• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.59 no.4
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• pp.377-392
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• 2021

This paper is to illustrate the infestation and related ecological characteristics of chigger mites on the Asian house rat (Rattus tanezumi). A total of 17,221 chigger mites were collected from 2,761 R. tanezumi rats, and then identified as 131 species and 19 genera in 2 families. Leptotrombidium deliense, the most powerful vector of scrub typhus in China, was the first major dominant species on R. tanezumi. All the dominant mite species were of an aggregated distribution among different individuals of R. tanezumi. The species composition and infestations of chiggers on R. tanezumi varied along different geographical regions, habitats and altitudes. The species-abundance distribution of the chigger mite community was successfully fitted and the theoretical curve equation was ${\hat{S}}(R)={37e^{-(0.28R)}}^2$. The total chigger species on R. tanezumi were estimated to be 199 species or 234 species, and this further suggested that R. tanezumi has a great potential to harbor abundant species of chigger mites. The results of the species-plot relationship indicated that the chig-ger mite community on R. tanezumi in Yunnan was an uneven community with very high heterogeneity. Wide geographi-cal regions with large host samples are recommended in the investigations of chigger mites.

• Journal of Korean Foot and Ankle Society
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.78-83
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• 2022

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the surgical outcome of split-thickness skin graft (STSG) for chronic diabetic wounds of the foot and ankle. Materials and Methods: The medical records of 20 patients who underwent surgery for chronic diabetic wounds of the foot and ankle between October 2013 and May 2018 were reviewed. Surgical management consisted of consecutive debridement, followed by negative-pressure wound therapy and STSG. We used an acellular dermal matrix between the wound and the overlying STSG in some patients with wide or uneven wounds. Patient satisfaction, comorbidities, wound size and location, length of hospital stay, wound healing time, and complications were investigated. Results: Of 20 patients, 17 (85.0%) were satisfied with the surgical outcome. Eight patients had diabetic wounds associated with peripheral vascular disease (PVD), 7 patients had diabetic wounds without PVD, and 5 patients had acute infection superimposed with necrotizing abscesses. The mean size of the wound was 49.6 cm². The mean length of hospital stay was 33.3 days. The mean time to wound healing was 7.9 weeks. The mean follow-up period was 25.9 months. Complications included delayed wound healing (4 cases) and recurrence of the diabetic wounds (2 cases), which were resolved by meticulous wound dressing. Conclusion: STSG remains a good treatment strategy for chronic diabetic wounds of the foot and ankle.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.50-58
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• 2021

We proposed an MEA development methodology that accurately measures intrinsic MEA performance while considering the uneven reaction environments formed inside a large-area BP. To facilitate measurement of the inherent MEA performance, we miniaturized the active area of the MEA to 3 cm², and prepared two MEAs with different ionomer contents of 0.65 and 0.80 (I/C). By simulating the operating conditions of a 100 cm² BP at the inlet (I), center (C), and outlet (O), the oxygen concentration and relative humidity were determined to be 20.7, 13.8, 11.7%, and 50, 66.1, and 70.1% respectively. We measured the performance and electrochemical analysis of the prepared MEAs under the three simulated conditions. Based on the results of statistical analysis of the evaluated MEA performance data, I/C 0.65 MEA had a higher average performance and lower performance deviation than I/C 0.80 MEA. Hence, it can be concluded that an I/C 0.65 MEA is a more effective MEA for large-area BP. Based on the above research process, we confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed MEA development methodology.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.2390-2406
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• 2022

Scene text recognition has important application value and attracted the interest of plenty of researchers. At present, many methods have achieved good results, but most of the existing approaches attempt to improve the performance of scene text recognition from the image level. They have a good effect on reading regular scene texts. However, there are still many obstacles to recognizing text on low-quality images such as curved, occlusion, and blur. This exacerbates the difficulty of feature extraction because the image quality is uneven. In addition, the results of model testing are highly dependent on training data, so there is still room for improvement in scene text recognition methods. In this work, we present a natural scene text recognizer to improve the recognition performance from the feature level, which contains feature representation and feature enhancement. In terms of feature representation, we propose an efficient feature extractor combined with Representative Batch Normalization and ResNet. It reduces the dependence of the model on training data and improves the feature representation ability of different instances. In terms of feature enhancement, we use a feature enhancement network to expand the receptive field of feature maps, so that feature maps contain rich feature information. Enhanced feature representation capability helps to improve the recognition performance of the model. We conducted experiments on 7 benchmarks, which shows that this method is highly competitive in recognizing both regular and irregular texts. The method achieved top1 recognition accuracy on four benchmarks of IC03, IC13, IC15, and SVTP.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.58-74
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• 2022

Deterministic accident analysis plays a central role in the nuclear power plant (NPP) safety evaluation and licensing process. Traditionally the conservative approach opted for the point kinetics model, expressing the reactor core parameters in the form of reactivity and power tables. However, with the current advances in computational power, high fidelity multi-physics simulations using real-time code coupling, can provide more detailed core behavior and hence more realistic plant's response. This is particularly relevant for transients where the core is undergoing reactivity anomalies and uneven power distributions with strong feedback mechanisms, such as reactivity initiated accidents (RIAs). This work addresses a RIA, specifically a control element assembly (CEA) withdrawal at power, using the multi-physics analysis tool RELAP5/MOD 3.4/3DKIN. The thermal-hydraulics (TH) code, RELAP5, is internally coupled with the nodal kinetics (NK) code, 3DKIN, and both codes exchange relevant data to model the nuclear power plant (NPP) response as the CEA is withdrawn from the core. The coupled model is more representative of the complex interactions between the thermal-hydraulics and neutronics; therefore the results obtained using a multi-physics simulation provide a larger safety margin and hence more operational flexibility compared to those of the point kinetics model reported in the safety analysis report for APR1400. The systems engineering approach is used to guide the development of the work ensuring a systematic and more efficient execution.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.74-79
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• 2021

