• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.477-487
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• 2019

Understanding the behavior of skew bridges under the action of earthquakes is quite challenging due to the combined transverse and longitudinal responses even under unidirectional hit. The main goal of this research is to assess the response of skew bridges when subjected to longitudinal and transversal earthquake loading. The effect of skew on the response considering two- and three- span bridges with skew angles varying from 0 to 60 degrees is illustrated. Various pier fixities (and hence stiffness) and cross-section shapes, as well as different abutment's bearing articulations, are also studied. Finite-element models are established for modal and seismic analyses. Around 900 models are analyzed under the action of the code design response spectrum. $Vis-{\grave{a}}-vis$ modal properties, the higher the skew angle, the less the fundamental period. In addition, it is found that bridges with skew angles less than 30 degrees can be treated as straight bridges for the purpose of calculating modal mass participation factors. Other monitored results are bearings' reactions at abutments, shear and torsion demand in piers, as well as deck longitudinal displacement. Unlike straight bridges, it has been typically noted that skew bridges experience non-negligible torsion and bi-directional pier base shears. In a complementary effort to assess the accuracy of the conducted response spectrum analysis, a series of time-history analyses are applied under seven actual earthquake records scaled to match the code design response spectrum and critical comparisons are performed.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.275-298
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• 2013

This paper presents a number of approximated analytical formulations for the flutter analysis of long-span bridges using the so-called uncoupled flutter derivatives. The formulae have been developed from the simplified framework of a bimodal coupled flutter problem. As a result, the proposed method represents an extension of Selberg's empirical formula to generic bridge sections, which may be prone to one of the aeroelastic instability such as coupled-mode or single-mode (either dominated by torsion or heaving mode) flutter. Two approximated expressions for the flutter derivatives are required so that only the experimental flutter derivatives of ($H_1^*$, $A_2^*$) are measured to calculate the onset flutter. Based on asymptotic expansions of the flutter derivatives, a further simplified formula was derived to predict the critical wind speed of the cross section, which is prone to the coupled-mode flutter at large reduced wind speeds. The numerical results produced by the proposed formulas have been compared with results obtained by complex eigenvalue analysis and available approximated methods show that they seem to give satisfactory results for a wide range of study cases. Thus, these formulas can be used in the assessment of bridge flutter performance at the preliminary design stage.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Sericultural Science Conference
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• 1997.06a
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• pp.119-131
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• 1997

As the average span of human life is continuously increasing, especially the old aged groups, are suffering from various chronic and critical diseases e.g. cardiovascular diseases, coronary heart disease, diabetes, atherosclerosis and alzheimer's etc. However, effective and safe treatment methods have not yet been investigated threathening old aged groups. This research was planned to isolate compounds with the therapeutic potential for the above mentioned chronic diseases from the mulberry leaves. Biological screenings were carried out for the following categories; anti-atherogenic, anti-diabetic and antihypertensive effects. The results were as follows; Mulberry leaves, 20% $\alpha$-treated Gaelyrangppong showed significant 81% of blood glucose lowering effects in alloxan-induced hyperglycemic mice. Particularly, butanol-soluble fractions of mulberry leaves showed the more significant hypoglycemic activity than other fractions in alloxan induced hyperhlycemic mice. Also in the group given 1g/kg doses of extract of mulberry leaves, total cholesterol level was decreased significantly by as much as 49% in hyperlipidemia-induced rats. In Mulberry leaves post-treated group, the atheroscelosis index, HDL-cholesterol/Total-cholesterol, was increased significantly by as much as 91%.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.2993-3010
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• 2021

