• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.41 no.3
• /
• pp.305-316
• /
• 2021

Construction accidents occur due to a number of reasons-worker carelessness, non-adoption of safety equipment, and failure to comply with safety rules are some examples. Because much construction work is done outdoors, weather conditions can also be a factor in accidents. Past construction accident data are useful for accident prevention, but since construction accident data are often in a text format consisting of natural language, extracting construction hazards from construction accident data can take a lot of time and that entails extra cost. Therefore, in this study, we extracted construction hazards from 2,026 domestic construction accident reports using text mining and performed a seasonal analysis of construction hazards through frequency analysis and centrality analysis. Of the 254 construction hazards defined by Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, we extracted 51 risk factors from the construction accident data. The results showed that a significant hazard was "Formwork" in spring and autumn, "Scaffold" in summer, and "Crane" in winter. The proposed method would enable construction safety managers to prepare better safety measures against outdoor construction accidents according to weather, season, and climate.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.32 no.2
• /
• pp.94-100
• /
• 2022

Chronic infection by hepatitis B virus (HBV) greatly increases the risk for liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The outcome of HBV infection is shaped by the complex interplay of the mode of transmission, host genetic factors, viral genotype, adaptive mutations, and environmental factors. The pregenomic RNA transcription of HBV for their replication is regulated by the core promoter activation. Core promoter mutations have been the reason for acute liver failure and are associated with HCC development. We obtained HBV genes from a patient in Myanmar who was infected with HBV and identified gene variations in the core promoter region. For measuring the relative transactivation activity of the core promoter, we prepared the core-promoter reporter construct. Among the gene variations of the core promoter, the mutations of C1731T and G1806A were associated with increase in the transactivation of the HBV core promoter. Through computer analysis for searching for a tentative transcription factor binding site, we showed that the mutations of C1713T and G1806A newly created C/EBPβ and XBP1-responsive elements of the core promoter, respectively. The ectopic expression of C/EBPβ largely increased the HBV core promoter containing the C1713T mutation and that of XBP1 activated the M95 promoter containing the G1806A mutation. Our efforts to treat and prevent HBV infections are hampered by the emergence of drug-resistant mutations and vaccine-escape mutations. Our results provide the biological properties and clinical significance of specific HBV core promoter mutations.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
• /
• v.21 no.5
• /
• pp.171-182
• /
• 2022

The safe use of a structure requires it to be maintained in an undamaged state. Thus, a typical factor that determines the safety of a structure is a crack in it. In addition, cracks are caused by various reasons, damage the structure in various ways, and exist in different shapes. Making matters worse, if these cracks are unattended, the risk of structural failure increases and proceeds to a catastrophe. Hence, recently, methods of checking structural damage using deep learning and computer vision technology have been introduced. These methods usually have the premise that there should be a large amount of training image data. However, the amount of training image data is always insufficient. Particularly, this insufficiency negatively affects the performance of deep learning crack detection algorithms. Hence, in this study, a method of augmenting crack image data based on the image translation technique was developed. In particular, this method obtained the crack image data for training a deep learning neural network model by transforming a specific case of a asphalt crack image into a concrete crack image or vice versa . Eventually, this method expected that a robust crack detection algorithm could be developed by increasing the diversity of its training data.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.56 no.3
• /
• pp.155-161
• /
• 2023

Background: Surgical closure of an atrial septal defect (ASD) is infrequently indicated during infancy. We evaluated the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients who underwent surgical ASD closure during infancy. Methods: A single-center retrospective review was performed for 39 patients (19 males) who underwent surgical ASD closure during infancy between 1993 and 2020. The median body weight percentile at the time of operation was 9.3. Results: During a median follow-up of 60.9 months, 4 late deaths occurred due to chronic respiratory failure. A preoperative history of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) was the only risk factor for late mortality identified in Cox regression (hazard ratio, 3.54; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.75-163.04; p=0.015). The 5-year survival rate was significantly lower in patients with preoperative history of BPD (97.0% vs. 50.0%, p<0.001) and preoperative ventilatory support (97.1% vs. 40.4%, p<0.001). There were significant postoperative increases in left ventricular end-diastolic (p=0.017), end-systolic (p=0.014), and stroke volume (p=0.013) indices. A generalized estimated equation model showed significantly better postoperative improvement in body weight percentiles in patients with lower weight percentiles at the time of operation (<10th percentile, p=0.01) and larger indexed ASD diameter (≥45 mm/m², p=0.025). Conclusion: Patients with ASD necessitating surgical closure during infancy are extremely small preoperatively and remain small even after surgical closure. However, postoperative somatic growth was more prominent in smaller patients with larger defects, which may be attributable to an increase in postoperative cardiac output due to changes in ventricular septal configuration. The benefits of ASD closure in patients with BPD are undetermined.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• /
• v.35
• /
• pp.22.1-22.9
• /
• 2023

