• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.258-265
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• 2018

We aimed to identify the relationships between puerperal metritis (PM) and serum metabolites, uterine health, milk yield, and reproductive performance in dairy cows. Blood samples from 150 Holstein dairy cows were collected just after calving, and at 1, 2, and 4 weeks postpartum to measure serum concentrations of ${\beta}$-hydroxybutyrate (BHBA), urea nitrogen, total cholesterol (TCH), albumin, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), calcium, and magnesium. PM was diagnosed by the presence of fever (${\geq}39.5^{\circ}C$) and a watery, fetid uterine discharge during the first 14 days after calving. Cows were divided into two groups on the basis of the presence or absence of the disease: a control group (n = 83) and a PM group (n = 67). The cows diagnosed with PM were subcutaneously administered with 2.2 mg/kg ceftiofur for 3-5 days. The serum concentrations of BHBA tended to be higher (P = 0.06) and AST was higher (P < 0.05) in the PM group than in the control group 1 week after calving, whereas serum concentrations of urea nitrogen, TCH, albumin, calcium, and magnesium were lower (P < 0.05-0.0001) after calving in the PM group than in the control group. The probability of clinical endometritis was higher (odds ratio = 5.40, P < 0.001) in the PM group than in the control group. Moreover, the proportion of neutrophils in the uterus was also higher in the PM group than in the control group 4, 6, and 8 weeks after calving (P < 0.001). The mean milk yield 1 and 2 months after calving was lower (P = 0.05) in the PM group than in the control group. The hazard of pregnancy by 180 days after calving tended to be lower (hazard ratio = 0.60, P = 0.07) in the PM group than in the control group, which led to an extended mean interval between calving and pregnancy (19 days) in the PM group (P < 0.01). In conclusion, PM is associated with higher postpartum concentrations of BHBA and AST, and lower concentrations of urea nitrogen, TCH, albumin, calcium, and magnesium. Moreover, PM is associated with subsequent poor uterine health, lower milk yield, and poorer reproductive performance in dairy cows.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.2B
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• pp.169-177
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• 2010

Recently due to the typhoon and extreme rainfall induced by abnormal weather and climate change, the probability of severe damage to human life and property is rapidly increasing. Thus it is necessary to create adequate and reliable flood risk map in preparation for those natural disasters. The study area is Seo-gu in Daegu which is located near Geumho river, one of the tributaries of Nakdong river. Inundation depth and velocity at each time were calculated by applying FLUMEN model to the target area of interest, Seo-gu in Daegu. And the research of creating flood risk map was conducted according to the Downstream Hazard Classification Guidelines of USBR. The 2-dimensional inundation analysis for channels and protected lowland with FLUMEN model was carried out with the basic assumption that there's no levee failure against 100 year precipatation and inflow comes only through the overflowing to the protected lowland. The occurrence of overflowing was identified at the levee of Bisan-dong located in Geumho watershed. The level of risk was displayed for house/building residents, drivers and pedestrians using information about depth and velocity of each node computed from the inundation analysis. Once inundation depth map and flood risk map for each region is created with this research method, emergency action guidelines for residents can be systemized and it would be very useful in establishing specified emergency evacuation plans in case of levee failure and overflowing resulting from a flood.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.242-251
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• 2024

Background: This study compared the outcomes of surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR) in patients aged 50 to 70 years based on the type of prosthetic valve used. Methods: We compared patients who underwent mechanical AVR to those who underwent bioprosthetic AVR at our institution between January 2000 and March 2019. Competing risk analysis and the inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) method based on propensity score were employed for comparisons. Results: A total of 1,580 patients (984 patients with mechanical AVR; 596 patients with bioprosthetic AVR) were enrolled. There was no significant difference in early mortality between the mechanical AVR and bioprosthetic AVR groups (0.9% vs. 1.7%, p=0.177). After IPTW adjustment, the risk of all-cause mortality was significantly higher in the bioprosthetic AVR group than in the mechanical AVR group (hazard ratio [HR], 1.39; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.07-1.80; p=0.014). Competing risk analysis revealed lower risks of stroke (sub-distributional hazard ratio [sHR], 0.44; 95% CI, 0.28-0.67; p<0.001) and anticoagulation-related bleeding (sHR, 0.35; 95% CI, 0.23-0.53; p<0.001) in the bioprosthetic AVR group. Conversely, the risk of aortic valve (AV) reintervention was higher in the bioprosthetic AVR group (sHR, 6.14; 95% CI, 3.17-11.93; p<0.001). Conclusion: Among patients aged 50 to 70 years who underwent surgical AVR, those receiving mechanical valves showed better survival than those with bioprosthetic valves. The mechanical AVR group exhibited a higher risk of stroke and anticoagulation-related bleeding, while the bioprosthetic AVR group showed a higher risk of AV reintervention.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.237-244
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• 2015

