• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.767-790
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• 2013

MAAP4 is a computer code that can simulate the response of a light water reactor power plant during severe accident sequences, including actions taken as part of accident management. The code quantitatively predicts the evolution of a severe accident starting from full power conditions given a set of system faults and initiating events through events such as core melt, reactor vessel failure, and containment failure. Furthermore, models are included in the code to represent the actions that could mitigate the accident by in-vessel cooling, external cooling of the reactor pressure vessel, or cooling the debris in containment. A key element tied to using a code like MAAP4 is an uncertainty analysis. The purpose of this paper is to present a MAAP4 based analysis to examine the sensitivity of a key parameter, in this case hydrogen production, to a set of model parameters that are related to a Level 2 PRA analysis. The Level 2 analysis examines those sequences that result in core melting and subsequent reactor pressure vessel failure and its impact on the containment. This paper identifies individual contributors and MAAP4 model parameters that statistically influence hydrogen production. Hydrogen generation was chosen because of its direct relationship to oxidation. With greater oxidation, more heat is added to the core region and relocation (core slump) should occur faster. This, in theory, would lead to shorter failure times and subsequent "hotter" debris pool on the containment floor.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.641-649
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• 2010

Estimation of uncertain parameters is required in many engineering problems which involve probabilistic structural analysis as well as prognosis of existing structures. In this case, Bayesian framework is often employed, which is to represent the uncertainty of parameters in terms of probability distributions conditional on the provided data. The resulting form of distribution, however, is not amenable to the practical application due to its complex nature making the standard probability functions useless. In this study, Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method is proposed to overcome this difficulty, which is a modern computational technique for the efficient and straightforward estimation of parameters. Three case studies that implement the estimation are presented to illustrate the concept. The first one is an inverse estimation, in which the unknown input parameters are inversely estimated based on a finite number of measured response data. The next one is a metamodel uncertainty problem that arises when the original response function is approximated by a metamodel using a finite set of response values. The last one is a prognostics problem, in which the unknown parameters of the degradation model are estimated based on the monitored data.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.9
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• pp.23-33
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• 2021

The main objective of this research is to examine the effect of organizational culture, environmental uncertainty, and manager's personnel value on environmental disclosure through the environmental organizational structure of manufacturing companies on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. This research uses the structuration and contingency theory. The sample in this study focused on the level of heads or managers or directors of manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. The research data was obtained through an online questionnaire distributed to heads or managers. The total sample of this study is 161 manufacturing companies. The data comprising of 64 respondents was completed and can be processed. Empirical testing used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through Partial Least Square (PLS). The result shows that environmental uncertainty and management personnel value have a positive effect on the environmental organizational structure, as well as the environmental organizational structure has a positive effect on the environmental disclosure. However, organizational culture has no effect on the environmental organizational structure. This research can provide benefits for manufacturing companies. The limitation include the low level of response from the respondents. Also the results cannot be generalized due to its specific focus on the manufacturing companies.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.479-485
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• 2022

At the Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, physical human phantoms were developed to evaluate various radiation protection quantities, based on the mesh-type reference computational phantoms of the International Commission on Radiological Protection. The physical human phantoms were fabricated such that a radiophotoluminescent glass dosimeter (RPLGD) with a Tin filter, namely GD-352M, could be inserted into them. A Tin filter is used to eliminate the overestimated signals in low-energy photons below 100 keV. The measurement uncertainty of the RPLGD reader system based on GD-352M should be analyzed for obtaining reliable protection quantities before using it for practical applications. Generally, the measurement uncertainty of RPLGD systems without Tin filters is analyzed for quality assurance of radiotherapy units using a high-energy photon beam. However, in this study, the measurement uncertainty of GD-352M was analyzed for evaluating the protection quantities. The measurement uncertainty factors in the RPLGD include the reference irradiation, regression curve, reproducibility, uniformity, energy dependence, and angular dependence, as described by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). These factors were calculated using the Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement method, applying ISO/ASTM standards 51261(2013), 51707(2015), and SS-ISO 22127(2019). The measurement uncertainties of the RPLGD reader system with a coverage factor of k = 2 were calculated to be 9.26% from 0.005 to 1 Gy and 8.16% from 1 to 10 Gy. A blind test was conducted to validate the RPLGD reader system, which demonstrated that the readout doses included blind doses of 0.1, 1, 2, and 5 Gy. Overall, the E_n values were considered satisfactory.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute Of Construction Engineering and Management
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.224-227
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• 2004

As a project progresses, it is well known that construction manager has to define the contingency for the expected project cost, which is used as a buffer for uncertainty. In this study, we mention uncertainty as the amount of likelihood that is difficult or impossible to predict project cost. From the completed work package, we obtain the true cost value, and this information is technically good data for estimating the realistic contingency of work packages to be accomplished. Based upon this historical information, construction manager recomputes the contingency for the remaining works. Conditional probability theory is often useful for re-estimating one of the remaining project progress as the true cost of the completed works can be different from the planned cost. As a project is progressing, true value is really important to predict the realistic project budget and to decrease the uncertainty. In this study, we gave applied conditional probability theory to estimating project contingency supposing a project that consists of fire work packages, provide the fundamental framework for setting and controlling project contingency.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.49 no.7
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• pp.607-614
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• 2016

