• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.1460-1467
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• 2023

A robust approach was conducted to determining the absolute oral bioavailable (f_ab) fractions of ²³⁸U and ²³²Th in rats exposed to contaminated soil along with their hematotoxicity and nephrotoxicity. The soil sample is the International Atomic Energy Agency-312 (IAEA-312) certified reference material, whereas blood, bones, and kidneys of in vivo female Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats estimate ²³⁸U- and ²³²Th-f_ab fractions post-exposure. We predict the bioavailable concentration (C_ab) and f_ab values of ²³⁸U and ²³²Th after acute soil ingestion. The blood ²³⁸U (0.750%) and ²³²Th (0.028%) reach their maximum f_ab values after 48 h. The ²³⁸U (f_ab: 0.169-0.652%) accumulates mostly in the kidney, whereas the ²³²Th (f_ab: 0.004-0.021%) accumulates primarily in the bone. Additionally, ²³⁸U is more bioavailable than ²³²Th. Post 48 h acute ingestion demonstrates noticeable histopathological and hematological alterations, implying that intake of ²³⁸U in co-contaminated soil can lead to erythrocytes and proximal tubules damage, whereas, ²³²Th intake can harm erythrocytes. Our study provides new directions for future research into the health implications of acute oral exposures to ²³⁸U and ²³²Th in co-contaminated soils. The findings offer significant insight into the utilization of in vivo SD rat testing to estimate ²³⁸U and ²³²Th bioavailability and toxicity in exposure assessment.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.43-49
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• 2022

Solid-state supercapacitors with high safety and robust mechanical properties are attracting global attention as next-generation energy storage devices. As an electrode of a supercapacitor, an economical carbon-based electrode is widely used. However, when an aqueous electrolyte is introduced, the charge transfer resistance increases because the interfacial contact between the hydrophobic electrode surface and aqueous electrolyte is not good. In this regard, we propose a method to obtain higher electrochemical performance based on improved interfacial properties by treating the electrode surface with oxygen plasma. The surface hydrophilization induced by the enriched oxygen functionalities was confirmed by the contact angle measurement. As a result, the degree of hydrophilization was easily adjusted by controlling the power and duration of the oxygen plasma treatment. As the electrolyte of the supercapacitor, PVA/H₃PO₄, which is a typical solid-state aqueous electrolyte, was used. Free-standing membranes of PVA/H₃PO₄ electrolyte were prepared and then pressed onto the electrode. The optimal condition was to perform oxygen plasma treatment for 5 seconds with a low power of 15 W, and the energy density of the supercapacitor increased by about 8%.

• Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.267-277
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• 2017

One of fundamental problems in developing robust distributed services is how to achieve distributed consensus agreeing some data values that should be shared among participants in a distributed service. As one of algorithms for distributed consensus, Raft is known as a simple and understandable algorithm by decomposing the distributed consensus problem into three subproblems(leader election, log replication and safety). But, the algorithm dose not mention any types of dynamic configuration of participant peers such as adding new peers to a consensus group or deleting peers from the group. In this paper, we present a new consensus algorithm named Raft-D, which supports the dynamic configuration of participant peers by extending the Raft algorithm. For this, Raft-D manages the additional information maintained by participant nodes, and provides a technique to check the connection status of the nodes belonging to the consensus group. Based on the technique, Raft-D defines conditions and states to deal with adding new peers to the consensus group or deleting peers from the group. Based on those conditions and states, Raft-D performs the dynamic configuration process for a consensus group through the log update mechanism of the Raft algorithm.

• Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
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• v.7 no.10
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• pp.91-101
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• 2017

Nation-wide support is being strengthened to vitalize pre-entrepreneur and startup initiatives. However, it is found that they have been suffering from the lack of necessary information in preparation for the start-up operation. In order to support more proactive and robust start-up process in aspect of contents or service, it is necessary to carefully analyze their information needs and information seeking behaviors. Information seeking behavior analysis is a method for improving information services in accordance with the information needs of the information service users in libraries and information service institutes. This study analyzed information seeking behaviors of pre-entrepreneur and startup. Focus-group interview as the representative method of exploring information seeking behaviors was conducted. Content analysis was introduced to search the business-establishing process, information-seeking status, and utilization level of startup-related information resources and their perception. It is expected that contents and services for pre-entrepreneur and startup would be improved by reflecting their information seeking behaviors based on the results of this study.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.85-100
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• 2023

