• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.398-402
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• 2007

Abstract Female mice post weaning were exposed to 20 kHz sawtooth electric and magnetic fields (EMF) with $6.25{\mu}T$ peak intensity for 6 weeks. Estrous cycles were checked using vaginal smears over the last 10 days of the experimental period. The vaginal smears from EMF-exposed mice revealed an increase in the frequency of one or two phases persisting. The number of estrous cycles less than 1 was more in the EMF-exposed group than in the sham control group. Furthermore, in the EMF-exposed group, the duration of proestrous and metestrous stages of the estrous cycle was significantly increased compared with the control group. In conclusion, our results suggest that exposure to 20 kHz sawtooth EMF may affect normal cycling of the estrous cycle by disrupting the female reproductive endocrine physiology. We should not disregard the possible adverse reproductive effect of the 20 kHz sawtooth EMF generated under the occupational exposure situation in females.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.482-491
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• 2002

This study aimed to identify the change patterns of fatigue and quality of life during consecutive chemotherapies and to determine the relationship of these two variables. Method: Stomach cancer patients receiving chemotherapy were recruited from a university hospital in Seoul. Each chemotherapy, subjects were asked to respond to the questionnaires regarding their fatigue and quality of life. The number of subjects who completed 4 cycles and over was 11. Fatigue was measured with Lee's tool(1999). Quality of life was measured with a tool revised by the author based on Padilla et al(1983). Result: Most patients were in 1st stage(5 patients) or 3rd stage(5 patients). Fatigue was revealed at its highest level in the 3rd or 4th chemotherapy and at its lowest level in the 1st or 6th chemotherapy. A quality of life appeared at its highest level in the 5th or 6th chemotherapy and the lowest level in 3rd or 4th chemotherapy. Conclusion: Among 6 cycles of chemotherapy, in 3-4th chemotherapy the fatigue was the highest and the quality of life were the lowest. Many patients decided to stop treatment at the same period. Therefore we can recognize cancer patients receiving chemo- therapy are in the highest risk at the time of the 3-4 th chemotherapy.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.526-532
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• 2010

The anode may inevitably undergo a number of reduction.oxidation (redox) cycles during solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) operation. The re-oxidation of Ni to NiO causes significant mechanical stress to be developed across the anode, which may destroy the integrity of the whole cell. In this study, the redox behavior of Ni-YSZ composite was examined at $800^{\circ}C$ using various characterization techniques.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.101-106
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• 2013

The length of solar cycle 23 has been prolonged up to about 13 years. Many studies have speculated that the solar cycle 23/24 minimum will indicate the onset of a grand minimum of solar activity, such as the Maunder Minimum. We check the trends of solar (sunspot number, solar magnetic fields, total solar irradiance, solar radio flux, and frequency of solar X-ray flare), interplanetary (interplanetary magnetic field, solar wind and galactic cosmic ray intensity), and geomagnetic (Ap index) parameters (SIG parameters) during solar cycles 21-24. Most SIG parameters during the period of the solar cycle 23/24 minimum have remarkably low values. Since the 1970s, the space environment has been monitored by ground observatories and satellites. Such prevalently low values of SIG parameters have never been seen. We suggest that these unprecedented conditions of SIG parameters originate from the weakened solar magnetic fields. Meanwhile, the deep 23/24 solar cycle minimum might be the portent of a grand minimum in which the global mean temperature of the lower atmosphere is as low as in the period of Dalton or Maunder minimum.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.415-424
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• 2002

Semiconductor manufacturing has been emerged as a highly competitive but profitable business. Accordingly it becomes very important for semiconductor manufacturing companies to meet customer demands at the right time, in order to keep the leading edge in the world market. However, due-date oriented production is very difficult task because of the complex job flows with highly resource conflicts in fabrication shop called FAB. Due to its cyclic manufacturing feature of products, to be completed, a semiconductor product is processed repeatedly as many times as the number of the product manufacturing cycles in FAB, and FAB processes of individual manufacturing cycles are composed with similar but not identical unit processes. In this paper, we propose a production scheduling and control scheme that is designed specifically for semiconductor scheduling environment (FAB). The proposed scheme consists of three modules: simulation module, cycle due-date estimation module, and dispatching module. The fundamental idea of the scheduler is to introduce the due-date for each cycle of job, with which the complex job flows in FAB can be controlled through a simple scheduling rule such as the minimum slack rule, such that the customer due-dates are maximally satisfied. Through detailed simulation, the performance of a cycle due-date based scheduler has been verified.

