• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.36 no.9
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• pp.651-658
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• 2003

Since the first implanted in September 1997, the use of On-X prosthetic heart valve has been increasing around in the world. This study was designed to assess the feasibility, safety, and the postoperative hemodynamics with this new valve in clinical setting. Material and Method: The current study was carried out on 52 patients undergoing aortic valve replacement with this prosthesis between April 1999 to August 2002 at Chonnam National University Hospital to evaluate the surgical results. 52％ of the patients were male and the average age at implant was 50$\pm$13 years. The study followed the guidelines of the AATS/STS. Preoperatively, 32(61.5％) patients were in NYHA functional class III or IV and 2 patients had previous aortic valve surgery. Concomitant cardiac surgery was performed in 71.1％. The implanted valve sizes were 19 mm in 13 patients, 21 mm in 26, 23 mm in 10 and 25 mm in 3, respectively. Mean follow-up was 16.6$\pm$10.5 months (1∼39 months). Echocardiographic assessment was performed pre- and immediate postoperatively, as well as 3, 6, 12 months after surgery, evaluating pressure loss and regression of left ventricular hypertrophy. Result: Mean cardiopulmonary bypass time was 191$\pm$94.7 minutes with an aortic cross-clamp time of 142$\pm$51.7 minutes. There was no early and late mortality, Freedom from adverse events at 1 year in the study were as follows: thromboembolism, 95.6$\pm$6％; bleeding events, 90.2$\pm$4％; paravalvular leakage 92.3$\pm$4％; and overall valve-related morbidity at 1 year was 76.6$\pm$3％. There were no cases of valve thrombosis, prosthetic valve endocarditis and structural or non-structural failure. Left ventricular function at 12 months after surgery (EF=62.7$\pm$9.8％) revealed a statistically significant improvement compared to preoperative investigation (EF=55.8$\pm$15.9％, p=0.006). Left ventricular mass index was 247.3$\pm$122.3 g/$m^2$ on preoperative echocardiographic study, but regressed to 155.5$\pm$58.2 g/$m^2$ at postoperative 1 year (p=0.002). Over the follow-up period a further decrease of peak transvalvular gradients was observed in all patients: 62.5$\pm$38.0 mmHg on preoperative assessment, 18.2$\pm$6.8 mmHg at immediate postoperative period (p < 0.0001), 7.6$\pm$5.09 mmHg (p<0.0001) at 6 month, 18.0$\pm$10.8 mmHg (p<0.0001) at 1 year. Conclusion: The On-X prosthetic heart valve performs satisfactorily in the first 1 year period. Clinical outcome by examining NYHA functional classification revealed especially good results. Effective regression of left ventricular hypertrophy and statistically significant decrease of transvalvular gradient were observed over the first year, but longer-term follow-up of this patient group is needed to establish the expected rates for late valve-related events as well as the long-term clinical efficacy of this valve.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.63-82
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• 2016

