• Title/Summary/Keyword: Human-Involved Complex Systems

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Modeling and Simulation of Emergent Evacuation Using Affordance-based FSA Models (어포던스 기반 FSA모델을 이용한 대피자 행동 모델링 및 시뮬레이션)

  • Joo, Jae-Koo;Kim, Nam-Hun
    • Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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    • v.37 no.2
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    • pp.96-104
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    • 2011
  • Modeling and simulation of human-involved complex systems pose challenges to representing human decision makings into logical systems because of the nondeterministic and dynamic nature of human behaviors. In modeling perspectives, human's activities in systems can increase uncertainty and complexity, because he or she can potentially access all other resources within the system and change the system states. To address all of these human involvements in the system, this research suggests applying the Finite State Automata (FSA)-based formal modeling of human-involved systems that incorporates the ecological concept of affordances to an evacuation simulation, so that human behavioral patterns under urgent and dynamic emergency situations can be considered in the real-time simulation. The proposed simulation methodologies were interpreted using the warehouse fire evacuation simulation to clarify the applicability of the proposed methodology. This research is expected to merge system engineering technologies and human factors, and come out to the new predictive modeling methodology for disaster simulations. This research can be applied to a variety of applications such as building layout designs and building access control systems for emergency situations.

Analysis of Human Errors in a Commercial Aircraft Air Data System and their Influence on Air Safety (커머셜 항공기 에어 데이터 시스템의 인적오류 분석과 안전에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구)

  • Park, Se-Jong;Jeon, Eon-Chan
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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    • v.19 no.11
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    • pp.87-93
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    • 2020
  • A key component of aviation safety is to eliminate the errors in commercial aircraft air data systems to ensure stable aviation operation. Although the technical aspects such as the maintenance and inspection play a pertinent role, human errors are expected to have a similar or even larger influence on the aviation safety. Aviation maintenance and inspection tasks are often performed by a complex organization, in which individuals perform a variety of tasks in an environment involving time pressure, sparse feedback, and complex conditions. These situational characteristics, combined with the general tendency of human error, may lead to various types of errors, which may have critical consequences such as accidents and loss of life. For instance, if an amber message "IAS DISAGREE" is displayed on the primary flight display while the aircraft is rolling on the runway to takeoff, the crew immediately performs a rejected takeoff operation and troubleshoots the air data system. This paper proposes alternative approaches to address the occurrence of defects due to the human factors involved in the practical processes of the air data system of commercial aircraft.

Ginseng and obesity

  • Li, Zhipeng;Ji, Geun Eog
    • Journal of Ginseng Research
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    • v.42 no.1
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    • pp.1-8
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    • 2018
  • Although ginseng has been shown to have an antiobesity effect, antiobesity-related mechanisms are complex and have not been completely elucidated. In the present study, we evaluated ginseng's effects on food intake, the digestion, and absorption systems, as well as liver, adipose tissue, and skeletal muscle in order to identify the mechanisms involved. A review of previous in vitro and in vivo studies revealed that ginseng and ginsenosides can increase energy expenditure by stimulating the adenosine monophosphate-activated kinase pathway and can reduce energy intake. Moreover, in high fat dietinduced obese and diabetic individuals, ginseng has shown a two-way adjustment effect on adipogenesis. Nevertheless, most of the previous studies into antiobesity effects of ginseng have been animal based, and there is a paucity of evidence supporting the suggestion that ginseng can exert an antiobesity effect in humans.

On the Reduction of Systematic Failure by Realizing a Method for Functional Safety (기능안전의 구현을 통한 Systematic Failure의 감축에 관한 연구)

  • Jung, Ho Jeon;Park, Chan Woo;Lee, Jae-Chon
    • Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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    • v.15 no.4
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    • pp.161-169
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    • 2013
  • Due to the recent advances in technology, the systems are becoming more demanding in terms of functionality and implementation complexity. Therefore, when system failures are involved in such complex systems, the effects of the related safety issues can also be more serious, thereby causing in the worst case irrecoverable hazards on both human being and properties. This fact can be witnessed in the recent rail systems accidents. In general, the accidents can be attributed to the systematic failure or the random failure. The latter is due to the aging or unsatisfied quality of the parts used in implementation or some unexpected external cause that would otherwise result in accidents whereas the former is usually related to incomplete systems design. As the systems are becoming more complex, so are the systematic failures. The objective of the paper is to study an approach to solving the systematic failure. To do so, at first the system design process is augmented by the functional safety activities that are suggested in the standard IEC 61508. Analyzing the artifacts of the integrated process yields the traceability, which satisfies the requirements for reduction of systematic failure as provided in ISO 26262. In order to reduce systematic failure, the results are utilized in the conceptual design stage of systems development in which systems requirements are generated and functional architecture is developed.

