• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.160-168
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• 2024

Background: Data on perioperative outcomes of emergent versus elective resection in esophageal cancer patients requiring esophagectomy are lacking. We investigated whether emergent resection was associated with increased risks of morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data on patients with esophageal malignancy who underwent esophagectomy from 2005 to 2020 were retrospectively analyzed from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database. Thirty-day complication and mortality rates were compared between emergent esophagectomy (EE) and non-emergent esophagectomy. Logistic regression assessed factors associated with complications and mortality. Results: Of 10,067 patients with malignancy who underwent esophagectomy, 181 (1.8%) had EE, 64% had preoperative systemic inflammatory response syndrome, sepsis, or septic shock, and 44% had bleeding requiring transfusion. The EE group had higher American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) class and functional dependency. More transhiatal esophagectomies and diversions were performed in the EE group. After EE, the rates of 30-day mortality (6.1% vs. 2.8%), overall complications (65.2% vs. 44.2%), bleeding, pneumonia, prolonged intubation, and positive margin (17.7% vs. 7.4%) were higher, while that of anastomotic leak was similar. On adjusted logistic regression, older age, lower albumin, higher ASA class, and fragility were associated with increased complications and mortality. McKeown esophagectomy and esophageal diversion were associated with a higher risk of postoperative complications. EE was associated with 30-day postoperative complications (odds ratio, 2.39; 95% confidence interval, 1.66-3.43; p<0.0001). Conclusion: EE was associated with a more than 2-fold increase in complications compared to elective procedures, but no independent increase in short-term mortality. These findings may help guide data-driven critical decision-making for surgery in select cases of complicated esophageal malignancy.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.195-205
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• 2001

The objective of the paper is to analyze the traffic characteristics for freeway merging area. Freeway merging area is different from basic section due to ramp vehicles. Therefore, to understand the traffic characteristics of (leeway merging area, this study focused on two factors including critical time headway required in merging maneuver and maximum possible merging volume. In this paper, new model that adopts critical time headway instead of critical time gap in calculating the maximum possible merging volume based on probability function was developed In previous studies, for calculating the maximum possible merging volume, it was considered that merging vehicles could merge freely if a given time gap was greater than the critical time gap. Also, the critical time gap was used as the same value in all traffic flow conditions. But, a time gap required in merging maneuver could be changed, even to the same driver, because difference of relative speed varies in different traffic flow conditions. So, in some cases, the critical time gap could be insufficient value in merging maneuver. Therefore, in this study. a calculating procedure for critical time headway in all traffic flow conditions was presented. Also, the maximum possible merging volume and capacity for freeway merging area were calculated by using the previously found critical time headway.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.1869-1874
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• 2016

Background: Errors in surgical pathology diagnosis can have serious consequences for the patient. Since the final product of a surgical pathology lab is the report, errors can be picked by reviewing reports of cases. Aim: To determine the frequency and types of error in surgical pathology reports of cases signed out in 2014 in a laboratory in Karachi, Pakistan. Materials and Methods: All surgical pathology reports in which changes were made in the original report after sign out and an amended report was issued were included. Errors included: (1) misinterpretations; (2) missing critical information; (3) erroneous critical information; (4) misidentification; and (5) typographic errors. Results: Errors were identified in 210 cases (0.37%). These comprised 199 formalin fixed specimens and 11 frozen sections. The latter represented 3.8% of a total of 2,170 frozen sections. Of the 11 frozen section errors, 10 were misinterpretations. Of the 199 permanent specimens, 99 (49.7%) were misinterpretations, 65 (32.7%) belonged to missing critical information category, 8 (4%) belonged to erroneous critical information category, 8(4%) were misidentifications, 16(8%) were typographic errors while 3 cases (1.5%) were other errors. Most misinterpretations occurred in the gastro intestinal, liver and pancreato biliary tract (23.2%) and breast (13.1%). Another 87 cases were reviewed on the clinicians' request. However diagnosis after review remained the same as the original diagnosis. In 49 out of these (56.3%), additional workup was performed at the time of the review. Conclusions: Our findings were similar to other published studies. We need to develop documented procedures for timely review of cases to detect errors.

• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.126
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• pp.25-52
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• 2013

In this thesis, the author will examine how modern philosophical expression manifests in the field of ethics based on Kant's Ethics. The author will critically assess whether Kant's Ethics is an appropriate rational theoretical alternative to overcome today's ecological crisis. In the first section, the author lists the characteristics of modernity. The purpose of this section is to show why Kant's Ethics must be understood in the context of modern age and how his ethics expresses the ideology of the modernity(I). In the second section, the author will analyze the challenge Kant's Ethics face in relation to ecological crisis from the context of dualism between person and thing(II). In the last section, the author will inspect the flaw of Kant's Ethics based on his positive position regarding vicarious duties toward animals, and pose the basic direction of the theory of ecological publicness that can overcome the limits of Kant's Ethics in the context of a critical reconstruction of neo-confucian tradition(III).

