• Title/Summary/Keyword: sudden change

Search Result 550, Processing Time 0.024 seconds

A Study on the Data Driven Neural Network Model for the Prediction of Time Series Data: Application of Water Surface Elevation Forecasting in Hangang River Bridge (시계열 자료의 예측을 위한 자료 기반 신경망 모델에 관한 연구: 한강대교 수위예측 적용)

  • Yoo, Hyungju;Lee, Seung Oh;Choi, Seohye;Park, Moonhyung
    • Journal of Korean Society of Disaster and Security
    • /
    • v.12 no.2
    • /
    • pp.73-82
    • /
    • 2019
  • Recently, as the occurrence frequency of sudden floods due to climate change increased, the flood damage on riverside social infrastructures was extended so that there has been a threat of overflow. Therefore, a rapid prediction of potential flooding in riverside social infrastructure is necessary for administrators. However, most current flood forecasting models including hydraulic model have limitations which are the high accuracy of numerical results but longer simulation time. To alleviate such limitation, data driven models using artificial neural network have been widely used. However, there is a limitation that the existing models can not consider the time-series parameters. In this study the water surface elevation of the Hangang River bridge was predicted using the NARX model considering the time-series parameter. And the results of the ANN and RNN models are compared with the NARX model to determine the suitability of NARX model. Using the 10-year hydrological data from 2009 to 2018, 70% of the hydrological data were used for learning and 15% was used for testing and evaluation respectively. As a result of predicting the water surface elevation after 3 hours from the Hangang River bridge in 2018, the ANN, RNN and NARX models for RMSE were 0.20 m, 0.11 m, and 0.09 m, respectively, and 0.12 m, 0.06 m, and 0.05 m for MAE, and 1.56 m, 0.55 m and 0.10 m for peak errors respectively. By analyzing the error of the prediction results considering the time-series parameters, the NARX model is most suitable for predicting water surface elevation. This is because the NARX model can learn the trend of the time series data and also can derive the accurate prediction value even in the high water surface elevation prediction by using the hyperbolic tangent and Rectified Linear Unit function as an activation function. However, the NARX model has a limit to generate a vanishing gradient as the sequence length becomes longer. In the future, the accuracy of the water surface elevation prediction will be examined by using the LSTM model.

Assessment of Fire-Damaged Mortar using Color image Analysis (색도 이미지 분석을 이용한 화재 피해 모르타르의 손상 평가)

  • Park, Kwang-Min;Lee, Byung-Do;Yoo, Sung-Hun;Ham, Nam-Hyuk;Roh, Young-Sook
    • Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
    • /
    • v.23 no.3
    • /
    • pp.83-91
    • /
    • 2019
  • The purpose of this study is to assess a fire-damaged concrete structure using a digital camera and image processing software. To simulate it, mortar and paste samples of W/C=0.5(general strength) and 0.3(high strength) were put into an electric furnace and simulated from $100^{\circ}C$ to $1000^{\circ}C$. Here, the paste was processed into a powder to measure CIELAB chromaticity, and the samples were taken with a digital camera. The RGB chromaticity was measured by color intensity analyzer software. As a result, the residual compressive strength of W/C=0.5 and 0.3 was 87.2 % and 86.7 % at the heating temperature of $400^{\circ}C$. However there was a sudden decrease in strength at the temperature above $500^{\circ}C$, while the residual compressive strength of W/C=0.5 and 0.3 was 55.2 % and 51.9 % of residual strength. At the temperature $700^{\circ}C$ or higher, W/C=0.5 and W/C=0.3 show 26.3% and 27.8% of residual strength, so that the durability of the structure could not be secured. The results of $L^*a^*b$ color analysis show that $b^*$ increases rapidly after $700^{\circ}C$. It is analyzed that the intensity of yellow becomes strong after $700^{\circ}C$. Further, the RGB analysis found that the histogram kurtosis and frequency of Red and Green increases after $700^{\circ}C$. It is analyzed that number of Red and Green pixels are increased. Therefore, it is deemed possible to estimate the degree of damage by checking the change in yellow($b^*$ or R+G) when analyzing the chromaticity of the fire-damaged concrete structures.

