• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.21 no.7
• /
• pp.419-427
• /
• 2020

This study was undertaken to address the difficulties and inconveniences of an electric wheelchair. We focused on improving usability of initially completed products by augmenting the prototypes designed in the previous study. For evaluation of usability, 10 elderly women aged over 65 years, capable of movements and physical activities in daily life, were enrolled as subjects. The experimental method included a subjective satisfaction questionnaire evaluation of the elderly women using the target product, and the observation evaluation was achieved using video recording data, etc. Usability evaluation revealed that the elevating sector requires improvement of intuition through separation of the elevating control panel and the driving control panel. Improvements in the driving sector include corrections of the front wheel mechanism or driving control algorithm, UI, and sudden stop system. Transferring section assessment revealed a necessity to secure structures and add structures that support power. We believe that based on the inconveniences and improvements presented in the usability evaluation, appending the existing prototype with complementary products will improve the quality of life of elderly women with limited mobility.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.300-312
• /
• 2017

To improve the understanding of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation from the photo-oxidation of anthropogenic and biogenic precursors at the regional background station on Baengnyeong Island, Korea, gas phase and aerosol chemistries were investigated using the Proton Transfer Reaction Time of Flight Mass Spectrometer (PTR-ToF-MS) and the Aerodyne High Resolution Time of Flight Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS), respectively. HR-ToF-AMS measured fine particles ($PM_1$; diameter of particle matter less than $1{\mu}m$) at a 6-minute time resolution from February to November 2012, while PTR-ToF-MS was deployed during an intensive period from September 21 to 29, 2012. The one-minute time-resolution and high mass resolution (up to $4000m{\Delta}m^{-1}$) data from the PTR-ToF-MS provided the basis for calculations of the concentrations of anthropogenic and biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) including oxygenated VOCs (OVOCs). The dominant BVOCs from the site are isoprene (0.23 ppb), dimethyl sulphide (DMS, 0.20 ppb), and monoterpenes (0.38 ppb). Toluene (0.45 ppb) and benzene (0.32 ppb) accounted for the majority of anthropogenic VOCs (AVOCs). OVOCs including acetone (3.98 ppb), acetaldehyde (2.67 ppb), acetic acid (1.68 ppb), and formic acid (2.24 ppb) were measured. The OVOCs comprise approximately 75% of total measured VOCs, suggesting the occurrence of strong oxidation processes and/or long-range transported at the site. A strong photochemical aging and oxidation of the atmospheric pollutants were also observed in aerosol measured by HR-ToF-AMS, whereby a high $f_{44}:f_{43}$ value is shown for organic aerosols (OAs); however, relatively low $f_{44}:f_{43}$ values were observed when high concentrations of BVOCs and AVOCs were available, providing evidence of the formation of SOA from VOC precursors at the site. Overall, the results of this study revealed several different SOA formation mechanisms, and new particle formation and particle growth events were identified using the powerful tools scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS), PTR-ToF-MS, and HR-ToF-AMS.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.157-167
• /
• 2020

Removing radioactive concrete is crucial in the decommissioning of nuclear power plants. However, this process generates radioactive aerosols, exposing workers to radiation. Although large amounts of radioactive concrete are generated during decommissioning, studies on the internal exposure of workers to radioactive aerosols generated from the cutting of radioactive concrete are very limited. In this study, therefore, we calculate the internal radiation doses of workers exposed to radioactive aerosols during activities such as drilling and cutting of radioactive concrete, using previous research data. The electrical-mobility-equivalent diameter measured in a previous study was converted to aerodynamic diameter using the Newton-Raphson method. Furthermore, the specific activity of each nuclide in radioactive concrete 10 years after nuclear power plants are shut down was calculated using the ORIGEN code. Eventually, we calculated the committed effective dose for each nuclide using the IMBA software. The maximum effective dose of ¹⁵²Eu constituted 83.09% of the total dose; moreover, the five highest-ranked elements (¹⁵²Eu, ¹⁵⁴Eu, ⁶⁰Co, ²³⁹Pu, ⁵⁵Fe) constituted 99.63%. Therefore, we postulate that these major elements could be measured first for rapid radiation exposure management of workers involved in decommissioning of nuclear power plants, even if all radioactive elements in concrete are not considered.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.1-7
• /
• 2009

