• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.485-496
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• 2019

Sealing of leakage in waterfront or water-retaining structures is one of the major issues in geotechnical engineering practices. With demands for biological methods as sustainable ground improvement techniques, bioclogging, defined as the reduction in hydraulic conductivity of soils caused by microbial activities, has been considered as an alternative to the chemical grout techniques for its economic advantages and eco-friendliness of microbial by-products. This study investigated the feasibility of bioaugmentation and biostimulation methods to induce fermentation-based bioclogging effect in coarse sands. In the bioaugmentation experiments, effects of various parameters and conditions, including grain size, pH, and biogenic gas generation, on hydraulic conductivity reduction were examined through a series of column experiments while Leuconostoc mesenteroides, which produce an insoluble biopolymer called dextran, was used as the model bacteria. The column test results demonstrate that the accumulation of bacterial biopolymer can readily reduce the hydraulic conductivity by three-to-four orders of magnitudes or by 99.9-99.99% in well-controlled environments. In the biostimulation experiments, two inoculums of indigenous soil bacteria sampled from waterfront embankments were prepared and their bioclogging efficiency was examined. With one inoculum containing species capable of fermentation and biopolymer production, the hydraulic conductivity reduction by two orders of magnitude was achieved, however, no clogging was found with the other inoculum. This implies that presence of indigenous species capable of biopolymer production and their population, if any, play a key role in causing bioclogging, because of competition with other indigenous bacteria. The presented results provide fundamental insights into the bacterial biopolymer formation mechanism, its effect on soil permeability, and potential of engineering bacterial clogging in subsurface.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.235-243
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• 2022

The paper presents the effect of operating temperatures and flow rates on the distillate flux that can be obtained from a hydrophobic membrane having the characteristics: pore size of 0.15 ㎛; thickness of 130 ㎛; and 85% porosity. That membrane in the present investigation could be the direct contact (DCMD) or the air-gap membrane distillation (AGMD). To model numerically the membrane distillation processes, the two-dimensional computational fluid dynamic (CFD) is used for the DCMD and AGMD cases here. In this work, DCMD and AGMD models have been validated with the experimental data using different flows (Parallel and Counter-current flows) in non-steady-state situations. A good agreement is obtained between the present results and those of the experimental data in the literature. The new approach in the present numerical modeling has allowed examining effects of the nature of materials (Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) polymers, copolymers, and blends) used on thermal properties. Moreover, the effect of the area surface of the membrane (0.021 to 3.15 ㎡) is investigated to explore both the laminar and the turbulent flow regimes. The obtained results found that copolymer P(VDF-TrFE) (80/20) is more effective than the other materials of membrane distillation (MD). The mass flux and thermal efficiency reach 193.5 (g/㎡s), and 83.29 % using turbulent flow and an effective area of 3.1 ㎡, respectively. The increase of feed inlet temperatures and its flow rate, with the reduction of cold temperatures and its flow rate are very effective for increasing distillate water flow in MD applications.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.427-446
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• 2022

Cutouts in the beams or plates are often unavoidable due to inspection, maintenance, ventilation, structural aesthetics purpose, and sometimes to lighten the structures. Therefore, there will be a substantial reduction in the strength of the structure due to the introduction of the cutouts. However, these cutouts can be reinforced with the different patterns of ribs (stiffener) to enhance the strength of the structure. The present study highlights the influence of the elliptical cutout reinforced with a different pattern of ribs on the stability performance of such stiffened composite panels subjected to non-uniform edge loads by employing the Finite element (FE) technique. In the present formulation, a 9-noded heterosis element is used to model the skin, and a 3-noded isoparametric beam element is used to simulate the rib that is attached around a cutout in different patterns. The displacement compatibility condition is employed between the plate and stiffener, and arbitrary orientations are taken care by introducing respective transformation matrices. The effect of shear deformation and rotary inertia are incorporated in the formulation. A new mesh configuration is developed to house the attached ribs around an elliptical cutout with different patterns. Initially, a study is performed on the panels with different stiffener schemes for various ply orientations and for different stiffener depth to width ratios (d_s/b_s) to determine an optimal stiffener configuration. Further, various parametric studies are conducted on an obtained optimal stiffened panel to understand the effect of cutout size, cutout orientation, panel aspect ratio, and boundary conditions. Finally, from the analysis, it can be observed that the arrangement of the stiffener attached to a panel has a major impact on the buckling capacity of the stiffened panel. The stiffener's depth to width ratio also significantly influences the buckling characteristic.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.19-25
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• 2023

In this paper, we propose a method for improving raw images captured in a low light condition based on deep learning considering the image signal processing. In the case of a smart phone camera, compared to a DSLR camera, the size of a lens or sensor is limited, so the noise increases and the reduces the quality of images in low light conditions. Existing deep learning-based low-light image processing methods create unnatural images in some cases since they do not consider the lens shading effect and white balance, which are major factors in the image signal processing. In this paper, pixel distances from the image center and channel average values are used to consider the lens shading effect and white balance with a deep learning model. Experiments with low-light images taken with a smart phone demonstrate that the proposed method achieves a higher peak signal to noise ratio and structural similarity index measure than the existing method by creating high-quality low-light images.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.53-63
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• 2023