Corporate ESG performance (environmental, social, and corporate governance) reflecting a company's strategic sustainability has emerged as one of the main factors in today's investment decisions. The traditional ESG performance rating process is largely performed in a qualitative and subjective manner based on the institution-specific criteria, entailing limitations in reliability, predictability, and timeliness when making investment decisions. This study attempted to predict the corporate ESG rating through automated machine learning based on quantitative and disclosed corporate financial information. Using 12 types (21,360 cases) of market-disclosed financial information and 1,780 ESG measures available through the Korea Institute of Corporate Governance and Sustainability during 2019 to 2021, we suggested a deep neural network prediction model. Our model yielded about 86% of accurate classification performance in predicting ESG rating, showing better performance than other comparative models. This study contributed the literature in a way that the model achieved relatively accurate ESG rating predictions through an automated process using quantitative and publicly available corporate financial information. In terms of practical implications, the general investors can benefit from the prediction accuracy and time efficiency of our proposed model with nominal cost. In addition, this study can be expanded by accumulating more Korean and international data and by developing a more robust and complex model in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.362-368
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• 2023

Multilayered actuators using Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃-Pb(In_1/2Nb_1/2)O₃-PbTiO₃ (PMN-PIN-PT) crystals have demonstrated excellent properties, but are costly and lack mechanical strength. Textured PMN-PIN-PT ceramics exhibit robust mechanical strength and comparable properties to their single crystals form. However, the development of multilayered actuators using textured PMN-PIN-PT ceramics has not been achieved until now. This study presents the development of a multilayered actuator using textured 0.37PMN-0.29PIN-0.34PT ceramics with an Ag_0.9/Pd_0.1 inner electrode, co-fired at 950℃. A random 0.37PMN-0.29PIN-0.34PT ceramics multilayered actuator was also developed for comparison. The multilayered actuator consisted of 9 ceramic layers (36 ㎛ thickness) with an overall actuator thickness of 0.401 mm. The textured and random 0.37PMN-0.29PIN-0.34PT ceramics-based multilayered actuators achieved displacements of 0.61 ㎛ (0.15% strain) and 0.23 ㎛ (0.057% strain) at a low applied peak voltage of 100 V. These results suggest that the developed multilayered actuator using high-performance textured 0.37PMN-0.29PIN-0.34PT ceramics has the potential to replace expensive single crystal-based actuators cost-effectively.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.141-152
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• 2023

Objective: We performed a meta-analysis of epidemiological results for the association between occupational exposure as a firefighter and cancer as part of the broader evidence synthesis work of the IARC Monographs program. Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted to identify cohort studies of firefighters followed for cancer incidence and mortality. Studies were evaluated for the influence of key biases on results. Random-effects meta-analysis models were used to estimate the association between ever-employment and duration of employment as a firefighter and risk of 12 selected cancers. The impact of bias was explored in sensitivity analyses. Results: Among the 16 included cancer incidence studies, the estimated meta-rate ratio, 95% confidence interval (CI), and heterogeneity statistic (I²) for ever-employment as a career firefighter compared mostly to general populations were 1.58 (1.14-2.20, 8%) for mesothelioma, 1.16 (1.08-1.26, 0%) for bladder cancer, 1.21 (1.12-1.32, 81%) for prostate cancer, 1.37 (1.03-1.82, 56%) for testicular cancer, 1.19 (1.07-1.32, 37%) for colon cancer, 1.36 (1.15-1.62, 83%) for melanoma, 1.12 (1.01-1.25, 0%) for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, 1.28 (1.02-1.61, 40%) for thyroid cancer, and 1.09 (0.92-1.29, 55%) for kidney cancer. Ever-employment as a firefighter was not positively associated with lung, nervous system, or stomach cancer. Results for mesothelioma and bladder cancer exhibited low heterogeneity and were largely robust across sensitivity analyses. Conclusions: There is epidemiological evidence to support a causal relationship between occupational exposure as a firefighter and certain cancers. Challenges persist in the body of evidence related to the quality of exposure assessment, confounding, and medical surveillance bias.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.6D
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• pp.745-752
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• 2009

