• 한국철도학회지
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.19-24
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• 2006

Green gas emissions Trading System(ETS) came into effect in the Europe last year 2005. All transport modes have tried to reduce green gas emission and EU member countries are promoting the use of environmental friendly transport mode to avoid economic loss due to green gas emission. Besides ETS, rapidly rising of oil price and peak oil urge to invest more in the environmental friendly public transport mode and to discourage the use of private cars. The operation of KTX is estimated to bring external cost reduction up to 570 bil. won in 2004 based on European external unit costs of transport modes. This result implies that the expansion of high speed rail network and reconsideration of East-West high speed rail network which is not considered because of weak economic validity is required.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2004년도 춘계학술대회
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• pp.216-221
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• 2004

Linepipe steels with a low carbon acicular ferrite microstructure have been recently developed to accommodate the current transportation condition of the gas and oil industry, and they are finally applied to West- East pipeline project in China. By adopting acicular microstructure, both better formability and better toughness could be obtained due to low yield ratio and fine grained microstructure. Mechanical properties of pipe are not greatly different from those of base plates or hot coils with a microstructure of acicular ferrite. Merits of introducing higher strength steels are well known, i.e., reducing the gauge of pipe and the material cost, increasing the welding speed and decreasing construction cost because of reducing the construction period. Threfore, gas and oil industry has required higher strength steel than APIX70 grade steel. Under this background, API-X80 steel has been developed and shall be applied to the several projects. In this paper, developing stage of API-X80 steel is also presented and discussed.

• Animal cells and systems
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.19-27
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• 2011

Hepatocytes, the major epithelial cells of the liver, maintain their morphology in culture dishes coated with extracellular matrix (ECM) components such as collagen and fibronectin or biodegradable polymers (e.g. chitosan, gelatin). In these coated dishes, survival of cells and maintaining of liver-specific functions may increase. The aim of this study was to determine a suitable, cost-effective and simple system for hepatocyte isolation and culture which may be useful for various applications such as in vitro toxicology studies, hepatocyte transplantation and bioartificial liver (BAL) systems. In order to obtain primary cultures, hepatocytes were isolated from liver by an enzymatic method and cultured on plates coated with collagen, chitosan or gelatin. Collagen, gelatin-sandwich and gelatin-cell mixture methods were also evaluated. Morphology and attachment of the cells were observed by inverted microscope and scanning electron microscope (SEM). An MTT assay was used to determine cell viability and mitochondrial activity.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• 제22권2호
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• pp.117-140
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• 2018

WTO was established in 1995 and as many as 36 new members joined WTO until December 2017. Thus it would be interesting to see if new members have committed higher or lower levels of market opening compared to the original members. In this regard, a sophisticated scoring scheme is needed to quantify market opening commitments. After proper econometric model is established for the original members, same model can be applied to the new members for comparison. It was found that new members committed a much higher level of commitment than the original members. In addition, it was also found that transition economies committed higher levels than the non-transition economies. More interesting finding is that among the new members, the larger the economies or the larger the trading volume are, the closer was the level of commitment to the predicted level. Then the question is whether this difference was due to benign neglect by the new members or due to malign select by the original members.

• Advances in materials Research
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• 제6권3호
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• pp.303-316
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• 2017

In this article, novel olefin polymerization catalyst with lower cost and simple synthetic process were developed, $ArOTiCl_3$ complexes [$(2-OMeC_6H_4O)TiCl_3(C1)$, $(2,4-Me_2C_6H_3O)TiCl_3(C2)$, $TiCl_3(1,4-OC_6H_4O)TiCl_3(C3)$, $TiCl_3(1,4-OC_6H_2O-Me_2-2,5)$ $TiCl_3(C4)$] and corresponding $(ArO)_2TiCl_2$ complexes [$TiCl_2(OC_6H_4-OMe-2)_2(C5)$ and $TiCl_2(OC_6H_3-Me_2-2,6)_2(C6)$] have been synthesized by the reaction of $TiCl_4$ with phenol, all these complexes were well characterized with $^1H$ NMR, $^{13}C$ NMR, MASS and EA. When combined with methylaluminoxane (MAO), the $ArOTiCl_3/MAO$ system shows high activity for ethylene copolymerization with 1-octene and copolymer was obtained with broaden molecular weight distribution (MWD). The $^{13}C$ NMR result of polymer indicates that the 1-octene incorporation in polymer reached up to 8.29 mol%. The effects of polymerization temperature, concentration of polymerization monomer and polymerization time on the catalytic activity have been investigated.

• 한국간담췌외과학회지
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• 제27권1호
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• pp.56-62
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• 2023

Backgrounds/Aims: Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography-guided gallbladder drainage (ERGD) is an alternative to percutaneous cholecystostomy (PTC) for hospitalized acute cholecystitis (AC) patients. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed propensity score matched (PSM) AC hospitalizations using the National Inpatient Sample database between 2016 and 2019 to compare the outcomes of ERGD and PTC. Results: After PSM, there were 3,360 AC hospitalizations, with 48.8% undergoing PTC and 51.2% undergoing ERGD. There was no difference in median length of stay between the PTC and ERGD cohorts (p = 0.110). There was a higher median hospitalization cost in the ERGD cohort, $62,562 (interquartile range [IQR] $40,707-97,978) compared to PTC, $40,413 (IQR $25,244-65,608; p < 0.001). The 30-day inpatient mortality was significantly lower in hospitalizations with ERGD compared to PTC (adjusted hazard ratio 0.16, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.1-0.41; p < 0.001). There was no difference in association with blood transfusions, acute renal failure, ileus, small bowel obstruction, and open cholecystectomy conversion (p > 0.05) between hospitalizations with ERGD and PTC. There was lower association of acute hypoxic respiratory failure (adjusted ratio [AOR] 0.46, 95% CI: 0.29-0.72; p = 0.001), hypovolemia (AOR 0.66, 95% CI: 0.49-0.82; p = 0.009) and higher association of lower gastrointestinal bleed (AOR 1.94, 95% CI: 1.48-2.54; p < 0.001) with ERGD compared to PTC. Conclusions: ERGD is a safer alternative to PTC in patients with AC. The risk complications are lower in ERGD compared to PTC but no difference exists based on mortality or conversion to open cholecystectomy.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제17권7호
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• pp.3173-3177
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• 2016

