• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.241-264
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• 2013

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the progressive and rapid spread of reinforced concrete (RC) has led to the adoption of mixed masonry-RC solutions, such as the confined masonry. However, together with structures conceived with a definite role for earthquake behaviour, the spreading of RC technology has caused the birth of mixed solutions inspired more by functional aspects than by structural ones, such as: internal masonry walls replaced by RC frames, RC walls inserted to build staircases or raising made from RC frames. Usually, since these interventions rise from a spontaneous build-up, any capacity design or ductility concepts are neglected being designed only to bear vertical loads: thus, the vulnerability assessment of this class becomes crucial. To investigate the non-linear seismic response of these structures, suitable models and effective numerical tools are needed. Among the various modelling approaches proposed in the literature and codes, the authors focus their attention on the equivalent frame model. After a brief description of the adopted model and its numerical validation, the authors aim to point out some specific peculiarities of the seismic response of mixed masonry-RC structures and their repercussions on safety verification procedures (referring in particular way to the non-linear static ones). In particular, the results of non-linear static analyses performed parametrically to various configurations representative of different interventions are discussed.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.403-414
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• 2023

This study aimed to evaluate the ecosystem services and environmental sustainability index(ESI) of the Hasidong-Anin coastal sand dune ecological and landscapes conservation area using rapid assessment tools. As a result, the analysis of the environmental sustainability index, derived from the evaluation of ecosystem services in the Hasidong-Anin coastal sand dune ecological and landscapes conservation area, revealed that regulating services, cultural services, and supporting services were all rated below 50%. Especially, cultural and supporting services were identified as lacking. With these results, a SWOT analysis was conducted to develop strategies for enhancing ecosystem services in the Hasidong-Anin coastal sand dune ecological and landscapes conservation area. Six approaches were formulated, involving leveraging strengths as opportunities (SO strategy), minimizing threats using strengths (ST strategy), utilizing opportunities to address weaknesses (WO strategy), and mitigating weaknesses and threats (WT strategy). In the future, when promoting projects to enhance ecosystem services in the Hasidong-Anin coastal sand dune ecological and landscapes conservation area, it will be essential to address issues such as the restoration of currently damaged areas and prevention of future erosion-related damages. This will lead to an elevation of the value of the Hasidong-Anin coastal sand dune ecological and landscape conservation area.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.497-506
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• 2011

The rapid industrial and technological development has made the human activities for the utilization of marine resources more complex. Marine spatial management is a space-based approach. It is a comprehensive and integrated management approach. The ultimate goal of marine spatial management is the "sustainable use" of marine resources. The partial approach is applied in the existing marine spatial management, mainly coastal zones which involves integrated approach. Also this showed various limitations including restricted mostly to coastal zones, and limitation to implementation tools. However, for marine spatial management to have a reasonable approach that attaches importance to the relationship between humans and the holistic ecosystem, it is important to internalize a central principle in marine spatial management that focuses on the sustainable use of marine resources. In the present study, four central principles are proposed that will eventually be applied through marine spatial management planning tools. These principles are 1) the establishment of a cooperative decision making and planning system that is based on stakeholder participation; 2) scientific assessment of the current status and impact on the basis of ecology, sociology, and economics; 3) reasonable and optimal spatial assignment based on the forecasting of future-use characteristics and environmental changes; and 4) ascribing importance to the implementation of the results of rational planning processes.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.759-770
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• 1998

