aims to determine the antimicrobial resistance of staphylococci and streptococci isolated from milk with mastitis, and to genotypically characterize the methicillin-resistant (MR) staphylococci. Methods: Isolation was performed on blood agar and identification was based on biochemical reactions. Antimicrobial susceptibility was according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines. The antimicrobial resistance genes, SCCmec type and spa type were detected by the polymerase chain reaction method. Results: We isolated a total of 185 staphylococci and 28 streptococci from 148 milk samples. Among the staphylococcal isolates, 154 were identified as CNS and 31 as S. aureus. Among the 154 CNS, 24.6% (n = 38) were resistant to penicillin, 14.9% (n = 23) to erythromycin, 17.5% (n = 27) to clindamycin, 6.5% (n = 10) to cefoxitin and oxacillin. Among the S. aureus isolates, 16.1% (n = 5) were resistant to penicillin, 3.2% (n = 1) to cefoxitin and oxacillin (MRSA). Six MR isolates (5 CNS and 1 MRSA) were positive to the mecA gene, and presented the SCCmec IVa. The MRSA strain presented the sequence type 83 and the spa type 002. Among the 28 streptococcal isolates, 14.3% (n = 4) were resistant to penicillin, 10.7% (n = 3) to erythromycin and 14.3% (n = 4) to clindamycin. Conclusions: The present findings of this study indicate a development of antimicrobial resistance in main bacteria isolated from cows with mastitis in Argentina.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.29-35
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• 2022

UV rays have beneficial or harmful effects on the human body depending on the degree of exposure. An accurate UV information is required for proper exposure to UV rays per individual. The UV rays' information is provided by the Korea Meteorological Administration as one component of daily weather information in Korea. However, it does not provide an accurate UVI at the user's location based on the region's Ultraviolet index. Some operate measuring instrument to obtain an accurate UVI, but it would be costly and inconvenient. Studies which assumed the UVI through environmental factors such as solar radiation and amount of cloud have been introduced, but those studies also could not provide service to individual. Therefore, this paper proposes a deep learning model to calculate UVI using solar object information and sunlight characteristics to provide an accurate UVI at individual location. After selecting the factors, which were considered as highly correlated with UVI such as location and size and illuminance of sun and which were obtained through the analysis of sky images and solar characteristics data, a data set for DNN model was constructed. A DNN model that calculates the UVI was finally realized by entering the solar object information and sunlight characteristics extracted through Mask R-CNN. In consideration of the domestic UVI recommendation standards, it was possible to accurately calculate UVI within the range of MAE 0.26 compared to the standard equipment in the performance evaluation for days with UVI above and below 8.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.120-128
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• 2022

Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are a basic component in the electronics industry and are widely used in nearly all electronic products, such as mobile phones, tablet computers, and digital cameras, as well as in electric equipment. PCB manufacturing involves the use of many chemicals and chemical processes and therefore has more risks than other manufacturing sectors. This study aims to identify the causes of possible accidents during PCB manufacturing through risk assessment, develop and implement safety measures, and evaluate the effectiveness of these measures. Note that the safety measures developed to mitigate the risks of a certain process were also implemented for other similar processes. The risk assessments conducted over seven years, from 2015 to 2021, at a PCB manufacturing company identified 361 hazardous processes. Between 2016 and 2019, 41-56 hazardous processes were identified per year; such processes decreased to fewer than 20 per year after 2020. Application of the risk assessment results to the improvement of the hazardous processes with the similar characteristics seems to be effective in decreasing the risks. Equipment-related factors such as lack of appropriate maintenance, low work standards, and defective protection devices were responsible for 59.8% of all possible accidents. Because PCB manufacturing involves many chemicals, skin contact with hazardous substances, electric shock, fire, and explosion were the most common types of possible accidents (81.7%). In total, 505 safety measures were implemented, including 157 related to purchase and improvement of equipment and devices for safety (31.1%), 147 related to the installation/modification of fire prevention facilities (29.1%), and 69 related to the use of standard electrical appliances (13.7%). Risk assessment conducted after implementing the safety measures showed that these measures significantly decreased risk; 247 processes (68.4%) had a risk level of 3, corresponding to "very low," and 114 processes (31.6%) showed a risk level of 4, corresponding to "low." In particular, risk assessment of 104 processes with risk scores of 12 and 10 other processes with risk score of 16 showed that the risk decreased to 4 after implementing the safety measures. Thus, implementing these measures in similar manufacturing sectors that involve chemical processes can mitigate risk.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.45-55
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• 2022