Estimation of freeze damage risk according to developmental stage of fruit flower buds in spring (봄철 과수 꽃눈 발육 수준에 따른 저온해 위험도 산정)

  • Kim, Jin-Hee;Kim, Dae-jun;Kim, Soo-ock;Yun, Eun-jeong;Ju, Okjung;Park, Jong Sun;Shin, Yong Soon
    • Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
    • /
    • v.21 no.1
    • /
    • pp.55-64
    • /
    • 2019
  • The flowering seasons can be advanced due to climate change that would cause an abnormally warm winter. Such warm winter would increase the frequency of crop damages resulted from sudden occurrences of low temperature before and after the vegetative growth stages, e.g., the period from germination to flowering. The degree and pattern of freezing damage would differ by the development stage of each individual fruit tree even in an orchard. A critical temperature, e.g., killing temperature, has been used to predict freeze damage by low-temperature conditions under the assumption that such damage would be associated with the development stage of a fruit flower bud. However, it would be challenging to apply the critical temperature to a region where spatial variation in temperature would be considerably high. In the present study, a phenological model was used to estimate major bud development stages, which would be useful for prediction of regional risks for the freeze damages. We also derived a linear function to calculate a probabilistic freeze risk in spring, which can quantitatively evaluate the risk level based solely on forecasted weather data. We calculated the dates of freeze damage occurrences and spatial risk distribution according to main production areas by applying the spring freeze risk function to apple, peach, and pear crops in 2018. It was predicted that the most extensive low-temperature associated freeze damage could have occurred on April 8. It was also found that the risk function was useful to identify the main production areas where the greatest damage to a given crop could occur. These results suggest that the freezing damage associated with the occurrence of low-temperature events could decrease providing early warning for growers to respond abnormal weather conditions for their farm.

The Optimal Operation on Auxiliary Spillway to Minimize the Flood Damage in Downstream River with Various Outflow Conditions (하류하천의 영향 최소화를 위한 보조 여수로 최적 활용방안 검토)

  • Yoo, Hyung Ju;Joo, Sung Sik;Kwon, Beom Jae;Lee, Seung Oh
    • Journal of Korean Society of Disaster and Security
    • /
    • v.14 no.2
    • /
    • pp.61-75
    • /
    • 2021
  • Recently, as the occurrence frequency of sudden floods due to climate change increased and the aging of the existing spillway, it is necessary to establish a plan to utilize an auxiliary spillway to minimize the flood damage of downstream rivers. Most studies have been conducted on the review of flow characteristics according to the operation of auxiliary spillway through the hydraulic experiments and numerical modeling. However, the studies on examination of flood damage in the downstream rivers and the stability of the revetment according to the operation of the auxiliary spillway were relatively insufficient in the literature. In this study, the stability of the revetment on the downstream river according to the outflow conditions of the existing and auxiliary spillway was examined by using 3D numerical model, FLOW-3D. The velocity, water surface elevation and shear stress results of FLOW-3D were compared with the permissible velocity and shear stress of design criteria. It was assumed the sluice gate was fully opened. As a result of numerical simulations of various auxiliary spillway operations during flood season, the single operation of the auxiliary spillway showed the reduction effect of maximum velocity and the water surface elevation compared with the single operation of the existing spillway. The stability of the revetment on downstream was satisfied under the condition of outflow less than 45% of the design flood discharge. However, the potential overtopping damage was confirmed in the case of exceeding the 45% of the design flood discharge. Therefore, the simultaneous operation with the existing spillway was important to ensure the stability on design flood discharge condition. As a result of examining the allocation ratio and the total allowable outflow, the reduction effect of maximum velocity was confirmed on the condition, where the amount of outflow on auxiliary spillway was more than that on existing spillway. It is because the flow of downstream rivers was concentrated in the center due to the outflow of existing spillway. The permissible velocity and shear stress were satisfied under the condition of less than 77% of the design flood discharge with simultaneous operation. It was found that the flood damage of downstream rivers can be minimized by setting the amount allocated to the auxiliary spillway to be larger than the amount allocated to the existing spillway for the total outflow with simultaneous operation condition. However, this study only reviewed the flow characteristics around the revetment according to the outflow of spillway under the full opening of the sluice gate condition. Therefore, the various sluice opening conditions and outflow scenarios will be asked to derive more efficient utilization of the auxiliary spillway in th future.

