• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.9
• /
• pp.4777-4781
• /
• 2012

Objective: To investigate the relationship between the efficacy and safety of different doses of thalidomide (Thal) plus dexamethasone (Dex) as the initial therapy in elderly patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (MM). Methods: Clinical data of 28 elderly patients with newly diagnosed MM who underwent the TD regimen as the initial therapy were analyzed retrospectively. The patients were divided into two groups according to the maximal sustained dose of Thal: lower dose (group A) and higher dose (group B). The overall response rate (ORR), progression free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and adverse events (AES) were compared between the two groups. Results: A total of 28 patients were followed up with a median of 18 months. The ORR was 60.1%. The median response time and PFS were 2.0 and 17.0 months, respectively. The mean sustained dose of Thal in group B was significantly higher than group A (292.9 mg v 180.4 mg, P=0.01). There was no significantly difference in ORR (57.1% v 64.3%, P=1.00) and PFS (9.63months v 17.66 months, P=0.73) between groups A and B. During the follow up, only five patients died (<40%) and, therefore, median OS values were not available. It is estimated, however, that the mean survival time in the two groups was 35.6 and 33.4 months (P>0.05), respectively. All of the patients tolerated the treatment well. The incidence of AES in patients with a grading above 3 in group B was significantly higher than in group A (P=0.033). Conclusions: The TD regimen results in a high response rate and manageable AES as the initial therapy in elderly patients with MM. TD should be considered as the front line regimen for the treatment of elderly patients with MM in areas with financial constraints. The clinical response can be achieved at a low dose Thal with minimal toxicity.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.63-83
• /
• 2002

The purpose of this study was to serve as a basis for more efficient dental hygienist human resources utilization and for determining some of the right directions for supplementary education for dental hygienists, by examining how they actually worked and what they thought of job-related things. The subjects in this study were 537 dental hygienists who participated in a seminar by the Korea Dental Hygienist Association. After a survey was conducted, the following findings were given: 1. 50.2% of the dental hygienists investigated completed legally required eight-class education. Those who worked in clinics took less supplementary education classes than the others in the other types of dental institutions. The main reason they didn't receive supplementary education was financial burden and uncooperative employers. 73.2% took supplementary education at the association or its branches. The association was most favored by those in clinical sector as a place that provides supplementary education, followed by its branch and university in the order named. And the dental hygienists in public health sector preferred university most, and the next best favored one was the association and its branch in the order named. Those in clinical sector hoped to acquire clinical information on patient management, implant or aesthetics, and the dental hygienists in public health sector wanted to learn about health administration, public oral health operations and oral health education, which were different from what those in clinical sector wanted. 2. Regarding the period of service, 492% had worked for three years or more. This fact suggested that their service term and average age continued to grow. And they thought they would decide the retirement time on their own. 3. The most common yearly income ranged from 12 million won to 16 million won(40.7%). For-those in clinics, yearly income was 14.36 million won, and that of the dental hygienists who had worked for less than 3 years was 12.90 million won. 4. The Korea Dental Hygienist Association was most required to protect the rights and interests of the members and offer new knowledge and technology. 5. The largest group of them were engaged in patient management, and this type of job also was the most favored one for them to do. The greatest number of the dental hygienists in public health sector were in charge of dental treatment. 6. Concerning their turnover rate, 492% had never changed their occupation. Specifically, 70.0% of the respondents who had worked for less than 3 years had have no experience to do that. The time constraints for self-development and conflicts with other workers were the cause of their turnover. Those in dental hospital and general hospital changed their occupation chiefly due to the lack of time for self-development, and for the dental hygienists in clinics, the conflicts with other workers were the main reason. The above-mentioned findings suggested that the way the dental hygienists looked at things was undergoing change. The service area made a difference to their preference for the type of supplementary education and institution in charge of it, as those in public health and clinical sectors had a different opinion. And the dental hygienists in clinical sector had a different opinion as well, according to service area, about salaries, reason of not taking supplementary education, preferred type of supplementary education, cause of turnover, and type of occupation to which they hoped to change employment. To utilize and supply human resources in a more stabilized manner, job description should be more segmented, standardized and classified clearly, and dental hygienists should be motivated to perform their substantial jobs, including oral disease prevention, oral prophylaxis and oral health education. To make it happen, it seems that dentists are required to have a clear understanding of dental hygienist job and to change the way they look at it.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.43 no.5
• /
• pp.100-110
• /
• 2015

