• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.709-718
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• 2019

The international nuclear industry has undergone a lot of changes since the Fukushima, Chernobyl and TMI nuclear power plant accidents. However, there are still large and small component deficiencies at nuclear power plants in the world. There are many causes of electrical equipment defects. There are also factors that cause component failures due to human errors. This paper analyzed the root causes of failure and types of human error in 300 cases of electrical component failures. We analyzed the operating experience of electrical components by methods of root causes in K-HPES (Korean-version of Human Performance Enhancement System) and by methods of human error types in HuRAM+ (Human error-Related event root cause Analysis Method Plus). As a result of analysis, the most electrical component failures appeared as circuit breakers and emergency generators. The major causes of failure showed deterioration and contact failure of electrical components by human error of operations management. The causes of direct failure were due to aged components. Types of human error affecting the causes of electrical equipment failure are as follows. The human error type group I showed that errors of commission (EOC) were 97%, the human error type group II showed that slip/lapse errors were 74%, and the human error type group III showed that latent errors were 95%. This paper is meaningful in that we have approached the causes of electrical equipment failures from a comprehensive human error perspective and found a countermeasure against the root cause. This study will help human performance enhancement in nuclear power plants. However, this paper has done a lot of research on improving human performance in the maintenance field rather than in the design and construction stages. In the future, continuous research on types of human error and prevention measures in the design and construction sector will be required.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.731-742
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• 2018

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to test a hypothesis explaining direct and indirect relationships among the factors affecting self-care behaviors of kidney transplant patients, based on self-determination theory. Methods: Data were collected from 222 outpatients with kidney transplantation. The endogenous and exogenous variables of the hypothetical model consisted of healthcare provider's autonomy support, duration after kidney transplantation, basic psychological need satisfaction, autonomous and controlled motivation, depression, and self-care behaviors. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS/WIN 24.0 and AMOS 24.0. Results: The hypothetical model demonstrated a good fit: RMSEA=.06, SRMR=.04, TLI=.94, CFI=.97. Statistically significant explanatory variables for the self-care behaviors of kidney transplant patients were duration after transplantation and basic psychological need satisfaction. Healthcare provider's autonomy support was indirectly significant, while autonomous motivation, controlled motivation and depression were not statistically significant for self-care behaviors. The variables accounted for 59.5% of the self-care behaviors of kidney transplant patients. Conclusion: It is necessary to develop an autonomy support program for healthcare providers to enhance the self-care behaviors of kidney transplant patients. Preventing the deterioration of self-care behaviors will be possible by conducting this program at one year and six years post-transplantation. In addition, the results suggest the need to developing personalized autonomy support programs for healthcare providers that can meet the basic psychological need satisfaction of kidney transplant patients.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.645-658
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• 2018

Despite being one of the most abundantly used construction materials because of its exceptional properties, concrete is susceptible to deterioration and damage due to various factors particularly corrosion, improper loading, poor workmanship and design discrepancies, and as a result concrete structures require retrofitting and strengthening. In recent times, Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composites have substituted the conventional techniques of retrofitting and strengthening of damaged concrete. Most of the research studies related to concrete strengthening using FRP have been performed on undamaged test specimens. This contribution presents the results of an experimental study in which concrete specimens were damaged by mechanical loading and elevated temperature in laboratory prior to application of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) sheets for strengthening. The test specimens prepared using concrete of target compressive strength of 28 MPa at 28 days were subjected to compressive and splitting tensile testing up to failure and the intact pieces of the failed specimens were collected for the purpose of repair. In order to induce damage as a result of elevated temperature, the concrete cylinders were subjected to $400^{\circ}C$ and $800^{\circ}C$ temperature for two hours duration. Concrete cylinders damaged under compressive and split tensile loads were re-cast using concrete and rich cement-sand mortar, respectively and then strengthened using CFRP wrap. Concrete cylinders damaged due to elevated temperature were also strengthened using CFRP wrap. Re-cast and strengthened concrete cylinders were tested in compression and splitting tension. The obtained results revealed that re-casting of specimens damaged by mechanical loadings using concrete & mortar, and then strengthened by single layer CFRP wrap exhibited strength even higher than their original values. In case of specimens damaged by elevated temperature, the results indicated that concrete strength is significantly dropped and strengthening using CFRP wrap made it possible to not only recover the lost strength but also resulted in concrete strength greater than the original value.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.43-51
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• 2019

At present, the ground anchor method is commonly applied to securing the slope stability in Korea. The ground anchor is reported to decrease in tensile load due to aging and environmental influences with time such as corrosion, relaxation, creep and so on. In Korea, the lift-off test is performed for the periodic inspection or cases when the symptoms of deterioration on anchors and the residual tensile load of the anchors is checked. However, the current lift-off test standard (MOLIT, 2010) is not fully specified in details. In this study, the factors affecting the lift-off test were investigated based on the previous research and foreign standards and lift-off tests were performed with consideration for the loading and unloading cycle, load increment method, and tensioning tendon method. Based on the results, this paper proposes improved testing and evaluation procedures of the lift-off test considering the workability and time limits in the field.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.63 no.1
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• pp.61-73
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• 2021