This study is estimated the flood damage probability of the flood discharge, the flood stage estimation and Economic Analysis for Flood Control about considering of uncertainty. Sum River Basin has chosen and the probability precipitation is estimated by using the concept of critical rainfall duration depending on the frequency of each flood stage estimation point. For calculating the expected annual damage, the functions of long term hazard, discharge-frequency, stage-discharge and depth-damage are established for 8 areas in Sum River Basin. The expected annual damaged is obtained which is based on the sampling informations through more than 500,000 simulation from the functions of considered uncertainty. The result about the optimum frequency and Investment Priorities are estimated by conducting the evaluation about planning the levee of various of Design Frequency. In analysis result, 12% of B/C value has increased if the uncertainty has concerned. Also the optimum frequency or Investment Priorities are possible to be changed. If the political and social analysis perform together it would be helpful to have a reasonable decision other than only the economical analysis as actual Flood damaged reduction planning.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.19
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• pp.8371-8376
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• 2014

Background: The use of statistical methods has become an imperative tool in breast cancer survival data analysis. The purpose of this study was to develop the best statistical probability model using the Bayesian method to predict future survival times for the black non-Hispanic female breast cancer patients diagnosed during 1973-2009 in the U.S. Materials and Methods: We used a stratified random sample of black non-Hispanic female breast cancer patient data from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. Survival analysis was performed using Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional regression methods. Four advanced types of statistical models, Exponentiated Exponential (EE), Beta Generalized Exponential (BGE), Exponentiated Weibull (EW), and Beta Inverse Weibull (BIW) were utilized for data analysis. The statistical model building criteria, Akaike Information Criteria (AIC), Bayesian Information Criteria (BIC), and Deviance Information Criteria (DIC) were used to measure the goodness of fit tests. Furthermore, we used the Bayesian approach to obtain the predictive survival inferences from the best-fit data based on the exponentiated Weibull model. Results: We identified the highest number of black non-Hispanic female breast cancer patients in Michigan and the lowest in Hawaii. The mean (SD), of age at diagnosis (years) was 58.3 (14.43). The mean (SD), of survival time (months) for black non-Hispanic females was 66.8 (30.20). Non-Hispanic blacks had a significantly increased risk of death compared to Black Hispanics (Hazard ratio: 1.96, 95%CI: 1.51-2.54). Compared to other statistical probability models, we found that the exponentiated Weibull model better fits for the survival times. By making use of the Bayesian method predictive inferences for future survival times were obtained. Conclusions: These findings will be of great significance in determining appropriate treatment plans and health-care cost allocation. Furthermore, the same approach should contribute to build future predictive models for any health related diseases.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.207-230
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• 2001

This paper uses the Korean Labor Panel data to investigate changes in the employment types of male workers following their job changes with the classification of workers into three categories: regular wage workers, non-regular wage workers, and self-employed workers. It also estimates a competing-risks hazard model to analyze the determinants of employment types of workers. The results show that the type of employment of a worker at an immediate previous job has a critical importance in determining his employment type at a new job and that the types of employment at jobs other than the immediate previous job also play some role in determining the type of employment at a new job, although their impact declines as the number of intervening jobs increases. A job loser, who worked as a non-regular worker at his immediate previous job, for example, is considerably less likely to find a regular job, but more likely to get reemployed at another non-regular job than one who worked as a regular worker at his immediate previous job. Similarly, a worker who quit self-employment is much less likely to find a regular job but more likely to restart his own business than one who worked as a regular worker at his immediate previous job. These findings suggest that it is not easy at all for a worker who worked as either a non-regular worker or self-employed worker to become a regular worker, although it might be premature to assert that non-regular jobs or self-employed jobs are dead-end jobs. Another interesting finding of this analysis is that a high unemployment rate lowers a probability of reemployment at either regular jobs or self-employed jobs, but raises a non-regular job reemployment probability, which strongly implies that as labor market conditions become adverse to workers the proportion of non-regular employment can rise rapidly.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.476-486
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• 2020

