• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.17
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• pp.7271-7275
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• 2014

Background: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the presentation, clinical course and outcome between children and young adults with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) treated in our hospital. Materials and Methods: The medical records of 145 patients with DTC who underwent surgery followed by radioiodine and thyroid hormone (TSH) suppression were retrospectively reviewed. The follow up was between January 2006 and June 2012. These patients consisted of 38 children (age${\leq}18y$) and 107 young adult patients (age${\leq}30y$). The clinical characteristics and outcome were analyzed and compared, and the progression-free survival (PFS) was evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Results: At initial diagnosis, a greater degree of extra thyroidal extension was found in children than adults patients (p<0.001). However, there was no significant difference between the two groups with regard to the tumor size and the presence of lymph node or distant metastasis (p=0.172, p=0.050 and p=0.068, respectively). The extent of surgery and the cumulative or mean dose of radioiodine were similar in both groups. During the follow up, the overall survival rate was 100% for both groups, and the PFS rate was similar in children and in young adults group (log rank test, ${\chi}^2$=0.126, p=0.723). Conclusions: In comparison to the young adult patients, DTC in children presents with more aggressive behavior, but outcomes are similar between the two groups after the intensive management of surgery followed by radioiodine and TSH suppression therapy.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.20
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• pp.8793-8796
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• 2014

Objective: To explore the influence of serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) level on therapeutic outcome and diagnosis/prognostic value in patients with cervical cancer. Materials and Methods: A total of 37 patients diagnosed with cervical cancer by biopsy were selected and treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Double-antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was adopted before treatment to assess VEGF levels, and its relationships with clinicopathological features and short-term therapeutic effects were analyzed. Results: The median VEGF level in 37 patients before treatment was 647.15 (393.35~1125.16) pg/mL. Serum VEGF levels in patients aged <50 years, in International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage IIIa~IVa, with lymph node metastasis and tumor size >4 cm were significantly increased (P<0.05). The complete remission (CR) rate was 48.7% (18/37), partial remission (PR) rate was 35.1% (13/37), stable disease (SD) rate was 13.5% (5/37) and progressive disease (PD) rate was 2.70% (1/37), so the objective remission rate (ORR) after treatment was 83.8% (31/37). Logistic regression analysis showed that tumor size and serum VEGF level before treatment were independent risk factors affecting the therapeutic outcome, and the higher the level of serum VEGF, the worse the prognosis when tumor size>4 cm. Some 56.8% of patients manifested with myelosuppression, 37.8% with leucopenia, 24.3% with thrombocytopenia, 5.41% with diarrhea, 46.0% with nausea and vomiting, 21.6% with hair loss and 8.11% with hepatic and renal injury during the treatment. Conclusions: Serum VEGF level may reflect the degree of malignancy of cervical cancer and predict therapeutic effect, which is of great importance to cancer diagnosis and prognosis.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.877-881
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• 2014

Objective: To evaluate risk factors for gallstones after gastrectomy. Methods: To identify documents published from 1990 to 2011 the Pubmed, Cochrane Library, Springer Link, CBM and WanFang databases were searched and a meta-analysis was performed with RevMan 5.2 software for odds ratios and 95%CIs. Results: Fifteen studies were selected for the meta-analysis. The pooled ORs [95%CIs] were 0.56 [0.43, 0.73], (P<0.0001) for digestive tract reconstruction, 0.80 [0.54, 1.17], (P=0.25) for pylorus preservation, 0.33[0.15, 0.75], (P=0.008) for resection scope of stomach, 0.33 [0.15, 0.75], (P=0.008) for lymphadenectomy, and 0.13 [0.05, 0.33], (P<0.0001) for vagotomy. Conclusions: Digestive tract physical reconstruction and vagus nerve preservation can reduce the morbidity of gallstones after gastrectomy. Total gastrectomy can add to the morbidity of galltones as does increasing the degree of lymph node dissection. There was no significant difference in gallstones with or without pylorus preservation.

• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.8-11
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• 2009

Background and Objectives : In the TNM 6th classification system, extrathyroidal invasion of differentiated thyroid carcinoma has been classified into T3(minimal invasion), T4a(extended invasion), and T4b(more extensive unresectable invasion) according to the degree and it has been recognized as an important prognostic factor. In this study, we investigated the prognostic significances of minimal extrathyroidal invasion in papillary thyroid carcinoma(PTC). Material and Methods : We retrospectively studied 221 patients who are underwent thyroidectomy due to PTC from September 2003 to December 2006. Fifty-four(24.4%) patients had a PTC with minimal extrathyroidal invasion(Group A) and 167(75.6%) patients had a PTC without extrathyroidal invasion(Group B). The existence of minimal extrathyroidal invasion was based on operative and pathological findings. Results : Minimal extrathyroidal invasion in PTC was related to tumor size, lymph node metastasis, and operative method(p<0.001). But, there is no significant difference in age, gender, and multifocality between Group A and B. Hashimoto's thyroiditis was observed more frequently in Group B(p=0.019). Conclusion : These findings suggest that minimal extrathyroidal invasion is related to poor prognostic factors in PTC. Therefore, aggressive surgical approach is required when there is evidence of minimal extrathyroidal invasion in preoperative radiologic examination or operative finding.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.649-668
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• 2018

