• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.74 no.6
• /
• pp.771-787
• /
• 2020

The paper provides an inside look into experimental measurements, followed by numerical simulations and their related uncertainties. The goal of the paper is to present findings related to blast loading and the handling of defects that are inherent in experiments. Very often it might seem that experiments are simplified reflections of real-life conditions. In most cases this is true, but there is a good reason for that. The more complex an experiment is, the larger the amount of uncertainties that can be expected. This especially applies when the blast loading of concrete is the subject of research. When simulations fail to reproduce the results of experimental measurements, it does not necessarily mean there is something wrong with the numerical model. The problem could be missing information. Put differently, the numerical simulation may lack information that seemed irrelevant with regard to the experiment. In the presented case, a reference simulation with a proven material model unexpectedly failed to replicate the results of an experiment where concrete slabs were exposed to blast loading. This resulted in a search for possible unknowns. When all of the uncertainties were examined, the missing information turned out to be the orientation of the charge to the concrete slab. Since the experiment was burdened with error, a sensitivity study had to take place so the influence of this factor could be better understood. The findings point to the fact that even the smallest defect during experiments must somehow be taken into account when designing numerical simulations. Otherwise, the simulations are not correlated to the experiments, but merely to some expectations.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.16 no.6
• /
• pp.830-836
• /
• 2003

The classical energy balance method was used to measure the apparent metabolisable energy (AME) of four batches of broiler starter and finisher diets produced by two commercial feed companies. The results showed there was little variation in protein content between batches, but NDF content varied from 13.3% to 15.5% between batches of diet. The batch variation in chemical composition differed between feed manufacturers. While there was no difference in AME and feed conversion ration (FCR) between batches of starter diets produced by company A, FCR and AME ranged from 1.76-1.94 (p<0.001) and 11.38-11.90 MJ/kg air dry (p<0.05), respectively, for diets produced by company B. Similar results were found in a second experiment. There was no difference in AME, dry matter digestibility (DMD) and FCR between batches for finishing diet produced by company B, but a large variation occurred for the finisher diets from company A (p<0.01), where the ranges of FCR, AME and DMD were 1.95-2.30, 10.5-12.3 (MJ/kg air dry) and 58-68%, respectively. FCR was correlated with AME. AME was negatively related to the content of fibre in the diet, but positively related to DMD. The preliminary results based on 24 samples showed that near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) has the potential to predict FCR, intake, AME and DMD of commercial broiler diets, with $R^2$ being 0.93, 0.89, 0.95 and 0.98, respectively. The standard error of cross validation was below 0.2 for AME and only 0.06 for FCR.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
• /
• v.29 no.6A
• /
• pp.614-622
• /
• 2004

In this paper, we propose the frequency diversity scheme for performance improvement of a OFDM system without decreasing the spectral efficiency. In the proposed scheme, information bit is encoded to symbol by a simple procedure, and the encoded symbol is transmitted through the two lowest correlated sub-channels with the particular phase difference. At the receiver, a frequency diversity gain is obtained by a simple signal processing. We also suggest optimum phase difference value to minimize the performance degradation which resulted from a phase difference estimation error and bit/symbol mapping method to minimize BER. As results, at the point of performance improvement, the proposed scheme is excellent even though it requires a little increase of system complexity because of an additional encoding and decoding. In particular, we confirmed through computer simulation that on the same channel environment and bandwidth efficiency, the 27x/1Rx STBC-OFDM system adopting the proposed frequency diversity scheme outperforms the conventional 27x/1Rx STBC-OFDM system performance

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.48 no.3
• /
• pp.362-374
• /
• 2018

