• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.59 no.5
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• pp.853-866
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• 2016

This paper examines a methodology for computing the probability of structural failure of reinforced concrete beams subjected to fire. The significant load variables considered are dead load, sustained live load and fire temperature. Resistance is expressed in terms of moment capacity with random variables taken as yield strength of steel, concrete class (or grade of concrete), beam width and depth. The flexural capacity is determined based on the design equations recommended in Indian standard IS456:2000. Simplified method named $500^{\circ}C$ isotherm method detailed in Eurocode 2 is incorporated for fire design. A transient thermal analysis is conducted using finite element software ANSYS$^{(R)}$ Release15. Reliability is evaluated from the initial state to 4h of fire exposure based on the first order reliability method (FORM). A procedure is coded in MATLAB for finding the reliability index. This procedure is validated with available literature. The effect of various parameters like effective cover, yield strength of steel, grade of concrete, distribution of reinforcement bars and aggregate type on reliability indices are studied. Parameters like effective cover of concrete, yield strength of steel has a significant effect on reliability of beams. Different failure modes like limit state of flexure and limit state of shear are checked.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.645-666
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• 2023

Due to the steadily declining supply of natural coarse aggregates, the concrete industry has shifted to substituting coarse aggregates generated from byproducts and industrial waste. Oil palm shell is a substantial waste product created during the production of palm oil (OPS). When considering the usage of OPSC, building engineers must consider its uniaxial compressive strength (UCS). Obtaining UCS is expensive and time-consuming, machine learning may help. This research established five innovative hybrid AI algorithms to predict UCS. Aquila optimizer (AO) is used with methods to discover optimum model parameters. Considered models are artificial neural network (AO - ANN), adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (AO - ANFIS), support vector regression (AO - SVR), random forest (AO - RF), and extreme gradient boosting (AO - XGB). To achieve this goal, a dataset of OPS-produced concrete specimens was compiled. The outputs depict that all five developed models have justifiable accuracy in UCS estimation process, showing the remarkable correlation between measured and estimated UCS and models' usefulness. All in all, findings depict that the proposed AO - XGB model performed more suitable than others in predicting UCS of OPSC (with R², RMSE, MAE, VAF and A_15-index at 0.9678, 1.4595, 1.1527, 97.6469, and 0.9077). The proposed model could be utilized in construction engineering to ensure enough mechanical workability of lightweight concrete and permit its safe usage for construction aims.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.6 no.4 s.22
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• pp.75-89
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• 2004

Long term performance of concrete pavement significantly depends on the given construction and environmental condition. It means that random cracks and extreme crack width due to inappropriate quality control at the early age might lead to decreasing the pavement service life. The temperature and moisture during the construction, cement and aggregate types, curing condition are major components to affect the quality of the concrete pavement at the early age. First of all, the high temperature differential, that is made by increasing air temperature and the heat of cement hydration, is known as the major contributor to severe cracks. In this study, tent covering was used for controlling temperature of the concrete slab. The field measurement data indicates that the effect of the tent covering is very significant to decrease possibilities of random crack occurrence and curling stress and enhance the long-term concrete strength. HIPERPAV(High PERformance PAVing software), a program predicting the strength and stress of an earty-age concrete pavement (72 hour after placement), is used for simulating the effects of tent covering. The HIPERPAVE results showed that the section with the tent covering has higher reliability than the section without the tent covering by 22.5%. In details, reliability is increased 72.5% (without the tent covering) to 95% (with the tent covering).

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.16 no.1 s.79
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• pp.102-110
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• 2004

Recently, production cost of ready mixed concrete(remicon) has been increased due to the rising cost of raw materials such as cement and aggregate etc. cause by the upturn of oil price and increase of shipping charge. The delivery cost of remicon companies, however, has been decreased owing to their excessive competition in sale. Consequently, remicon companies began to manufacture the concrete by mixing ground granulated blast furnace slag(GGBF) in order to lower the production cost. Therefore, the objective of this study was to predict 28-day strength of GGBF slag concrete by early strength(1 day-strength, 7 day-strength) for the sake of managing with ease the quality of remicon. In experimental results, the prediction equation for 28 day-strength of GGBF slag concrete could be produced through the linear regression analysis of early strength and 28 day-strength. In order to acquire the reliability, all mixture were repeated as 3 times and each mixture order was carried out by random sampling. The prediction equation for 28 day-strength of GGBF slag concrete by 1-day strength(hot-water method) won the good reliability.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.2027-2032
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• 2007

[ ${\alpha}$ ]-Synuclein is the major component of Lewy bodies and responsible for the amyloid deposits observed in Parkinson's disease. Ordered filamentous aggregate formation of the natively unfolded ${\alpha}$-synuclein was investigated in vitro with the periodic ultrasonication. The ultrasonication induced the fibrillation of ${\alpha}$-synuclein, as the random structure gradually converted into a ${\beta}$-sheet structure. The resulting fibrils obtained at the stationary phase appeared heterogeneous in their size distribution, with the average length and height of $0.28\;{\mu}m{\pm}0.21\;{\mu}m$ and $5.6\;nm{\pm}1.9\;nm$, respectively. After additional extensive ultrasonication in the absence of monomeric ${\alpha}$-synuclein, the equilibrium between the fibril formation and its breakdown shifted to the disintegration of the preexisting fibrils. The resulting fragments served as nucleation centers for the subsequent seed-dependent accelerated fibrillation under a quiescent incubation condition. This self-seeding amplification process depended on the seed formation and subsequent alterations in their properties by the ultrasonication to a state that accretes the monomeric soluble protein more effectively than their reassociation of the seeds back to the original fibrils. Since many neurodegenerative disorders have been considered to be propagated via the seed-dependent amyloidosis, this study would provide a novel aspect of the significance of the seed structure and its properties leading to the acce]erated amyloid formation.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.5517-5523
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• 2012

