• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.63 no.5
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• pp.631-639
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• 2020

Objective : Traditionally, staged surgery has been preferred in the treatment of compound comminuted depressed fracture (FCCD) after traumatic brain injury (TBI) and involves the removal of primarily damaged bone and subsequent cranioplasty. The main reason for delayed cranioplasty was to reduce the risk of infection-related complications. Here, the author performed immediate reconstruction using a titanium mesh in consecutive patients with FCCD after TBI, reported the surgical results, and reviewed previous studies. Methods : Nineteen consecutive patients who underwent single-stage reconstruction with titanium mesh for FCCD of the skull from April 2014 to June 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. The demographic and radiological characteristics of the patients with FCCD were investigated. The characteristics associated with surgery and outcome were also evaluated. Results : The frequency of TBI in men (94.7%) was significantly higher than that in women. Most FCCDs (73.7%) occurred during work, the rest were caused by traffic accidents. The mean interval between TBI and surgery was 7.0±3.9 hours. The median Glasgow coma scale score was 15 (range, 8-15) at admission and 15 (range, 10-15) at discharge. FCCD was frequently located in the frontal (57.9%) and parietal (31.6%) bones than in other regions. Of the patients with FCCDs in the frontal bone, 62.5% had paranasal sinus injury. There were five patients with fractures of orbital bone, and they were easily reconstructed using titanium mesh. These patients were cosmetically satisfied. Postoperatively, antibiotics were used for an average of 12.6 days. The mean hospital stay was 17.6±7.5 days (range, 8-33). There was no postoperative seizure or complications, such as infection. Conclusion : Immediate bony fragments replacement and reconstruction with reconstruction titanium mesh for FCCD did not increase infectious sequelae, even though FCCD involved sinus. This suggests that immediate single-stage reconstruction with titanium mesh for FCCD is a suitable surgical option with potential benefits in terms of cost-effectiveness, safety, and cosmetic and psychological outcomes.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.11-20
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• 2023

The cost of medical treatment for motor vehicle accidents is increasing every year. In this study, we created a model to predict long-term hospitalization(more than 18 days) among minor patients, which is the main item of increasing traffic accident medical expenses, using five algorithms such as decision tree, and analyzed the factors affecting long-term hospitalization. As a result, the accuracy of the prediction models ranged from 91.377 to 91.451, and there was no significant difference between each model, but the random forest and XGBoost models had the highest accuracy of 91.451. There were significant differences between models in the importance of explanatory variables, such as hospital location, name of disease, and type of hospital, between the long-stay and non-long-stay groups. Model validation was tested by comparing the average accuracy of each model cross-validated(10 times) on the training data with the accuracy of the validation data. To test of the explanatory variables, the chi-square test was used for categorical variables.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.6D
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• pp.961-968
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• 2006

Curbs and L-type gutters installed at the edge of a road are very important structures to protect pedestrians from traffic accidents and to restraint slip of cars due to rain. However, existing construction method where great parts of the construction progress are done by human power has many problems in workability, quality and cost etc. In this paper, a new construction method for improvement in workability and quality for curbs and L-type gutters is developed. In order to investigate the structural safety and quality of curbs and gutters installed by the new method, tensile and lateral load tests are performed on curbs installed by existing and new methods and uniaxial compression tests are also performed on concrete samples of gutters constructed by existing and new methods. The test results show that the alignment of curbs and the strength of gutter concrete are very much improved by applying the new method. The tensile and lateral load capacities of the curbs installed by the new method are 10.7 and 2.5 times higher than those of curbs by existing method, respectively.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.95-102
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• 2011

Anti-icing system can immediately respond when snowing is expected or the snow comes down on the road surface. It has been recognized that the system can reduce traffic accidents and congestion by quickly removing the frozen road surface area. However, it is very difficult to implement this system due to the expensive equipment installation and operation cost, Recently, there was a developed program for predicting the freezing area using three-dimensional model and tracking the sun path. But, there is no objective analysis method and all developed approaches are different so that the general standard of anti-icing system is needed. In this study, we proposed the decision criteria for determining application priorities of the anti-icing system based on weather and road conditions, i.e., geometric and topographic conditions. Regional climate survey, topographical analysis, and dynamic vehicle simulation considered road geometry and skid resistance was conducted to standardize the installation method of anti-icing system.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.935-939
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• 2000

