• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.1293-1299
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• 2019

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT) for chronic empyema-associated malignancy (CEAM). Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT images of 33 patients with chronic empyema, and analyzed the following findings: 1) shape of the empyema cavity, 2) presence of fistula, 3) maximum standardized uptake value (SUV) of the empyema cavity, 4) uptake pattern of the empyema cavity, 5) presence of a protruding soft tissue mass within the empyema cavity, and 6) involvement of adjacent structures. Final diagnosis was determined based on histopathology or clinical follow-up for at least 6 months. The abovementioned findings were compared between the ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT images of CEAM and chronic empyema. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was also performed. Results: Six lesions were histopathologically proven as malignant; there were three cases of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, two of squamous cell carcinoma, and one of poorly differentiated carcinoma. Maximum SUV within the empyema cavity (p < 0.001) presence of a protruding soft tissue mass (p = 0.002), and involvement of the adjacent structures (p < 0.001) were significantly different between the CEAM and chronic empyema images. The maximum SUV exhibited the highest diagnostic performance, with the highest specificity (96.3%, 26/27), positive predictive value (85.7%, 6/7), and accuracy (97.0%, 32/33) among all criteria. On ROC analysis, the area under the curve of maximum SUV was 0.994. Conclusion: ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT can be useful for diagnosing CEAM in patients with chronic empyema. The maximum SUV within the empyema cavity is the most accurate ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT diagnostic criterion for CEAM.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2003.03a
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• pp.273-280
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• 2003

Tunneling in difficult geological conditions is often inevitable especially in urban areas. Ground improvement and reinforcement techniques are often required to guarantee safe tunnel excavations and/or to prevent damage to adjacent structures. The steel pipe-reinforced multi-step grouting method has been recently applied to tunnel sites in Korea as an auxiliary technique. In this study, the face stability with steel pipe-reinforced multi-step grouting was evaluated by simultaneously considering two factors: one is the effective stress acting on the tunnel face calculated by limit theorem and limit equilibrium method; the other is the seepage force obtained by means of numerical analysis. The study revealed that the influence of the steel pipe-reinforced multi-step grouting on the support pressure in dry condition is not significant while there is relatively a large amount of reduction in seepage forces by adopting the technique in saturated condition. The effect of the anisotropy of permeability on the seepage force acting on the tunnel face was also estimated by conducting the coupled analysis. It was found that a higher horizontal permeability compared with the vertical one causes reduction in the seepage force acting on the tunnel face.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.37-55
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• 2010

In this paper South Africa is divided into strong wind climate zones, which indicate the main sources of annual maximum wind gusts. By the analysis of wind gust data of 94 weather stations, which had continuous climate time series of 10 years or longer, six sources, or strong-wind producing mechanisms, could be identified and zoned accordingly. The two primary causes of strong wind gusts are thunderstorm activity and extratropical low pressure systems, which are associated with the passage of cold fronts over the southern African subcontinent. Over the eastern and central interior of South Africa annual maximum wind gusts are usually caused by thunderstorm gust fronts during summer, while in the western and southern interior extratropical cyclones play the most dominant role. Along the coast and adjacent interior annual extreme gusts are usually caused by extratropical cyclones. Four secondary sources of strong winds are the ridging of the quasi-stationary Atlantic and Indian Ocean high pressure systems over the subcontinent, surface troughs to the west in the interior with strong ridging from the east, convergence from the interior towards isolated low pressure systems or deep coastal low pressure systems, and deep surface troughs on the West Coast.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.177-194
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• 2016

The cable-supported ribbed beam composite slab structure (CBS) is a new type of pre-stressed hybrid structure. The standard construction method of CBS including five steps and two key phases are proposed in this paper. The theoretical analysis and experimental research on a 1:5 scaled model were carried out. First, the tensioning construction method based on deformation control was applied to pre-stress the cables. The research results indicate that the actual tensile force applied to the cable is slightly larger than the theoretical value, and the error is about 6.8%. Subsequently, three support dismantling schemes are discussed. Scheme one indicates that each span of CBS has certain level of mechanical independence such that the construction of a span is not significantly affected by the adjacent spans. It is shown that dismantling from the middle to the ends is an optimal support dismantling method. The experimental research also indicates that by using this method, the CBS behaves identically with the numerical analysis results during the construction and service.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.54-60
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• 2013

In this study, a finite element model based on the SU/PG scheme was developed to solve shallow-water equations and the influences of parameters and internal boundary conditions on depth-averaged flow behavior were investigated. To analyze the effect of roughness coefficient and eddy viscosity on flow characteristics, the developed model was applied to rectangular meandering channel with two bends, and transverse velocities and water depth distributions were examined. As the roughness coefficient adjacent to wall increased, the velocities near the wall decreased, and the reduced velocities were compensated by the expanding mid-channel velocities. In addition, the flow characteristics around a circular cylinder were analyzed by varying the internal boundary conditions as free slip and no slip. The assignment of slip condition changed the velocity distribution on the cylinder surface and reduced the magnitude of the shear stress up to one third.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.274-278
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• 2003

