• Journal of the Korean Orthopaedic Association
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.353-360
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• 2019

Purpose: In the treatment of Dupuytren's contracture, the aim of optical treatment is to lower the recurrence rate and reduce complications. This paper reports the results of subtotal fasciectomy in Dupuytren's contracture, extending the excision of palmar fascial structures from the diseased to normal appearing adjacent fascial structure. Materials and Methods: From 2007 to 2017, 45 patients with Dupuytren's contracture treated by subtotal fasciectomy were reviewed retrospectively. The mean follow-up period was 45.9 months. Ninety-two digits were involved (index: 2, middle: 10, ring: 44, little: 36). The predisposing factors and affected joint were reviewed and the preoperative and postoperative contracture was measured. For clinical results, quick disabilities of the arm, shoulder, and hand (quick DASH) were used. Complications, including wound or skin problems, nerve injuries, hematoma, and complex regional pain syndrome, were assessed. Results: Preoperative flexion contracture was 43.2° in the proximal interphalangeal joint and 32.9° in the metacarpophalangeal joint. In nine cases, patients had residual contracture of 9.7° (range, 5°-20°) on average and if the total number of cases were included, the mean residual contracture was 2.3° on average. The quick DASH score at the 12 months follow-up was 12.4. The overall complication rate was 26.6%. Conclusion: Subtotal fasciectomy can be a good surgical treatment option for Dupuytren's contracture with a low recurrence and low complication rate compared to other open procedures.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.205-216
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• 2024

Recently, seismic Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) methods have been developed for process plants, such as gas plants, oil refineries, and chemical plants. The framework originated from the PSA of nuclear power plants, which aims to assess the risk of reactor core damage. The original PSA method was modified to adopt the characteristics of a process plant whose purpose is continuous operation without shutdown. Therefore, a fault tree, whose top event is shut down, was constructed and transformed into a Bayesian Network (BN), a probabilistic graph model, for efficient risk-informed decision-making. In this research, the fault tree-based BN from the previous research is further developed to consider the multi-hazard of earthquake-induced fire and explosion (EQ-induced F&E). For this purpose, an event tree describing the occurrence of fire and explosion from a release is first constructed and transformed into a BN. And then, this BN is connected to the previous BN model developed for seismic PSA. A virtual plot plan of a gas plant is introduced as a basis for the construction of the specific EQ-induced F&E BN to test the proposed BN framework. The paper demonstrates the method through two examples of risk-informed decision-making. In particular, the second example verifies how the proposed method can establish a repair and retrofit strategy when a shutdown occurs in a process plant.

• Composites Research
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.238-245
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• 2024

In this study, as part of the development of a monitoring system for the efficient maintenance of steel pipes, an experimental study was conducted to evaluate the performance of steel pipes treated with modified polyethylene coating. In the case of the conventional mechanical pre-coating method, there was a deterioration in polyethylene adhesion during expansion testing, which led to the application of a chemical pre-treatment process using a calcium-mixed phosphate zinc film to resolve this issue. SEM and EDX analyses showed that the densest structure was observed at a Zn/Ca ratio of 1.0, and improved heat resistance compared to the conventional method was confirmed. Additionally, to prevent coating detachment during expansion, an evaluation of adhesion and elongation was conducted on steel pipes with modified polyethylene coating, incorporating materials such as elastomers based on maleic anhydride grafting, metal oxides, blocking agents, and slip agents. Experimental results showed that the specimen (S4) containing all modified materials exhibited more than a 25% performance improvement compared to the specimen (S2) containing only metal oxides. Lastly, the development and performance evaluation of wedge-shaped socketing and pressing wheels, which are part of the pipe fixing accessories, were conducted to prevent surface coating damage on the completed pipes.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.203-214
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• 2023

