• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.262-268
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• 2001

Objectives : To integrate the results of studies which assess an association between blood lead and blood pressure. Methods : We surveyed the existing literature using a MEDLINE search with blood lead and blood pressure as key words, including reports published from January 1980 to December 2000. The criteria for quality evaluation were as follows: 1) the study subjects must have been workers exposed to lead, and 2) both blood pressure and blood lead must have been measured and presented with sufficient details so as to estimate or calculate the size of the association as a continuous variable. Among the 129 articles retrieved, 13 studies were selected for quantitative meta-analysis. Before the integration of each regression coefficient for the association between blood pressure and blood lead, a homogeneity test was conducted. Results : As the homogeneity of studies was rejected in a fixed effect model, we used the results in a random effect model. Our quantitative meta-analysis yielded weighted regression coefficients of blood lead associated with systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure results of 0.0047 (95% confidence interval [CI]: -0.0061, 0.0155) and 0.0004 (95% CI: -0.0031, 0.0039), respectively. Conclusions : The published evidence suggested that there may be a weak positive association between blood lead and blood pressure, but the association is not significant.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.1495-1503
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• 2009

This experiment was conducted to determine the effect of dietary supplementation with BCAA (branched-chain amino acids: leucine, isoleucine and valine) on improving the growth of rats in a malnutritional IUGR (Intrauterine Growth Retardation) model, which was established by feeding restriction. In the experimental treatment, rats were fed purified diets supplemented with BCAA (mixed) during the whole gestation period, while arginine and alanine supplementation were set as the positive and negative control group, respectively. The results showed that, compared to the effect of alanine, BCAA reversed IUGR by increasing the fetus weights by 18.4% and placental weights by 18.0% while fetal numbers were statistically increased. Analysis of gene and protein expression revealed that BCAA treatment increased embryonic liver IGF-I expression; the uterus expressed higher levels of estrogen receptor-$\alpha$ (ER-$\alpha$) and progesterone receptor (PR), and the placenta expressed higher levels of IGF-II. Amino acid analysis of dam plasma revealed that BCAA supplementation effectively enhanced the plasma BCAA levels caused by the feed restriction. BCAA also enhanced the embryonic liver gluconeogenesis by augmenting the expression of two key enzymes, namely fructose-1,6-biphosphatase (FBP) and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK). In conclusion, supplementation of BCAA increased litter size, embryonic weight and litter embryonic weight by improving the dam uterus and placental functions as well as increasing gluconeogenesis in the embryonic liver, which further provided energy to enhance the embryonic growth.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.119-127
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• 2020

In this study, the current state of management efficiency of ocean carriers in Korea and the factors affecting them were analyzed. The purpose of this research is to enhance global competitiveness of ocean carriers by presenting suggestions that can improve management efficiency based on the analysis results. The measurement of management efficiency was made using the DEA model. The results of testing the adequacy of the input and output variables used are as follows. Appropriate inputs are total assets, cost of goods sold, charter expenses, sales and general management expenses, and interest expenses. Appropriate variables are sales, operating income, and operating cash flow. According to the analysis results of the DEA model by these variables, inefficient carriers (78%) are nearly four times more than efficient carriers(22%). However, container carriers have the most improved management efficiency compared to 2016 and 2017. According to the panel regression analysis, the charter rate has the greatest negative impact on efficiency (CRS), and the debt rate has a significant negative impact. Thus, it appears that reducing the charter size and the debt-to-sale rate facilitate improvement of the management efficiency of ocean carriers. Additionally, the pre-sales tax return rate, value added rate, total asset turnover rate, and the scale variable and interest coverage rate have a positive (+) effect. Thus ocean carriers should restore their global competitiveness by improving management efficiency by securing stable cargoes increasing sales profitability from the cost management perspective, increasing productivity, and enhancing the efficiency of their total assets through efficient fleet management.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.781-789
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• 2016

Busbar has been used as electric conductor within extra high voltage (EHV) gas insulated switchgear (GIS), which makes EHV GIS higher security, smaller size and lower cost. However, the main fault of GIS is overheating of busbar connection parts, circuit breaker and isolating switch contact parts, which has been already restricting development of GIS to a large extent. In this study, a coupled magneto-flow-thermal analysis is used to investigate the thermal properties of GIS busbar in steady-state. A three-dimensional (3-D) finite element model (FEM) is built to calculate multiphysics fields including electromagnetic field, flow field and thermal field in steady-state. The influences of current on the magnetic flux density, flow velocity and heat distribution has been investigated. Temperature differences of inner wall and outer wall are investigated for busbar tank and conducting rod. Considering the end effect in the busbar, temperature rise difference is compared between end sections and the middle section. In order to obtain better heat dissipation effect, diameters of conductor and tank are optimized based on temperature rise simulation results. Temperature rise tests have been done to validate the 3-D simulation model, which is observed a good correlation with the simulation results. This study provides technical support for optimized structure of the EHV GIS busbar.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.1232-1236
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• 2002

Direct and service sire genetic parameters for total number of pigs born (TNB), number of pigs born alive (NBA), total pig weight at birth (TWB), and average pig birth weight (ABW) were estimated by DF-REML under a multiple trait animal model. Data on 3,078 litters of the Yorkshire from Jan, 1975 to Dec, 1998 at National Livestock Research Institute were obtained. The animal model included fixed contemporary group effects and random additive direct, service sire, and residual effects. Additive genetic relationships among animals were included. A separate relationship matrix for service sires and their sire was also included. Additive direct heritability estimates for TNB, NBA, TWB, and ABW were 0.19, 0.18, 0.25 and 0.39, respectively. Service sire heritability estimates for TNB, NBA, TWB, and ABW were 0.02, 0.01, 0.02 and 0.01, respectively. The genetic and phenotypic correlations of TNB with NBA estimated in this study were 0.81 and 0.81, respectively, and the genetic and phenotypic correlations of TNB with TWB estimated were 0.82 and 0.76, respectively. Results indicate that service sires account for 1 to 2% of the total variation for TNB, NBA, TWB, and ABW. Further investigation is needed to determine whether the service sire effect is primarily genetic or environmental.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.109-122
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• 2013