Purpose: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasonograph and fine-needle aspiration cytologic examination (USG-FNAC) in the staging of axillary lymph node metastasis in breast cancer patients.Methods: We conducted an electronic search of the literature addressing the performance of USG-FNAC in diagnosis of axillary lymph node metastasis in databases such as Pubmed, Medline, Embase, Ovid and Cochrane library. We introduced a series of diagnostic test indices to evaluate the performance of USG-FNAC by the random effect model (REM), including sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios, and diagnostic odds ratios and area under the curve (AUC). Results: A total of 20 studies including 1371 cases and 1289 controls were identified. The pooled sensitivity was determined to be 0.66 (95% CI 0.64-0.69), specificity 0.98 (95% CI 0.98-0.99), positive likelihood ratio 22.7 (95% CI 15.0-34.49), negative likelihood ratio 0.32 (95% CI 0.25-0.41), diagnostic OR 84.2 (95% CI 53.3-133.0). Due to the marginal threshold effect found in some indices of diagnostic validity, we used a summary SROC curve to aggregate data, and obtained a symmetrical curve with an AUC of 0.942. Conclusion: The results of this meta-analysis indicated that the USG-FNAC techniques have acceptable diagnostic validity indices and can be used for early staging of axillary lymph node in breast cancer patients.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.19
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• pp.8361-8366
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• 2014

This meta-analysis was performed to assess the implementation effects of clinical pathways in patients with gastrointestinal cancer. A comprehensive search was conducted in the Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (from inception to May 2014). Selection of studies, assessing risk of bias and extracting data were performed by two reviewers independently. Outcomes were analyzed by fixed-effects and random-effects model meta-analysis and reported as mean difference (MD), standardized mean difference (SMD) and odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). The Jadad methodological approach was used to assess the quality of included studies and the meta-analysis was conducted with RevMan 5.1 software. Nine citations (eight trials) involving 642 patients were included. The aggregate results showed that a shorter average length of stay [MD = -4.0; 95% CI (-5.1, -2.8); P < 0.00001] was observed with the clinical pathways as compared with the usual care. A reduction in inpatient expenditure [SMD = -1.5; 95% CI (-2.3, -0.7); P = 0.0001] was also associated with clinical pathways, along with higher patient satisfaction [OR = 4.9; 95% CI (2.2, 10.6); P < 0.0001]. Clinical pathways could improve the quality of care in patients with gastrointestinal cancer, as evidenced by a significant reduction in average length of stay, a decrease in inpatient expenditure and an improvement in patient satisfaction. Therefore, indicators and mechanisms within clinical pathways should be a focus in the future.

• The Journal of the Society of Korean Medicine Diagnostics
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.51-65
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• 2016

Objectives This study was conducted to suggest a standard operating procedure (SOP) in order to improve the reliability of tongue-image analysis system. Methods An affecting-factors list was made, which may affect the diagnostic parameters of the tongue-image analysis system. They were sub-classified into two groups: controllable and uncontrollable. Only the controllable factors, which could affect the results and easily set-up, were included into the SOP draft. Affecting factors control experiment was performed to investigate the effects of controllable factors, whose influence on diagnostic parameters of the tongue-image analysis system is ambiguous: rehearsal for tongue extrusion; alignment of camera axis; and presentation of a guideline. Three subjects volunteered for this experiment. Each of three variables was implemented twice in a random order by two operators on the subjects. Finally, 96 tongue images obtained in the aggregate. The diagnostic parameter set as a primary outcome in this experiment was the percentage of tongue coating. Results All of the control variables were not significant in both operators; however, the presentation of a guideline was relatively more affect than two other variables. Interaction effects among the variables were also insignificant. Therefore, the presentation of a guideline was included in the final SOP and the other variables were not included. Conclusions We suggested the SOP which could be used for both experimenter and subject. Moreover, Each of the SOPs applied to various types of tongue-image analysis system should be developed in order to improve the reliability.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.315-324
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• 2008

This paper double-bound dichotomous choice method as a contingent valuation methods is used to derive willingness to pay for the water quality at the Anyangcheon watershed. The linear random utility model show that value of improvement of the Anyangcheon watershed water quality is 4,930 won per house and month of the Seoul and Gyeong-gi area residents. There is no difference between Seoul and Gyeong-gi area residents. Respondents overall accepted the contingent market and were willing to contribute a significant amount (3,860 to 5,101 won), on average, per household per month. The aggregate value of the water quality improvement in the Anyangcheon watershed amounts to approximately 83.0 to 109.7 billion won per year. This study is expected to contribute to the decision-making process for policy-makers by providing useful methodological framework and quantitative information related to watershed improvement projects.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.577-585
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• 2004

System Packet Interface Level 4 Phase(SPI-4.2) is an interface for packet and cell transfer between a physical layer(PHY) device and a link layer device, for aggregate bandwidths of OC-192 ATM and Packet Over Sonet/SDH(POS), as well as 10Gbps Ethernet applications. In this paper, we performs the research for SPI-4.2. Also we analyze the performance of SPI-4.2 interface module after modeling using C programming language. This paper shows that SPI-4.2 interface module with 512-word FIFO depth is able to be adapted for the offered loads to 97％ in random uniform traffic and 94％ in bursty traffic with bursty length 32. SPI-4.2 interface module can experience an performance degradation due to heavy overhead when it massively receives small size packets less than 14-byte. SPI-4.2 interface module is suited for line cards in gigabit/terabit routers, and optical cross-connect switches, and SONET/SDH-based transmission systems.