• Acute and Critical Care
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.197-205
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• 2018

Lung transplantation is widely accepted as the only viable treatment option for patients with end-stage lung disease. However, the imbalance between the number of suitable donor lungs available and the number of possible candidates often results in intensive care unit (ICU) admission for the latter. In the ICU setting, critical care is essential to keep these patients alive and to successfully bridge to lung transplantation. Proper management in the ICU is also one of the key factors supporting long-term success following transplantation. Critical care includes the provision of respiratory support such as mechanical ventilation (MV) and extracorporeal life support (ECLS). Accordingly, a working knowledge of the common critical care issues related to these unique patients and the early recognition and management of problems that arise before and after transplantation in the ICU setting are crucial for long-term success. In this review, we discuss the management and selection of candidates for lung transplantation as well as existing respiratory support strategies that involve MV and ECLS in the ICU setting.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2013.01a
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• pp.602-607
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• 2013

Financial risks associated with capital investments are often measured with different feasibility indicators such as the net present value (NPV), the internal rate of return (IRR), the payback period (PBP), and the benefit-cost ratio (BCR). This paper aims at demonstrating practical applications of probabilistic feasibility analysis techniques for an integrated feasibility evaluation of the IRR and PBP. The IRR and PBP are concurrently analyzed in order to measure the profitability and liquidity, respectively, of a cash flow. The cash flow data of a real wind turbine project is used in the study. The presented approach consists of two phases. First, two newly reported analysis techniques are used to carry out a series of what-if analyses for the IRR and PBP. Second, the relationship between the IRR and PBP is identified using Monte Carlo simulation. The results demonstrate that the integrated feasibility evaluation of stochastic cash flows becomes a more viable option with the aide of newly developed probabilistic analysis techniques. It is also shown that the relationship between the IRR and PBP for the wind turbine project can be used as a predictive model for the actual IRR at the end of the service life based on the actual PBP of the project early in the service life.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.167-172
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• 2017

End-stage liver disease (ESLD) is a terminal condition of cirrhosis which cannot be treated without liver transplantation. Thus, it is natural for patients to consider hospice/palliative care (HPC). Since the recent legislation of the Act on Decisions on Life-Sustaining Treatment for Patients in Hospice and Palliative Care or at the End of Life (Act No. 14013) in Korea, the practicality of this law has become an issue. The criteria for HPC should be defined with consideration to how the severity of each ESLD complication may vary by individual patients. Generally, patients qualify if they have an intractable condition despite aggressive treatment such as the hepatorenal syndrome, hepatic encephalopathy or variceal hemorrhage. However, the option of liver transplantation should be sufficiently discussed with patients and their families before making a decision on HPC. The evaluation of which ESLD patients should receive HPC should be based on a long-term doctor-patient relationship and sufficient objective data. Therefore, a multidisciplinary approach and mutual consultation among cirrhosis specialists and doctors with other expertise are essential to offer optimal and balanced treatments between liver-specific treatment and HPC. Discussed in this review are adequate criteria for HPC and special considerations for ESLD at the point of HPC.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.76-93
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• 2008

Co-operative (Co-op) education is a college program that integrates classroom studies with paid, productive and real-life work experience. A mandatory Co-op program for the degree is introduced with a sample curriculum from the Mechanical Engineering program at University of the Pacific. The mandatory Co-op program requires a minimum of 7 months of work experience with the option of pursuing a 12 month program. Students also have the opportunity of participating in an Engineering Industry Fellowship (EIF) program or an International Engineering Co-op program (IECP). University of the Pacific has engineering programs in Bio-Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Engineering Management, Engineering Physics, and Mechanical Engineering. All the programs are ABET-accredited except the Bio-Engineering program, which is relatively new. The Co-op employers evaluate the Co-op students at the end of the working period before returning to school, and the students also provide an evaluation of their Co-op experience. Co-op employer evaluations of student work are used in ABET assessment methods developed by the Mechanical Engineering program at University of the Pacific.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.803-810
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• 2022

The small modular liquid-metal fast reactor (SMFR) is an important component of advanced nuclear systems. SMFRs exhibit relatively low breeding capability and constraint space for control rod installation. Consequently, control rods are deeply inserted at beginning and are withdrawn gradually to compensate for large burnup reactivity loss in a long lifetime. This paper is committed to investigating the impact of control rod compensation operation on core neutronics characteristics. This paper presents a whole core fine depletion model of long lifetime SMFR using OpenMC and the influence of depletion chains is verified. Three control rod position schemes to simulate the compensation process are compared. The results show that the fine simulation of the control rod compensation process impacts significantly the fuel burnup distribution and absorber consumption. A control rod equivalent position scheme proposed in this work is an optimal option in the trade-off between computation time and accuracy. The control position is crucial for accurate power distribution and void feedback coefficients in SMFRs. The results in this paper also show that the pin level power distribution is important due to the heterogeneous distribution in SMFRs. The fuel burnup distribution at the end of core life impacts the worth of control rods.

