• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.9-16
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• 2019

Recently, precast PSC girder bridges have been widely applied for short and middle span bridges. The construction of the spliced girder bridges has been increasing to overcome the length limit of girder and transportation restrictions. In case of the spliced girder, the integrity of the segmental joints is very important to secure the structural soundness of bridge because the discontinuity on the segmental joints between adjacent segments could be vulnerable point. The study of segmental joint behavior with different influence factors of joint type, shear key installation, confining force is very important. In this research, finite element analysis and scaled model test with different shear key shapes and confining forces were carried out and the comparative study was performed to evaluate the segmental joint behavior of precast spliced PSC girder bridge. It was confirmed that the installation of shear key with height and depth ratio of 1/2~1/3 and applying of confining force of 1/2 of the concrete strength at the joint was effective in improving the integrity of segmental joint. In addition, the field loading test for existed precast spliced PSC girder bridge was performed and the measurement of the difference of deflection between adjacent segments at segmental joint was proposed as the assessment solution of the integrity of segmental joint.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.1017-1027
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• 2023

Objective: The assessment of cortical integrity following renal injuries with planar Tc-99m dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) scintigraphy depends on measuring relatively decreased cortical uptake (i.e., split renal function [SRF]). We analyzed the additive values of the volumetric and quantitative analyses of the residual cortical integrity using single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) compared to the planar scintigraphy. Materials and Methods: This prospective study included 47 patients (male:female, 32:15; age, 47 ± 22 years) who had non-operatively managed renal injuries and underwent DMSA planar and SPECT imaging 3-6 months after the index injury. In addition to planar SRF, SPECT SRF, cortical volume, and absolute cortical uptake were measured for the injured kidney and both kidneys together. The correlations of planar SRF with SPECT SRF and those of SRF with volumetric/quantitative parameters obtained with SPECT were analyzed. The association of SPECT parameters with renal function, grades of renal injuries, and the risk of renal failure was also analyzed. Results: SPECT SRF was significantly lower than planar SRF, with particularly higher biases in severe renal injuries. Planar and SPECT SRF (dichotomized with a cutoff of 45%) showed 19%-36% of discrepancies with volumetric and quantitative DMSA indices (when dichotomized as either high or low). Absolute cortical uptake of the injured kidney best correlated with glomerular filtration rate (GFR) at follow-up (ρ = 0.687, P < 0.001) with significant stepwise decreases by GFR strata (90 and 60 mL/min/1.73 m²). Total renal cortical uptake was significantly lower in patients with moderate-to-high risk of renal failure than those with low risk. However, SRF did not reflect GFR decrease below 60 mL/min/1.73 m² or the risk of renal failure, regardless of planar or SPECT (count- or volume-based SRF) imaging. Conclusion: Quantitative measurements of renal cortical integrity assessed with DMSA SPECT can provide more clinically relevant and comprehensive information than planar imaging or SRF alone.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.260-269
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• 2009

