• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.45-53
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• 2012

Recently, with achieved US$ 500 Billion international cumulative construction order, the Korean government presented overseas construction industry visions for international orders of US$ 100 Billion and entering the top five countries in global construction market. Also, Korean companies are developing strategies for expansion of international markets. However, ODA loan projects are low risk for the Korea Construction companies trying to advance their overseas business. This study provides data-based advice on securing competence for Korean construction companies entering the global market through the ODA loan projects. To analysis construction firm's competitiveness for ODA loan project, FGD was utilized and BSA model was applied to the valuable analysis. Competencies highly assessed were construction quality control, relationship building through high-level diplomatic activities, and project management. Competencies requiring urgent improvement were handling risks of local countries, financing projects, and developing know-how within participating companies.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.373-384
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• 2000

To assess the safety of nonlinear steel frame structures subjected to short duration dynamic loadings, especially seismic loading, a nonlinear time domain reliability analysis procedure is proposed in the context of the stochastic finite element concept. In the proposed algorithm, the finite element formulation is combined with concepts of the response surface method, the first order reliability method, and the iterative linear interpolation scheme. This leads to the stochastic finite element concept. Actual earthquake loading time-histories are used to excite structures, enabling a realistic representation of the loading conditions. The assumed stress-based finite element formulation is used to increase its efficiency. The algorithm also has the potential to evaluate the risk associated with any linear or nonlinear structure that can be represented by a finite element algorithm subjected to seismic loading or any short duration dynamic loading. The algorithm is explained with help of an example and verified using the Monte Carlo simulation technique.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.41-50
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• 2009

Following an earthquake, the major concerns for damaged buildings are their safety/risk in the event of aftershocks, and thus a quantitative damage assessment must be performed in order to evaluate their residual seismic capacity and to identify necessary actions for the damaged buildings. Post-event damage evaluation is therefore as essential for the quick recovery of a damaged community as pre-event seismic evaluation and strengthening of vulnerable buildings. The objective of this study is to develop a post-earthquake seismic evaluation method for RC frames with URM infill wall for typical school buildings. For this purpose, full-scale, one-bay, single-story specimens having different axial loads in columns are tested under cyclic loadings. During the tests, residual crack widths, which can also be found in damaged buildings, are measured in order to estimate the residual seismic capacity from the observed damage. In this paper, the relationship between the measured residual crack width and the residual seismic capacity is discussed analytically and experimentally, and reduction factors are proposed to estimate the residual seismic capacity based on the observed damage level.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.5747-5752
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• 2012

Purpose: The main objective of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of concurrent chemoradiotherapy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy compared with concurrent chemoradiotherapy alone in the treatment of locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Methods: The search strategy included Pubmed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Internet Web, Chinese Biomedical Database and Wanfang Database. We also searched reference lists of articles and the volumes of abstracts of scientific meetings. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that compared concurrent chemoradiotherapy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy with concurrent chemoradiotherapy alone in locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma were included. Meta-analysis was performed with RevMan 5.1.0. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation system (GRADE) was used to rate the level of evidence. Results: Five studies were included. Risk ratios of 1.02 (95%CI 0.89-1.15), 0.93 (95%CI 0.72-1.21), 1.07 (95%CI 0.87-1.32), 0.95 (95%CI 0.80-1.13) were observed for 3 years overall survival, 5 years failure-free survival, 5 years locoregional failure-free survival and 5 years distant metastasis failure-free survival. There were no treatment-related deaths in both groups of five studies. Hematologic and gastrointestinal toxicity were the most significant for patients during adjuvant chemotherapy. The level of evidence was low. Conclusion: Compared with concurrent chemoradiotherapy alone, concurrent chemotherapy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy did not improve prognosis. More toxicity was found during adjuvant chemotherapy.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.4695-4698
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• 2012