The well-timed water management is required to reduce drought damages. It is also necessary to induce residents in drought-affected areas to save water. Information on future storage is important in managing water resources based on the current and future states of drought. This study employed a kernel function to develop a probabilistic model for predicting dam storage considering inflow uncertainty. This study also investigated the application of the proposed probabilistic model during the extreme drought. This model can predict a probability of temporal variation of storage. Moreover, the model can be used to make a long-term plan since it can identify a temporal change of storage and estimate a required reserving volume of water to achieve the target storage.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.188-188
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• 2017

Rainfall is an important input to hydrological models. The accuracy of hydrological studies for water resources and floods management depend primarily on the estimation of rainfall. Thailand is among the countries that have regularly affected by floods. Flood forecasting and warning are necessary to prevent or mitigate loss and damage. Merging near real time satellite-based precipitation estimation with relatively high spatial and temporal resolutions to ground gauged precipitation data could contribute to reducing uncertainty and increasing efficiency for flood forecasting application. This study tested the applicability of satellite-based rainfall for water resources management and flood forecasting. The objectives of the study are to assess uncertainty associated with satellite-based rainfall estimation, to perform bias correction for satellite-based rainfall products, and to evaluate the performance of the bias-corrected rainfall data for the prediction of flood events. This study was conducted using a case study of Thai catchments including the Chao Phraya, northeastern (Chi and Mun catchments), and the eastern catchments for the period of 2006-2015. Data used in the study included daily rainfall from ground gauges, telegauges, and near real time satellite-based rainfall products from TRMM, GSMaP and PERSIANN CCS. Uncertainty in satellite-based precipitation estimation was assessed using a set of indicators describing the capability to detect rainfall event and efficiency to capture rainfall pattern and amount. The results suggested that TRMM, GSMaP and PERSIANN CCS are potentially able to improve flood forecast especially after the process of bias correction. Recommendations for further study include extending the scope of the study from regional to national level, testing the model at finer spatial and temporal resolutions and assessing other bias correction methods.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.1-12
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• 2020

During the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the western countries with advanced medical technology failed to contain coronavirus. This fact triggered our research question of what factors influence the clinical outcomes like infection rates and case mortality rates. This study aims to identify the determinants of COVID-19 related infection rates and case mortality rates. We considered three sets of independent variables: 1) socio-demographic characteristics; 2) cultural characteristics; 3) healthcare system characteristics. For the analysis, we created an international dataset from diverse sources like World Bank, Worldometers, Hofstede Insight, GHS index etc. The COVID-19 related statistics were retrieved from Aug. 1. Total cases are from 95 countries. We used hierarchical regression method to examine the linear relationship among variables. We found that obesity, uncertainty avoidance, hospital beds per 1,000 made a significant influence on the standardized COVID-19 infection rates. The countries with higher BMI score or higher uncertainty avoidance showed higher infection rates. The standardized COVID-19 infection rates were inversely related to hospital beds per 1,000. In the analysis on the standardized COVID-19 case mortality rates, we found that two cultural characteristics(e.g., individualism, uncertainty avoidance) showed statistically significant influence on the case mortality rates. The healthcare system characteristics did not show any statistically significant relationship with the case mortality rates. The cultural characteristics turn out to be significant factors influencing the clinical outcomes during COVID-19 pandemic. The results imply that the persuasive communication is important to trigger the public commitment to follow preventive measures. The strategy to keep the hospital surge capacity needs to be developed.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.105-121
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• 1995

Nitrate contamination problems from groundwater supplies have been documented throughout many countries in the world, including Korea. Nitrate salts can induce methemoglobinemia and possibly human gastric cancer. In farmed areas. intensive agricultural activities have caused a major increase in nitrate loading to groundwater. To determine whether decision makers must take farm-management actions to control the increase of groundwater nitrate concentration and to decide the timing of such actions, it is important to predict groundwater Nitrate levels that would result over time from various farm-management practices. However, the input values such as soil, fertilizer and crop data) used to examine the effects of various farm-management practices on groundwater nitrate level are usually uncertain due to a lack of available information. In this paper. the ease of a community with a nitrate water quality problem is illustrated to examine the effects of various farm-management practices and to show bow to perform, with uncertain information. a time-series analysis on groundwater nitrate levels that would result. from each farm-management practice.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.47-60
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• 1996

Nitrate contamination problems from groundwater supplies have been reported throughout many countries in the world, including Korea. Nitrate salts can induce methemoglobinemia and possibly human gastric cancer. To reduce human health risk from nitrate in groundwater supplies, several nitrate risk-management strategies can be developed based on the acceptable level of human health risk, the reasonableness of nitrate-control cost, and the technical feasibility of nitrate-control methods. However, due to a lack of available information, assessing risk, cost and technical feasibility contains elements of uncertainty. In the present paper, a nitrate risk-management methodology using fuzzy sets in combination with a multiobjective decision-making (MODM) technique is developed to assist decision makers in evaluating, with uncertain information, various nitrate risk-management strategies in order to decide a proper strategy.