• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.585-593
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• 2007

This paper presents a model for durability evaluation of concrete structures exposed to marine environment, considering mainly a build-up of surface chloride $(C_s)$ as well as diffusion coefficient (D) and chloride threshold level $(C_{lim})$. In this study, time dependency of $C_s$ and D were extensively studied for more accurate evaluation of service life of concrete structures. An analytical solution to the Fick's second law was presented for prediction of chloride ingress for time varying $C_s$. For the time varying $C_s$, a refined model using a logarithm function for time dependent $C_s$ was proposed by the regression analysis, and averaging integrated values of the D with time over exposed duration were calculated and then used for prediction of the chloride ingress to consider time dependency of D. Durability design was also carried out for railway concrete structures exposed to marine environment to ensure 100 years of service life by using the proposed models along with the standard specification on durability in Korea. The proposed model was verified by the so-called performance-based durability design, which is widely used in Europe. Results show that the standard specification underestimates durability performances of concrete structures exposed to marine environment, so the cover depth design using current durability evaluation in the standard specifications is very much conservative. Therefore, it is found that utilizing proposed models considering time dependent characteristics of $C_s$ and D can evaluate service lift of concrete structures in marine environment more accurately.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.401-410
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• 2020

Recently, many studies have been conducted on the changing phenology on the Korean Peninsula due to global warming. However, because of the geographical characteristics, research on plant season in autumn, which is difficult to measure compared to spring season, is insufficient. In this study, all leaves that maple and fallen leaves were defined as 'Decay leaves' and decay leaf detection was performed based on the Landsat-8 satellite image. The first threshold value of decay leaves was calculated by using NDVI and the secondary threshold value of decay leaves was calculated using by NDWI and the difference of spectral characteristics with green leaves. POD, FAR values were used to verify accuracy of the dry leaf detection algorithm in this study, and the results showed high accuracy with POD of 98.619 and FAR of 1.203.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.75-84
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• 2018

Thermal stress of livestock has been issued due to recent climate change trends and this causes reproductive disorders, decreased feed consumption, immunosuppression, and increased mortality of animals. Concept of THI has been widely used to quantitatively evaluate the degree of thermal stress for animals, however use of this concept is restricted for animals living in the enclosed facilities such as mechanically ventilated broiler houses. In this study, time-based internal energy flow and variation trends of temperature and humidity were analyzed based on BES technique. Local weather data, insulation characteristics of building materials, heat and moisture generation rate from broilers according to age, algorithm of ventilation operation were adopted for boundary condition of the model to accurately compute THI values inside the mechanically ventilated broiler house. From the BES computation, excess frequency of THI threshold in Jeju city was highest on the assumption that air conditioning equipments were not installed. When general raising density ($39kg\;m^{-2}$) was adopted, total 2,191 hours were exceeded. Excess hours of THI threshold were strongly related to the cumulative air temperature ($R^2=0.87$).

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.69-79
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• 1994

The authors investigated the relationship between the response to the external stimulation and ability of verbal behavior in the patients with somatoform disorder who have pain. The subjects consisted of 34 patients(male 10, female 24) and 37 normal controls(male 19, female 18). Pressure pain thesholds were measured by algometer and alexithymia was assessed by Toronto Alexithymia Scale(TAS). Somatization Scale of SCL-90R and Parental Bonding Instrument were also used. It was shown that 82.4% of the patients had chronic somatic complaints. The mean values of TAS, degree of somatic symptoms and pressure pain thresholds were significantly higher in the patient group than in the normal controls. 44.1% of the patients was considered alexithymia group and there was no correlation between scores of alexithymia and value of pressure pain thresholds. In conclusion, the patients with somatoform disorder who had pain were dull in pain perception to external physical stimulation. This result suggested that their low perception of pain could be closely related with chronicity of illness. And the Poverty of verbal expression of inner emotion was suggested to be one of the factors affecting somatization and difficulty in psychotherapy.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics D
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• v.36D no.10
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• pp.9-16
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• 1999