With the trend for the construction of barrier-free living environments in accordance with the ever-increasing external activity of the aging population, multi-culture families and socially disadvantaged, there is also a demand for the facilities improvement at parks for their convenience of use. This study analyzed the possibility of Barrier-Free Certification of an existing open space and defined its prototype renovation plan. This study is intended to help develop Borame Park into a barrier-free park by securing a barrier-free line of movement linking the major facilities sites within the park, improving park facilities lest there should be inconvenience in the use of the major facilities, and a guidance system convenient for use by physically and mentally impaired people. The significance of this study lies in the fact that it diagnosed the possibility of the BF Certification of existing urban parks and established a barrier-free park, which is easy for anyone to use. In the course of doing research on this, this study was able to discover the limitations of the BF Certification system, and its related tasks to be solved in the future as follows: The first thing this study shows is that there is a lack of understanding and awareness of the BF Certification system. Basically, there is a need for giving consideration to the development of a barrier-free living environment from the planning and design phase of a park, but in actuality, an examination of the certification is undertaken at the time of the completion of design and construction, which causes a large loss both time-wise and economically. Second, as evaluative items for the BF Certification of a park, applied are detailed evaluation items that fail to reflect the characteristics of an outdoor space whose natural constraints are large, such as geographical highs and lows and existing trees, plants, etc. Third, guidelines for establishment of a barrier-free park must be created in the light of the locational conditions of the park, followed by improvements of its BF Certification evaluation items.

• Journal of KIISE:Computer Systems and Theory
• /
• v.34 no.10
• /
• pp.493-501
• /
• 2007

The imprecise real-time system provides flexibility in scheduling time-critical tasks. Most scheduling problems of satisfying both 0/1 constraint and timing constraints, while the total error is minimized, are NP-complete when the optional tasks have arbitrary processing times. Liu suggested a reasonable strategy of scheduling tasks with the 0/1 constraint on uniprocessors for minimizing the total error. Song et at suggested a reasonable strategy of scheduling tasks with the 0/1 constraint on multiprocessors for minimizing the total error. But, these algorithms are all off-line algorithms. In the online scheduling, the NORA algorithm can find a schedule with the minimum total error for the imprecise online task system. In NORA algorithm, EDF strategy is adopted in the optional scheduling. On the other hand, for the task system with 0/1 constraint, EDF_Scheduling may not be optimal in the sense that the total error is minimized. Furthermore, when the optional tasks are scheduled in the ascending order of their required processing times, NORA algorithm which EDF strategy is adopted may not produce minimum total error. Therefore, in this paper, an online algorithm is proposed to minimize total error for the imprecise task system with 0/1 constraint. Then, to compare the performance between the proposed algorithm and NORA algorithm, a series of experiments are performed. As a conseqence of the performance comparison between two algorithms, it has been concluded that the proposed algorithm can produce similar total error to NORA algorithm when the optional tasks are scheduled in the random order of their required processing times but, the proposed algorithm can produce less total error than NORA algorithm especially when the optional tasks are scheduled in the ascending order of their required processing times.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.38 no.6 s.175
• /
• pp.643-656
• /
• 2005

The East Sea, a marginal sea or back-arc basin, consists of Japan Basin, Yamato Basin, and Ulleung Basin and is surrounded by the Pacific Plate and Philippine Sea Plate. Ulleung Basin locates in the southwestern part of the East Sea and shows the depth of 1,500 m in average and 2,500 m in maximum, connecting to the Japan Basin along 2,000 m contour. The slope of the seafloor is greater in the western side of the basin than in the southern and the eastern side. The crustal thickness of the Ulleung Basin from the OBS tends to get thicker toward the north and the west side and the sediment thickness of the Ulleung Basin is getting thicker toward the southeast side and reaches up to 12 km. The crustal type of the Ulleung Basin was variously suggested as like as a rifted continental crust, an extended continental crust, and an incipient oceanic trust. The origin of the crustal formation and the Ulleung Basin, however, is still controversial. Based on the bathymetry and gravtiy anomaly data for this study, the axis of the Ulleung Basin shows that the basin develops along the axis trending NW-SE direction and reveals a general symmetry of the bathymetry. And also the free-air gravity anomalies show a very similar pattern to the bathymetry of the basin. The sediment thickness is relatively thicker in the southeastern side of the basin than in the northwestern side. Although the crustal age of the Ulleung Basin is supposed to be younger than them of the Japan Basin and the Yamato Basin, the free-air gravity anomalies of the Ulleung Basin ranging -40 to 50 mGals are lower than the other basins, which suggests that the densities of crust and sediment of the Ulleng Basin are lower than the Japan Basin and the Yamato Basin.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.35-63
• /
• 1991

