• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2005

The purpose of this paper is to experimentally investigate the engine pollutant emissions and combustion characteristics of diesel engine fueled with ethanol-diesel blended fuel (bio-diesohol). The experiments were performed on a single-cylinder DI diesel engine. Two blend fuels were consisted of $15\%$ ethanol, $83.5\%$ diesel and $1.5\%$ solublizer (by volume) were evaluated: one without cetane improver (E15-D) and one with a cetane improver (E15-D+CN improver). The engine performance parameters and emissions including fuel consumption, exhaust temperature, lubricating oil temperature, Bosch smoke number, CO, NOx, and THC were measured, and compared to the baseline diesel fuel. In order to gain insight into the combustion characteristics of bio-diesohol blends, the engine combustion processes for blended fuels and diesel fuel were observed using an Engine Video System (AVL 513). The results showed that the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) increased at overall engine operating conditions, but it is worth noting that the brake thermal efficiency (BTE) increased by up to $1-2.3\%$ with two blends when compared to diesel fuel. It is found that the engine fueled with ethanol-diesel blend fuels has higher emissions of THC, lower emissions of CO, NOx, and smoke. And the results also indicated that the cetane improver has positive effects on CO and NOx emissions, but negative effect on THC emission. Based on engine combustion visualization, it is found that ignition delay increased, combustion duration and the luminosity of flame decreased for the diesohol blends. The combustion is improved when the CN improver was added to the blend fuel.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.114-118
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• 2015

Objective : Venous thromboembolism (VTE) after spinal surgery affects a patients' postoperative recovery and also carries a mortality risk. Some studies recommended chemical prophylaxis for high-risk patients and for those after complex spinal surgeries. However, chemoprophylaxis for VTE in spinal surgery is underemployed and there is no agreement on the use of VTE prophylaxis in spinal surgery. The aim of this study was to document the incidence of VTE after an elective instrumental spinal surgery, among those receiving preoperative chemoprophylaxis as compared with patients who did not receive it. Methods : This study was carried out on eighty-nine patients allocated randomly to receive either low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) or no prophylaxis before elective instrumental spinal surgery. All patients received postoperative compression stockings. A compression Doppler ultrasonography was performed for all patients to detect postoperative deep vein thrombosis. In addition, further imaging studies were performed for patients suspected of VTE. Results : Three (3.3%) patients were diagnosed with VTE. One of them had received preoperative chemoprophylaxis. There were no significant difference in incidence of VTE between the two groups (p>0.95; 95% confidence interval, 0.06-8.7). Laterality of gender and postsurgical recumbence duration were all independent predictors of VTE (p=0.01 and p<0.001, respectively). Conclusion : The difference in the incidence of thromboembolic complications between the two groups was not significant. Moreover, we found that preoperative prophylactic LMWH injection has no major bleeding complications altering postoperative course; still, the issue concerning the initiation time of chemoprophylaxis in spinal surgery remains unclear.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.1082-1088
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• 2001

Nowadays study on recycling disused plastics for automobiles was lively progressed. Rubber and talcum powder was added to retrieve degradation of physical properties caused by recycling disused polypropylene. The effect of the temperature, the fatigue load and the loading speed on DEN(double edged notch) specimen which was made by the pp-rubber composites during fracture was studied by. DEN specimen was made on PP-rubber composites through the injection molding. With increasing temperature the fracture strength was linearly decreased and the fracture energy was increased by $0^{\circ}C$ and after that decreased. In the same temperature the fracture strength during increasing the notch radius was hardly increased. The fracture behaviour at low and high loading speed was different entirely. At high loading speed plastic region was small and fracture behaviour was seen to brittle fracture tendency. With increasing fatigue load fracture energy was first rapidly decreased and subsequently steady when radius of notch tip was 2mm, but Maximum load during fracture scarcely varied. The deformation mechanism of polypropylene-rubber composites during fracture was studied by SEM fractography. A strong plastic deformation of the matrix ahead of the notch/crack occurred. The deformation seem to be enhanced by a thermal blunting of the notch/crack.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.31-41
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• 1999

