• Fibers and Polymers
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.71-74
• /
• 2001

Surface characterization of materials has been considered critical in the development of biomaterials, as many unfavorable responses from the body occur at the interface between a material and the body component. The contact angle measurement is one means to characterize the surface properties and to correlate them to the biocompatibility of materials. In this paper, surface characteristics of silk fibroin/S-carboxymethyl kerateine, representative fibrous proteins, were investigated by contact angle measurements of ESCA. The biocompatibility of the blends was evaluated based on minimal interfacial free energy concept, and compared with other potential biomaterials. It was also hypothesized that the enhanced surface polarity of the blends was generated from the conformational transition of proteins. This approach to evaluate the biocompatibility of materials based on surface characteristics may find wide utility in many biomedical applications.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.75 no.4
• /
• pp.150-156
• /
• 2013

Background: Thoracoscopic pleural biopsy is often required for rapid and confirmative diagnosis in patients with suspected pleural tuberculosis (PL-TB). However, this method is more invasive and costly than its alternatives. Therefore, we evaluated the clinical utility of the chest computed tomography (CT)-based bronchial aspirate (BA) TB-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test in such patients. Methods: Bronchoscopic evaluation was performed in 54 patients with presumptive PL-TB through diagnostic thoracentesis but without a positive result of sputum acid-fast bacilli (AFB) smear, pleural fluid AFB smear, or pleural fluid TB-PCR test. Diagnostic yields of BA were evaluated according to the characteristics of parenchymal lesions on chest CT. Results: Chest radiograph and CT revealed parenchymal lesions in 25 (46%) and 40 (74%) of 54 patients, respectively. In cases with an absence of parenchymal lesions on chest CT, the bronchoscopic approach had no diagnostic benefit. BA TB-PCR test was positive in 21 out of 22 (95%) patients with early-positive results. Among BA results from 20 (37%) patients with patchy consolidative CT findings, eight (40%) were AFB smear-positive, 18 (90%) were TB-PCR-positive, and 19 (95%) were culture-positive. Conclusion: The BA TB-PCR test seems to be a satisfactory diagnostic modality in patients with suspected PL-TB and patchy consolidative CT findings. For rapid and confirmative diagnosis in these patients, the bronchoscopic approach with TB-PCR may be preferable to the thoracoscopy.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.339-353
• /
• 2003

The rapid increase in food borne illness outbreaks in Korea has been one of the major threats to the Nation's Health. Foodservice establishments have been identified as the major place for these outbreaks, mainly due to the lack of sanitary management and sanitary facility management practices. The purposes of the study were to develop hospital foodservice facility evaluation tools, based on the general HACCP-based standards and guidelines, for hospital food service establishments, to ensure the safety of these foodservices and to reduce the risk of food home illness. The scope of this study included: 1) an assessment of the current foodservice sanitation practices and managements for 6 general hospitals, with more than 400 beds, and 3 general hospitals, with less than 400 beds; 2) the development of foodservice establishments sanitation evaluation tools and sanitation standards, based on the HACCP system. The survey data showed varied results between the hospitals surveyed. Most of the hospital foodservice operations had many problems with ventilation and the plumbing. The total dimensional mean scores for the hospitals with more than 400 beds and less than 400 beds were 31.5 and 27.0, respectively. The highest dimension scores were for the water supply facility and lighting, with the lowest for insect and rodent control and toxic materials management. The levels of the mean scores were very low, especially for the general hospitals with less than 400 beds. These low mean scores may have arisen from critical problems within the hospital foodservice operations. The most needed facility management items for improvement were: storage shelf should be spaced 6 inches from the floor and walls, the use of three compartment sinks, utility sinks and cleaning facilities, with a floor drain for cleaning mops or liquid wastes, a ventilation hood designed to prevent dripping onto food, cooking facilities should be disassembled for washing and sanitizing, a separated hand washing sink and a sanitized food board for each area should be provided, all toxic material must have warning labels attached, and be stored in an area away from food preparation under padlock. The evaluation tool consisted of 14 dimensions, with 65 check-off items. The results of this study will provide basic facilities' guidelines to regulators, or foodservice industry personnel, wishing to build, or expend, and establish an efficient flow of food. As a result, food borne illnesses will be effectively prevented, and the Nation's health will be promoted for the development of their own sanitation standards, with a checklist for the safe production of foods.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
• /
• 2002.10a
• /
• pp.829-834
• /
• 2002

Recently, research and development for a number of repairing material like an epoxy-based material and polymer-cementitious material as well as anti-washout underwater concrete have been carried out. But, the study on tile materials for the concrete structure exposed to a wetted condition is at a standstill and there are not any suitable reference data at a repairing work for the concrete structure at a splash as well as a structure under severe moisture condition. In this study, the material, called as “ceramic metal”, with an excellent mobility and plasticity as well as with a high bond strength and durability of freezing-thawing resistant properties under any environmental conditions was developed. And, the experimental evaluations for the utility wert widely performed.

