• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.35-46
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• 2022

Background: The correlation between hospital volume and postoperative outcomes has led to the centralization of complex procedures in several countries. However, the results reported in relation to gastric cancer (GC) are contradictory. This study aimed to analyze GC surgical volumes and 30-day postoperative mortality in Italy and to provide a simulation for modeling centralization of GC resections based on district case volumes. Methods: A national registry was used to identify all GC resections, record mortality rates, and track the national in-border GC resection health travel. Hospitals were grouped according to caseload. Centralization of all GC procedures performed within the same district was modeled. The outcome measures were a minimal volume of 25 GC resections/year and the 30-day postoperative mortality. Results: In 2018, 5,873 GC resections were performed in 498 Italian hospitals (mean resections per hospital per year: 11.8); the postoperative mortality rate (5.51%) was tracked from 2016-2018. GC resection health travel ranged from 2% to 50.5%, with a significant (P<0.001) difference between northern and central/southern Italy. The mean mortality rate was 7.7% in hospitals performing one to 3 GC resections per year, compared with 4.7% in those with >17 GC resections/year (P≤0.01). Most Italian districts achieved 25 procedures/year after centralization; however, 66.3% of GC cases in southern Italy vs. 42.2% in central and 52.7% in the northern regions (P<0.001) required reallocation. Conclusion: Postoperative mortality after GC resection correlated with hospital volume. Despite health travel, most Italian districts can reach a high-volume threshold, but discrepancies in mortality rates are alarming.Trial RegistrationResearch Registry Identifierresearchregistry6869

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.1-11
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• 2021

Port hinterland has been experiencing difficulty in generating new cargo volume and high value-added activity. It will be able to contribute to create new cargo volume and high added-value if transshipment cargo can be switched to trusted processing and then attract to port hinterland. This paper estimates items and volume size that can be the appropriate to attract in port hinterland and also be able to switch to trusted processing based on the trade data and manifest of transshipment container. The 50 items were classified from the result of trusted processing trade and the 33 items of them were suggested as the appropriate to attract in the port hinterland. The result shows that the 3.2 times transshipment cargo volume which is large than the total volume of trusted processing trade in Korea is transshipped at Busan port. This study is the first research to compare trade data and manifest of transshipment container, and thus it contributes to attracting firms in the port hinterland for the port authorities and the government.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.399-409
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• 2021

The existing method to improve the coordination performance of the inner and outer parts of concrete-encased concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) composite columns by increasing the volume-stirrup ratio causes difficulties in construction due to over-dense stirrups. Thus, this paper proposes an open polygonal composite stirrup with high strength and high ductility CRB600H reinforced rebar, and seventeen specimens were constructed, and their axial compressive performance was tested. The main parameters considered were the volume-stirrup ratio, the steel tube size, the stirrup type and the stirrup strength. The test results indicated: For the specimens restrained by open octagonal composite stirrups, compared with the specimen of 0.5% volume-stirrup ratio, the compressive bearing capacity increased by 14.6%, 15.7% and 21.5% for volume-stirrup ratio of 0.73%, 1.07% and 1.61%, respectively. For the specimens restrained by open composite rectangle stirrups, compared with the specimen of 0.79% volume-stirrup ratio, the compressive bearing capacity increased by 7.5%, 6.1%, and -1.4% for volume-stirrup ratio of 1.12%, 1.58% and 2.24%, respectively. The restraint ability and the bearing capacity of the octagonal composite stirrup are better than other stirrup types. The specimens equipped with open polygonal composite stirrup not only had a higher ductility than those with the traditional closed-loop stirrup, but they also had a higher axial bearing capacity than those with an HPB300 strength grades stirrup. Therefore, the open composite stirrup can be used in practical engineering. A new calculation method was proposed based on the stress-strain models for confined concrete under different restrain conditions, and the predicted value was close to the experimental value.

• Dementia and Neurocognitive Disorders
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.127-135
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• 2024

Background and Purpose: To ensure data privacy, the development of defacing processes, which anonymize brain images by obscuring facial features, is crucial. However, the impact of these defacing methods on brain imaging analysis poses significant concern. This study aimed to evaluate the reliability of three different defacing methods in automated brain volumetry. Methods: Magnetic resonance imaging with three-dimensional T1 sequences was performed on ten patients diagnosed with subjective cognitive decline. Defacing was executed using mri_deface, BioImage Suite Web-based defacing, and Defacer. Brain volumes were measured employing the QBraVo program and FreeSurfer, assessing intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and the mean differences in brain volume measurements between the original and defaced images. Results: The mean age of the patients was 71.10±6.17 years, with 4 (40.0%) being male. The total intracranial volume, total brain volume, and ventricle volume exhibited high ICCs across the three defacing methods and 2 volumetry analyses. All regional brain volumes showed high ICCs with all three defacing methods. Despite variations among some brain regions, no significant mean differences in regional brain volume were observed between the original and defaced images across all regions. Conclusions: The three defacing algorithms evaluated did not significantly affect the results of image analysis for the entire brain or specific cerebral regions. These findings suggest that these algorithms can serve as robust methods for defacing in neuroimaging analysis, thereby supporting data anonymization without compromising the integrity of brain volume measurements.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.23-35
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• 2012

