• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.184-196
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• 2019

This study aims to extract a 3D image of micro-cracks generated by hydraulic fracturing tests, using the deep learning method and X-ray computed tomography images. The pixel-level cracks are difficult to be detected via conventional image processing methods, such as global thresholding, canny edge detection, and the region growing method. Thus, the convolutional neural network-based encoder-decoder network is adapted to extract and analyze the micro-crack quantitatively. The number of training data can be acquired by dividing, rotating, and flipping images and the optimum combination for the image augmentation method is verified. Application of the optimal image augmentation method shows enhanced performance for not only the validation dataset but also the test dataset. In addition, the influence of the original number of training data to the performance of the deep learning-based neural network is confirmed, and it leads to succeed the pixel-level crack detection.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.21-32
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• 2020

As the global large-scale infrastructure construction market expands, the construction of civil engineering structures in extreme environments such as cold or hot regions is being planned or constructed. Accordingly, the construction of the pile foundation is essential to secure the bearing capacity of the upper structure, but there is a concern about loss of stability and function of the pile foundation due to the possibility of ground deformation in extreme cold and hot regions. Therefore, in this study, a new type of pile foundation is developed to respond with the deformation of the ground, and the ground deformation that can occur in extreme cold and hot region is largely divided into heaving and settlement. The new type of pile foundation is a form in which a cylinder capable of shrinkage and expansion is inserted inside the steel pipe pile, and the effect of the cylinder during the heaving and settlement process was analyzed numerically. As a result of the numerical analysis, the ground heaving caused excessive tensile stress of the pile, and the expansion condition of the cylinder shared the tensile stress acting on the pile and reduced the axial stress acting on the pile. Ground settlement increased the compressive stress of the pile due to the occurrence of negative skin friction. The cylinder must be positioned below the neutral point and behave in shrinkage for optimum efficiency. However, the amount and location of shrinkage and expansion of cylinder must comply with the allowable displacement range of the upper structure. It is judged that the design needs to be considered.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.439-450
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• 2020

Global warming caused by the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is being treated as a major problem for the human life, and mineral carbonation is drawing attention as one of many countermeasures against this situation. In this study, mineral carbonation experiments using autoclaved lightweight concrete (ALC) were performed under various conditions to determine its potential as a carbonation material. ALC can be regarded as a promising material for carbonation because it contains about 27 wt.% of CaO, a major component of mineral carbonation. The CaCO3 content produced as a result of the carbonation of ALC calculated on the assumption that all of the CaO content participates in mineral carbonation is about 40 wt.%. The optimum conditions for the mineral carbonation reaction from ALC are the solid-liquid ratio of 0.01 and the reaction time of 180 minutes when calcite is considered as a single product, or 0.06 and 180 minutes when mixture of calcite and vaterite can be considered. The coexistence of vaterite with calcite at solid-liquid ratio of 0.06 or higher was interpreted to be the case where vaterite formed in the later stage and did not change to calcite until the reaction was completed.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.245-255
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• 2022

Evaluating the qualitative the qualitative process of water resources by using various indicators, as one of the most prevalent methods for optimal managing of water bodies, is necessary for having one regular plan for protection of water quality. In this study, zoning maps were developed on a yearly basis by collecting and reviewing the process, validating, and performing statistical tests on qualitative parameters҆ data of the Iranian aquifers from 1995 to 2020 using Geographic Information System (GIS), and based on Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW), Radial Basic Function (RBF), and Global Polynomial Interpolation (GPI) methods and Kriging and Co-Kriging techniques in three types including simple, ordinary, and universal. Then, minimum uncertainty and zoning error in addition to proximity for ASE and RMSE amount, was selected as the optimum model. Afterwards, the selected model was zoned by using Scholar and Wilcox. General evaluation of groundwater situation of Iran, revealed that 59.70 and 39.86% of the resources are classified into the class of unsuitable for agricultural and drinking purposes, respectively indicating the crisis of groundwater quality in Iran. Finally, for validating the extracted results, spatial changes in water quality were evaluated using the Groundwater Quality Index (GWQI), indicating high sensitivity of aquifers to small quantitative changes in water level in addition to severe shortage of groundwater reserves in Iran.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.54 no.spc1
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• pp.1053-1060
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• 2021

Current water quality monitoring systems in Korea carried based on in-situ grab sample analysis. It is difficult to improve the current water quality monitoring system, i.e. shorter sampling period or increasing sampling points, because the current systems are both cost- and labor-intensive. One possible way to improve the current water quality monitoring system is to adopt a modeling approach. In this study, a modeling technique was introduced to support the current water quality monitoring system, and an artificial neural network model, the computational tool which mimics the biological processes of human brain, was applied to predict water quality of the river. The approach tried to predict concentrations of Total coliform at the outlet of the river and this showed, somewhat, poor estimations since concentrations of Total coliform were rapidly fluctuated. The approach, however, could forecast whether concentrations of Total coliform would exceed the water quality standard or not. As results, modeling approaches is expected to assist the current water quality monitoring system if the approach is applied to judge whether water quality factors could exceed the water quality standards or not and this would help proper water resource managements.

• Journal of The Geomorphological Association of Korea
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.87-98
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• 2010

There have been growing concerns for the sea level rise due to global warming in recent years. Sea level rise is a serious problem to densely populated coastal areas, because it may affect the coastal landforms to be damaged. Especially coastal sand deposits like coastal dunes are more sensitive than the other coastal landforms. In this paper, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating method were used to identify the Holocene geomorphic changes of coastal dune field in Shinduri located at the western coast. The main results in this study that are the dunefield in the study area may have begun to form at around 6.8 ka and it has grown seaward thereafter. Then, dunefield appears to have extensively developed since 3.7 ka. This result, together with previous works on the sea level and climatic changes in the western coast of Korea suggest that the dunefield has been affected by the sea level regression since the Holocene high stand in the Holocene at around 6 ka and climatic change from warm and humid to cold and dry conditions occurred at 4.5 ka.

