Hazard analysis of typhoon-related external events using extreme value theory

AbstractBackgroundAfter the Fukushima accident, the importance of hazard analysis for extreme external events was raised.MethodsTo analyze typhoon-induced hazards, which are one of the significant disasters of East Asian countries, a statistical analysis using the extreme value theory, which is a method for estimating the annual exceedance frequency of a rare event, was conducted for an estimation of the occurrence intervals or hazard levels. For the four meteorological variables, maximum wind speed, instantaneous wind speed, hourly precipitation, and daily precipitation, the parameters of the predictive extreme value theory models were estimated.ResultsThe 100-year return levels for each variable were predicted using the developed models and compared with previously reported values. It was also found that there exist significant long-term climate changes of wind speed and precipitation.ConclusionA fragility analysis should be conducted to ensure the safety levels of a nuclear power plant for high levels of wind speed and precipitation, which exceed the results of a previous analysis

Service Negotiation Model for Response Time in Distributed Networks

The important thing of QoS is that response time of service is transparently suggested to resource management system and network users. This helps to schedule jobs or guarantee the service level agreement. This paper proposes to specify a negotiation policy for response time of distributed network using network latency function. To monitor and manage service response time in distributed network, we identified the relationships between network/application performance and QoS parameters. We also provided the statistical analysis on mapping user level response time to application and network level parameters. To show the validation of the network latency function, we used the NS-2 network simulator and showed the efficiency of that function. Finally we suggested the negotiation of policy for response time of requested service

IDENTIFYING CRITICAL KINEMATIC PARAMETERS FOR BETTER GOLF PUTTING

In modern golf competition, putting is one of the crucial parts of the game. It has been reported that putting accounts for about 40% of all golf shot played in tournaments (Gwyn & Patch, 1993). Wiren (1992) also indicated that, on average, putting constitutes 38% of all golf strokes in competition and improving putting skills is th e fastest way to lower the score. However, it is also true that most recreational golfers neglect the putting and seldom practice it hard. Despite this revealing statistics and the obvious importance of competent putting, much of the pedagogical literature is based on the observations and anecdotal evidence provided by top players and coaches (Paradisis & Rees, 2004). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify critical kinematic parameters of a putt by comparing putts performed by elite and novice golifers, and nongolfers. The findings might provide valuable information for improving putting performance

Real-Time Dynamic Simulation of Korean Power Grid for Frequency Regulation Control by MW Battery Energy Storage System

The aim of this study was to develop a real-time dynamic simulator of a power grid with power plant and battery model. The simulator was used to investigate the frequency control characteristics of a megawatt-scale high-capacity energy storage system connected to the electric power grid. In this study, a lithium-ion secondary battery was chosen as one of the batteries for a grid-connected model. The dynamics of the model was analysed in both steady and transient states. The frequency control system of the battery model plays a role in regulating the grid frequency by controlling the power of energy storage systems according to process variables and grid frequencies. The power grid model based on the current power network of South Korea, included power plants, substations and power demands. The power supply is classified by the type of turbine generator as thermal, nuclear, hydro power, pumped power storage, combined power plants and batteries, including high-capacity energy storage systems rated for a maximum of 500 MW. This study deals with an installed capacity of 87.17 GW and peak load of 77.30 GW in the Korean power grid. For 24 hours of operation, the maximum and minimum power outputs were simulated as 61.59 GW and 46.32 GW, respectively. The commercialized real-time dynamic simulation software ProTRAX was used. The simulation was conducted to observe the operation characteristics of the frequency control system during a breakdown of power plants, as well as under governor-free operation, auto generation control operation, and with the battery energy storage system connected. The results show that the model is valid for each power plant breakdown simulation. They also confirm that the output power and frequency controls of the battery operated well during simulations