The rapid rural urban migration and aging has generated an over-depopulation problems in rural areas since the 1980s. The purpose of this study constructs the marginal size of rural over-depopulated village through the analysis of the residential disparities such as farmer's ratio, basic life service accessibility, and levels of social and economic factors for each village community. This marginal scale could support evaluating diverse rural policies, which have been planned to apply to the rural development programs at the village level. The major challenges for over-depopulated villages are the lack of basic facilities, production infrastructures and inactive communities in the village. Therefore, the quantitative analysis of rural residential disparities according to rural village scale can provide the criteria for rural over-depopulated villages. We utilized Korea Agricultural Survey Data(2010) including specific residential condition of village level. The present study adopt multinomial-logit model for quantitative analysis of different village scales and decomposition techniques to separate the direct effect by the village scale factor from the endowment effects by regional or area characteristics, and residual effect by unknown factors. The present study found that the minimum scale of a rural over-depopulated village was 40 and 60 houses for the respective conditions of farmer's ratios less than 50% and greater than 75%. It was concluded based on the study findings that threshold scale could support evaluating the diverse rural policies, which have been planned to apply to the rural development programs at the village level.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.166-176
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• 2013

Background: Effective policy implementation is essential for a healthy workplace. The Ryan-Kossek 2008 model for work-life policy adoption suggests that supervisors as gatekeepers between employer and employee need to know how to support and communicate benefit regulations. This article describes a workplace intervention on a national employee benefit, Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and evaluates the effectiveness of the intervention on supervisor knowledge, awareness, and experience with FMLA. Methods: The intervention consisted of computer-based training (CBT) and a survey measuring awareness and experience with FMLA. The training was administered to 793 county government supervisors in the state of Oregon, USA. Results: More than 35% of supervisors reported no previous training on FMLA and the training pre-test revealed a lack of knowledge regarding benefit coverage and employer responsibilities. The CBT achieved: (1) a significant learning effect and large effect size of d = 2.0, (2) a positive reaction to the training and its design, and (3) evidence of increased knowledge and awareness regarding FMLA. Conclusion: CBT is an effective strategy to increase supervisors' knowledge and awareness to support policy implementation. The lack of supervisor training and knowledge of an important but complex employee benefit exposes a serious impediment to effective policy implementation and may lead to negative outcomes for the organization and the employee, supporting the Ryan-Kossek model. The results further demonstrate that long-time employees need supplementary training on complex workplace policies such as FMLA.

• Solar Energy
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.60-69
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• 1992

Heat transfer characteristics and heat storage rate for vertical cylinder packed with paraffin as a latent heat storage material were theoretically studied. Conduction and convection mechanism were applied to the solid and liquid phase, respectively, and the results were compared with that of pure conduction model. The effects of heating temperature, initial solid temperature and aspect ratio on rate of storage were also studied. In the initial stage of melting, the natural convection is nearly restricted by the friction at the wall and the phase boundary. But it is generated when about 40% of solid melts and again it shrinks by the hot liquid situated on the upper part of the cylinder. So overall melting rate is higher then that for pure conduction model. The increase in heating temperature and aspect ratio activates the natural convection, so melting rate becomes higher. And the larger the aspect ratio, the greater the difference between upper and lower size of the solid. In the initial stage of melting, the initial temperature of solid paraffin has great effect on the melting rate, but as melting proceeds its effect lessens gradually.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.33 no.7B
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• pp.469-476
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• 2008

In this paper we analyze the packet interference probability and the aggregated throughput of a WPAN in which a number of Bluetooth piconets share the ISM band with WLANS. Using an Adaptive Frequency Hopping algorithm, when the AFH is employed, the number of hops available to the Bluetooth piconets varies depending on the number of independent WLANs within the piconet's radio range. Using a packet collision model in a piconet cluster, we give an analysis of the packet interference probability and the aggregated throughput as a function of the available hops for the AFH algorithm. We also present an analytical model of packet interference with multi-path fading channel in a cluster of piconets. Through analysis, we obtain the packet collision probability and aggregated throughput assuming capture effect. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effect of various Parameters such as capture ratio, Rice factor and cluster size on the system performance.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.237-249
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• 2015

In this study we investigate a laboratory scale vacuum membrane distillation system to produce pure water from model oil in water emulsion. Experimental determination of liquid entry pressure (LEP) of a commercial Durapore$^{TM}$ GVPH flat sheet membrane using model emulsions in various oil concentrations has been carried out. Two different methods of liquid entry pressure determination - a frequently used, so-called static and a novel dynamic method - have been investigated. In case of static method, LEP value was found to be 2.3 bar. No significant effect of oil content on LEP was detected up to 3200 ppm. In contrast, LEP values determined with dynamic method showed strong dependence on the oil concentration of the feed and decreased from 2.0 bar to a spontaneous wetting at 0.2 bar in the range 0-250 ppm, respectively. Vacuum membrane distillation tests were also performed. The separation performance is evaluated in terms of flux behavior, total organic carbon removal and droplet size distribution of the feed and final retentate. No significant effect of oil content on the flux was found ($5.05{\pm}0.31kgm^{-2}h^{-1}$) up to 250 ppm, where a spontaneous wetting occurred. High separation performance was achieved along with the increasing oil concentration between 93.4-97.0%.