Management of social infrastructure has been advanced from facility management (FM) to asset management (AM), which adopts the aggressive and proactive methods in predicting the deterioration of infrastructure, prevents failures, and eventually saves maintenance cost. Infrastructure asset management is not a simple engineering technique, but it is a new paradigm evolved from facility management practices. To implement the infrastructure asset management successfully, organizational reform is very important. This paper suggests critical success factors and key performance indicators to implement the infrastructure asset management for facility managers of government owned social infrastructures such as roads and bridges. Reorganizing the facility management group requires new vision, objectives, strategies for the paradigm-changing asset management. This paper uses Balanced Score Card (BSC) which is a proven method in measuring and setting new objectives for an organization. Once the performance indicators are reviewed repeatedly by facility managers through experts workshops, developed BSC can be used in practice. This paper discusses the development of robust BSC scoring method through in depth literature reviews and investigation of asset management practices of domestic and international cases.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.1951-1975
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• 2023

Recent advances in Cognitive Radio Networks (CRN) have elevated them to the status of a critical instrument for overcoming spectrum limits and achieving severe future wireless communication requirements. Collaborative spectrum sensing is presented for efficient channel selection because spectrum sensing is an essential part of CRNs. This study presents an innovative cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) model that is built on the Firefly Algorithm (FA), as well as machine learning artificial neural networks (ANN). This system makes use of user grouping strategies to improve detection performance dramatically while lowering collaboration costs. Cooperative sensing wasn't used until after cognitive radio users had been correctly identified using energy data samples and an ANN model. Cooperative sensing strategies produce a user base that is either secure, requires less effort, or is faultless. The suggested method's purpose is to choose the best transmission channel. Clustering is utilized by the suggested ANN-FA model to reduce spectrum sensing inaccuracy. The transmission channel that has the highest weight is chosen by employing the method that has been provided for computing channel weight. The proposed ANN-FA model computes channel weight based on three sets of input parameters: PU utilization, CR count, and channel capacity. Using an improved evolutionary algorithm, the key principles of the ANN-FA scheme are optimized to boost the overall efficiency of the CRN channel selection technique. This study proposes the Artificial Neural Network with Firefly Algorithm (ANN-FA) for cognitive radio networks to overcome the obstacles. This proposed work focuses primarily on sensing the optimal secondary user channel and reducing the spectrum handoff delay in wireless networks. Several benchmark functions are utilized We analyze the efficacy of this innovative strategy by evaluating its performance. The performance of ANN-FA is 22.72 percent more robust and effective than that of the other metaheuristic algorithm, according to experimental findings. The proposed ANN-FA model is simulated using the NS2 simulator, The results are evaluated in terms of average interference ratio, spectrum opportunity utilization, three metrics are measured: packet delivery ratio (PDR), end-to-end delay, and end-to-average throughput for a variety of different CRs found in the network.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.163-177
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• 2023

Complex and intricate preparation techniques, the imperative for utmost precision and sensitivity in instrumentation, premature sample failure, and fragile specimens collectively contribute to the arduous task of measuring the fracture toughness of concrete in the laboratory. The objective of this research is to introduce and refine an equation based on the gene expression programming (GEP) method to calculate the fracture toughness of reinforced concrete, thereby minimizing the need for costly and time-consuming laboratory experiments. To accomplish this, various types of reinforced concrete, each incorporating distinct ratios of fibers and additives, were subjected to diverse loading angles relative to the initial crack (α) in order to ascertain the effective fracture toughness (Keff) of 660 samples utilizing the central straight notched Brazilian disc (CSNBD) test. Within the datasets, six pivotal input factors influencing the Keff of concrete, namely sample type (ST), diameter (D), thickness (t), length (L), force (F), and α, were taken into account. The ST and α parameters represent crucial inputs in the model presented in this study, marking the first instance that their influence has been examined via the CSNBD test. Of the 660 datasets, 460 were utilized for training purposes, while 100 each were allotted for testing and validation of the model. The GEP model was fine-tuned based on the training datasets, and its efficacy was evaluated using the separate test and validation datasets. In subsequent stages, the GEP model was optimized, yielding the most robust models. Ultimately, an equation was derived by averaging the most exemplary models, providing a means to predict the Keff parameter. This averaged equation exhibited exceptional proficiency in predicting the Keff of concrete. The significance of this work lies in the possibility of obtaining the Keff parameter without investing copious amounts of time and resources into the CSNBD test, simply by inputting the relevant parameters into the equation derived for diverse samples of reinforced concrete subject to varied loading angles.