Generally, multi-legged walking robots have excellent mobility in rough and uneven terrain, and they are deployed for the safety of rescuers in various disaster environments. However, as each leg is driven by a number of actuators, it leads to a complicated structure and high power consumption; therefore, it is difficult to put them into practical use. In this article, a new concept is proposed of a walking robot whose legs are driven by a complex linkage structure to overcome the deficiencies of conventional multi-legged walking robots. A double crank-rocker mechanism is proposed, making it possible for one DC motor to actuate the left and right movements of two neighboring thighs of the multi-legged walking robot. Each leg can also move up and down through an improved cam structure. Finally, each mechanism is connected by spur and bevel gears, so that only two DC motors can drive all legs of the walking robot. The feasibility of the designed complex linkage mechanism was verified using the UG NX program. It was confirmed through actual production that the proposed multi-legged walking robot performs the desired motion.

• Informatization Policy
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.3-18
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• 2021

The 'digital divide' is regarded as a latent dysfunction that impedes the intrinsic role of information to contribute to social equality. Therefore, it has drawn great attention inside and outside of academia. The growing interest in the digital divide has been driven by the realization that it can create a serious crisis that threatens a social system compounded by existing economic, social, and cultural inequality, rather than being limited to an uneven distribution of information. In this paper (1) studies on the digital divide published since 1970 are reviewed, (2) studies noteworthy of discussion are selected to assess their academic significance, and (3) the tasks and prospects of digital divide research are explored. Although meaningful achievements have been amassed through continuous interest and efforts of the academic community, two limitations are raised; the gap between pure research and policy research that hinders the working of synthetic imagination, and the intellectual lag falling behind a rapidly changing society. In addition, it is suggested that the operation, curation, and augmentation gaps would emerge as new agenda for digital divide research in the intelligent information age.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.377-389
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• 2021

Reinforced concrete vertical silos are universal structures that store large amounts of granular materials. Due to the asymmetric structure, heavy load, uneven storage material distribution, and the difference between the storage volume and the storage material bulk density, the corresponding earthquake is very complicated. Some scholars have proposed the calculation method of horizontal forces on reinforced concrete vertical silos under the action of earthquakes. Without considering the effect of torsional effect, this article aims to reveal the expansion factor of the silo group considering the torsional effect through experiments. Through two-way seismic simulation shaking table tests on reinforced concrete column-supported group silo structures, the basic dynamic characteristics of the structure under earthquake are obtained. Taking into account the torsional response, the structure has three types of storage: empty, half and full. A comprehensive analysis of the internal force conditions under the material conditions shows that: the different positions of the group bin model are different, the side bin displacement produces a displacement difference, and a torsional effect occurs; as the mass of the material increases, the structure's natural vibration frequency decreases and the damping ratio Increase; it shows that the storage material plays a role in reducing energy consumption of the model structure, and the contribution value is related to the stiffness difference in different directions of the model itself, providing data reference for other researchers; analyzing and calculating the model stiffness and calculating the internal force of the earthquake. As the horizontal side shift increases in the later period, the torsional effect of the group silo increases, and the shear force at the bottom of the column increases. It is recommended to consider the effect of the torsional effect, and the increase factor of the torsional effect is about 1.15. It can provide a reference for the structural safety design of column-supported silos.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.663-679
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• 2021

To elucidate the differences in the collapse behavior between a single-story beam-column assembly and multi-story frame, two 1/3-scale two-bay composite frames, including a single-story composite beam-column assembly and a three-story composite sub-frame, were designed and quasi-statically tested. The load-displacement responses, failure modes, and internal force development of the two frames were analyzed and compared in detail. Furthermore, the resistance mechanisms of the two specimens were explored, and the respective contributions of different load-resisting mechanisms to the total resistances were quantitatively separated to gain deeper insights. The experimental tests indicated that Vierendeel action was present in the two-dimensional multi-story frames, which led to an uneven internal force distribution among the three stories. The collapse resistance of TSDWA-3S in the flexural stage was not significantly increased by the structural redundancy provided by the additional story, as compared to that of TSDWA-1S. Although the development of the load response was similar in the two specimens at flexural stage, the collapse mechanisms of the multi-story composite frame were much more complicated than those of the single-story beam-column assembly, and the combined action between stories was critical in determining the internal force redistribution and rebalancing of the remaining structure.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.9
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• pp.3133-3139
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• 2023

Neutron imaging technology as a means of non-destructive detection of materials is complementary to X-ray imaging. Silicon photomultiplier (SiPM), a new type of optical readout device, has overcome some shortcomings of traditional photomultiplier tube (PMT), such as high-power consumption, large volume, high price, uneven gain response, and inability to work in strong magnetic fields. Its application in the field of neutron detection will be an irresistible general trend. In this paper, a thermal neutron imaging detector based on ⁶LiF/ZnS scintillation screen and SiPM array readout was developed. The design of the detector geometry was optimized by geant4 Monte Carlo simulation software. The optimized detector was evaluated with a step wedge sample. The results show that the detector prototype with a 48 mm × 48 mm sensitive area can achieve about 38% detection efficiency and 0.26 mm position resolution when using a 300 ㎛ thick ⁶LiF/ZnS scintillation screen and a 2 mm thick Bk7 optical guide coupled with SiPM array, and has good neutron imaging capability. It provides effective data support for developing high-performance imaging detectors applied to the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS).