• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• 제32권3호
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• pp.178-186
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• 2019

Background: Epidural steroid injections (ESIs) have been widely used in managing spinal pain. Dexamethasone has recently emerged as a useful drug in this setting, relative to particulate steroids, although the associated systemic effects have not been fully elucidated. This study aimed to investigate the incidences and types of systemic effects after fluoroscopically guided ESI with dexamethasone. Methods: This retrospective study included 888 ESIs with dexamethasone (fluoroscopically guided at the cervical and lumbosacral levels) performed on 825 patients during January to June 2017. Data regarding systemic effects were collected via telephone interviews using a standardized questionnaire at 2 weeks after the procedure. Data on patient demographic, clinical, and procedural characteristics were collected and analyzed to identify factors that were associated with systemic effects. All statistical analyses were performed using the chi-squared test. Results: Among the 825 patients, 40 patients (4.8%) experienced systemic effects during the 2-week follow-up period. The most common systemic effect was facial flushing (12 patients, 1.5%), which was followed by urticaria (7 patients, 0.8%) and insomnia (7 patients, 0.8%). A history of spine surgery was significantly associated with the occurrence of systemic effects (P = 0.036). Systemic effects were significantly more common for injections at the cervical level than at the lumbar level (P = 0.019). Conclusions: Approximately 4.8% of the patients who underwent ESI with dexamethasone experienced minor and transient systemic effects. These effects were more common in patients who had undergone a previous spine surgery or received a cervical ESI.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제51권6호
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• pp.1514-1524
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• 2019

Hydrogen-steam gas mixture may be injected into containment with flow regime varying both spatially and transiently due to wall effect and pressure difference between primary loop and containment in severe accidents induced by loss of coolant accident. Preliminary CFD analysis is conducted to gain information about the helium flow regime transition process from jet to buoyancy plume for forthcoming experimental study. Physical models of impinging jet and wall condensation are validated using separated effect experimental data, firstly. Then helium transportation is analyzed with the effect of jet momentum, buoyancy and wall cooling discussed. Result shows that helium distribution is totally dominated by impinging jet in the beginning, high concentration appears near gas source and wall where jet momentum is strong. With the jet weakening, stable light gas layer without recirculating eddy is established by buoyancy. Transient reversed helium distribution appears due to natural convection resulted from wall cooling, which delays the stratification. It is necessary to concern about hydrogen accumulation in lower space under the containment external cooling strategy. From the perspective of experiment design, measurement point should be set at the height of connecting pipe and near the wall for stratification stability criterion and impinging jet modelling validation.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• 제38권3호
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• pp.202-207
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• 2021

Background: Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a severe, paroxysmal pain in the distribution of the fifth cranial nerve. Microvascular decompression (MVD) is the most widely used surgical treatment for TN. We undertook this study to analyze the effects of and complications of MVD and to refine the surgical procedure for treating TN. Methods: A total of 88 patients underwent for TN underwent surgery at our hospital. Among them, 77 patients underwent MVD alone, and 11 underwent partial sensory rhizotomy (PSR) with or without MVD. The medical records of these patients were retrospectively analyzed for patient characteristics, clinical results, offending vessels, and complications if any. Results: The mean follow-up duration was 43.2 months (range, 3-216 months). The most common site of pain was V2+V3 territory (n=27), followed by V2 (n=25) and V3 (n=23). The most common offending vessels were the superior cerebellar artery and anterior inferior cerebellar artery in that order. The overall rate of postoperative complications was 46.1%; however, most complications were transient. There were two cases of permanent partial hearing disturbance. In the MVD alone group, the cure rate was 67.5%, and the improvement rate was 26.0%. Among 11 patients who underwent PSR with or without MVD, the cure rate was 50.0%, and the improvement rate was 30.0%. Conclusion: The clinical results of MVD were satisfactory. Although the outcomes of PSR were not as favorable as those of pure MVD in this study, PSR can be considered in cases where there is no significant vascular compressive lesion or uncertainty of the causative vessel at the surgery.