Colombia Border Area Refugees: Centered on Venezuela, Panama, and Ecuador Border Areas (콜롬비아 국경지역 난민증가 원인: 베네수엘라, 파나마 그리고 에콰도르 접경지역 강제실향민을 중심으로)

  • Cha, Kyung-Mi
    • Journal of International Area Studies (JIAS)
    • /
    • v.15 no.1
    • /
    • pp.109-134
    • /
    • 2011
  • Drug-related crime has increased in spite of visible results of Uribe government's hard-line policies on drug eradication and illegally armed organizations which were pursued under U.S. support, without the accompaniment of quantity change in drug cultivation and trade. Military disputes of left-right illegally armed communities surrounding illegal crop cultivation rights were rather intensified, and the number of refugees was increased through enforced displaced people. The 2005 refugee registration committee RUPD reports that 3,316,862 people, 7.3% of total population, were refugees. In particular, the number of refugees presented a large increase rate of 624% when compared to the past year due to enforced displaced people. Main discharge areas of enforced displaced people are connected with drug crime and activities of illegally armed organizations, and are places of increased armed disputes in the process of occupied territory expansion of illegally armed communities and militia. Undiscriminated attacks were executed on farmers in the process of occupation of illegal crop cultivation sites by illegally armed organization and militia to emit enforced displaced people, who moved to border areas by crossing national borders. Enforced displaced people were restricted to certain areas before the appearance of Uribe administration. However, enforced displaced people not only presented quantitative expansion, but also showed tendency of nationwide expansion after national security policy was pursued. With the closing of the Amazon area, previously the main route of drug trade, activity base of illegally armed organizations was moved to the Pacific region, and Panama border area experienced refugee increase due to the new policy of enforced displaced people. This study aims to understand the actual condition and cause for the increase in refugees in Colombia based on border areas of Venezuela, which is the nation of highest dispersion of Columbian refugees, Panama, which has appeared as a new destination for refugees after the 90s, and Ecuador, which has experienced sudden refugee increase in 2000.

A Study on Park Gye-hyeong -Focusing on the Change of Romantic writing (박계형론 -낭만적 글쓰기의 변주를 중심으로)

  • Jin, Sun-Young
    • Journal of Popular Narrative
    • /
    • v.25 no.2
    • /
    • pp.247-275
    • /
    • 2019
  • We hope that more diverse interests will arise in the novels by Park Gye-hyeong By looking at writers and works in time, we identified the key element of Park Gye-hyeong's novels as 'romantic'. Romantic nature of this time is lyrical, sentimental, spiritual, unrealistic and idealistic. Based on a romantic understanding of the world, the core sanction of the novel is love, focusing on feelings of sadness, and on the aspects of joy, separation, and pain that arise from loving relationships rather than the aspects of joy. Based on the feelings of grief, the novels end with failure, death and betrayal, thus embodying tragic romanticism. Before her marriage, Park Gye-hyeong's novels were love stories that revealed her longing for beautiful love based on sensibility. The idyllic world and longing for nature reveal a romantic world-view. Ultimately, it is a fictional worldview that the author seeks to despair and long for, and to find the sincerity and morality of love in an environment that does not. Park Gye-hyeong, who became a housewife, expressed that she wanted to write a piece that can give readers a sense of nostalgia by embodying "romance at a high level," not "sentimental." In subsequent works, physical relationships are treated as failures of love and spiritual relationships as the fruit of love, revealing the lofty spirituality, idealistic longing and religious nature of love. Park Gye-hyeong confessed her shame about her previous work when she published a new one after more than two decades of writing. And after more than two decades of reflection, her new novel had a new theme of "recovering destroyed humanity." However, the search for "humanity" in the two novels released after the write-off tends to be somewhat hasty at the end of the novel. The question of human nature, sin and forgiveness, is the next best thing to save as a way of life, rather than as a result of the intense inner agony and behavior of the characters within the narrative, and this also shows a sudden shift in religiousness at the end of the novel. Therefore, the romantic meaning of the superficial is superficial.