How Environmental Agents Influence the Aging Process

  • Karol, Meryl H.
    • Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.113-124
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    • 2009
  • Aging is a multifaceted biological process that affects all organs and organ systems of the body. This review provides an up-to-date analysis of this highly exciting, rapidly changing field of science. The aging process is largely under genetic control but is highly responsive to diverse environmental influences. The genes that control aging are those that are involved with cell maintenance, cell damage and repair. The environmental factors that accelerate aging are those that influence either damage of cellular macromolecules, or interfere with their repair. Prominent among these are chronic inflammation, chronic infection, some metallic chemicals, ultraviolet light, and others that heighten oxidative stress. Other environment factors slow the aging process. Included among these agents are resveratrol and vitamin D. In addition, dietary restriction and exercise have been found to extend human lifespan. The various mechanisms whereby all these agents exert their influence on aging include epigenetic modification, chromatin maintenance, protection of telomeres, and anti-oxidant defense, among others. The complex process of aging remains under continued, intense investigation.

Toxicity of nanoparticles_ challenges and opportunities

  • Ramanathan, Amall
    • Applied Microscopy
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    • v.49
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    • pp.2.1-2.11
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    • 2019
  • Nanomaterials (NMs) find widespread use in different industries that range from agriculture, food, medicine, pharmaceuticals, and electronics to cosmetics. It is the exceptional properties of these materials at the nanoscale, which make them successful as growth promoters, drug carriers, catalysts, filters and fillers, but a price must be paid via the potential toxity of these materials. The harmful effects of nanoparticles (NPs) to environment, human and animal health needs to be investigated and critically examined, to find appropriate solutions and lower the risks involved in the manufacture and use of these exotic materials. The vast number and complex interaction of NM/NPs with different biological systems implies that there is no universal toxicity mechanism or assessment method. The various challenges need to be overcome and a number of research studies have been conducted during the past decade on different NMs to explore the possible mechanisms of uptake, concentrations/dosage and toxicity levels. This review article examines critically the recent reports in this field to summarize and present opportunities for safer design using case studies from published literature.

Antioxidative and Antimutagenic Characteristics of Melanoidin Related Products (Melanoidin의 항산화성 및 항돌연변이원성)

  • 최홍식;이창용
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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    • v.22 no.2
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    • pp.246-252
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    • 1993
  • Melanoidins, as brown colored polymers, are formed through the diversified reaction systems of Maillard type and other reactions. Melanoidins are important components in relation to food quality and also are known to have antioxidative, mutagenic and antimutagenic activities. Since these aspects have been extensively reviwed elsewhere, only the recent studies regarding to their antioxidative and antimutagenic activities are discussed in this review. Even though their mechanisms are not clearly identified, melanoidins or specific fractions isolated from their mixtures have shown varied antioxidative activities depending on the reaction systems and reaction conditions. Those activities presumely are derived from the complex functional properties of hydrogen / electron donors and metal chelating power, which are originated from their reductone structure and others. It is considered that pyrolysate and other mutagens are formed by the given conditions in some cases during browning reaction, whereas melanoidins and their fractions have antimutagenic effects on chemical and other mutagens. There are positive correlationship among the color intensity, antioxidative activity and antimutagenicity of melanoidins or their fractions. These suggest that the antimutagenicity of melanoidins could be attributed to their antioxidative properties, however, it might also be due to other factors, because the relevant responses for antimutagenicity are very complicate and not clear. Accordingly, further studies are required to determine the actual acitivities and mechanisms involved in antioxidation and (anti)mutagenicity of melanoidins by reaction systems / conditions and by the isolated fractions. And also, additional studies are needed to evaluate the applications of melanoidins and their relevant effects to food and human health.

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Detection of similar GPCRs by using protein secondary structures

  • Ku, Ja-Hyo;Yoon, Young-Woo
    • 한국정보컨버전스학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 2008.06a
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    • pp.39-42
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    • 2008
  • G protein-coupled receptor(GPCR) family is a cell membrane protein, and plays an important role in a signaling mechanism which transmits external signals through cell membranes into cells. Now, it is estimated that there may be about 800-1000 GPCRs in a human genome. But, GPCRs each are known to have various complex control mechanisms and very unique signaling mechanisms. GPCRs are involved in maintaining homeostasis of various human systems including an endocrine system or a neural system and thus, disorders in activity control of GPCRs are thought to be the major source of cardiovascular disorders, metabolic disorders, degenerative disorders, carcinogenesis and the like. As more than 60% of currently marketed therapeutic agents target GPCRs, the GPCR field has been actively explored in the pharmaceutical industry. Structural features, and class and subfamily of GPCRs are well known by function, and accordingly, the most fundamental work in studies identifying the previous GPCRs is to classify the GPCRs with given protein sequences. Studies for classifying previously identified GPCRs more easily with mathematical models have been mainly going on. Considering that secondary sequences of proteins, namely, secondary binding structures of amino acids constituting proteins are closely related to functions, the present paper does not place the focus on primary sequences of proteins as previously practiced, but instead, proposes a method to transform primary sequences into secondary structures and compare the secondary structures, and then detect an unknown GPCR assumed to have a same function in databases of previously identified GPCRs.