biotic indices scoring with the benthic macroinvertebrates were assessed as pollution monitoring tools in the north branch of the Han River system, Korea. We investigated the temporal variability of water quality at unpolluted, moderately polluted and heavily polluted sites using several biotic indices and assessed appropriate biological monitoring indices for lotic systems in Korea. The following biotic and chemical indices were employed in order to compare their applicability to the lotic systems : Trent Biotic Index (TBI), Chandler's Biotic Index-Average Score per Taxon (CBI-ASPT), Modified Biological Monitoring Working Party Score System-Average Score per Taxon (BMWP-ASPT), Hilsenhoff's biotic Index (BI) and Family-level Biotic Index (FBI) models for biotic analyses and National Sanitation foundation's Water Quality Index (NSFWQI) and comprehensive Chemical Pollution Index (Pb/n) for chemical analyses of water quality. Index and score values were compared with each other and with 24 water chemistry parameters. All biotic indices were significantly auto-correlated (p<0.001) and BI and FBI/ROK among them were highly correlated (r=0.84). BI and BMWP-ASPT models were also highly correlated with NSFWQI, while TBI values showed high correlation with the Pb/n. The BI and BMWP-ASPT were highly correlated with the most water chemistry parameters. We conclude that the BI model, which includes indicator species and abundance of taxa, is best suited for the bioassessment of lotic systems in Korea. For rapid field-based assessments, FBI/ROK and BMWP-ASPT models are also appropriate.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.346-351
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• 2003

In spite of the size and complexity of software becomes large and complicated, the demand of rapid development, cost reduction, good productivity and good quality software is increasing in these days. Many methods were proposed for efficient software development such as various Case tools. Metrics, Process improvement model (CMM, SPICE, ISO9000) and etc. However, most of them we useful to manage the whole projects rather than an individual programming. In this paper, we introduced a system for quality assessment and complexity metrics for Java programs to assess the individual programmer's quality rather than team's quality. This system shows not only the metrics value for quality assessment but also the source code and the soucture of classes simultaneously.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.223-232
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• 2017

Objectives: In response to increased interest in the safety of children's products, a risk management system is being prepared through exposure assessment of hazardous chemicals. To estimate exposure levels, risk assessors are using deterministic and probabilistic approaches to statistical methodology and a commercialized Monte Carlo simulation based on tools (MCTool) to efficiently support calculation of the probability density functions. This study was conducted to analyze and discuss the usage patterns and problems associated with the results of these two approaches and MCTools used in the case of probabilistic approaches by reviewing research reports related to exposure assessment for children's products. Methods: We collected six research reports on exposure and risk assessment of children's products and summarized the deterministic results and corresponding underlying distributions for exposure dose and concentration results estimated through deterministic and probabilistic approaches. We focused on mechanisms and differences in the MCTools used for decision making with probabilistic distributions to validate the simulation adequacy in detail. Results: The estimation results of exposure dose and concentration from the deterministic approaches were 0.19-3.98 times higher than the results from the probabilistic approach. For the probabilistic approach, the use of lognormal, Student's T, and Weibull distributions had the highest frequency as underlying distributions of the input parameters. However, we could not examine the reasons for the selection of each distribution because of the absence of test-statistics. In addition, there were some cases estimating the discrete probability distribution model as the underlying distribution for continuous variables, such as weight. To find the cause of abnormal simulations, we applied two MCTools used for all reports and described the improper usage routes of MCTools. Conclusions: For transparent and realistic exposure assessment, it is necessary to 1) establish standardized guidelines for the proper use of the two statistical approaches, including notes by MCTool and 2) consider the development of a new software tool with proper configurations and features specialized for risk assessment. Such guidelines and software will make exposure assessment more user-friendly, consistent, and rapid in the future.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.60 no.4
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• pp.295-299
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• 2022

Malaria elimination and control require prompt and accurate diagnosis for treatment plan. Since microscopy and rapid diagnostic test (RDT) are not sensitive particularly for diagnosing low parasitemia, highly sensitive diagnostic tools are required for accurate treatment. Molecular diagnosis of malaria is commonly carried out by nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting 18S rRNA gene, while this technique involves long turnaround time and multiple steps leading to false positive results. To overcome these drawbacks, we compared highly sensitive cytochrome oxidase gene-based single-step multiplex reaction with 18S rRNA nested PCR. Cytochrome oxidase (cox) genes of P. falciparum (cox-III) and P. vivax (cox-I) were compared with 18S rRNA gene nested PCR and microscopy. Cox gene multiplex PCR was found to be highly specific and sensitive, enhancing the detection limit of mixed infections. Cox gene multiplex PCR showed a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 97%. This approach can be used as an alternative diagnostic method as it offers higher diagnostic performance and is amenable to high throughput scaling up for a larger sample size at low cost.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.565-576
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• 2024

