• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.82 no.3
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• pp.589-599
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• 2021

Purpose To analyze the success and complication rates and factors associated with technical failure of the ultrasound (US)-guided percutaneous thrombin injection of femoral artery pseudoaneurysms caused by vascular access. Materials and Methods Records of 30 patients with post-catheterization femoral artery pseudoaneurysms who had been treated with US-guided percutaneous thrombin injections in the department of radiology between March 2009 and June 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. The lesion was diagnosed based on US or contrast-enhanced CT. The characteristics of the patients and their lesions were analyzed. Results The mean patient age was 67.8 years. The mean diameter of the pseudoaneurysmal sac was 20.88 mm (5-40 mm). Twenty patients (66.6%) obtained complete thrombosis after the primary injection, while 10 patients (33.3%) obtained partial thrombosis. The number of patients with a low platelet count (< 130 k/µL) was significantly higher in the partial thrombosis group than in the complete thrombosis group (p = 0.02). No substantial procedure-related complications were found in any patient. Conclusion The US-guided percutaneous thrombin injection is considered an initial treatment option for pseudoaneurysms caused by vascular access because of its safety and efficacy.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.438-448
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• 2024

Objective: To evaluate the therapeutic outcomes of no-touch radiofrequency ablation (NT-RFA) using twin cooled wet (TCW) electrodes in patients experiencing recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after undergoing locoregional treatments. Materials and Methods: We conducted a prospective, single-arm study of NT-RFA involving 102 patients, with a total of 112 recurrent HCCs (each ≤ 3 cm). NT-RFA with TCW electrodes was implemented under the guidance of ultrasonography (US)-MR/CT fusion imaging. If NT-RFA application proved technically challenging, conversion to conventional tumor puncture RFA was permitted. The primary metric for evaluation was the mid-term cumulative incidence of local tumor progression (LTP) observed post-RFA. Cumulative LTP rates were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression was used to explore factors associated with LTP. Considering conversion cases from NT-RFA to conventional RFA, intention-to-treat (ITT; including all patients) and per-protocol (PP; including patients not requiring conversion to conventional RFA alone) analyses were performed. Results: Conversion from NT-RFA to conventional RFA was necessary for 24 (21.4%) out of 112 tumors. Successful treatment was noted in 111 (99.1%) out of them. No major complications were reported among the patients. According to ITT analysis, the estimated cumulative incidences of LTP were 1.9%, 6.0%, and 6.0% at 1, 2, and 3 years post-RFA, respectively. In PP analysis, the cumulative incidence of LTP was 0.0%, 1.3%, and 1.3% at 1, 2, and 3 years, respectively. The number of previous locoregional HCC treatments (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.265 per 1 treatment increase; P = 0.004), total bilirubin (aHR, 7.477 per 1 mg/dL increase; P = 0.012), and safety margin ≤ 5 mm (aHR, 9.029; P = 0.016) were independently associated with LTP in ITT analysis. Conclusion: NT-RFA using TCW electrodes is a safe and effective treatment for recurrent HCC, with 6.0% (ITT analysis) and 1.3% (PP analysis) cumulative incidence of LTP at 2 and 3-year follow-ups.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2024

As the service robot market grows among the food technology industry, the quality of robot service that affects consumer behavioral intentions in the restaurant industry has become important. Serving robots, which are common in restaurants, reduce employee work through order and delivery, but because they do not respond to service failures, they increase customer dissatisfaction as well as increase employee work. In order to improve the quality of service beyond the simple function of receiving and serving orders, functions of recovery effort, fairness, empathy, responsiveness, and certainty of the process after service failure, such as serving employees, are also required. Accordingly, we assumed the type of failure of restaurant serving service as two internal and external factors, and developed a serving robot with a vocational ethics module to respond with a professional ethical attitude when the restaurant serving service fails. At this time, the expression and action of the serving robot were developed by adding a failure mode reflecting failure recovery efforts and empathy to the normal service mode. And by recruiting college students, we tested whether the service robot's response to two types of service failures had a significant effect on evaluating the robot. Participants responded that they were more uncomfortable with service failures caused by other customers' mistakes than robot mistakes, and that the serving robot's professional ethical empathy and response were appropriate. In addition, unlike the robot's favorability, the evaluation of the safety of the robot had a significant difference depending on whether or not a professional ethical empathy module was installed. A professional ethical empathy response module for natural service failure recovery using generative artificial intelligence should be developed and mounted, and the domestic serving robot industry and market are expected to grow more rapidly if the Korean serving robot certification system is introduced.

