• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.753-767
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• 2020

The commercial value of strawberries is affected by various factors such as their shape, size and color. Among them, size determined by weight is one of the main factors determining the quality grade of strawberries. In this study, image technology was developed to predict the weight of strawberries using the shape characteristics of strawberry cultivars. For realtime weight measurements of strawberries in transport, an image measurement system was developed for weight prediction with a charge coupled device (CCD) color camera and a conveyor belt. A strawberry weight prediction algorithm was developed for three cultivars, Maehyang, Sulhyang, and Ssanta, using the number of pixels in the pulp portion that measured the strawberry weight. The discrimination accuracy (R2) of the weight prediction models of the Maeyang, Sulhyang and Santa cultivars was 0.9531, 0.951 and 0.9432, respectively. The discriminative accuracy (R2) and measurement error (RMSE) of the integrated weight prediction model of the three cultivars were 0.958 and 1.454 g, respectively. These results show that the 2D imaging technology considering the shape characteristics of strawberries has the potential to predict the weight of strawberries.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.33-43
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to assess the greening of investment flows as well as the orientation of financial sources of effective environmental protection. Both India and Vietnam are considered to be two Asian countries that are radically affected by global climate change. Governments of the two countries have implimented numerous measures against environmental pollution through the banking and finance sector. Developing green banking operations in India and Vietnam is a new direction in the socio-economic development strategy coupled with effective environmental protection. Research design, data and methodology: The data was mainly based on Asia Development Bank Institution (ADBI) and Bank of India (BOI) from 2015 - 2018. This paper focused on comparing and evaluating the development of green banks between the two countries. Result: The banks' contribution to green growth and green economy is shown in two basic aspects: (i) the connection between organizations, and individuals, and management process for investment projects, including environmental risks; and (ii) the operation of banks has a direct impact on the environment, through the application of technology to pay documents and apply e-banking. Conclusion: Paper reflects, compares and evaluates green banking operations in India and Vietnam to provide new directions aiming to develop financial and economic system along with effective and efficient step toward climate change control. India's green banking operations, after a specific assessment, will be lessons for the Government of Vietnam during the process of socio-economic development and environmental protection.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.36 no.12
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• pp.17-25
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• 2020

The artificial ground freezing method is a ground amelioration technology that does not have a permanent effect on the ground. One of the key factors that determine the efficiency and design criteria of the artificial ground freezing is the groundwater flow. Therefore, in order to accurately evaluate the behavior of the artificial ground freezing, studies on the effect of water flow on the formation of ice walls must be preceded. In this paper, experimental and numerical analyses were conducted using only pure water to maximize the effect of water flow on the formation of ice walls. A hydro-thermal coupled model for freezing behavior was proposed and the accuracy of the model was verified. Through the numerical and experimental studies, the flow rate dominates not only the formation time but also the shape of the ice wall. In addition, this study proposes a method to indirectly predict the ice wall formation time, which is expected to be highly useful for a practical application where it is difficult to visually identify ice walls.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.626-648
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• 2021

Domestically, demands for multi-purpose performance venues which accommodate various performance genres have increased. However, those venues have limited capability and confined to a primary performance. The present work investigated various methods for controlling the acoustics of room for required performance genres by reviewing aurally presented and published materials. The method of varying the acoustics of a space is called Variable Acoustics, and adjusted in either passive and active ways. Passive control encompasses variable absorption, variable volume, coupled volume, and canopy reflectors, where the acoustics of a room is controlled in an architectural way. Active control includes In-line, Regenerative, and Hybrid systems where the acoustics of a room is manipulated electronically. The mechanism and application of each passive control system in existing venues are reviewed and their pros and cons are discussed. Also, the concept of each active systems and product applications are looked at through literature reviews. Lastly, some considerations that need to be taken into in the planning and design stage of a multi-purpose hall using Variable Acoustics are suggested.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.657-664
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• 2021