Individuals gather information online to resolve problems in their daily lives and make various decisions about the purchase of products or services. With the revolutionary development of information technology, Web 2.0 has allowed more people to easily generate and use online reviews such that the volume of information is rapidly increasing, and the usefulness and significance of analyzing the unstructured data have also increased. This paper presents an analysis on the lexical features of expert product reviews to determine their influence on consumers' purchasing decisions. The focus was on how unstructured data can be organized and used in diverse contexts through text mining. In addition, diverse lexical features of expert reviews of contents provided by a third-party review site were extracted and defined. Expert reviews are defined as evaluations by people who have expert knowledge about specific products or services in newspapers or magazines; this type of review is also called a critic review. Consumers who purchased products before the widespread use of the Internet were able to access expert reviews through newspapers or magazines; thus, they were not able to access many of them. Recently, however, major media also now provide online services so that people can more easily and affordably access expert reviews compared to the past. The reason why diverse reviews from experts in several fields are important is that there is an information asymmetry where some information is not shared among consumers and sellers. The information asymmetry can be resolved with information provided by third parties with expertise to consumers. Then, consumers can read expert reviews and make purchasing decisions by considering the abundant information on products or services. Therefore, expert reviews play an important role in consumers' purchasing decisions and the performance of companies across diverse industries. If the influence of qualitative data such as reviews or assessment after the purchase of products can be separately identified from the quantitative data resources, such as the actual quality of products or price, it is possible to identify which aspects of product reviews hamper or promote product sales. Previous studies have focused on the characteristics of the experts themselves, such as the expertise and credibility of sources regarding expert reviews; however, these studies did not suggest the influence of the linguistic features of experts' product reviews on consumers' overall evaluation. However, this study focused on experts' recommendations and evaluations to reveal the lexical features of expert reviews and whether such features influence consumers' overall evaluations and purchasing decisions. Real expert product reviews were analyzed based on the suggested methodology, and five lexical features of expert reviews were ultimately determined. Specifically, the "review depth" (i.e., degree of detail of the expert's product analysis), and "lack of assurance" (i.e., degree of confidence that the expert has in the evaluation) have statistically significant effects on consumers' product evaluations. In contrast, the "positive polarity" (i.e., the degree of positivity of an expert's evaluations) has an insignificant effect, while the "negative polarity" (i.e., the degree of negativity of an expert's evaluations) has a significant negative effect on consumers' product evaluations. Finally, the "social orientation" (i.e., the degree of how many social expressions experts include in their reviews) does not have a significant effect on consumers' product evaluations. In summary, the lexical properties of the product reviews were defined according to each relevant factor. Then, the influence of each linguistic factor of expert reviews on the consumers' final evaluations was tested. In addition, a test was performed on whether each linguistic factor influencing consumers' product evaluations differs depending on the lexical features. The results of these analyses should provide guidelines on how individuals process massive volumes of unstructured data depending on lexical features in various contexts and how companies can use this mechanism from their perspective. This paper provides several theoretical and practical contributions, such as the proposal of a new methodology and its application to real data.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.227-248
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• 1990

The study was conceived in relation to a concern over the growing gap between the needs of chronic patients and the availability of care from the current health care system in Korea. Patients with agonizing chronic pain, discomfort, despair and disability are left with helplessly unprepared families with little help from the acute care oriented health care system after discharge from hospital. There is a great need for the development of an alternative means of quality care that is economically feasible and culturally adaptible to our society. Thus, the study was designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of home heath care as an alternative to bridge the existing gap between the patients' needs and the current practice of health care. The study specifically purports to test the effects of home care on health expenditure, readmission, job retention, compliance to health care regime, general conditions, complications, and self-care knowledge and practices. The study was guided by the operations research method advocated by the Primary Health Care Operations Research Institute(PRICOR) which constitutes 3 stages of research : namely, problem analysis solution development, and solution validation. The first step in the operations research was field preparation to develop the necessary consensus and cooperation. This was done through the formation of a consulting body at the hospital and a steering committee among the researchers. For the stage of problem analysis, the Annual Report of Seoul National University Hospital and the patients records for last 5 years were reviewed and selective patient interviews were conducted to find out the magnitude of chronic health problems and areas of unmect health care needs to finally decide on the kinds of health problems to study. On the basis of problem analysis, the solution development stage was devoted to home care program development asa solution alternative. Assessment tools, teaching guidelines and care protocols were developed and tested for their validity. The final stage was the stage of experimentation and evaluation. Patients with liver diseases, hemiplegic and diabetic conditions were selected as study samples. Discharge evaluation, follow up home care, measurement and evaluation were carried out according to the protocols of care and measurement plan for each patient for the period of 6 months after discharge. The study was carried out for the period from Jan. 1987 to Dec. 1989. The following are the results of the study presented according to the hypotheses set forth for the study ; 1. Total expenditures for the period of study were not reduced for the experimental group, however, since the cost per hospital visit is about 4 times as great as the cost per home visit, the effect of cost saving by home care will become a reality as home care replaces part of the hospital visits. 2. The effect on the rate of readmission and job retention was found to be statistically nonsignificant though the number of readmission was less among the experimental group receiving home care. 3. The effect on compliance to the health care regime was found to be statistically significant at the 5% level for hepatopathic and diabetic patients. 4. Education on diet, rest and excise, and medication through home care had an effect on improved liver function test scores, prevention of complications and self - care knowledge in hepatopathic patients at a statistically significant level. 5. In hemiplegic patient, home care had an effect on increased grasping power at a significant level. However. there was no significant difference between the experimental and control groups in the level of compliane, prevention of complications or in self-care practices. 6. In diabetic patients, there was no difference between the experimental and control groups in scores of laboratory tests, appearance of complications, and self-care knowledge or self -care practices. The above findings indicate that a home care program instituted for such short term as 6 months period could not totally demonstrate its effectiveness at a statistically significant level by quantitative analysis however, what was shown in part in this analysis, and in the continuous consultation sought by those who had been in the experimental group, is that home health care has a great potential in retarding or preventing pathological progress, facilitating rehabilitative and productive life, and improving quality of life by adding comfort, confidence and strength to patients and their families. For the further studies of this kind with chronic patients it is recommended that a sample of newly diagnosed patients be followed up for a longer period of time with more frequent observations to demonstrate a more dear- cut picture of the effectiveness of home care.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.26-36
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• 2017

