• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.662-666
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• 2005

Using data gathered from expert opinion of plant and equipment professionals; this paper presents the key variables that may constitute a maintenance proficient plant operator. The Multivariate Discriminant Analysis (MDA) was applied to generate data and was tested for sensitivity analysis. Results showed that the MDA model was able to classify plant operators' proficiency at 94.10 percent accuracy and determined nine (9) key variables of a maintenance proficient plant operator. The key variables included: i) number of years of experience as equipment operator (PQ1); ii) eye-hand coordination (PQ9); iii) eye-hand-foot coordination (PQ10); iv) planning skills (TE16); v) pay/wage (MQ1); vi) work satisfaction (MQ4); vii) operator responsibilities as defined by management (MF1); viii) clear management policies (MF4); and ix) management pay scheme (MF5). The classification procedure of nine variables formed the general model with the equation viz: OMP (general) = 0.516PQ1 + 0.309PQ9 + 0.557PQ10 + 0.831TE16 + 0.8MQ1 + 0.0216MQ4 + 0.136MF1 + 0.28MF4 + 0.332MF5 - 4.387

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.760-765
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• 2011

We investigated the antioxidative effect of black garlic extract (BGE) on paraquat (PQ)- induced oxidative stress in mice. A DPPH radical scavenging activity assay showed that BGE had potent free radical scavenging activity, comparable to that exhibited by vitamin C. Mice were administered with either vitamin C or two levels of BGE by oral gavage for 10 days, with PQ being injected intraperitoneally on day five. It was found that BGE reduced the liver enzyme levels induced by PQ injection in mice. The concentrations of plasma and hepatic malonedialdehyde were both significantly reduced in the BGE groups compared with the levels in the PQ group, whereas the hepatic superoxide dismutase and catalase activities were significantly increased in the BGE groups compared with the PQ group. These findings suggest that BGE has potent antioxidative activities in vivo and thus could prevent the oxidative stress induced by PQ injection in mice by two mechanisms: the induction of antixoxidative enzyme systems and direct scavenging of reactive oxygen species.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.116-124
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• 2009

This paper proposes a new Artificial-Intelligent(AI) Power Quality(PQ) diagnosis algorithm using Discrete Wavelet Transform(DWT), Fast Fourier Transform(FFT), Root-Mean-Square(RMS) value. The developed algorithm is able to detect and classify the PQ problems such as the transient, the voltage sag, the voltage swell, the voltage interruption and the total harmonics distortion. The 15.36[kHz] sampling frequency is used to measure the voltages in a power system. The measured signals are used for DWT, FFT, RMS calculation. For AI diagnosis of the PQ problems, a simple multi-layered Artificial Neural Network(ANN) with the back-propagation algorithm is adopted, programmed in C++ and tested in PSIM simulation studies. Finally, the algorithm, which is installed in MP PQ+256 with TI DSP320C6713, is proved to diagnose the PQ problems efficiently.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.524-528
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• 2001

The measurement of radiation response using simple and informative techniques would be of great value in studying the genetic risk following occupational, therapeutic, or accidental exposure to radiation. When patients receive radiation therapy, many suffer from side effects. Since each patient receives a different dose due to different physical conditions, it is important to measure the exact dose of radiation received by each patient to lessen the side effects. Even though several biological dosimetric systems have already been developed, there is no ideal system that can satisfy all the criteria for an idean dosimetric system, especially for low-dose radiation as used in radiation therapy. In this study, an SOS Chromotest of E. coli PQ37 was evaluated as a novel dosimeter for low-dose gamma-rays. E. coli PQ37 was originally developed to screen chemical mutagens using the SOS Chromotest-a colorimtric assay, based on the induction of ${\beta}$-galactosidase ue to DNA damage. The survival fraction of E. coli PQ37 decreased dose-dependently with an increasing dose of cobalt-60 gamma-rays. Also, a good linear correlation was found between the biological damage revealed by the ${\beta}$-galactosidase expression and the doses of gamma-rays. The expression of ${\beta}$-galactosidase activity that responded to low-dose radiation under 1 Gy was $Y=0.404+(0.089{\pm}0.3)D+(-0.018{\pm}0.16)D^2$ (Y, absorbance at 420 nm; D, Dose of irradiation) as calculated using Graph Pad In Plot and Excel. When a rabbit was fed with capsules containing an agar block embdded with E. coli PQ37 showed a linear response to the radiation doses. Accordingly, the results confirm that E. coli PQ37 can be used as a sensitive biological dosimeter fro cobalt-60 gamma-rays. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that a bacterium has been used as a biological dosimeter, especially for low-dose radiation.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.130-133
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• 2008

