• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.70 no.4
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• pp.381-394
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• 2019

If an alternative path would not be considered for redistribution of loads, local failure in structures will be followed by a progressive collapse. When a vertical load-bearing element of a steel structure fails, the beams connected to it will lose their support. Accordingly, an increase in span's length adds to the internal forces in beams. The mentioned increasing load in beams leads to amplifying the moments there, and likewise in their corresponding connections. Since it is not possible to reinforce all the elements of the structure against this phenomenon, it seems rational to use other technics like specified strengthened connections. In this study, a novel connection is suggested to handle the stated phenomenon which is introduced as a passive connection. This connection enables the structure to tolerate the added loads after failing of the vertical element. To that end, two experimental models were constructed and thereafter tested in half-scale, one-story, double-bay, and bolted connections in three-dimensional spaces. This experimental study has been conducted to compare the ductility and strength of a frame that has ordinary rigid connections with a frame containing a novel passive connection. At last, parametric studies have been implemented to optimize the dimensions of the passive connection. Results show that the load-bearing capacity of the frame increased up to 75 percent. Also, a significant decrease in the displacement of the node wherein the column is removed was observed compared to the ordinary moment resisting frame with the same loads.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.509-527
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• 2024

Bonding carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates have been extensively employed in the restoration of steel constructions. In addition to the mechanical properties of the CFRP, the bond strength (P_U) between the CFRP and steel is often important in the eventual strengthened performance. Nonetheless, the bond behavior of the CFRP-steel (CS) interface is exceedingly complicated, with multiple failure causes, giving the P_U challenging to forecast, and the CFRP-enhanced steel structure is unsteady. In just this case, appropriate methods were established by hybridized Random Forests (RF) and support vector regression (SVR) approaches on assembled CS single-shear experiment data to foresee the P_U of CS, in which a recently established optimization algorithm named Aquila optimizer (AO) was used to tune the RF and SVR hyperparameters. In summary, the practical novelty of the article lies in its development of a reliable and efficient method for predicting bond strength at the CS interface, which has significant implications for structural rehabilitation, design optimization, risk mitigation, cost savings, and decision support in engineering practice. Moreover, the Fourier Amplitude Sensitivity Test was performed to depict each parameter's impact on the target. The order of parameter importance was t_c> L_c > E_A > t_A > E_c > b_c > f_c > f_A from largest to smallest by 0.9345 > 0.8562 > 0.79354 > 0.7289 > 0.6531 > 0.5718 > 0.4307 > 0.3657. In three training, testing, and all data phases, the superiority of AO - RF with respect to AO - SVR and MARS was obvious. In the training stage, the values of R² and VAF were slightly similar with a tiny superiority of AO - RF compared to AO - SVR with R² equal to 0.9977 and VAF equal to 99.772, but large differences with results of MARS.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.33-38
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• 2017

The number of damaged lifeline structures have been increasing with urban acceleration under earthquakes. To predict the damage, damage mitigation technology of lifeline structures should be analyzed using damage prediction technology. Therefore, in this paper, the degree of the fragility of structures under an earthquake was evaluated stochastically through an evaluation of the seismic fragility. The aim was to develop damage prediction technology of sewage pipes among the lifeline facilities. The site response was performed using the data from 158 boreholes in Seoul and 7 real earthquake waves to determine the responses in real urban areas. The seismic fragility was deduced through a total of 29822 time history analysis. In addition, sewer pipes were evaluated and the persisting period was passed by applying the research results of strength reduction which is due to sulphate erosion. As a result, the difference in failure probability between 300 and 800 with the smaller diameter of the representative pipes was approximately double and the size of the pipes has a significant effect on the seismic fragility function. Moreover, the failure probability of a seismic load increases by up to 10 fold as the strength reduction rate increases. The results of this study can be used as a means of predicting the damage and countermeasures of sewer pipes and might be reflected in the seismic design of underground facilities.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.109-120
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• 2011