In this paper, we present a numerical model for fluid-structure interaction between structure built of porous media and acoustic fluid, which provides both pore pressure inside porous media and hydrodynamic pressures and hydrodynamic forces exerted on the upstream face of the structure in an unified manner and simplifies fluid-structure interaction problems. The first original feature of the proposed model concerns the structure built of saturated porous medium whose response is obtained with coupled discrete beam lattice model, which is based on Voronoi cell representation with cohesive links as linear elastic Timoshenko beam finite elements. The motion of the pore fluid is governed by Darcy's law, and the coupling between the solid phase and the pore fluid is introduced in the model through Biot's porous media theory. The pore pressure field is discretized with CST (Constant Strain Triangle) finite elements, which coincide with Delaunay triangles. By exploiting Hammer quadrature rule for numerical integration on CST elements, and duality property between Voronoi diagram and Delaunay triangulation, the numerical implementation of the coupling results with an additional pore pressure degree of freedom placed at each node of a Timoshenko beam finite element. The second original point of the model concerns the motion of the outside fluid which is modeled with mixed displacement/pressure based formulation. The chosen finite element representations of the structure response and the outside fluid motion ensures for the structure and fluid finite elements to be connected directly at the common nodes at the fluid-structure interface, because they share both the displacement and the pressure degrees of freedom. Numerical simulations presented in this paper show an excellent agreement between the numerically obtained results and the analytical solutions.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.23-30
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• 2018

The purpose of this research was to introduce network analysis method for analyzing pesticide residues in incongruity commercial agricultural commodities. Based on the "results in pesticide residues on incongruity commercial agricultural commodities" on "Guidelines for food safety management 2017", we used centrality analysis for pesticide residues via degree, closeness and betweenness centrality measurement. In case of degree centrality result, chlorpyrifos and diazinon were the most highly "connected node" in pesticide network. For the closeness centrality result, the most pesticides showed the similar closeness trend except for 19 species of pesticides. Fludioxonil and chlorpyrifos are recognized as the "bridge" of pesticides network with their high betweenness centrality. The results of network analysis show the "relation" data, which could not represent through out the conventional statistical analysis, among the pesticide residues. We hope that the network analysis method will be appropriate and precise tool for analyzing pesticide residues via elaboration and optimization.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.201-208
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• 2016

Recently, extensive research on crack analysis using extended finite element method(XFEM) which has main advantages in element re-meshing and visualization of cracks has been conducted. However, its application was restricted to the members of a single material. In this study, the applicability and feasibility of the XFEM to the multiple crack analysis of reinforced concrete beams were demonstrated. ABAQUS which has implemented XFEM was used for the crack analysis and its results were compared with test results. Enriched degree-of-freedom locking phenomenon was discovered and its causes and the ways to prevent it were suggested. The locking occurs when cracks in the adjacent elements simultaneously develop. A modelling technique for multiple cracking similar to test results was also proposed. The analysis with XFEM showed similar results to the tests in terms of crack patterns, spacing of cracks, and load-deflection relationship.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.4493-4497
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• 2014

Background: Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) can predict the clinical response to tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy. However, EGFR mutations may be different in primary tumors (PT) and metastatic lymph nodes (MLN). The aim of this study was to compare EGFR mutations between PT and the corresponding MLN in NSCLC patients, and provide some guidelines for clinical treatment using TKI therapy. Materials and Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed with several research databases. Relative risk (RR) with the 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to investigate the EGFR mutation status between PT and the corresponding MLN. A random-effects model was used. Results: 9 publications involving 707 patients were included in the analysis. It was found that activation of EGFR mutations identified in PT and the corresponding MLN was 26.4% (187/707) and 19.9% (141/707), respectively. The overall discordance rate in our meta-analysis was 12.2% (86/707). The relative risk (RR) for EGFR mutation in PT relative to MLN was 1.33 (95%CI: 1.10-1.60; random-effects model). There was no significant heterogeneity between the studies ($I^2$=5%, p=0.003). Conclusions: There exists a considerable degree of EGFR mutation discrepancy in NSCLC between PT and corresponding MLN, suggesting that tumor heterogeneity might arise at the molecular level during the process of metastasis.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.793-802
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• 2002

This study presented a finite element formulation for the dynamic analysis of horizontally curved I-girder bridges. The stiffness and mass matrices of the curved and the straight beam elements are formulated. Each node of both elements has seven degrees of freedom, including the warping degree of freedom. The curved beam element is derived from Kang and Yoo's theory of thin-walled curved beams. The computer program EQCVB has been developed to perform dynamic analyses of various horizontally curved I-girder bridges. The Gupta method is used to solve the eigenvalue problem efficiently, while the Wilson-${\theta}$ method is used for the seismic analysis. The efficiency of EQCVB is demonstrated by comparing solution time with ABAQUS. Using EQCVB, the study is applied to investigate the dynamic behavior of horizontally curved I-girder bridges under seismic loading.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.128-133
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• 2008

Phase-change random access memory (PRAM) chip cell phase of amorphous state is rapidly changed to crystal state above 160 Celsius degree within several seconds during Infrared (IR) reflow. Thus, on-board programming method is considered for PRAM chip programming. We demonstrated the functional 512Mb PRAM with 90nm technology using several novel core circuits, such as metal-2 line based global row decoding scheme, PN-diode cells based BL discharge (BLDIS) scheme, and PMOS switch based column decoding scheme. The reverse-state standby current of each PRAM cell is near 10 pA range. The total leak current of 512Mb PRAM chip in standby mode on discharging state can be more than 5 mA. Thus in the proposed BLDIS control, all bitlines (BLs) are in floating state in standby mode, then in active mode, the activated BLs are discharged to low level in the early timing of the active period by the short pulse BLDIS control timing operation. In the conventional sense amplifier, the simultaneous switching activation timing operation invokes the large coupling noise between the VSAREF node and the inner amplification nodes of the sense amplifiers. The coupling noise at VSAREF degrades the sensing voltage margin of the conventional sense amplifier. The merit of the proposed sense amplifier is almost removing the coupling noise at VSAREF from sharing with other sense amplifiers.