Objectives: The objective of this study was to estimate the risk of lung cancer in relation to angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) use among patients with hypertension from the Korean National Health Insurance Service-National Health Screening Cohort. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients with hypertension who started to take antihypertensive medications and had a treatment period of at least 6 months. We calculated the weighted hazard ratios (HRs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of lung cancer associated with ARB use compared with calcium channel blocker (CCB) use using inverse probability treatment weighting. Results: Among a total of 60 469 subjects with a median follow-up time of 7.8 years, 476 cases of lung cancer were identified. ARB use had a protective effect on lung cancer compared with CCB use (HR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.59 to 0.96). Consistent findings were found in analyses considering patients who changed or discontinued their medication (HR, 0.50; 95% CI, 0.32 to 0.77), as well as for women (HR, 0.56; 95% CI, 0.34 to 0.93), patients without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (HR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.56 to 1.00), never-smokers (HR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.42 to 0.99), and non-drinkers (HR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.49 to 0.97). In analyses with different comparison antihypertensive medications, the overall protective effects of ARBs on lung cancer risk remained consistent. Conclusions: The results of the present study suggest that ARBs could decrease the risk of lung cancer. More evidence is needed to establish the causal effect of ARBs on the incidence of lung cancer.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.64-71
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• 2004

This paper describes the result of the pump room fire analysis of the nuclear power plant using CFAST fire modeling code developed by NIST. The sensitivity studies are performed over the input parameters of CFAST: the constrained or unconstrained fire, Lower Oxygen Limit (LOL), Radiative Fraction (RF), and the opening ratio of the fire doors. According to the results, a pump room fire is the ventilation-controlled fire, so it is adequate that the value of LOL is 10% which is also the default value. It is anlayzed that the Radiative Fraction does not affect the temperature of the upper gas layer. It is appeared that the integrity of the cable located at the upper layer is maintained except for the safety pump at the fire area and the Conditional Core Damage Probability (CCDP) is 9.25E-07. It seems that CCDP result is more realistic and less uncertain than that of Fire Hazard Analysis (FHA).

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.303-309
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• 2008

The reduction of risk within the workplace has long been focus of attention both through industry initiatives and legislation. Exposure matrices according to industries and processes treated DMF (N,N-Dimethylformamide) were constructed based on KOSHA (Korean Occupational Safety and Health Agency)'s 2005 exposure database which were gathered from Korean agencies of workplace hazards evaluation for business place. These exposure matrices were assessed by danger value (DV) that was calculated from combination of hazard rating, duration of use rating, and risk probability rating of exposure to chemical hazardous agents in accordance with Hallmark Risk Assessment Tool. The results of risk assessment is divided four kinds of control bands which were related with control measures. The applicability of risk assessment using exposure matrices was performed by field study and survey for high matrices group. This study found that more attentions should be paid to two industries, manufacture of sewn wearing apparel and manufacture of textiles, among 19 industries, and to 3 processes, coating, processing & mixing, and lab, among 80 processes because those were regarded as having the highest risk.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.867-872
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• 2016

Background: Esophageal cancer is one of the most serious malignancies. Due to the aggressive nature of this cancer, the prognosis is poor. A network meta-analysis with simultaneous comparison of multiple treatments can help determine better treatment options that have higher effects on overall survival of patients with lower adverse events. The aim of this review is to simultaneously compare efficacy and adverse events of treatment interventions for esophageal cancer. Materials and Methods: In this review, only randomized control trials (RCT) will be considered for network meta-analysis. All international electronic databases including Medline, Web of Sciences, Scopus, Cochran's library, EMBASE and Cancerlit will be searched to find randomized control trials which compared two or more treatment interventions for esophageal cancer. A network plot will be drawn for visual representation of all available treatment interventions. Bayesian approach will be used to combine the direct and indirect evidence. Treatment effects (e.g. hazard ratio for time to event outcomes, risk ratio for binary outcomes, and rate ratio for count outcomes with 95% credible interval) will be reported. Moreover, cumulative probability of the treatment ranks will be reported using the surface under the cumulative ranking (SUCRA) graphs. Consistency assumption will be assessed by the loop-specific and design-by-treatment interaction approaches. Conclusions: The results of this study may be helpful for the patients, clinicians and health policy makers in selecting treatments that have the best effect on survival and lowest adverse events.