• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.867-878
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• 2020

A significant proportion of the African continent is conducive for animal agricultural production, due to its historical experience and available resources to accommodate and nurture various indigenous and exotic animal species and breeds. With food security being a global challenge, animal products can play an important role as nutrient dense food sources in human diets, particularly in Africa. However, this does not seem to reach its full potential in practice, due to numerous reasons that have not been adequately addressed. Animal welfare reservations can be highlighted as one of the major contributing factors to the curbed progress. The consequences have been scientifically proven to affect product quality and market access. However, in the African community, the concept of animal welfare has not been fully embraced. While there are international animal welfare standards in the developed world, there are inherent factors that hinder adoption of such initiatives in most developing regions, particularly among communal farmers. These include cultural norms and practices, social ranking, socio-economic status, available resources, information dissemination and monitoring tools. Therefore, there is need to harmonize what is internationally required and what is feasible to accommodate global variability. The protocols followed to ensure and evaluate farm animal welfare require regular investigation, innovation and a sustainable approach to enhance animal productivity, efficiency and product quality. Additionally, investing in animal wellbeing and health, as well as empowering communities with significant knowledge, has a potential to improve African livelihoods and contribute to food security. This review seeks to highlight the concept of animal welfare in relation to livestock and food production in African conditions.

• Weed & Turfgrass Science
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.22-34
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• 2018

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 morphological and growth characteristics among Miscanthus species as breeding parent materials. In this study, morphological and growth characteristics were observed in 960 germplasms of two Miscanthus species (M. sacchariflorus and M. sinensis) for growing seasons over three years. Due to the inherent characteristics of these species, the germplasm of M. sacchariflorus among the collected germplasm were reduced in plant height than in the collection area. In M. sinensis, the plant height of germplasm collected mainly from Jeju-do increased more than those collected from collection area. Sixty-one of the collected 960 germplasms were selected and investigated to the morphological characteristics. Based on the investigated morphological data, the phylogenic tree was developed. As the results, it was confirmed that there exist germplasm in which the characteristics of M. sacchariflorus and M. sinensis are mixed. This study of Miscanthus may provide an important information in order to expedite the introduction as breeding materials for creation of new hybrid.

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.138-144
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• 2018

Background: Subacromial erosion remains a major concern after surgical fixation of acromioclavicular (AC) joint using a clavicular hook plate. To minimize postoperative subacromial erosion, we investigated the structural relationship between distal clavicle and acromion around the AC joint by considering the surgical fixation of the joint using the hook plate technique. Methods: Computed tomography scans of 101 AC joints without any inherent pathology were analyzed. The angle between the distal clavicle and acromion around the AC joint (AC angle), depth of the acromion, differences in height between distal clavicle and acromion (AC height difference), and thickness of distal clavicle and acromion at the AC joint were measured. Descriptive statistics were calculated for each anatomical parameter, and all results were compared between gender groups. Results: The mean AC angle was $17.1^{\circ}$(range, $-8.0^{\circ}$ to $39.0^{\circ}$), and the mean AC height difference was 3.5 mm (range, -0.7 to 8.7 mm). Both factors showed very high variability (coefficients of variation=62.6% and 46.6%, respectively). The mean AC angle was significantly higher in the female gender than in the male gender ($19.8^{\circ}$ vs. $13.8^{\circ}$, p=0.048). The mean acromion thickness and distal clavicular thickness were both significantly thinner in the female group than in the male group (p<0.001). Conclusions: Taken together, we believe our results might be helpful in minimizing postoperative subacromial erosion when performing surgical fixation of the AC joint using the hook plate, and be valuable in improving future design of the hook plate.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.1096-1101
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• 2005

