• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제16권16호
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• pp.7331-7335
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• 2015

Background: Concurrent chemoradiation with three weekly high dose cisplatin is the non-surgical standard of care for the treatment of locally advanced head and neck cancers. Although this treatment regime is efficacious, it has high acute toxicity, which leads not only to increased treatment cost, but also to increased overall treatment time. Hence, the current study was undertaken to evaluate the acute toxicity and tumor response in head and neck cancer patients treated with concurrent chemoradiation using $40mg/m^2$ weekly cisplatin, which has been our institutional practice. Materials and Methods: This single institution retrospective study included data for 287 head and neck cancer patients treated with concurrent chemoradiation from 2012 to 2014. Results: The mean age of the patients was 48.8 years. The most common site of involvement was oral cavity. Most of the study patients presented with advanced stage disease. The mean overall treatment time was 56.9 days. Some 67.2% had overall complete response to treatment as documented till 90 days from the start of treatment. According to the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) acute radiation morbidity scoring criteria, mucositis was seen in 95.1% of the patients. Dermatitis and emesis were observed in 81.9% and 98.6%, respectively. Regarding haematological toxicity, 48.8% and 29.6% suffered from anaemia and leukopenia, respectively, during treatment. Acute kidney injury was assessed using the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE), and was found in 18.8% of the patients. Conclusions: Concurrent chemoradiotherapy with weekly cisplatin is an effective treatment regime for head and neck cancers with reasonable toxicity which can be used in developing countries, where cost of treatment is so important.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제24권2호
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• pp.227-237
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• 2017

This paper presents optimization of a long-span portal steel frame under dynamic wind loads using a surrogate-assisted evolutionary algorithm. Long-span portal steel frames are often used in low-rise industrial and commercial buildings. The structure needs be able to resist the wind loads, and at the same time it should be as light as possible in order to be cost-effective. In this work, numerical model of a portal steel frame is constructed using structural analysis program (SAP2000), with the web-heights at five locations of I-sections of the columns and rafters as the decision variables. In order to evaluate the performance of a given design under dynamic wind loading, the equivalent static wind load (ESWL) is obtained from a database of wind pressures measured in wind tunnel tests. A modified formulation of the problem compared to the one available in the literature is also presented, considering additional design constraints for practicality. Evolutionary algorithms (EA) are often used to solve such non-linear, black-box problems, but when each design evaluation is computationally expensive (e.g., in this case a SAP2000 simulation), the time taken for optimization using EAs becomes untenable. To overcome this challenge, we employ a surrogate-assisted evolutionary algorithm (SAEA) to expedite the convergence towards the optimum design. The presented SAEA uses multiple spatially distributed surrogate models to approximate the simulations more accurately in lieu of commonly used single global surrogate models. Through rigorous numerical experiments, improvements in results and time savings obtained using SAEA over EA are demonstrated.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제59권7호
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• pp.292-297
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• 2016

Purpose: To compare different regimens of vitamin D with respect to its serum increment levels and bone mineral accrual in vitamin D-deficient children. Methods: Children identified as being vitamin D deficient (serum levels<20 ng/mL) were divided into 3 treatment groups by stratified block randomization (group 1, 4,000 IU/day of vitamin D3 plus 50 mg/kg/day calcium for 12 weeks; group 2, 30,000 IU/wk of vitamin D3 plus 50 mg/kg/day calcium for 12 weeks; and group 3, 300,000 IU of vitamin D3 once intramuscularly plus 50 mg/kg/day calcium). After regimen completion, each child received a maintenance dose of 400 IU/day vitamin D3 plus 50 mg/kg/day calcium. Their serum vitamin D level was measured after 3 and 12 months. Total body less head bone mineral concentration (BMC) and total body less head bone mineral density (BMD) were measured after 12 months. Results: The mean increment in serum vitamin D levels from baseline to 3 months was significantly higher in group 3 than in groups 1 and 2, but the levels from 3 to 12 months were almost similar among all 3 groups. There were no significant differences among the 3 groups with respect to percentage increase of BMD and BMC. Conclusion: The injectable form of vitamin D was more efficacious than the oral forms in increasing the serum level to the normal range. All 3 regimens were equally effective in increasing the BMC and BMD. The 400 IU/day maintenance dose was sufficient to keep the serum level within the normal range.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• 제13권1호
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• pp.15-22
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• 2006