When the conventional IPD (inter-poly-dielctrics) layer with ONO(oxide-nitride-oxide) structure was used in the Flash EEPROM cell, its data retention characteristics were significanfly degraded because the top oxide of the ONO layer was etched off due to the cleaning process used in the gate oxidation process for the peripheral MOSFETs. When the IPD layer with the ONON(oxide-nitride-oxide-nitride) was used there, however, its data retention characteristics were much improved because the top nitride of the ONON layer protected the top oxide from being etched in the cleaning process. For the modelling of the data retention characteristics of the Flash EEPROM cell with the ONON IPD layer, the decrease of the threshold voltage cue to the charge loss during the bake was here given by the empirical relation ${\Delta}V_t\; = \;{\beta}t^me^{-ea/kT}$ and the values of the ${\beta}$=184.7, m=0.224, Ea=0.31 eV were obtained with the experimental measurements. The activation energy of 0.31eV implies that the decrease of the threshold voltage by the back was dur to the movement of the trapped electrons inside the inter-oxide nitride layer. On the other hand, the results of the computer simulation using the model were found to be well consistent with the results of the electrical measurements when the thermal budget of the bake was not high. However, the latter was larger then the former in the case of the high thermal budger, This seems to be due to the leakage current generated by the extraction of the electrons with the bake which were injected into the inter-oxide niride later and were trapped there during the programming, and played the role to prevent the leakage current. To prevent the generation of the leakage current, it is required that the inter-oxide nitride layer and the top oxide layer be made as thin and as thick as possible, respectively.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 1977

The neutron dosimetrical parameters, i. e., the fission neutron spectrum-averaged cross-sections and the fluence-to-dose conversion factors have been calculated for some threshold detectors with the aid of a computer. The threshold detectors under investigation were the $^{115}In(n,\;n')^{115m}In,\;^{32}S(n,\;p)^{32}P$ and $^{27}Al(n,\;{\alpha})^{24}Na$ reactions. It is revealed that the average cross-sections($\bar{\sigma}$) for the $^{32}S(n,\;p)^{32}P$ reaction are independent of the spectral functions, namely, the Watt-Cranberg and Maxwellian forms. In the case of the $^{27}Al(n,\;{\alpha})^{24}Na$ reaction a variation of the $\bar{\sigma}$ values appears to be highly dependent on the fissioning types. It seems that both the average cross-section for the $^{115}In(n,\;n')^{11m}In$ reaction and the conversion factor are insensitive to the spectral deformation of fission neutrons. These phenomena make it applicable to use indium as a possible integral fast neutron dosimeter in nuclear criticality accidents provided that the virgin fission neutrons are completely free from the scattered neutrons.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.149-155
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• 2015

Objective: The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between serum progesterone (P4) levels on the day of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) administration and the pregnancy rate among women undergoing controlled ovarian stimulation for in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection-embryo transfer (ICSI-ET) using a flexible antagonist protocol. Methods: This prospective study included 200 IVF and ICSI-ET cycles in which a flexible antagonist protocol was used. The patients were divided into five distinct groups according to their serum P4 levels at the time of hCG administration (0.80, 0.85, 0.90, 0.95, and 1.00 ng/mL). The clinical pregnancy rate (CPR) was calculated for each P4 interval. Statistically significant differences were observed at a serum P4 level of 0.9 ng/mL. These data suggest that a serum P4 concentration of 0.9 ng/mL may represent the optimal threshold level for defining premature luteinization (PL) based on the presence of a significant negative impact on the CPR. Results: The CPR for each round of ET was significantly lower in the PL group defined using this threshold (25.8% vs. 41.8%; p=0.019), and the number of oocytes retrieved was significantly higher than in the non-PL group ($17.3{\pm}7.2$ vs. $11.0{\pm}7.2$; p=0.001). Elevated serum P4 levels on the day of hCG administration were associated with a reduced CPR, despite the retrieval of many oocytes. Conclusion: Measuring serum P4 values at the time of hCG administration is necessary in order to determine the optimal strategy for embryo transfer.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.56-70
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• 2014

