• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.56 no.3
• /
• pp.179-185
• /
• 2023

Background: Assessments of air leaks are usually performed subjectively, precluding the use of air leaks as an evaluation factor. We aimed to identify objective parameters as predictive factors for prolonged air leak (PAL) and air leak cessation (ALC) from air flow data produced by a digital drainage system. Methods: Flow data records of 352 patients who underwent lung lobectomy were reviewed, and flow data at designated intervals (1, 2, and 3 hours postoperatively [POH] and 3 times a day thereafter [06:00, 13:00, 19:00]) were extracted. ALC was defined by flow less than 20 mL/min over 12 hours, and PAL was defined as ALC after 5 days. Cumulative incidence curves were obtained using Kaplan-Meier estimates of time to ALC. Cox regression analysis was performed to determine the effects of variables on the rate of ALC. Results: The incidence of PAL was 18.2% (64/352). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed cut-off values of 180 mL/min for the flow at 3 POH and 73.3 mL/min for the flow on postoperative day 1; the sensitivity and specificity of these values were 88.9% and 82.5%, respectively. The rates of ALC by Kaplan-Meier analysis were 56.8% at 48 POH and 65.6% at 72 POH. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that the flow at 3 POH (≤80 mL/min), operation time (≤220 minutes), and right middle lobectomy independently predicted ALC. Conclusion: Air flow measured by a digital drainage system is a useful predictor of PAL and ALC and may help optimize the hospital course.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.43 no.5
• /
• pp.631-638
• /
• 2023

This paper is to introduce methodologies of travel time reliability evaluation using daily traffic volumes. The methodologies include desirable speed concept, the relation between averaged daily speeds and daily traffic volumes, the standardized way in integration of travel time deviations obtained from continuous highway sections. The study began with traffic data collection from a freeway line with long lasting congestion. And then, provided establishment of the relation between averaged daily speeds and daily traffic volumes, and usability of Point estimate method (PEM) to integrate travel time deviations of sections. Based on the relation between averaged daily speeds and daily traffic volumes, it is identified that travel time reliability begins to decrease around LOS (Level of Service) C even before LOS D or F. It may be concluded that travel time reliability could be evaluated based on daily traffic volumes in highway sections using standardized PEM. The methodologies introduced in the paper, could be useful in practicing evaluation of travel time reliability during the works of highway operation or highway planning.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
• /
• 2022.06a
• /
• pp.33-41
• /
• 2022

Infrastructure procurement has been a major engagement route between China and Africa. This contributes immensely to the gradual infrastructure development seen on the continent. However, maturing discourse purports that these infrastructure collaborations lack intentionality in the continuous development of strategic guidelines and policies for effective implementation despite their uniqueness and criticality. This study proposes that an efficient approach to policy recommendations is through the political and economic analysis (PEA) of these partnerships using public-private partnership (PPP) optics. Unquestionably, these partnerships are representative of the concept of diplomatic transnational public-private partnership (DT-PPP) where infrastructure is procured through the collaboration of public (African governments) and private sector (Chinese state-owned corporations) who provide the managerial, financial, and technical resources for the project implementation. Given the quest for sustainable win-win, this study identifies strategies towards the realization of win-win in the implementation (i.e enablers of win-win) such that fairness and co-benefit, as well as interests, will be achieved. Thus, based on the PEA framework, case scenarios from Ghana and Nigeria using expert interviews identify the criticalities and best practices for the realization of these enablers at the development phase. Findings indicate more effort is required of the public sector (African host countries) in terms of people, structure/institutions, and the implementation processes. Recommendations include improvement of environmental management structures, contract administration procedures, external stakeholders/local community engagement mechanisms, knowledge and technology transfer procedures, and sector-based project operation and maintenance culture and systems. Additionally, actors must have emotional intelligence, good problem-solving abilities, and overall ensure cordial relationships for continued bilateral cooperation.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.277-284
• /
• 2023

It is not easy to implement an energy management system in an industrial complex where small businesses are scattered, so the method of collecting and adjusting energy-related data is mainly used. FEMS is a system that responds to the demand for a paradigm shift from a passive energy management method to an active energy management method using IoT and ICT. In this study, a factory energy management system(FEMS) is designed for small and medium-sized enterprises located in chemical industrial complexes. Efficiency was confirmed by reviewing energy saving measures and efficiencies through FEMS for the electric energy of facilities built in each company. The cost effectiveness of FEMS is created when it is utilized by responsible and empowered personnel within the business processes of the host company. Therefore, it is necessary to utilize EMS that can be applied to the planning, support, operation and evaluation, and continuous improvement of the energy management system to achieve corporate organization and energy management goals.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.149-165
• /
• 2009