Korea is preparing an offshore carbon capture, transport and storage (CCS) demonstration project which is recognized as one of important $CO_2$ reduction technologies to mitigate climate change. The offshore CCS project aims to transport, inject and store large amount of $CO_2$ into offshore geologic formation, and has a potential risk of leakage which might cause disastrous damage to human health, environment and property. Therefore, in order to ensure the safety of the offshore CCS project, a strict HSE (health, safety and environment) management plan and its implementation are required throughout the project life cycle. However, there are no HSE domestic laws or regulations applicable to CCS projects, and the related research is insufficient in Korea. For the derivation of the essential and urgent requirement in HSE management framework applicable to the offshore CCS project in Korea, we analysed the HSE management methodologies and foreign CCS HSE management guidelines and cases. First, this paper has analyzed ISO 31000, a generalized risk management principles. Second, we have investigated the HSE management practices of CCS projects in Norway and UK. Based on the analyses, we suggested the necessity of developing the HSE Philosophy and the HSE management process through the whole life cycle. Application of HSE management in early phase of an offshore CCS project will promote systematic and successful project implementation in a cost-effective and safe way.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.188-197
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• 2015

Purpose: To investigate the patterns of care for patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in South Korea. Materials and Methods: A multi-institutional retrospective study was performed (Korean Radiation Oncology Group [KROG] 11-06) on a total of 1,445 patients from 15 institutions. Results: Of the 1,445 patients, more than half were stages III (39.9%) and IV (35.8%). In addition to patterns of care, we also investigated trends over time with the periods 1988-1993, 1994-2002, and 2003-2011. The frequencies of magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography-computed tomography were markedly increased in the third period compared to previous 2 periods. Concurrent chemoradiation (CCRT) was performed on 894 patients (61.9%), neoadjuvant chemotherapy on 468 patients (32.4%), and adjuvant chemotherapy on 366 patients (25.3%). Of stage II-IV patients, CCRT performed on 78.8% in 2003-2011 compared to 15.0% in 1988-1993. For patients treated with CCRT, cisplatin was the most commonly used agent in 81.3% of patients. Over the periods of time, commonly used radiotherapy (RT) techniques were changed from 2-dimensional RT (1988-1993, 92.5%) to 3-dimensional RT (2003-2011, 35.5%) or intensity-modulated RT (IMRT; 2003-2011, 56.5%). Median RT doses given to primary tumors, high-risk lymphatics, and low-risk lymphatics were 70.0 Gy, 58.1 Gy, and 48.0 Gy, respectively. Adoption of IMRT increased the dose per fraction and escalated total radiation dose. Conclusion: Assessment of the patterns of care for NPC patients in South Korea demonstrated that management for NPC including diagnostic imaging, treatment regimen, RT techniques and dose schedule, advanced in accordance with the international guidelines.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.125-137
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• 1999