In this study, the physical properties and fracture characteristics according to the tensile load are evaluated on the materials of the polymeric filler and carbon fiber-based composite sleeve technique. The polymeric filler and the composite sleeve technique are applied to areas where the pipe body thickness is reduced due to corrosion in large-diameter water pipes. First, the tensile strength of the polymeric filler was 161.48~240.43 kg_f/cm², and the tensile strength of the polyurea polymeric filler was relatively higher than that of the epoxy. However, the tensile strength of the polymeric filler is relatively very low compared to ductile cast iron pipes(4,300 kg_f/cm²<) or steel pipes(4,100 kg_f/cm²). Second, the tensile strength of glass fiber, which is mainly used in composite sleeves, is 3,887.0 kg_f/cm², and that of carbon fiber is up to 5,922.5 kg_f/cm². The tensile strengths of glass and carbon fiber are higher than ductile cast iron pipe or steel pipe. Third, when reinforcing the hemispherical simulated corrosion shape of the ductile cast iron pipe and the steel pipe with a polymeric filler, there was an effect of increasing the ultimate tensile load by 1.04 to 1.06 times, but the ultimate load was 37.7 to 53.7% compared to the ductile cast iron or steel specimen without corrosion damage. It was found that the effect on the reinforcement of the corrosion damaged part was insignificant. Fourth, the composite sleeve using carbon fiber showed an ultimate load of 1.10(0.61T, 1,821.0 kg_f) and 1.02(0.60T, 2,290.7 kg_f) times higher than the ductile cast iron pipe(1,657.83 kg_f) and steel pipe(2,236.8 kg_f), respectively. When using a composite sleeve such as fiber, the corrosion damage part of large-diameter water pipes can be reinforced with same level as the original pipe, and the supply stability can be secured through accident prevention.

• Composites Research
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.101-107
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• 2024

Demand for submarine cable is increasing due to advances in submarine power transmission technology and submarine cable manufacturing technology. Submarine cable use various types of protective equipment to prevent problems such as high maintenance costs in the event of cable damage and power outages during maintenance periods. Among them, flexible protection tube is a representative protective equipment to protect cables and respond to external forces such as waves and current. The flexible protection tube is made of polyurethane 85A hyperelastic material, so the calculation of mechanical behavior is carried out using mechanical properties based on experimental results. In this study, a study was conducted to determine the bending performance and tensile performance of flexible protection tube through analytical methods. The physical properties obtained through the multiaxial tensile test of polyurethane 85A were used for the analysis. Bending and tensile performance were determined for the maximum bending moment standard of 15 kN·m and the tensile load standard of 50 kN. As a result, it was confirmed that when the maximum bending moment of 15 kN·m of the flexible protection tube occurred, the bending performance of the MBR was secured at 13 m and when a tensile load of 50 kN, it was applied the maximum vertical displacement was 968 mm, confirming that the tensile performance was secured.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.62 no.3
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• pp.274-280
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• 2024

Machine learning techniques utilizing neural networks have been employed in various fields such as disease gene discovery and diagnosis, drug development, and prediction of drug-induced liver injury. Disease features can be investigated by molecular information of DNA. In this study, we developed a neural network to predict the length of DNA and the number of DNA species in mixture solution which are representative molecular information of DNA. In order to address the time-consuming limitations of gel electrophoresis as conventional analysis, we analyzed the dynamic data of a microfluidic concentrating device. The dynamic data were reconstructed into a spatiotemporal map, which reduced the computational cost required for training and prediction. We employed a convolutional neural network to enhance the accuracy to analyze the spatiotemporal map. As a result, we successfully performed single DNA length prediction as single-variable regression, simultaneous prediction of multiple DNA lengths as multivariable regression, and prediction of the number of DNA species in mixture as binary classification. Additionally, based on the composition of training data, we proposed a solution to resolve the problem of prediction bias. By utilizing this study, it would be effectively performed that medical diagnosis using optical measurement such as liquid biopsy of cell-free DNA, cancer diagnosis, etc.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.365-376
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• 1999

