• Title/Summary/Keyword: Area Efficiency

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TNF-α in the Pleural Fluid for the Differential Diagnosis of Tuberculous and Malignant Effusion (결핵성 및 악성흉수의 감별에 있어 흉수 내 TNF-α의 유용성)

  • Kim, Hye Jin;Shin, Kyeong Cheol;Lee, Jae Woong;Kim, Kyu Jin;Hong, Yeong Hoon;Chung, Jin Hong;Lee, Kwan Ho
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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    • v.59 no.6
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    • pp.625-630
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    • 2005
  • Background : Determining the cause of an exudative pleural effusion is sometimes quite difficult, especially between malignant and tuberculous effusions. Twenty percent of effusions remain undiagnosed even after a complete diagnostic evaluation, including pleural biopsy. The activity of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-${\alpha}$), which is the one of proinflammatory cytokines, is increased in both infectious and malignant effusions. The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic efficiency of TNF-${\alpha}$ activity in distinguishing tuberculous from malignant effusions. Methods : 46 patients (13 with malignant pleural effusion, 33 with tuberculous pleural effusion) with exudative pleurisy were included. TNF-${\alpha}$ concentrations were measured in the pleural fluid and serum samples using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). In addition, TNF-${\alpha}$ ratio (pleural fluid TNF-${\alpha}$ : serum TNF-${\alpha}$) was calculated. Results : TNF-${\alpha}$ concentration and TNF-${\alpha}$ ratio in the pleural fluid were significantly higher in the tuberculous effusions than in the malignant effusions (p<0.05). However, the serum levels of TNF-${\alpha}$ in the malignant and tuberculous pleural effusions were similar (p>0.05). The cut off points for the pleural fluid TNF-${\alpha}$ level and TNF-${\alpha}$ ratio were found to be 136.4 pg/mL and 6.4, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity and area under the curve were 81%, 80% and 0.82 for the pleural fluid TNF-${\alpha}$ level (p<0.005) and 76%, 70% and 0.72 for the TNF-${\alpha}$ ratio (p<0.05). Conclusion : We conclude that pleural fluid TNF-${\alpha}$ level and TNF-${\alpha}$ ratio can distinguish a malignant pleural effusion from a tuberculous effusion, and can be additional markers in a differential diagnosis of tuberculous and malignant pleural effusion. The level of TNF-${\alpha}$ in the pleural fluid could be a more efficient marker than the TNF-${\alpha}$ ratio.

Cost Analysis of Home Nursing Care Patients in Rural Hospital (농촌 지역 중소병원의 가정간호사업소 등록환자의 방문비용분석)

  • Kim, Jin-Soon;Kum, Ran;HwangBo, Soo-Ja
    • Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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    • v.24 no.1
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    • pp.91-101
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    • 1999
  • The home nursing care system is an integral part of the health care delivery system in order to meet the various needs of consummer, in particular, early discharge patient from the hospital, patient with long term care needed and the elderly. To find out the cost of home nursing care services, the home nursing care records of patients registered by home nursing care units established in public hospital with 150beds during the period of 1996 - 1997 were analyzed. The subjects were 102patients, 45 of male patients and 57 of female patients, those who live in a rural area in Kymiggi - Do The results obtained are as follows : 1. The male patients accounted for 44.1% of the total, with 45cases : group aged 60 years and more was the largest group, accounting for 79.5%. 2. The most frequent disease revealed was the osteoporosis which constitute 35.3% of the total registered patients, followed, in order, by malignant tumor, cerebrovascular disease. 3. It revealed that the cost per visit for the male was 47,764won ; the female, 46,078 won per visit. Noteworthy the cost per visit was high in the older patient. It was clearly that the gender, years of age and the cost per visit were statistically significant at 0.01 level and 0.05 level. 4. The cost per visit for the non complicated disease was slightly higher than the complicated disease, but it is not statistically significant, the cost per visit by type of disease varied, the cost per visit for COPD was the highest, followed, in order, by in malignant tumor, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis etc. 5. It revealed that home nursing care cost for a eligible disease for home nursing care was less than the cost for hospitalization of the same disease, therefore, we expect that the home nursing care is cost efficiency. In conclusion, the home nursing care costs are needed to analyze further in comparison with the hospitalization costs for a certain disease.

