• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.178-186
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• 2020

Background: Cognitive impairment is a public health burden. Our objective was to investigate associations between work hours and cognitive function. Methods: Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) participants (n = 2,497; 50.7% men; age range 44-84 years) reported hours per week worked in all jobs in Exams 1 (2000-2002), 2 (2002-2004), 3 (2004-2005), and 5 (2010-2011). Cognitive function was assessed (Exam 5) using the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument (version 2), a measure of global cognitive functioning; the Digit Symbol Coding, a measure of processing speed; and the Digit Span test, a measure of attention and working memory. We used a prospective approach and linear regression to assess associations for every 10 hours of work. Results: Among all participants, associations of hours worked with cognitive function of any type were not statistically significant. In occupation-stratified analyses (interaction p = 0.051), longer work hours were associated with poorer global cognitive function among Sales/Office and blue-collar workers, after adjustment for age, sex, physical activity, body mass index, race/ethnicity, educational level, annual income, history of heart attack, diabetes, apolipoprotein E-epsilon 4 allele (ApoE4) status, birth-place, number of years in the United States, language spoken at MESA Exam 1, and work hours at Exam 5 (β = -0.55, 95% CI = -0.99, -0.09) and (β = -0.80, -1.51, -0.09), respectively. In occupation-stratified analyses (interaction p = 0.040), we also observed an inverse association with processing speed among blue-collar workers (adjusted β = -0.80, -1.52, -0.07). Sex, race/ethnicity, and ApoE4 did not significantly modify associations between work hours and cognitive function. Conclusion: Weak inverse associations were observed between work hours and cognitive function among Sales/Office and blue-collar workers.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.73-89
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• 2004

Since people have come to access more and more information about products with the proliferation of the Internet, more and more customer-to-customer e-marketplaces are being introduced with rapidly increasing transaction volumes. As the role of customer-to-customer electronic commerce has become increasingly regarded as vital to the economy, much research has delved into developing intelligent agent systems to efficiently support customer-to-customer electronic commerce. Most of this research, however, has focused only on supporting simple negotiation for the price of common goods along the time span. To expand the negotiation object to the differentiated goods, the customer must be allowed to negotiate over multi-at-tributes of the product besides the price, including the attributes related to the transaction activity itself, such as delivery time and payment method. To satisfy this requirement, we propose an agent marketplace for differentiated goods where the agent of a customer can negotiate not only the price but also the various attributes of the product and the transaction in order to achieve a better utility level for both buyer and seller. The formal protocol and the architecture issues to support the proposed e-marketplace and agents are also addressed.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.371-381
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• 2019

This study explored how retirement satisfaction or dissatisfaction influences on retirees' life satisfaction, comparing to workers and the gender differences were examined. The study sample was 2,609 persons (1,886 workers, 723 retirees) aged 45 or older who participated in the 1-2 waves of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (KLoSA), and the retirees were classified into continuously dissatisfied retirees and satisfied retirees during wave 1 and 2. Using SPSS 21.0, the multiple regression models were examined, and in order to clarify the gender difference, the multi-group analysis and the wald-test were conducted to test the difference of the regression coefficients according to gender using Mplus 7.3. According to the results, the life satisfaction of dissatisfied retirees was lower than that of the employed, but when satisfied with retirement, the life satisfaction was higher than that of the employed. In addition, the dissatisfied retirees in both gender were less satisfied with life than the employed, and this effect was greater in female group. However, the life satisfaction of female satisfied with retirement was higher than that of the employed, whereas the evidence of the male influence was not found to be significant. Based on the results of this study, discussion about heterogeneity of retirees and gender differences in life span were presented.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.217-225
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• 2004