• 한국가시화정보학회지
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• 제18권3호
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• pp.23-34
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• 2020

Two-phase flow and heat transfer characteristics during the reflood phase of a single heated rod in the KHU reflood experimental facility were examined. Two-phase flow behavior during the reflooding experiment was carefully visualized along with transient temperature measurement at a point inside the heated rod. By numerically solving one-dimensional inverse heat conduction equation using the measured temperature data, time-resolved wall heat flux and temperature histories at the interface of the heated rod and coolant were obtained. Once water coolant was injected into the test section from the bottom to reflood the heated rod of >700℃, vast vapor bubbles and droplets were generated near the reflood front and dispersed flow film boiling consisted of continuous vapor flow and tiny liquid droplets appeared in the upper part. Following the dispersed flow film boiling, inverted annular/slug/churn flow film boiling regimes were sequentially observed and the wall temperature gradually decreased. When so-called minimum film boiling temperature reached, the stable vapor film between the heated rod and coolant was suddenly collapsed, resulting in the quenching transition from film boiling into nucleate boiling. The moving speed of the quench front measured in the present study showed a good agreement with prediction by a correlation in literature. The obtained results revealed that typical two-phase flow and heat transfer behaviors during the reflood phase of overheated fuel rods in light water nuclear reactors are well reproduced in the KHU facility. Thus, the verified reflood experimental facility can be used to explore the effects of other affecting parameters, such as CRUD, on the reflood heat transfer behaviors in practical nuclear reactors.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제59권4호
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• pp.415-419
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• 2021

The circumsporozoite protein (CSP) of Plasmodium spp. is a diagnostic antigen and useful biomarker for monitoring short-term/seasonal changes to malaria transmission. Using P. vivax CSP antibody ELISA, epidemiological characteristics were analyzed in the residents of Ganghwa, Cheorwon, Paju, and Goseong from 2017 to 2018. In Ganghwa and Cheorwon, 1.6% and 1.2% of residents, respectively, were PvCSP-antibody-positive in 2018, which indicates a decrease of 0.4% in the positive rate compared to 2017. The annual parasite incidence (API) in Ganghwa and Cheorwon was 24.9 and 10.5 in 2017 and 20.3 and 10.7 in 2018, respectively. Although the changes were not significant, the API in Ganghwa decreased slightly by 4.5 in 2018 compared to the previous year. In Paju and Goseong, 3.9% and 2.0% of residents were positive for the PvCSP antibody. The API in Paju was 13.1 in 2017 and 16.0 in 2018, although no malaria patients were reported for the 2 years. Therefore, the results suggest that PvCSP is a useful antigen for confirming initial malaria infection. Additionally, considering that the antibody is relatively transient, it can be employed for sero-epidemiological studies to determine the extent of malaria transmission in the current year.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제34권5호
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• pp.407-419
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• 2022

Many factors should be considered by architects and designers for designing a tall building. Wind load is one of these important factors that govern the design of tall building structures and can become a serious challenge when buildings tend to be built very tall and slender. On the other hand, through the initial stages of a design process, choosing the design geometry greatly affects the wind-induced forces on a tall building. With this respect, geometric shapes with 3-fold rotational symmetry are one of the applied plan shapes in tall buildings. This study, therefore, aims to investigate the aerodynamic characteristics of 8 different geometrical shapes using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) by measuring the drag and lift forces. A case study approach was conducted in which different building shape models have the same total gross area and the same height of 300 meters. The simulation was an incompressible transient flow that ran 1700 timesteps (85 seconds on the real-time scale). The results show a great difference between wind-induced force performance of buildings with different plan shapes. Generally, it is stated that the shapes with the same area, but with smaller perimeters, are better choices for reducing the drag force on buildings. Applying the lift force, the results show that the buildings with plan shapes that have rounded corners act better in crosswind flow while, those with sharp corners induce larger forces in the same direction. This study delivers more analytical understanding of building shapes and their behavior against the wind force through the parametric modelling.

• 전기전자학회논문지
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• 제26권4호
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• pp.577-583
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• 2022

위상고정루프에 대해 선형 위상-도메인 모델링을 진행하여 시스템의 안정성을 고려한 각 블록의 설계 매개 변수들을 설정한 이후 빠른 동작 특성을 확인하기 위해 Verilog-HDL 기반의 모델링을 수행할 수 있다. 이때 단순한 동작 특성뿐 아니라 위상잡음 및 비선형 특성까지 모델링에 반영할 수 있는데, 본 논문에서는 디지털-시간 변환기(DTC)의 비선형 특성 및 디지털 조정 발진기(DCO)의 위상잡음 모델링을 추가로 소개한다. 동작 모델을 사용하여 시스템 레벨의 설계를 마치면 시간-도메인 영역에서 과도 응답 시뮬레이션을 진행하여 설계 타당성을 확인할 수 있으며, 출력 신호 결과를 위상잡음 그래프로 나타내어 이를 이상적인 위상잡음 그래프와 비교함으로써 동작과 성능에 대한 검증이 가능함을 나타내었다. 시간-도메인 영역에서 시뮬레이션 소요시간 비교를 위해 TSMC 0.18-㎛ 공정을 사용한 아날로그 위상고정루프의 설계 결과와 비교하였으며, 6 us의 과도 응답 해석을 진행했을 때 1.43초로 트랜지스터 레벨의 아날로그 설계 방식(692초) 대비 484배 빠른 시뮬레이션 시간을 나타내었다.