The job shop scheduling problem (JSSP) plays a critical role in smart manufacturing, an effective JSSP scheduler could save time cost and increase productivity. Conventional methods are very time-consumption and cannot deal with complicated JSSP instances as it uses one optimal algorithm to solve JSSP. This paper proposes an effective scheduler based on deep learning technology named self-supervised long-short term memory (SS-LSTM) to handle complex JSSP accurately. First, using the optimal method to generate sufficient training samples in small-scale JSSP. SS-LSTM is then applied to extract rich feature representations from generated training samples and decide the next action. In the proposed SS-LSTM, two channels are employed to reflect the full production statues. Specifically, the detailed-level channel records 18 detailed product information while the system-level channel reflects the type of whole system states identified by the k-means algorithm. Moreover, adopting a self-supervised mechanism with LSTM autoencoder to keep high feature extraction capacity simultaneously ensuring the reliable feature representative ability. The authors implemented, trained, and compared the proposed method with the other leading learning-based methods on some complicated JSSP instances. The experimental results have confirmed the effectiveness and priority of the proposed method for solving complex JSSP instances in terms of make-span.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.1284-1291
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• 2022

The rise of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has resulted in significant morbidity and mortality, and clinical treatment of MRSA infections has become extremely difficult. Sortase A (SrtA), a virulence determinant that anchors numerous virulence-related proteins to the cell wall, is a prime druggable target against S. aureus infection due to its crucial role in the pathogenicity of S. aureus. Here, we demonstrate that isovitexin, an active ingredient derived from a variety of traditional Chinese medicines, can reversibly inhibit SrtA activity in vitrowith a low dose (IC₅₀=24.72 ㎍/ml). Fluorescence quenching and molecular simulations proved the interaction between isovitexin and SrtA. Subsequent point mutation experiments further confirmed that the critical amino acid positions for SrtA binding to isovitexin were Ala-92, Ile-182, and Trp-197. In addition, isovitexin treatment dramatically reduced S. aureus invasion of A549 cells. This study shows that treatment with isovitexin could alleviate pathological injury and prolong the life span of mice in an S. aureus pneumonia model. According to our research, isovitexin represents a promising lead molecule for the creation of anti-S. aureus medicines or adjuncts.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.83 no.1
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• pp.123-134
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• 2022

The stability of cable-stayed bridges is an important factor considered during design. In recent years, the novel spatial diamond-shaped bridge pylon has shown its advantages in various aspects, including the static response and the stability performance with the development of cable-stayed bridge towards long-span and heavy-load. Based on the energy approach, this paper presents a practical calculation method of the completed state stability of a cable-stayed bridge with two spatial diamond-shaped pylons. In the analysis, the possible transverse buckling of the girder, the top pylon column, and the mid pylon columns are considered simultaneously. The total potential energy of the spatial diamond-shaped pylon cable-stayed bridge is calculated. And based on the principle of stationary potential energy, the transverse buckling coefficients and corresponding buckling modes are obtained. Furthermore, an example is calculated using the design parameters of the Changtai Yangtze River Bridge, a 1176 m cable-stayed bridge under construction in China, to verify the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method in practical engineering. The critical loads and the buckling modes derived by the proposed method are in good agreement with the results of the finite element method. Finally, cable-stayed bridges varying pylon and girder stiffness ratios and pylon geometric dimensions are calculated to discuss the applicability and advantages of the proposed method. And a further discussion on the degrees of the polynomial functions when assuming buckling modes are presented.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.101-113
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• 2022

A new type of fabricated subway station construction technology can effectively solve these problems. For a new type of metro structure form, it is necessary to clarify its mechanical properties, especially the seismic performance. A soil-structure elastoplastic finite element model is established to perform three-dimensional nonlinear dynamic time-history analysis based on the first fabricated station structure-Yuanjiadian station of Changchun Metro Line 2, China. Firstly, the nonlinear seismic response characteristics of the fabricated and cast-in-place subway stations under different seismic wave excitations are compared and analyzed. Then, a comprehensive analysis of several important parameters that may affect the seismic response of fabricated subway stations is given. The results show that the maximum plastic strain, the interlayer deformation, and the internal force of fabricated station structures are smaller than that of cast-in-place structure, which indicates that the fabricated station structure has good deformation coordination capability and mechanical properties. The seismic responses of fabricated stations were mainly affected by the soil-structure stiffness ratio, the soil inertia effect, and earthquake load conditions rarely mentioned in cast-in-place stations. The critical parameters have little effect on the interlayer deformation but significantly affect the joints' opening distance and contact stress, which can be used as the evaluation index of the seismic performance of fabricated station structures. The presented results can better understand the seismic responses and guide the seismic design of the fabricated station.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.75-100
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• 2023

