• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.67 no.3
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• pp.255-265
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• 2018

The prestress force effect on the fundamental frequency and deflection shape of Prestressed Concrete I (PCI) beams was studied in this paper. Currently, due to the conflicts among existing theories, the analytical solution for properly considering the structural behavior of these prestressed members is not clear. A series of experiments were conducted on a large-scale PCI beam of high strength concrete with an eccentric straight unbonded tendon. Specifically, the simply supported PCI beam was subjected to free vibration and three-point bending tests with different prestress forces. Subsequently, the experimental data were compared with analytical results based on the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. It was proved that the fundamental frequency of PCI beams is unaffected by the increasing applied prestress force, if the variation of the initial elastic modulus of concrete with time is considered. Vice versa, the relationship between the deflection shape and prestress force is well described by the magnification factor formula of the compression-softening theory assuming the secant elastic modulus.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.559-572
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• 2014

This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation on the flexural behavior of doubly reinforced lightweight concrete (R.L.C.) beams tested under cyclic loading. A total of 20 beam specimens were tested. Test results are presented in terms of ductility index, the degradation of strength and stiffness, and energy dissipation. The flexural properties of R.L.C. beam were compared to those of normal concrete (R.C.) beams. Test results show that R.L.C. beam with low and medium concrete strength (20, 40MPa) performed displacement ductility similar to the R.C. beam. The ductility can be improved by enhancing the concrete strength or decreasing the tension reinforcement ratio. Using lightweight aggregate in concrete is advantageous to the dynamic stiffness of R.L.C. beam. Enhancement of concrete strength and increase of reinforcement ratio will lead to increase of the stiffness degradation of beam. The energy dissipation of R.L.C beam, similar to R.C. beam, increase with the increase of tension reinforcement ratio. The energy dissipation of unit load cycle for smaller tension reinforcement ratio is relatively less than that of beam with higher reinforcement ratio.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.5-23
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• 2011

One inevitable problem in Ad Hoc networks is the limited battery capacity, which explains why portable devices might shut down suddenly when the power of hardware is depleted. Hence, how to decrease the power consumption is an important issue in ad hoc networks. With the development of wireless technology, mobile devices can transmit voices, surf the Internet, download entertaining stuffs, and even support some P2P applications, like sharing real-time streaming. In order to keep the quality stable, the transmission must be continuous and it is thus necessary to select some managers to coordinate all nodes in a P2P community. In addition to assigning jobs to the staffs (children) when needed, these managers (ancestors) are able to reappoint jobs in advance when employees retire. This paper proposed a mechanism called Cluster-based Power Management (CPM) to stabilize the transmissions and increase Time to Live (TTL) of mobile hosts. In our new proposed method, we establish the clusters according to every node's joining order and capability, and adjust their sleep time dynamically through three different mathematical models. Our simulation results reveal that this proposed scheme not only reduces the power consumption efficiently, but also increases the total TTLs evidently.

• Biomaterials and Biomechanics in Bioengineering
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.85-96
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• 2015

This study developed biodegradable bi-layered drug-eluting beads and investigated the in-vitro release of fluorouracil and cisplatin from the beads. To manufacture the drug-eluting beads, poly[(d,l)-lactide-co-glycolide] (PLGA) with lactide:glycolide ratios of 50:50 and 75:25 were mixed with fluorouracil or cisplatin. The mixture was compressed and sintered at $55^{\circ}C$ to form bi-layered beads. An elution method was employed to characterize the release characteristic of the pharmaceuticals over a 30-day period at $37^{\circ}C$. The influence of polymer type (i.e., 50:50 or 75:25 PLGA) and layer layout on the release characteristics was investigated. The experiment suggested that biodegradable beads released high concentrations of fluorouracil and cisplatin for more than 30 days. The 75:25 PLGA released the pharmaceuticals at a slower rate than the 50:50 PLGA. In addition, the bi-layered structure reduced the release rate of drugs from the core layer of the beads. By adopting the compression sintering technique, we will be able to manufacture biodegradable beads for long-term drug delivery of various anti-cancer pharmaceuticals.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.94-98
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• 2004

Effects of dopaminergic drugs on the degranulation of mast cells (RBL-2H3 cells) and the nitric oxide production from macrophage cells (RAW 264.7) were studied. Among the dopaminergic agonists and antagonists tested, bromocriptine, 7-OH-DPAT, haloperidol, and clozapine showed potent inhibitions of mast cell degranualtion ($IC_{50} value, 5 \mu$ M). However, these dopaminergic agents did not affect the tyrosine phosphorylations of the signaling components of the high affinity IgE receptor ($Fc\varepsilonRI$), such as Syk, $PLC\gamma1$, and $PLC\gamma2$.; This suggested that these signaling components were not involved in the inhibition of the mast cell degranulation by these compounds. On the other hand, dopamine, bromocriptine, 7-OH-DAPT, and haloperidol markedly inhibited the nitric oxide production from RAW 264.7 cells ($IC_{50}$ values, 10-20$\mu$M). Bromocriptine, a dopamine agonist that is routinely used for the treatment of Parkinsons disease, inhibited the expression of the inducible nitric oxide synthase at an early stage of the LPS-induced protein expression in a dose-dependent manner. The results suggested that these dopaminergic agents, when used for the treatment of dopamine receptors-related diseases, such as Schizophrenia or Parkinsons disease, might have additional beneficial effects.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.8
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• pp.1306-1313
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• 2018