This study was performed to provide the basic knowledge about the mushroom cultivation facilities. Classified current status of cultivation facilities in Gyeongnam province was investigated by questionnaire. The structure of Pleurotus eryngii cultivation facilities can be classified into the simple and permanent frame type. The simple frame structures were mostly single-span type, on the other hand, the permanent frame structures were more multi-span than simple structures. And the scale of cultivation facilities was very different regardless of structural type. But as a whole, the length, width and ridge height were prevailing approximately 20.0 m, $6.6\~7.0m$ and $4.6\~5.0m$ range, respectively. The floor area was about $132\~160\;m^2$, and floor was built with concrete to protect mushrooms from various harmful infection. The roof slope of the simple and permanent type showed about $41.5^{\circ}\;and\;18.6\~28.6^{\circ}$, respectively. The width and layer number of growing bed for mushroom cultivation were around $1.2\~1.6m$, 4 layers in common, respectively. Most of year round cultivation facilities were equipped with cooler, heater, humidifier, and ventilating fan. Hot water boiler was the most commonly used heating system, the next was electric heater and then steam boiler. The industrial air conditioner has been widely used for cooling. And humidity was controlled mostly by ultra-wave or centrifuging humidifier. But some farmers has been using nozzle system for auxiliary purpose. More then $90\%$ of the mushroom house had the independent environment control system. The inside temperature was usually controlled by sensor, but humidity and $CO_2$ concentration was controlled by timer for each growing stage. The capacity of medium bottle was generally 850 cc and 1100cc, some farms used 800 cc, 950 co and 1,250 cc. Most of mushroom producted has been usually shipped to both circulating company and joint market.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.308-316
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• 2015

This study was conducted to investigate the situation of ICT apply to plastic greenhouse, and the results be apply to design of new one. A CFD analysis were conducted to monitering the ventilation and energy saving of the single span greenhouse newly designed. The causes of delay to apply ICT to plastic greenhouse are the high cost for installation(24%), insufficiency of after services(19%), often disorder(16%), unskillful management of soft ware(15%), insufficient ICT efficiency(13%) and unsatisfying of income increase(12%). The parts of problem occurred in ICT plastic greenhouse are the structure, actuator, environmental control system and sensor(approximate 14%, respectively), remote control technique(13%), plant management technique(12%), energy saving technique(10%) and utilization of software(8%). In the condition of lateral window closed, the average wind speed changed to slow, but it was faster in the condition of leeward side window opened than in the condition of lee and winward side window opened. The air movement in the condition of lateral window closed occur by air moving fan not by out air. It is not affect the room temperature but effective the uniformity of room temperature. The average temperature of low height greenhouse was uniform than high height one. The average temperature in condition of 3rd curtain opened become same with outside temperature after 2 hours, but take more 5 hours in condition of 3rd curtain closed.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.95-105
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• 2005

This study was carried out to file up using effect and requirement of energy for environmental design data of Pleurotus eryngii growing houses. Heating and cooling Degree-Hour (D-H) were calculated and compared for. some Pleurotus eryngii growing houses of sandwich-panel (permanent) o. arch-roofed(simple) type structures modified and suggested through field survey and analysis. Also thermal resistance (R-value) was calculated for the heat insulating and covering materials of the permanent and simple-type, which were made of polyurethane or polystyrene panel and $7\~8$ layers heat conservation cover wall. The variations of heating and cooling D-H simulated for Jinju area was nearly linearly proportional to the setting inside temperatures. The variations of cooling D-H was much more sensitive than those of heating D-H. Therefore, it was expected that the variations of required energy in accordance with setting temperature or actual temperature maintained inside of the cultivation house could be estimated and also the estimated results of heating and cooling D-H could be effectively used far the verification of environmental simulation as well as for the calculation of required energy amounts. When the cultivation floor areas are all equal, panel type houses to be constructed by various combinations of materials were found to by far more effective than simple type pipe house in the aspect of energy conservation maintenance except some additional cost invested initially. And also the energy effectiveness of multi-span house compared to single span together with the prediction of energy requirement depending on the level insulated for the wall and roof area could be estimated. Additionally, structural as well as environmental optimizations are expected to be possible by calculating periodical and/or seasonal energy requirements for those various combinations of insulation level and different climate conditions, etc.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.759-768
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• 2015

The ground motions of large dimensional structures such as long span bridges at different stations during an earthquake, are inevitably different, which is known as the ground motion spatial variation effect. There are many causes that may result in the spatial variability in seismic ground motion, e.g., the wave passage effect due to the different arrival times of waves at different locations; the loss of coherency due to seismic waves scattering in the heterogeneous medium of the ground; the site amplification effect owing to different local soil properties. In previous researches, the site amplification effects have not been considered or considered by a single-layered soil model only. In this study, however, the ground motion amplification and filtering effects are evaluated by multi-layered soil model. Spatially varying ground motion at the sites with different number of layers, depths, and soil characteristics are generated and the variation characteristics of ground motion time histories according to the correlation of coherency loss function and soil conditions are evaluated. For the bridge system composed of two unit bridges, seismic behavior characteristics are analyzed using the generated seismic waves as input ground motion. Especially, relative displacement due to coherency loss and site effect which can cause the unseating and pounding between girders are evaluated. As a result, considering the soil conditions of each site are always important and should not be neglected for an accurate structural response analysis.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.335-346
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• 2013