Because boundary confinement details proposed in the current design standards are significantly inferior in workability and production quality, it is necessary to develop boundary confinement details of RC structural walls that are capable of ensuring seismic performance and workability. With the recent development of the wire rod manufacturing technology, various pre-fabricated continuous hoop details can be manufactured. In this study, an analysis was conducted on the moment-curvature relationship of RC structural walls to which the pre-fabricated continuous hoop details were applied. According to the nonlinear cross-section analysis, the RC structure wall to which the details of the pre-fabricated continuous hoop details are applied can ensure seismic performance as the area of the pre-fabricated continuous hoop increases. Based on these research results, when applying the pre-fabricated continuous hoop in detail, it is necessary to secure the area of the pre-fabricated continuous hoop as much as the area of the existing boundary confinement.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.417-425
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• 2022

Interest in micro cars is growing around the world, and policy support for micro cars has been increasing in Korea. It is important to meet minimum safety standards for the operation of micro cars on roads due to concerns around micro car safety and the limited driving range of micro cars. In this study, visibility experiments that included safety identification of micro cars were conducted to try and prevent a decrease in driver reaction time. Safety identification lights were installed to the rear of a micro car, and the visibility and discomfort of the vehicle were evaluated to determine whether the micro car was safe to drive on an expressway. As a result, the installation effect of Micro car which install safety identification lamp was found when joining the point at an acceleration lane of the grade separation intersection, and that light on/off could be effective when entering an expressway. If the micro car operation plan proposed in this study is applied, the safety of micro cars on expressways can be increased by improving the visibility of micro car.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.302-311
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• 2022

Sound barrier walls are one of the most effective alternatives for reducing environmental noise on roads and railways in the city center. The insertion loss of the sound barrier against road traffic noise is the sum of the sound transmission loss, sound absorption loss, and sound energy reduction due to the diffraction attenuation of the sound barrier. The sound transmission loss of the sound barrier is one of the important factors that determine the insertion loss of the sound barrier and is a basic indicator that determines the performance of the sound barrier. Nevertheless, there is not a separate standard in Korea for measuring the acoustic transmission loss of sound barrier panels. There are only a few conditions in KS F 4770 series that stipulates on the general material of sound barrier panels. This thesis examines the necessity of the acoustic transmission loss measurement and evaluation standards of sound barrier walls, and seeks a measurement method in a free sound field (anechoic chamber) sound receiving room considering the characteristics of sound barrier walls installed in external spaces, unlike indoor building materials. In addition, a single number evaluation method using a reference spectrum was proposed so that the sound insulation effect according to various installation places such as roadside or railroad side can be easily displayed.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.117-124
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• 2022