• Journal of Ginseng Culture
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• v.6
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• pp.51-79
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• 2024

In the 1970s and 1980s, during the nascent phase of ginseng disease research, efforts concentrated on isolating and identifying pathogens. Subsequently, their physiological ecology and pathogenesis characteristics were scrutinized. This led to the establishment of a comprehensive control approach for safeguarding major aerial part diseases like Alternaria blight, anthracnose, and Phytophthora blight, along with underground part diseases such as Rhizoctonia seedling damping-off, Pythium seedling damping-off, and Sclerotinia white rot. In the 1980s, the sunshade was changed from traditional rice straw to polyethylene (PE) net. From 1987 to 1989, focused research aimed at enhancing disease control methods. Notably, the introduction of a four-layer woven P.E. light-shading net minimized rainwater leakage, curbing Alternaria blight occurrence. Since 1990, identification of the bacterial soft stem rot pathogen facilitated the establishment of a flower stem removal method to mitigate outbreaks. Concurrently, efforts were directed towards identifying root rot pathogens causing continuous crop failure, employing soil fumigation and filling methods for sustainable crop land use. In 2000, adapting to rapid climate changes became imperative, prompting modifications and supplements to control methods. New approaches were devised, including a crop protection agent method for Alternaria stem blight triggered by excessive rainfall during sprouting and a control method for gray mold disease. A comprehensive plan to enhance control methods for Rhizoctonia seedling damping-off and Rhizoctonia damping-off was also devised. Over the past 50 years, the initial emphasis was on understanding the causes and control of ginseng diseases, followed by refining established control methods. Drawing on these findings, future ginseng cultivation and disease control methods should be innovatively developed to proactively address evolving factors such as climate fluctuations, diminishing cultivation areas, escalating labor costs, and heightened consumer safety awareness.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.232-243
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• 2024

Purpose: Recently, large-scale forest fires caused by climate change, natural disasters, and human factors have been increasing every year in the East Coast and Taebaek Mountains region. Although forest fire extinguishing using helicopters is currently increasing, the need to introduce air force transport aircraft has continued to be raised due to the importance of early fire extinguishment to respond to large forest fires and the difficulty of extinguishing forest fires between sheep. This study seeks to present a plan for developing a post-fire management system for several aspects - achieving operational objectives, overcoming the operating environment, selecting a staging area, and efficient operation measures - to efficiently perform forest fire extinguishing missions using Air Force transport aircraft. Method: Based on literature research on forest fire extinguishing, forest fire extinguishing experiments using fixed-wing aircraft, and the operation status and operation method of forest fire extinguishing helicopters, the pros and cons of helicopter operation and the effects of large forest fire extinguishing using a large transport aircraft (C-130) Analyze the effectiveness of operation through analysis. Results: When extinguishing a large forest fire, an effective CM (Consequence Management) application plan was derived, including effective operation, control, command system, dispatch request, and forest fire extinguishment when integrating helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft (C-130). Conclusion: The application of the concept of CM (Consequence Management) is partially applied to some areas of chemical, biological, and radiological (CBRNE) protection in Korea, but efficient operation, control, and command systems are established when integrated operation of helicopters and large aircraft (C-130) in forest fire extinguishment. the concept of CM (Consequence Management), which is operated in advanced countries, was applied for safety management, dispatch requests, and forest fire extinguishing, thereby contributing to the establishment of a more advanced disaster and post-disaster management system.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.705-720
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• 2024

Analyzing the collapse behavior of thin-walled steel structures holds significant importance in ensuring their safety and longevity. Geometric imperfections present on the surface of metal materials can diminish both the durability and mechanical integrity of steel shells. These imperfections, encompassing local geometric irregularities and deformations such as holes, cavities, notches, and cracks localized in specific regions of the shell surface, play a pivotal role in the assessment. They can induce stress concentration within the structure, thereby influencing its susceptibility to buckling. The intricate relationship between the buckling behavior of these structures and such imperfections is multifaceted, contingent upon a variety of factors. The buckling analysis of thin-walled steel shell structures, similar to other steel structures, commonly involves the determination of crucial material properties, including elastic modulus, shear modulus, tensile strength, and fracture toughness. An established method involves the emulation of distributed geometric imperfections, utilizing real test specimen data as a basis. This approach allows for the accurate representation and assessment of the diversity and distribution of imperfections encountered in real-world scenarios. Utilizing defect data obtained from actual test samples enhances the model's realism and applicability. The sizes and configurations of these defects are employed as inputs in the modeling process, aiding in the prediction of structural behavior. It's worth noting that there is a dearth of experimental studies addressing the influence of geometric defects on the buckling behavior of cylindrical steel shells. In this particular study, samples featuring geometric imperfections were subjected to experimental buckling tests. These same samples were also modeled using Finite Element Analysis (FEM), with results corroborating the experimental findings. Furthermore, the initial geometrical imperfections were measured using digital image correlation (DIC) techniques. In this way, the response of the test specimens can be estimated accurately by applying the initial imperfections to FE models. After validation of the test results with FEA, a numerical parametric study was conducted to develop more generalized design recommendations for the stainless-steel shell structures with the initial geometric imperfection. While the load-carrying capacity of samples with perfect surfaces was up to 140 kN, the load-carrying capacity of samples with 4 mm defects was around 130 kN. Likewise, while the load carrying capacity of samples with 10 mm defects was around 125 kN, the load carrying capacity of samples with 14 mm defects was measured around 120 kN.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.89-103
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• 2024

