• Computers and Concrete
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.597-612
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• 2016

The present work focuses on the use of coconut fiber in self compacting concrete. Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) is a highly flowable, stable concrete which flows readily into place, filling formwork without any consolidation and without undergoing any significant segregation. Use of fibers in SCC bridge the cracks and enhance the performance of concrete by not allowing cracks to propagate. They contribute to an increased energy absorption compared to plain concrete. Coconut fiber has the highest toughness among all natural fibers. It is known that structures in the seismic prone areas are always under the influence of cyclic loading. To justify the importance of strengthening SCC beams with coir fiber, the present work has been undertaken. A comparison is made between cyclic and static loading of coconut fiber reinforced self compacting concrete (FRSCC) members. Using the test data obtained from the experiment, hysteresis loops were drawn and comparison of envelope curve, energy dissipation, stiffness degradation were made and important conclusions were draw to justify the use of coconut fiber in SCC.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.323-328
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• 2001

The behavior of bridge column under multi-directional loading as well as uni-directional loading need to be studied because bridge columns will be subjected to the multi-directional cyclic loading during a strong earthquake. To evaluate the capacity of columns, uni-axial cyclic loading tests and bi-axial alternate cyclic loading tests were carried out. The number of cycles of alternate bi-axial loading were determined considering the ratio of natural frequencies in two orthogonal directions. From the test results, strength degradation and ductility reduction were observed in biaxial loading conditions. Their rates were found to be more rapid in the loading pattern that was determined considering the different natural frequencies.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.79-87
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• 2013

An unstable yet efficient phenanthrene-degrading bacterium strain Ph-3 was isolated from a petroleum-contaminated site at the Mathura Oil Refinery, India. The strain was identified as Pseudomonas sp. using a polyphasic approach. An analysis of the intermediates and assays of the degradative enzymes from a crude extract of phenanthrene-grown cells showed a novel and previously unreported pattern of 1, 2-dihydroxy naphthalene and salicylic acid production. While strain Ph-3 lost its phenanthrene- degrading potential during successive transfers on a rich medium, it maintained this trait in oligotrophic soil conditions under the stress of the pollutant and degraded phenanthrene efficiently in soil microcosms. Although the maintenance and in vitro study of unstable phenotypes are difficult and such strains are often missed during isolation, purification, and screening, these bacteria constitute a substantial fraction of the microbial community at contaminated sites and play an important role in pollutant degradation during biostimulation or monitored natural attenuation.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.572-576
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• 2005

This study focused on detecting catabolic genes for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) distributed in the reed rhizosphere of Sunchon Bay, Korea. These marsh and mud environments were severely affected by human activities, including agriculture and fisheries. Our previous study on microbial roles in natural decontamination displayed the possibility that PAH-degrading bacteria, such as Achromobacter sp., Alcaligenes sp., Burkholderia sp. and Pseudomonas sp. play an important decontamination role in a reed rhizosphere. In order to gain further fundamental knowledge on the natural decontamination process, catabolic genes for PAH metabolism were investigated through PCR amplification of dioxygenase genes using soil genomic DNA and sequencing. Comparative analysis of predicted amino acid sequences from 50 randomly selected dioxygenase clones capable of hydroxylating inactivated aromatic nuclei indicated that these were divided into three groups, two of which might be originated from PAH-degrading bacteria. Amino acid sequences of each dioxygenase clone were a part of the genes encoding enzymes for initial catabolism of naphthalene, phenanthrene, or pyrene that might be originated from bacteria in the reed rhizosphere of Sunchon Bay.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.35-43
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• 2001

New speech synthesis algorithms capable of flexible prosody (especially F0) modification are desired for a high quality TTS system. TD-PSOLA is the most popular synthesis algorithm. The algorithm shows very high quality when F0 modification is limited. However, the quality degradation due to pitch epoch detection error becomes severe as the F0 modification factor becomes large. On the other hand, the vocoder framework is very flexible in F0 manipulation. The synthesized speech quality from the vocoder is far from natural human speech and suffers from buzziness. To remedy the buzzy quality from the vocoder and make more natural synthetic speech, we propose a mixed phase vocoder.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.1020-1022
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• 2004