There have been many studies from the genetic system to physical activity and emotional expression such that there are gender differences. The purpose of this study was to determine how the structural characteristics of cortical thickness differ between males and females. This study used data from the Human Connectome Project (HCP). To analyze age-specific sexual dimorphisms of cortical thickness, selected 8-80 year old subjects were divided into five detailed age range groups according to each criterion. A total of 1,700 individual brain MRI T1 data were registered in stereotaxic space for analysis and classified into white matter (WM), gray matter (GM), and cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF). For surface-based analysis, the WM/GM surface was reconstructed from a spherical polygon model with 40962 vertices per hemisphere, and each vertex was extended to the GM/CSF boundary. Cortical thickness was then measured between each vertex using the t-link method. In the statistical analysis, intracranial volume was used as a covariate to exclude the effect of the difference in brain size of each individual, and the result of using age as a covariate was added to confirm the age effect within each group. Gender differences in cortical thickness had significant results by group. This may be an index to explain diseases with sexual dimorphism in prevalence or become a basis for explaining the characteristics of each sex that appear in behavior, personality, and aging. Therefore, the results of our study could be a criterion for age classification in future studies and for understanding 'normal' sexual dimorphism.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.6 no.12
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• pp.244-252
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• 2006

The main results of this study can by summarized as follows. First, the incremental effect of equity to shareholders is common in the sample of this study. The sample contains 46 non-listed firms that filed for legal management and had confirmed their reorganization plans. Second, the results of the regression model analyzing the determinants of incremental equity to shareholders in legal management show that it is negative related to the solvency(total debt/total asset), firm size, and weight of claims for secured creditors and banks significantly. But corporate reorganization period(from filing to confirmation)are not significant.

• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.21-28
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• 2009

In the past, most of battle occurred in flatland and simple military force size gave a big influence in combat result. However, after the World War I, most of battles took place at the various terrain features such as forest, downtown, jungle and many others. Therefore, terrain factor exerts big influence on battle with weapon system in the ground warfare. However, effect of terrain has been explained only by quantitative manner in the battle. Furthermore, combat simulation and modeling applied a method that lower the combat capability of battle factors. In this paper, we present instrumentation that evaluate impact of terrain using fractal dimension. We determine the fractal dimension value by the "box counting dDimension" and density to calculate impact of terrain. Furthermore, we analyzed correlation with fractal dimension and density for battle result that obtained from the EINSTein model which is an agent-based simulation. We compare with 'Stalingrad battle' result out of battle example and analyzed. This study presented a method combat effectiveness that effect of terrain calculate quantitatively using fractal dimension.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.121-129
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• 2008

Numerical analysis for the in-situ top base foundation (In-situ TBF) was carried out in order to investigate the effect of bearing capacity and the load delivering mechanisms in granular soil. The input data for the numerical model was prepared from the result obtained from the plate load test and full size in-situ TBF field tests. According to the result of numerical analysis, the behavior of in-situ TBF showed that bearing capacity of the foundation increased by $50{\sim}100%$ and settlement was reduced up to $1/2{\sim}1/3$ comparing to other types foundation. The effect of cone-shaped part of the in-situ TBF was as important as pile part for the improvement of foundation stability. The variation of the length of pile part indicated that the present length was proved satisfactory in terms of effectiveness.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.129-138
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• 2022

One of the objectives to prevent building pounding between two adjacentstructures is to considerseparation distance or decrease relative displacement during seismic excitation. Although the majority of building codes around the world have basically suggested some equations or approximately recommended various distances between structuresto avoid pounding hazard, but a lot of reportsin zone of pounding have obviously shown thatsafety situation or economic consideration are not always provided due to the collisions between buildings and the cost of land, respectively. For this purpose, a dynamic MDOF model by having base isolation system is numerically considered and using various earthquake records, relative displacements are mathematically investigated. Different equations to determine the value of damping ratio are collected and the results of evaluations are listed for comparison among them to present a new equation for determination of impact damping ratio. Presented equation is depends significantly on impact velocity before and after impact based on artificial neural network, which the accuracy of them is investigated and also confirmed. In order to select the optimum equation, hysteresisloop of impact between base of building and rubber bumper is considered and compared with the hysteresis loop of each impact, calculated by different equations. Finally, using representative equation, the effect of thickness, number and stiffness of rubber bumpers are numerically investigated. The results of analysis indicate that stiffness and number of bumpers have significantly affected in zone of impact force while the thickness of bumpers have not shown significant influence to calculate impact force during earthquake. For instance, increasing the number of bumpers, gap size between structures and also the value of stiffness is caused to decrease impact force between models. The final evaluation demonstrates that bumpers are able to decrease peak lateral displacement of top story during impact.

• Clinical Nutrition Research
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.133-145
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• 2022

The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to summarize all the existing randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evidence and to evaluate the effects of magnesium supplementation on serum magnesium, calcium and urinary magnesium concentrations in patients with type 2 diabetes compared with the control. Two independent authors systematically searched online databases including Embase, Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science from inception until 30th January 2022. RCTs complying with the inclusion criteria were included in this meta-analysis. The heterogeneity among the included studies was assessed using Cochrane's Q test and I-square (I²) statistic. Data were pooled using a random-effects model and weighted mean difference (WMD) was considered as the overall effect size. Sixteen trials were included in this meta-analysis. Serum magnesium (mean difference, 0.15 mg/dL; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.06 to 0.23; p = 0.001) and urinary magnesium (WMD, 1.99 mg/dL; 95% CI, 0.36 to 3.62; p = 0.017) concentrations were significantly increased after magnesium supplementation when compared with the control group. However, magnesium supplementation did not have any significant effect on serum calcium (WMD, -0.09 mg/dL; 95% CI, -0.27 to 0.08; p = 0.294) level when compared with the control group. This meta-analysis demonstrated that magnesium supplementation significantly increased Serum magnesium levels which may have played an indirect role in improved clinical symptoms in patients with type 2 diabetes.