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Physiology, genomics and molecular approaches for lmproving abiotic stress tolerance in rice and impacts on poor farmers

  • Ismail, Abdelbagi M.;Kumar, Arivnd;Singh, R.K.;Dixit, Shalabh;Henry, Amelia;Singh, Uma S.
    • Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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    • 2017.06a
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    • pp.7-7
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    • 2017
  • Unfavorable weather and soil conditions reduce rice yield and land and water productivity, aggravating existing encounters of poverty and food insecurity. These conditions are foreseen to worsen with climate change and with the unceasing irrational human practices that progressively debilitate productivity despite global appeals for more food. Our understanding of plant responses to abiotic stresses is advancing and is complex, involving numerous critical processes - each controlled by several genetic factors. Knowledge of the physiological and molecular mechanisms involved in signaling, response and adaptation, and in some cases the genes involved, is advancing. Moreover, the genetic diversity being unveiled within cultivated rice and its wild relatives is providing ample resources for trait and gene discovery, and this is being scouted for rice improvement using modern genomics and molecular tools. Development of stress tolerant varieties is now being fast-tracked through the use of DNA markers and advanced breeding strategies. Large numbers of drought, submergence and salt tolerant varieties were commercialized over recent years in South and Southeast Asia and more recently in Africa. These varieties are making significant changes in less favorable areas, transforming lives of smallholder farmers - progress considered incredulous in the past. The stress tolerant varieties are providing assurance to farmers to invest in better management of their crops and the ability to adjust their cropping systems for even higher productivity and more income, sparking changes analogous to that of the first green revolution, which previously benefited only favorable irrigated and rainfed areas. New breeding tools using markers for multiple stresses made it possible to develop more resilient, higher yielding varieties to replace the aging and obsolete varieties still dominating these areas. Varieties with multiple stress tolerances are now becoming available, providing even better security for farmers and lessening their production risks even in areas affected by complex and overlapping stresses. The progress made in these less favorable areas triggered numerous favorable changes at the national and regional levels in several countries in Asia, including adjusting breeding and dissemination strategies to accelerate outreach and enabling changes at higher policy levels, creating a positive environment for faster progress. Exploiting the potential of these less productive areas for food production is inevitable, to meet the escalating global needs for more food and sustained production systems, at times when national resources are shrinking while demand for food is mounting. However, the success in these areas requires concerted efforts to make use of existing genetic resources for crop improvement and establishing effective evaluation networks, seed production systems, and seed delivery systems to ensure faster outreach and transformation.

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Purification and Characterization of Anticoagulant Protein from Ark Shell, Scapharca broughtonii

  • Jung, Won-Kyo;Park, Pyo-Jam;Kim, Se-Kwon
    • Proceedings of the Korean Society of Fisheries Technology Conference
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    • 2000.05a
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    • pp.90-91
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    • 2000
  • The physiological systems that control blood fluidity are both complex and elegant. Blood must remain fluid within the vasculature and yet clot quickly when exposed to nonendothelial surfaces at sites of vascular injury. There are two principle mechanisms to control a delicate balance in higher organisms (Davie & Ratnoff, 1964). Present evidence suggests that the intrinsic pathway play an important role in the growth and maintenance of fibrin formation in the coagulation cascade while a second overlapping mechanism, called the extrinsic pathway, is critical in the initiation of fibrin formation. Coagulation factors is in two mechanisms, and in order to clot blood, they are activated by a cooperation with $Ca^{2+}$, phospholipid and vitamin K etc. For example, the human placental anticoagulant protein (PAP of PAP- I), which is a $Ca^{2+}$ -dependent phospholipid binding protein (Funakoshi et al., 1987) inhibited the activity of factor Xa, so that it prolonged fibrin formation. We wondered whether any other protein was involved in regulation of the coagulant system as an anticoagulant protein from natural organisms. Natural agents would have not harmful side-effects in comparision with chemically synthesized materials such as warfarin, aspirin, phenindione, etc.. But anticoagulant agents from natural, especially marine organisms have hardly been researched except for polysaccharides from marine algae. (omitted)

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