Over the past few decades, globalization has been shifting economic power upward to transnational actors on the one hand, and downward to subnational or regional spaces on the other. This phenomenon has resulted in the centrality of territorially delimited subnational regions acting as critical loci of economic governance within a complex and globally distributed value chain of trade and service flows. Within this broader context of industrial restructuring are economic regions that span national borders in their collective assets. The paper focuses on investigating the economic competitiveness and productivity of cross-border (or binational) economic regions. Using the conceptual framework of economic clusters, an econometric model that measures proxies of geographic proximity of firms in the life sciences cluster, and a new binational economic model, the paper examines the key characteristics, potentials and constraints of economic competitiveness and productivity in a cross-border region comprising counties in Western New York and regional municipalities in Southern Ontario. The findings demonstrate the direct and indirect benefits of closer cross-border economic cooperation. The paper then concludes with some policy observations about leveraging cross-border economic clusters for strategic industrial cooperation.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.123-137
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• 2022

The fundamental period (FP) is one of the most critical parameters for the seismic design of structures. In the reinforced concrete (RC) infilled frame, the infill walls significantly affect the FP because they change the stiffness and mass of the structure. Although several formulas have been proposed for estimating the FP of the RC infilled frame, they are often associated with high bias and variance. In this study, an efficient soft computing model, namely the group method of data handling (GMDH), is proposed to predict the FP of regular RC infilled frames. For this purpose, 4026 data sets are obtained from the open literature, and the quality of the database is examined and evaluated in detail. Based on the cleaning database, several GMDH models are constructed and the best prediction model, which considers the height of the building, the span length, the opening percentage, and the infill wall stiffness as the input variables for predicting the FP of regular RC infilled frames, is chosen. The performance of the proposed GMDH model is further underscored through comparison of its FP predictions with those of existing design codes and empirical models. The accuracy of the proposed GMDH model is proven to be superior to others. Finally, explicit formulas and a graphical user-friendly interface (GUI) tool are developed to apply the GMDH model for practical use. They can provide a rapid prediction and design for the FP of regular RC infilled frames.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.243-254
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• 2022

Reinforced concrete (RC) deep beams are critical structural elements used in offshore pile caps, rectangular cross-section water tanks, silo structures, transfer beams in high-rise buildings, and bent caps. As a result of the low shear span ratio to effective depth (a/d) in deep beams, arch action occurs, which leads to shear failure. Several studies have been carried out to improve the shear resistance of RC deep beams and avoid brittle fracture behavior in recent years. This study was performed to investigate the behavior of RC deep beams numerically and experimentally with different reinforcement arrangements. Deep beams with four different reinforcement arrangements were produced and tested under monotonic static loading in the study's scope. The horizontal and vertical shear reinforcement members were changed in the test specimens to obtain the effects of different reinforcement arrangements. However, the rebars used for tension and the vertical shear reinforcement ratio were constant. In addition, the behavior of each deep beam was obtained numerically with commercial finite element analysis (FEA) software ABAQUS, and the findings were compared with the experimental results. The results showed that the reinforcements placed diagonally significantly increased the load-carrying and energy absorption capacities of RC deep beams. Moreover, an apparent plastic plateau was seen in the load-displacement curves of these test specimens in question (DE-2 and DE-3). This finding also indicated that diagonally located reinforcements improve displacement ductility. Also, the numerical results showed that the FEM method could be used to accurately predict RC deep beams'behavior with different reinforcement arrangements.