This paper presents an experimental study results on the crack control of flexure-dominant reinforced concrete beams repaired with strain-hardening cement composite (SHCC). Five RC beams were fabricated and tested until failure. One unrepaired RC beam was a control specimen (CBN) and remaining four speciemens were repaired with SHCC materials. The test parameters included two types of SHCC matrix ductility and two types of repair method (patching and layering). Test results demonstrated that RC beams repaired with SHCC showed no concrete crushing or spalling until final failure, but numerous hair cracks were observed. The control specimen CBN failed due to crushing. It is important to note that SHCC matrix can improve crack-damage mitigation and flexural behavior of RC beams such as flexural strength, post peak ductility, and energy dissipation capacity. In the perspective of crack width, crack widths in RC beams repaired with SHCC had far smaller crack width than the control specimen CBN under the same deflection. Especially, the specimens repaired with SHCC of PVA0.75%+PE0.75% showed a high durability and ductility. The crack width indicates the residual capacity of the beam since SHCC matrix can delay residual capacity degradation of the RC beams.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.625-633
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• 2015

In this study, a coupled probabilistic framework is developed to assess wind risk on apartment buildings by using the convolution of wind hazard and fragility functions. In this framework, typhoon induced extreme wind is estimated by applying the developed Monte Carlo simulation model to the climatological data of typhoons affecting Korean peninsular from 1951 to 2013. The Monte Carlo simulation technique is also used to assess wind fragility function for 4 different damage states by comparing the probability distributions of the window system's resistance performance and wind load. Wind hazard and fragility functions are modeled by the Weibull and lognormal probability distributions based on simulated wind speeds and failure probabilities. The modeled functions are convoluted to obtain the wind risk for the different damage levels. The developed probabilistic framework clearly shows that wind risk are influenced by various important characteristics of terrain and apartment building such as location of building, exposure category, topographic condition, roof angle, height of building, etc. The risk model presented in this paper can be used as tools to predict economic loss estimation and to establish wind risk mitigation plan for the existing building inventory.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.411-418
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• 2015

This paper investigates the effects of fiber volume fraction and panel thickness on face damage characteristics of steel fiber-reinforced concrete (SFRC) under high-velocity globular projectile impact. The target specimens were prepared with $200{\times}200mm$ prismatic panels with thickness of 30 or 50 mm. All panels were subjected to the impact of a steel projectile with a diameter of 20 mm and velocity of 350 m/s. Specifically, this paper explores the correlation between mechanical properties and face damage characteristics of SFRC panels with different fiber volume fraction and panel thickness. The mechanical properties of SFRC considered in this study included compressive strength, modulus of rupture, and toughness. Test results indicated that the addition of steel fiber significantly improve the impact resistance of conventional concrete panel. The front face damage of SFRC panels decreased with increasing the compressive toughness and rear face damage decreased as the modulus of rupture and flexural toughness increased. To evaluate the damage response of SFRC panels under high-velocity impact, finite element analysis conducted using ABAQUS/Explicit commercial program. The predicted face damage of SFRC panels based on simulation shows well agreement with the experimental result in similar failure mode.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.85-97
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• 2019

Background: Despite the increasing role of dry forests in climate change adaptation and mitigation, these versatile resources has got less attention in the national and regional planning, their potential to enhance the local and national economy has been overlooked, and their contribution to sustainable environmental management has not been recognized. Hence, the objective of this study was to assess the socioeconomic contribution of dry forests and forest products to climate change adaptation in the Liben Woreda, Southern Oromia region of Ethiopia. Methods: For this study, an integrated qualitative and quantitative approach was used. A total of 74 households from villages in the Bulbul, Boba, and Melka-Guba kebeles were randomly selected for the household survey. Results: Results showed that 75% of the respondents in the area indicated that climate change has become their major sources of vulnerability, where drought has been manifested in the form of crops failure and massive death of livestock particularly cattle species. The main income strategies of the study households include livestock, crop, forests such as gum and resins, firewood and charcoal and non-farm activities such as in the form of petty trade, wage and aid. The average total household income was ETB 11,209.7. Out of this, dry forest income constituted 15% of the total income. In addition to using dry forests as rangeland for livestock, the communities collect wood for construction, fodder, traditional medicine, and forest food both for subsistence and for sale. On the other hand, dry forest products could be considered as less vulnerable, rather resilient livelihood strategies to climate- and environment-related risks compared to livestock and crop production such as in the face of drought periods. More than 48.6% of the households argued that the income generated from dry forests increased substantially due to increment in the level of engagement of family members in forest based income activities. On the other hand, 35.8% of the households responded that livestock production, particularly camels and goats, have been making the livelihood strategies of the respondents more resilient indicating the shift made from grazers browsers to livestock. In general trends show that, the trends of livelihood dependency on dry forest were highly increasing indicating the importance of dry forest income in responsse to frequent droughts. Conclusions: Dry forest income has been becoming crucial livelihood staretgy in response to frequent droughts in the study area and hence, it is important to improve the management of dry forests for livelihood enhancement, while also securing their long-term ecological functions.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.143-163
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• 2018