In South Korea, attempted suicide by paraquat (PQ) intoxication is fairly common, and is lethal by pulmonary fibrosis and hypoxemia. However, the treatment of PQ poisoning is primarily supportive management. To increase the survival rate associated with PQ intoxication, many treatments have been developed. Here, we treated a case of PQ intoxication with steroid pulse therapy. A 23-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of PQ intoxication. He drank two mouthfuls of Gramoxon (24% commercial paraquat). His vital signs were stable, but he had a throat infection, and navy blue urine in the sodium dithionite test. Standard treatment, including gastric lavage with activated charcoal was performed, and emergent hemoperfusion with a charcoal filter was initiated 11 h after PQ ingestion. Pharmacotherapy was initiated 18 h after PQ ingestion with the administration of 5 mg dexamethasone. On day 10, chest PA showed pulmonary fibrosis. Therefore, we initiated steroid pulse therapy, with 1g methylprednisolone in 100 mL of D5W administered over 1 h repeated daily for 3 days, and 1 g cyclophosphamide in 100 mL of D5W administered over 1 h daily for 2 days. On day 15, dexamethasone therapy was initiated. On day 30, pulmonary fibrosis was improved. Thus, if pulmonary fibrosis becomes exacerbated after dexamethasone therapy during the subacute stage, pulse therapy with methylprednisolone and cyclophosphamide could be helpful.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.1601-1608
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• 2015

This paper presents a PQ control strategy for micro grid inverters with axial voltage regulators. The inverter works in the voltage-controlled mode and can help improve the terminal power quality. The inverter has two axial voltage regulators. The 1st regulator involves the output voltage amplitude and output impedance, while the 2nd regulator controls the output frequency. The inverter system is equivalent to a controllable voltage source with a controllable inner output impedance. The basic PQ control for micro grid inverters is easy to accomplish. The output active and reactive powers can be decoupled well by controlling the two axial voltages. The 1st axial voltage regulator controls the reactive power, while the 2nd regulator controls the active power. The paper analyses the axial voltage regulation mechanism, and evaluates the PQ decoupling effect mathematically. The effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is validated by simulation and experimental results.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.149-156
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• 2009

Application of exogenous polyamines (PAs) reduced the paraquat (PQ)-induced cotyledon injuries in radish seedling plants with 1 mM spermidine (Spd) being the most effective protectant. PQ injury symptoms in the cotyledons, e.g., large accumulation of $H_2O_2$, and losses of fresh weight, chlorophyll, and proteins, were significantly alleviated. Likewise, analysis of $H_2O_2$-scavenging enzymes such as catalase (CAT) and guaiacol peroxidase (GPX) showed that pretreatment with Spd among PAs remarkably increased total CAT activity and strongly retarded PQ-induced rapid decline in total GPX activity. In a native gel assay, one CAT isozyme (CAT1) and two GPX isozymes (GPX1 and a newly synthesized GPX isozyme) proved to be more responsible for PQ tolerance, as manifested by the strong increases in their activities by Spd pretreatment. Based on these results, we can suggest that PAs (especially 1 mM Spd) may function as antioxidant protectors by invoking CAT and GPX enzymes which control the endogenous $H_2O_2$ level in radish cotyledons exposed to PQ.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.69-73
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• 1994

The effects of paraquat administration on glutathione was studied in rats. The contents of glutathione in the liver, kidney and lung were significantly decreased but the alteration was not significant in blood by paraquat administration. The decrease occured without concomitant increases in oxidized glutathione (GSSG) or in the GSH/GSSG ratio. The activities of γ-glutamylcysteine synthetase in liver and kidney were decreased by paraquat administration. And γ-glutamyl transpeptidase activities were significantly decreased in kidney and lung of paraquat treated-rats. These results suggest that the decreased synthesis of glutathione by paraquat were an important mechanism of the decreased level of glutathione in liver and kidney, and decreased glutathione transport was a factor on the changes of glutathione contents in lung.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.46-51
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• 2001

To reach high areal density, less track pitch is expected and more servo bandwidth is required. One approach to overcoming the problem is by using dual stage servo system. In this system, a voice coil motor (VCM) is used as the primary stage while a milliactuator is used as the secondary stage. We have suggested new milliactuator based on the shear mode of piezoelectric elements to drive the head suspension assembly. In this paper, we introduce controller design method, PQ method. PQ method reduces the controller design problem for DISO(dual-input/single-output) systems to two standard controller design problems for SISO(single-input/single-output) problems. The first part of PQ method directly address the issue of actuator output contribution, and the second part allows the use of traditional loop shaping to achieve the overall system performance. This paper shows how to employ the PQ method to meet aggressive close-loop performance specifications for a disk drive system with a VCM and piezoelectric milliactuator.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.593-608
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• 2015

In many of the industrialized countries an increasing amount of infrastructure is ageing. This has become specifically critical to bridges which are a major asset with respect to keeping an economy alive. Life of this infrastructure is scattering but often little quantifiable information is known with respect to its damage condition. This article describes how a damage tolerance approach used in aviation today may even be applied to civil infrastructure in the sense that operational life can be applied in the context of modern life cycle management. This can be applied for steel structures as a complete process where much of the damage accumulation behavior is known and may even be adopted to concrete structures in principle, where much of the missing knowledge in damage accumulation has to be substituted by enhanced inspection. This enhanced and continuous inspection can be achieved through robotic systems in a first approach as well as built in sensors in the sense of structural health monitoring (SHM).