The randomness and incipient nature of certain faults in reactor systems warrant a robust and dynamic detection mechanism. Existing models and methods for fault diagnosis using different mathematical/statistical inferences lack incipient and novel faults detection capability. To this end, we propose a fault diagnosis method that utilizes the flexibility of data-driven Support Vector Machine (SVM) for component-level fault diagnosis. The technique integrates separately-built, separately-trained, specialized SVM modules capable of component-level fault diagnosis into a coherent intelligent system, with each SVM module monitoring sub-units of the reactor coolant system. To evaluate the model, marginal faults selected from the failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) are simulated in the steam generator and pressure boundary of the Chinese CNP300 PWR (Qinshan I NPP) reactor coolant system, using a best-estimate thermal-hydraulic code, RELAP5/SCDAP Mod4.0. Multiclass SVM model is trained with component level parameters that represent the steady state and selected faults in the components. For optimization purposes, we considered and compared the performances of different multiclass models in MATLAB, using different coding matrices, as well as different kernel functions on the representative data derived from the simulation of Qinshan I NPP. An optimum predictive model - the Error Correcting Output Code (ECOC) with TenaryComplete coding matrix - was obtained from experiments, and utilized to diagnose the incipient faults. Some of the important diagnostic results and heuristic model evaluation methods are presented in this paper.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.608-618
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• 2022

By analyzing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) theory of the conventional true color night vision system, we found that the output image SNR is limited by the wavelength range of the system response λ₁ and λ₂. Therefore, we built a double-channel four-band true color night vision system to expand the system response to improve the output image SNR. In the meantime, we proposed an image fusion method based on principal component analysis (PCA) and nonsubsampled shearlet transform (NSST) to obtain the true color night vision images. Through experiments, a method based on edge extraction of the targets and spatial dimension decorrelation was proposed to calculate the SNR of the obtained images and we calculated the correlation coefficient (CC) between the edge graphs of obtained and reference images. The results showed that the SNR of the images of four scenes obtained by our system were 125.0%, 145.8%, 86.0% and 51.8% higher, respectively, than that of the conventional tri-band system and CC was also higher, which demonstrated that our system can get true color images with better quality.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.293-300
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• 2022

During the decommissioning of the nuclear facilities, the radioactive gases in pressure vessels may leak due to the demolition operations. The decommissioning site has large space, slow air circulation, and many large nuclear facilities, which increase the difficulty of workers' inhalation exposure assessment. In order to dynamically evaluate the activity distribution of radionuclides and the committed effective dose from inhalation in nuclear decommissioning environment, an inhalation exposure assessment method based on the modified eddy-diffusion model and the inhaled dose conversion factor is proposed in this paper. The method takes into account the influence of building, facilities, exhaust ducts, etc. on the distribution of radioactive gases, and can evaluate the influence of radioactive gases diffusion on workers during the decommissioning of nuclear facilities.

• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.7-12
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• 2022

Farming practices that balance environmental friendliness with biodiversity are increasingly valuable. Wild plants on farmlands compete for nutrients with crops and create a crucial microhabitat and resources for animals such as natural enemies. Investigating farmlands and their surrounding plants with limited human and material resources has become an essential aspect of evaluating the agricultural ecosystem services. This study investigated plants in six agricultural long-term ecological research sites in Taiwan from 2017 to 2020 to determine the ideal season for investigation. Cluster analysis was performed to group habitats with similar plant composition, and the species-area curves of the clusters in each season were created. The results indicated that the agricultural ecosystem could be divided into farmlands, banks, orchards, and tea gardens. The habitats were divided into farmland, bank, Chia-Yi orchard, Gu-Keng orchard, and tea garden clusters. Ground plant cover can be investigated all year with at least 18 quadrats. However, if human and material resources are limited, 10 quadrats should be the minimum for farmlands in autumn and for the other microhabitats in spring. The minimum number of quadrats is 10 for banks, 17 for orchards, and 9 for tea gardens.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.405-417
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• 2023

While ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) is commonly reinforced with micro straight steel fibers in existing applications, studies have indicated that the use of deformed steel macro-fibers leads to enhanced ductility and post-peak responses for UHPC structural elements, which is of particular importance for earthquake-resistant structures. However, there are potential concerns regarding the use of UHPC reinforced with macro-fibers due to the issues of workability and fiber distribution. The objective of this study was to address these issues by extensively investigating the restricted and non-restricted deformability, filling ability, horizontal and vertical velocities, and passing ability of UHPC containing macro hooked-end steel fibers. A new approach is suggested to examine the homogeneity of fiber distribution in UHPC. The influences of ultra-fine fillers and steel macro-fibers on the workability of fresh UHPC and the mechanics of hardened UHPC were examined. It was found that although increasing the ratio of quartz powder to cement led to an improvement in the workability and tensile strain hardening behavior of UHPC, it reduced the fiber distribution homogeneity. The addition of 1% volume fraction of macro-fibers in UHPC improved workability, but reduced its compressive strength, which is contrary to the effect of micro-fiber inclusion in UHPC.