An efficient method of estimating the spatial gaps between the connected components has been prposed to separatethe individual words from a handwritten legal amount on bank check. Owing to the inherent problem of underestimation or overestimation, the previous gap measures have much difficulty in being applied to the legal amounts that usually include the great shape variability by writer's unconstrained writing style and touching or irregular gaps between words by space limitation. In order to alleviate such burden and improve word separation performance, we have developed a modified version of each distance measure. Through a series of word separation experiments, we found that the modified distance measures show a better performance with over $2-3\%$ of the word separation rate than their corresponding original distance measures.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.373-384
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• 2020

Hydrological models are based on a combination of parameters that describe the hydrological characteristics and processes within a watershed. For this reason, the model performance and accuracy are highly dependent on the parameters. However, model uncertainties caused by parameters with stochastic characteristics need to be considered. As a follow-up to the study conducted by Choi et al (2020), who developed a relatively simple semi-distributed hydrological model, we propose a tool to estimate the posterior distribution of model parameters using the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm, a type of Markov-Chain Monte Carlo technique, and analyze the uncertainty of model parameters and simulated stream flow. In addition, the uncertainty caused by the parameters of each version is investigated using the lumped and semi-distributed versions of the applied model to the Hapcheon Dam watershed. The results suggest that the uncertainty of the semi-distributed model parameters was relatively higher than that of the lumped model parameters because the spatial variability of input data such as geomorphological and hydrometeorological parameters was inherent to the posterior distribution of the semi-distributed model parameters. Meanwhile, no significant difference existed between the two models in terms of uncertainty of the simulation outputs. The statistical goodness of fit of the simulated stream flows against the observed stream flows showed satisfactory reliability in both the semi-distributed and the lumped models, but the seasonality of the stream flow was reproduced relatively better by the distributed model.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.3-6
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• 2005

The failure of geogrids can be defined as an excessive creep strain which causes the collapse of slopes and embankments. In this study, the lifetime of knitted polyester geogrids was predicted by using SIM(Stepped Isothermal Methods using TTS principal) and statistical data analysis techniques. The results indicate that the creep strain was 8.74, 8.79, 8.80% with 2.16~2.20% of CV% at 75, 100, 114 years, respectively and the creep strain reaches 9.3% after 100 years of usage at $27^{\circ}C$ which meets the required lifetime(creep strain less than 10% after 100 years of usage) in the fields. The SIM method is shown to be effective in reduction of uncertainty associated with inherent variability of multi-specimen tests and shorter test times than conventional TTS(Time-Temperature Superposition).

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.155-161
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• 2005

The inherent instability of metabolite production in plant cell culture-based bioprocessing is a major problem hindering its commercialization. To understand the extent and causes of this instability, this study was aimed at understanding the variability of anthocyanin accumulation during long-term subcultures, as well as within subculture batches, in Vitis vinifera cell cultures. Therefore, four cell line suspensions of Vitis vinifera L. var. Gamay Freaux, A, B, C and D, originated from the same callus by cell-aggregate cloning, were established with starting anthocyanin contents of $2.73\;\pm\;0.15,\;1.45\;\pm\;0.04,\;0.7\;\pm\;0.024\;and\;0.27\;\pm\;0.04$CV (Color Value)/g-FCW (fresh cell weight), respectively. During weekly subculturing of 33 batches over 8 months, the anthocyanin biosynthetic capacity was gradually lost at various rates, for all four cell lines, regardless of the significant difference in the starting anthocyanin content. Contrary to this general trend, a significant fluctuation in the anthocyanin content was observed, but with an irregular cyclic pattern. The variabilities in the anthocyanin content between the subcultures for the 33 batches, as represented by the variation coefficient (VC), were 58, 57, 54, and $84\%$ for V. vinifera cell lines A, B, C and D, respectively. Within one subculture, the VCs from 12 replicate flasks for each of 12 independent subcultures were averaged, and found to be $9.7\%$, ranging from 4 to $17\%$. High- and low-producing cell lines, VV05 and VV06, with 1.8-fold differences in their basal anthocyanin contents, exhibited different inducibilities to L-phenylalanine feeding, methyl jasmonate and light irradiation. The low-producing cell line showed greater potential in enhanced the anthocyanin production.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.423-441
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• 2014

