• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.57-68
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• 2023

Bridge hangers, such as those in suspension and cable-stayed bridges, suffer from cumulative fatigue damage caused by dynamic loads (e.g., cyclic traffic and wind loads) in their service condition. Thus, the identification of damage to hangers is important in preserving the service life of the bridge structure. This study develops a new method for condition assessment of bridge hangers. The tension force of the bridge and the damages in the element level can be identified using the Bayesian optimization method. To improve the number of observed data, the additional mass method is combined the Bayesian optimization method. Numerical studies are presented to verify the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method. The influence of different acquisition functions, which include expected improvement (EI), probability-of-improvement (PI), lower confidence bound (LCB), and expected improvement per second (EIPC), on the identification of damage to the bridge hanger is studied. Results show that the errors identified by the EI acquisition function are smaller than those identified by the other acquisition functions. The identification of the damage to the bridge hanger with various types of boundary conditions and different levels of measurement noise are also studied. Results show that both the severity of the damage and the tension force can be identified via the proposed method, thereby verifying the robustness of the proposed method. Compared to the genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), and nonlinear least-square method (NLS), the Bayesian optimization (BO) performs best in identifying the structural damage and tension force.

• Journal of Coastal Disaster Prevention
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.111-120
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• 2019

In coastal morphological modelling, there are a number of input factors: wave height, water depth, sand particle size, bed friction coefficients, coastal structures and so forth. Measurements or estimates of these input data may include uncertainties due to errors by the measurement or hind-casting methods. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the uncertainty of each input data and the range of the uncertainty during the evaluation of numerical results. In this study, three uncertainty factors are considered with regard to the prediction of coastal erosion in Ilsan beach located in Ilsan-dong, Ulsan metropolitan city. Those are wave diffraction effect of XBeach model, wave input scenario and the specification of the coastal structure. For this purpose, the values of mean wave direction, significant wave height and the height of the submerged breakwater were adjusted respectively and the followed numerical results of morphological changes are analyzed. There were erosion dominant patterns as the wave direction is perpendicular to Ilsan beach, the higher significant wave height, and the lower height of the submerged breakwater. Furthermore, the rate of uncertainty impacts among mean wave direction, significant wave height and the height of the submerged breakwater are compared. In the study area, the uncertainty influence by the wave input scenario was the largest, followed by the height of the submerged breakwater and the mean wave direction.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.129-147
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• 2022

The properties of soil are naturally highly variable and thus, to ensure proper safety and reliability, we need to test a large number of samples across the length and depth. In pile foundations, conducting field tests are highly expensive and the traditional empirical relations too have been proven to be poor in performance. The study proposes a state-of-art Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) hybridized Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) and Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS); and comparative analysis of metaheuristic models (ANN-PSO, ELM-PSO, ANFIS-PSO) for prediction of bearing capacity of pile foundation trained and tested on dataset of nearly 300 dynamic pile tests from the literature. A novel ensemble model of three hybrid models is constructed to combine and enhance the predictions of the individual models effectively. The authenticity of the dataset is confirmed using descriptive statistics, correlation matrix and sensitivity analysis. Ram weight and diameter of pile are found to be most influential input parameter. The comparative analysis reveals that ANFIS-PSO is the best performing model in testing phase (R² = 0.85, RMSE = 0.01) while ELM-PSO performs best in training phase (R² = 0.88, RMSE = 0.08); while the ensemble provided overall best performance based on the rank score. The performance of ANN-PSO is least satisfactory compared to the other two models. The findings were confirmed using Taylor diagram, error matrix and uncertainty analysis. Based on the results ELM-PSO and ANFIS-PSO is proposed to be used for the prediction of bearing capacity of piles and ensemble learning method of joining the outputs of individual models should be encouraged. The study possesses the potential to assist geotechnical engineers in the design phase of civil engineering projects.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.184-196
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• 2023

Background: Radiation protection is crucial in various fields due to the harmful effects of radiation. Shielding is used to reduce radiation exposure, but gamma radiation poses challenges due to its high energy and penetration capabilities. Materials and Methods: This work investigates the radiation shielding properties of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) samples containing different weight fraction of tungsten carbide (WC), tungsten trioxide (WO₃), and tungsten disulfide (WS₂). Parameters such as the mass attenuation coefficient (MAC), half-value layer (HVL), mean free path (MFP), effective atomic number (Z_eff), and macroscopic effective removal cross-section for fast neutrons (Σ_R) were calculated using the Phy-X/PSD software. EpiXS simulations were conducted for MAC validation. Results and Discussion: Increasing the weight fraction of the additives resulted in higher MAC values, indicating improved radiation shielding. PVDF-xWC showed the highest percentage increase in MAC values. MFP results indicated that PVDF-0.20WC has the lowest values, suggesting superior shielding properties compared to PVDF-0.20WO₃ and PVDF-0.20WS₂. PVDF-0.20WC also exhibited the highest Z_eff values, while PVDF-0.20WS₂ showed a slightly higher increase in Z_eff at energies of 0.662 and 1.333 MeV. PVDF-0.20WC has demonstrated the highest Σ_R value, indicating effective shielding against fast neutrons, while PVDF-0.20WS₂ had the lowest Σ_R value. The Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport version 5 (MCNP5) simulations showed that PVDF-xWC attenuates gamma radiation more than pure PVDF, significantly decreasing the dose equivalent rate. Conclusion: Overall, this research provides insights into the radiation shielding properties of PVDF mixtures, with PVDF-xWC showing the most promising results.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.50-64
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• 2024