To build a highly active photocatalytic system with high efficiency and low cast of TiO₂, we report a facile hydrothermal technique to synthesize Ag₂Se-nanoparticle-modified TiO₂ composites. The physical characteristics of these samples are analyzed by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analysis, transmission electron microscopy and BET analysis. The XRD and TEM results show us that TiO₂ is coupled with small sized Ag₂Se nanoplate, which has an average grain size of about 30 nm in diameter. The agglomeration of Ag₂Se nanoparticles is improved by the hydrothermal process, with dispersion improvement of the Ag₂Se@TiO₂ nanocomposite. Texbrite BA-L is selected as a simulated dye to study the photodegradation behavior of as-prepared samples under visible light radiation. A significant enhancement of about two times the photodegradation rate is observed for the Ag₂Se@TiO₂ nanocomposite compared with the control sample P25 and as-prepared TiO₂. Long-term stability of Ag₂Se@TiO₂ is observed via ten iterations of recycling experiments under visible light irradiation.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.148-154
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• 2022

Background: Bus driving is a mentally demanding activity that requires prolonged attention to ensure safety. The aim of the study was to assess mental fatigue caused by driving a public bus and to find a profile of workers at higher risk. Methods: We evaluated changes of critical flicker fusion (CFF) (index of central arousal) and heart rate variability (HRV) (index of autonomic balance) in a 6-hour driving shift on a real route, in 31 professional bus drivers, and we tested the influence of personal factors such as sleep quality, BMI, and age. Paired t-test was used to test differences of CFF and HRV between both initial and final phase of driving, while multiple linear regression tested the influence of personal variables on the indexes of mental fatigue. Results: Results showed that CFF significantly decreased after 6 hours of bus driving (41.91 Hz, sd 3.31 vs. 41.15 Hz, sd 3.15; p = 0.041), and heart rate significantly decreased in the final phase of driving, with respect to the initial phase (85 vs. 78 bpm, p = 0.027). Increasing age (beta = -0.729, p = 0.022), risk of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (beta = -0.530, p = 0.04), and diurnal sleepiness (beta = -0.406, p = 0.017) showed a significant effect on influencing mental fatigue. Conclusion: Elderly drivers at higher risk of sleep disorders are more prone to mental fatigue, when exposed to driving activity. Monitoring indexes of central arousal and autonomic balance, coupled with the use of structured questionnaires can represent a useful strategy to detect profile of workers at higher risk of mental fatigue in such duty.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.45 no.7
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• pp.502-511
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• 2022

Bacterial volatile compounds (BVCs) exert beneficial effects on plant protection both directly and indirectly. Although BVCs have been detected in vitro, their detection in situ remains challenging. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility of BVCs detection under in situ condition and estimate the potentials of in situ BVC to plants at below detection limit. We developed a method for detecting BVCs released by the soil bacteria Bacillus velezensis strain GB03 and Streptomyces griseus strain S4-7 in situ using solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS). Additionally, we evaluated the BVC detection limit in the rhizosphere and induction of systemic immune response in tomato plants grown in the greenhouse. Two signature BVCs, 2-nonanone and caryolan-1-ol, of GB03 and S4-7 respectively were successfully detected using the soil-vial system. However, these BVCs could not be detected in the rhizosphere pretreated with strains GB03 and S4-7. The detection limit of 2-nonanone in the tomato rhizosphere was 1 µM. Unexpectedly, drench application of 2-nonanone at 10 nM concentration, which is below its detection limit, protected tomato seedlings against Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato. Our finding highlights that BVCs, including 2-nonanone, released by a soil bacterium are functional even when present at a concentration below the detection limit of SPME-GC-MS.