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Application Effect of Heating Energy Saving Package on Venlo Type Glasshouse of Paprika Cultivation (파프리카 재배 벤로형 유리온실에서 난방에너지 절감 패키지 기술 적용효과)

  • Kwon, Jin Kyung;Jeon, Jong Gil;Kim, Seung Hee;Kim, Hyung Gweon
    • Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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    • v.25 no.4
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    • pp.225-231
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    • 2016
  • Glasshouse heating package technologies to improve energy usage efficiency in winter were developed. Heating package was composed of the ground water source heat pump with heating capacity of 105kW, the aluminum multi-layer thermal curtain with six layers of different materials and the root zone local heater with XL pipes of ${\phi}20mm$. Venlo type glasshouse($461m^2$) with the heating package was compared with the same type and area control glasshouse with the light oil boiler, the usual non-woven fabric thermal curtain with respect to the glasshouse inside temperature, relative humidity, crop growth, and heating energy consumption. The results of test in paprika cultivation glasshouses showed that the air temperature inside glasshouse with aluminum multi-layer thermal curtain was maintained $2.2^{\circ}C$ higher than that of control glasshouse in un-heating night time and the temperature in bed with root zone local heating was $4.7^{\circ}C$ higher than that in bed without local heating. Average heating coefficient of performance(COP) of the ground water source heat pump used in paprika cultivation was 3.7 and the glasshouse inside temperature was maintained at $21^{\circ}C$ of heating set up temperature. The heating energy consumptions per 10a were measured at 14,071L of light oil and 364kWh of electric power for the control glasshouse and 35,082kWh for the glasshouse applied heating package. As results, the heating cost of the glasshouse applied heating package was 87 percent lower than that of control glasshouse. The growths of paprika in glasshouses of control and applied heating package did not show any significant difference.

Health Medical Center Utilization Pattern and Its Related Factors among the Rural Inhabitants (농촌지역(農村地域) 주민(住民)들의 보건의료원(保健醫療院) 이용양상(利用樣相)과 관련요인(關聯要因))

  • Hwang, Byung-Deog;Park, Jae-Yong
    • Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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    • v.18 no.1
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    • pp.77-91
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    • 1993
  • This study was conducted to assess health medical center utilization pattern and its related factors among the rural inhabitants for the purpose of contribution to establishment of health medical center institutions. A questionnaire survey was carried out for object of 3,754 population of three primary school and three middle school student's parents (total 832 household) in Kyungbook Ulchin Gun rural area from 24 to 28 September, 1990. The summarized result are as follows, Respondents are 60.3% in male, 39.7% in female and 30-40s 81.3% in age, high school graduates 40.3% in education level and a regional medical insurance scheme in 44.1% in forms of health insurance. Recognition for health medical center was showed higher according to high educational, high income level, and short distance for location of health medical center of respondents (p < 0.01). Recognition for health medical center services was showed higher about care of medicaid in medical treatment services and higher preventive vaccination in health prevention services by respondents. Utilization rates of health medical center by out-patient care and preventive care service were 11.1 and 4.5 per 100 persons by year, but admission utilization rate was 34.6 per 10.000 persons by year. Motivations of health medical center utilization were showed a good care(45.7%), a good drugs(45.2%), and nearby health medical center(42.9%). In comparison health service levels of health medical center with general clinic was better (16.3%), similar(38.7%), 7(19.0%), and worse(19.0%) in view of health medical center utilizators. Inconvinience about health medical center utilized was the most higher longtime waiting, the next was limited utilization times. Transportation utilited were on foot(55%), by bus(35.5%), and so on. As mentioned above, there are many inhabitants who less understanding and less acknowledgement about health medical center and even mistake health center for health medical center. Therefore, there must be more information about health medical center. For higher utilization of health medical center, there must be considered expansion of health equipment, facilities, accomplishment with reinforcement of health staffs and efficiency management.