Purpose : Surveying the rates, severity, and variables influencing depression and their correlation between pain and depression in Korean cancer patients, we attempted to provide a basic database for the effective depression management program. Methods : The results of survey were colleted from 10 patients who were hospitalized at Seoul National University Hospital for cancer treatment from February to June of 1999. Factors of depression and the level of pain were examined by self-reported survey employing Korean version of Beck Depression Inventory(BDI) and an abridged version of Brief pain Inventory respectively. The purpose of this study and guidelines for the questionnaires were clearly explained to participating patients by Resgitered Nurses before answering the survey. Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients were compiled by reviewing their medical records in corporation with a family physician. The difference in the level of depression among patient groups was analyzed with the t-test and ANOVA, and the correlation between variables with Pearson correlation coefficient. Results : 1) 142 subjects comprised 79 male and 63 female, and their mean age was 51.86. 2) The mean scores of the worst pain for last 24-hours was 6.08(SD 2.23), the average pain for last 24-hours 4.44(SD 1.85), and the mean scores of pain at the time of survey 3.48(SD 2.25), while the mean scores of the least pain for last 24-hours 2.25(SD 1.83). 3) The mean BDI scores were 23.73(SD 0.99), and 55.6% of patients were evaluated to be in depression(cutting point 21). Scores of depression for cancer patients were higher than normal population. 4) The correlation between worst pain for last 24-hours and depression(r=0.252, P=0.002), average pain for last 24-hours and depression(r=0.225, P=0.007), present pain and depression(r=0.291, P=0.000) were significant. 5) Significant differences were found among groups of cancer patients with pain with respect to gender(t=3.59, p=0.000), level of education(F=4.063, P=0.009), ECOG(F=3.352, P=0.021). There was significant positive correlation between depression and pain(r=0.171, P=0.042). Conclusions : More than 50% of cancer patients with pain are suffering from depression. We have shown that the variables like the degree of pain, gender, level of education, ECOG, and age are significantly related to the depression in cancer patients. The findings of this study may be used for assessing high-risk patients in need of intervention and for planning effective therapeutic strategies for them after the routine assessment. Further study is necessary to investigate the cultural differences and the variables influencing on depression in Korean cancer patients.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.283-296
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• 2014

The distribution of heavy metals in the stormwater runoffs from industrial sites around Shihwa Lake that implements the total pollutant load management system (TPLMS) was studied to characterize the temporal changes of metal concentrations and to assess the ecological risk in dissolved and particulate phases of the selected metals. The dissolved Co and Ni concentration demonstrated first flush and tended to decrease with increasing of the duration of rainfall. The intensity of precipitation was found to be the main controlling factor of particulate metals in the stromwater runoffs. The particulate concentration of Pb accounted for 97.2% so the particulate phase was its main form. Other metals followed the sequence: Pb>Cu>Cd>Co>Zn>Ni. The particulate-dissolved partitioning coefficient ($K_d$) indicated that the $K_d$ of Pb were bigger than that of other metals because the metal Pb in the stormwater runoffs is quickly removed into the particulate phase. In a single day rainfall event, total runoff fluxes for total metals as the sum of dissolved and particulate forms through only two sewer outlets were 2.21 kg for Co, 30.5 kg for Ni, 278.3 kg for Cu, 398.3 kg for Zn, 0.39 kg for Cd and 40.0 kg for Pb, respectively. Given the annual rainfall, the number of rain days and the basin area for total pollutant load management system (TPLMS) of Shihwa area, enormous amount of non-point metal pollutants were entered into Lake with any treatment. The dissolved metals (e.g., Ni, Cu and Zn) in the stormwater runoffs exceeded the acute water quality criteria. Additionally, all metals were significantly enriched in the particulate phase and exceeded the PEL criteria of sediment quality guidelines (SQGs). These results indicated that the heavy metals in the stormwater runoffs may pose a very high ecological risk to the coastal environments and ecosystem.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.68-98
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• 2010

This study was conducted to analyze the results of the implementation of next-generation growth engine program that was promoted across all government agencies for five years from 2004 as part of a range of initiatives aimed at expanding the nation's economic growth potential. The results were analyzed in this study using five indices: program purpose and design; strategic planning; program management; program results; and pan-governmental agency cooperation and coordination. The results of the study include the following. First, regarding program purpose and design, it was found that consistent leadership in the promotion of the programs was insufficient as the relevant program promotion systems and financial resources were dispersed among governmental agencies, even though the objectives and validity of the programs were recognized. Second, with regard to strategic planning, it was found that although the program objectives and technical development strategy had been established at the beginning of the program, they were biased toward the technical objectives and mainly implemented by the technology suppliers. Third, regarding program management, it was found that the responsibility for general administration, ranging from task planning to policy improvement, was given to the appointed program director but that the system of cooperation among the agencies was insufficient to carry out the relevant tasks. Fourth, regarding the results of the program, it was difficult to understand the results consistently as the economic objectives were not clearly presented, even though the technical objectives were achieved despite the short implementation period of the program. Fifth, with regard to pan-governmental agency cooperation and coordination, it was found that the coordination organization whose remit was to implement the program was established pursuant to the Basic Law on Science and Technology, but that no detailed regulations or guidelines on the operation of the organization were drawn up. To efficiently plan and execute future pan-governmental agency R&D programs that are similar to the next-generation new growth engine program, various requirements should be met, namely, 1) joint planning and consistent program design among governmental agencies, 2) clarification of the program objectives and budget allocation system, 3) establishment of a pan-governmental agency program operation and assessment system, 4) formulation of a strategy for linking R&D with standardization, and 5) enactment of pan-governmental agency joint operation rules.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.15-30
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• 2012

