• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.424-431
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• 2007

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of short road transportation in an open truck during hot season on live weight shrink, physiological responses, and carcass and meat quality of Omani sheep at 6 and 12 months of age. Thirty-six male sheep, 18 of each age group, were used. Age groups were assigned randomly to transported and not-transported groups. The transported group was transported to the slaughterhouse the day of slaughter in an open truck covering a distance of approximately 100 km. The average temperature during transportation was $37^{\circ}C$. The not-transported group was kept in a lairage of a commercial slaughterhouse with ad libitum feed and water for 48 h prior to slaughter. Blood samples were collected from sheep before loading and prior to slaughter via jugular venipuncture to assess their physiological response to transport in relation to hormonal levels. Animals were weighed just before loading onto a truck and after transport to assess shrinkage. Muscle ultimate pH, expressed juice, cooking loss percentage, WB-shear force value, sarcomere length and colour L*, a*, b* were measured on samples from longissimus dorsi, biceps femoris and semitendinosus muscles collected at 24 h postmortem at $1-3^{\circ}C$. Live weight shrinkage losses were 1.09 and 1.52 kg for 6 and 12 month transported sheep, respectively. The transported sheep had significantly (p<0.05) higher cortisol, adrenaline, noradrenaline, and dopamine concentration levels prior to slaughter at both ages than the not-transported sheep. Transportation significantly influenced meat quality characteristics of three muscles. Muscle ultimate pH and shear force values were significantly higher, while CIE L*, a*, b*, expressed juice and cooking loss were lower in transported than not-transported sheep. Age had a significant effect on meat quality characteristics of Omani sheep. These results indicated that short-term pre-slaughter transport at high ambient temperatures can cause noticeable changes in physiological and muscle metabolism responses in sheep.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.819-828
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• 1997

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the abrasion-resistance of root surface after NaF iontophoresis, Nd:YAG laser irradiation and combined treatment 50 anterior teeth with flat interproximal root surface that had been extracted due to periodontal destruction were selected. All teeth were treated by the same procedure as conventional periodontal root treatment, such as scaling and root planing, root conditioning with tetracycline HCI(lOOmg/ml, 5min). The pre-treatment weight of each tooth was measured by a dial scale(SHIMADEU Co, LIBROR EB-220HU, capacity 220.000 g, Japan). All teeth were divided into 5 groups as follows: Nd:YAG laser irradiation(group 1, 1 W, 100 mJ, 10Hz, fiberoptic-root surface distance=5mm, $10\;sec.{\times}6times$, EL.EN.EN060, Italy): NaF iontophoresis(group 2, $150{\mu}A$, 4 min}: Nd:YAG laser irradiation following NaF iontophoresis(group 3): NaF iontophoresis following Nd:YAG laser irradiation(group 4): No treatment(control group). Electric toothbrushing (Oral-B, Brown Co, Germany) was conducted during 1 hour($lO\;min.{\times}6\;times$). Subsequently post-treatment weight was remeasured by the same method as pre-treatment weight measurement. The difference of abrasion rate among all groups was statistically analyzed by ANOVA(SAS program). Following results were obtained: 1. The abrasion rate was significantly lower in Nd:YAG laser irradiation group than NaF iontophoresis group(p < 0.001). 2. The abrasion rate was significantly lower in combined groups of Nd:YAG laser irradiation and NaF iontophoresis than either Nd:YAG laser irradiation group or NaF iontophoresis group(p < 0.001). 3. There was no significant difference in abrasion rate according to application order in the combined groups(p > 0.05). 4. The abrasion rate was significantly lower in all experimental groups than control group(p < 0.001). The results suggest that combined treatment of Nd:YAG laser irradiation and NaF iontophoresis on exposed root surface after periodontal therapy can enhance the abrasion-resistance of root surface and may inhibit the root caries development.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.77-86
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• 2003