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Evaluation of Hydrogeologic Seal Capacity of Mudstone in the Yeongil Group, Pohang Basin, Korea: Focusing on Mercury Intrusion Capillary Pressure Analysis (포항분지 영일층군 이암층의 수리지질학적 차폐능 평가: 수은 모세관 압입 시험의 결과 분석을 중심으로)

  • Kim, Seon-Ok;Wang, Sookyun;Lee, Minhee
    • Economic and Environmental Geology
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    • v.53 no.1
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    • pp.23-32
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    • 2020
  • Geological CO2 sequestration is a global warming response technology to limit atmospheric emissions by injecting CO2 captured on a large scale into deep geological formations. The presented results concern mineralogical and hydrogeological investigations (FE-SEM, XRD, XRF, and MICP) of mudstone samples from drilling cores of the Pohang basin, which is the research area for the first demonstration-scale CO2 storage project in Korea. They aim to identify the mineral properties of the mudstone constituting the caprock and to quantitatively evaluate the hydrogeologic sealing capacity that directly affects the stability and reliability of geological CO2 storage. Mineralogical analysis showed that the mudstone samples are mainly composed of quartz, K-feldspar, plagioclase and a small amount of pyrite, calcite, clay minerals, etc. Mercury intrusion capillary pressure analysis also showed that the samples generally had uniform particle configurations and pore distribution and there was no distinct correlation between the estimated porosity and air permeability. The allowable CO2 column heights based on the estimated pore-entry pressures and breakthrough pressures were found to be significantly higher than the thickness of the targeting CO2 injection layer. These results showed that the mudstone layers in the Yeongil group, Pohang basin, Korea have sufficient sealing capacity to suppress the leakage of CO2 injected during the demonstration-scale CO2 storage project. It should be noticed, however, that the applicability of results and analyses in this study is limited by the lack of available samples. For rigorous assessment of the sealing efficiency for geological CO2 storage operations, significant efforts on collection and multi-aspect evaluation for core samples over entire caprock formations should be accompanied.

Comparison of Removal Efficiencies in Single and Duplex Ventilation Constructed Wetland Systems for Treating Domestic Sewage (단일 통풍형과 이중 통풍형 인공습지시스템의 하수처리 효율 비교)

  • Seo, Dong-Cheol;Lim, Seok-Cheon;Jo, In-Seong;Lee, Byeong-Ju;Lee, Hong-Jae;Kim, Sang-Don;Lee, Jun-Bae;Cho, Ju-Sik;Heo, Jong-Soo
    • Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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    • v.28 no.3
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    • pp.258-265
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    • 2009
  • To develop environmentally friendly constructed wetlands(CWs) for treating domestic sewage which was produced in farming and fishing village, the efficiency of water treatment at different ventilation systems in the vertical bed, depths of horizontal bed, and sewage loads was investigated. In the vertical bed, BOD and COD by duplex ventilation system were lower than those by single ventilation system. But T-N and T-P concentrations by both ventilation systems in the vertical bed were little different. In the horizontal bed, BOD, COD, T-N and T-P in 1.0 m and 1.3 m depths were little different. To reduce the CWs' area and to improve the pollutant removal efficiencies, the optimum depth of horizontal bed was 1.3 m. In single and duplex ventilation CWs, the removal rate of BOD, COD, SS, T-N and T-P decreased slightly with the sewage load increases. In same sewage load conditions, the removal rates of BOD, COD, SS, T-N and T-P by duplex ventilation CWs were higher than those by single ventilation CWs. In summary, to effectively treat domestic sewage from farming and fishing village, the optimum constructed wetlands would be the duplex ventilation CWs.