It has been 10 years since the facility modernization projects of traditional markets was rigorously undertaken. Although more than 835 traditional Korean markets nationwide have already completed these projects, there does not exist a specific set of standards of installation, future maintenance, and management. As a result, the complaints made by civil stakeholders in accordance of the actual facility installation caused problems and delays of related projects. In addition, while some local governments secured and implemented their own differing standards, others have not yet established their own separate standards for maintenance and management. Specifically, 694 traditional markets nationwide were supported for the cost of installing arcades by 2010. For the short period of time after the arcade-supported projects were deployed, the number of the traditional markets had been rapidly growing as a prime example of the facility modernization projects. The arcade facilities are being planned and installed merely for screening the rain or the sun. Without fundamental data for the newly landscaped environments or information on the actual conditions of usage and assessment, there is a lack of comprehensive approaches that could possibly organize the public environments. Furthermore, the amount of support needed for repairs, maintenance, and management from the central and local governments is gradually increasing. Thus, it becomes both crucial and necessary to complement the current set of standards. The purpose of this study is to examine the actual conditions of usage, maintenance, and management among those traditional market facilities that were installed with the supports of the facility-modernization projects, especially for arcades. This will be carried out through investigating the local problems, issues, and considering international case studies. The results of this study will provide measures for effective and efficient installation and management of traditional market arcades. Improvements in the use of public resources could be directed towards transforming public business, as well as public enhancement and functional maintenance and reinforcement. Under this condition, the arcade is not a simple area to avoid rain or sunlight; it becomes a public space. It is highlighted that the arcade should establish its public business not only to activate markets but also to refine street environments and revitalize local communities. A more specific way to improve is introduced through systematic supplementation. This is needed to attract effective participation from local residents and is done so by conducting a fair procedure from the first stage of business and by providing guidelines for establishing arcades as public facilities. The study points out to the problem of merchants-centered plans and street use. It presents the need to expand to involve residents and customers. Given that the arcade is a public facility and merchants' ability to maintain it is limited, manuals and systems for its maintenance needs to be introduced through multi-party agreement of merchants, government, residents and customers.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.392-402
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to analyze and evaluate the self-directed learning contents of Earth science area in the basic course of the 7th grade. For this purpose, we applied the 'Cyber Home Study Content Quality Control Tool' presented in 'Elementary Secondary Education e-Learning Quality Management Guidelines (Ver.2.0)' of Korea Education & Research Information Service (2008). The results of contents analysis are as follow: First, it was presented that the study guide introduced the contents which should be studied for one class, properly. And it was not analyzed that the diagnosis assesment was not completed in the initiative study; Second, it was possible to study choosing the contents fitting the learner's level of learning in the main study, it was comprised of about 15 minutes. Third, it was performed without feedback for incorrect answers in the learning assessment, just the number of wrong questions. And the learning arrangement present the important contents learned in that class, summarizing and arranging again. The results of content evaluation are as follows: First, a big difference was not showed against the needs analysis, instructional design, interaction in each class. And the evaluation of the ethics was not included a word or sentence not suitable. The evaluation of copyright, it was analyzed that Work within the content display in compliance with international copyright Second, the evaluation of instructional design presented mainly the description of a simple picture based, the visible resources like flash card were poor. And in the evaluation of Supporting System, it was presented that the contents were installed so that it was freely available for learners. But it was analyzed that there was no memo-function learners were able to jot down something during the studying contents. And in the evaluation for evaluation, the clear valuation basis about the described content was not presented. So there were slightly differences for each class. Third, in the evaluation and analysis for learning content, it was presented that there were some big differences for each class because it was not composed of the latest information, not corrected and complementary.