Recently, the deterioration of water quality in Wonju stream has been reported due to the increase in diverse pollution sources along with community development and urbanization. Various types of attempts with a huge budget were made for better water quality so far, but its effectiveness is still doubted. In order to establish site-oriented measures for water quality improvement, the topographic and hydrologic factors were evaluated based on site inspection and survey. As the major streams merged into the Wonju stream, the Hwa and Heungyang streams were found to have higher pollution loads and contributions compared to other streams due to the scattered livestock farms and industries, and vulnerable land use. Notably, the discharge water from the Wonju Public Sewage Treatment Plant had the highest level of pollution load, impacting on the water quality of Wonju Stream. According to the SWAT model as water quality measures, the improvement effect of water quality in this treatment plant can be reached to the reductions in BOD 11.06%, T-N 23.56%, T-P 10.60% when the proper managements applied, whereas the improvement of water quality would be 3.89%, 1.23%, and 3.32% for BOD, T-N, T-P, respectively, for the industries. The reduction of the livestock industry was generally very high as a pollution source, but it was not much higher at the end of Wonju Stream than other measures. These results recommended that the water q uality improvement measures should be designated for each upper-middle-lower section in Wonju stream.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.49-56
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• 2021

This study aimed to identify the factors affecting the health-related quality of life in terms of periodontal disease by using the data from 8,035 respondents aged ≥40 years, excepting those with cancers having an serious impact on the quality of life, in the seventh Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) (2016-2018). The risk of quality of life deterioration was 1.32 times higher in the periodontal disease group than in the healthy periodontal group, those who were ≥50 years of age and had ≥2 comorbidities showed lower quality of life in the periodontal disease group. These results have confirmed that adults with periodontal disease get aware of the adverse quality of life though they have only a few chronic conditions and are expected to be useful as basic data necessary to develop health promotion programs that can help prevent periodontal disease and improve the health-related quality of life for adults.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.17-21
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• 2021

In this study, the effect of water level and temperature on the power generation was investigated in a water tank with an aquavoltaic PV module to perform feasibility research for the development of salt farm aquavoltaic system. The silicon solar cell attached to the bottom of each water tank is a 1-cell mini module, and the underwater effects of the crystal phase (19.0~19.9% of single- & 17.9~19.9% of poly-crystalline) of the PV module were investigated, and power generation characteristics for water level (0~10 cm) and temperature (10~40℃) were analyzed. The deterioration coefficients according to the water level and temperature of each single- and poly-crystalline module were investigated at very similar levels such as, -2.01 %/cm and -2.02 %/cm, -0.50 %/℃ and -0.48 %/℃, respectively. Therefore, in salt farm aquavoltaic system, water levels need to maintain as low as possible, and heat-induced degradation is similar to those shown in general land, and no factors have been found to be affected by the underwater environment depending on the determination.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.124-128
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• 2020

Output power of photovoltaic (PV) modules installed outdoors decreases every year due to environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, and ultraviolet irradiations. In order to promote the installation of PV modules, the reliability must be guaranteed. One of the important factors affecting reliability is intermetallic compounds (IMC) layer formed in ribbon solder joint. For this reason, various studies on soldering properties between the ribbon and cell have been performed to solve the reliability deterioration caused by excessive growth of the IMC layer. However, the IMC layer of the PV module interconnected by multi-wires has been studied less than using the ribbon. It is necessary to study soldering characteristics of the multi-wire module for improvement of its reliability. In this study, we analyzed the growth of IMC layer of the PV module with multi-wire and the degradation of output power through damp-heat test. The fabricated modules were exposed to damp-heat conditions (85 ºC and 85 % relative humidity) for 1000 hours and the output powers of the modules before and after the damp-heat test were measured. Then, the process of dissolving ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) as an encapsulant of the modules was performed to observe the IMC layer. The growth of IMC layer was evaluated using OM and FE-SEM for cross-sectional analysis and EDS for elemental mapping. Based on these results, we investigated the correlation between the IMC layer and output power of modules.

• Korean Journal of Artificial Intelligence
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.17-22
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• 2020

Purpose: After entering the 21st century, a new industrial revolution, i.e. industrial revolution 4.0, which is characterized by intelligence, automation and networking, has opened the curtain of the "industry 4.0" era. In recent years, "low-carbon economy" has been a development goal that has been paid close attention to and adhered to at home and abroad. As a major economic province, Shandong Province has not only brought about rapid economic growth, but also caused rapid environmental deterioration due to its high energy consumption, high dependence and high environmental pollution. In this environment, low-carbon economy has become an inevitable trend in the development of foreign trade in Shandong Province. Based on the current situation of foreign trade in Shandong Province and various existing problems, this paper explores the relationship between low-carbon economy and foreign trade in Shandong Province under this strategic background. Research design, data and methodology: By selecting the data from 2008 to 2017, using the carbon emission coefficient method to measure the CO2 emissions in the past decade, analyzing the impact of ecological factors on trade, selecting the most representative GDP and total imports for regression analysis, it is proved that they have a real impact on CO2 emissions. The total GDP is positively correlated with carbon emissions, while the total import is negatively correlated with carbon emissions. Results:This paper discusses the impact of low-carbon economy on foreign trade of Shandong Province from the perspective of foreign trade. Especially in today's "low-carbon economy" background. Conclusions:it is helpful for relevant departments to formulate relevant policies and promote the sustainable development of foreign trade in Shandong Province.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.95-102
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• 2021

Elastometic bearings using flexible rubber materials have recently been widely applied for seismic retrofit of bridges. However, due to various factors, the aging of the rubber material progresses, which causes the shear stiffness change of the bearing, which affects the seismic performance of the bridge. For natural rubber, accelerated heat aging test was performed with variables of heating temperatures and exposure time to analyze shear characteristics. As aging progresses (i.e. increase of temperature and exposure time), the maximum shear stress and shear strain decrease. Also, the shear stiffness is greatly increased at the same shear strain. This means that the rubber material is hardened, implying that the seismic performance of the elastomeric bearing becomes poor.