Purpose: This study aimed to develop a triage competency scale (TCS) for emergency nurses, and to evaluate its validity and reliability. Methods: Preliminary items were derived based on the attributes and indicators elicited from a concept analysis study on triage competency. Ten experts assessed whether the preliminary items belonged to the construct factor and determined the appropriateness of each item. A revised questionnaire was administered to 250 nurses in 18 emergency departments to evaluate the reliability and validity of the scale. Data analysis comprised item analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, contrasted group validity, and criterion-related validity, including criterion-related validity of the problem solving method using video scenarios. Results: The item analysis and confirmatory factor analysis yielded 5 factors with 30 items; the fit index of the derived model was good (${\chi}^2/df=2.46$, Root Mean squared Residual=.04, Root Mean Squared Error of Approximation=.08). Additionally, contrasted group validity was assessed. Participants were classified as novice, advanced beginner, competent, and proficient, and significant differences were observed in the mean score for each group (F=6.02, p=.001). With reference to criterion-related validity, there was a positive correlation between scores on the TCS and the Clinical Decision Making in Nursing Scale (r=.48, p<.001). Further, the total score on the problem solving method using video scenarios was positively correlated with the TCS score (r=.13, p=.04). The Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ of the final model was .91. Conclusion: Our TCS is useful for the objective assessment of triage competency among emergency nurses and the evaluation of triage education programs.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
• /
• v.40 no.4
• /
• pp.146-154
• /
• 2015

Purpose: The purpose of present study was to develop a method for assessing the chronological age of Korean adults based on the relationship between age and size of pulp cavity using dental radiographs of mandibular first molars. Methods: A total of 325 dental radiographs of Korean adults with known age and gender were selected for the study (199 males and 126 females) which were taken in the period between January 2009 and June 2014 at the Pusan National University Dental Hospital. The measurements were carried out on both orthopantomographs (OPGs) and intraoral periapical radiographs of mandibular first molar and the following ratios were calculated: pulp chamber floor height ratio (F/L), pulp chamber ceiling height ratio (R/L), and pulp chamber depth ratio (D/L). Results: The ratios of measurements on intraoral periapical images of mandible first molar generally produce more reliable data than the measurements on OPGs. The pulp chamber floor height ratio and pulp chamber thickness ratio showed significant correlation with age, whereas the pulp chamber ceiling height ratios showed weak correlation with age. It was found that the best correlations between the ratios and age were found for pulp chamber thickness ratios (r=-0.731 to -0.751). The multiple regression models were derived using 3 ratios that were significantly correlated with age. The determination coefficients ($R^2$) of the models ranged from 0.556 to 0.596. Conclusions: Our results indicate that the pulp chamber thickness and pulp chamber floor height in mandibular first molar are an age-dependent variable in adults which can be used to estimate age with reasonable accuracy. The higher image quality of dental radiographs will probably narrow the age estimation error and improve dental age estimation.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
• /
• v.4 no.1 s.6
• /
• pp.63-71
• /
• 2005

This paper proposes the channel estimation method robust to severe frequency selective fading channels in O%M system using wide bandwidth for the high data rate transmission. DDCE, which uses data between the high correlated symbols, is usually used for channel estimation in the slow fading channels. DDCE can get high gains in the non-selective channels. As the bandwidth of system gets wider, it becomes more severe frequency selective fading environments so that the reliability of data becomes lower and error flow is occurred. FE method, this paper proposed, uses the relation between sub-carriers of OFDM in frequency selective fading channels so FE method gets some gains by adapting the power value at a target frequency to the mean value of channel estimated values of adjacent sub-carriers. Because FE uses only preamble unlike DDCE using data, it is independent of data rate related to the reliability of data and the number of multipath. Consequently, FE can obtain considerable gains in the wideband systems where the errorflow of DDCE is occurred, and FE is applicable to frequency selective fading environments.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.45 no.1
• /
• pp.32-37
• /
• 2012

Alternative splicing generates several interleukin-6 (IL-6) isoforms; for them an antagonistic activity to the wild-type IL-6 has been proposed. In this study we quantified the relative abundance of IL-6 mRNA isoforms in a panel of mouse tissues and in C2C12 cells during myoblast differentiation or after treatment with the $Ca^{2+}$ ionophore A23187, the AMP-mimetic AICAR and TNF-${\alpha}$. The two mouse IL-6 isoforms identified, IL-6${\delta}$5 (deletion of the first 58 bp of exon 5) and IL-6${\delta}$3 (lacking exon 3), were not conserved in rat and human, did not exhibit tissue specific regulation, were expressed at low levels and their abundance closely correlated to that of full-length IL-6. Species-specific features of the IL-6 sequence, such as the presence of competitive 3' acceptor site in exon 5 and insertion of retrotransposable elements in intron 3, could explain the production of IL-6${\delta}$5 and IL-6${\delta}$3. Our results argued against biological significance for mouse IL-6 isoforms.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
• /
• v.12 no.10
• /
• pp.5015-5038
• /
• 2018

