• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.23-36
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• 2009

In the present work, the metabolic network of primary metabolism of the slow-growing myxobacterium Sorangium cellulosum was reconstructed from the annotated genome sequence of the type strain So ce56. During growth on glucose as the carbon source and asparagine as the nitrogen source, So ce56 showed a very low growth rate of $0.23\;d^{-1}$, equivalent to a doubling time of 3 days. Based on a complete stoichiometric and isotopomer model of the central metabolism, $^{13}C$ metabolic flux analysis was carried out for growth with glucose as carbon and asparagine as nitrogen sources. Normalized to the uptake flux for glucose (100%), cells recruited glycolysis (51%) and the pentose phosphate pathway (48%) as major catabolic pathways. The Entner-Doudoroff pathway and glyoxylate shunt were not active. A high flux through the TCA cycle (118%) enabled a strong formation of ATP, but cells revealed a rather low yield for biomass. Inspection of fluxes linked to energy metabolism revealed that S. cellulosum utilized only 10% of the ATP formed for growth, whereas 90% is required for maintenance. This explains the apparent discrepancy between the relatively low biomass yield and the high flux through the energy-delivering TCA cycle. The total flux of NADPH supply (216%) was higher than the demand for anabolism (156%), indicating additional reactions for balancing of NADPH. The cells further exhibited a highly active metabolic cycle, interconverting $C_3$ and $C_4$ metabolites of glycolysis and the TCA cycle. The present work provides the first insight into fluxes of the primary metabolism of myxobacteria, especially for future investigation on the supply of cofactors, building blocks, and energy in myxobacteria, producing natural compounds of biotechnological interest.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.31-40
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• 2008

The dynamic moduli of asphalt concrete are very important for the analysis and the design of asphalt pavement systems. The dynamic modulus master curve is usually represented by a sigmoidal function. The Ramberg-Osgood model was widely used for fitting of normalized modulus reduction curves with strain of soils in soil dynamic fields. The master curves were obtained by both sigmoidal functions and modified Ramberg-Osgood model for the same dynamic modulus data set, the fitting abilities of both methods were excellent. The coefficients in sigmoidal function are coupled. Therefore, it is not possible to separate the characteristics of the master curve with absolute value and shape. However, the each fitting coefficient in the Ramberg-Osgood model has a unique effect on the master curve, and the coefficients are not coupled with each other.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.249-252
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• 2011

We investigated the low firing of $Li_2CO_3$ added $0.2Pb(Mg_{1/3}Nb_{2/3})O_3$ - 0.3Pb($Fe_{1/2}Nb_{1/2}$) - $0.5Pb(Zr_{0.475}Ti_{0.525})O_3$ (PMN-PFN-PZT) ceramics and multilayer actuators (MLAs) using Ag inner electrodes. It was found that 0.1 wt% $Li_2CO_3$ was quite effective in lowering the sintering temperature of PMN-PFN-PZT ceramics from $1,100^{\circ}C$ down to $900^{\circ}C$ without deteriorating their piezoelectric ceramics ($d_{33}$ = 425 pC/N and $k_p$ = 61.9%). However, excess $Li_2CO_3$ up to 0.3 wt% brings about unwanted problems such as the formation of a $LiPbO_2$ secondary phase and subsequent degradation in the piezoelectric properties. Using 0.1 wt% $Li_2CO_3$ added PMN-PFN-PZT ceramics, MLAs with Ag inner electrodes were successfully fabricated, resulting in a normalized strain of 580 pm/V at an electric field of 1.5 kV/mm.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.189-203
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• 2019

Brine leakage is a common phenomenon during construction facilitated by artificial freezing technique, threatening the stability of frozen wall due to the continual thawing of already frozen domain. This paper takes the frequently encountered soft clay in Wujiang District as the study object, and remolded specimens were prepared by mixing calcium chloride solutions at five levels of concentration. Both the deformation and pore water pressure of frozen specimens during thawing were investigated by two-stage loading tests. Three sections were noted from the changes in the strain rate of specimens during thawing at the first-stage load, i.e., instantaneous, attenuated, and quasi-stable sections. During the second-stage loading, the deformation of post-thawed soils is closely correlated with the dissipation of pore water pressure. Two characteristic indexes were obtained including thaw-settlement coefficient and critical water content. The critical water content increases positively with salt content. The higher water content of soil leads to a larger thaw-settlement coefficient, especially at higher salt contents, based on which an empirical equation was proposed and verified. The normalized pore water pressure during thawing was found to dissipate slower at higher salt contents, with a longer duration to stabilize. Three physical indexes were experimentally determined such as freezing point, heat conductivity and water permeability. The freezing point decreases at higher salt contents, especially as more water is involved, like the changes in heat conductivity. The water permeability maintains within the same order at the considered range of salt contents, like the development of the coefficient of consolidation. The variation of the pore volume distribution also accounts for this.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.6C
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• pp.349-358
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• 2008

In performing the reliability analysis for predicting the settlement with time of alluvial clay layer at Kobe airport, the uncertainties of geotechnical properties were examined based on the stochastic and probabilistic theory. By using Terzaghi's consolidation theory as the objective function, the failure probability was normalized based on AFOSM method. As the result of reliability analysis, the occurrence probabilities for the cases of the target settlement of ${\pm}10%,\;{\pm}25%$ of the total settlement from the deterministic analysis were 30~50%, 60%~90%, respectively. Considering that the variation coefficients of input variable are almost similar as those of past researches, the acceptable error range of the total settlement would be expected in the range of 10% of the predicted total settlement. As the result of sensitivity analysis, the factors which affect significantly on the settlement analysis were the uncertainties of the compression coefficient Cc, the pre-consolidation stress Pc, and the prediction model employed. Accordingly, it is very important for the reliable prediction with high reliability to obtain reliable soil properties such as Cc and Pc by performing laboratory tests in which the in-situ stress and strain conditions are properly simulated.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1-11
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• 2006