An Understanding the Opening Style of the West Philippine Basin Through Multibeam High-Resolution Bathymetry (고해상도 다중빔음향측심 지형자료 분석을 통한 서필리핀분지의 진화 연구)

  • Hanjin Choe;Hyeonuk Shin
    • Journal of the Korean earth science society
    • /
    • v.44 no.6
    • /
    • pp.643-654
    • /
    • 2023
  • The West Philippine Basin, an oceanic basin half the size of the Philippine Sea Plate, lies in the western part of the plate and south of the Korean Peninsula on the Eurasian Plate. It subducts beneath the Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Islands bordering the Ryukyu Trench and the Philippine Trench with 25-50% of this basin already consumed. However, the history of the opening of the basin's southern region has been a topic of debate. The non-transform discontinuity formed during the seafloor spreading is similar to the transform fault boundaries normally perpendicular to mid-ocean ridge axes; however, it was created irregularly due to ridge propagations caused by variations of mantle convection attributable to magma supply changes. By analyzing high-resolution multi-beam echo-sounding data, we confirmed that the non-transform discontinuity due to the propagating rift evolved in the entire basin and that the abyssal hill strike direction changed from E-W to NNW-SSE from the fossil spreading center. In the early stage of basin extension, the Amami-Sankaku Basin was rotated 90 degrees clockwise from its current orientation, and it bordered the Palau Basin along the Mindanao Fracture Zone. The Amami-Sankaku Basin separated from the Palau Basin while the spreading of the West Philippine Basin began with a counter-clockwise rotation. This indicates that the non-transform discontinuities formed by a sudden change in magma supply due to the drift of the Philippine Sea Plate and simultaneously with the rapid changes in the spreading direction from ENE-WSW to N-S. The Palau Basin was considered to be the sub-south of the West Philippine Basin, but recent studies have shown that it extends into an independent system. Evidence from sediment layers and crustal thickness hints at the possibility of its existence before the West Philippine Basin opened, although its evolution continues to be debated. We performed a combined analysis using high-resolution multi-beam bathymetry and satellite gravity data to uncover new insights into the evolution of the West Philippine Basin. This information illuminates the complex plate interactions and provides a crucial contribution toward understanding the opening history of the basin and the Philippine Sea Plate.

A Study on Satisfactory degree of Dental Laboratory Heads about Dental Technician Who Graduated from Junior College in Pusan (부산지역(釜山地域) 치과기공소운영자(齒科技工所運營子)의 전문대학(專門大學) 치과기공과출신(齒科技工科出身) 치과기공사(齒科技工士)에 관(關)한 만족도(滿足度) 조사(調査))