Background: The Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) in Lebanon provides cancer drugs free of charge for uninsured patients who account for more than half the total case-load. Other categories of cancer care are subsidized under more stringent eligibility criteria. MOPH's large database offers an excellent opportunity to analyze the cost of cancer treatment in Lebanon. Materials and Methods: Using utilization and spending data accumulated at MOPH during 2008-2013, the cost to the public budget of cancer drugs was assessed per case and per drug type. Results: The average annual cost of cancer drugs was 6,475$ per patient. Total cancer drug costs were highest for breast cancer, followed by chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), colorectal cancer, lung cancer, and Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), which together represented 74% of total MOPH cancer drug expenditure. The annual average cancer drug cost per case was highest for CML ($31,037), followed by NHL ($11,566). Trastuzumab represented 26% and Imatinib 15% of total MOPH cancer drug expenditure over six years. Conclusions: Sustained increase in cancer drug cost threatens the sustainability of MOPH coverage, so crucial for socially vulnerable citizens. To enhance the bargaining position with pharmaceutical firms for drug cost containment in a small market like Lebanon, drug price comparisons with neighboring countries which have already obtained lower prices may succeed in lowering drug costs.

• 한국건설관리학회논문집
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• 제10권3호
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• pp.139-147
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• 2009

Accurate construction cost estimation in the initial stage of building project plays a key role for project success and for mitigation of disputes. Total construction cost(TCC) estimation of apartment projects in Vietnam has become more important because those projects increasingly rise in quantity with the urbanization and population growth. This paper presents the application of artificial neural networks(ANNs) in estimating TCC of apartment projects. Ninety-one questionnaires were collected to identify input variables. Fourteen data sets of completed apartment projects were obtained and processed for training and generalizing the neural network(NN). MATLAB software was used to train the NN. A program was constructed using Visual C++ in order to apply the neural network to realistic projects. The results suggest that this model is reasonable in predicting TCCs for apartment projects and reinforce the reliability of using neural networks to cost models. Although the proposed model is not validated in a rigorous way, the ANN-based model may be useful for both practitioners and researchers. It facilitates systematic predictions in early phases of construction projects. Practitioners are more proactive in estimating construction costs and making consistent decisions in initial phases of apartment projects. Researchers should benefit from exploring insights into its implementation in the real world. The findings are useful not only to researchers and practitioners in the Vietnam Construction Industry(VCI) but also to participants in other developing countries in South East Asia. Since Korea has emerged as the first largest foreign investor in Vietnam, the results of this study may be also useful to participants in Korea.

• Journal of Construction Engineering and Project Management
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• 제3권2호
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• pp.13-20
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• 2013

Construction industry has become a larger and highly competitive industry. A successful construction project cannot be achieved only by efficient and fast construction techniques but also reasonable material cost and adequate transferring time of materials to installation. The steel industry in East Asia has become the mainstream in overall steel industries in over the world during the middle of the 21st century. China, Japan and Korea has been the main exportation countries. However, even though the international economic failure, China has increased the exportation amount and became an only exporting country which must be considered a serious problem regarding competitiveness in the international steel exportation industry. Thus, this study analyses the factors affecting the supply and demand amount of reinforced bars in the domestic field and moreover suggesting a unit cost prediction model using the System Dynamics simulation methodology, one of powerful prediction tools using cause-effect relationships. It is expected that this study contributes to the domestic steel industry growth in competitiveness in the international industry. In addition, the methodology used in this paper presents the frameworks for appropriate tools for market trend analysis and prediction of other markets.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• 제9권4호
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• pp.294-302
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• 2010

There is a trend toward the world's manufacturing sites moving to East Asia. After manufacture, these products are transported to the advanced nations for their consumption demands. Among such advanced nations, the U.S.A. has the largest demand, and then Japan and European countries follow. It should be noted that the infrastructures of the Asian districts used for the production sites are rather limited, and the volume of products transported from these districts of Asia to the U.S.A is becoming tremendously large. This situation is causing very serious traffic problems. New products are required to be transported swiftly by air. Once the consumption and market demands are stable however, the products should be sent rather slowly, but in larger amounts. However, the airports of China are quite restricted in capacity, while the transportation volume is becoming large. As a result, transportation cost and the time required for transportation are increasing. Now, a third method is appearing. This is the so-called Sea and Air transportation. The cost and time in transit of this mode take mean positions between Air and Ocean services. At present there exists no well-thought-out strategy for how to allocate these three methods of transportation. This paper is an attempt to theoretically describe this mechanism and to discover the optimal way to allocate the three modes. For this purpose, several mathematical properties of value and cost of the products are defined, and on this basis a simulation of the transportation is established.