How to compare the environmental damage caused by vehicles with different foe]s and drive trains\ulcorner This paper describes a methodology to assess the environmental impact of vehicles, using different approaches, and evaluating their benefits and limitations. Rating systems are analysed as tools to compare the environmental impact of vehicles, allowing decision makers to dedicate their financial and non-financial policies and support measures in function of the ecological damage. The paper is based on the "Clean Vehicles" research project, commissioned by the Brussels Capital Region via the BIM-IBGE (Brussels Institute for the Conservation of the Environment) (Van Mierlo et at., 2001). The VriJe Universiteit Brussel (ETEC) and the universite Libre do Bruxelles (CEESE) have jointly carried out the workprogramme. The most important results of this project are illustrated in this paper. First an overview of environmental, economical and technical characteristics of the different alternative fuels and drive trains is given. Afterward the basic principles to identify the environmental impact of cars are described. An outline of the considered emissions and their environmental impact leads to the definition of the calculation method, named Ecoscore. A rather simple and pragmatic approach would be stating that all alternative fuelled vehicles (LPG, CNG, EV, HEV, etc.) can be considered as ′clean′. Another basic approach is considering as ′clean′ all vehicles satisfying a stringent omission regulation like EURO IV or EEV. Such approaches however don′t tell anything about the real environmental damage of the vehicles. In the paper we describe "how should the environmental impact of vehicles be defined\ulcorner", including parameters affecting the emissions of vehicles and their influence on human beings and on the environment and "how could it be defined \ulcorner", taking into account the availability of accurate and reliable data. We take into account different damages (acid rain, photochemical air pollution, global warming. noise, etc.) and their impacts on several receptors like human beings (e.g., cancer, respiratory diseases, etc), ecosystems, or buildings. The presented methodology is based on a kind of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in which the contribution of all emissions to a certain damage are considered (e.g. using Exposure-Response damage function). The emissions will include oil extraction, transportation refinery, electricity production, distribution, (Well-to-Wheel approach), as well as the emission due to the production, use and dismantling of the vehicle (Cradle-to-Grave approach). The different damages will be normalized to be able to make a comparison. Hence a reference value (determined by the reference vehicle chosen) will be defined as a target value (the normalized value will thus measure a kind of Distance to Target). The contribution of the different normalized damages to a single value "Ecoscore" will be based on a panel weighting method. Some examples of the calculation of the Ecoscore for different alternative fuels and drive trains will be calculated as an illustration of the methodology.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.240-247
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• 2013

Purpose: This study was conducted to develop a rubber-crawler type vehicle as a traveling device for harvesting water-dropwort cultivated in water contained paddy rice field in winter season. Methods: A commercial rubber-crawler type vehicle was used to investigate application of rubber crawler to the paddy rice field as preliminary test. As the result of the preliminary test, a both prototype traveling device with rubber crawlers for a water-dropwort harvest was designed with inclination of $45^{\circ}$ at the front-end and rear-end of crawler under the basic water depth of 0.6 m in the paddy rice field. The device was fabricated and attached to the experimental harvesting test devices on the front of the prototype vehicle. The size of the prototype crawler vehicle with a harvesting part is $2,800{\times}1,460{\times}1,040 $ (mm) ($L{\times}W{\times}H$) with weight of 9.21 kN (maximum). Sizes of the crawler of prototype vehicle are ground contact length of 900 mm, width of 180 mm, height of 1,070 mm and distance between center to center of crawlers of 720 mm. The side-overturn angle of the prototype was $26.4^{\circ}$. Results: Driving performance of the prototype vehicle in water contained paddy field were good at both forward and reverse (backward) directions as weights were applied. The drawbar pull and the maximum sinking depth of the prototype vehicle were 3.5 kN and 0.13 m respectively at water depth of 0.5 m, when the weight and bearing capacity of the prototype rubber crawler in the paddy field were 8.51 kN and 26.3 $kN/m^2$, respectively. Conclusions: Results of the driving test performance of the prototype crawler in paddy rice field at the water depth of 0.5 m were satisfactory. The prototype had enough drawbar pull and driving ability in the deep water contained paddy field.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.68.1-68.1
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• 2012