As the information age comes out, the aspect of future war brings about the many changes in terms of war-fighting environment. Accordingly, information superiority and intelligence-centric warfare have been important and new war-fighting concept such as NCW(network centric warfare) have been turned up. This paper proposed all-weather core-strategy communications systems guaranteeing not only the real-time transmission of the information collected in a battlefield and expansion, automation, and rapidity of a battlefield but also broadband, mobility, survivability, and flexibility. The proposed military satellite communications system is classified into wideband mass capacity link, survivability, and the system supporting OTM(on the move) communication for the real-time transmission of battlefield information. This paper analyzed the essential operation concepts and core schemes of the U.S. Army's next generation system, TSAT(Transformational Satellite Communication System). Base on the analysis results, this paper proposed that the architecture of next generation military satellite communications systems for NCW have to provide the data rate, anti-jamming capability, network control and management capability which are optimally adaptable for the wireless channel environments such as jamming and interference and to support the variety of platforms like high-speed mobile vehicles, micromini devices, super-high speed unmanned aerial vehicles. Finally, this paper also proposed that next generation military satellite communications systems need the technologies such as the adaptable multi-antenna, laser link, and next-generation anti-jamming waveform.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.318-328
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in the characteristics of the aesthetic salon operation and job satisfaction according to important considerations in opening aesthetic salons as well as to provide basic data for improving the operation of the salons. Toward this aim, a questionnaire survey was conducted for owners of small aesthetic salons across South Korea from January-March, 2016. Results were as follows: Among those who identified means of transportation and parking convenience as key considerations in launching aesthetic salon businesses, length of service, length of business operation, monthly fixed revenue and proportion of the highest profit were highest. Job satisfaction (F=3.223, p<.05) was highest (M=4.11) among those that responded 'floating population' as a primary component in launching aesthetic salon businesses, and lowest among owners who mentioned 'cost of investment' (M=3.41). Specifically, job mobility (F=2.960, p<.05) was the highest among respondents who selected means of transportation and parking convenience (M=3.95) as key criteria in launching aesthetic salon business. For the stable operation of an aesthetic salon, a location with high floating population, good transportation, parking convenience, high levels of customer access, and job satisfaction are critical factors. In addition, future studies should examine marketing strategies by operating characteristics.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.19 no.7
• /
• pp.164-173
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of job experience while attending college on the turnover risk in the first job following graduation. Data was obtained from the 2015 Graduates Occupational Mobility Survey (GOMS). Subjects included college graduates under 30 years of age, who graduated from high school and entered college in the same year. The results of this study are as follows: First, students who had job experience while attending school were relatively low in economic characteristics, but showed active employment preparation behavior. Second, there was a significant difference in the characteristics of entry into the labor market according to whether they had job experience while attending school. It was found that the securing their first job of graduates with job experience was shorter, and the period of tenure was longer, but their wage was smaller than non-experienced graduates. Third, the Cox regression analysis confirmed what factors affected their employment period, and that job experience, experience frequency, and experience period while attending school had a positive effect on lowering turnover risk. Therefore, this study found that job experience during schooling years makes the employment period of the job longer after graduation, which is consistent with those who had previous job experience. However, the greater amount of job experience during the period of study positively affects job retention.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.152-161
• /
• 2015

CodY is a highly conserved protein in low G+C gram-positive bacteria that regulates genes involved in sporulation and stationary-phase adaptation. Bacillus thuringiensis is a grampositive bacterium that forms spores and parasporal crystals during the stationary phase. To our knowledge, the regulatory mechanism of CodY in B. thuringiensis is unknown. To study the function of CodY protein in B. thuringiensis, BMB171codY^- was constructed in a BMB171 strain. A shuttle vector containing the ORF of cry1Ac10 was transformed into BMB171 and BMB171codY^-, named BMB171cry1Ac and BMB171codY^-cry1Ac, respectively. Some morphological and physiological changes of codY mutant BMB171codY^-cry1Ac were observed. A comparative proteomic analysis was conducted for both BMB171codY^-cry1Ac and BMB171cry1Ac through two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and MALDI-TOF-MS/MS analysis. The results showed that the proteins regulated by CodY are involved in microbial metabolism, including branched-chain amino acid metabolism, carbohydrate metabolism, fatty acid metabolism, and energy metabolism. Furthermore, we found CodY to be involved in sporulation, biosynthesis of poly-β-hydroxybutyrate, growth, genetic competence, and translation. According to the analysis of differentially expressed proteins, and physiological characterization of the codY mutant, we performed bacterial one-hybrid and electrophoretic mobility shift assay experiments and confirmed the direct regulation of genes by CodY, specifically those involved in metabolism of branched-chain amino acids, ribosomal recycling factor FRR, and the late competence protein ComER. Our data establish the foundation for in-depth study of the regulation of CodY in B. thuringiensis, and also offer a potential biocatalyst for functions of CodY in other bacteria.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
• /
• v.22 no.11
• /
• pp.2594-2603
• /
• 1997

