• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.348-355
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• 2022

Objectives: To compare the vital sign stability and cost of two commonly used sedatives, midazolam (MDZ) and dexmedetomidine (DEX). Patients and Methods: This retrospective study targeted patients who underwent mandibular third molar extractions under intravenous sedation using MDZ or DEX. The predictor variable was the type of sedative used. The primary outcome variables were vital signs (heart rate and blood pressure), vital sign outliers, and cost of the sedatives. A vital sign outlier was defined as a 30% or more change in vital signs during sedation; the fewer changes, the higher the vital sign stability. The secondary outcome variables included the observer's assessment of alertness/sedation scale, level of amnesia, patient satisfaction, and bispectral index score. Covariates were sex, age, body mass index, sleeping time, dental anxiety score, and Pederson scale. Descriptive statistics were computed including propensity score matching (PSM). The P-value was set at 0.05. Results: The study enrolled 185 patients, 103 in the MDZ group and 82 in the DEX group. Based on the data after PSM, the two samples had similar baseline covariates. The sedative effect of both agents was satisfactory. Heart rate outliers were more common with MDZ than with DEX (49.3% vs 22.7%, P=0.001). Heart rate was higher with MDZ (P=0.000). The cost was higher for DEX than for MDZ (29.27±0.00 USD vs 0.37±0.04 USD, P=0.000). Conclusion: DEX showed more vital sign stability, while MDZ was more economical. These results could be used as a reference to guide clinicians during sedative selection.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.587-597
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• 2017

This study aimed to develop a method to optimize residual chlorine concentrations in the process of providing water supply. To this end, this study developed a model capable of optimizing the chlorine input into the clearwell in the purification plant and the optimal installation location of rechlorination facilities, and chlorine input. This study applied genetic algorithms finding the optimal point with appropriate residual chlorine concentrations and deriving a cost-optimal solution. The developed model was applied to SN purification plant supply area. As a result, it was possible to meet the target residual chlorine concentration with the minimum cost. Also, the optimal operation method in target area according to the water temperature and volume of supply was suggested. On the basis of the results, this study derived the most economical operational method of coping with water pollution in the process of providing water supply and satisfying the service level required by consumers in the aspects of cost effectiveness. It is considered possible to appropriately respond to increasing service level required by consumers in the future and to use the study results to establish an operational management plan in a short-term perspective.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.609-617
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• 2004

The total tug capacity needed for berthing/unberthing operations of a ship may vary depending on the ship's type, size, loading conditions, and environmental circumstances. Traditionally, total tug capacity is determined based on the local guidelines of port authorities or on the rule of thumb. However, the social demands for the enhancement of ship safety at harbor and the economical demands for the cost-effectiveness of tug usage makes it necessary for port authorities to develop more reasonable and detailed guidelines on tug usage which takes various conditions into account. In this paper, the method to estimate the optimum tug capacity of VLCC is suggested by considering various ship conditions such as its size, loading conditions, and environmental circumstances including wind, wave, tidal currents, and geographical characteristics of a terminal. This method is applied to the VLCC terminal located in Gwang-Yang harbor of Korea and the results are compared with the local guidelines of the harbor, which shows that there may be a room for the amendment of local guidelines on tug usage.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.205-211
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• 2020

Chlorhexidine digluconate (CHD) in the aquatic environment causes irreversible change to microbes, making them resistant to biodegradation, which needs remediation other than biological process. Adsorption study was performed for the removal of CHD on fly ash (FA) as a function of pH and ionic strength. Experimental result has been validated by characterization using Scanning electron microscopy, Fourier Transform-Infrared Spectroscopy and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller. CHD adsorption with FA showed an increasing trend with an increase in pH. Variation in pH proved to be an influential parameter for the surface charge of adsorbent and the degree of ionization of the CHD molecules. The adsorption capacity of CHD decreased from 23.60 mg g-1 to 1.13 mg g-1, when ionic strength increased from to M. The adsorption isotherms were simulated well by the Freundlich isotherm model having R2 = 0.98. The Lagergren's model was incorporated to predict the system kinetics, while the mechanistic study was better explained by pseudo-second order for FA. On the basis of operational conditions and cost-effectiveness FA was found to be more economical as an adsorbent for the adsorption of CHD.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.3-13
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• 2004

The total tug capacity needed for berthing/de-berthing operations of a ship may vary depending on the ship type, size, loading conditions, and environmental circumstances. Traditionally, total tug capacity is determined based on the local guidelines of port authorities or on the rule of thumb. However, the social demands for the enhancement of ship safety at harbor and the economical demands for the cost-effectiveness of tug usage makes it necessary for port authorities to develop more reasonable and detailed guidelines on tug usage which takes various conditions into account. In this paper, the method to estimate the optimum tug capacity of VLCC is suggested by considering various ship conditions such as its size, loading conditions, and environmental circumstances such as wind, wave, tidal currents, and geographical characteristics of a terminal. This method is applied to a VLCC terminal located in Gwang-Yang Harbor of Korea and the results are compared with the local guidelines of the harbor, which shows that there may be a room for the amendment of local guidelines on tug usage.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.92-98
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• 2005