The numerical analysis indicated that the vibration response reduced sharply at the three times of tunnel diameter. Visual display of vibration response was possible through 3-D FEM computer program, and displacement of structure, particle velocity were obtained as output. It was found that the vibration velocity was maximum at distance one to two times of tunnel diameter for the given simplified blast loadings. The results of numerical analysis were compared with empirical based predictive equation of blasting. The empirical equation showed a good agreement with 3-D FEM results at a certain range of tunnel depth in this particular type of ground conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.268-275
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• 2006

Excavation works of cylindrical shafts and tunnels for the construction of a variety of infrastructures have been frequently going on in the urban areas. When ground excavations of cylindrical shafts and shallow tunnels proceed in the ground condition of high water level and silt particle component, ground water drawdown involving soil particle migration causes loosening of ground around tunnels and shafts, causes settlement and deformation of ground. Damages due to ground sinking and differential settlement can occur in the adjacent ground and structures. The extent and possibility of damage relevant to ground water drawdown and soil particle migration can't be so precisely expected in advance that we will face terrible damages in case of minor carefulness. This paper introduces two examples of construction management where using incremental deformation graph of inclinometer, we noticed the possibility of soil migration due to ground water drawdown in the excavation process of vertical shaft and shallow tunnel, analysed a series of measurement data in coupled connection, properly prepared countermeasures, so came into safe and successful completion of excavation work without terrible damages. The effort of this article aims to improve and develop the technique of design and construction in the coming projects having similar ground condition and supporting method.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.617-641
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• 2014

The energy constraint is still a common issue for the practical application of wireless sensors, since they are usually powered by batteries which limit their lifetime. In this paper, a practical compound energy efficiency strategy is proposed and realized in the implementation of a real time wireless sensor platform. The platform is intended for wireless structural monitoring applications and consists of three parts, wireless sensing unit, base station and data acquisition and configuration software running in a computer within the Matlab environment. The high energy efficiency of the wireless sensor platform is achieved by a proposed adaptive radio transmission power control algorithm, and some straightforward methods, including adopting low power ICs and high efficient power management circuits, low duty cycle radio polling and switching off radio between two adjacent data packets' transmission. The adaptive transmission power control algorithm is based on the statistical average of the path loss estimations using a moving average filter. The algorithm is implemented in the wireless node and relies on the received signal strength feedback piggybacked in the ACK packet from the base station node to estimate the path loss. Therefore, it does not need any control packet overheads. Several experiments are carried out to investigate the link quality of radio channels, validate and evaluate the proposed adaptive transmission power control algorithm, including static and dynamic experiments.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.625-638
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• 2017

This paper presents a novel approach that describes the first-order (linear elastic) partial interaction analysis of members formed by multi-components based on the Generalised Beam Theory (GBT). The novelty relies on its ability to accurately model the partial interaction between the different components forming the cross-section in both longitudinal and transverse directions as well as to consider the cross-sectional deformability. The GBT deformations modes, that consist of the conventional, extensional and shear modes, are determined from the dynamic analyses of the cross-section represented by a planar frame. The partial interaction is specified at each connection interface between two adjacent elements by means of a shear deformable spring distributed along the length of the member. The ease of use of the model is outlined by an application performed on a multi-component member subjected to an eccentric load. The values calculated with an ABAQUS finite element model are used to validate the proposed method. The results of the numerical applications outline the influence of specifying different rigidities for the interface shear connection and in using different order of polynomials for the shape functions specified in the finite element cross-section analysis.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.570-574
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• 2013

Background The elliptical excision is the standard method of removing benign skin lesions, such as congenital melanocytic nevi. This technique allows for primary closure, with little to no dog-ear deformity, but may sacrifice normal tissue adjacent to the lesion, resulting in scars which are unnecessarily long. This study was designed to compare the predicted results of elliptical excision with those resulting from our excision technique. Methods Eighty-two patients with congenital melanocytic nevus on the face were prospectively studied. Each lesion was examined and an optimal ellipse was designed and marked on the skin. After an incision on one side of the nevus margin, subcutaneous undermining was performed in the appropriate direction. The skin flap was pulled up and approximated along several vectors to minimize the occurrence of dog-ear deformity. Results Overall, the final wound length was 21.1% shorter than that achieved by elliptical excision. Only 8.5% of the patients required dog-ear repair. There was no significant distortion of critical facial structures. All of the scars were deemed aesthetically acceptable based on their Patient and Observer Scar Assessment Scale scores. Conclusions When compared to elliptical excision, our technique appears to minimize dogear deformity and decrease the final wound length. This technique should be considered an alternative method for excision of facial nevi.