Background: Shift work increases the risk of chronic diseases, including metabolic diseases. However, studies on the relationship between shift work and renal function are limited. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between shift work and a decreased glomerular filtration rate (GFR). Methods: Data were evaluated for 1,324,930 workers who visited the Korean Medical Institute from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2020 and underwent a health checkup. Daytime workers were randomly extracted at a ratio of 1:4 after matching for age and sex. In total, 18,190 workers aged over 40 years were included in the analyses; these included 3,638 shift workers and 14,552 daytime workers. Participants were categorized into the shift work group when they underwent a specific health checkup for night shift work or indicated that they were shift workers in the questionnaire. The odds ratio was calculated using a conditional logistic regression to investigate the relevance of shift work for changes in GFR. Results: 35 workers in the shift group and 54 in the daytime group exhibited an estimated GFR (eGFR) value of < 60 mL/min/1.73m² (p < 0.01). The difference in eGFR values between two checkups differed significantly depending on the type of work (p < 0.01); the difference in the shift work group (-9.64 mL/min/1.73 m²) was larger than that in the daytime work group (-7.45 mL/min/1.73 m²). The odds ratio for eGFR reduction to < 60 mL/min/1.73 m² in the shift group versus the daytime group was 4.07 (95% confidence interval: 2.54-6.52), which was statistically significant. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that eGFR decreases by a significantly larger value in shift workers than in daytime workers; thus, shift work could be a contributing factor for chronic kidney disease (CKD). Further prospective studies are necessary to validate this finding and identify measures to prevent CKD in shift workers.

• The Korean Journal of Gastroenterology
• /
• v.72 no.6
• /
• pp.286-294
• /
• 2018

Background/Aims: The predictive factors of functional dyspepsia (FD) remain controversial. Therefore, we sought to investigate symptom responses in FD patients after Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) eradication and used predictive factor analysis to identify significant factors of FD resolution at one-year after commencing eradication therapy. Methods: This prospective, multi-center clinical trial was performed on 65 FD patients that met Rome III criteria and had H. pylori infection. Symptom responses and factors that predicted poor response were determined by analysis one year after commencing H. pylori eradication therapy. Results: A total of 63 patients completed the one-year follow-up. When an eradication success group (n=60) and an eradication failure group (n=3) were compared with respect to FD response rate at one year, results were as follows; complete response 73.3% and 0.0%, satisfactory response 1.7% and 0.0%, partial response 10.0% and 33.3%, and refractory response 15.0% and 66.7%, respectively (p=0.013). Univariate analysis showed persistent H. pylori infection (p=0.021), female gender (p=0.025), and medication for FD during the study period (p=0.013) were associated with poor FD response at one year. However, age, smoking, alcohol consumption, and underlying disease were not found to affect response. Finally, multivariate analysis showed that female gender (OR, 4.70; 95% CI, 1.17-18.88) was the sole independent risk factor of poor FD response at one year after commencing H. pylori eradication therapy. Conclusions: Female gender was found to predict poor response in FD patients despite H. pylori eradication. Furthermore, successful H. pylori eradication appears to be associated with FD improvement, but the number of non-eradicated patients was too small to conclude.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.16-25
• /
• 2007