Background: Korea shows rapid population aging and increase in healthcare service use and expenditure. Also, this would be accelerated because of the baby boomers who will be 65 years old and more in 2020. Chronic disease is another reason that increases the use of healthcare service and expenditure of the middle- and old-aged households. Catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) is the index which can indicate the households' burden of health spending. Despite the importance, there are few studies on CHE of middle- and old-aged households and especially no panel study yet. This is the reason that this study is carried out. Methods: This study used 3-year data from the Korea Welfare Panel Study conducted from 2009 to 2011. We defined CHE if a household's health expenditure is equal or greater than the threshold value if income remaining after subsistence needs has been met. We used 4 different threshold values which are 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40%. In order to look at the households which experienced CHE, we conducted panel logit analysis after correspondence analysis and conditional transition probability analysis. Results: This study showed three notable results. First, there has been a difference among age groups, which implies that the older people are, the more easily they can experience CHE. Second, the households with no private insurance are shown to have a higher CHE occurrence rate. Lastly, there has been a significant difference among the kinds of chronic diseases. The households which have cancer, cerebrovascular disease, and heart disease have a higher CHE occurrence rate. However, the households with diabetes have no significant effects to CHE occurrence. Also, hypertension has a negative effect to the occurrence. Conclusion: With the results, it can be implied that elderly people with chronic disease are more needed in medical coverage and healthcare. Also, private insurance can play its role in protecting households from CHE. Therefore, it needs to conduct studies on CHE especially about different age groups, private insurance, and chronic disease.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.14
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• pp.5889-5897
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• 2015

Background: The performance of combined testing visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) and cervical cytology tests might differ from one setting to another. The average estimate of the testing accuracy across studies is informative, but no meta-analysis has been carried out to assess this combined method. Objective: The objective of this study was to estimate the average sensitivity and specificity of the combined VIA and cervical cytology tests for the detection of cervical precancerous lesions. Materials and Methods: We conducted a systematic review and a meta-analysis, according to the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Review of Diagnostic Test Accuracy. We considered two cases. In the either-positive result case, a positive result implies positivity in at least one of the tests. A negative result implies negativity in both tests. In the both-positive case, a positive result implies having both tests positive. Eligible studies were identified using Pubmed, Embase, Website of Science, CINHAL and COCRANE databases. True positive, false positive, false negative and true negative values were extracted. Estimates of sensitivity and specificity, positive and negative likelihood (LR) and diagnostic odds ratios (DOR) were pooled using a hierarchical random effect model. Hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristics (HSROC) were generated and heterogeneity was verified through covariates potentially influencing the diagnostic odds ratio. Findings: Nine studies fulfilled inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis. Pooled estimates of the sensitivities of the combined tests in either-positive and both-positive cases were 0.87 (95% CI: 0.83-0.90) and 0.38 (95% CI: 0.29-0.48), respectively. Corresponding specificities were 0.79 (95% CI: 0.63-0.89) and 0.98 (95% CI: 0.96-0.99) respectively. The DORs of the combined tests in either-positive or both-positive result cases were 27.7 (95% CI: 12.5-61.5) and 52 (95% CI: 22.1-122.2), respectively. When including only articles without partial verification bias and also a high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia as a threshold of the disease, DOR of combined test in both-positive result cases remained the highest. However, DORs decreased to 12.1 (95% CI: 6.05-24.1) and 13.8 (95% CI: 7.92-23.9) in studies without partial verification bias for the combined tests in the either-positive and both-positive result cases, respectively. The screener, the place of study and the size of the population significantly influenced the DOR of combined tests in the both-positive result case in restriction analyses that considered only articles with CIN2+ as disease threshold. Conclusions: The combined test in the either-positive result case has a high sensitivity, but a low specificity. These results suggest that the combined test should be considered in developing countries as a primary screening test if facilities exist to confirm, through colposcopy and biopsy, a positive result.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.176-182
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• 2013

Through this research, we measure the data for several SUVs such as SUVLBM, SUVBW, and SUVBSA using volume of interest in order to enhance the diagnostic level in whole-body image for healthy examinees via F-18 FDG PET/CT. Maximum value, mean value, standard deviation, and threshold value for each SUVs are shown. The measurement of SUVs are carried out with 31 examinees who have taken whole-body examination with F-18 FDG PET/CT from July, 2012 to August, 2012. To secure the preciseness of measurement, we selected 26 healthy examinees as a subject of measurement according to diagnostic view of a nuclear-medical doctor. We see from the measurement of SUVs of PET/CT that the value of SUVBW is hightest and followed by SUVLBM and SUVBSA in turn regardless of the use of contrast media. By comparing the SUVLBM-maximum data for the group used contrast media with those for the group used no contrast media, there found a trend that the measured values increase when the contrast media are used. Among them, liver, aorta, lumbar-5, and Cerebellum exhibit significant difference (p<0.05). We conclude that our data for SUVs would be basic references in overall image interpretation, and hope that the research using VOI would be active.