Nutrients removal performance of a contact oxidation reactor covered with soil was investigated when basalt rubble was used as a contact medium under various operating conditions. The objective of the experiment was to determine the effectiveness of the system by measuring the removal efficiencies of nutrients from a technical and economical viewpoint. Under the ranges of HRT(20 and 40 hrs) in the experiment, the removal rates of organic matter were as high as 97.5% by showing an effluent $BOD_5$ of less than 10 mg/L. The test of nitrogen removal when the turf was planted on the top soil showed that the average removal rate increased as much as 25% as compared to that without planting. It was suggested that the construction and maintenance cost could be reduced over 20% when the HRT of the system was decreased from 72 to 40 hrs.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.505-511
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• 2011

In this paper, we have developed an automatic velocity control system of a small-sized commercial treadmill (belt length of 1.2 m and width of 0.5 m) which is widely used at home and health centers. The control objective is to automatically adjust the treadmill velocity so that the subject's position is maintained within the track when the subject walks at a variable velocity. The subject's position with respect to a reference point is measured by a low-cost sonar sensor located on the back of the subject. Based on an encoder sensor measurement at the treadmill motor, a state feedback control algorithm with Kalman filter was implemented to determine the velocity of the treadmill. In order to reduce the unnatural inertia force felt by the subject, a predefined acceleration limit was applied, which generated smooth velocity trajectories. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in providing successful velocity changes in response to variable velocity walking without causing significant inertia force to the subject. In the pilot study with three subjects, users could change their walking velocity easily and naturally with small deviations during slow, medium, and fast walking. The proposed automatic velocity control algorithm can potentially be applied to any locomotion interface in an economical way without having to use sophisticated and expensive sensors and larger treadmills.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.613-622
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• 2014

In spite of the convenience and cost-effectiveness of an electronic document management system the paper-type documents still should be stored for a comparison against the original documents. In this paper, for the efficient management of paper documents, we designed and implemented a document management system using smart devices equipped with NFC(Near Field Communication) technology. To implement the proposed system we designed a database for document management and developed an Android application for smart device using Eclipse 3.0 and Java programming. Whenever we touch the smart phone on the NFC tags which are attached to the paper-type documents and document boxes, it is possible to registering, searching and carrying in and out services for documents and boxes. This study provides smart phone users with systematic, economical and convenient paper-type documents management functions, and thus enhances the business efficiency.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.50-66
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• 2011

Biofuel crops and their economical benefits have been recently researched as one of the alternative energy sources. Very few studies, however, have brought an issue about the impacts of the new cropping on environment, especially water quality. Because biofuel cropping requires more crop production with more fertilizers for cost-effectiveness, water quality near the new crops as well as downstream is expected to be degraded. In this study, the impacts of biofuel crop production on water quality was estimated by scenarios between pre-biofuel cropping and post-biofuel cropping using the previously calibrated SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model in a watershed in Texas, USA. Then, 30 meter filter strips were implemented on each biofuel ropland as a mitigation method. The economical and agricultural aspect and requirements of biofuel cropping was also previously investigated. The on-site impacts estimation showed that biofuel cropping increased about 250% to 1,150% of Total Nitrogen and about 100% to 1,100% of Total Phosphorous annually. The off-site estimation at the reservoir (entire watershed outlet) showed the annual increase of 40 to 50% for both Total Nitrogen and Total Phosphorous. The on-site effectiveness of filter strips was from 58.0% to 67.9% reduction for Total Nitrogen and 57.7% to 68.2% reduction for Total Phosphorous. The filter strips reduced 28.5% of Total Nitrogen and 29.4% of Total Phosphorous at the watershed outlet.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.409-421
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• 2020

In the optimized structure sizing, the optimization methods are inserted in this context in order to obtain satisfactory solutions, which can provide more economical structures, besides allowing the consideration of the factors related to the environmental impacts in the structural design. This work proposes a mathematical model for the optimization of steel-concrete composite beams aiming to minimize the monetary cost and the environmental impact, using the Harmonic Search optimization method. Discrete variables were the dimensions of the steel profiles and the thickness of the collaborating slab of the composite steel-concrete beam. The proposed model was implemented in Fortran programming language and based on improvements in the structure of the optimization method proposed by Medeiros and Kripka (2017). To prove the effectiveness and applicability of the model, as well as the Harmonic Search method, analyzes were performed with different configurations of steel-concrete composite beams, in order to provide guidelines that make the use of these systems more streamlined. In general, the Harmonic Search optimization method has proved to be efficient in the search for the optimized solutions, as well as important considerations on the optimization of the monetary and environmental costs of steel-concrete composite beams were obtained from the developed examples.