• Advances in concrete construction
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.141-149
• /
• 2020

In the present study, a mechanical model is applied to account the effects of the surrounding viscoelastic media on the buckling behavior of single microfilament within the cell. The model immeasurably associates filament's bending rigidity, neighboring system elasticity, and cytosol viscosity with buckling wavelengths, buckling growth rates and buckling amplitudes of the filament. Cytoskeleton components in living cell bear large compressive force and are responsible in maintaining the cell shape. Actually these filaments are surrounded by viscoelastic media consisting of other filaments network and viscous cytosole within the cell. This surrounding, viscoelastic media affects the buckling behavior of these filaments when external force is applied on these filaments. The obtained results, indicate that the coupling of viscoelastic media with the viscous cytosol greatly affect the buckling behavior of microfilament. The buckling forces increased with the increase in the intensity of surrounding viscoelastic media.

• Advances in concrete construction
• /
• v.4 no.4
• /
• pp.231-242
• /
• 2016

The major problem of a coal combustion-based power plant is that it creates large quantity of solid wastes. So, to achieve the gainful use of waste materials and to avoid other environmental problems, this study was undertaken. The quantity of coal ash by-products, particularly coal fly ash and coal bottom ash has been increasing from the coal power plants around the world. The other objective of this study was to explore the possibility of utilization of coal ash in the production of ash bricks. In 15 different mixes, Mix Designation M-1 to M-15, the varying percentages of lime and gypsum were used and sand was replaced with coal bottom ash. Further, it has been noticed that the water absorption and compressive strength of mix M-15 is 13.36% and 7.85 MPa which is better than the conventional bricks. The test results of this investigation show that the prism strength of coal ash masonry prisms was more than that of the conventional bricks.

• Advances in concrete construction
• /
• v.4 no.4
• /
• pp.319-332
• /
• 2016

In most cases strengthening reinforced concrete columns exposed to high strain rate is to be expected especially within weak designed structures. A special type of loading is instantaneous loading. Rapid loading can be observed in structural columns exposed to axial loads (e.g., caused by the weight of the upper floors during a vertical earthquake and loads caused by damage and collapse of upper floors and pillars of bridges).Subsequently, this study examines the behavior of reinforced concrete columns under rapid loading so as to understand patterns of failure mechanism, failure capacity and strain rate using finite element code. And examines the behavior of reinforced concrete columns at different support conditions and various loading rate, where the concrete columns were reinforced using various counts of FRP (Fiber Reinforcement Polymer) layers with different lengths. The results were compared against other experimental outcomes and the CEB-FIP formula code for considering the dynamic strength increasing factor for concrete materials. This study reveals that the finite element behavior and failure mode, where the results show that the bearing capacity increased with increasing the loading rate. CFRP layers increased the bearing capacity by 20% and also increased the strain capacity by 50% through confining the concrete.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.1173-1184
• /
• 2018

The lifetime of a lithium-ion battery is one of the most important issues of the energy storage system (ESS) because of its stable and reliable operation. In this paper, the lifetime management method of the lithium-ion battery for energy storage system is proposed. The lifetime of the lithium-ion battery varies, depending on the power usage, operation condition, and, especially the selected depth of discharge (DOD). The proposed method estimates the total lifetime of the lithium-ion battery by calculating the total transferable energy corresponding to the selected DOD and achievable cycle (ACC) data. It is also demonstrated that the battery model can obtain state of charge (SOC) corresponding to the ESS operation simultaneously. The simulation results are presented performing the proposed lifetime management method. Also, the total revenue and entire lifetime prediction of a lithium-ion battery of ESS are presented considering the DOD, operation and various condition for the nations of USA and Korea using the proposed method.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
• /
• v.30 no.5
• /
• pp.1035-1041
• /
• 2017

(-)-Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is a major catechin found in green tea. It is reported that EGCG possesses various health benefits including anti-cancer, antioxidant, anti-diabetes, and anti-obesity. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of EGCG on adipogenesis via activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) pathway in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. In order to determine the effects of EGCG on adipogenesis, preadipocyte differentiation was induced in the presence or absence of EGCG ($0{\sim}100{\mu}M$) for a period of 6 days. EGCG significantly inhibited fat accumulation and suppressed the expression of adipogenic specific proteins including peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-${\gamma}$. Also, EGCG markedly increased the activation of AMPK and acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) and the production of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS). However, any pretreatment with a specific AMPK inhibitor, compound C, abolished the inhibitory effects of the EGCG on $PPAR{\gamma}$ expression. This study suggests that EGCG has anti-adipogenic effects through modulation of the AMPK signaling pathway and therefore, may be a promising antiobesity agent.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
• /
• v.2 no.4
• /
• pp.227-233
• /
• 2008