Implant procedure belongs to so called a commercialized medical treatment, its procedure is simple and clear, and the possibility of success is almost 100%. In addition, it is a selective method rather than an inevitable method for a patient's health, so the importance of liability for explanation is especially emphasized for protection of autonomous decisions by patients. Considering these characteristics, the plaintiff in the relevant case said that the contract of implant procedure has the characteristic of subcontract, and only the failure of implant itself and the violation of liability for explanation should be the defendant's fault liability. In addition, although the above procedure contract is considered as delegation rather than subcontract, whether it's the defendant's malpractice should be judged by general people's common sense rather than average people in the industry. Therefore, if all the implanted teeth were removed due to bleeding and pains, and the patient suffered from dysaesthesia during the process, the defendant's malpractice is fully proved. When the judgements of implant medical malpractice were researched, the court doesn't consider implant contract as subcontract, but it judges dentist's malpractice by whether the implant itself is successful, so it seems that the court acknowledges similar characteristics with subcontract whose purpose is completion of work to some degree. In addition, considering the detailed contents of presented medical malpractices, it seems that judging medical malpractice is based on the common sense of general people. Therefore, the argument of the plaintiff is valid when the fact the adjustment amount is relevant to the amount that the plaintiff initially claimed is considered even though the relevant case was decided to be compulsory mediation.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.303-321
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• 2011

The availability and efficient use of the feed resources in Asia are the primary drivers of performance to maximise productivity from animals. Feed security is fundamental to the management, extent of use, conservation and intensification for productivity enhancement. The awesome reality is that current supplies of animal proteins are inadequate to meet human requirements in the face of rapidly depleting resources: arable land, water, fossil fuels, nitrogenous and other fertilisers, and decreased supplies of cereal grains. The contribution of the ruminant sector lags well behind that of non-ruminant pigs and poultry. It is compelling therefore to shift priority for the development of ruminants (buffaloes, cattle, goats and sheep) in key agro-ecological zones (AEZs), making intensive use of the available biomass from the forage resources, crop residues, agro-industrial by-products (AIBP) and other non-conventional feed resources (NCFR). Definitions are given of successful and failed projects on feed resource use. These were used to analyse 12 case studies, which indicated the value of strong participatory efforts with farmers, empowerment, and the benefits from animals of productivity-enhancing technologies and integrated natural resource management (NRM). However, wider replication and scaling up were inadequate in project formulation, including systems methodologies that promoted technology adoption. There was overwhelming emphasis on component technology applications that were duplicated across countries, often wasteful, the results and relevance of which were not clear. Technology delivery via the traditional model of research-extension linkage was also inadequate, and needs to be expanded to participatory research-extension-farmer linkages to accelerate diffusion of technologies, wider adoption and impacts. Other major limitations concerned with feed resource use are failure to view this issue from a farming systems perspective, strong disciplinary bias, and poor links to real farm situations. It is suggested that improved efficiency in feed resource use and increased productivity from animals in the future needs to be cognisant of nine strategies. These include priorities for feed resource use; promoting intensive use of crop residues; intensification of integrated ruminant-oil palm systems and use of oil palm by-products; priority for urgent, wider technology application, adoption and scaling up; rigorous application of systems methodologies; development of adaptation and mitigation options for the effects of climate change on feed resources; strengthening research-extension-farmer linkages; development of year round feeding systems; and striving for sustainability of integrated farming systems. These strategies together form the challenges for the future.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.254-262
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• 2016

With the increased demand for automotive radar systems, mutual interference between vehicles has become a crucial issue that must be resolved to ensure better automotive safety. Mutual interference between frequency modulated continuous waveform (FMCW) radar system appears in the form of increased noise levels in the frequency domain and results in a failure to separate the target object from interferers. The traditional fast fourier transform (FFT) algorithm, which is used to estimate the beat frequency, is vulnerable in interference-limited automotive radar environments. In order to overcome this drawback, we propose a high-resolution frequency estimation technique for use in interference environments. To verify the performance of the proposed algorithms, a 77GHz FMCW radar system is considered. The proposed method employs a high-resolution algorithm, specially the multiple signal classification and estimation of signal parameters via rotational invariance techniques, which are able to estimate beat frequency accurately.