• Journal of Communications and Networks
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.217-221
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• 2013

Quantum low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes based on the Calderbank-Shor-Steane construction have low encoding and decoding complexity. The sum-product algorithm(SPA) can be used to decode quantum LDPC codes; however, the decoding performance may be significantly decreased by the many four-cycles required by this type of quantum codes. All four-cycles can be eliminated using the entanglement-assisted formalism with maximally entangled states (ebits). The proposed entanglement-assisted quantum error-correcting code based on Euclidean geometry outperform differently structured quantum codes. However, the large number of ebits required to construct the entanglement-assisted formalism is a substantial obstacle to practical application. In this paper, we propose a novel class of entanglement-assisted quantum LDPC codes constructed using classical Euclidean geometry LDPC codes. Notably, the new codes require one copy of the ebit. Furthermore, we propose a construction scheme for a corresponding zigzag matrix and show that the algebraic structure of the codes could easily be expanded. A large class of quantum codes with various code lengths and code rates can be constructed. Our methods significantly improve the possibility of practical implementation of quantum error-correcting codes. Simulation results show that the entanglement-assisted quantum LDPC codes described in this study perform very well over a depolarizing channel with iterative decoding based on the SPA and that these codes outperform other quantum codes based on Euclidean geometries.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.1-9
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• 2017

Recently, flash memory has been in a great demand from embedded system sectors for storage devices. However, program/erase (P/E) cycles per block are limited on flash memory. For the limited number of P/E cycles, many wear leveling techniques are studied. They prolonged the life time of flash memory using information tables. As one of the techniques, block erase table (BET) method using a bit array table was studied for embedded devices. However, it has a disadvantage in that performance of wear leveling is sharply low, when the consumption of memory is reduced. To solve this problem, we propose a novel wear leveling technique using Sampling-based Block Erase Table (SBET). SBET relates one bit of the bit array table to each block by using exclusive OR operation with round robin function. Accordingly, SBET enhances accuracy of cold block information and can prevent to decrease the performance of wear leveling. In our experiment, SBET prolongs life time of flash memory by up to 88%, compared with previous techniques which use a bit array table.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.73 no.4
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• pp.455-462
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• 2020

The hybrid method using the extended finite element method (XFEM) and the forward Euler approach is widely employed to predict the fatigue life of plate structures. Due to the accuracy of the forward Euler approach is determined by a small step size, the performance of fatigue life prediction of the hybrid method is not agreeable. Instead the forward Euler approach, a prediction method using midpoint method and support vector regression (SVR) is presented to evaluate the stress intensity factors (SIFs) and the fatigue life. Firstly, the XFEM is employed to calculate the SIFs with given crack sizes. Then use the history of SIFs as a function of either number of fatigue life cycles or crack sizes within the current cycle to build a prediction model. Finally, according to the prediction model predict the SIFs at different crack sizes or different cycles. Three numerical cases composed by a homogeneous plate with edge crack, a composite plate with edge crack and center crack are introduced to verify the performance of the proposed method. The results show that the proposed method enables large step sizes without sacrificing accuracy. The method is expected to predict the fatigue life of complex structures.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.36-45
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• 1996

The precise estimation of the reliability and life of the Ravigneaux planetary gear train used in an automatic transmission is necessary in order to enable accurate material and geometric properties to reliability distrobution and the number of load cycles at failure. These are critical for the proba- bilistic design of complex planetary gear system as Ravigneaux type particularly during various gear ratios. The Ravigneaux planetary gear train has five gears, such as a forward and a reverse sun gear, a short and a long pinion, and an annulus gear. In this paper, the Ravigneaux gear system is analyzed to figure out the reliablity distribution. i.e. the probability of survival in the system without its overhaul. First, the reliablity method based on the Weibull distribution is used in conjuction with the Palmgren's model to predict both the individual reliabilities of its components and the nimber of load cycles when the system failed. Then using the presented method, the life of the Ravigneaux gear system can be determined. Alwo the different design parameters such as tooth face width, material property, and Weibull exponent are applied and reached to optimal ones. Thus, the precise evaluation of the reliability and life of the Ravigneaux planetary gear train used in an automatic transmission can be effectively carried out.

• International Journal of Ocean System Engineering
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.61-67
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• 2013

In this study, wave spectrum based fatigue analyses are studied for Turkey's adjacent coastal seas by using Maestro finite element analyzing software. Palmgren-Miner's method is used to obtain the fatigue safe life time. Palmgren-Miner's method was selected for the fatigue analyses because of its good acceptance of data from almost all classification societies such as Germanischer Lloyd, the American Bureau of Shipping, Det Norske Veritas, etc. The maximum stress regions of the structures are obtained by using finite element analyses, and the results are compared with the endurance limit of the W$\ddot{o}$hler diagram of AA5059 H321 aluminum alloy. The wave characteristics table given in this article is used to obtain the number of cycles for each sea condition. By using the wave characteristics table, the wave lengths, wave speeds, and cycles are obtained. This study is performed to estimate the lifetimes of a semi-swath type coast guard boat and/or commercial yacht projects, which are produced by using AA5059 H321 aluminum alloy, under different sea environment conditions. Fatigue examinations are performed for both head seas and oblique seas.