Hwabuk Dam has been under construction to reduce flood damage in Nakdong River watershed and to supply stable water for middle area of Gyeongbuk Province. Therefore, fish investigation in up and downstream of the dam was conducted from 2004 to 2008 in order to determine any negative effect on fish community due to dam construction and to use as fundamental data for conserving species diversity and maintaining stream health. According to data analysis on water quality, temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, suspended solids, and total E-coli had seasonal variation, but they did not significantly differ in sites. However, biological and chemical oxygen demand, chlorophyll-a, nitrogen, and phosphorus representing organic matter and nutrient concentration were higher in upper site and decreased to lower site so that they differed by site. Concentration of arsenic among the heavy metals was less than 0.05 mg $L^{-1}$, which is regulated for protection of human health in water quality standard, except for 0.092 mg $L^{-1}$ in June 2005. During the study period, the total number of fish caught from the 6 sites was 10,263 representing 7 families 19 species. Among them, dominant and subdominant species were Korean chub (Zacco koreanus, 62.5%) and Chinese minnow (Rhynchocypris oxycephalus, 10.6%) which inhabit mostly in mid and upper streams, Korea. Among the 19 species, Korean endemic species were 9 species (47.4%) including Korean slender gudgeon (Squalidus gracilis majimae), Korean dark sleeper (Odontobutis platycephala), and Korean shiner (Coreoleuciscus splendidus). There was several individuals of the $1^{st}$-class endangered species, Naktong nose loach (Koreocobitis nahtongensis), caught in 2005${\sim}$2007, and no introduced species of fish was found in entire sampling period. According to result of community analysis, dominance index decreased toward lower site, but diversity and richness indices increased toward lower site. The equation of length-weight relationship on the dominant species was TW=0.000003$(TL)^{3.2603}$. The parameter b in the equation was greater than 3.0 indicating good nutritional condition in the populations. Compared to populations of Korean chub in other streams, the population in Hwabuk Dam watershed had higher mean of condition factor by size indicating better growth rate. With fish fauna and multi-metric health assessment model in each sampling attempt, index of biotic integrity (IBI) was evaluated and it resulted mostly in good (26${\sim}$35) and excellent (36${\sim}$40) condition in all sites, and the mean of IBI was the highest in site 5. The results indicate that it is very important to study not only environmental impact assessment with fish composition but also stream health assessment in order to conserve healthy aquatic ecosystem.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.419-430
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to develop an assessment tool to evaluate student character competence in applying a Collaborative Problem-Solving Instruction Model in science education. Through the literature analysis, nine elements of character are extracted. They are: openness, empathy, tolerance, caring, integrity, self-regulation, honesty, responsibility, and cooperation. Based on these existing measures of character competence, experts discussed and developed items for evaluation of a student's character competence based on the Collaborative Problem-Solving Instruction Model. The first 88 preliminary items were investigated, corrected, and supplemented based on the results of the first survey. A second validity survey was conducted on 71 middle- and high school science teachers to determine the content validity of the items. Inter-rater reliability was calculated for the assessors to verify the reliability of the items. Overall, the inter-rater reliability and content validity of the assessment items are good with 53 items ultimately being selected based on the analysis results. The assessment tool developed in this study could be used to explore changes in student character competence through a Collaborative Problem-Solving Instruction Model, as well as to evaluate student character competence in science education.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.50-56
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• 2007

Impact of thermal discharge of nuclear power plant on marine environment is naturally reflected in biogeochemical changes of seawater. Until now, many investigation activities and reports of impact analysis of marine environment were occasionally inadequate to provide sufficient justification in resolving controversial conflict of interests related with thermal discharge of nuclear power plant. From the scrutinized examination of recent 17 reports published in Korea between 2002 and 2004, the most apparent issue was inadequacy of sampling design and absence of significance of many measured parameters. In many cases, lack of statistical interpretation of raw data incurred subjective or ambiguous assessment results, which failed in deducing mutual concurrence between the parties of interest. In overall all, the main reasons for impairing integrity of previous reports seem to be inconsistency of environmental investigation procedures between research institutions, inadequate sampling design at the discretion of institutions and lack of objectivity of impact assessment based on statistical interpretation. Therefore, the primary goal of this study is to (1) discuss the blown issues on previous routine practice of seawater quality assessment procedures, and to (2) provide improved investigation procedures and rational standard criteria strictly based on statistical analysis for the better seawater quality assessment, which could be supported by scientific community, public agency, investigation institution and the other parties of interest.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.145-153
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• 2013

It is a global trend that the water management policy is shifting from a water quality-oriented assessment to the aquatic ecosystem-based assessment. The majority of aquatic ecosystem assessment systems were developed solely based on physicochemical factors (e.g., water quality and bed structure) and a limited number of organisms (e.g., plankton and benthic organisms). Only a few systems use plants for a health assessment, although plants are sensitive indicators reflecting long-term disturbances and alterations in water regimes. The development of an assessment system is underway to evaluate and manage lakes as ecosystem units in the Korean Ministry of Environment. We reviewed the existing multivariate health assessment methods of other leading countries, and discussed their applicability to Korean lakes. The application of multivariate assessment methods is costly and time consuming, in addition to the correlation problem among variables. However, a single variable is not available at this moment, and the multivariate method is an appropriate system due to its multidimensional evaluation and cumulative data generation. We, therefore, discussed multivariate assessment methods in three steps: selecting metrics, scoring metrics and assessing indices. In the step of selecting metrics, the best available metrics are species-related variables, such as composition and abundance, as well as richness and diversity. Indicator species, such as sensitive species, are the most frequently used in other countries, but their system of classification in Korea is not yet complete. In terms of scoring metrics, the lack of reference lakes with little anthropogenic impact make this step difficult, and therefore, the use of relative scores among the investigated lakes is a suitable alternative. Overall, in spite of several limitations, the development of a plant-based multivariate assessment method in Korea is possible using mostly field research data. Later, it could be improved based on qualitative metrics on plant species, and with the emergence of further survey data.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.38 no.11
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• pp.1257-1264
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• 2014