In this paper, a novel spectral-spatial joint sparse representation algorithm for hyperspectral image classification is proposed based on multi-layer superpixels in various scales. Superpixels of various scales can provide complete yet redundant correlated information of the class attribute for test pixels. Therefore, we design a joint sparse model for a test pixel by sampling similar pixels from its corresponding superpixels combinations. Firstly, multi-layer superpixels are extracted on the false color image of the HSI data by principal components analysis model. Secondly, a group of discriminative sampling pixels are exploited as reconstruction matrix of test pixel which can be jointly represented by the structured dictionary and recovered sparse coefficients. Thirdly, the orthogonal matching pursuit strategy is employed for estimating sparse vector for the test pixel. In each iteration, the approximation can be computed from the dictionary and corresponding sparse vector. Finally, the class label of test pixel can be directly determined with minimum reconstruction error between the reconstruction matrix and its approximation. The advantages of this algorithm lie in the development of complete neighborhood and homogeneous pixels to share a common sparsity pattern, and it is able to achieve more flexible joint sparse coding of spectral-spatial information. Experimental results on three real hyperspectral datasets show that the proposed joint sparse model can achieve better performance than a series of excellent sparse classification methods and superpixels-based classification methods.

• Advances in concrete construction
• /
• v.10 no.5
• /
• pp.381-391
• /
• 2020

This study aimed to develop reference materials (RMs) for mortar that can simulate the initial flow characteristics with constant quality over a long period. Through the previous research on the development of RMs for cement paste, the combination of limestone, glycerol, and water was used as the basic matrix for developing RMs for mortar in this study. In addition, glass beads of three particle sizes (0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 mm) and ISO standard sand were selected as tentative candidates to derive fine aggregate substitutes. The mixture of glass beads could simulate the initial flow characteristics of mortar, but under the same mixing ratio, replicates showed an unstable tendency to indicate inconsistent values due to the generation of electrostatic properties between materials and equipment. On the other hand, the mixture using ISO standard Sand not only simulates the constant flow characteristics for a long period of time, but also shows stable results with little error in replicates. Therefore, limestone, glycerol, ISO standard sand, and water were finally determined as components that met the required properties of RMs for mortar. The effect of each component on the flow characteristics of RMs was analyzed. It was found that glycerol increased the cohesion between the particles of standard sand, resulting in a constant increase both in the plastic viscosity and yield stress. Both limestone and standard sand had a dominant effect on the yield stress. The relationships between various mortar mixing ratios and the corresponding mixing ratios of RMs were established. In addition, the results of the verification experiment showed that the rheological properties of the RMs obtained through the relationships correlated with various water/cement ratios and the fine aggregate volume fractions of mortar obtained with same manner. In other words, the RMs for mortar developed in this study can be used as standard samples because they can simulate the initial flow characteristics of mortar of various mixing ratios for a long period without any chemical changes.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.232-238
• /
• 2011

Objectives Optimized voxel based morphometry (VBM) has been increasingly applied to investigate differences in the brain morphology between a group of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and control subjects. Optimized VBM permits comparison of gray matter (GM) volume at voxel-level from the entire brain. The purpose of this study was to assess the regional GM volume change measured by optimized VBM in MCI subjects compared to controls. Methods Twenty patients with MCI and 20 control subjects with normal cognition were recruited for this study. We applied the optimized VBM protocol to the image data including study-specific template and the modulation of the data with the Jacobian determinants. GM volume differences between the MCI subjects and the control subjects and their correlations with the neuropsychological performances were investigated. Results Optimized VBM analysis revealed GM volume reduction in hippocampus, precentral gyrus, insula and parietal operculum in the MCI group compared to the control group (family wise error corrected p < 0.05). Korean version of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's disease (CERAD-K) word list recall scores were significantly correlated with the GM volumes of hippocampus, precuneus and posterior cingulate in the MCI group (FWE corrected p < 0.05). Conclusions The results confirm previous findings of atrophic changes in medial temporal lobe and parietal lobe in the MCI group and suggest that these abnormalities may be related with cognitive decline and prognosis in patients with MCI.