• Journal of IKEEE
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.108-117
• /
• 2009

In recent years, one of alternatives for constructing RFID networks that provide mobile services is using wireless sensor networks (WSN) to enhance network capacity, utility and scalability. Due to absence of compatible reader anti-collision control and channel capture phenomenon, the medium access control protocols as used in the RFID networks lead to reader collision and starvation problem. In this paper, we develop a MAC protocol which is called Enhanced Collision Avoidance MAC (ECO) to avoid reader to reader collisions in an integrated RFID network. ECO is a CSMA-based MAC protocol, and operates on integrated nodes which consist of a RFID reader and a mote. Performance evaluation shows superior results to pure-CSMA protocols under dense deployment environments, both in number of failures and in throughput.

• Journal of the military operations research society of Korea
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.84-104
• /
• 1991

Up to the present, the evaluation measures in the production and inventory management have been studied under the pre-condition that the costs for major factors(e.g,. cost of carrying inventory, cost of demand shortage) are given easily, although in practice, it is difficult. The case in which multiple participants have a different viewpoints in production and inventory management has not been studied, in spite of its frequent occurrence. This study suggests a production and inventory model with multiple objectives corresponding to major factors and the related interactive algorithm based on the preference structures of participants. The problem can be solved through a weighting vector generated by an interaction with participants. The concept of equity is also used in order to guarantee the reasonable distribution of group utility in determining the individual relative weights of participants. This study includes the reality of the model and the decision process in the production and inventory management.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.45-54
• /
• 1992

It become increasingly important to design user interface to carry low complexity. The cognitive limitations of users severely restrict utility of highly intelligent but complex modern systems. Since humans are known to use schemas to reduce cognitive complexity, imposing good consistency to an interface design that may help that user form useful schemas will provide powerful control over the complexity. This present a research effort to develop a quantitative method for evaluating interface complexity that the user would experience planning his or her course of action. Taking into account the user's potential schemas, a quantitative measure based on information theory was develped to assess the navigational complexity. This approach does not rely on the subjective judgment of the researcher as most schemes dealing with user schemas do. The proposed method may benefit the rapid prototyping approach to design a better user interface by allowing handy assessment of the design.

• Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.141-151
• /
• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the economic effectiveness of by conducting a literature review of published articles, masters theses, and doctoral dissertations. Method: Prior to the literature review, inclusion-exclusion criteria were established. We then reviewed 1,029 CINAHL, MEDLINE, and Cochrane DB papers, and 153 RISS papers collected between Results: A total of 12 studies met the inclusion-exclusion criteria.-effectiveness: 6 cost-effectiveness studies, 1 cost-utility studies, and 5 cost-benefit studies. Each of the 12 reviewed studies concluded that home care nursing had greater economic benefits than other compared healthcare services. Conclusion: Home care nursing has significant economic benefits in multi health care service settings and for various patient groups. Therefore these results will be used a critical evidence for the development of economically effective home based health care systems for future policy making.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
• /
• v.62 no.3
• /
• pp.302-312
• /
• 2019

Stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) is an invasive technique used during the surgical management of medically refractory epilepsy. The utility of SEEG rests in its ability to survey the three-dimensional organization of the epileptogenic zone as well as nearby eloquent cortices. Once concentrated to specialized centers in Europe and Canada, the SEEG methodology has gained worldwide popularity due to its favorable morbidity profile, superior coverage of deep structures, and ability to perform multi-lobar explorations without the need for craniotomy. This rapid shift in practice represents both a challenge and an opportunity for pediatric neurosurgeons familiar with the subdural grid approach. The purpose of this review is to discuss the indications, technique, and safety of long-term SEEG monitoring in children. In addition to reviewing the conceptual and technical points of the diagnostic evaluation, attention will also be given to SEEG-based interventions (e.g., radiofrequency thermo-coagulation).

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.25-30
• /
• 2007

The capability of microsatellite markers for individual identification and their potential for breed assignment of individuals was evaluated in two Indian horse breeds. The strength of these individual assignment methods was also evaluated by increasing the number of loci in increments of five. The probability of identity of two random horses from the two breeds at all twenty five studied loci was as low as $1.08{\times}10^{-32}$ showing their suitability to distinguish between individual horses and their products. In the phylogenetic approach for individual assignment using Nei's genetic distances, 10.81% of horses associated with breed other than the major cluster of the source breed horses when all twenty five microsatellite loci were implemented. Similar results were obtained when the maximum likelihood approach for individual assignment was used. Based on these results it is proposed that, although microsatellite markers may prove very useful for individual identification, their utility for breed assignment of horses needs further evaluation.