Currently, Korea's banking industry holds a sizable amount of non-performing loans which stem from the government-led bailout of many troubled firms in the 1980s. Although this burden was somewhat relieved with the aid of banks' recapitalization in the booming securities market between 1986-88, the insolvent credits still resulted in low profitability in the banking sector and have been detrimental to the progress of financial liberalization and internationalization. This paper surveys the corporate bailout experiences of major advanced countries and Korea in the past and derives a rationale for readjustment measures against non-performing loans, in which rescue plans depend on the nature of the financial system. Considering the features of Korea's financial system and the banking sector's recent performance, it discusses possible means of liquidation in keeping with the rationale. The conflict of interests among parties involved in non-performing loans is widely known as one of the major constraints in writing off the loans. Specifically, in the case of Korea, the government's excessive intervention in allocating credits has preempted the legitimate role of the banking sector, which now only passively manages its past loans, and has implicitly confused private with public risk. This paper argues that to minimize the incidence of insolvent loan readjustment, the government's role should be reduced and that the correspondent banks should be more active in the liquidation process, through the market mechanism, reflecting their access to detailed information on the troubled firms. One solution is that banks, after classifying the insolvent loans by the lateness or possibility of repayment, would swap the relatively sound loans for preferred stock and gradually write off the bad ones by expanding the banks' retained earnings and revaluing the banks' assets. Specifically, the debt-equity swap can benefit both creditors and debtors in the sense that it raises the liquidity and profitability of bank assets and strengthens the debtor's financial structure by easing the debt service burden. Such a creditor-led or market-led solution improves the financial strength and autonomy of the banking sector, thereby fostering more efficient resource allocation and risk sharing.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.11-26
• /
• 1984

The aim of this study is to establish a synthetical optimal method that simultaneously analyze and design reinforced concrete flat slab-column structures involving multi-constraints and multi-design variables. The variables adopted in this mathematical models consist of design variables including sectional sizes and steel areas of frames, and analysis variable of the ratio of bending moment redistribution. The cost function is taken as the objective function in the formulation of optimal problems. A number of constraint equations, involving the ultimate limit state and the serviceability limit state, is derived in accordance with BSI CP110 requirements on the basis of limit state design theory. Both objective function and constraint equations derived from design variables and an analysis variable generally become high degree nonlinear problems. Using SLP as an analytical method of nonlinear optimal problems, an optimal algorithm is developed so as to analyze and design the structures considered in this study. The developed algorithm is directly applied to a few reinforced concrete flat slab-column structures to assure the validity of it and the possibility of optimization From the research it is found that the algorithm developed in this study is applicable to the optimization of reinforced concrete flat slab column structures and it converges to a optimal solution with 4 to 6 iterations regardless of initial variables. The result shows that an economical design can be possible when compared with conventional designs. It is also found that considering the ratio of bending moment redistribution as a variable is reasonable. It has a great effect on the composition of optimal sections and the economy of structures.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.398-410
• /
• 1982

Summer crops grown in uplands are greatly diversified and show a large variation in difference with year and location in Korea. The principal factor for the variation is weather, in which precipitation and temperature play a leading role and such a weather factors as wind, sun lights also influence production of the summer crops. Since artificial control of weather conditions as a main stress factor for crop production is almost impossible, it must be minimized only by an improvement of cultivation techniques and crop improvement. Precipitation plays a role as one of the most important factor for production of the summer crops and it is considered in two aspects, drought and excess moisture. This country, which belongs to monsoon territory, necessarily encounter one of this stress almost every year, even though the level is different. Therefore, the facilities for both drought and excess moisture are required, but actually it is not easy to complete for them. On this account, crops tolerant to drought, excess moisture and pests should be considered for establishing summer crops. For the districts damaged habitually every season, adequate crops should be cultured and appropriate method of planting, drainage and weed control should be applied diversely. Injuries by temperature is mainly attributed to lower temperature particularly in late fall and early spring, although higher temperature often causes some damages depending upon the kind of crops. Sometimes, lower temperature in summer season playa critical role for yield reduction in the summer crops. However, certain crops are prevented to some extent from this kind of stress by improving varieties tolerant to cold, hot weather or early maturing varieties. As is often the case, control of planting time or harvesting is able to be a good management for escaping the stress. Lodging, plant diseases and pests are considered as a direct or indirect damage due to weather stress, but these are characters able to be overcome by means of crop improvement and also controlled by other suitable methods. In addition, polytical supports capable of improving constitution of agriculture into modern industry is urgently required by programming of data for the damages, establishment of damage forecasting and compensation system.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
• /
• v.51 no.5
• /
• pp.386-395
• /
• 2006