Background: The reference dose coefficients (DCs) of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) have been widely used to estimate organ doses of individuals for risk assessments. This approach has been well accepted because individual anatomy data are usually unavailable, although dosimetric uncertainty exists due to the anatomical difference between the reference phantoms and the individuals. We attempted to quantify the individual variation of organ doses for photon external exposures by calculating and comparing organ DCs for 30 individuals against the ICRP reference DCs. Materials and Methods: We acquired computed tomography images from 30 patients in which eight organs (brain, breasts, liver, lungs, skeleton, skin, stomach, and urinary bladder) were segmented using the ImageJ software to create voxel phantoms. The phantoms were implemented into the Monte Carlo N-Particle 6 (MCNP6) code and then irradiated by broad parallel photon beams (10 keV to 10 MeV) at four directions (antero-posterior, postero-anterior, left-lateral, right-lateral) to calculate organ DCs. Results and Discussion: There was significant variation in organ doses due to the difference in anatomy among the individuals, especially in the kilovoltage region (e.g., <100 keV). For example, the red bone marrow doses at 0.01 MeV varied from 3 to 7 orders of the magnitude depending on the irradiation geometry. In contrast, in the megavoltage region (1-10 MeV), the individual variation of the organ doses was found to be negligibly small (differences <10%). It was also interesting to observe that the organ doses of the ICRP reference phantoms showed good agreement with the mean values of the organ doses among the patients in many cases. Conclusion: The results of this study would be informative to improve insights in individual-specific dosimetry. It should be extended to further studies in terms of many different aspects (e.g., other particles such as neutrons, other exposures such as internal exposures, and a larger number of individuals/patients) in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.212-223
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• 2022

For the remediation and restoration of contaminated sediment at the West Sea-Byeong dumping site, dredged materials was dumped in 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017. The physicochemical properties and benthic fauna in surface sediments of the capping area (5 stations) and natural recovery area (2 stations) were analyzed annually from 2014 to 2020 to evaluate the capping effect of the dredged materials. The natural recovery area had a finer sediment with a mean particle size of 5.91-7.64 Φ, while the sediment in the capping area consisted of coarse-grained particles with a mean particle size of 1.47-3.01 Φ owing to the capping effect of dredged materials. Considering that the contents of organic matters (COD, TOC, and TN) and heavy metals in the capping area are approximately 50 % lower (p<0.05) than that in the natural recovery area, it is judged that there is a capping effect of dredged materials. As a result of analyzing macrobenthic assemblages, the number of species and ecological indices of the capping area were significantly lower than that of the natural recovery area (p<0.05). The number of species and ecological indices at the capping area were increased for the first four years after the capping in 2013 and 2014 and then tended to decrease thereafter. It is presumed that opportunistic species, which have rapid growth and short lifetime, appeared dominantly during the initial phase of capping, and the additory capping in 2016 and 2017 caused re-disturbance in the habitat environment. In the natural recovery and capping areas, Azti's Marine Biotic Index (AMBI) was evaluated as a fine healthy status because it maintained the level of 2^nd grades (Good), whereas Benthic Pollution Index (BPI) remained at the 1^st and 2^nd grade. Therefore, capping of dredged materials for remediation of contaminated sediment in the dumping site has the effect of reducing the pollution level. However, in terms of the benthic ecosystem, it is recommended that the recovery trend should be monitored long-term. Additionally, it is necessary to introduce an adaptive management strategy when expanding the project to remediate the contaminated sediment at the dumping area in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.67 no.5
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• pp.378-392
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to analyze the pre-service chemistry teachers' cognition of the nature of model in process of designing and developing models using technology. For this purpose, 19 pre-service chemistry teachers' in the 3rd grade of a education college located in the central region observe experimental phenomena related to Boyle's law presented in the 7th grade science textbook and researchers required the design and development of a model related to the observed experimental results using technology. Based on previous studies, the nature of model were classified into two aspect: 'Representational aspect' and 'Explanatory aspect'. The 'Representational aspect' was classified into 'Representation', 'Abstraction', and 'Simplification', and the 'Explanatory aspect' was classified into 'Analysis', 'Interpretation', 'Reasoning', 'Explanation', and 'Quantification'. The pre-service chemistry teachers' cognition were analyzed by the classification. As a result of the study, the 'Representation' of the 'expressive aspect' was uniformized in the form of space that changes in volume, and the pressure was expressed as the Brightness inside the cylinder or frequency of color change of particles for 'Abstraction'. In the case of 'Simplification', the particle collision was expressed as a perfectly elastic collision, but there was a group that could not simply indicate the type of particle. In the 'Explanatory aspect', in the case of 'Analysis', volume was classified as a manipulated variable, and in the case of 'Interpretation', most groups analyzed the change in pressure through the collision of gas particles. However, the cognition involved in 'Reasoning' was not observed much. In the case of 'Explanation', there were groups that did not succeed in explanation because the area where the particles collided was not set or incorrectly set, and in the case of 'Quantification', there was a group that formulated the number of collisions per unit time, and on the contrary, there was a group that could not quantify the number of collisions because they could not be expressed in numbers.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.25-37
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects on particulate concept formation based on abductive reasoning model for elementary science class. For this study, an author selected two groups in the sixth grade. One group is an ordinary textbook-based control group (N=26) and the other group is an abductive reasoning model-based treatment group (N=26). After twelve lessons, the scores of Concepts Test for Gas were analyzed by t-test and two-way ANOVA. The result of t-test showed both the control and treatment groups have higher score than before they take the lesson. But after the lesson, an author found out that the treatment group had higher score than that of the control group. And compared to the number of particles expressed, the number of the treatment group were higher than that of the control class. The two-way ANOVA result revealed that the interaction effect between their cognitive level and treatment was not significant. And regardless of the level of cognition, the scores of treatment group are higher than those of control group. Therefore, abductive reasoning model-based elementary science class were found to be more effective for particulate concept formation. Based on the results, an author concluded that abductive reasoning model is very effective in teaching particulate concepts to elementary students.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.144-151
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• 2016

