• Journal of Gastric Cancer
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.230-241
• /
• 2018

Purpose: Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocols for gastric cancer patients have shown improved outcomes in Asia. However, data on gastric cancer ERAS (GCERAS) programs in the United States are sparse. The purpose of this study was to compare perioperative outcomes before and after implementation of an GC-ERAS protocol at a National Comprehensive Cancer Center in the United States. Materials and Methods: We reviewed medical records of patients surgically treated for gastric cancer with curative intent from January 2012 to October 2016 and compared the GC-ERAS group (November 1, 2015-October 1, 2016) with the historical control (HC) group (January 1, 2012-October 31, 2015). Propensity score matching was used to adjust for age, sex, number of comorbidities, body mass index, stage of disease, and distal versus total gastrectomy. Results: Of a total of 95 identified patients, matching analysis resulted in 20 and 40 patients in the GC-ERAS and HC groups, respectively. Lower rates of nasogastric tube (35% vs. 100%, P<0.001) and intraabdominal drain placement (25% vs. 85%, P<0.001), faster advancement of diet (P<0.001), and shorter length of hospital stay (5.5 vs. 7.8 days, P=0.01) were observed in the GC-ERAS group than in the HC group. The GC-ERAS group showed a trend toward increased use of minimally invasive surgery (P=0.06). There were similar complication and 30-day readmission rates between the two groups (P=0.57 and P=0.66, respectively). Conclusions: The implementation of a GC-ERAS protocol significantly improved perioperative outcomes in a western cancer center. This finding warrants further prospective investigation.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
• /
• v.39A no.12
• /
• pp.746-755
• /
• 2014

Compressive sensing (CS) has drawn much interest as a new sampling technique that enables signals to be sampled at a much lower than the Nyquist rate. By noting that the block-based compressive sensing can still keep spatial correlation in measurement domain, in this paper, we propose a novel encoding technique for measurement data obtained in the block-based CS of natural image. We apply discrete wavelet transform (DWT) to decorrelate CS measurements and then assign a proper quantization scheme to those DWT coefficients. Thus, redundancy of CS measurements and bitrate of system are reduced remarkably. Experimental results show improvements in rate-distortion performance by the proposed method against two existing methods of scalar quantization (SQ) and differential pulse-code modulation (DPCM). In the best case, the proposed method gains up to 4 dB, 0.9 dB, and 2.5 dB compared with the Block-based CS-Smoothed Projected Landweber plus SQ, Block-based CS-Smoothed Projected Landweber plus DPCM, and Multihypothesis Block-based CS-Smoothed Projected Landweber plus DPCM, respectively.

• Journal of the HCI Society of Korea
• /
• v.1 no.2
• /
• pp.19-26
• /
• 2006

This paper presents a novel pneumatic tactile display that can deliver some useful information. The air-jet display forms 5 by 5 arrays and features air nozzles with an external diameter of 2.4mm and internal diameter of 1.5 mm. In comparison with other tactile displays such as vibrotactile, there is little concrete psychophysical data relating to pneumatic displays, a fact which hinders their adoption. This paper addresses this challenge, and presents brief psychophysical studies examining localization rate, the two point threshold, stimulus intensity and the temporal threshold of cues produced by pneumatic air jets. Two groups of subjects were used in these studies, subsequently termed groups A and B. Both were comprised of eight participants. In the case of localization study we obtained 58.13% and 85.9% of localization rates each for dense display and sparse display. Two-points threshold test showed the length of gap between two air-jet stimuli which subjects can detect. However, it was formidable to find out precise temporal resolution of PTI owing to the limitation of capability of the pneumatic valves. Lastly, the results of stimulus intensity study suggest that by varying the size of a pneumatically created tactile stimulus, we can effectively vary its perceived magnitude.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.36 no.1
• /
• pp.36-50
• /
• 2015

The purpose of this study is to assign emission source profiles of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particulate matters (PMs) for chemical speciation, and to correct the temporal allocation factor and the chemical speciation of source profiles according to the source classification code within the sparse matrix operator kernel emission system (SMOKE) in the Seoul metropolitan area. The chemical speciation from the source profiles of VOCs such as gasoline, diesel vapor, coating, dry cleaning and LPG include 12 and 34 species for the carbon bond IV (CBIV) chemical mechanism and the statewide air pollution research center 99 (SAPRC99) chemical mechanism, respectively. Also, the chemical speciation of PM2.5 such as soil, road dust, gasoline and diesel vehicles, industrial source, municipal incinerator, coal fired, power plant, biomass burning and marine was allocated to 5 species of fine PM, organic carbon, elementary carbon, $NO_3{^-}$, and $SO_4{^2-}$. In addition, temporal profiles for point and line sources were obtained by using the stack telemetry system (TMS) and hourly traffic flows in the Seoul metropolitan area for 2007. In particular, the temporal allocation factor for the ozone modeling at point sources was estimated based on $NO_X$ emission inventories of the stack TMS data.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.85-88
• /
• 2016