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.681-692
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• 2020

Conventional Piezoelectric Energy Harvesters (CPEH) have been extensively studied for maximizing their electrical output through material selection, geometric and structural optimization, and adoption of efficient interface circuits. In this paper, the performance of Stepped Piezoelectric Energy Harvester (SPEH) under harmonic base excitation is studied analytically, numerically and experimentally. The motivation is to compare the energy harvesting performance of CPEH and SPEHs with the same characteristics (resonant frequency). The results of this study challenge the notion of achieving higher voltage and power output through incorporation of geometric discontinuities such as step sections in the harvester beams. A CPEH consists of substrate material with a patch of piezoelectric material bonded over it and a tip mass at the free end to tune the resonant frequency. A SPEH is designed by introducing a step section near the root of substrate beam to induce higher dynamic strain for maximizing the electrical output. The incorporation of step section reduces the stiffness and consequently, a lower tip mass is used with SPEH to match the resonant frequency to that of CPEH. Moreover, the electromechanical coupling coefficient, forcing function and damping are significantly influenced because of the inclusion of step section, which consequently affects harvester's output. Three different configurations of SPEHs characterized by the same resonant frequency as that of CPEH are designed and analyzed using linear electromechanical model and their performances are compared. The variation of strain on the harvester beams is obtained using finite element analysis. The prototypes of CPEH and SPEHs are fabricated and experimentally tested. It is shown that the power output from SPEHs is lower than the CPEH. When the prototypes with resonant frequencies in the range of 56-56.5 Hz are tested at 1 m/s2, three SPEHs generate power output of 482 μW, 424 μW and 228 μW when compared with 674 μW from CPEH. It is concluded that the advantage of increasing dynamic strain using step section is negated by increase in damping and decrease in forcing function. However, SPEHs show slightly better performance in terms of specific power and thus making them suitable for practical scenarios where the ratio of power to system mass is critical.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.65-71
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• 2022

Recently, multi-material structural topology optimization is more critical because it provides reasonable solution to weight reduction challenges and can as well provide effective conceptual design. For conventional multi-material topology optimization (MMTO), the number of design variable increases when the number of candidate materials increases, and accordingly, a significant increase in computational time occurs. Therefore, MMTO with a single design variable, such as the phase section method (PSM) was proposed. This research is focused on improving the PSM, considering three major limitations: the composition ratio does not represent the area or volume ratio, design variables are not sufficiently concentrated to target values, and certain materials are created less than they are required. To address such limitations, the redefined composition ratio and adjusted parameters for better convergence are proposed. The validation of proposed modifications is verified via two- and three-dimensional numerical examples.

• Informatization Policy
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.48-60
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• 2022

This research analyzes the potential reform of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act through the new institutionalist approach. The immunity provision of the Section 230, which has developed the U.S. Internet content regulation regime and protected big tech firms, is facing a significant change today. The chambers of Congress have attempted to limit the immunity shield for platforms with bipartisanship. As a result of analysis through the perspective of historical institutionalism, a critical change could come from external events including fake news controversies and data privacy scandals, as well as endogenous factors such as conflicts among actors. The discussion deals with the possible direction of Internet content regulation reforms in Korea.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.273-283
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• 2014

According to deformation features of pre-twisted bar, its elastic bending and torsion buckling equation is developed in the paper. The equation indicates that the bending buckling deformations in two main bending directions are coupled with each other, bending and twist buckling deformations are coupled with each other as well. However, for pre-twisted bar with dual-axis symmetry cross-section, bending buckling deformations are independent to the twist buckling deformation. The research indicates that the elastic torsion buckling load is not related to the pre-twisted angle, and equals to the torsion buckling load of the straight bar. Finite element analysis to pre-twisted bar with different pre-twisted angle is performed, the prediction shows that the assumption of a plane elastic bending buckling deformation curve proposed in previous literature (Shadnam and Abbasnia 2002) may not be accurate, and the curve deviates more from a plane with increasing of the pre-twisting angle. Finally, the parameters analysis is carried out to obtain the relationships between elastic bending buckling critical capacity, the effect of different pre-twisted angles and bending rigidity ratios are studied. The numerical results show that the existence of the pre-twisted angle leads to "resistance" effect of the stronger axis on buckling deformation, and enhances the elastic bending buckling critical capacity. It is noted that the "resistance" is getting stronger and the elastic buckling capacity is higher as the cross section bending rigidity ratio increases.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea CI
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.10-17
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• 2008

In this paper, we propose an efficient data replication strategy based on Peer-to-Peer which improves the performance of Data Grid system. The key idea of this replication strategy is to add the Peer-to-Peer concept for reducing data transmission restriction caused by hierarchical topology. And, it makes the nodes can store data replica to set a critical section at the storage of client level nodes. Therefore, it is possible to transmit the data replica between client level nodes and from client level nodes to upper data replication server. It is more effective to transmit data replica between client level nodes than transmitting data replica 1mm data server or data replication server with respect to minimize the transmission time. This results in improving the performance of Data Grid system. Through simulation, we show that the proposed data replication strategy based on Peer-to-Peer improves the performance of entire Data Grid environment compared to previous strategies.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.71-80
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• 1990

Model tests for the ultimate pullout resistance of anchorages and investigation of failure behaviors in cohesionless soil have been conducted. The factors affecting the anchorage are mostly the geometry of the system, and soil properties of sands. The main conclusions of the experimental work were as follows. 1. The load - displacement relationship can be a form of parabolic curve for all plates. 2. The change in ultimate pullout resistance of anchor is mostly affected by embedment ratio and size of anchor, and influenced to a lesser degree by its shape. 3. Critical embedment ratio which is defined as the failure mode changes from shallow to deep mode is increased with increasing height of anchor. 4. For a constant anchor height, as the width of anchor increases the ultimate pullout resistance also increases. However, considering the efficiency of anchor for unit area, width of anchor does not appear to have any sigrnificant contribution on increasing anchor city. 5. Anchor capacity has a linear relation to sand density for any given section and the rate of change increases as the section increases. Critical depth determining the failure patterns of anchor is decreased with a decrease of sand density. 6. With increasing inclination angle, size of anchor, and decreasing embedment ratio, the ultimate pullout resistance of anchor under inclined loading is significantly decreased. 7. The ultimate pullout resistance of double anchor, a method of improving single of anchor capacity, is influenced by the center - to - center spacing adjacent anchors. It is also found that tandem and parallel anchor rigging arrangements decrease the anchor system capacity to less than twice the single anchor capacity due to anchor interference.