A new ceramide alomacrorrhiza A was isolated from the ethanolic extract of the plant Alocasia macrorrhiza (L.) Schott. Its chemical structure was elucidated as (2S,3S,4R)-2N-[(2'R)-2'- hydroxy-hexacosanoyl]-tetradecane-1,3,4-triol based on extensive 1D, 2D NMR, EI-MS, FABMS, HR-FAB-MS spectroscopic data and chemical degradation studies.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.813-817
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• 2009

The effect of 4 seaweed extracts (Desmarestia viridis, Dictyopteris divaricata, Scytosiphon lomentaria, and Ishige okamurae) on pro-inflammatory mediators as well as nuclear factor $(NF)-{\kappa}B$ in the stimulated Raw 264.7 cells was investigated. They reduced iNOS and interlukin $(IL)-1{\beta}$ expressions at transcription level. Of those, 3 extracts (D. divaricata, I. okamurae, and S. lomentaria) inhibited the COX-2 expression at translation level. $I{\kappa}B-{\alpha}$ degradation was inhibited by D. divaricata and S. lomentaria extracts. Therefore, we concluded that the extracts from D. divaricata and S. lomentaria could inhibit the activation of murine macrophage through the blocking of $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.119-120
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• 2011

Dome structure to form a space-efficient, applied a lot of beautiful buildings with structural systems, as well as a large space structure in the form of new residential lots have been applied. And domestic demand for housing in the dome with increasing dome house using various materials, are becoming commonplace. But now the Dome House is mainly used in construction steel, wood, stone, FRP construction and building materials per unit area and the high cost, long construction time, energy efficiency, has some disadvantages such as degradation. And structural strength of the structure is weak, the natural ingredients used come from natural damage is so big. In addition, demolition of buildings in trouble when handling the environmental problems has emerged. Recently expanded polystyrene to improve these problems by using the various approaches and research is being attempted and there.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.3-10
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• 2018

Damage location and extent of structure could be detected by the inverse analysis on dynamic response properties such as frequencies and mode shapes. In practice the measured difference of natural frequencies represent the stiffness change reliably, however the measured mode shape is insensitive for stiffness change, but provides spatial information of damage. The damage detection index on shear building structures is formulated in this study. The damage detection index could be estimated from mode shape and srory stiffness of undamaged structure and frequency difference between undamaged and damaged structure. For the verification of the observed damage detection method, the numerical analysis of Matlab and MIDAS and shacking table test were performed. In results, the damage index of damaged story was estimated so higher than undamaged stories that indicates the damaged story apparently.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.46-54
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• 2015

Toxicity and uptake of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) in three different soils (OECD soil, natural soil and loess) to earthworm (Eisenia fetida) were investigated at several different spiked concentrations of TNT (0 to 200 mg/kg for OECD and natural soils, and 0 to 35 mg/kg for loess) and for different exposure periods (7, 14, 21, and 28 d). The LC₅₀ values for 7 d exposure were 160.1, 159.4, and 28.81 mg/kg for OECD soil, natural soil, and loess, respectively. The LC₅₀ values for 14, 21, and 28 d exposure were almost the same as those for 7 d exposure, showing that 7 d exposure time was enough to decide the toxicity (LC₅₀) of TNT to Eisenia fetida, because the highest concentration of TNT in earthworm body was observed within around 5 d. The LC₅₀ and uptake of TNT in loess were higher than those in OECD and natural soil. The uptake of TNT to the earthworm were correlated well with the initial concentration of TNT in the soil and TNT porewater concentration (R²> 0.9 in OECD, natural, and loess). The concentration of TNT in earthworm body decreased after 5 d, possibly caused by natural degradation of TNT by soil bacteria as well as earthworm.