The best part of graphene is - charge-carriers in it are mass less particles which move in near relativistic speeds. Comparing to other materials, electrons in graphene travel much faster - at speeds of $10^8cm/s$. A graphene sheet is pure enough to ensure that electrons can travel a fair distance before colliding. Electronic devices few nanometers long that would be able to transmit charge at breath taking speeds for a fraction of power compared to present day CMOS transistors. Many researches try to check a possibility to make it a perfect replacement for silicon based devices. Graphene has shown high potential to be used as interconnects in the field of high frequency electrical devices. With all those advantages of graphene, we demonstrate characteristics of electrical and optical properties of graphene such as the effect of graphene geometry on the microwave properties using the measurements of S-parameter in range of 500 MHz - 40 GHz at room temperature condition. We confirm that impedance and resistance decrease with increasing the number of graphene layer and w/L ratio. This result shows proper geometry of graphene to be used as high frequency interconnects. This study also presents the optical properties of graphene oxide (GO), which were deposited in different substrate, or influenced by oxygen plasma, were confirmed using different characterization techniques. 4-6 layers of the polycrystalline GO layers, which were confirmed by High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and electron diffraction analysis, were shown short range order of crystallization by the substrate as well as interlayer effect with an increase in interplanar spacing, which can be attributed to the presence of oxygen functional groups on its layers. X-ray photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy confirms the presence of the $sp^2$ and $sp^3$ hybridization due to the disordered crystal structures of the carbon atoms results from oxidation, and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and XPS analysis shows the changes in oxygen functional groups with nature of substrate. Moreover, the photoluminescent (PL) peak emission wavelength varies with substrate and the broad energy level distribution produces excitation dependent PL emission in a broad wavelength ranging from 400 to 650 nm. The structural and optical properties of oxygen plasma treated GO films for possible optoelectronic applications were also investigated using various characterization techniques. HRTEM and electron diffraction analysis confirmed that the oxygen plasma treatment results short range order crystallization in GO films with an increase in interplanar spacing, which can be attributed to the presence of oxygen functional groups. In addition, Electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and Raman spectroscopy confirms the presence of the $sp^2$ and $sp^3$ hybridization due to the disordered crystal structures of the carbon atoms results from oxidation and XPS analysis shows that epoxy pairs convert to more stable C=O and O-C=O groups with oxygen plasma treatment. The broad energy level distribution resulting from the broad size distribution of the $sp^2$ clusters produces excitation dependent PL emission in a broad wavelength range from 400 to 650 nm. Our results suggest that substrate influenced, or oxygen treatment GO has higher potential for future optoelectronic devices by its various optical properties and visible PL emission.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.218-229
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• 2011

Companding algorithms have been used to enhance speech recognition in noise for cochlea implant users. The efficiency of using companding for digital hearing aid users is not yet validated. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of the companding for digital hearing aid users in the various hearing loss cases. Using HeLPS, a hearing loss simulator, two different sensorinerual hearing loss conditions were simulated; mild gently sloping hearing loss(HL1) and moderate to steeply sloping hearing loss(HL2). In addition, a non-linear compression was simulated to compensate for hearing loss using national acoustic laboratories-non-linear version 1(NAL-NL1) in HeLPS. In companding, the following four different companding strategies were used changing Q values(q1, q2) of pre-filter(F filter) and post filter(G filter). Firstly, five IEEE sentences which were presented with speech-shaped noise at different SNRs(0, 5, 10, 15 dB) were processed by the companding. Secondly, the processed signals were applied to HeLPS. For comparison, signals which were not processed by companding were also applied to HeLPS. For the processed signals, log-likelihood ratio(LLR) and cepstral distance(CEP) were measured for evaluation of speech quality. Also, fourteen normal hearing listeners performed speech reception threshold(SRT) test for evaluation of speech intelligibility. As a result of this study, the processed signals with the companding and NAL-NL1 have performed better than that with only NAL-NL1 in the sensorineural hearing loss conditions. Moreover, the higher ratio of Q values showed better scores in LLR and CEP. In the SRT test, the processed signals with companding(SRT = -13.33 dB SPL) showed significantly better speech perception in noise than those processed using only NAL-NL1(SRT = -11.56 dB SPL).