Efforts are presently underway for developing an optimal design methodology for GEN-IV nuclear reactors based on target failure probabilities. A typical example is the system-based code, in which the results are represented in the form of partial safety factors (PSFs). Thus, a PSF is one of the crucial elements in either component design or integrity assessment based on target failure probabilities during the operation period. In the present study, a procedure for calculating the PSF of a circumferential through-wall cracked pipe based on the elastic-plastic crack initiation criterion is established, in which the importance of each input variable is assessed. Elastic-plastic J-integrals are calculated using the GE/EPRI and reference stress methods, and the PSF values are calculated using both first- and second-order reliability methods. Moreover, the effect of statistical distributions of assessment variables on the PSF is also evaluated.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.481-491
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• 2009

In this study, a comprehensive field monitoring was conducted to understand habitat conditions of fish species in the upper Geum river. Based on the monitoring data, riverine health conditions such as composition ratio of fish species, richness and dominance indexes, bio-diversity (dominance index, diversity, evenness and richness), and index of biological integrity were assessed, and optimal ecological flowrates were estimated using the habitat suitability indexes established for three fish species Coreoleuciscus splendidus, Zacco platypus and Pseudopungtungia nigra selected as icon species using the physical habitat simulation system (PHABSIM). The total number of species sampled was 20 species, and two sensitive species of C. splendidus (22.4%) and Z. platypus (22.0%) dominated the fish community. The estimated IBI values ranged from 34 to 42 with average being 38 out of 50, rendering the site ecologically fair to good health conditions. An optimal ecological flowrate of 9.0 cms was recommended for the representative fish species at the site.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.119-126
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• 1992

Most civil engineering structures such as bridges, power plants, and offshore platforms are apt to suffer structural damages over their service lives caused by adverse loadings, such as earthquakes, wind and wave forces. Accumulation of structural damages over a long period of time might cause catastrophic structural failure. Therefore, a methodology for monitoring the structural integrity is essential for assuring the safety of the existing structures. A method for the damage assessment of structures by the second order inverse modal perturbation technique is presented in this paper. Perturbation equation consists of a matrix equation involving matrices of structural changes(stiffness and mass matrix changes) and matrices of modal property changes(natural frequency and mode shape changes). The damages of a structure are represented as changes in the stiffness matrix. In this study, a second order perturbation equation is formulated for the damage assessment of structures, and solved by an iterative procedure. The effectiveness of the proposed method has been investigated through a series of example analysis. The estimated results for the structural damage indicated that the present method yields resonable estimates for the structural changes.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.73-83
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• 2013

The object of this study was to evaluate lotic ecosystem health using multiple eco-metric approaches such as water chemistry diagnosis, physical habitat health evaluations, and biological integrity modeling at 100 streams of four major watersheds. For the study, eight chemical water quality parameters such as nutrients (N, P) and organic material were measured and 11-metric models of Qualitative Habitat Evaluation Index (QHEI) and multiple eco-metric health assessment model (MEHA) were applied to the four major watershed. Nutrient analysis of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in all watersheds indicated a eutrophic state depending on the locations of sampling streams. Physical habitat health, based on the QHEI model, averaged 114 (range: 56 - 194), judging as a "good condition" by the criteria of Plafkin et al. (1989). In addition, primary (H1 - H4), secondary (H5 - H7), and tertiary habitat metric variables (H8 - H11) were analyzed in relation to the physical habitat degradations. The plots of tolerant species ($P_{TS}$) and sensitive species ($P_{SS}$) to water quality showed that the proportions of $P_{TS}$ had positive linear functions with nutrients, and that the $P_{SS}$ had inverse linear relations with the chemical variables. The model of eco-metric health assessment showed that mean MEHA was 20.4, indicating a fair condition. Overall, our data suggest that water chemistry, based on nutrients and organic matter, directly modified the trophic structures in relation to food chain in the aquatic ecosystems, and then these directly influenced the compositions of tolerance/sensitive species, resulting in degradations of overall ecological health.