The high frequency base balance (HFBB) technique is a convenient and relatively fast wind tunnel testing technique for predicting wind-induced forces for tall building design. While modern tall building design has seen a number architecturally remarkable buildings constructed recently, the characteristics of those buildings are significantly different to those that were common when the HFBB technique was originally developed. In particular, the prediction of generalized forces for buildings with 3-dimensional mode shapes has a number of inherent uncertainties and challenges that need to be overcome to accurately predict building loads and responses. As an alternative to the more conventional application of general mode shape correction factors, an analysis methodology, referred to as the linear-mode-shape (LMS) method, has been recently developed to allow better estimates of the generalized forces by establishing a new set of centers at which the translational mode shapes are linear. The LMS method was initially evaluated and compared with the methods using mode shape correction factors for a rectangular building, which was wind tunnel tested in isolation in an open terrain for five incident wind angles at $22.5^{\circ}$ increments from $0^{\circ}$ to $90^{\circ}$. The results demonstrated that the LMS method provides more accurate predictions of the wind-induced loads and building responses than the application of mode shape correction factors. The LMS method was subsequently applied to a tall building project in Hong Kong. The building considered in the current study is located in a heavily developed business district and surrounded by tall buildings and mixed terrain. The HFBB results validated the versatility of the LMS method for the structural design of an actual tall building subjected to the varied wind characteristics caused by the surroundings. In comparison, the application of mode shape correction factors in the HFBB analysis did not directly take into account the influence of the site specific characteristics on the actual wind loads, hence their estimates of the building responses have a higher variability.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.56-73
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• 2019

Probe-based systems have been gaining popularity in advanced traveler information systems. However, the high possibility of providing inaccurate travel-time information due to the inherent time-lag phenomenon is still an important issue to be resolved. To mitigate the time-lag problem, different prediction techniques have been applied, but the techniques are generally regarded as less effective for travel times with high variability. For this reason, current 5-min aggregated data have been commonly used for real-time travel-time provision on highways with high travel-time fluctuation. However, the 5-min aggregation interval itself can further increase the time-lags in the real-time travel-time information equivalent to 5 minutes. In this study, a new scheme that uses both individual probe and 5-min aggregated travel times is suggested to provide reliable real-time travel-time information. The scheme utilizes individual probe data under congested conditions and 5-min aggregated data under uncongested conditions, respectively. As a result of an evaluation with field data, the proposed scheme showed the best performance, with a maximum reduction in travel-time error of 18%.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.277-283
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• 2020

Objective: The sperm DNA fragmentation index (DFI) guides the clinician's choice of an appropriate assisted reproductive technology (ART) procedure. The DFI can be determined using commercially available methodologies, including sperm chromatin dispersion (SCD) kits and sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA). Currently, when DFI is evaluated using SCD kits, the result is analyzed in reference to the SCSA-derived threshold for the choice of an ART procedure. In this study, we compared DFI values obtained using SCSA with those obtained using SCD and determined whether the difference affects the choice of ART procedure. Methods: We compared SCSA to two SCD kits, CANfrag (n=36) and Halosperm (n=31), to assess the DFI values obtained, the correlations between tests, the technical repeatability, and the impact of DFI on the choice of ART. Results: We obtained higher median DFI values using SCD kits than when using SCSA, and this difference was significant for the CANfrag kit (p<0.001). The SCD kits had significantly higher coefficients of variation than SCSA (p<0.001). In vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI) would be chosen for a significantly higher proportion of patients if a decision were made based on DFI derived from SCD rather than DFI determined using SCSA (p=0.003). Conclusion: Our results indicate that SCD kit-specific thresholds should be established in order to avoid the unnecessary use of IVF/ICSI based on sperm DNA damage for the management of infertility. Appropriate measures should be taken to mitigate the increased variability inherent to the methods used in these tests.