• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.335-340
• /
• 2017

Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors are applied to structural health monitoring (SHM) in many areas due to their unique advantages such as ease of multiplexing and capability of absolute measurement. However, they are exposed to cyclic thermal load, generally in the temperature range of $-20^{\circ}C$ to $60^{\circ}C$, in railways during a long-term SHM and the cyclic thermal load can affect the mechanical strength of FBGs. In this paper, the effects of both cyclic thermal load and the reflectivity of FBGs on the mechanical strength are investigated though tension tests of FBG specimens after they are aged in a thermal chamber with temperature changes in a range from $-20^{\circ}C$ to $60^{\circ}C$ for 300 cycles. Results from tension tests reveal that the mechanical strength of FBGs decreases about 8% as the thermal cycle increases to 100 cycles; the mechanical strength then remains steady until 300 cycles. Otherwise, the mechanical strength of FBGs with reflectivity of 6dB (70%) and 10dB (90%) exhibits degradation values of about 6% and 12%, respectively, compared to that with reflectivity of 3dB (50%) at 300 cycles. SEM photos of the Bragg grating parts also show defects that cause their strength degradation. Consequently, it should be considered that mechanical strength of FBGs can be degraded by both thermal cycles and the reflectivity if the FBGs are exposed to repetitive thermal load during a long-term SHM.

• Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.43 no.6
• /
• pp.529-536
• /
• 2005

Viral infection causes stress to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). The response to endoplasmic reticulum stress, known as the unfolded protein response (UPR), is designed to eliminate misfolded proteins and allow the cell to recover. The role of hepatitis C virus (HCV) non-structural protein NS4B, a component of the HCV replicons that induce UPR, is incompletely understood. We demonstrate that HCV NS4B could induce activating transcription factor (ATF6) and inositol-requiring enzyme 1 (IRE1), to favor the HCV subreplicon and HCV viral replication. HCV NS4B activated the IRE1 pathway, as indicated by splicing of X box-binding protein (Xbp-1) mRNA. However, transcriptional activation of the XBP-1 target gene, EDEM (ER degradation-enhancing $\alpha-mannosidase-like$ protein, a protein degradation factor), was inhibited. These results imply that NS4B might induce UPR through ATF6 and IRE1-XBP1 pathways, but might also modify the outcome to benefit HCV or HCV subreplicon replication.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.458-466
• /
• 2023

Structures in our surroundings deteriorate over time due to environmental and chemical factors, resulting in a decrease in their performance. The primary causes of degradation in concrete structures are carbonation, salt damage, and freeze-thaw cycles. Various maintenance methods exist to address these degradation issues. However, research and technological development for existing maintenance methods have been ongoing, but the accuracy and effectiveness of repair materials and techniques have not been extensively validated. Therefore, in this study, we conducted a material performance evaluation of various manufacturers' repair materials. Based on this evaluation, we applied corrosion inhibitors and epoxy, which are the methods most closely related to crack repair, to assess the durability performance against carbonation, salt damage, and freeze-thaw cycles. The results show approximately a two-fold performance improvement against carbonation and salt damage, and a 5% enhancement in repair performance against freeze-thaw cycles. Thus, it is considered effective in preventing rebar corrosion when appropriate maintenance is carried out according to environmental and chemical factors during structural repairs.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.32 no.1
• /
• pp.95-126
• /
• 2009

The present contribution addresses the parallelization of advanced simulation methods for structural reliability analysis, which have recently been developed for large-scale structures with a high number of uncertain parameters. In particular, the Line Sampling method and the Subset Simulation method are considered. The proposed parallel algorithms exploit the parallelism associated with the possibility to simultaneously perform independent FE analyses. For the Line Sampling method a parallelization scheme is proposed both for the actual sampling process, and for the statistical gradient estimation method used to identify the so-called important direction of the Line Sampling scheme. Two parallelization strategies are investigated for the Subset Simulation method: the first one consists in the embarrassingly parallel advancement of distinct Markov chains; in this case the speedup is bounded by the number of chains advanced simultaneously. The second parallel Subset Simulation algorithm utilizes the concept of speculative computing. Speedup measurements in context with the FE model of a multistory building (24,000 DOFs) show the reduction of the wall-clock time to a very viable amount (<10 minutes for Line Sampling and ${\approx}$ 1 hour for Subset Simulation). The measurements, conducted on clusters of multi-core nodes, also indicate a strong sensitivity of the parallel performance to the load level of the nodes, in terms of the number of simultaneously used cores. This performance degradation is related to memory bottlenecks during the modal analysis required during each FE analysis.