[ $\underline{Purpose}$ ]: Breast conserving surgery (BCS) followed by chemotherapy (CTx.) and radiation therapy (RT) is widely performed for the treatment of early breast cancer. This retrospective study was undertaken to evaluate our interim results in terms of failure patterns, survival and relative risk factors. $\underline{Materials\;and\;Methods}$: From January 1999 through December 2003, 129 patients diagnosed with invasive breast cancer and treated with BCS followed by RT were subject to retrospective review. The median age of the patients was 45 years (age distribution, $27{\sim}76$ years). The proportions of patients according to their tumor, nodes, and metastases (TNM) stage were 65 (50.4%) in stage I, 41 (31.7%) in stage IIa, 13 (10.1%) in stage IIb, 9 (7.0%) in stage III, and 1 patient (0.8%) in stage IIIc. For 32 patients (24.8%), axillary node metastasis was found after dissection. BCS consisted of quadrantectomy in 115 patients (89.1%) and lumpectomy in 14 patients (10.6%). Axillary node dissection at axillary level I and II was performed for 120 patients (93%). For 7 patients (5.4%), only sentinel node dissection was performed with BCS. For 2 patients (1.6%) axillary dissection of any type was not performed. Postoperative RT was given with 6 MV X-rays. A tumor dose of 50.4 Gy was delivered to the entire breast area using a tangential field with a wedge compensator. An aditional dose of $9{\sim}16\;Gy$ was given to the primary tumor bed areas with electron beams. In 30 patients (23.3%), RT was delivered to the supraclavicular node. Most patients had adjuvant CTx. with $4{\sim}6$ cycles of CMF (cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, 5-fluorouracil) regimens. The median follow-up period was 50 months (range: $17{\sim}93$ months). $\underline{Results}$: The actuarial 5 year survival rate (5Y-OSR) was 96.9%, and the 5 year disease free survival rate (5Y-DFSR) was 93.7%. Local recurrences were noted in 2 patients (true: 2, regional node: 1) as the first sign of recurrence at a mean time of 29.3 months after surgery. Five patients developed distant metastases as the first sign of recurrence at $6{\sim}33$ months (mean 21 months). Sites of distant metastatic sites were bone in 3 patients, liver in 1 patient and systemic lesions in 1 patient. Among the patients with distant metastatic sites, two patients died at 17 and 25 months during the follow-up period. According to stage, the 5Y-OSR was 95.5%, 100%, 84.6%, and 100% for stage I, IIa, IIb, and III respectively. The 5Y-DFSR was 96.8%, 92.7%, 76.9%, and 100% for stage I, IIa, IIb, and III respectively. Stage was the only risk factor for local recurrence based on univariate analysis. Ten stage III patients included in this analysis had a primary tumor size of less than 3 cm and had more than 4 axillary lymph node metastases. The 10 stage III patients received not only breast RT but also received posterior axillary boost RT to the supraclavicular node. During the median 53.3 months follow-up period, no any local or distant failure was found. Complications were asymptomatic radiation pneumonitis in 10 patients, symptomatic pneumonitis in 1 patient and lymphedema in 8 patients. $\underline{Conclusion}$: Although our follow up period is short, we had excellent local control and survival results and reaffirmed that BCS followed by RT and CTx. appears to be an adequate treatment method. These results also provide evidence that distant failure occurs earlier and more frequent as compared with local failure. Further studies and a longer follow-up period are needed to assess the effectiveness of BCS followed by RT for the patients with less than a 3 cm primary tumor and more than 4 axillary node metastases.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.21-38
• /
• 2012

Until recently, successful implementation of ERP systems has been a popular topic among ERP researchers, who have attempted to identify its various contributing factors. None of these efforts, however, explicitly recognize the need to identify disparities that can exist between organizational information requirements and ERP systems. Since ERP systems are in fact "packages" -that is, software programs developed by independent software vendors for sale to organizations that use them-they are designed to meet the general needs of numerous organizations, rather than the unique needs of a particular organization, as is the case with custom-developed software. By adopting standard packages, organizations can substantially reduce many of the potential implementation risks commonly associated with custom-developed software. However, it is also true that the nature of the package itself could be a risk factor as the features and functions of the ERP systems may not completely comply with a particular organization's informational requirements. In this study, based on the organizational memory mismatch perspective that was derived from organizational memory theory and cognitive dissonance theory, we define the nature of disparities, which we call "mismatches," and propose that the mismatch between organizational information requirements and ERP systems is one of the primary determinants in the successful implementation of ERP systems. Furthermore, we suggest that customization efforts as a coping strategy for mismatches can play a significant role in increasing the possibilities of success. In order to examine the contention we propose in this study, we employed a survey-based field study of ERP project team members, resulting in a total of 77 responses. The results of this study show that, as anticipated from the organizational memory mismatch perspective, the mismatch between organizational information requirements and ERP systems makes a significantly negative impact on the implementation success of ERP systems. This finding confirms our hypothesis that the more mismatch there is, the more difficult successful ERP implementation is, and thus requires more attention to be drawn to mismatch as a major failure source in ERP implementation. This study also found that as a coping strategy on mismatch, the effects of customization are significant. In other words, utilizing the appropriate customization method could lead to the implementation success of ERP systems. This is somewhat interesting because it runs counter to the argument of some literature and ERP vendors that minimized customization (or even the lack thereof) is required for successful ERP implementation. In many ERP projects, there is a tendency among ERP developers to adopt default ERP functions without any customization, adhering to the slogan of "the introduction of best practices." However, this study asserts that we cannot expect successful implementation if we don't attempt to customize ERP systems when mismatches exist. For a more detailed analysis, we identified three types of mismatches-Non-ERP, Non-Procedure, and Hybrid. Among these, only Non-ERP mismatches (a situation in which ERP systems cannot support the existing information needs that are currently fulfilled) were found to have a direct influence on the implementation of ERP systems. Neither Non-Procedure nor Hybrid mismatches were found to have significant impact in the ERP context. These findings provide meaningful insights since they could serve as the basis for discussing how the ERP implementation process should be defined and what activities should be included in the implementation process. They show that ERP developers may not want to include organizational (or business processes) changes in the implementation process, suggesting that doing so could lead to failed implementation. And in fact, this suggestion eventually turned out to be true when we found that the application of process customization led to higher possibilities of failure. From these discussions, we are convinced that Non-ERP is the only type of mismatch we need to focus on during the implementation process, implying that organizational changes must be made before, rather than during, the implementation process. Finally, this study found that among the various customization approaches, bolt-on development methods in particular seemed to have significantly positive effects. Interestingly again, this finding is not in the same line of thought as that of the vendors in the ERP industry. The vendors' recommendations are to apply as many best practices as possible, thereby resulting in the minimization of customization and utilization of bolt-on development methods. They particularly advise against changing the source code and rather recommend employing, when necessary, the method of programming additional software code using the computer language of the vendor. As previously stated, however, our study found active customization, especially bolt-on development methods, to have positive effects on ERP, and found source code changes in particular to have the most significant effects. Moreover, our study found programming additional software to be ineffective, suggesting there is much difference between ERP developers and vendors in viewpoints and strategies toward ERP customization. In summary, mismatches are inherent in the ERP implementation context and play an important role in determining its success. Considering the significance of mismatches, this study proposes a new model for successful ERP implementation, developed from the organizational memory mismatch perspective, and provides many insights by empirically confirming the model's usefulness.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.93-100
• /
• 2007