• Journal of Appropriate Technology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.106-113
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• 2019

In order to respond to the global environmental issues, developed countries have been helped the developing countries as the Official Development Assistance (ODA). It is important to understand technology needs of the developing countries to provide the optimum solutions. In this study, the information of the environmental R&D dealing with appropriate technology were comprehensively collected based on the conducted R&D projects from the ministry of environment in Korea. The technology needs by UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) and Korean government were analyzed named as TNA and CPS according to the target developing countries. In South-East Asia and Africa region, there were technology needs on water, biota, air, solid wastes, infrastructures and resources. And they were related to the issues such as environmental pollution, construction, climate change, biodiversity, energy and water management. The technology needs by UNFCCC and Korean government were also compared. Furthermore, the environmental R&D on appropriate technology should be focused on localization and maintenance to provide sustainable solutions to the developing countries.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.74-87
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• 2016

Potato phenology, growth, and yield are projected to be highly affected by global warming in the future. The objective of this study was to examine the responses of potato growth and yield to environmental elements like temperature, solar radiation, and daylength. Planting date experiments under open field condition were conducted using three cultivars differing in maturity group (Irish Cobbler and Superior as early; Atlantic as mid-late maturing) at eight different planting dates. In addition, elevated temperature experiment was conducted in four plastic houses controlled to target temperatures of ambient temperature (AT), $AT+1.5^{\circ}C$, $AT+3^{\circ}C$, and $AT+5^{\circ}C$ using cv. Superior. Tuber initiation onset was found to be hastened curve-linearly with increasing temperature, showing optimum temperature around $22-24^{\circ}C$, while delayed by longer photoperiod and lower solar radiation in Superior and Atlantic. In the planting date experiments where the average temperature is near optimal and solar radiation, rainfall, pest, and disease are not limiting factor for tuber yield, the most important determinant was growth duration, which is limited by the beginning of rainy season in summer and frost in the late fall. Yield tended to increase along with delayed tuber initiation. Within the optimum temperature range ($17^{\circ}-22^{\circ}C$), larger diurnal range of temperature increased the tuber yield. In an elevated temperature treatment of $AT+5.0^{\circ}C$, plants failed to form tubers as affected by high temperature, low irradiance, and long daylength. Tuber number at early growth stage was reduced by higher temperature, resulting in the decrease of assimilates allocated to tuber and the reduction of average tuber weight. Stem growth was enhanced by elevated temperature at the expense of tuber growth. Consequently, tuber yield decreased with elevated temperature above ambient and drop to almost nil at $AT+5.0^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.307-313
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• 2018

Alopecia cause psychological stress due to their effect on appearance. Thus, the global market size of the alopecia treatment products are growing quickly. Timosaponin A III is the well known active ingredient of Anemarrhenae Rhizoma. In this study, we investigated and compared the binding affinity of timosaponin A III with finasteride (5-beta reductase antagonist) and minoxidil (androgen receptor antagonist) on the target protein active site by in silico computational docking studies. The three dimensional crystallographic structure of 5-beta reductase (PDB ID : 3G1R) and androgen receptor (PDB ID: 4K7A) was obtained from PDB database. In silico computational autodocking analysis was performed using PyRx, Autodock Vina, Discovery Studio Version 4.5, and NX-QuickPharm option based on scoring functions. The timosaponin A III showed optimum binding affinity (docking energy) with 5-beta reductase as -12.20 kcal/mol as compared to the finasteride (-11.70 kcal/mol) and with androgen receptor as -9.00 kcal/mol as compared to the minoxidil (-7.40 kcal/mol). The centroid X, Y, Z grid position of the timosaponin A III on the 5-beta reductase was similar (overlap) to the finasteride, but the X, Y, Z centroid grid of the timosaponin A III on the androgen receptor was significantly far from the minoxidil centroid position. These results significantly indicated that timosaponin A III could be more potent antagonist to the 5-beta reductase and androgen receptor. Therefore, the extract of Anemarrhenae Rhizoma or timosaponin A III containing biomaterials can substitute the finasteride and minoxidil and can be applied to the alopecia protecting product and related industrial fields.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.59-68
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• 2016

The application of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology to assess the environmental impact of rapeseed cultivation in winter fallow after harvesting rice was investigated and compared with barley cultivation in crop rotation system. Data for input materials were collected and analyzed by 1 ton rapeseed and barley as functional unit. For the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) the Eco-indicator 95 method has been chosen because this is well documented and regularly applied impact method. From the comparison of impact categories such as greenhouse effect, ozone depletion, acidification, heavy metals, carcinogens, summer smog, and energy resources for 1 ton of final product, emission potential from rapeseed was higher than that from barley. The range from 65 to 96% of these potential came from chemical fertilizer. On the other hand, eutrophication potential from barley was higher than that from rapeseed, mainly came from utilizing the chemical fertilizer. During the cultivation of barley and rape, environmental burden by heavy metals was evaluated by 0.5 Pt, larger than points from other impact categories. The sum of points from all impact categories in barley and rapeseed was calculated to be 0.78 Pt and 0.82 Pt, respectively. From the sensitivity analysis for barley and rapeseed, scenario 1 (crop responses to fertilization level) showed the environmental burden was continuously increased with the amount of fertilization in barley cultivation, while it was not increased only at the optimum crop responses to fertilization in rapeseed (R3). With these results, rapeseed cultivation in winter fallow paddy contributed to the amounts of environmental burden much more than barley cultivation. It is, however, highly determined that environmental weighted point resulted from evaluating both cultivation was not significantly different.