To evaluate the effectiveness of intrauterine insemination (IUI) in the treatment of infertility, timed-intercourse and intrauterine insemination by husband in stimulated cycles with clomiphene citrate and gonadotropins were compared in a total of 105 cycles. Patients received 100mg of clomiphene citrate daily for 5 days starting on day 3 of the menstrual cycle followed by hMG or FSH. Doses of exogenous gonadotropins were adjusted by the follicular development and concentrations of serum estradiol $(E_2)$. More than 3 follicles reaching >16 mm were present in the ovary, 5,000 IU of hCG was administered intramusculary. Patients received a maximum of three intercourse or IUI cycles for the treatment. Severe male (<$10{\times}10^6$ motile sperm) or age factor (>39 y) patients were excluded in this study. Pregnancy was classified as clinical if a gestational sac or fetal cardiac activity was seen on ultrasound. The overall clinical pregnancy rates were 17.1% per cycle (18/105) and 21.2% per patient (18/85). The pregnancy rates (per cycle) were 17.5% (11/63) in intercourse and 16.7% (7/42) in IUI groups, respectively. IUI had no significant improvement in pregnancy rate compared with timed-intercourse. The multiple pregnancy rates were 11.1% (1 twin and 1 triplet). No patient developed ovarian hyperstimulation. Abortion rate was 28.6% (2/7) in IUI group only. The delivery and ongoing pregnancy rates were 15.2% per cycle (16/105) and 18.8% per patient (16/85). There were no differences in age, duration of infertility, follicle size and level of estradiol $(E_2)$ on the day of hCG injection in pregnant and non-pregnant groups. However, total doses of gonadotropins were higher in pregnant group than in non-pregnant group (p<0.01). Pregnancy rate was not affected by ovulatory status at the time of insemination. These results indicate that well timed-intercourse in stimulated cycles is as effective as IUI for infertile couples.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.139-144
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• 2014

Background: To manage intractable cancer pain, an alternative to systemic analgesics is neuraxial analgesia. In long-term treatment, intrathecal administration could provide a more satisfactory pain relief with lower doses of analgesics and fewer side-effects than that of epidural administration. However, implantable drug delivery systems using intrathecal pumps in Korea are very expensive. Considering cost-effectiveness, we performed epidural analgesia as an alternative to intrathecal analgesia. Methods: We retrospectively investigated the efficacy, side effects, and complications of epidural morphine and local anesthetic administration through epidural catheters connected to a subcutaneous injection port in 29 Korean terminal cancer patients. Patient demographic data, the duration of epidural administration, preoperative numerical pain rating scales (NRS), side effects and complications related to the epidural catheterization and the drugs, and the numerical pain rating scales on the 1st, 3rd, 7th and 30th postoperative days were determined from the medical records. Results: The average score for the numerical pain rating scales for the 29 patients decreased from $7{\pm}1.0$ at baseline to $3.6{\pm}1.4$ on postoperative day 1 (P < 0.001). A similar decrease in pain intensity was maintained for 30 days (P < 0.001). Nausea and vomiting were the most frequently reported side effects of the epidural analgesia and two patients (6.9%) experienced paresthesia. Conclusions: Epidural morphine and local anesthetic infusion with a subcutaneous pump seems to have an acceptable risk-benefit ratio and allows a high degree of autonomy to patients with cancer pain.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.359-365
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• 2006

Since the start of the KSTAR (Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research) project, Instrumentation and Control (I&C) of the Neutral Beam Test Facility (NB-TF) has been striving to answer diverse requests arising from various facets during the project's development and construction phases. Hard-wired electrical circuits have been designed, tested, fabricated, and finally installed to the relevant parts of the system. In relation to the vacuum system I&C, controlling functions for the rotary pumps, a Roots pump, two turbomolecular pumps, and four cryosorption pumps have been constructed. I&C for the ion source operation are the temperature and flow rate signal monitoring, Langmuir probe signal measurements, gradient grid current measurements, and arc detector circuit. For the huge power system to be monitored or safely operated, many temperature measurement functions have also been implemented for the beam line components like the neutralizer, bending magnet, ion dump, and calorimeter. Nearly all of the control and probe signals between the NB test stand and the control room were made to be transmitted through the optical cables. Failures of coolant flow or beam line vacuum pressure were made to be safely blocked from influencing the system by an appropriate interlock circuit that will shut down the extraction voltage application to the system or prevent damages to the vacuum components. Preliminary estimation of the beam power through the calorimetric measurement shows that 87.9% of the total power of the 60kV/18A beam with 200 seconds duration is absorbed by the calorimeter surface. Most of these I&C results would be highly appropriate for the construction of the main NBI facility for the KSTAR national fusion research project.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.28-33
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• 2015