  • Lee, Myung-Kon
    • Journal of Technologic Dentistry
    • /
    • v.10 no.1
    • /
    • pp.55-66
    • /
    • 1988
  • The great sudden change of circle of dental laboratory technology brought many discord between the new growing environmental group and the old group. In order to know the satisfactory degree of Dental Laboratory Heads about all and woman dental technicians who graduated from junior college, this study was conducted for 41 dental laboratory heads in Pusan area during Aug. to Sep. 1986 by means of a questionaire. The results are obtained as follows : 1. By born place, the dental laboratory heads’ satisfactory degree mean of items about all dental technician who graduated from junior college were Pusan group 3.55, Kyungnam group 2.94. The difference among the groups was significant enough(P<0.05). The satisfactory degree about woman dental technician graduated from junior college were Pusan group 3.45, Kyungnam group 2.72. 2. By age, The degree of satisfaction of items about all graduate dental technician were 30$\sim$34 age group 3.13, 40$\sim$44 age group 2.71. The degree of satisfaction about woman graduate dental technician were 30$\sim$34 age group 3.13, 40$\sim$44 age group 2.71. The degree of satisfaction about woman graduate dental technician were as follow : 35$\sim$39 age group 3.50, 45$\sim$49 age group 3.16, 30$\sim$34 age group 2.86, 40$\sim$44 age group 2.43. 3. By job career, the highest degree item out of satisfaction about all graduate dental technician was 6$\sim$10 years group 3.58, the other items were 1$\sim$15 years group 2.90, 16$\sim$20 years group 2.71. The satisfactory degree item about woman graduate dental technician was 6$\sim$10 years group 3.43, 16$\sim$20 years group 3.15, 11$\sim$15 years group 2.82 respectively. 4. By managing term of respondents’ dental laboratory, the satisfactory degree of items about all graduate dental technician were below 2 years group 3.25, 3$\sim$6 years group 3.14, 7$\sim$10 years group 2.93 in order. The satisfactory degree items about woman graduate dental technician were 11$\sim$14 years group 3.25, 3$\sim$6 years group 3.14 7$\sim$10 years group 2.80 in order. 5. By acquired qualification of licence test, the satisfactory degree of dental laboratory heads about all graduate dental technician were job career group 3.07, graduated from Dept. of Dental Technology group 3.00. The satisfactory degree about woman graduate dental technician were job career group 3.03 and graduated from Dept. of Dental Technology group 2.57. 6. By dental technician numbers of respondents’ dental laboratory. the satisfactory degree of items was as follow: 10$\sim$13 persons group is 2.86, 6$\sim$9 persons group 3.25, below 5 persons group 3.11. There was significant enough.(P<0.01). The satisfactory degree items about woman graduate dental technician were below 5 persons group is 3.00, 10$\sim$13 persons group 2.79, 6$\sim$9 persons group 2.67. 7. by the outlook of occupation, the satisfactory degree of dental laboratory heads about all dental technicians who graduated from junior college were neither good norbad group 3.20 bad group 2.59, good group 3.13. The difference among the groups was significant enough(P<0.01). The satisfactory degree about woman dental technicains graduated from junior college were good group 3.25, neither good nor bad group 2.80, bad group 2.75. The difference among the groups was significant enough.(P<0.01) 8. By occupational satisfaction, The satisfactory degree of items about all graduate dental technician were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied group 3.08, satisfied group 3.17, dissatisfied group 2.89. The satisfactional degree of items about woman graduate dental technician were satisfied group and neither satisfied mor dissatisfied group each 3.00 9. By the outlook of employment, the satisfactory degree of items about all graduate dental techician were bad group and neither good nor bad group 3.00. There was significant enough.(p<0.02) About woman graduate dental technician were good group 3.80, neither good nor bad group 3.00, bad group 2.84. The difference among the groups was significant enough.(P<0.01) 10. By cognition of the number of graduate dental technician, the satisfactory degree of dental laboratory heads about all graduate dantal technician were too many group 2.86, many group 3.32. There was significant enough.(P<0.05) About woman graduate dental techician were too many group 2.60, many group 3.20 The difference among the groups was significant enough.(P<0.01) 11. As compared with the items ut of satisfaction and improvement about all dental technician who graduated from junior college, the rate of satisfaction item was for as follow : dental technological theory is 5.21%, ability of adaptation and sincerity each 17.1%. The rate of improvement items was as follow : sincerity is 39%, ability of work and ability of basical work each 24.4%. 12. As compared with the items out of satisfaction and improvement about woman dental laboratory technician who graduated from junior college, the rate of satisfaction item was as follow : atmosphere of the office is 56.1%, sincerity 22%. The rate of improvement items was as follow : ability of adaptation is 36.6%, ability of work 31.7%.

  • PDF

The Status of North Korean Airspace after Reunification (북한 공역의 통일 후 지위)