Purpose: This study compared the effects of non-cold and cold conditions on the viscoelastic properties of tendon structures in vivo. Methods: Seven male subjects perfomed plantar flesion exercise with maximal isokinetic voluntary contraction, which consisted of muscle contraction for 6 see and relaxation for 60 secs, 10 times for 1 set, Totally 10 sets were repeated. Before and after each task, the elongation of the tendon and aponeurosis of the medial gastrocnemius muscle (MG) was directly measured by ultrasonography. (The relationship between the estimated tendon force and tendon elongation.) Tendon cross-sectional area and ankle joint moment arm were obtained from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The tendon force was calculated from the joint moments and the tendon moment arm and stress was obtained by dividing force by cross-sectional areas (CSA). The strain was measured from the displacements normalized to tendon length. Results: After cooling, the tendon force was larger in cold than non-cold. The value of the tendon stiffness of MVC were significantly higher under the cold condition than under the non-cold condition. The maximal strain and stress of $7.4{\pm}0.7%$ and $36.4{\pm}1.8$ MPa in non-cold and $7.8{\pm}8.5%,\;31.8{\pm}1.1$ MPa in cold (P<0.05). Conclusion: This study shows for the first time that the muscle endurance in cooling increases the stiffness and Young's modulus of human tendons. The improvement in muscle endurance with cooling was directly related to muscle and tendon.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.27 no.11
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• pp.707-711
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• 2014

The $0.99Bi_{0.5}(Na_{0.78}K_{0.22})_{0.5}TiO_3-0.01LaAlO_3$, $0.01LaMnO_3$ or $0.01LaFeO_3$ (0.99BNKT-0.01LA, 0.01LM or 0.01LF) ceramics were prepared by a conventional mixed mothod. The structure and morphology of the lead free ceramics were characterized by XRD (X-ray diffraction) and FE-SEM (field emission scanning electron microscopy). XRD results indicated that the BNKT ceramics modified by LA, LM or LF induced a transition from a ferroelectric tetragonal to a non-polar pseudo-cubic phase, leading to decrease in the remnant polarization ($P_r$) and coercive field ($E_c$) in the P-E hysterisis loops. The effects of the BNKT ceramics modified by La-based $ABO_3$ pervskite structure on the electric-field induced strain were investigated, and the largest normalized unipolar strain ($S_{max}/E_{max}$) was found in BNKT-0.01LF ceramic.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.161-170
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• 2002

This paper describes a systematic way of simultaneously identifying the ambient pore pressure and the rigidity index $(=G/s_u)$ of soil by applying an optimization technique to the early part of piezocone dissipation test result. An analytical solution developed by Randolph & Wroth(1979) was implemented in normalized from to express the build-up and dissipation of excess pore pressures around a piezocone as a function of the rigidity index. An ambient pore pressure and optimal rigidity index were determined by minimizing the differences between theoretical and measured excess pore pressure curves using optimization technique. The effectiveness of the proposed back-analysis method was examined against the well-documented performance of piezocone dissipation tests(Tanaka & Sakagami, 1989), from the viewpoints of proper determination of selected target parameters and saving of test duration. It is shown that the proposed back-analysis method can evaluate properly the ambient pore pressure and the rigidity index by using only the early phase of the dissipation test data. Also, it is shown that the proposed back-analysis method permits the horizontal coefficient of consolidation to be identified rationally. Consideration for strain level of back-analyzed rigidity index shows that it corresponds to at least intermediate to large strain level.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.55-62
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• 2005

The use of the bearing capacity equation is subjected to several uncertainties. In this study, estimation of the bearing capacity of footings based on the cone resistance q$_{c}$ is investigated. Non-linear finite element analyses based on a state-dependent stress-strain model were performed to obtain the load-settlement responses of axially loaded circular footings. Various soil and footing conditions, including different relative densities, depths of embedment, and footing diameters were considered in the analyses. Based on the finite element results, load-settlement curves were obtained and used to determine the unit limit bearing capacity in terms of the cone resistance q$_{c}$ for footings subjected to surcharge. Values of the unit bearing capacity for different embedment depths were in a narrow range, while considerable variation was observed with relative density D$_{R}$. It was observed that the unit limit bearing capacity normalized with respect to q$_{c}$ decreases as D$_{R}$ increases for a given surcharge.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.441-449
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• 2015

In this paper we perform a linearized buckling analysis using the Kirchhoff plate theory and the von Karman nonlinear strain-displacement relation. Design sensitivity analysis(DSA) expressions for plane elasticity and buckling problems are derived with respect to Young's modulus and thickness. Using the design sensitivity, we can formulate the topology optimization method for minimizing the compliance and maximizing eigenvalues. We develop a topology optimization method applicable to plate buckling problems using the prestress for buckling analysis. Since the prestress is needed to assemble the stress matrix for buckling problem using the von Karman nonlinear strain, we introduced out-of-plane motion. The design variables are parameterized into normalized bulk material densities. The objective functions are the minimum compliance and the maximum eigenvalues and the constraint is the allowable volume. Through several numerical examples, the developed DSA method is verified to yield very accurate sensitivity results compared with the finite difference ones and the topology optimization yields physically meaningful results.