• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.23
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• pp.10209-10215
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• 2015

To assess the contribution of tumor necrosis factor $(TNF){\beta}$ +252 polymorphisms to risk and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), we enrolled 150 pairs of sex- and age-matched patients with HCC, patients with cirrhosis alone, and unrelated healthy controls. $TNF{\beta}$ +252 genotypes were determined by polymerase chain reaction with restriction fragment length polymorphism. Multivariate analysis indicated that $TNF{\beta}$ G/G genotype [odds ratio (OR), 3.64; 95%CI, 1.49-8.91], hepatitis B surface antigen (OR, 16.38; 95%CI, 8.30-32.33), and antibodies to hepatitis C virus (HCV) (OR, 39.11; 95%CI, 14.83-103.14) were independent risk factors for HCC. There was an additive interaction between $TNF{\beta}$ G/G genotype and chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV)/HCV infection (synergy index=1.15). Multivariate analysis indicated that factors associated with $TNF{\beta}$ G/G genotype included cirrhosis with Child-Pugh C (OR, 4.06; 95%CI, 1.34-12.29), thrombocytopenia (OR, 6.55; 95%CI, 1.46-29.43), and higher serum ${\alpha}$-fetoprotein concentration (OR, 2.53; 95%CI, 1.14-5.62). Patients with $TNF{\beta}$ G/G genotype had poor cumulative survival (p=0.005). Cox proportional hazard model indicated that $TNF{\beta}$ G/G genotype was a biomarker for poor HCC survival (hazard ratio, 1.70; 95%CI, 1.07-2.69). In conclusion, there are independent and additive effects between $TNF{\beta}$ G/G genotype and chronic HBV/HCV infection on risk for HCC. It is a biomarker for poor HCC survival. Carriage of this genotype correlates with disease severity and advanced hepatic fibrosis, which may contribute to a higher risk and poor survival of HCC. Chronic HBV/HCV infected subjects with this genotype should receive more intensive surveillance for early detection of HCC.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.1054-1064
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• 2002

Numerical prediction of welding-induced residual stresses using the finite element method has been a common practice in the development or refinement of welded product designs. Various researchers have studied several thermal models associated with the welding process. Among these thermal models, ramp heat input and double-ellipsoid moving source have been investigated. These heat-source models predict the temperature fields and history with or without accuracy. However, these models can predict the thermal characteristics of the welding process that influence the formation of the inherent plastic strains, which ultimately determines the final state of residual stresses in the weldment. The magnitude and distribution of residual stresses are compared. Although the two models predict similar magnitude of the longitudinal stress, the double-ellipsoid moving source model predicts wider tensile stress zones than the other one. And, both the ramp heating and moving source models predict the stress results in reasonable agreement with the experimental data.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.11
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• pp.549-556
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• 2020

Real estate markets play an essential role in the economic development of both developed and developing countries. Investment decisions in private real estate demand the consideration of several qualitative and quantitative criteria. Especially in Vietnam, demand for housing, apartments are rising which has resulted because of the migration from rural to urban areas. This study aims to determine the influencing factors of the real estate purchasing behavior and then recommend a grey Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) support model to evaluate real estate alternatives based on a numerical example in Vietnam. A set of essential criteria are identified based on experts' opinion, and the proposed determinants are initial investment, maintenance cost, prestige location, distance to interesting places, parking lot, public transportation, property condition, total area size, number of rooms, and neighbors. The subjective weights were obtained by using the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) model, and the Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) technique is employed to prioritize and rank real estate alternatives. The results reveal that this approach can be useful to make purchasing decisions for many kinds of real estate property under uncertain business environments. These findings indicate that the presented hybrid model has advantages in granting flexibility to the preferences of decision makers.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.625-633
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• 2014

Mark III CCS plate is considered in this paper to perform its strength assessment. Mark III CCS plate is designed and constructed by stacking various non-metallic engineering materials such as plywood, triplex and reinforced PU foam that are supported by series of mastic upon inner steel hull structure. From the viewpoint of structural analysis, this plated structure is treated as a laminated anisotropic structure. Commercially available general purpose finite element analysis programs such as MSC PATRAN and MARC are used to develop the finite element (FE) model of the Mark III CCS plate. Because of the characteristics of LNG cargo that the Mark III CCS plate deals with, it is subjected to a wide range of temperature variations, i.e. about $-163^{\circ}C$ to $20^{\circ}C$. Different material properties of the Mark III CCS plate at these temperature levels are considered in the FE model. Using the developed FE model, strength assessment procedure is developed incorporating various anisotropic failure criteria such as Hashin, Hill, Hoffman, Maximum stress and Tsai-Wu. The strength assessment is performed within the initial failure state of the Mark III CCS plate and, as a result, failure details such as failure locations and loads are identified.