Objective: To analyze differential diagnostic accuracy of urinary human epidydimis secretory protein 4 (HE4) in patients with ovarian tumors. Materials and methods: In the case-control study 23 patients with ovarian cancer, 37 patients with benign ovarian tumors and 18 women in the control group were included. Serum CA125 values and urinary concentrations of HE4were assessed quantitatively. Urinary creatinine concentrations and glomerular filtration rate were also determined and used to calculate ratios to HE4. Results: Higher urinary HE4 concentrations were observed in patients with late stage ovarian cancer (p=0.001) and also in patients with early stage ovarian cancer when compared to patients with benign ovarian tumors (p=0.044). On analysis where all ovarian cancer patients were included, higher diagnostic accuracy was observed with calculated ratio of HE4 to glomerular filtration rate (GFR) to unchanged urinary HE4 concentrations -AUC 0.861 vs. 0.858. When discriminatory accuracy was calculated for urinary HE4/GFR ratio and unchanged urinary HE4 concentrations, the last demonstrated a higher area under the curve - 0.701 vs. 0.602. The urinary HE4/creatinine ratio had lower discriminatory characteristics than unchanged concentrations of urinary HE4. However, HE4 serum concentration was more accurate for discrimination of patients with benign and malignant ovarian tumors when compared to urinary HE4 and CA125 in sera (AUCs were 0.868 for serum HE4 and 0.856 and 0.653 for urinary HE4 and CA125, respectively). Conclusions: Ovarian cancer patients have higher urinary concentrations of human epidydimis secretory protein 4 than patients with benign ovarian tumors. Urinary HE4 has comparable discriminatory accuracy with serum HE4 for benign and malignant ovarian tumors and can be recommended as a non-invasive ovarian cancer risk assessment method.

• International Journal of Fuzzy Logic and Intelligent Systems
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.268-276
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• 2015

A ship's sailing route or plan is determined by the master as the decision maker of the vessel, and depends on the characteristics of the navigational environment and the conditions of the ship. The trajectory, which appears as a result of the ship's navigation, is monitored and stored by a Vessel Traffic Service center, and is used for an analysis of the ship's navigational pattern and risk assessment within a particular area. However, such an analysis is performed in the same manner, despite the different navigational environments between coastal areas and the harbor limits. The navigational environment within the harbor limits changes rapidly owing to construction of the port facilities, dredging operations, and so on. In this study, a support vector machine was used for processing and modeling the trajectory data. A K-fold cross-validation and a grid search were used for selecting the optimal parameters. A complicated traffic route similar to the circumstances of the harbor limits was constructed for a validation of the model. A group of vessels was composed, each vessel of which was given various speed and course changes along a specified route. As a result of the machine learning, the optimal route and voyage data model were obtained. Finally, the model was presented to Vessel Traffic Service operators to detect any anomalous vessel behaviors. Using the proposed data modeling method, we intend to support the decision-making of Vessel Traffic Service operators in terms of navigational patterns and their characteristics.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.59 no.2
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• pp.117-121
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• 2016

Objective : Hemorrhagic moyamoya disease (hMMD) is associated with a poor clinical course. Furthermore, poorer clinical outcomes occur in cases of recurrent bleeding. However, the effect of hemodynamic insufficiency on rebleeding risk has not been investigated yet. This study evaluated the prognostic implications of the perfusion status during the clinical course of adult hMMD. Methods : This retrospective study enrolled 52 adult hMMD patients between April 1995 and October 2010 from a single institute. Demographic data, clinical and radiologic characteristics, including hemodynamic status using single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and follow up data were obtained via a retrospective review of medical charts and imaging. Statistical analyses were performed to explore potential prognostic factors. Results : Hemodynamic abnormality was identified in 44 (84.6%) patients. Subsequent revascularization surgery was performed in 22 (42.3%) patients. During a 58-month (median, range 3-160) follow-up assessment period, 17 showed subsequent stroke (hemorrhagic n=12, ischemic n=5, Actuarial stroke rate $5.8{\pm}1.4%/year$). Recurrent hemorrhage was associated with decreased basal perfusion (HR 19.872; 95% CI=1.196-294.117) and omission of revascularization (10.218; 95%; CI=1.532-68.136). Conclusion : Decreased basal perfusion seems to be associated with recurrent bleeding. Revascularization might prevent recurrent stroke in hMMD by rectifying the perfusion abnormality. A larger-sized, controlled study is required to address this issue.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.217-230
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• 2017