• 대한조선학회논문집
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• 제28권2호
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• pp.104-117
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• 1991

자유표면을 가지는 유체에서 물체가 운동을 하게되면 물체와 자유표면의 교차점 주위에서 유제유동이 매우 급격해진다. 이 유동현상은 부유체의 운동에 따르는 유체유동, 탱크내에서의 슬로싱, 조파기 문제, 물체의 입수등 여러문제에서 발생된다. 이 유동은 교차점 주위에서 특이성을 가진다고 알려져 있었으나 Roberts(1987)는 물체의 운동이 충격운동이 아닐 경우에는 특이성이 존재하지 않는다는 것을 밝혔다. 본 논문에서는 표면장력을 고려하여 물체의 운동이 충격운동인 경우에도 특이성을 가지지 않는 해석해를 구하였고, 해의 특성을 조사하여 진동현상에 대한 임계치를 구하여 교차점에서 떨어진 거리가 이 임계치보다 작은 곳에서는 진동현상이 존재하지 않는다는 것을 밝혔다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권9호
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• pp.3423-3440
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• 2023

In this work, a multivariate time-series machine learning meta-model is developed to predict the transient response of a typical nuclear power plant (NPP) undergoing a steam generator tube rupture (SGTR). The model employs Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs), including the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU), and a hybrid CNN-LSTM model. To address the uncertainty inherent in such predictions, a Bayesian Neural Network (BNN) was implemented. The models were trained using a database generated by the Best Estimate Plus Uncertainty (BEPU) methodology; coupling the thermal hydraulics code, RELAP5/SCDAP/MOD3.4 to the statistical tool, DAKOTA, to predict the variation in system response under various operational and phenomenological uncertainties. The RNN models successfully captures the underlying characteristics of the data with reasonable accuracy, and the BNN-LSTM approach offers an additional layer of insight into the level of uncertainty associated with the predictions. The results demonstrate that LSTM outperforms GRU, while the hybrid CNN-LSTM model is computationally the most efficient. This study aims to gain a better understanding of the capabilities and limitations of machine learning models in the context of nuclear safety. By expanding the application of ML models to more severe accident scenarios, where operators are under extreme stress and prone to errors, ML models can provide valuable support and act as expert systems to assist in decision-making while minimizing the chances of human error.

• 수산해양기술연구
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• 제59권1호
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• pp.44-54
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• 2023

In this study, the second-order Nomoto's nonlinear expansion model was implemented as a Tagaki-Sugeno fuzzy model based on the heading angular velocity to design the automatic steering system of a ship considering nonlinear elements. A Tagaki-Sugeno fuzzy PID controller was designed using the applied fuzzy membership functions from the Tagaki-Sugeno fuzzy model. The linear models and fuzzy membership functions of each operating point of a given nonlinear expansion model were simultaneously tuned using a genetic algorithm. It was confirmed that the implemented Tagaki-Sugeno fuzzy model could accurately describe the given nonlinear expansion model through the Zig-Zag experiment. The optimal parameters of the sub-PID controller for each operating point of the Tagaki-Sugeno fuzzy model were searched using a genetic algorithm. The evaluation function for searching the optimal parameters considered the route extension due to course deviation and the resistance component of the ship by steering. By adding a penalty function to the evaluation function, the performance of the automatic steering system of the ship could be evaluated to track the set course without overshooting when changing the course. It was confirmed that the sub-PID controller for each operating point followed the set course to minimize the evaluation function without overshoot when changing the course. The outputs of the tuned sub-PID controllers were combined in a weighted average method using the membership functions of the Tagaki-Sugeno fuzzy model. The proposed Tagaki-Sugeno fuzzy PID controller was applied to the second-order Nomoto's nonlinear expansion model. As a result of examining the transient response characteristics for the set course change, it was confirmed that the set course tracking was satisfactorily performed.