• Proceedings of the Korea Crystallographic Association Conference
• /
• 2003.05a
• /
• pp.15-15
• /
• 2003

To discover new drugs more quickly and more efficiently, pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology firms are increasingly turning to the genomics and the structural proteomics technologies. Structural-proteomics can provide a foundation for this through the determination and analysis for protein structure on a genomics scale. Among many structures determined by CGI, we will present with the representative examples drawn from our work on novel structures or complex structures of the disease-related proteins. The alpha subunit of Hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) is targeted for degradation under normoxic conditions by an ubiquitin-ligase complex that recognizes a hydroxylated proline residue in HIF. Hydroxylation is catalysed by HIF prolyl 4-hydroxylases (HIFPH) which are fe(II) and 2-oxoglutarate (2-OG) dependent oxygenases. Here, we discuss the first crystal structure of the catalytic domain of HIFPH in complexes, with the Fe(II)/2-OG at 1.8Å. These structures suggest that the Ll region (residues 236-253), which is also conserved in mammals, form a 'lid' that closes over the active site. The structural and mutagenesis analyses allow us to provide a focus for understanding cellular responses to hypoxia and a target for the therapeutic manipulation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Biophysical Society Conference
• /
• 2003.06a
• /
• pp.28-28
• /
• 2003

To discover new drugs more quickly and more efficiently, pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology firms are increasingly turning to the genomics and the structural proteomics technologies. Structural-proteomics can provide a foundation for this through the determination and analysis for protein structure on a genomics scale. Among many structures determined by CGI, we will present with the representative examples drawn from our work on novel structures or complex structures of the disease-related proteins. The alpha subunit of Hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) is targeted for degradation under normoxic conditions by an ubiquitin-ligase complex that recognizes a hydroxylated proline residue in HIF, Hydroxylation is catalysed by HIF prolyl 4-hydroxylases (HIFPH) which are Fe(II) and 2-oxoglutarate (2-OG) dependent oxygenases. Here, we discuss the first crystal structure of the catalytic domain of HIFPH in complexes, with the Fe(II)/2-OG at 1.8 ${\AA}$. These structures suggest that the L1 region (residues 236-253), which is also conserved in mammals, form a ‘lid’ that closes over the active site. The structural and mutagenesis analyses allow us to provide a focus for understanding cellular responses to hypoxia and a target for the therapeutic manipulation.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
• /
• 2011.10a
• /
• pp.2661-2665
• /
• 2011

In order to evaluate the structural integrity of a GFRP composite bogie frame due to flying railway ballast, the low velocity impact test and compressive test after impact was conducted for glass fiber/epoxy 4-harness satin woven laminate composites applied to skin part of a bogie frame. The impact test was performed using a instrumented impact testing system with energy levels of 5J, 10J and 20J and the designed impactor based on typical railway ballast shapes such as sphere, cube and cone to simulate the ballasted track environments. The compressive strength was tested to according to ASTM D7137 to evaluate the degradation of mechanical property of impact damaged laminate composites. The results showed that the damage area and the degradation of compressive strength after impact for laminate composites was increased with increase in impact energy for all ballast shapes and was particularly most influenced by cone ballast shape.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.39-52
• /
• 2008

Column shear failures observed during recent earthquakes and experimental data indicate that shear deformations are typically associated with the amount of transverse reinforcement, column aspect ratio, axial load, and a few other parameters. It was shown that in some columns shear displacements can be significantly large, especially after flexural yielding. In this paper, a piecewise linear model is developed to predict an envelope of the cyclic shear response including the shear displacement and corresponding strength predictions at the first shear cracking, peak strength, onset of lateral strength degradation, and loss of axial-load-carrying capacity. Part of the proposed model is developed using the analysis results from the Modified Compression Field Theory (MCFT). The results from the proposed model, which uses simplified equations, are compared with the column test data.

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.87-98
• /
• 2017

In recent year, the coat layer drops and the rebar rust of bridge parapets, which caused the structural performance degradation. In order to achieve the comprehensive rehabilitation, ultra high performance cementitious composites is proposed to existing RC parapet rehabilitation. The influence factors of UHPCC rehabilitation includes two parts, i.e., internal factors related with material, such as UHPCC layer thickness, corrosion ratio of rebars, fiber volume fraction, and external factors related with the load, such as impact speeds, impact angles, vehicle mass. The influence of the factors was analyzed in this paper based on the nonlinear finite element. The analysis results of the maximum dynamic deformation and the peak impact load of parapets revealed the influence of the internal factors and the external factors on anti-collision performance and degree degradation. This research may provide a reference for the comprehensive multifunctional rehabilitation of existing bridge parapets.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 1995.11a
• /
• pp.175-178
• /
• 1995

Distribution of relaxation time is presented in the Cole-Cole arc diagram with frequency parameter. In the case of estimation of activation energy for main chains, maximum loss frequencies of ${\alpha}$ peaks, f$\sub$m/(${\alpha}$) display curved change according to the WLF type with variations of temperature. Structural change by the filling of filler and degradation by the thermal aging can be estimated from the WLF factors, C$_1$and C$_2$in Log f$\sub$m/-1/T curves which reflect the variations of free volume and thermal expansivity of composites.