Background: Cervical cancer is the second most common malignancy among women worldwide, and women of reproductive age in Thailand. However, information on the behavior regarding cervical cancer in rural community Thailand is sparse. Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding cervical cancer (CC) among rural community women in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, using predesigned structured questionnaires. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 8 villages of Non Sung district, Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand, during January to April 2015. Bloom's taxonomy was used as a framework for the study. 265 women aged between 30-60 years old were selected by simple random sampling. All participants completed predesigned questionnaires with 4 parts: demographic data, knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding cervical cancer. Descriptive statistics were used for analysis in this study. Results: The majority of participants were in the age group of 41-50 years old (42.6%) with senior secondary school level of education (32.1%), marriage status (85.0%), agricultural employment (59.6%), and family income between 6,000-10,000 baht per month (54.3%). Some 63.4% and 68.7% participants had high knowledge and moderate level of attitudes regarding CC, while 41.1%, 48.7%, and 10.2% had neem regularly, irregularly or never screened for CC, respectively. The main reasons for not screening were were shyness (44.4%) and no time (55.6%). Vaginal discharge and itching were the common signs and symptoms of participants who were screened at a health promotion hospital of sub-district. Conclusions: CC is still a health problem in the rural community. Therefore, health education is required, particularly for those who have never undergone screening.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.1449-1453
• /
• 2015

Background: Oral capecitabine is increasingly replacing intravenous 5-fluorouracil in many chemotherapy regimens. However, data on the risk of febrile neutropaenia (FN) and treatment related death (TRD) with the drug remain sparse outside of clinical trial settings despite its widespread usage. This study aimed to determine these rates in a large cohort of patients treated in the University of Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC). Materials and Methods: We reviewed the clinical notes of all patients prescribed with oral capecitabine chemotherapy for any tumour sites in University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) from $1^{st}$ January 2009 till $31^{st}$ June 2010. Information collected included patient demographics, histopathological features, treatment received including the different chemotherapy regimens and intent of treatment whether the chemotherapy was given for neoadjuvant, concurrent with radiation, adjuvant or palliative intent. The aim of this study is to establish the pattern of usage, FN and TRD rates with capecitabine in clinical practice outside of clinical trial setting. FN is defined as an oral temperature > $38.5^{\circ}C$ or two consecutive readings of > $38.0^{\circ}C$ for 2 hours and an absolute neutrophil count < $0.5{\times}10^9/L$, or expected to fall below $0.5{\times}10^9/L$ (de Naurois et al., 2010). Treatment related death was defined as death occurring during or within 30 days of last chemotherapy treatment. Results: Between $1^{st}$ January 2009 and $30^{th}$ June 2010, 274 patients were treated with capecitabine chemotherapy in UMMC. The mean age was 58 years (range 22 to 82 years). Capecitabine was used in 14 different tumour sites with the colorectal site predominating with a total of 128 cases (46.7%), followed by breast cancer (35.8%). Capecitabine was most commonly used in the palliative setting accounting for 63.9% of the cases, followed by the adjuvant setting (19.7%). The most common regimen was single agent capecitabine with 129 cases (47.1%). The other common regimens were XELOX (21.5%) and ECX (10.2%). The main result of this study showed an overall FN rate of 2.2% (6/274). The overall TRD rate was 5.1% (14/274). The FN rate for the single agent capecitabine regimen was 1.6% (2/129) and the TRD rate was 5.4% (7/129). All the TRDs were with single agent capecitabine regimen were used for palliative intent. Conclusions: Oral capecitabine is used widely in clinical practice in a myriad of tumour sites and bears a low risk of febrile neutropaenia. However, capecitabine like any other intravenous chemotherapeutic agent carries a significant risk of treatment related death.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.25-31
• /
• 2008