• Composites Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.41-47
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• 2011

This paper deals with anisotropic property and structural analysis for short fiber reinforced plastic composites manufactured by the injection molding process. The common approach for modeling this type of material is the consideration of the material as homogenous and isotropic. However, the common isotropy approach often results in unexpected failure. To overcome this, new structure analysis methodology was developed in order to consider fiber orientation effect using injection mold flow analysis and Halpin-Tsai equations for unidirectional composites and taking an orientation average. The numerical predictions are compared to experimental data for tensile specimen. The predicted mechanical properties agree well with experimental data for fiber orientation and weld line effect. The analysis system was also applied to an automobile part. The proposed anisotropic model predicted different mechanical properties by position of the part and different mechanical performance of the part was changed according to injection gate position.

• Composites Research
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.140-146
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• 2020

The purpose of this paper is to examine the possibility of weight reduction by changing the partition panel of vehicle from an existing aluminum material to carbon fiber reinforced plastics. Three weaving methods (plain, twill and satin) were used in the manufacture of composite materials, and they were produced and tested to derive their material properties. The analysis model of composite partition panel for torsional conditions was developed and the structural stability and system stiffness were evaluated according to Tsai-Hill failure criteria. With design variables for fiber orientation angles and stacking sequence, evolutional optimal algorithm was performed and as the results, the optimal composite partition panel was designed. In addition, the structural analysis results for strength and specific stiffness were compared with aluminum partition panels and composite partition panels to verify the possibility of weight reduction.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.12
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• pp.1005-1015
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• 2020

This paper aims to propose a Comprehensive Decision Support Model to evaluate retail companies' financial performance traded on the Vietnam Stock Exchange Market. The financial performance has been examined in terms of the valuations ratios, profitability ratios, growth rates, liquidity ratios, efficiency ratios, and leverage ratios. The data of twelve companies from the first quarter to the fourth quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020 were employed. The weights of 18 chosen financial ratios are calculated by using the Standard Deviation method (SD). Grey Relational Analysis technique was applied to obtain the final ranking of each company in each quarter. The results showed that leverage ratios have the most significant impact on the retail companies' financial performance and gives some long-term investment recommendations for stakeholders and indicated that the Taseco Air Services Joint Stock Company (AST), Mobile World Investment Corporation (MWG), and Cam Ranh International Airport Services Joint Stock Company (CIA) are three of the top efficient companies. The three of the worst companies are Viglacera Corporation (VGC), Saigon General Service Corporation (SVC), and HocMon Trade Joint Stock Company (HTC). Furthermore, this study suggests that the GRA model could be implemented effectively to ranking companies of other industries in the future research.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.57-72
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• 2016

The Poisson ratio reduction of symmetric hygrothermal aged $[{\theta}_m/90_n]_s$ composite laminates containing a transverse cracking in mid-layer is predicted by using a modified shear-lag model. Good agreement is obtained by comparing the prediction models and experimental data published by Joffe et al. (2001). The material properties of the composite are affected by the variation of temperature and transient moisture concentration distribution in desorption case, and are based on a micro-mechanical model of laminates. The transient and non-uniform moisture concentration distribution give rise to the transient Poisson ratio reduction. The obtained results represent well the dependence of the Poisson ratio degradation on the cracks density, fibre orientation angle of the outer layers and transient environmental conditions. Through the presented study, we hope to contribute to the understanding of the hygrothermal behaviour of cracked composite laminate.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.136-145
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• 2007

The selection of suppliers and the determination of order quantities to be placed with those suppliers are important decisions in a supply chain. In this research, a non-linear mixed integer programming model is presented to select suppliers and determine the order quantities. The model considers the purchasing cost which takes into account quantity discount, the cost of transportation, the fixed cost for establishing suppliers, the cost for holding inventory, and the cost of receiving poor quality parts. The capacity constraints for suppliers, quality and lead-time requirements for the parts are also taken into account in the model. Since the purchasing cost, which is a decreasing step function of order quantities, introduces discontinuities to the non-linear objective function, it is not easy to employ traditional optimization methods. Thus, a heuristic algorithm, called particle swarm optimization (PSO), is used to find the (near) optimal solution. However, PSO usually generates initial solutions randomly. To improve the PSO solution quality, a heuristic procedure is proposed to find an initial solution based on the average unit cost including transportation, purchasing, inventory, and poor quality part cost. The results show that PSO with the proposed initial solution heuristic provides better solutions than those with PSO algorithm only.

• International Journal of Quality Innovation
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.68-93
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• 2008

The steel bars account for a high percentage of material costs for the current construction projects. At the present time, most of the construction projects for the factories of thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) complete the transactions of steel bars when the suppliers ship the steel bars to the temporary storage/processing sites. This paper applies the buy-in concept in the Theory of Constraint (TOC) on the supply chain of steel bars. In this study, suppliers are required to establish warehouses at the construction sites and complete the transactions when the formed and processed steel bars are shipped into the factory sites. The aim is to find a win-win solution to meet with the expectations from constructors as they hope that there is no need to build up inventories but supply is ready at any time. Also, this paper compares and analyzes the traditional supply/inventory model of steel bars and the Demand-Pull (D-P) model under the TOC framework. It is proved that Vendor Management Inventory (VMI) in the D-P model is able to more effectively manage steel bars as a material.