Objective : Traumatic disc lesion is a lesion with tremendous controversies. The causal relationships of this lesion are not established along with pathogenesis, diagnostic criteria, methods of treatment and the outcome. However, a significant number of patients with back pain after a trauma underwent spinal operations under the diagnosis of traumatic disc lesions. Such an ill-directed operation eventually produce a person with an iatrogenic disability. We present two illustrative cases, and tried to make a preventive method. Methods : We examined the path from mild trauma after a road traffic accident into the iatrogenic disability in two illustrative cases, who requested disability assessment and medical appraisement. We evaluated the reason and background for such an unwanted outcome and tried to find a method to reduce or prevent it by a literature review. Results : These two patients were admitted to the hospital with the diagnosis of lumbar sprain after a road traffic accidents. They eventually underwent spinal surgery under another diagnosis such as traumatic disc herniation or internal disc disruption. They stayed at the hospital for more than six months and finally lost their jobs. They became the disabled at last. Although they complained back pain, they never insisted by themselves that their symptoms were due to the traumatic disc lesion. To prevent such an iatrogenic disability, the doctors should assist them to go-back to the workplace promptly instead of a reckless extension of the treatment period. It may be necessary to evaluate the certificates to extend the treatment period with an additional diagnosis by a medical expert. To reduce the unnecessary long-term admission, a new billing system such as a partial share for the high cost of the treatment by the patients may be needed. Conclusion : It is not the patient but the doctors, who has the responsibility to avoid the unnecessary operations. All treating doctors should try to reduce or prevent such an iatrogenic complication caused by ourselves before we are forced to do so.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute Of Construction Engineering and Management
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.401-404
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• 2008

Bridges are exposed to very severe environment and experience, as service life increased, elevated traffic load and traffic flow, in addition to natural disasters. In comparing to other road structures, bridges may cause more significant damage, such as human-involved accidents, to the society in the event of collapse. A certain level of service shall be necessarily secured to assure the minimum safety of users. The cost for manage and preserve bridges will increase gradually and more restrictions will be loaded to efficiently distribute the limited resources, such as monetary budget and human resource etc. In order to enhance performance and serviceability of bridges with the limited resource, asset management technique has been applied into the bridge management system, which capitalizes the road infrastructures including bridges and assess them in accordance with the government finance report. In the application of asset management, there must be a tool for assess the performance of bridges and this study introduces the basic information on the definition and role of performance measures for asset management for bridges.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.131-140
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• 2012

Lane markings such as edgelines, centerlines, and lines that delineate lanes generally provide drivers with the various information for safe driving. Drivers can easily recognize the lane markings through the color differences between the markings and road surfaces during the daytime. However, it is a bit difficult for drivers to perceive them during the nighttime due to the lack of artificial lights. Although the glass beads with the 1.5-refractive index have been used to improve the visibility of the lane markings during the nighttime, it is still difficult for drivers to recognize the lane markings properly, especially during the rainy nighttime, which may often lead to traffic accidents. To improve the retroreflectivity and visibility of the lane markings during the rainy nighttime, the high refractive beads with the 2.4-refractive index are essentially required, but they do not work appropriately during the dry nighttime. Thus, the mixed materials with the 1.5, 1.9, and 2.4-refractive beads should be considered for the satisfactory implementation of the lane markings. This study reveals the best mixing rates of the beads by conducting benefit-cost analysis under various weather conditions in Korea. The analysis results show that the lane markings with the 100% of the 2.4-refractive beads provide the highest visibility of lane markings regardless of the roadway conditions, but the benefit-cost (B/C) ratio of the bead mixture is merely 0.46. The best mixing rate of the beads, from the highest B/C ratio viewpoint, was identified as the mixture with a 80% of 1.5-refractive beads and a 20% of 2.4-refractive beads. Some limitations and future research agenda have also been discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2014.06a
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• pp.73-75
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• 2014