In this study, a dual fuel engine fueled with natural gas and diesel was tested to investigate the effects of heating value variation of CNG fuel. CNG substitution rate which is defined as the ratio of CNG and diesel supplied in a heating value basis was fixed at 80%. The higher heating value was varied from $10,400kcal/Nm^3$ to $9,400kcal/Nm^3$ by mixing nitrogen gas with pure CNG and diesel fuel was injected at a fixed injection timing. The engine test results showed that thermal efficiency and power output were decreased as the heating value of mixed CNG fuel was decreased. And the peak cylinder pressure was also decreased but the ignition delay time and the combustion duration and timing were almost same.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.22-29
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• 2015

Objective: Sperm must be properly prepared in in vitro fertilization (IVF)-embryo transfer (ET) programs in order to control the fertilization rate and ensure that embryos are of high quality and have appropriate developmental abilities. The objective of this study was to determine the most optimal sperm preparation method for IVF. Methods: Patients less than 40 years of age who participated in a fresh IVF-ET cycle from November 2012 to March 2013 were included in this study. Poor responders with less than three mature oocytes were excluded. Ham's F-10 medium or sperm-washing medium (SWM) was used in combination with the density-gradient centrifugation/swim-up (DGC-SUP) or SUP methods for sperm preparation. A total of 429 fresh IVF-ET cycles were grouped according to the media and methods used for sperm preparation and retrospectively analyzed (DGC-SUP/Ham's F-10, n=82; DGC-SUP/SWM, n=43; SUP/Ham's F-10, n=181; SUP/SWM, n=123). Results: There were no significant differences among these four groups with respect to the mean age of the female partners, duration of infertility, number of previous IVF cycles, and retrieved oocytes. We determined that both the DGC-SUP and SUP methods for sperm preparation from whole semen, using either Ham's F-10 or SWM media, result in comparable clinical outcomes, including fertilization and pregnancy rates. Conclusion: We suggest that both media and both methods for sperm preparation can be used for selecting high-quality sperm for assistive reproductive technology programs.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.353-358
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• 2023

Background: Malignant pleural effusion affects many patients with advanced cancer. When chemotherapy or radiotherapy fails to relieve malignant pleural effusion and related symptoms, drainage and pleurodesis can help. Although surgical talc pleurodesis is the most widely used method, Viscum album, which has been recently used in surgical or bedside procedures, has demonstrated significant results and is as effective as talc. This study aimed to determine the most effective agent and procedure. Methods: Between January 2015 and July 2022, chemical pleurodesis was performed in 137 patients with malignant pleural effusion, using a V. album surgical procedure in 48, a V. album bedside procedure in 55, and a talc surgical procedure in 34 patients. We reviewed patients' clinical responses and disease progression after chemical pleurodesis. Results: The success rate was not significantly different among the V. album surgical procedures (91.7%), V. album bedside procedures (83.6%), and talc surgical procedures (91.2%). However, the total drainage amount and tube insertion duration in both Viscum groups were more effective than those in the talc group. Furthermore, the bedside Viscum group showed significantly lower post-pleurodesis pain scores than the other 2 groups. Conclusion: According to our results, talc and V. album can be considered ideal agents for chemical pleurodesis. However, Viscum pleurodesis showed safer outcomes in terms of ensuring quality of life than talc. Additionally, the bedside Viscum group showed significantly lower pain scores than the other groups. Hence, patients for whom surgical procedures are inappropriate can undergo bedside Viscum pleurodesis without diminishing the therapeutic effect.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.177-183
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• 2004

Cytochrome P45O (CYP) contents and 7-ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) activity were determined in hepatic microsome of olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) exposed to tributyltin chloride (TBTC), tributyltin oxide (TBTO), and triphenyltin chloride (TPTC). In addition, effects of in vivo (intraperitoneal injection of 7.5 mg $kg^{-1}$ BW) exposure of flounder to TPTC on CYP, NADPH cytochrome c reductase, NADH cytochrome b5 yeductase and EROD levels were measured. In in vitro exposure of hepatic microsome to organotins, TBTC, TBTO and TPTC reduced CYP contents and inhibited EROD activity. The TPTC was the strongest inhibitor, which is followed by TBTO and TBTC. The degree of inhibition, especially EROD acitivity, depended on the exposure duration. In addition, all the target enzymes in flounder were inhibited by TPTC with the in vivo exposure to TPTC. As EROD activity was the most sensitive to the inhibitions and demonstrated good reproducibility of the results, it could be used as a helpful tool toy monitor effects of organotin compounds on mixed funciton oxygenase system in marine fish.