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of the average volume of alcohol consumption and binge drinking with arterial stiffness. Methods: The study population consisted of 5944 community-dwelling healthy adults aged 50 years and older. Average volume of alcohol consumption was calculated and frequency of binge drinking defined as the consumption of 7 or more drinks for men and 5 or more for women on a single occasion, was assessed using a structured interview. High brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV), a marker of arterial stiffness, was defined as the highest gender-specific quartile of maximal baPWV distribution in the study population. Results: Compared to never drinkers, the multivariate-adjusted odds ratio (OR) of men who consumed 0.1-10.0, 10.1-20.0, 20.1-40.0, and >40.0 g/day was 0.93, 1.18, 1.38, and 2.36, respectively. The OR was 0.90, 0.97, 1.45, and 1.82 in women consuming 0.1-5.0, 5.1-10.0, 10.1-20.0, and >20.0 g/day, respectively. Binge drinking of <1 day/week (OR=1.66, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.13-2.42) and ${\geq}1$ day/week (OR=1.61, 95% CI=1.04-2.50) were associated with increased risk for high baPWV in men, and binge drinking of ${\geq}1$ day/week (OR=3.12, 95% CI=1.16-8.34) was associated with increased risk for high baPWV in women. Conclusions: A J-shaped relationship between the average volume of alcohol consumption and high baPWV was observed, suggesting the detrimental effects of heavy alcohol drinking on arterial stiffness. Binge drinking was also significant risk factors for increased arterial stiffness, independently of the average volume of alcohol consumption.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.131-137
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• 2005

Ultra high pressure injection equipment was developed to estimate and analyze the spray characteristics in ultra high pressure injection. Spray patterns were visualized by schlieren method and analyzed in ultra high pressure. Spray tip penetration, spray thickness, spray volume, and entrained air mass increased with the increase of the injection pressure. But over 2,800 bars of the injection pressure region, it was shown that the rate of improvement was not increased remarkably ,and the spray characteristics such as spray penetration, volume, and entrained air mass were reversed and got worse at 4,140 bars.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.47-56
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• 2015

In this paper, we present an implicit method for reconstructing a 3D solid model from two 2D cross section images. The proposed method is based on the Cahn-Hilliard model for the image inpainting. Image inpainting is the process of reconstructing lost parts of images based on information from neighboring areas. We treat the empty region between the two cross sections as inpainting region and use two cross sections as neighboring information. We initialize the empty region by the linear interpolation. We perform numerical experiments demonstrating that our proposed method can generate a smooth 3D solid model from two cross section data.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.11-17
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• 2009

A numerical study of unsteady mixed convection in a cavity with high viscous fluid is presented. Finite volume method was employed for the discretization and PISO algorithm was used for calculating pressure term. The parameters governing the problem are the Rayleigh number ($10^3\;{\leq}\;Ra\;{\leq}\;10^5$), the Reynolds number (0 < Re $\leq$ 1), and the aspect ratio (0.5 $\leq$ AR $\leq$ 2). The fluid used is silicon oil, a high prandtl number fluid, Pr = 909.1. The results show velocity vectors and temperature distributions. It is found that the periodic flows in a cavity are observed at very low Reynolds numbers, and the period of periodic flow decreases with increasing Reynolds and Rayleigh numbers, and increases with increasing aspect ratio. Also, the Reynolds number range of periodic flow increases with increasing Rayleigh numbers and aspect ratio.

• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.31-38
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• 2003

Constant volume combustion chamber has been designed to investigate diesel spray characteristics with Common-Rail injection system to realize high pressure injection. In this study, two methods of measurements, Schlieren shadowgraphy and Mie scattering imaging method ate applied experimentally to study spray form and liquid phase zone in high pressure, high temperature conditions. Diesel fuel is injected at the point which ignited mixture gas is completely burned. The effect of injection pressure, injector hole diameter, ambient gas temperature and density are investigated experimentally.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2013.05a
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• pp.318-320
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• 2013

The spherical bead manufactured by rapidly cooling process shows high density of 3.64g/㎤, high unit volume weight of 2.6kg/l, and high solid volume of 71%. When it applies to the grouter, it is possible to obtain even high fluidity with only a small amount. This study, focusing the grouter using a rapidly-cooled electric arc furnace oxidizing slag(RC-EAFS), deals with the properties of flow and setting time in fresh state, compressive strength and length variation at 1, 3, 7 and 28 curing day in hardened state. As the results, even though the grouter with RC-EAFS shows comparative low strength, it will be possible to development the competitive product due to the properties of increasing flow and low cost.