Objectives: This study was conducted to review studies on somatization disorder in traditional Chinese medicine. Methods: We reviewed studies in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) to 2017. Keywords were 軀體化障碍, Somatization disorder, somatic symptom disorder. We included Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT), and excluded non-Randomized Controlled Trial (nRCT), non-related somatization disorder or traditional Chinese medicine, non-clinical trials, dissertations for degrees. Jadad scale and Cochrane Library's Risk of Bias (RoB) were used for assessment of the quality of studies. Results: Twelve studies were selected. The Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders-3 (CCMD-3) was most frequently used as diagnostic criteria for somatization disorder. As for outcome measurement, Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD) was used most commonly. Meta-analysis of 10 studies revealed effective rate of Chinese Herbal Medicine groups (CHM) was significantly higher than Western Medicine groups (WM) (RR: 1.14, 95% CI: 1.02 to 1.27, p=0.02, $I^2=40%$). There was no significant difference in effective rate of CHM+WM and WM (RR: 1.12, 95% CI: 0.84 to 1.49, p=0.46, $I^2=83%$). And also, effective rate of Acupuncture group (Acu) revealed no significant difference compared to that of WM (RR: 1.17, 95% CI: 0.95 to 1.44, p=0.13, $I^2=84%$). For HAMD, there was significant difference in CHM vs, WM group and Acu vs. WM group. Quality of selected 12 RCTs was low. Conclusions: Therapies practiced in traditional Chinese medicine may be effective options for somatization disorder. treatment. For further clinical studies in Korean medicine, this study could be groundwork for development of diagnosis and treatment on somatization disorder.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.401-413
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• 2017

Objective: The aim of this systematic review was to assess the occlusal outcome and duration of fixed orthodontic therapy from clinical trials in humans with the Objective Grading System (OGS) proposed by the American Board of Orthodontics. Methods: Nine databases were searched up to October 2016 for prospective/retrospective clinical trials assessing the outcomes of orthodontic therapy with fixed appliances. After duplicate study selection, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment according to the Cochrane guidelines, random-effects meta-analyses of the mean OGS score and treatment duration were performed and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Results: A total of 34 relevant clinical trials including 6,207 patients (40% male, 60% female; average age, 18.4 years) were identified. The average OGS score after treatment was 27.9 points (95% CI, 25.3-30.6 points), while the average treatment duration was 24.9 months (95% CI, 24.6-25.1 months). There was no significant association between occlusal outcome and treatment duration, while considerable heterogeneity was identified. In addition, orthodontic treatment involving extraction of four premolars appeared to have an important effect on both outcomes and duration of treatment. Finally, only 10 (39%) of the identified studies matched compared groups by initial malocclusion severity, although meta-epidemiological evidence suggested that matching may have significantly influenced their results. Conclusions: The findings from this systematic review suggest that the occlusal outcomes of fixed appliance treatment vary considerably, with no significant association between treatment outcomes and duration. Prospective matched clinical studies that use the OGS tool are needed to compare the effectiveness of orthodontic appliances.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.109-113
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• 2018

Background: Low cardiac output syndrome (LCOS) after cardiac surgery usually requires inotropes. In this setting, critical illness-related corticosteroid insufficiency (CIRCI) may develop. We aimed to investigate the clinical features of CIRCI in the presence of LCOS and to assess the efficacy of steroid treatment. Methods: We reviewed 28 patients who underwent a rapid adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) test due to the suspicion of CIRCI between February 2010 and September 2014. CIRCI was diagnosed by a change in serum cortisol of <$9{\mu}g/dL$ after the ACTH test or a random cortisol level of <$10{\mu}g/dL$. Results: Twenty of the 28 patients met the diagnostic criteria. The patients with CIRCI showed higher Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) scores than those without CIRCI ($16.1{\pm}2.3$ vs. $11.4{\pm}3.5$, p=0.001). Six of the patients with CIRCI (30%) received glucocorticoids. With an average elevation of the mean blood pressure by $22.2{\pm}8.7mm\;Hg$ after steroid therapy, the duration of inotropic support was shorter in the steroid group than in the non-steroid group ($14.1{\pm}2.3days$ versus $30{\pm}22.8days$, p=0.001). Three infections (15%) developed in the non-steroid group, but this was not a significant between-group difference. Conclusion: CIRCI should be suspected in patients with LCOS after cardiac surgery, especially in patients with a high SOFA score. Glucocorticoid replacement therapy may be considered to reduce the use of inotropes without posing an additional risk of infection.