In this study, the earthquake risk assessment of single-story RC precast buildings in Turkey was carried out using loss curves. In this regard, Kocaeli, a seismically active city in the Marmara region, and this building class, which is preferred intensively, were considered. Quality and period parameters were defined based on structural and geometric properties. Depending on these parameters, nine main sub-classes were defined to represent the building stock in the region. First, considering the mean fragility curves and four different central damage ratio models, vulnerability curves for each sub-class were computed as a function of spectral acceleration. Then, probabilistic seismic hazard analyses were performed for stiff and soft soil conditions for different earthquake probabilities of exceedance in 50 years. In the last step, 90 loss curves were derived based on vulnerability and hazard results. Within the scope of the study, the comparative parametric evaluations for three different earthquake intensity levels showed that the structural damage ratio values for nine sub-classes changed significantly. In addition, the quality parameter was found to be more effective on a structure's damage state than the period parameter. It is evident that since loss curves allow direct loss ratio calculation for any hazard level without needing seismic hazard and damage analysis, they are considered essential tools in rapid earthquake risk estimation and mitigation initiatives.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.33 no.8
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• pp.1091-1100
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• 2023

Human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18 are the major causes of cervical lesions and are associated with 71% of cervical cancer cases globally. However, public health infrastructures to support cervical cancer screening may be unavailable to women in low-resource areas. Therefore, sensitive, convenient, and cost-efficient diagnostic methods are required for the detection of HPV16/18. Here, we designed two novel methods, real-time ERA and ERA-LFD, based on enzymatic recombinase amplification (ERA) for quick point-of-care identification of the HPV E6/E7 genes. The entire detection process could be completed within 25 min at a constant low temperature (35-43℃), and the results of the combined methods could be present as the amplification curves or the bands presented on dipsticks and directly interpreted with the naked eye. The ERA assays evaluated using standard plasmids carrying the E6/E7 genes and clinical samples exhibited excellent specificity, as no cross-reaction with other common HPV types was observed. The detection limits of our ERA assays were 10⁰ and 10¹ copies/µl for HPV16 and 18 respectively, which were comparable to those of the real-time PCR assay. Assessment of the clinical performance of the ERA assays using 114 cervical tissue samples demonstrated that they are highly consistent with real-time PCR, the gold standard for HPV detection. This study demonstrated that ERA-based assays possess excellent sensitivity, specificity, and repeatability for HPV16 and HPV18 detection with great potential to become robust diagnostic tools in local hospitals and field studies.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.99-117
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• 2001

This study looked at the validity of assessments of academic giftedness in young children, details of assessment procedures and tasks related to them. It has shown that academic giftedness in young children can be reliably observed and reported by parents and teachers through similar characteristics to older gifted children. But for young preschool children since the potentiality rather than the current performance level is more important to detect and children's abilities are not fully differentiated, more systematic and comprehensive assessments are needed. Parents'and/or teachers' referrals, behavior checklists for the gifted, tests for creativity, short or group forms of standardized tests and finally individualized tests can be used as a comprehensive battery but these methods can be used stepwise for the sake of efficiency and economy. Especially the variability of performance in young children during the rapid developmental phase as well as their vulnerability by situational factors ask for the repeated assessments as regular bases. In this study different measures for gifted young children, specialists' qualification, and procedural guidance were reviewed and the necessity for various screening tools for different programs for the gifted was discussed. Finally it was emphasized that early assessment and following educational arrangement are needed for gifted young children for their optimal development.