Reliability Verification of FLUKA Transport Code for Double Layered X-ray Protective Sheet Design (이중 구조의 X선 차폐시트 설계를 위한 FLUKA 수송코드의 신뢰성 검증)

  • Kang, Sang Sik;Heo, Seung Wook;Choi, Il Hong;Jun, Jae Hoon;Yang, Sung Woo;Kim, Kyo Tae;Heo, Ye Ji;Park, Ji Koon
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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    • v.11 no.7
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    • pp.547-553
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    • 2017
  • In the current medical field, lead is widely used as a radiation shield. However, the lead weight is very heavy, so wearing protective clothing such as apron is difficult to wear for long periods of time and there is a problem with the danger of lethal toxicity in humans. Recently, many studies have been conducted to develop substitute materials of lead to resolve these problems. As a substitute materials for lead, barium(Ba) and iodine(I) have excellent shielding ability. But, It has characteristics emitting characteristic X-rays from the energy area near 30 keV. For patients or radiation workers, shielding materials is often made into contact with the human body. Therefore, the characteristic X-rays generated by the shielding material are directly exposured in the human body, which increases the risk of increasing radiation absorbed dose. In this study, we have developed the FLUKA transport code, one of the most suitable elements of radiation transport codes, to remove the characteristic X-rays generated by barium or iodine. We have verified the reliability of the shielding fraction of the structure of the structure shielding by comparing with the MCPDX simulations conducted as a prior study. Using the MCNPX and FLUKA, the double layer shielding structures with the various thickness combination consisting of barium sulphate ($BaSO_4$) and bismuth oxide($Bi_2O_3$) are designed. The accuracy of the type shown in IEC 61331-1 was geometrically identical to the simulation. In addition, the transmission spectrum and absorbed dose of the shielding material for the successive x-rays of 120 kVp spectra were compared with lead. In results, $0.3mm-BaSO_4/0.3mm-Bi_2O_3$ and $0.1mm-BaSO_4/0.5mm-Bi_2O_3$ structures have been absorbed in both 33 keV and 37 keV characteristic X-rays. In addition, for high-energy X-rays greater than 90 keV, the shielding efficiency was shown close to lead. Also, the transport code of the FLUKA's photon transport code was showed cut-off on low-energy X-rays(below 33keV) and is limited to computerized X-rays of the low-energy X-rays. But, In high-energy areas above 40 keV, the relative error with MCNPX was found to be highly reliable within 6 %.

Design of CMOS Multifunction ICs for X-band Phased Array Systems (CMOS 공정 기반의 X-대역 위상 배열 시스템용 다기능 집적 회로 설계)

  • Ku, Bon-Hyun;Hong, Song-Cheol
    • Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea TC
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    • v.46 no.12
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    • pp.6-13
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    • 2009
  • For X-band phased array systems, a power amplifier, a 6-bit phase shifter, a 6-bit digital attenuator, and a SPDT transmit/receive (T/R) switch are fabricated and measured. All circuits are demonstrated by using CMOS 0.18 um technology. The power amplifier has 2-stage differential and cascade structures. It provides 1-dB gain-compressed output power ($P_{1dB}$) of 20 dBm and power-added-efficiency (PAE) of 19 % at 8-11 GHz frequencies. The 6-bit phase shifter utilizes embedded switched filter structure which consists of nMOS transistors as a switch and meandered microstrip lines for desired inductances. It has $360^{\circ}$ phase-control range and $5.6^{\circ}$ phase resolution. At 8-11 GHz frequencies, it has RMS phase and amplitude errors are below $5^{\circ}$ and 0.8 dB, and insertion loss of $-15.7\;{\pm}\;1,1\;dB$. The 6-bit digital attenuator is comprised of embedded switched Pi-and T-type attenuators resistive networks and nMOS switches and employes compensation circuits for low insertion phase variation. It has max. attenuation of 31.5 dB and 0.5 dB amplitude resolution. Its RMS amplitude and phase errors are below 0.4 dB and $2^{\circ}$ at 8-11 GHz frequencies, and insertion loss is $-10.5\;{\pm}\;0.8\;dB$. The SPDT T/R switch has series and shunt transistor pairs on transmit and receive path, and only one inductance to reduce chip area. It shows insertion loss of -1.5 dB, return loss below -15 dB, and isolation about -30 dB. The fabricated chip areas are $1.28\;mm^2$, $1.9mm^2$, $0.34\;mm^2$, $0.02mm^2$, respectively.