  • Kwon, Chang-Young
    • The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
    • /
    • v.32 no.1
    • /
    • pp.287-325
    • /
    • 2017
  • Considering the development of aerospace, military science and technology since the 20th century, the sky is very important for the nation's existence and prosperity. The proverb "Whosoever commands the space commands the world itself!" emphasizes the need for the command of the air. This essay is the first study on the status of airspace after reunification. First, the territorial airspace is over the territory and territorial sea, and its horizontal extent is determined by the territorial boundary lines. Acceptance of the present order is most reasonable, rather than attempting to reconfigure through historical truths about border issues, and it could be supported by neighboring countries in the reunification period. For peace in Northeast Asia, the reunified Korea needs to respect the existing border agreement between North Korea and China or Russia. However, the North Korean straight baselines established in the East Sea and the Yellow Sea should be discarded because they are not available under United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. It is desirable for the reunified Korea to redefine the straight baselines that comply with international law and determine the territorial waters up to and including the 12-nautical mile outside it. Second, the Flight Information Region (hereinafter "FIR") is a region defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (hereinafter "ICAO") in order to provide information necessary for the safe and efficient flight of aircraft and the search and rescue of aircraft. At present, Korea is divided into Incheon FIR which is under the jurisdiction of South Korea and Pyongyang FIR which is under the jurisdiction of North Korea. If North Korea can not temporarily exercise control of Pyongyang FIR due to a sudden change of circumstances, it is desirable for South Korea to exercise control of Pyongyang FIR, and if it is unavoidable, ICAO should temporarily exercise it. In reunified Korea, it is desirable to abolish Pyongyang FIR and integrate it into Incheon FIR with the approval of ICAO, considering systematic management and control of FIR, establishment of route, and efficiency of management. Third, the Air Defense Identification Zone (hereinafter "ADIZ") is a zone that requires easy identification, positioning, and control of aircraft for national security purposes, and is set up unilaterally by the country concerned. The US unilaterally established the Korea Air Defense Identification Area (KADIZ) by the Declaration of Commitment on March 22, 1951. The Ministry of Defense proclaimed a new KADIZ which extended to the area including IEODO on December 13, 2013. At present, North Korea's military warning zone is set only at maritime boundaries such as the East Sea and the Yellow Sea. But in view of its lack of function as ADIZ in relations with China and Russia, the reunified Korea has no obligation to succeed it. Since the depth of the Korean peninsula is short, it is necessary to set ADIZ boundary on the outskirts of the territorial airspace to achieve the original purpose of ADIZ. Therefore, KADIZ of the reunified Korea should be newly established by the boundary line that coincides with the Incheon FIR of the reunified Korea. However, if there is no buffer zone overlapping with or adjacent to the ADIZs of neighboring countries, military tensions may rise. Therefore, through bilateral negotiations for peace in Northeast Asia, a buffer zone is established between adjacent ADIZs.

  • PDF

The Recent Outcomes after Repair of Tetralogy of Fallot Associated with Pulmonary Atresia and Major Aortopulmonary Collateral Arteries (폐동맥폐쇄와 주대동맥폐동맥부행혈관을 동반한 활로씨사징증 교정의 최근 결과)

  • Kim Jin-Hyun;Kim Woong-Han;Kim Dong-Jung;Jung Eui-Suk;Jeon Jae-Hyun;Min Sun-Kyung;Hong Jang-Mee;Lee Jeong-Ryul;Rho Joon-Ryuang;Kim Yong-Jin
    • Journal of Chest Surgery
    • /
    • v.39 no.4 s.261
    • /
    • pp.269-274
    • /
    • 2006
  • Background: Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) with pulmonary atresia and major aortopulmonary collateral arteries (MAPCAS) is complex lesion with marked heterogeneity of pulmonary blood supply and arborization anomalies. Patients with TOF with PA and MAPCAS have traditionally required multiple staged unifocalization of pulmonary blood supply before undergoing complete repair. In this report, we describe recent change of strategy and the results in our institution. Material and Method: We established surgical stratagies: early correction, central mediastinal approach, initial RV-PA conduit interposition, and aggressive intervention. Between July 1998 and August 2004, 23 patients were surgically treated at our institution. We divided them into 3 groups by initial operation method; group I: one stage total correction, group II: RV-PA conduit and unifocalization, group III: RV-PA conduit interposition only. Result: Mean ages at initial operation in each group were $13.9{\pm}16.0$ months (group 1), $10.4{\pm}15.6$ months (group II), and $7.9{\pm}7.7$ months (group III). True pulmonary arteries were not present in f patient and the pulmonary arteries were confluent in 22 patients. The balloon angioplasty was done in average 1.3 times (range: $1{\sim}6$). There were 4 early deaths relating initial operation, and 1 late death due to incracranial hemorrhage after definitive repair. The operative mortalities of initial procedures in each group were 25.0% (1/4: group I), 20.0% (2/10: group II), and 12.2% (1/9: group III). The causes of operative mortality were hypoxia (2), low cardiac output (1) and sudden cardiac arrest (1). Definitive repair rates in each group were 75% (3/4) in group I, 20% (2/10, fenestration: 2) in group II, and 55.0% (5/9, fenestration: 1) in group III. Conclusion: In patients of TOF with PA and MAPCAS, RV-PA connection as a initial procedure could be performed with relatively low risk, and high rate of definitive repair can be obtained in the help of balloon pulmonary angioplasty. One stage RV-PA connection and unifocalization appeared to be successful in selected patients.