A novel method of adaptive beam forming is presented in this paper. The proposed technique provides for a suboptimal beam pattern that increases the Signal to Noise/Interference Ratio (SNR/SIR), thus, eventually increases the capacity of the communication channel, under an assumption that the desired signal is dominant compared to each component of interferences at the receiver, which is precoditionally achieved in Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) mobile communications by the chip correlator. The main advantages of the new technique are:(1)The procedure requires neither reference signals nor training period, (2)The signal interchoerency does not affect the performance or complexity of the entire procedure, (3)The number of antennas does not have to be greater than that of the signals of distinct arrival angles, (4)The entire procedure is iterative such that a new suboptimal beam pattern be generated upon the arrival of each new data of which the arrival angle keeps changing due tot he mobility of the signal source, (5)The total amount of computation is tremendously reduced compared to that of most conventional beam forming techniques such that the suboptimal beam pattern be produced at vevery snapshot on a real-time basis. The total computational load for generating a new set of weitht including the update of an N-by-N(N is the number of antenna elements) autocovariance matrix is $0(3N^2 + 12N)$. It can further be reduced down to O(11N) by approximating the matrix with the instantaneous signal vector.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
• /
• v.36 no.6A
• /
• pp.609-616
• /
• 2011

The Delay/Disruption Tolerant Network (DTN) is a network designed to operate effectively using the mobility and storage of intermediate nodes under no end-to-end guaranteed network. This new network paradigm is well-suited for networks which have unstable path and long latencies (e.g. interplanetary network, vehicular network). In this paper, we first found that each taxi has its own regularly visiting area and define this property as spatial regularity. We analyze 4000 taxi trace data in Shanghai and show the existence of spatial regularity experimentally. Based on a spatial regularity in urban environment, we present a new DTN routing method. We introduce a Weighted Center (WC) which represents spatial regularity of each node. Through the association with evenly distributed access points (APs) in urban environment, most of vehicles get their grid locations and calculate their WCs. Since our routing method only uses neighbors' WCs for building routing paths, it can be regarded as distributed and practical protocols. Our experiments involving realistic network scenarios created by the traces of about 1500 Shanghai taxies show that our routing method achieves the higher performance compared to ECT, LET by 10%~110%.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
• /
• v.3 no.3
• /
• pp.201-210
• /
• 2003

Objective: The role of prostaglandin $E_2$ (PGE2) in the etiopathogenesis of immune and inflammatory diseases has become the subject of recent debate. To determine the role of PGE2 in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), we tested the effect of exogenous PGE2 on the production of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) by rheumatoid synoviocytes. Methods: Fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) were prepared from the synovial tissues of RA patients, and cultured in the presence of PGE2. The COX-2 mRNA and protein expression levels were determined by RT-PCR and Western blot analysis, respectively. The PGE2 receptor subtypes in the FLS were analyzed by RT-PCR. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) was used to measure the NF-${\kappa}B$ binding activity for COX-2 transcription. The in vivoeffect of PGE2 on the development of arthritis was also tested in collagen induced arthritis (CIA) animals. Results: PGE2 ($10^{-11}$ to $10^{-5}M$) dose-dependently inhibited the expression of COX-2 mRNA and the COX-2 protein stimulated with IL-$1{\beta}$, but not COX-1 mRNA. NS-398, a selective COX-2 inhibitor, displayed an additive effect on PGE2-induced COX-2 downregulation. The FLS predominantly expressed the PGE2 receptor (EP) 2 and EP4, which mediated the COX-2 suppression by PGE2. Treatment with anti-IL-10 monoclonal antibodies partially reversed the PGE2-induced suppression of COX-2 mRNA, suggesting that IL-10 may be involved in modulating COX-2 by PGE2. Experiments using an inducer and an inhibitor of cyclic AMP (cAMP) suggest that cAMP is the major intracellular signal that mediates the regulatory effect of PGE2 on COX-2 expression. EMSA revealed that PGE2 inhibited the binding of NF-${\kappa}B$ in the COX-2 promoter via a cAMP dependent pathway. In addition, a subcutaneous injection of PGE2 twice daily for 2 weeks significantly reduced the incidence and severity of CIA as well as the production of IgG antibodies to type II collagen. Conclusion: Our data suggest that overproduced PGE2 in the RA joints may function as an autocrine regulator of its own synthesis by inhibiting COX-2 production and may, in part, play an anti-inflammatory role in the arthritic joints.