AASHTO LRFD and Korean Bridge Design Code (Limit State Design) specify to consider Truck and Lane load simultaneously determined from reliability-based live load model, and impact shall be applied to the truck load while it shall not be applied to the lane load. In this paper, vehicle-bridge interaction analysis under moving truck and lane loads were performed to estimate impact factor of the cables and girders for the selected multi-cable-stayed composite bridges with 230m, 400m and 540m main span. A 6-d.o.f. vehicle was used for truck load and a series of single-axle vehicles was applied to simulate equivalent lane load. The effect of damping ratio on the impact factor was estimated and then the essential parameters to impact factor, i.e., road surface roughness and vehicle speed were considered. The road surface roughness was randomly generated based on ISO 8608 and it was applied to the truck load only in the vehicle-bridge interaction analysis. The impact factors evaluated from dynamic interaction analysis were also compared with those by the influence line method that is currently used in design practice to estimate impact factor in cable-stayed bridge.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.487-499
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• 2020

This paper proposes a novel approach to model updating for a large-scale cable-stayed bridge based on ambient vibration tests coupled with a hybrid metaheuristic search algorithm. Vibration measurements are carried out under excitation sources of passing vehicles and wind. Based on the measured structural dynamic characteristics, a finite element (FE) model is updated. For long-span bridges, ambient vibration test (AVT) is the most effective vibration testing technique because ambient excitation is freely available, whereas a forced vibration test (FVT) requires considerable efforts to install actuators such as shakers to produce measurable responses. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a famous metaheuristic algorithm applied successfully in numerous fields over the last decades. However, PSO has big drawbacks that may decrease its efficiency in tackling the optimization problems. A possible drawback of PSO is premature convergence leading to low convergence level, particularly in complicated multi-peak search issues. On the other hand, PSO not only depends crucially on the quality of initial populations, but also it is impossible to improve the quality of new generations. If the positions of initial particles are far from the global best, it may be difficult to seek the best solution. To overcome the drawbacks of PSO, we propose a hybrid algorithm combining GA with an improved PSO (HGAIPSO). Two striking characteristics of HGAIPSO are briefly described as follows: (1) because of possessing crossover and mutation operators, GA is applied to generate the initial elite populations and (2) those populations are then employed to seek the best solution based on the global search capacity of IPSO that can tackle the problem of premature convergence of PSO. The results show that HGAIPSO not only identifies uncertain parameters of the considered bridge accurately, but also outperforms than PSO, improved PSO (IPSO), and a combination of GA and PSO (HGAPSO) in terms of convergence level and accuracy.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.173-182
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• 2016

Although the ecosystem extends numerous functions for the benefit of humankind, construction of horticultural facilities can potentially lead to the degeneration of some of these functions owing to the expansion of impervious regions and loss of habitats. Thus, this study aimed to examine the effect of construction of horticultural facilities on plant biodiversity. Analysis of the vegetation distribution characteristics showed that horticultural facilities had significantly lower plant diversity than did rice paddies. Hence, the proposed approach involved low-impact development, arrangement of habitat space, plant preservation, restricted use of chemical fertilizer, habitat creation, and reduced preservation cost. Lifestyle analysis suggested the importance of developing favorable environments for the growth of annual plants and aquatic plants. In all, 20 species of naturalized plants belonging to 10 families were identified. Furthermore, the proportion of these naturalized plants was higher in glass greenhouses and multi-span greenhouses, suggesting the advantages of employing natural soil mulching while avoiding concrete mulching. Statistical analysis was performed to validate the results, which suggested that impervious regions be converted to natural soils. Collectively, the findings of this study are expected to be used for establishing policies for the construction of eco-friendly and ecological horticultural facilities; this may aid the maintenance of sustainable agricultural landscapes and large-scale development of the reclaimed lands.