The aim of the present study was to assess the anti-obesity effects of grape seed extract (GSE) supplement in C57BL/6J mice. Thirty mice were divided into three groups; normal diet control group (ND), high fat diet control group (HD) and high fat diet plus grape seed extract supplemented group (HD+GSE). Results were as follows: 1. GSE supplement reduced the weight gain in mice fed high fat diets; epididymal and back fat weights, were lower compared to non-supplemented HD group. 2. Blood lipid concentrations were lower in the HD+GSE group than in the HD group. Serum HDL-C concentrations were higher in the HD+GSE group compared with the other groups. 3. The concentrations of acid-insoluble acylcarnitines, (AIAC) in serum and liver were higher in the HD+GSE group than in the HD group. 4. GSE supplementation increased mRNA levels of lipolytic genes such as carnitine palmitoyltransferase-l (CPT-1) and decreased mRNA levels of lipogenic genes such as acetyl CoA carboxylase (ACC). These findings suggest that grape seed extract supplements in high fat diet might normalize body weight, epididymal and back fat weights, lipid concentrations, and carnitine levels through controlling lipid metabolism.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
• /
• v.19 no.5
• /
• pp.641-647
• /
• 2009

In this paper, a new filtering scheme for adaptive cruise control (ACC) system is presented. In the proposed scheme, the identification of the mode of the preceding vehicle is considered as a classification problem and it is done by a neural network classifier. The neural network classifier outputs a posterior probability of the mode of the preceding vehicle and the probability is directly used in the IMM framework. Finally, ten scenarios are made and the proposed NIMM is tested on them to show its validity.

• Advances in concrete construction
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.271-278
• /
• 2020

Quantifying the amount of damage of structures under earthquakes is an interesting issue that researchers have attended on and have presented some damage indices. Whereas a lot of damage indices have been introduced based on nonlinear dynamic analysis, computational effort, the calculus complicacy and time-consuming of this analysis are the main drawbacks to widespread use of these indices. The objective of this study is to quantify the damage of Shear Wall Reinforced Concrete Frames (SWRCFs) based on pushover analysis as a procedure that can reflect the behavior of structures from elastic to collapse. For this purpose, firstly, several SWRCFs are designed and the capacity spectrum of each one is achieved via pushover analysis. After that, the static damage indices of the designed frames are obtained. Then, nonlinear dynamic analyses are performed on these frames and the Park and Ang damage index as the basis damage criterion is achieved. Afterward, some relations are presented to predict the dynamic damage of these frames via pushover analysis. Eventually, to confirm the validity of the proposed relations, the values of Park and Ang damage index of three new SWRCFs are acquired once utilizing nonlinear dynamic analysis and again applying the introduced relations. Outcomes prove the validity of some presented damage indices.

• Advances in concrete construction
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.185-193
• /
• 2020

An analytical model is developed in this paper to predict the shear capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) columns with corroded transverse reinforcements. The shear strength model for corroded RC columns is proposed based on modifying the existing strut-and-tie model, which considers the deformational compatibility between truss and arch mechanisms. The contributions to the shear strength from both truss and arch mechanisms are incorporated in the proposed model. The effects of corrosion level of transverse reinforcements are considered in the proposed model through the minimum residual cross-sectional area of transverse reinforcements and the reduction of concrete compressive strength for the cover area. The shear strengths calculated from the developed model are compared with the experimental results from Vu's study (2017), which consisted of RC columns with corroded transverse reinforcements showing shear failure under the cyclic loading. The comparison results indicate satisfactory correlations. Parametric studies are conducted based on the developed shear strength model to explore the effects of column axial loading, aspect ratios, transverse reinforcements and the corrosion levels in transverse reinforcements to the shear strength of RC columns with corroded transverse reinforcements.

• Advances in concrete construction
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.195-209
• /
• 2020

This study investigates the behavior of ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) with hybrid macro-micro steel and macro steel-polypropylene (PP) fibers. Compression, direct and indirect tension tests were carried out on cubic and cylindrical, dogbone and prismatic specimens, respectively. Three types of macro steel fibers, i.e., round crimped (RC), crimped (C), and hooked (H) were combined with micro steel (MS) and PP fibers in overall ratios of 2% by volume. Additionally, numerical analyses were performed to validate the test results. Parameters studied included, fracture energy, tensile strength, compressive strength, flexural strength, and residual strength. Tests showed that replacing PP fibers with MS significantly improves all parameters particularly flexural strength (17.38 MPa compared to 37.71 MPa). Additionally, the adopted numerical approach successfully captured the flexural load-deflection response of experimental beams. Lastly, the proposed regression model for the flexural load-deflection curve compared very well with experimental results, as evidenced by its coefficient of correlation (R²) of over 0.90.