Marine transportation facility is public goods for the general public and their safety. The study used the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), a method to estimate economic value of non-market goods, such as environmental goods. In order to analyze economic effects of marine accidents preventable by the VTS, the study estimated costs caused by marine accident cases. It conducted surveys with people and shipping companies in local areas where VTS is to be established in the future. According to a survey with people in areas where marine transportation control center is to be built (Tongyoung), the yearly benefit from building new VTS is estimated at KRW 11billion. If fees are paid in the form of income tax for five years from 2014, corresponding benefits during the same period will reach KRW 47.3 billion in current value. An analysis on economic validity of VTS establishment in Tongyong showed the B/C ration stood at 3.193, far higher than 1. The Net Present Value (NPV) was KRW 32.5 billion and the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) turned out to be 37.4% which was higher than social discount rates of 53.5%. On balance, the establishment has reasonable economic validity.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.202-217
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• 2022

Purpose: The recent increased use of Personal Mobility (PM) has been accompanied by a rise in the annual number of accidents. Accordingly, the safety requirements for PM use are being strengthened, but the laws/systems, infrastructure, and management systems remain insufficient for fostering a safe environment. Therefore, this study comprehensively searches the main problems and improvement methods through a review of previous studies that are related to PM. Then the priorities according to the importance of the improvement methods are presented through the Delphi survey. Method: The research method is mainly composed of a literature study and an expert survey (Delphi survey). Prior research and improvement cases (local governments, government departments, companies, etc.) are reviewed to derive problems and improvements, and a problem/improvement classification table is created based on keywords. Based on the classification contents, an expert survey is conducted to derive a priority improvement plan. Result: The PM-related problems were in 'non-compliance with traffic laws, lack of knowledge, inexperienced operation, and lack of safety awareness' in relation to human factors, and 'device characteristics, road-drivable space, road facilities, parking facilities' in relation to physical factors. 'Management/supervision, product management, user management, education/training' as administrative factors and legal factors are divided into 'absence/sufficiency of law, confusion/duplication, reduced effectiveness'. Improvement tasks related to this include 'PM education/public relations, parking/return, road improvement, PM registration/management, insurance, safety standards, traffic standards, PM device safety, PM supplementary facilities, enforcement/management, dedicated organization, service providers, management system, and related laws/institutional improvement', and 42 detailed tasks are derived for these 14 core tasks. The results for the importance evaluation of detailed tasks show that the tasks with a high overall average for the evaluation items of cost, time, effect, urgency, and feasibility were 'strengthening crackdown/instruction activities, education publicity/campaign, truancy PM management, and clarification of traffic rules'. Conclusion: The PM market is experiencing gradual growth based on shared services and a safe environment for PM use must be ensured along with industrial revitalization. In this respect, this study seeks out the major problems and improvement plans related to PM from a comprehensive point of view and prioritizes the necessary improvement measures. Therefore, it can serve as a basis of data for future policy establishment. In the future, in-depth data supplementation will be required for each key improvement area for practical policy application.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.17-34
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• 2017

This study aims to analyze the freight transport demand and benefit for the introduction of an automated freight transport system focusing on the Global Industry and Logistics City (GILC) in Busan. In pursuit of this aim, four alternatives were calculated - using the freight volume estimating methods and included, the number of businesses, the number of employees set up, future estimated cargo volume, and switched volume from other transport modes into the GILC. Economic benefits were analyzed against social benefits and costs accordingly. The result of the freight transport demand forecast found, the cargo volume of "Alternative 2-1" to be the most advantageous, applying the number of employee unit method and proportion of employees in Gangseo-gu, Busan. In addition to the conventional analysis of direct benefit items (reduction of transport time, traffic accidents and environmental costs), this study also considered additional benefit items (congestion costs savings, and road maintenance costs in terms of opportunity cost). It also considered advanced value for money research in guidance on rail appraisal of U.K, Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2003 of Germany, and RailDec of the United States. The study aims to further contribute to estimating minimum cargo transport demands and assess the economic feasibility of the introduction of new intermodal automated freight transport systems in the future.