An experiment was conducted to study the efficiency of cyanobacterial biofertilizer (CBB) with chemical (NPK) fertilizer on quantitative and qualitative characters of mulberry variety Kanva-2. Their influences on silkworm growth and cocoon characters were also studied. Ten different CBB and NPK fertilizer treatments were given to 5000 plants of established mulberry garden. Treatments were of four types viz., (i) T1 to T7: single and combination dose of CBB+50% NPK (ii) T8: combination dose of CBB + 25%NPK, (iii) T9: CBB only and (iv) T10: control-l00% NPK. Soil pH decreased and nutrients status increased in CBB (T1- T9) treated plots. Average of ten crops data on quantitative traits revealed that T7 (CBB [N. muscorum (1.0 g), A. variahilis (1.0) and S. millei (1.0 g)] + 50% NPK) was very effective in improving growth parameters. Leaf yield was also found high in treatment T7 (32.12 tons/ha/yr.) followed by T10 (31.17 tons/ha/yr.) and T8 (27.67 tons/ha/yr.). Leaf quality characters were found high in T7 and low in T9. Most of the quality traits in T7 are on par with control no. The results revealed that reduction in the dose of chemical fertilizers in T7 did not affect the leaf yield and leaf quality traits of mulberry. This clearly indicates that the efficiency of CBB (T7) provides nitrogen, increases essential nutrients available in soil, maintain soil pH and supply growth substances required for the improvement of leaf yield and leaf quality of mulberry. Bioassay study also revealed no significant difference in silkworm growth and cocoon characters between treatments T7 and T10. Economics calculated revealed that T7 is highly economical and beneficial over T10 by gaining an amount of Rs. 660/-/acre/crop. Thus, treatment T7 containing N. muscorum (1.0 g), A. variahilis (1.0 g) and S. millei (1.0 g) + 50% NPK fertilizers can be recommended to sericulturists mainly to reduce the use of NPK fertilizers, by saving 50% of its cost and to improve soil fertility conditions, which in turn improves leaf yield and quality of mulberry.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제17권11호
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• pp.5005-5009
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• 2016

Introduction: Gutkha contains harmful and carcinogenic chemicals and oral cancer caused by tobacco usage has been reported as a major preventable cause of death worldwide by the World Health Organization. The Telangana state government implemented a ban on gutkha usage starting in 2013 but how effective this ban has been remains unclear. Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the actual impact of the gutkha ban on users and vendors. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among gutkha users and tobacco vendors in Ranga Reddy district, Telangana. Based on a pilot study the sample size was determined as 368 and 384 for users and vendors respectively. Two separate questionnaires were administered to these groups. The parameters studied mainly included knowledge regarding the ban, and its impact. Results: About 49.1% of the users were aware of the ban on gutkha. Newspapers were the main source of information regarding the ban as reported by 45.3% of users. After the ban, 29.8% of gutkha users switched to other tobacco products. Awareness of health hazards and non-availability of gutkha was the most important reason stated for quitting or reducing consumption. Conclusion: The perspective of ban when visualized from the users point of view depicted a negative impact while the vendors portrayed a positive impact. Considering the addictive potential of the ingredients of gutkha, recording the effects of the ban on regular consumers and determining whether they can still obtain the products by illicit trade, would be noteworthy for implementation of strict rules.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• 제22권4호
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• pp.237-246
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• 2016

Purpose: The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of preschooler obesity/overweight and to identify associated factors. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study. Data for 591 preschoolers, 432 fathers and 538 mothers from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2013-2014 were included. Obesity/overweight was defined by 2007 Korean National Growth Charts. T-test, Rao-Scott ${\chi}^2$, multivariate logistic regression was used for the analysis. Results: Prevalence rates for preschooler obesity/overweight were 14.9% (obesity, 5.4%; overweight, 9.5%). The preschoolers with atopic dermatitis or allergic rhinitis or asthma (OR=2.78, 95% CI [1.27-6.09], p=.011) and eating more thiamine per day (OR=1.01, 95% CI [1.00-1.02], p=.001) showed higher obesity/overweight development. The only parental factor affecting preschooler obesity/overweight was parental body mass index (father, OR=1.18, 95% CI [1.09-1.28], p<.001; mother, OR=1.09, 95% CI [1.04-1.15], p<.001). Conclusion: Interventions on preventing preschooler obesity should be introduced much earlier for children with risk factors. Results from this study can be used as preliminary data to develop effective strategies to prevent obesity in Korean preschoolers.

