• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.24 no.6
• /
• pp.651-658
• /
• 2012

This paper concentrates on the evaluation of microcracks in thermal damaged concrete on the basis of the nonlinear ultrasonic modulation technique. Since concrete structure exposed to high temperature accompanies the development of microcracks due to the physical and chemical changes from temperature and exposed time, the adoption of nonlinear approach is required. Instead of using the conventional ultrasonic nondestructive methods which have the limitation in evaluating excessive microcracks, accordingly, a nonlinear ultrasonic modulation method which shows better sensitivity in quantifying microcracks is introduced. Upon the analysis for the modulation of ultrasonic wave and low frequency impact to measure the nonlinearity parameter, which can be used as an indicator of thermal damage, the verification processes for the introduced technique are followed: SEM investigation and permeable pore space test are performed to characterize thermally induced microcracks in concrete, and ultrasonic pulse velocity tests are performed to confirm the outstanding sensitivity of nonlinear ultrasonic modulation technique. In advance, compressive strength of thermal damaged concrete is measured to represent the effect of microcracks on performance degradation. Correlation studies between experimental data and measured data show that nonlinear ultrasonic modulation technique can effectively be used to quantify thermally induced microcracks, and to estimate the compressive strength of thermally damaged concrete.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.41-48
• /
• 2011

Warm-mix asphalt(WMA) technology has been developed to allow asphalt mixtures to be produced and compacted at a significantly lower temperature. The WMA technology was identified as one of means to lower emissions for $CO_2$ and has been spread so quickly in the world. Recently, two innovative WMA additives has been developed to reduce mixing and paving temperatures applied in asphalt paving process in Korea. Since the first public demonstration project in 2008, many WMA projects have successfully been constructed in national highways. In 2010, the WMA field trial was conducted on new national highway construction under Dae-Jeon Regional Construction Management Administration. The two different WMA loose mixtures(WMA and WMA-P) and a HMA mixture were collected at the asphalt plant to evaluate their mechanical performance in the laboratory. The Third-scale Model Mobile Loading Simulator(MMLS3) was adopted to evaluate rutting resistance and moisture damage under different traffic and environmental conditions. In this study, plant-produced WMA mixtures using two WMA additives along with the conventional hot mix asphalt(HMA) mixtures were evaluated with respect to their rutting resistance and moisture susceptibility using MMLS3. Based on the limited laboratory test results, plant-produced WMA mixtures are superior to HMA mixtures in rutting resistance and the moisture susceptibility. The WMA additive was effective for producing and compacting the mixture at $30^{\circ}C$ lower than the temperature for the HMA mixture.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.53-67
• /
• 2014

Numerical modeling is commonly used to reproduce the physical phenomena of dam-break and to compile resulting flood hazard maps. The accuracy of a dam-break model depends on the physical structure that describes the volume of storage, breach formation and progress, input variables, and model parameters. Model input and parameters are subjective in that they are prescribed; hence, caution is needed when interpreting the results. This study focuses on three parameters (breach degree ${\theta}$, shape factor P, and collapse rate k) used when the dam-break model is coupled with FLO-2D (a two-dimensional flood simulation model) to estimate flood coverage and depth etc. The results show that the simulation is sensitive to the shape factor P and the collapse rate k but not to the breach degree ${\theta}$. This study will contribute to reducing flood damage from dam-break disasters in the future.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.42 no.5
• /
• pp.617-626
• /
• 2022

In Korea, annual precipitation and its variability have gradually increased since modern meteorological observations began, and the risk of disasters has also been increasing due to significant regional variations and recent abnormal climate conditions. Given that damage from storms and floods mainly occurs around rivers, it is crucial to determine the appropriate design frequency for river-related projects. This study examined existing design practices used to determine hydrological design frequencies and suggested a new method to determine appropriate design frequencies. The study collected available data pertaining to seven evaluation factors, specifically the basin areas, shape parameters, channel slopes, stream orders, backwater effect reaches, extreme rainfall frequencies, and urbanized flood inundation areasfor 413 local rivers in Chungcheongnam-do in Korea. The estimated weights for areas of extreme rainfall frequencies and urbanized flood inundation were found to be 18, having a great effect on determining the design frequency. Compared with the established design frequency in previous government reports, the estimated design frequency increased for 255 rivers and decreased for 158 rivers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.16 no.7
• /
• pp.961-968
• /
• 2022