Information on daily maximum air temperature is important in predicting the status of plants and insects, but the uneven and sparse distribution of weather stations prohibits timely access to the data in regions with complex topography. Since cumulative solar irradiance plays a critical role in determining daily maximum temperature on any sloping surfaces, derivation of a quantitative relationship between cumulative solar irradiance and the resultant daily maximum temperature is a prerequisite to development of such estimation models. Air temperatures at 8 sideslope locations with similar elevation and slope angle but aspect, circumventing a cone-shaped, grass-covered parasitic volcano (c.a., 570 m diameter for the bottom circle and 90m bottom-to-top height), were measured from June to December in 2007. Daily maximum temperatures from each location were compared with the average of 8 locations (assumed to be the temperature measured at a "horizontal reference" position). The temperature deviation at all locations increased with the day of year (or sun elevation) from summer solstice to winter solstice. Averaged over the entire period, the south facing location was warmer by $1^{\circ}C$ in daily maximum temperature than "horizontal reference" and the north facing location was cooler by $0.8^{\circ}C$ than the reference, resulting in the year round average south-north temperature difference of $1.8^{\circ}C$. In November, both south and north facing slopes showed the greatest deviation of $+2.0^{\circ}C$ and $-1.3^{\circ}C$, respectively in daily maximum temperature at monthly scale. On a daily scale, the greatest deviation was +3.8 and $2.7^{\circ}C$ at the south and north slope, respectively. The cumulative solar irradiance (on the slope for 4 hours from 11:00 to 15:00 TST) explained >60% of the variance in daily maximum temperature deviations among 8 locations, suggesting a feasibility of developing an estimation model for daily maximum temperature over complex topography at landscape scales.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.91-97
• /
• 2005

Bayesian methodology is appropriated for use in PRA because subjective knowledges as well as objective data are applied to assessment. In this study, radiological risk based on Bayesian methodology is assessed for the loss of source in field radiography. The exposure scenario for the lost source presented in U.S. NRC is reconstructed by considering the domestic situation and Bayes theorem is applied to updating of failure probabilities of safety functions. In case of updating of failure probabilities, it shows that 5 % Bayes credible intervals using Jeffreys prior distribution are lower than ones using vague prior distribution. It is noted that Jeffreys prior distribution is appropriated in risk assessment for systems having very low failure probabilities. And, it shows that the mean of the expected annual dose for the public based on Bayesian methodology is higher than the dose based on classical methodology because the means of the updated probabilities are higher than classical probabilities. The database for radiological risk assessment are sparse in domestic. It summarizes that Bayesian methodology can be applied as an useful alternative lot risk assessment and the study on risk assessment will be contributed to risk-informed regulation in the field of radiation safety.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
• /
• v.38 no.2
• /
• pp.163-177
• /
• 2008

Pollen grains of 17 taxa (14 species with two additional subspecies and one variety) of genera Patrinia Juss. and Nardostachys DC. in tribe Patrinieae (Valerianaceae) were studied using light microscope, scanning electron microscope, and transmission electron microscope. Pollen grains are medium ($37.41{\times}43.60{\mu}m$ - $45.65{\times}48.50{\mu}m$) to large ($54.88{\times}59.41{\mu}m$ - $61.70{\times}71.00{\mu}m$) in size, tricolpate (rarely tetracolpate) with the characteristic halo surrounding the aperture. In equatorial view, the pollen is oblate to subprolate, and in polar view, it is mostly circular or rarely 3-lobed. Two major pollen types are recognized on the basis of exine sculpturing patterns; Type I: Exine is composed of echinae together with sparse or dense microechinae, and verrucae shallow or rarely absent (Nardostachys and sections Paleopatrinia, and Monanadropatrinia of Patirinia). - Type II: Exine is composed of massive echinae together with dense microechinae, and prominent verrucae (section Centrotrinia of Patrinia). In TEM sections, columellae are extended from the footlayer into verrucae, and exine thickness is uniform at the pole and equator. Additionally, the infrageneric classification systems of the Patrinieae were evaluated on the basis of the present data.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.1-10
• /
• 2005

Nineteen strains of Trametes species were collected from the area of Kangwon Province, Korea. They have a variety of color hands and line-up markings on fruit bodies. Most strains were categorized into four types based on color bands, that is, dark brown, light brown, dark gray and light gray. They also have line-up marking shapes from sparse to compact on fruit bodies. In this study, we tried to investigate the relationship between the genetic variation and morphological appearance of these species using the nuclear ribosomal ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region sequence, we used nineteen strains collected in nature and four species of five standard strains (T. versicolor KCTC16781, KCTC26203, T. villosa KCTC06866, T. suaveolens KCTC26205 and T. hirusta KCTC26200). The data of ITS sequences indicated that nineteen strains of T. versicolor have the difference of $1{\sim}6$ base pairs, comparing with standard strains of T. versicolor KCTC16781, and KCTC26203. Phylogenetic analysis of the Trametes species showed that they grouped into a wide range of single clade. Standard strains except T. versicolor KCTC16781 and KCTC26203, formed separated subgroup.