[ $\underline{Purpose}$ ]: To evaluate the outcome and prognostic factors of postoperative radiotherapy in endometrial carcinoma. $\underline{Materials\;and\;Methods}$: From September 1991 to August 2003, 76 patients with endometrial carcinoma received postoperative adjuvant radiotherapy after hysterectomy at Asan Medical Center. Stage was classified as FIGO I in 41 (53.9%), II in 12 (53.9%), and III in 23 (30.3%). Histologic grade 1, 2 and 3 were in 29 (38.2%), 20 (26.3%), and 27 (35.5%) respectively. Forty two patients received both external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) and intracavitary radiation (ICR), 34 patients were treated with EBRT or ICR alone. EBRT dose was 50.4 Gy, ICR was performed in $4{\sim}6$ fractions with $4{\sim}5\;Gy$ per fraction. Median follow-up period was 51 (range $5{\sim}121$) months. $\underline{Results}$: Five-year overall survival was 89.6%. In univariate analysis, statistically significant factors to overall survival were FIGO stage, lymph node metastasis and histologic grade. In disease free survival, FIGO stage, lymph node metastasis and lymphovascular invasion were significant prognostic factors. Recurrence was seen in 11 patients. Of these, systemic failure was in 10 patients. There were no moderate to severe complications after radiation therapy. $\underline{Conclusion}$: The outcome of postoperative adjuvant radiotherapy in endometrial carcinoma was good. Main pattern of failure after postoperative radiotherapy was distant metastasis. So, adjuvant chemotherapy may help in improving outcome. Further study on chemotherapy in combined with postoperative radiotherapy will be needed, especially for patients with high risk factors such as high FIGO stage, lymphovascular invasion, and high histologic grade.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.61-79
• /
• 2023

This study is a case study of overseas banana farms as a global agricultural startup that has hardly been attempted so far in terms of paradigm shift in the industry, beyond regional limitations. It was researched for the purpose of revealing the success factors of 'global agricultural startup' in terms of business process, entrepreneurship, and management dimensions learned through direct participation and observation at the local level. In order to study global agricultural startups, this study also conducted a comparative analysis of global startups (global startups) and global agricultural startups(global agricultural startups). In fact, the analysis consists of 'definition', 'components', and 'success factors', and we want to confirm the difference between the two concepts that can be distinguished. The case analysis tried to maximize the advantages of 'participatory action research' by directly observing and experiencing banana farms. In the case of banana farm cases, by dividing them into preparation process for farm development and farm development and management process, various variables considered in farm management were explained through the whole process of farm management. Through the process of overcoming and responding to specific failure cases, we tried to secure the reliability and validity of the research, and the case studies related to entrepreneurship, management, and organization analyzed by applying them by subdividing them into theoretical areas belonging to components and management that were theorized in existing preceding studies. This study is almost the first study on the process of creating a local entry business by directly moving the head office overseas rather than entering overseas agriculture as a subsidiary, joint venture or overseas corporation. In particular, it is a unique case that corresponds to agriculture in terms of region(Africa), scale(startup), and industry that have not been introduced so far as a global agricultural startup. In terms of entrepreneurship, it also concretely exemplified how entrepreneurship components such as innovativeness, risk-taking propensity, proactiveness, vision sharing, social contribution, leadership, etc., which have not been attempted so far in agricultural cases, are manifested and effective. The management and cultural aspects also went beyond the argument that only cultural aspects are important in overseas business, and also confirmed individual failure cases and their responses in recruitment, job, wage, retirement, development, organizational structure management, etc. As a result, there is significance and implications of this study in that it provides theoretical confirmation as well as practical and responsive basis for 'entrepreneurship', 'farming management', and 'management' aspects in overseas agricultural startup business operation.