• Atmosphere
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.637-656
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• 2021

The United States has been known as the world's major producer of crops such as wheat, corn, and soybeans. Therefore, using meteorological long-term forecast data to project reliable crop yields in the United States is important for planning domestic food policies. The current study is part of an effort to improve the seasonal predictability of regional-scale precipitation across the United States for estimating crop production in the country. For the purpose, a dynamic downscaling method using Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is utilized. The WRF simulation covers the crop-growing period (March to October) during 2000-2020. The initial and lateral boundary conditions of WRF are derived from the Pusan National University Coupled General Circulation Model (PNU CGCM), a participant model of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Climate Center (APCC) Long-Term Multi-Model Ensemble Prediction System. For bias correction of downscaled daily precipitation, empirical quantile mapping (EQM) is applied. The downscaled data set without and with correction are called WRF_UC and WRF_C, respectively. In terms of mean precipitation, the EQM effectively reduces the wet biases over most of the United States and improves the spatial correlation coefficient with observation. The daily precipitation of WRF_C shows the better performance in terms of frequency and extreme precipitation intensity compared to WRF_UC. In addition, WRF_C shows a more reasonable performance in predicting drought frequency according to intensity than WRF_UC.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.12
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• pp.2789-2802
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• 2020

Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are attracting wide attention due to their outstanding performance, extensive studies have been carried out for lead-based fast reactors (LFRs) that cooled with Lead or Lead-bismuth (LBE), and small modular natural circulation LFR is one of the promising candidates for SMRs and LFRs development. One of the challenges for the design small modular natural circulation LFR is to master the natural circulation thermal-hydraulic performance in the reactor primary circuit, while the natural circulation characteristics is a coupled thermal-hydraulic problem of the core thermal power, the primary loop layout and the operating state of secondary cooling system etc. Thus, accurate predicting the natural circulation LFRs thermal-hydraulic features are highly required for conducting reactor operating condition evaluate and Thermal hydraulic design optimization. In this study, a thermal-hydraulic analysis code is developed for small modular natural circulation LFRs, which is based on several mathematical models for natural circulation originally. A small modular natural circulation LBE cooled fast reactor named URANUS developed by Korea is chosen to assess the code's capability. Comparisons are performed to demonstrate the accuracy of the code by the calculation results of MARS, and the key thermal-hydraulic parameters agree fairly well with the MARS ones. As a typical application case, steady-state analyses were conducted to have an assessment of thermal-hydraulic behavior under nominal condition, and several parameters affecting natural circulation were evaluated. What's more, two characteristics parameters that used to analyze natural circulation LFRs natural circulation capacity were established. The analyses show that the core thermal power, thermal center difference and flow resistance is the main factors affecting the reactor natural circulation. Improving the core thermal power, increasing the thermal center difference and decreasing the flow resistance can significantly increase the reactor mass flow rate. Characteristics parameters can be used to quickly evaluate the natural circulation capacity of natural circulation LFR under normal operating conditions.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.433-445
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• 2021

Artificial ground freezing (AGF) is a commonly used geotechnical support technique that can be applied in any soil type and has low environmental impact. Experimental and numerical investigations have been conducted to optimize AGF for application in diverse scenarios. Precise simulation of groundwater flow is crucial to improving the reliability these investigations' results. Previous experimental research has mostly considered horizontal seepage flow, which does not allow accurate calculation of the groundwater flow velocity due to spatial variation of the piezometric head. This study adopted vertical seepage flow-which can maintain a constant cross-sectional area-to eliminate the limitations of using horizontal seepage flow. The closure time is a measure of the time taken for an impermeable layer to begin to form, this being the time for a frozen soil-ice wall to start forming adjacent to the freeze pipes; this is of great importance to applied AGF. This study reports verification of the reliability of our experimental apparatus and measurement system using only water, because temperature data could be measured while freezing was observed visually. Subsequent experimental AFG tests with saturated sandy soil were also performed. From the experimental results, a method of estimating closure time is proposed using the inflection point in the thermal conductivity difference between pore water and pore ice. It is expected that this estimation method will be highly applicable in the field. A further parametric study assessed factors influencing the closure time using a two-dimensional coupled thermo-hydraulic numerical analysis model that can simulate the AGF of saturated sandy soil considering groundwater flow. It shows that the closure time is affected by factors such as hydraulic gradient, unfrozen permeability, particle thermal conductivity, and freezing temperature. Among these factors, changes in the unfrozen permeability and particle thermal conductivity have less effect on the formation of frozen soil-ice walls when the freezing temperature is sufficiently low.