• Korean Journal of Transplantation
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.154-159
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• 2014

Background: Lung transplantation (LTx) is a life-saving treatment for patients with end-stage lung disease; however, the shortage of donor lungs has been a major limiting factor to increasing the number of LTx. Growing experience following LTx using donor lungs after cardiac death (DCD) has been promising, although concerns remain. The purpose of this study was to develop a DCD lung harvest model using an ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) system and to assess the function of presumably damaged lungs harvested from the DCD donor in pigs. Methods: The 40 kg pigs were randomly divided into the control group with no ischemic lung injury (n=5) and the study group (n=5), which had 1 hour of warm ischemic lung injury after cardiac arrest. Harvested lungs were placed in the EVLP circuit and oxygen capacities (OC), pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR), and peak airway pressure (PAP) were evaluated every hour for 4 hours. At the end of EVLP, specimens were excised for pathologic review and wet/dry ratio. Results: No statistically significant difference in OC (P=0.353), PVR (P=0.951), and PAP (P=0.651) was observed in both groups. Lung injury severity score (control group vs. study group: 0.700±0.303 vs. 0.870±0.130; P=0.230) and wet/dry ratio (control group vs. study group: 5.89±0.97 vs. 6.20±0.57; P=0.560) also showed no statistically significant difference between the groups. Conclusions: The function of DCD lungs assessed using EVLP showed no difference from that of control lungs without ischemic injury; therefore, utilization of DCD lungs can be a new option to decrease the number of deaths on the waiting list.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.107-119
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• 2021

Objectives: This study was aimed to report changes in clinical symptoms and signs after treatment with Korean medicine in patients who suffered from calf edema due to deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Methods: A 46-year-old male patient, who discharged home after receiving standardized treatment for acute DVT in the right leg, suffered pain and heat sense due to edema of the affected calf. Oral administration of herbal medicine (Gyejibongnyeong-hwan 4 g, twice daily) and acupuncture therapy were given to him for 6 weeks. The change in chief complaints, Villalta score, the right and left side difference of the circumference and the skin surface temperature of both calves, and blood level of D-dimer were observed before and after treatment. Results: The patient's chief complaints began to significantly improve from 2 weeks after treatment, and disappeared completely within 4 weeks. At the end of the treatment, a substantial decrease in the difference between the right and left calves in the circumference and skin surface temperature was observed. This effect was maintained even at the time of follow-up 3 months after the end of treatment, and the patient completely recovered indoor and outdoor life to the level before onset. Conclusions: This case suggests that Korean medicine treatment, including Gyejibongnyeong-hwan administration and acupuncture therapy, can be a viable option to improve edema and related clinical problems in the affected limbs due to DVT.

• Medical Lasers
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.39-43
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• 2020

Background and Objectives Breast reconstruction has the advantage of reducing the loss of the body image of patients after mastectomy surgery, and also improving the quality of the social and sexual life of breast cancer patients. However, in surprising and unfortunate number of patients, acute postoperative pain persists beyond the normal course of postsurgical recovery. We set out to investigate the effect of local dynamical micro-massage (LDM) treatment for achieving pain relief and reducing other postoperative complications. Materials and Methods We performed a retrospective analysis on 58 patients who underwent LDM treatment for postoperative pain management at Soonchunhyang University Bucheon Hospital between February 2017 and June 2019. Those patients who complained of persistent postoperative pain, which was uncontrollable with medication, were treated with LDM. The degree of pain and discomfort with contracture were recorded using numerical rating scale (NRS) scoring system with numbers from 0 to 10 ('none' to 'worst'). Results The median NRS score of pain was reduced by 62.3% from the start to the end of LDM treatment (p<0.001). Further, the NRS score of discomfort with contracture was reduced 66.0% (p<0.001). There was no complication related to the LDM treatment. Conclusion Dual-frequency ultrasound LDM can be an effective therapeutic option for persisting pain after breast reconstruction surgery. It was also effective in improvement of discomfort with contracture and erythema of the surgical wound.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.159-166
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• 2024

Objective: The purpose of this case study is to report the effectiveness of the Korean medicine Beewha-eum as a treatment for functional dyspepsia (FD). Methods: A patient diagnosed with a spleen-stomach deficiency-cold pattern in Korean medicine was treated with herbal medicines, including Beewha-eum. Symptom severity was assessed using the degree of self-reported dyspepsia (%), self-reported energy level, amount of food intake (%), total parenteral nutrition rate (cc/hour), body weight (kg), Nepean dyspepsia index (NDI-K), functional dyspepsia-related quality of life questionnaire (FD-QoL), and short form 36-item health survey (SF-36) score. Results: After treatment, the symptom severity of self-reported dyspepsia decreased from 100% to 10 to 15%, and the self-reported energy level increased from 20 to 80. The amount of food intake increased from 5% to 100%, and the total parenteral nutrition rate started from 60 cc/hour end in week 5. Body weight increased from 53.1 kg to 62 kg. The NDI-K score decreased from 105 to 31. The FD-QoL score increased from 19 to 68. The SF-36 score also increased from 102 to 116. Conclusion: The results suggest that the Korean medicine Beewha-eum could be an effective option for treating FD.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.1351-1357
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• 2019

This study investigated the effect of plant oil emulsion as a replacement for animal fat on the quality characteristics of low-fat pork patties. Pork patties were manufactured using a pork fat control (CON) and olive (OPP), soybean (SPP), and canola (CPP) oil emulsions. Replacing animal fat with the plant oil emulsions increased the moisture content and decreased the fat content of the patties as compared to those with pork fat. The water holding capacity and cooking yield, and the moisture and fat retention of the patties were significantly increased, and the diameter reduction and shrinkage ratio decreased with the plant oil replacements. The color parameters of the samples were affected by the addition of the plant oil emulsions, and higher L^* and a^* values were observed in CON. The b^* value of the raw pork patty was highest in OPP, and palmitic acid was the most abundant saturated fatty acid. In terms of unsaturated fatty acids, oleic acid was highest in CON, OPP, and CPP, and linoleic acid was highest in SPP. Hardness, cohesion, and chewiness were no different among the samples, although higher springiness was observed in the pork patties with added plant oil emulsions. The taste, flavor, and palatability of the OPP and CPP patties were higher than in the CON and SPP groups. Fat replacement with plant oil emulsion therefore had a positive effect on the quality characteristics of the pork patties, and due to reduced saturated fatty acids, the end-product provides the healthy low-fat option desired by consumers.