The core questions for determining nitrogen topdress rate (Npi) at panicle initiation stage (PIS) are 'how much nitrogen accumulation during the reproductive stage (PNup) is required for the target rice yield or protein content depending on the growth and nitrogen nutrition status at PIS?' and 'how can we diagnose the growth and nitrogen nutrition status easily at real time basis?'. To address these questions, two years experiments from 2001 to 2002 were done under various rates of basal, tillering, and panicle nitrogen fertilizer by employing a rice cultivar, Hwaseongbyeo. The response of grain yield and milled-rice protein content was quantified in relation to RVIgreen (green ratio vegetation index) and SPAD reading measured around PIS as indirect estimators for growth and nitrogen nutrition status, the regression models were formulated to predict PNup based on the growth and nitrogen nutrition status and Npi at PIS. Grain yield showed quadratic response to PNup, RVIgreen around PIS, and SPAD reading around PIS. The regression models to predict grain yield had a high determination coefficient of above 0.95. PNup for the maximum grain yield was estimated to be 9 to 13.5 kgN/10a within the range of RVIgreen around PIS of this experiment. decreasing with increasing RVIgreen and also to be 10 to 11 kgN/10a regardless of SPAD readings around PIS. At these PNup's the protein content of milled rice was estimated to rise above 9% that might degrade eating quality seriously Milled-rice protein content showed curve-linear increase with the increase of PNup, RVIgreen around PIS, and SPAD reading around PIS. The regression models to predict protein content had a high determination coefficient of above 0.91. PNup to control the milled-rice protein content below 7% was estimated as 6 to 8 kgN/10a within the range of RVIgreen and SPAD reading of this experiment, showing much lower values than those for the maximum grain yield. The recovery of the Npi applied at PIS ranged from 53 to 83%, increasing with the increased growth amount while decreasing with the increasing Npi. The natural nitrogen supply from PIS to harvest ranged from 2.5 to 4 kg/10a, showing quadratic relationship with the shoot dry weight or shoot nitrogen content at PIS. The regression models to estimate PNup was formulated using Npi and anyone of RVIgreen, shoot dry weight, and shoot nitrogen content at PIS as predictor variables. These models showed good fitness with determination coefficients of 0.86 to 0.95 The prescription method based on the above models predicting grain yield, protein content and PNup and its constraints were discussed.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.81-90
• /
• 2002

Purpose : To establish and verify the proper and the practical IMRT (Intensity--modulated radiation therapy) patient QA (Quality Assurance). Materials and Methods : An IMRT QA which consists of 3 steps and 16 items were designed and examined the validity of the program by applying to 9 patients, 12 IMRT cases of various sites. The three step OA program consists of RTP related QA, treatment information flow QA, and a treatment delivery QA procedure. The evaluation of organ constraints, the validity of the point dose, and the dose distribution are major issues in the RTP related QA procedure. The leaf sequence file generation, the evaluation of the MLC control file, the comparison of the dry run film, and the IMRT field simulate image were included in the treatment information flow procedure QA. The patient setup QA, the verification of the IMRT treatment fields to the patients, and the examination of the data in the Record & Verify system make up the treatment delivery QA procedure. Results : The point dose measurement results of 10 cases showed good agreement with the RTP calculation within $3\%$. One case showed more than a $3\%$ difference and the other case showed more than $5\%$, which was out side the tolerance level. We could not find any differences of more than 2 mm between the RTP leaf sequence and the dry run film. Film dosimetry and the dose distribution from the phantom plan showed the same tendency, but quantitative analysis was not possible because of the film dosimetry nature. No error had been found from the MLC control file and one mis-registration case was found before treatment. Conclusion : This study shows the usefulness and the necessity of the IMRT patient QA program. The whole procedure of this program should be peformed, especially by institutions that have just started to accumulate experience. But, the program is too complex and time consuming. Therefore, we propose practical and essential QA items for institutions in which the IMRT is performed as a routine procedure.