• 대한조선학회논문집
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• 제52권6호
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• pp.452-459
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• 2015

It is important to use bench test results in the design process of anti-rolling tanks. Traditional bench tester is usually designed to perform only roll motions about a fixed axis and relatively small so that the viscous effects may not be neglected. Novel bench tester which could adjust the motion center to realize the coupled motion of sway and roll has been devised and manufactured therefore, large scaled bench tester could be utilized for designing the passive anti-rolling tanks. The time history of the reference signal from the rotation sensor of the bench tester have been recorded and processed to determine the phase angle to derive the Response Amplitude Operator(RAO) of the stabilized ship. The breadth of ART tank model should be large up to 2 m to diminish viscous scale effect and the vertical position of the tank can be varied with the ship's center of motion. The periods and the amplitude of roll motion can be varied from 1.5 sec to 5 sec and up to ±20°, respectively. The components of the tester was expressed in three dimensional digital mockup (DMU) and assembled together in the CAD space. The final configuration of the bench tester has been determined by confirming the smooth operation of the moving parts without interference through the animation in CAD space. New analytic logic are introduced for the determination of hydrodynamic moment and phase difference due to fluid motion in ART and verified through the test. The developed bench tester is believed to be effective and accurate for the verification of stabilization effect of ART taking into the consideration of the sway effect in the design stage.

• The Journal of Advanced Prosthodontics
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• 제6권4호
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• pp.295-301
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• 2014

PURPOSE. Numerous methods were used to etch the fiber posts to improve its bonding to root canal dentin. Our aim was to evaluate the efficacy of 37% phosphoric acid in etching fiber posts in comparison with 24% hydrogen peroxide. MATERIALS AND METHODS. Ninety human maxillary central incisors were taken and post space preparation was done. Ninety fiber posts were taken and divided into three groups (n=30) based on the surface treatment they received ($H_3PO_4$, $H_2O_2$, distilled water) and each group was further divided (n=10) based on the time period of application (15 seconds, 30 seconds, 60 seconds). All the posts were luted into canals using Rely X UniCem-2. Each tooth was then sectioned into six slices and subjected to push out test. Data obtained was subjected to statistical analysis at P<.05. The surface topography was evaluated using scanning electron microscopy. RESULTS. Highest bond strength values were noted in 15 seconds etched phosphoric acid group and 60 seconds etched hydrogen peroxide group with no significant difference between two groups. Surface topography revealed complete epoxy layer removal with no damage to its structural integrity in those groups. CONCLUSION. $H_3PO_4$ etching for a period of 15 seconds is an effective alternative in improving the adhesion of fiber post to root dentin.

• 국제초고층학회논문집
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• 제6권2호
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• pp.149-163
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• 2017

With the intensification of urban development in Chinese cities, mixed land use in urban centers extends vertically into 3-D and expands its scale from a single building to commercial clusters. The multi-level pedestrian system in city centers also changed its role from one of traffic isolation to spatial integration, where transit nodes, street sidewalks, squares, building entrances, atriums, and corridors are interconnected, both horizontally and vertically, into a whole spatial system, within which pedestrian flows are guided and shopping facilities are arranged. This paper uses spatial configuration analysis of space syntax to examine the impacts of spatial patterns on movement distribution and the business performance of tenant mix in the multi-level commercial system of the Nanshan Commercial Cultural District in Shenzhen, China. The key objective is to better understand the interactions between the socio-economic variables and spatial design parameters of a shopping complex. The research findings point to the importance of multiplicity between syntactic variables and other spatial variables in influencing the pedestrian flows, business performance and tenant mix in highly complex commercial systems. Particularly noteworthy is the relationship between spatial accessibility measures and the location of escalators, and the ways in which individual commercial buildings are embedded into the overall spatial system. The study suggests that this may lead to the preliminary identification of the spatial qualities of effective vertical extensions of mixed land use in a high-density urban settings.

• 대한조선학회논문집
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• 제52권3호
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• pp.222-235
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to suggest guidelines for riser fatigue analysis in terms of selection of reasonable analysis method. Three analysis methods (spectral, regular wave, rain-flow counting) are introduced and compared. As the riser systems give non-linear response, the time-domain analysis method is more preferred than frequency-domain analysis method. The spectral fatigue analysis method, however, is still useful for identifying fatigue prone areas. Once stress RAO is established, fatigue damage can be calculated very quickly. The regular wave method and the rain-flow counting method are more time consuming but give more exact results compare to spectral method. In case of regular wave method, a set of regular waves which represent random sea states is considered for dynamic analysis. The rain-flow counting method is the most intuitive and exact method because it refers time history stresses containing most of non-linear effects of the riser system. However, it is not common for early design stage to use rain-flow counting method because of its high cost. In this study, it was confirmed that the regular wave method is the most cost effective way in specific cases. However, if the system is highly non-linear, it seems that the regular wave method gives less accurate results than rain-flow counting method. Therefore, it is imperative that the engineers select appropriate analysis method based on design stage and given engineering period. This paper also discusses the theoretical background of each calculation method and hydrodynamic aspects of marine riser systems. A steel catenary riser (SCR) line on FPSO was considered and marine dynamic program (OrcaFlex) was used for static and dynamic analysis.