This study effect of engine oils on regulated fuel economy and emissions including particulate matter (PM) to provide basic data for management of engine oil in vehicles. Three engine oils (Group III base oil, Group III genuine oil with additive package and synthetic oil with poly alpha olefins (PAOs)) were used in one gasoline, one LPG(liquefied petroleum gas) and two diesel vehicles. In the case of diesel vehicles, one is a diesel vehicle without DPF (diesel particulate filter) other is a diesel vehicle with DPF. In this study, the US EPA emission test cycle FTP-75, representing city driving, was used. HORIBA, PIERBURG, and AVL gas analyzers were used to measure the fuel economy and regulated emissions such as CO, NOx, and THC. The number of PM was measured using a PPS (pegasor particle sensor). And, the shape of PMs was analyzed by SEM (scanning electron microscope). The effects of oil type on fuel economy, exhaust gas, and PM were not significant because engine oil consumption by evaporation and combustion in the cylinder is very tiny. Fuel and vehicle type were dominant factors in fuel economy and emissions. HC emission from gasoline vehicles was higher than that from other vehicles and NOx emission from diesel vehicles was higher than that from other vehicles. The number of PM was not affected by the engine oil, but by the driving pattern and fuel. The shapes of the PM, sampled from each vehicle using any test engine oil, were similar.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.121-127
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• 2013

Nanotoxicological research has shown toxicity of nanomaterials to be inversely related to particle size. However, the contribution of agglomeration to the toxicity of nanomaterials has not been sufficiently studied, although it is known that agglomeration is associated with increased nanomaterial size. In this study, we prepared aerosols of nano-sized carbon black by 2 different ways to verify the effects of agglomeration on the toxicity and deposition of nano-sized carbon black. The 2 methods of preparation included the carbon black dispersion method that facilitated clustering without sonication and the carbon black dispersion method involving sonication to achieve scattering and deagglomeration. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to carbon black aerosols 6 hr a day for 3 days or for 2 weeks. The median mass aerodynamic diameter of carbon black aerosols averaged $2.08{\mu}m$ (for aerosol prepared without sonication; group N) and $1.79{\mu}m$ (for aerosol prepared without sonication; group S). The average concentration of carbon black during the exposure period for group N and group S was $13.08{\pm}3.18mg/m^3$ and $13.67{\pm}3.54mg/m^3$, respectively, in the 3-day experiment. The average concentration during the 2-week experiment was $9.83{\pm}3.42mg/m^3$ and $9.08{\pm}4.49mg/m^3$ for group N and group S, respectively. The amount of carbon black deposition in the lungs was significantly higher in group S than in group N in both 3-day and 2-week experiments. The number of total cells, macrophages and polymorphonuclear leukocytes in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid, and the number of total white blood cells and neutrophils in the blood in the 2-week experiment were significantly higher in group S than in normal control. However, differences were not found in the inflammatory cytokine levels (IL-$1{\beta}$, TNF-${\alpha}$, IL-6, etc.) and protein indicators of cell damage (albumin and lactate dehydrogenase) in the BAL fluid of both group N and group S as compared to the normal control. In conclusion, carbon black aerosol generated by sonication possesses smaller nanoparticles that are deposited to a greater extent in the lungs than is aerosol formulated without sonication. Additionally, rats were narrowly more affected when exposed to carbon black aerosol generated by sonication as compared to that produced without sonication.