Equity of health care financing in South Korea: 1990–2016

Abstract Background The National Health Insurance in Korea has been in operation for more than 30 years since having achieved universal health coverage in 1989 and has gone through several policy reforms. Despite its achievements, the Korean health insurance has some shortfalls, one of which concerns the fairness of paying for health care. Method Using the population representative Household Income and Expenditure Survey data in Korea, this study examined the yearly changes in the vertical equity of paying for health care between 1990 and 2016 by the source of financing using the Kakwani index, considering health insurance and other related policy reforms in Korea during this period. Results The study results suggest that direct tax was the most progressive mode of health care financing in all years, whereas indirect tax was proportional. The out-of-pocket payments were weakly regressive in all years. The Kakwani index for health insurance contributions was regressive but now is proportional to the ability to pay, whereas the Kakwani index for private health insurance premiums turned from progressive to weakly regressive. The Kakwani index for overall health care financing showed a weak regressivity during the study period. Discussion The overall health care financing in Korea has transformed from a slight regressivity to proportional over time between 1990 and 2016. It is expected that these changes were closely related to the improved equity of health insurance contributions from 1998 to 2008, which was the result of a merger of the health insurance societies and an amendment in the health insurance contribution structure. These results suggest that standardizing insurance managing organizations and financing rules potentially has positive implications for the equity of healthcare financing in a country where the major method of health care financing is social health insurance

Gene expression profiling of chicken primordial germ cell ESTs

BACKGROUND: Germ cells are the only cell type that can penetrate from one generation to next generation. At the early embryonic developmental stages, germ cells originally stem from primordial germ cells, and finally differentiate into functional gametes, sperm in male or oocyte in female, after sexual maturity. This study was conducted to investigate a large-scale expressed sequence tag (EST) analysis in chicken PGCs and compare the expression of the PGC ESTs with that of embryonic gonad. RESULTS: We constructed 10,851 ESTs from a chicken cDNA library of a collection of highly separated embryonic PGCs. After chimeric and problematic sequences were filtered out using the chicken genomic sequences, there were 5,093 resulting unique sequences consisting of 156 contigs and 4,937 singlets. Pearson chi-square tests of gene ontology terms in the 2nd level between PGC and embryonic gonad set showed no significance. However, digital gene expression profiling using the Audic's test showed that there were 2 genes expressed significantly with higher number of transcripts in PGCs compared with the embryonic gonads set. On the other hand, 17 genes in embryonic gonads were up-regulated higher than those in the PGC set. CONCLUSION: Our results in this study contribute to knowledge of mining novel transcripts and genes involved in germline cell proliferation and differentiation at the early embryonic stages

Structural and histological characterization of oviductal magnum and lectin-binding patterns in Gallus domesticus

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although chicken oviduct is a useful model and target tissue for reproductive biology and transgenesis, little is known because of the highly specific hormonal regulation and the lack of fundamental researches, including lectin-binding activities and glycobiology. Because lectin is attached to secreted glycoproteins, we hypothesized that lectin could be bound to secretory egg-white proteins, and played a crucial role in the generation of egg-white protein in the oviduct. Hence, the purpose of this study was to investigate the structural, histological and lectin-binding characteristics of the chicken oviductal magnum from juvenile and adult hens.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The oviductal magnums from juvenile and adult hens were prepared for ultrastructural analysis, qRT-PCR and immunostaining. Immunohistochemistry of anti-ovalbumin, anti-ESR1 and anti-PGR, and mRNA expression of egg-white genes and steroid hormone receptor genes were evaluated. Lectin histochemical staining was also conducted in juvenile and adult oviductal magnum tissues.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The ultrastructural analysis showed that ciliated cells were rarely developed on luminal surface in juvenile magnum, but not tubular gland cells. In adult magnum, two types of epithelium and three types of tubular gland cells were observed. qRT-PCR analysis showed that egg-white genes were highly expressed in adult oviduct compared with the juvenile. However, mRNA expressions of <it>ESR1 </it>and <it>PGR </it>were considerably higher in juvenile oviduct than adult (<it>P </it>< 0.05). The immunohistochemical analysis showed that anti-ovalbumin antibody was detected in adult oviduct not in juvenile, unlikely anti-ESR1 and anti-PGR antibodies that were stained in both oviducts. In histological analysis, Toluidine blue was stained in juvenile and adult oviductal epithelia, and adult tubular glands located in the outer layer of oviductal magnum. In contrast, PAS was positive only in adult oviductal tubular gland. Lectins were selectively bound to oviductal epithelium, stroma, and tubular gland cells. Particularly, lectin-ConA and WGA were bound to electron-dense secretory granules in tubular gland.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The observation of ultrastructural analysis, mRNA expression, immunohistochemistry and lectin staining showed structural and physiological characterization of juvenile and adult oviductal magnum. Consequently, oviduct study could be helped to <it>in vitro </it>culture of chicken oviductal cells, to develop epithelial or tubular gland cell-specific markers, and to understand female reproductive biology and endocrinology.</p