• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.683-696
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• 2022

Dams are inevitably planned to be built on thick overburden with high permeability and deformability. The connection part between concrete cut-off wall in overburden and earth core in dam body is not only a key part of the anti-seepage system, but also a weak position. Large uneven settlement will be aroused at the concoction part. However, the interaction behavior and the scope of the connection part cannot be determined effectively. In this paper, numerical analysis of a high earth core dam built on thick overburden was carried out with large deformation FE method. The mechanical behavior of the connection part was detail studied. It can be drawn that there is little differences in dam integral deformation for different analysis method, but big differences were found at the connection part. The large deformation analysis method can reasonably describe the process that concrete wall penetrates into soil. The high plasticity clay has stronger ability to adapt to large uneven deformation which can reduce stress level, and stress state of concrete wall is also improved. The scope of high plasticity clay zone in the connection part can be determined according to stress level of soils and penetration depth of concrete wall.

• Kosin Medical Journal
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.337-346
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• 2018

Objectives: Serum procalcitonin (PCT) is a specific biomarker that rises after bacterial infection, and levels of PCT are known to correlate with the severity and mortality of patients with pneumonia and sepsis. However, the usefulness of PCT levels in acute pyelonephritis is unknown. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of using the PCT level as a predictive test for bacteremia in acute pyelonephritis. Methods: Between January 2012 and June 2013, 140 patients diagnosed with acute pyelonephritis were admitted to Haeundae Paik Hospital. Serum PCT, C-reactive protein (CRP), and white blood cell (WBC) levels at pre- and post- treatment were measured. Blood and urine cultures were obtained from all patients. The levels of PCT, CRP, and WBCs were each compared between the blood culture-positive and blood culture-negative groups to assess their effectiveness in predicting bacteremia. Results: Pre-treatment PCT level was 0.77 ng/mL (95% CI: 0.42-1.60 ng/mL) in the blood culture-negative group and 4.89 ng/mL (95% CI: 2.88-9.04 ng/mL) in the blood culture-positive group, and the increase between the two groups was statistically significant. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of PCT level for prediction of bacteremia was 0.728. A cut-off value of 1.23 ng/mL indicated a sensitivity of 79.0 % and specificity of 60.0 % for PCT level. Conclusions: Serum PCT level is a useful predictive test for bacteremia in acute pyelonephritis. Through the early detection of bacteremia, serum PCT level can help estimate the prognosis and predict complications such as sepsis.

• Obstetrics & gynecology science
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• v.61 no.6
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• pp.669-674
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• 2018

Objective This study aimed to develop a nomogram that predicts ongoing pregnancy after in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET) using patient age and serum hormonal markers. Methods A total of 284 IVF-ET cycles were retrospectively analyzed. At 14 days post-oocyte pick-up (OPU), the serum human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) and progesterone levels were measured. The main predicted outcome was ongoing pregnancy. Results Patient age and serum of HCG and progesterone levels at 14 days post-OPU were good predictors of ongoing pregnancy. The cut-off value and area under the curve (AUC) (95% confidence interval) were 36.5 years and 0.666 (0.599-0.733), respectively, for patient age; 67.8 mIU/mL and 0.969 (0.951-0.987), respectively, for serum HCG level; and 29.8 ng/mL and 0.883 (0.840-0.925), respectively, for serum progesterone level. When the prediction model was constructed using these three parameters, the addition of serum progesterone level to the prediction model did not increase its overall predictability. Furthermore, a high linear co-relationship was found between serum HCG and progesterone levels. Therefore, we developed a new nomogram using patient age and HCG serum level only. The AUC of the newly developed nomogram for predicting ongoing pregnancy after IVF-ET cycles using patient age and serum HCG level was as high as 0.975. Conclusion We showed that ongoing pregnancy may be predicted using only patient age and HCG serum level. Our nomogram could help clinicians and patients predict ongoing pregnancy after IVF-ET if the serum JCG level was ${\geq}5IU/L$ at 14 days post-OPU.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.406-411
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• 2014

Serious problems in reclaimed land agriculture are high soil salinity and poor vertical drainage, so desalinization in these soils is very difficult. Also, although desalinization is accomplished in reclaimed top soils, before long, soils are resalinized according to capillary rise of salts from the subsurface soils. To resolve these problems, multi-layered soil columns with subsurface layer of macroporous medium utilizing coal bottom ash (CBA) were constructed and the effects of blocked resalinization of these soils were investigated. In this experiment soil samples were collected from Munpo series (coarse-loamy, nonacid, mixed, mesic, typic Fluvaquents). The soil texture was silt loam and the EC was $33.9dS\;m^{-1}$. As for groundwater seawater was used and groundwater level of 1 cm from the bottom was maintained. The overall rate of capillary rise was $2.38cm\;hr^{-1}$ in soil 60 cm column, $0.25cm\;hr^{-1}$ in topsoil (30 cm) + CBA (5 cm) + subsurface soil (10 cm) column and $0.08cm\;hr^{-1}$ in topsoil (30 cm) + CBA (10 cm) + subsurface soil (10 cm) column. In multi-layered soil columns with CBA 20, 30 cm layer, wetting front due to capillary rise could not be seen in top soil layer. After 70 days capillary rise experiment water soluble Na+ accumulated in top soil of soil columns with CBA 20, 30 cm was diminished by 92.8, 96.5% respectively in comparison with Na+ accumulated in top soil of soil 60 cm column because CBA layer cut off capillary rise of salts from the subsurface soil. From these results we could conclude that the macroporous layer utilizing CBA placed at subsurface layer cut off capillary rise of solutes from subsurface soil, resulting in lowered level of salinity in top soil and this method can be more effective in newly reclaimed saline soil.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.419-436
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• 2002