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.1086-1092
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• 2010

To estimate the genetic characteristics and cumulative power of discrimination (CPD) within Korean native commercial chicken, we used a total of 395 genomic DNAs from six breeds population (Korean Native Red chicken: R, Korean Native Yellow chicken: Y, Korean native Commercial Chicken: C, Ogal chicken: S, Hy-Line Brown: H, White Leghorn: W). Genetic diversity indices including mean allele number among loci, unbiased heterozygosity ($h_i$) within locus, effective number of alleles ($N_e$) and polymorphism information content (PIC) as well as the unbiased average heterozygosity (H) among loci in the populations were calculated using the generated allele frequencies by each marker. Frequencies of microsatellites markers were used to estimate heterozygosities and genetic distances. The nearest distance (0.119) was observed between the C and Y strains. The generated unbiased average heterozygosity among loci in each population was integrated to the global formula of CPD and the result demonstrated that the CPD within the six chicken populations was 99.461%.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.260-267
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• 2006

SBR (styrene-butadiene rubber; 25 wt% of solid contents) nanocomposites reinforced with OLS(organically modified layered silicates) were manufactured via the latex method. Two types of OLS are prepared, i.e. dodecylamine (primary amine) modified montmorillonite (DA-MMT) and N, N-dimethyldodecylamine (tertiary amino) modified MMT (DDA-MMT). X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were employed to characterize the layer distance of OLS and the morphology of the nanocomposites. SBR nanocomposites reinforced with ternary phase filler (carbon black/silica/OLS) systems also manufactured. Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) was performed on these composites to determine the loss factor (tan $\delta$) over a range of temperature($-20^{\circ}C{\sim}80^{\circ}C$). The results showed that there was significant changes on the values or tan $\delta$ with the addition of small amount of the OLS. By increasing the contents of OLS, the values of tan $\delta$ at $0^{\circ}C$ increased but those of tan $\delta$ at $60^{\circ}C$ decreased with increasing OLS contents.

• Composites Research
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.284-289
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• 2019

In the present paper, the dynamic force-moment equilibrium equations, driving power and energy equations are analyzed to formulate the equation for fuel economy(km/liter) equivalent to the driving distance (km) divided by the fuel volume (liter) of the vehicle, a selected model of gasoline powered KIA K3 (1.6v). In addition, the effects of the dynamic parameters such as speed of vehicle (V), vehicle total weight(M), rolling resistance ($C_r$) between tires and road surface, inclined angle of road (${\theta}$), as well as the aerodynamic parameters such as drag coefficient ($C_d$) of vehicle, air density(${\rho}$), cross-sectional area (A) of vehicle, wind speed ($V_w$) have been analyzed. And the possibility of alternative materials such as lightweight metal alloys, fiber reinforced plastic composite materials to replace the conventional steel and casting iron materials and to reduce the weight of the vehicle has been investigated by Ashby's material index method. Through studies, the following results were obtained. The most influencing parameters on the fuel economy at high speed zone (100 km/h) were V, the aerodynamic parameters such as $C_d$, A, ${\rho}$, and $C_r$ and M. While at low speed zone (60 km/h), they are, in magnitude order, dynamic parameters such as V, M, $C_r$ and aerodynamic ones such as $C_d$, A, and ${\rho}$, respectively.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.12
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• pp.77-86
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• 2020

Power quality problems caused by feeder voltage drop and extension construction cost problems can occur with the increasing utilization rates of the existing fixed-type EV (electric vehicle) charger. Moreover, EV users might not be able to access the EV charger due to a lack of EV charging facilities. Therefore, this paper proposes an MPSD (movable power supply device) for EVs to overcome user inconvenience caused by the insufficient number of chargers and extension cost issues. The proposed MPSD was mainly composed of a PV (photovoltaic) system, ESS (energy storage system), EV charging system, and monitoring and control system. Furthermore, there are three operation modes available to enhance the flexibility of the MPSD application, depending on the situation. This paper also presents an economical evaluation modeling using the present worth method to consider the cost and benefit elements. The simulation results based on proposed modeling showed that MPSD is more economical than the existing EV charger. Moreover, its profit can be increased significantly depending on the distance to the installation point.