In the event of an outbreak of a livestock epidemic, it has been considered that the existing burial-centered carcass disposal method should be improved ecofriendly for prevention of leachate and odors from burial basically in regard of pathogen inactivation. Therefore, the aim of this study is whether it was possible to treat the carcass of cattle and chickens using the chemical carcass treatment method. It was conducted to establish detailed treatment standards for the chemical treatment method of cattle and chicken carcasses based on the results of the proof of the absence of infectious diseases in cattle chickens. After inoculating cattle carcass with 10 pathogens (foot and mouth disease virus, bovine viral diarrhea virus, Mycobacterium bovis, Mycobacterium avium subsp. Paratuberculosis, Brucella abortus, Bacillus anthracis, Clostridium chauvoei, Clostridium perfringens, Escherichia coli, and Salmonella Typhimurium) and chicken carcasses with low pathogenic avian influenza virus, Clostridium perfringens type C, E. coli and Salmonella Typhimurium, these were treated at 90℃ for 5 hours in a potassium hydroxide liquid solution corresponding to 15% of the body weight. This method liquefies all cadaveric components and inactivates all inoculated pathogens by PCR and culture. Based on these results, it was possible to prove that chemical treatment of cattle and chicken carcasses is effective in killing pathogens and is a safe method without the risk of disease transmission. The chemical treatment method of livestock carcasses can be suggested as an alternative to the current domestic burial-centered livestock carcass treatment method, preventing environmental pollution, and contributing to public health.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.219-230
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• 2023

Cities are continued to be highly advanced and metropolitanized. Lands adjacent to road make entry/exit connection increase along with construction of facilities for various purposes. However, in the absence of specific installation standards of entry and exit connection, inappropriate access location, types of access, and operation methods are deteriorating the level of traffic services at existing roads and intersections. Therefore, in order to minimize the traffic impact from entrances connected to minor arterial roads and colletor roads, first, this study re-established the waiting length in the intersection of upstream and downstream and length required for changing lanes and between entrance/exit and connection, considering the road and traffic environment in contact with the entrance. Second, it is suggested that the operation method depending on the connection type and whether to install left turn lane and acceleration and deceleration lane can be determined quantitatively by relation with the service level of nearby intersection after calculating the threshold amount of business site through negative social cost, which is the difference between the installation cost of the left turn lane and the acceleration and deceleration lane according to the type of access to the entrance and exit.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.12
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• pp.61-73
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• 2007

As a part of Load and Resistance Factor Design(LRFD) code development in Korea, in this paper an intensive reliability analysis was performed to evaluate reliability levels of the two static bearing capacity methods for driven steel pipe piles adopted in Korean Standards for Structure Foundations by the representative reliability methods of First Order Reliability Method(FORM) and Monte Carlo Simulation(MCS). The resistance bias factors for the two static design methods were evaluated by comparing the representative measured bearing capacities with the design values. In determination of the representative bearing capacities of driven steel pipe piles, the 58 data sets of static load tests and soil property tests were collected and analyzed. The static bearing capacity formula and the Meyerhof method using N values were applied to the calculation of the expected design bearing capacity of the piles. The two representative reliability methods(FORM, MCS) based computer programs were developed to facilitate the reliability analysis in this study. Mean Value First Order Second Moment(MVFOSM) approach that provides a simple closed-form solution and two advanced methods of FORM and MCS were used to conduct the intensive reliability analysis using the resistance bias factor statistics obtained, and the results were then compared. In addition, a parametric study was conducted to identify the sensibility and the influence of the random variables on the reliability analysis under consideration.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.24-35
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• 2023

Rapid industrialization and urbanization have led to severe marine pollution. A Water Quality Index (WQI) has been developed to allow the effective management of marine pollution. However, the WQI suffers from problems with loss of information due to the complex calculations involved, changes in standards, calculation errors by practitioners, and statistical errors. Consequently, research on the use of artificial intelligence techniques to predict the marine and coastal WQI is being conducted both locally and internationally. In this study, six techniques (RF, XGBoost, KNN, Ext, SVM, and LR) were studied using marine environmental measurement data (2000-2020) to determine the most appropriate artificial intelligence technique to estimate the WOI of five ecoregions in the Korean seas. Our results show that the random forest method offers the best performance as compared to the other methods studied. The residual analysis of the WQI predicted score and actual score using the random forest method shows that the temporal and spatial prediction performance was exceptional for all ecoregions. In conclusion, the RF model of WQI prediction developed in this study is considered to be applicable to Korean seas with high accuracy.