The current paper reports on the enhancement of O$_3$, CO, NO$_2$, and aerosols during the Asian dust event that occurred over Korea on 1 May 1999. To confirm the origin and net flux of the O$_3$, CO, NO$_2$, and aerosols, the meteorological parameters of the weather conditions were investigated using Mesoscale Meteorological Model 5(MM5) and the TOMS total ozone and aerosol index, the back trajectory was identified using the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory Model(HYSPLIT), and the ozone and ozone precursor concentrations were determined using the Urban Ashed Model(UAM). In the presence of sufficiently large concentrations of NO$\sub$x/, the oxidation of CO led to O$_3$ formation with OH, HO$_2$, NO, and NO$_2$ acting as catalysts. The sudden enhancement of O$_3$, CO, NO$_2$ and aerosols was also found to be associated with a deepening cut-off low connected with a surface cyclone and surface anticyclone located to the south of Korea during the Asian dust event. The wave pattern of the upper trough/cut-off low and total ozone level remained stationary when they came into contact with a surface cyclone during the Asian dust event. A typical example of a stratosphere-troposphere exchange(STE) of ozone was demonstrated by tropopause folding due to the jet stream. As such, the secondary maxima of ozone above 80 ppbv that occurred at night in Busan, Korea on 1 May 2001 were considered to result from vertical mixing and advection from a free troposphere-boundary layer exchange in connection with an STE in the upper troposphere. Whereas the sudden enhancement of ozone above 100 ppbv during the day was explained by the catalytic reaction of ozone precursors and transport of ozone from a slow-moving anticyclone area that included a high level of ozone and its precursors coming from China to the south of Korea. The aerosols identified in the free troposphere over Busan, Korea on 1 May 1999 originated from the Taklamakan and Gobi deserts across the Yellow River. In particular, the 1000m profile indicated that the source of the air parcels was from an anticyclone located to the south of Korea. The net flux due to the first invasion of ozone between 0000 LST and 0600 LST on 1 May 1999 agreed with the observed ground-based background concentration of ozone. From 0600 LST to 1200 LST, the net flux of the second invasion of ozone was twice as much as the day before. In this case, a change in the horizontal wind direction may have been responsible for the ozone increase.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.43-51
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• 2006

Background: The DR-$70^{TM}$ immunoassay is a newly developed cancer diagnostic test which quantifies the serum fibrin degradation products (FDP), produced during fibrinolysis, by antibody reaction. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential of DR-$70^{TM}$ Immunoassay in screening malignant tumor. Methods: Sample subjects were 4,169 adults, both male and female, who visited the health promotion center of a general hospital from March 2004 to April 2005 and underwent the DR-$70^{TM}$ immunoassay test and other tests for cancer diagnosis. The patient group was defined as 42 adults out of the sample subjects who were newly diagnosed with cancer during the same time period when the DR-$70^{TM}$ immunoassay test was performed. Final confirmation of a malignant tumor was made by pathological analysis. Results: The mean DR-$70^{TM}$ level was $0.83{\pm}0.65{\mu}g/ml$ (range: 0.00 (0.0001)${\sim}7.42{\mu}g/ml)$ in the control group (n=4,127) as opposed to $2.70{\pm}2.33{\mu}g/ml$ (range: $0.12{\sim}9.30{\mu}g/ml)$ in the cancer group (n=42), and statistical significance was established (p<0.0001, Student t-test). When categorized by the type of malignant tumor, all cancer patients with the exception of the subgroups of colon and rectal cancer showed significantly higher mean DR-$70^{TM}$ levels compared with the control group (p<0.0001, Kruscal-Wallis test). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis revealed ${\geq}1.091{\mu}g/ml$ as the best cut-off value. Using this cut-off value, the DR-$70^{TM}$ immunoassay produced a sensitivity of 71.4%, a specificity of 70.1%, a positive predictability of 69.4%, and a negative predictability of 69.2% (1). Conclusion: A significant increase in the mean DR-$70^{TM}$ value was observed in the cancer group (thyroidal, gastric, breast, hepatic and ovarian) com pared with the control group. In particular, the specificity and sensitivity of the DR-$70^{TM}$ immunoassay was relatively high in the subgroups of breast, gastric, and thyroidal cancer patients. There is need for further studies on a large number of malignant tumor patients to see how the DR-$70^{TM}$ level might be changed according to the differentiation grade and postoperative prognosis of the malignant tumor.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.153-158
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• 2011