In the disposal environment, gases can be generated at the interface between canister and buffer due to various factors such as anaerobic corrosion, radiolysis, and microbial degradation. If the gas generation rate exceeds the diffusion rate, the gas within the buffer may compress, resulting in physical damage to the buffer due to the increased pore pressure. In particular, the rapid movement of gases, known as gas breakthroughs, through the dilatancy pathway formed during this process may lead to releasing radionuclide. Therefore, understanding these gas generation and movement mechanism is essential for the safety assessment of the disposal systems. In this study, an experimental apparatus for investigating gas migration within buffer was constructed based on a literature review. Subsequently, a gas injection experiment was conducted on a compacted bentonite block made of Bentonile WRK (Clariant Ltd.) powder. The results clearly demonstrated a sharp increase in stress and pressure typically observed at the onset of gas breakthrough within the buffer. Additionally, the range of stresses induced by the swelling phenomenon of the buffer, was 4.7 to 9.1 MPa. The apparent gas entry pressure was determined to be approximately 7.8 MPa. The equipment established in this study is expected to be utilized for various experiments aimed at building a database on the initial properties of buffer and the conditions during gas injection, contributing to understanding the gas migration phenomena.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.12
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• pp.4447-4464
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• 2023

This paper focuses on the development of a new computational model of the CNESTEN's TRIGA Mark II research reactor using the 3D continuous energy Monte-Carlo code TRIPOLI-4 (T4). This new model was developed to assess neutronic simulations and determine quantities of interest such as kinetic parameters of the reactor, control rods worth, power peaking factors and neutron flux distributions. This model is also a key tool used to accurately design new experiments in the TRIGA reactor, to analyze these experiments and to carry out sensitivity and uncertainty studies. The geometry and materials data, as part of the MCNP reference model, were used to build the T4 model. In this regard, the differences between the two models are mainly due to mathematical approaches of both codes. Indeed, the study presented in this article is divided into two parts: the first part deals with the development and the validation of the T4 model. The results obtained with the T4 model were compared to the existing MCNP reference model and to the experimental results from the Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR). Different core configurations were investigated via simulations to test the computational model reliability in predicting the physical parameters of the reactor. As a fairly good agreement among the results was deduced, it seems reasonable to assume that the T4 model can accurately reproduce the MCNP calculated values. The second part of this study is devoted to the sensitivity and uncertainty (S/U) studies that were carried out to quantify the nuclear data uncertainty in the multiplication factor k_eff. For that purpose, the T4 model was used to calculate the sensitivity profiles of the k_eff to the nuclear data. The integrated-sensitivities were compared to the results obtained from the previous works that were carried out with MCNP and SCALE-6.2 simulation tools and differences of less than 5% were obtained for most of these quantities except for the C-graphite sensitivities. Moreover, the nuclear data uncertainties in the k_eff were derived using the COMAC-V2.1 covariance matrices library and the calculated sensitivities. The results have shown that the total nuclear data uncertainty in the k_eff is around 585 pcm using the COMAC-V2.1. This study also demonstrates that the contribution of zirconium isotopes to the nuclear data uncertainty in the k_eff is not negligible and should be taken into account when performing S/U analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.84 no.6
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• pp.1339-1349
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• 2023

Purpose To determine the efficacy and safety of iliac branch device (IBD) implantation and to evaluate its limitations based on 7 years of experience in a single center. Materials and Methods This single-center study included patients with bilateral common iliac artery aneurysms (CIAAs). We investigated follow-up CT and reviewed the internal iliac artery (IIA) patency and complications related to IBD. A retrospective analysis was performed and the overall survival rate and freedom from reintervention rate were reported according to the Kaplan-Meier method. Results Of the 38 patients with CIAAs, only 10 (12 CIAAs) were suitable for IBD treatment. Five patients underwent unilateral IBD insertion with contralateral IIA embolization, and three (60%) showed claudication; however, symptoms resolved within 6 months. The 7-year freedom from IBD-related reintervention rate was 77.8%. No procedure-related deaths occurred. Conclusion IBD has good technical success and long-term patency rates; however, anatomical factors frequently limit its application, particularly in Asians. Additionally, unilateral IIA embolization showed relatively mild complications and a good prognosis; therefore, it can be performed safely for anatomically complex aortoiliac aneurysms.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.191-208
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• 2024

In this study, a hydro-mechanical-damage coupled analysis model was developed to evaluate the structural safety of radioactive waste disposal structures. The Mazars damage model, widely used to model the fracture behavior of brittle materials such as rocks or concrete, was coupled with conventional hydro-mechanical analysis and the developed model was verified via theoretical solutions from literature. To derive the numerical input values for damage-coupled analysis, uniaxial compressive strength and Brazilian tensile strength tests were performed on concrete samples made using the mix ratio of the disposal concrete silo cured under dry and saturated conditions. The input factors derived from the laboratory-scale experiments were applied to a two-dimensional finite element model of the concrete silos at the Wolseong Nuclear Environmental Management Center in Gyeongju and numerical analysis was conducted to analyze the effects of damage consideration, analysis technique, and waste loading conditions. The hydro-mechanical-damage coupled model developed in this study will be applied to the long-term behavior and stability analysis of deep geological repositories for high-level radioactive waste disposal.