Purpose: This study was done to identify the causes of turnover in nursing staff in small and medium‐size hospitals and prepare measures to decrease turnover. Nurses in these hospitals were surveyed focusing on their nursing activities, reasons for turnover, and content of their work. Method: A mail survey of hospitals with 300 beds or less was conducted using a questionnaire including items on the current state of nursing, performance of nursing tasks, turnover of nurses, working conditions, and supports and policies related to insufficient number of nurses. Results: The average number of nurses per 100 beds was 37.5, 3.3 less than the prescribed level of 40.8. The turnover rate was higher when the level of remuneration for nursing care was low, and the most frequent reason for nurses leaving was 'move to another hospital', showing that there is a continuous chain of moves for nurses. Other frequent reasons were situations related to working conditions such as childbirth, child care, irregular working hours, night work, and low wages. Conclusion: To guarantee adequate nursing coverage in these hospitals, working conditions for nurses should be improved, including higher wages, a more flexible work system, and installation and operation of 24-hour child care facilities.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.55 no.2
• /
• pp.452-459
• /
• 2023

The core power control is an important issue for the study of dynamic characteristics in China initiative accelerator driven subcritical system (CiADS), which has direct impact on the control strategy and safety analysis process. The CiADS is an experimental facility that is only controlled by the proton beam intensity without considering the control rods in the current engineering design stage. In order to get the optimized operation scheme with the stable and reliable features, the variation of beam intensity using the continuous and periodic control approaches has been adopted, and the change of collimator and the adjusting of duty ratio have been proposed in the power control process. Considering the neutronics and the thermal-hydraulics characteristics in CiADS, the physical model for the core power control has been established by means of the point reactor kinetics method and the lumped parameter method. Moreover, the multi-inputs single-output (MISO) logical structure for the power control process has been constructed using proportional integral derivative (PID) controller, and the meta-heuristic algorithm has been employed to obtain the global optimized parameters for the stable running mode without producing large perturbations. Finally, the verification and validation of the control method have been tested based on the reference scenarios in considering the disturbances of spallation neutron source and inlet temperature respectively, where all the numerical results reveal that the optimization method has satisfactory performance in the CiADS core power control scenarios.

• Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.351-358
• /
• 2018

Reinforcement learning is a machine learning method which aims to determine a policy to get optimal actions in dynamic and stochastic environments. But reinforcement learning has high computational complexity and needs a lot of time to get solution, so it is not easily applicable to uncertain and continuous environments. To tackle the complexity problem, AC (actor-critic) method is used and it separates an action-value function into a value function and an action decision policy. Also, in transfer learning method, the knowledge constructed in one environment is adapted to another environment, so it reduces the time to learn in a reinforcement learning method. In this paper, we present AC method and transfer learning method to solve the problem of a reinforcement learning method. Finally, we analyze the case study which a transfer learning method is used to solve BS(base station) switching problem in wireless access networks.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.43 no.3
• /
• pp.321-331
• /
• 2023

This study aimed to develop an engineering design-based science education program for high school students and to investigate its effects on students' science-related attitudes and engineering design abilities. "Creating healthy shoes for maintaining proper posture program" was developed as an activity to come up with creative solutions using the methodology of an engineering design process to solve problems in daily life. The creating healthy shoes for maintaining proper posture program consisted of the following five stages: "defining the problem," "ingathering information related to the problem," "generating the solution," "implementing the best solution," and "evaluating the solution & reflecting." As a result of applying this engineering design-based science education program, it improved the high school students' science-related attitudes and engineering design abilities. Therefore, the program developed in this study has a positive effect on enhancing high school students' science-related attitudes and engineering design abilities. These findings imply that the continuous operation and expansion of activities incorporating an engineering design process in science education are necessary as a teaching and learning strategy for cultivating future science talents.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.30 no.2A
• /
• pp.161-168
• /
• 2010

The bonded tendon was adopted to the reactor building of some operating nuclear power plants in Korea and the assessment of the effective prestress force on the bonded tendon is being issued as an important pending problem for continuous operation beyond their design life. The sensitivity analysis of various parameters was carried out to evaluate the effective prestress force using the system identification technique and the optimal parameters were determined for SI technique in this study. The 1/5 scaled post-tensioned concrete beams with the bonded tendon type were manufactured and in order to investigate the relationship of the natural frequency and the displacement to the effective prestress force, impact test, SIMO sine sweep test and bending test using the optical fiber sensor and the compact displacement transducer were carried out. As a result of tests, both the natural frequency and the displacement show the good relationship with the effective prestress force and both parameters are available for the SI technique to estimate the effective prestress force.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.26 no.5A
• /
• pp.823-832
• /
• 2006

To ensure the serviceability requirements of PSC composite girder bridges, it is essential to predict the stresses and deformations of the structure under service load conditions. Stresses and deformations vary continuously with time due to the effects of creep and shrinkage of concrete and relaxation of prestressing steel. The importance of these time-dependent effects is much more pronounced in precast prestressed concrete structures built in stages than in those constructed in one operation. In this paper, time-dependent analyses for PSC composite bridges using 30m standard girders have been conducted considering with the variation of the times of introducing initial prestressing forces and casting concrete. A computer program has been developed for the time-dependent analysis of simple or continuous PSC composite girders and parametric studies are conducted. Based on the numerical results, it is investigated the long-term behaviors of PSC composite girder bridges and discussed the limitations of the current codes for the prestress loss.