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate whether anti-M$\ddot{u}$llerian hormone (AMH) levels could be predict ovarian poor/hyper response and IVF cycle outcome. Methods: Between May 2010 and January 2011, serum AMH levels were evaluated with retrospective analysis. Three hundred seventy infertile women undergoing 461 IVF cycles between the ages of 20 and 42 were studied. We defined the poor response as the number of oocytes retrieved was equal or less than 3, and the hyper response as more than 25 oocytes retrieved. Serum AMH was measured by commercial enzymelinked immunoassay. Results: The number of oocytes retrieved was more correlated with the serum AMH level (r=0.781, $p$ <0.01) than serum FSH (r=-0.412, $p$ <0.01). The cut-off value of serum AMH levels for poor response was 1.05 ng/mL (receiver operating characteristic [ROC] curves/area under the curve [AUC], $ROC_{AUC}$=0.85, sensitivity 74%, specificity 87%). Hyper response cut-off value was 3.55 ng/mL $ROC_{AUC}$=0.91, sensitivity 94%, specificity 81%). When the study group was divided according to the serum AMH levels (low: <1.05 ng/mL, middle: 1.05 ng/mL - 3.55 ng/mL, high: >3.55 ng/mL), the groups showed no statistical differences in mature oocyte rates (71.6% vs. 76.5% vs. 74.8%) or fertilization rates (76.9% vs. 76.6% vs. 73.8%), but showed significant differences in clinical pregnancy rates (21.7% vs. 24.1% vs. 40.8%, $p$=0.017). Conclusion: The serum AMH level can be used to predict the number of oocytes retrieved in patients, distinguishing poor and high responders.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.187-193
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• 2016

In this study, we performed the carotid artery ultrasound targeting 140 subjects who have conducted to evaluate the changes in intima-media thickness(IMT) and plaque correlated with the presence or absence of a hematological test of the carotid artery. Considering that the IMT thickness more than 1mm is abnormal based on the carotid artery ultrasound to assess the presence or absence of plaque, and examined the correlation by classifying the blood lipid value and the fasting blood glucose level through the serum test. Consequently, the fasting blood glucose level is being analyzed as independent predictors of causing dental plaque(p=0.033), cut off value was determined as 126 mg/dL(sensitivity 56.25%, specificity 68.38%) in ROC curve analysis. Furthermore, the odds ratio appeared 1.01 times the value in the Logistic regression. Therefore, it seemed that the necessity to prospective studies in a number of subjects are considered, and also taking into account a number of blood test values along with the sonography of the carotid artery as a valuable part for effective primary prevention and follow-up observation of the cardiac and brain vascular disease is highly recommended.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.396-403
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• 2018

In this paper, a high-performance and low-noise centrifugal fan is developed for cooling automotive seats which provide a driver with pleasant driving environment. First, the flow characteristics of the existing fan unit was analyzed using a fan performance tester and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulations. The analysis of the predicted flow field indicated vortex flow near the tip of fan hub and stagnation flow on the top of fan hub. Two design points are devised to reduce the vortex flow and the stagnation flow observed in the existing fan unit. First, the cut-off clearance which is the minimum distance between the fan blade and the fan housing is increased to reduce the vortex strength and, as a result, to reduce the overall sound pressure level. Second, the hub shape is more modified to eliminate the stagnation flow. The validity of proposed design is confirmed through the numerical analysis. Finally, a prototype is manufactured with a basis on the numerical analysis result and its improved flow and noise performances are confirmed through the P-Q curves measured by using the Fan Tester and the SPL (Sound Pressure Level) levels measured in the anechoic chamber.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.70 no.1
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• pp.51-57
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• 2011

Background: Early recognition and treatment of sepsis would improve patients' outcome. But it is difficult to distinguish between sepsis and non-infectious conditions in the acute phase of clinical deterioration. We studied serum level of procalcitonin (PCT) as a method to diagnose and to evaluate sepsis. Methods: Between 1 March 2009 and 30 September 2009, 178 patients had their serum PCT tested during their clinical deterioration in the medical intensive care unit. These laboratories were evaluated, on a retrospective basis. We classified their clinical status as non-infection, local infection, sepsis, severe sepsis, and septic shock. Then, we compared their clinical status with level of PCT. Results: The number of clinical status is as follows: 18 non-infection, 33 local infection, 39 sepsis, 26 severe sepsis, and 62 septic shock patients. PCT level of non-septic group (non-infection and local infection) and septic group (sepsis, severe sepsis, septic shock) was $0.36{\pm}0.57$ ng/mL and $18.09{\pm}36.53$ ng/mL (p<0.001), respectively. Area under the curve for diagnosis of sepsis using cut-off value of PCT >0.5 ng/mL was 0.841 (p<0.001). Level of PCT as clinical status was statistically different between severe sepsis and septic shock ($^*severe$ sepsis; $4.53{\pm}6.15$ ng/mL, $^*septic$ shock $34.26{\pm}47.10$ ng/mL, $^*p$ <0.001). Conclusion: Level of PCT at clinical deterioration showed diagnostic power for septic condition. The level of PCT was statistically different between severe sepsis and septic shock.