Rotator cuff tears are a leading cause of shoulder pain in adults. Due to the increase in social activities, the number of patients complaining of shoulder pain is increasing, and interest in shoulder diseases is also increasing. With the development of ultrasound equipment, the sensitivity and specificity of diagnosis are high, and it is used to diagnose rotator cuff tears in musculoskeletal disease. Ultrasound is recognized as a complementary method to MRI examination in rotator cuff tears. Therefore, this study aimed to find out the diagnostic usefulness of ultrasound and MRI examinations in the diagnosis of shoulder rotator cuff tears.A retrospective analysis was performed on 262 patients who were diagnosed with final rotator cuff damage by arthroscopy after completing ultrasound and MRI examinations. Sensitivity, feature, positive predictive value, image predictive value, and touch were disassembled for the test results. In addition, the degree of clavicular tear was scored and recorded in 5 stages. Ultrasound examination was similar to MRI examination results for both full-thickness and partial tears, and there was no statistically significant difference. Partial tear test results showed higher positive predictive value and accuracy than MRI test. In conclusion, ultrasound can be fully utilized as a screening test for rotator cuff disease, and it is thought that it will be selected and used clinically according to the patient's constitution and situation.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
• /
• v.5 no.3
• /
• pp.225-234
• /
• 2011

Arabidopsis mutants with T-DNA insertion in seven calmodulin genes (CAM) were used to determine the specific role of CAM in the tolerance of plants to oxidative stress induced by paraquat and hydrogen peroxide ($H_2O_2$) treatments. Arabidopsis calmodulin mutants (cam) were screened for seedling growth, seed germination, induced oxidative damage, and levels of ${\gamma}$-aminobutyric acid (GABA) shunt metabolites. Only the cam5-4 and cam6-1 mutants exhibited an increased sensitivity to paraquat and $H_2O_2$ during seed germination and seedling growth. In response to treatments with $3{\mu}M$ paraquat and 1 mM $H_2O_2$, only the cam5-4, cam6-1 mutants showed significant changes in malonaldehyde (MDA) levels in root and shoot tissues, with highly increased levels of MDA. In terms of the GABA shunt metabolites, GABA was significantly elevated in root and shoot tissues in response to the paraquat treatments in comparison to alanine and glutamate, while the levels of all shunt metabolites increased in root tissue but not in the shoot tissue following the $H_2O_2$ treatments. GABA, alanine and glutamate levels were significantly increased in root and shoot of the cam1, cam4, cam5-4, and cam6-1 mutants in response to paraquat (0.5, 1 and $3{\mu}M$), while they were increased only in the root tissue of the cam1, cam4, cam5-4, and cam6-1 mutants in response to $H_2O_2$ (200 and $500{\mu}M$, 1 mM). These data show that the cam5-4 and cam6-1 mutants were sensitive to the induced oxidative stress treatments in terms of seed germination, seedling growth, and oxidative damage. The accumulation of GABA shunt metabolites as a consequence of the induced oxidative stress treatments (paraquat and $H_2O_2$ treatments) suggests that the GABA shunt pathway and the accumulation of GABA metabolites may contribute in antioxidant machinery associated with reactive oxygen species and in the acquisition of tolerance in response to induced oxidative stress in Arabidopsis seedlings.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.367-380
• /
• 2013

In this study, sub-indicators, and thematic mid-indexes to evaluate the water use characteristics were selected through historical data analysis and factor analysis, and consisted of the subject approach framework. And the integrated index was developed to evaluate water use characteristics of the watershed. Using developed index, the water use characteristics were assessed for 812 standard basins with the exception for North Korea using data of 1990 to 2007 from the relevant agencies. A sensitivity analysis is conducted for this study to determine the proper way through various normalization and weighting methods. To increase the objectivity of developed index, the history of the damage indicators are excluded in the analysis. In addition, in order to ensure its reliability, results from index with and without consideration of the damage history were compared. Also, the index is also applied to real data for 2008 Gangwon region to verify its field applicability. Through the validation process this index confirmed the adequacy for the indicators selection and calculation method. The results of this study were analyzed based on the spatial and time vulnerability of the basin's water use, which can be applied to various parts such as priority decision-making for water business or policy, mitigations for the vulnerable components of the basin, and supporting measures to establishment by providing relevant information about it.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.289-294
• /
• 2017