The importance of finishing and polishing the restoration has been described by several authors. The final step provides for improved metallurgical properties, better marginal adaptation, reduced plaque accumulation. Unfortunately, finishing of the restorations can produce damage from temperature rises at the pulpal wall. The aim of this study was to determine the changes in temperature can be occurred during the use of finishing and polishing instruments under a variety of conditions. ; with or without a water coolant, intermittent or continuous operation, high or low rotation speed, remaining dentin thickness and various restorative materials. Class V preparations were cut on extracted molars and restored with composite resin(Z 100), resin-modified glass ionomer cements(Dyract, Fuji II LC), and amalgam. Finishing was done with aluminum oxide coated disc($Sof-lex^{(R)}$ polishing disc, 3M, USA). The following results were obtained. 1. The rise of temperature during polishing of amalgam restorations was the highest among the all experimental groups except polishing with water coolant(P<0.05). However, there were no statistical differences in temperature rises between Z 100, Dyract and Fuji II LC(P>0.05). 2. The intrapulpal temperature was greatly influenced by the applied time, and intermittent polishing was showed significantly lower temperature rises than continuous polishing(P<0.01). 3. The intrapulpal temperature was increased according to the application of polishing regard less of using water coolant. However, polishing with water coolant showed significantly lower temperature in the pulp than not used water coolant(P<0.01).

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.44-55
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• 1981

Neutral sulfite precooked fir chips were refined in the Asplund Laboratory Defibrator at various temperature ($20^{\circ}C$, $120^{\circ}C$ and $180^{\circ}C$). The effects of refining temperatures on the physical property and morphological structure of the resulting pulps were discussed. Yields of precooked chips (84%, 92% and 100%) and refining temperature affected remarkably the yield of refined pulp, its beatability, sheet strength and morhphological characteristics. Pulp yield and beatability decreased with increasing refining temperature. Fiber surface of unbeaten pulp from precooked chips of 84% yield was to some extent covered by the secondary wall, while that of the pulp form precooked yield of 92% by the compound middle lamella. In the case of uncooked chips, fibers were damaged heavily, and the exposed fiber surface resulted from the equal amount of the secondary wall and the compound middle lamella. In the case of pulps prepared from precooked chips of higher yields (92% and 100%), sheet strength increased linearly as sheet density increased. But at the same sheet density, pulp from lower precooked yield (84%) had better sheet strength after open discharge refining as compared to pressurized refining, because pulp from the former had much amounts of fines fraction of higher water retention value than the latters. And there was observed a little difference in fiber length distribution but nearly similar in its morphology with increasing refining temperature.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.93-97
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• 2004

We investigate the effect of enzyme pretreatment using protease, carbohydrase, and lipase on improvement of sludge treatment efficiency by measuring SCOD and TCOD. The enzyme-pretreatment increases SCOD of excess sludge. In addition, the amount of sludge reduction during digestion, in terms of SCOD and TCOD, are enhanced by enzyme-pretreatment. Among pretense, carbohydrase, and lipase, pretense showed the best enhancement of the sludge treatment efficiency. Sludge digestion followed by ozone and enzyme treatments showed more effective sludge treatment when compared with ozone treatment alone. Therefore, we expect that enzyme pretreatment can be used as a useful tool for enhancing the sludge treatment efficiency.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.5_1
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• pp.655-667
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• 2023

Algal bloom outbreaks are frequently reported around the world, and serious water pollution problems arise every year in Korea. It is necessary to protect the aquatic ecosystem through continuous management and rapid response. Many studies using satellite images are being conducted to estimate the concentration of chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), an indicator of algal bloom occurrence. However, machine learning models have recently been used because it is difficult to accurately calculate Chl-a due to the spectral characteristics and atmospheric correction errors that change depending on the water system. It is necessary to consider the factors affecting algal bloom as well as the satellite spectral index. Therefore, this study constructed a dataset by considering water quality, hydrological and meteorological factors, and sentinel-2 images in combination. Representative ensemble models random forest and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) were used to predict the concentration of Chl-a in eight weirs located on the Nakdong river over the past five years. R-squared score (R²), root mean square errors (RMSE), and mean absolute errors (MAE) were used as model evaluation indicators, and it was confirmed that R² of XGBoost was 0.80, RMSE was 6.612, and MAE was 4.457. Shapley additive expansion analysis showed that water quality factors, suspended solids, biochemical oxygen demand, dissolved oxygen, and the band ratio using red edge bands were of high importance in both models. Various input data were confirmed to help improve model performance, and it seems that it can be applied to domestic and international algal bloom detection.