Experimental Research on the Power Improvement by Increasing Intake pressure in a 1.4 L Turbocharged CNG Port Injection Spark Ignition Engine (1.4L 급 터보 CNG 엔진에서 흡기압력 상승에 따른 출력 증대 효과에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, Jeong-Woo;Park, Cheol-Woong;Bae, Jong-Won;Kim, Chang-Gi;Lee, Sun-Youp;Kim, Yong-Rae
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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    • v.23 no.6
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    • pp.90-96
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    • 2019
  • Natural gas has been regarded as one of major alternative fuels, because of the increment of mining shale gas and supplying PNG(Pipeline Natural Gas) from Russia. Thus, it needs to broaden the usage of natural gas as the increasing its supplement. In this situation, application of natural gas on the transport area is a good suggestion to reduce exhaust emissions such as CO2(carbon dioxides) and soot from vehicles. For this reason, natural gas can be applied to SI(spark ignition) engines due to its anti-knocking and low auto-ignitibility characteristics. Recently, since turbocharged SI engine has been widely used, it needs to apply natural gas on the turbocharged SI engine. However, there is a major challenge for using natural gas on turbocharged SI engine, because it is hard to make natural gas direct injection in the cylinder, while gasoline is possible. As a result, there is a loss of fresh air when natural gas is injected by MPI (multi-point injection) method under the same intake pressure with gasoline-fueled condition. It brings the power reduction. Therefore, in this research, intake pressure was increased by controling the turbocharger system under natural gas-fueled condition to improve power output. The goal of improved power is the same level with that of gasoline-fueled condition under the maximum torque condition of each engine speed. As a result, the maximum power levels, which are the same with those of gasoline-fueled conditions, with improved brake thermal efficiency could be achieved for each engine speed (from 2,000 to 6,000 rpm) by increasing intake pressure 5-27 % compared to those of gasoline-fueled conditions.

A Study on Utilization and Perceived Service Quality of the University Foodservice (대학급식 이용실태 및 급식서비스 품질이 고객만족과 고객태도에 미치는 영향)

  • Jung, Hyun-Young
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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    • v.42 no.4
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    • pp.633-643
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    • 2013
  • This study investigated the efficiency of university foodservice operations by analyzing the effect of consumer's perception towards university foodservice quality. University students in the Jeonnam area were surveyed and 571 out of 700 surveys were chosen (response rate: 97.0%). SPSS (ver. 20.0) was used to conduct descriptive analysis, factor analysis, reliability analysis, t-test, and multiple regression analysis. The results show that 21.9% of university students have never used the university foodservice, while 48.7% of university students have eaten there 1~2 times per week. The most common reasons reported for avoiding the university foodservice were a limited menu selection (51.5%) and an untasty food (45.8%). The perception of overall service quality at the university foodservice scored relatively low (3.01 points), compared with its importance (3.89 points). The food taste, menu variety, and quality of food ingredients are factors that require improvement for operational strategies by the importance-performance analysis (IPA). The food factors (taste, variety, and quality) among university foodservice qualities had a significantly positive effect on consumers' overall satisfaction (p<0.001), perceived value (p<0.01), intent to recommend (p<0.001), and intent to revisit (p<0.01). These result indicate that the university foodservice management should focus on developing food factors and strive to meet the needs of university students through continuous customer surveys.