Diabetes mellitus is associated with insulin resistance, which leads to down-regulation of insulin signaling and the decreased glucose uptake. Adipocytes are sensitive to insulin, and closely implicated in insulin resistance and diabetes. Insulin stimulates differentiation of preadipocytes to adipocytes, and increases glucose transport. Allium species have been used as traditional medicine and health-promoting foods. Allium hookeri (A. hookeri) is reported to improve the pancreatic ${\beta}-cell$ damage and exhibit pancreatic anti-inflammatory activity in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. We investigated whether A. hookeri extract (AHE) may stimulate glucose uptake in adipocytes through increasing insulin sensitivity. AHE enhanced fat accumulation, a differentiation biomarker, under the partial induction of differentiation by insulin. $PPAR{\gamma}$, a transcription factor highly expressed in adipocytes, promotes adipocyte differentiation and insulin sensitivity. AHE increased the differentiation of preadipocytes through up-regulation of $PPAR{\gamma}$. The activation of $PPAR{\gamma}$ increases the GLUT4 expression during adipocyte differentiation. GLUT4 is responsible for glucose uptake into the adipocytes. AHE increased the expression of GLUT4 in adipocytes, and subsequently enhanced the insulin-stimulated glucose uptake. These results suggest that AHE promotes adipocyte differentiation through activation of $PPAR{\gamma}$, and leads to enhance glucose uptake in adipocytes along with GLUT4 up-regulation. Thus, AHE may be effective for the insulin-sensitizing and anti-diabetic activities.

• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
• /
• v.5 no.2
• /
• pp.126-132
• /
• 2009

The usage and types of chemicals are advancing, specializing, large-scaled increasing, and new chemical exposed workers are concerning to occupational disease. The generation of reactive oxygen in the body from carcinogen, mutation and DNA damage in cancer is protected by natural antioxidants (phytochemicals) with antimutagenic effect. There were many reports of ginsenoside Rb$_1$, Rg$_1$ grievances of the genetic mutation to suppress the effect confirm the genetic toxicity test with chromosomal aberration test and the Comet (SCGE) assay confirmed the suppression effect occurring chromosomal DNA damage. We had wanted to evaluate the compatibility and sensitivity between the chromosomal aberration (CA) test and the Comet assay. We used the CA test and Comet assay to evaluate the anti-genotoxicity of ginsenoside Rb$_1$ and Rg$_1$, in CHO-K1 (Chinese hamster ovary fibroblast) cell in vitro, composed negative control (solvent), positive control (benzo[a]pyrene), test group (carcinogen+variety concentration of ginsenoside) group. The positive control was benzo[a]pyrene (50 $\mu$M), well-known carcinogen, and the negative control was the 1 % DMSO solvent. The test group was a variety concentration of ginsenoside Rb$_1$, Rg$_1$ with 10$^{-8}$%, 10$^{-6}$%, 10$^{-4}$%, 10$^{-2}$%, 1%, 10%. In chromo-somal aberration test, we measured the number of cells with abnormally structured chromosome. In Comet assay, the Olive tail moment (OTM) and Tail length (TL) values were measured. The ratio of cell proliferation was increased 8.3% in 10$^{-8}$%, 10$^{-6}$%, 10$^{-4}$%, 10$^{-2}$%, 1%, 10% Rb$_1$ treated groups, and increased 10.4% in 10$^{-10}$%, 10$^{-8}$%, 10$^{-6}$%, 10$^{-4}$%, 10$^{-2}$%, 1% Rg$_1$ treated groups. In the CA test, the number of chromosomal aberration was decreased all the Rb$_1$ and Rg$_1$ treated groups. In the Comet assay, the OTM values were decreased in all the Rb$_1$ and Rg$_1$ treated groups. To evaluate the compatibility between CA and Comet assay, we compared the reducing ratio of chromosomal abnormalities with its OTM values, it was identified the antimutagenicity of ginsenoside, but it was more sensitive the CA test than the Comet assay. Ginsenoside Rb$_1$ and Rg$_1$ significantly decrease the number of cells with chromosomal aberration, and decrease the extent of DNA migration. Therefore, ginsenoside Rb$_1$, Rg$_1$ are thought as an antioxidant phytochemicals to protect mutagenicity. The in vitro Comet assay seems to be less sensitive than the in vitro chromosomal aberration test.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
• /
• v.13 no.5
• /
• pp.95-102
• /
• 2009

A steam generator (boiler) in thermal power plants, consisting of more than 30,000 parts and components, can lead to the plant shutdown with damage to even the small part of the components; esp., like weld failures on boiler tubes. Consequently it is greatly demanded to improve the quality of the weld on the boiler tube for the stable operation of the power plants. Because of the feature of the welding, which is done past by melting the work pieces and adding a filler material that cools to become a strong coalescence, there is a great possibility that weld failures take place. As a result, it is regulated to make a non-destructive testing, like radiography test, to detect defects and flaws in the weld. The current film radiography test provides a lower image quality exceeding 2.0% of a basic quality level for a penetrameter, it is very likely to fail to detect micro defect. As a result, the prevention for the boiler tube failure has not been made effectively. In this study, computed radiography technology has been applied as a digital radiography test to the boiler tube weld, and Se-75 radiation source was used to improve the image quality, instead of Ir-192 source. As a result of this study, it is proven to save the time and cost for test and to enhance the quality level of penetrameter penetrating image, which enables to upgrade the quality of radiography test to the boiler tube weld.