• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.43 no.2
• /
• pp.206-214
• /
• 2005

Heterogeneously-catalyzed oxidation of aqueous phase trichloroethylene (TCE) over supported metal oxides has been conducted to establish an approach to eliminate ppm levels of organic compounds in water. A continuous flow reactor system was designed to effect predominant reaction parameters in determining catalytic activity of the catalysts for wet TCE decomposition as a model reaction. 5 wt.% $CoO_x/TiO_2$ catalyst exhibited a transient period in activity vs. on-stream time behavior, suggesting that the surface structure of the $CoO_x$ might be altered with on-stream hours; regardless, it is probable to be the most promising catalyst. Not only could the bare support be inactive for the wet decomposition reaction at $36^{\circ}C$, but no TCE removal also occurred by the process of adsorption on $TiO_2$ surface. The catalytic activity was independent of all particle sizes used, thereby representing no mass transfer limitation in intraparticle diffusion. Very low TCE conversion appeared for $TiO_2$-supported $NiO_x$ and $CrO_x$ catalysts. Wet oxidation performance of supported Cu and Fe catalysts, obtained through an incipient wetness and ion exchange technique, was dependent primarily on the kinds of the metal oxides, in addition to the acidic solid supports and the preparation routes. 5 wt.% $FeO_x/TiO_2$ catalyst gave no activity in the oxidation reaction at $36^{\circ}C$, while 1.2 wt.% Fe-MFI was active for the wet decomposition depending on time on-stream. The noticeable difference in activity of the both catalysts suggests that the Fe oxidation states involved to catalytic redox cycle during the course of reaction play a significant role in catalyzing the wet decomposition as well as in maintaining the time on-stream activity. Based on the results of different $CoO_x$ loadings and reaction temperatures for the decomposition reaction at $36^{\circ}C$ with $CoO_x/TiO_2$, the catalyst possessed an optimal $CoO_x$ amount at which higher reaction temperatures facilitated the catalytic TCE conversion. Small amounts of the active ingredient could be dissolved by acidic leaching but such a process gave no appreciable activity loss of the $CoO_x$ catalyst.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.44 no.2
• /
• pp.179-186
• /
• 2006

Two types of $TiO_2$, nanotube and nanoparticle, were used for the mesoporous coatings by doctor blade technique followed by calcining at $450^{\circ}C$. The coatings were used as working materials for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) later on and their photovoltaic characterization was carried out. The nanoparticle was synthesized from hydrogen titanate nanotube by hydrothermal treatment at $180^{\circ}C$ for 24 hr. The solar energy conversion efficiency (${\eta}$) of DSCs prepared by this nanoparticle reached 8.07％ with $V_{OC}$ (open-circuit potential) of 0.81 V, $I_{SC}$ (short-circuit current) of $18.29mV/cm^2$, and FF (fill factor) of 66.95％, respectively. For the preparation of nanotube, the concentration of NaOH solution varied from 3 M to 5 M. In the case of DSCs fabricated with nanotubes from 3 M NaOH solution, the ${\eta}$ reached 6.19％ with $V_{OC}$ of 0.77 V, $I_{SC}$ of $12.41mV/cm^2$, and FF of 64.49％, respectively. On the other hand, in the case of 5 M solution, the photovoltaic ${\eta}$ was decreased with 4.09％ due to a loss of photocarriers. In conclusion, it is demonstrated that the solar energy conversion efficiency of DSCs made from $TiO_2$ nanoparticle showed best results among those under investigation.

• Progress in Medical Physics
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.149-155
• /
• 2002

Recent advances in radiation transport algorithms, computer hardware performance, and parallel computing make the clinical use of Monte Carlo based dose calculations possible. To compare the speed and accuracies of dose calculations between different developed codes, a benchmark tests were proposed at the XIIth ICCR (International Conference on the use of Computers in Radiation Therapy, Heidelberg, Germany 2000). A Monte Carlo treatment planning comprised of 28 various Intel Pentium CPUs was implemented for routine clinical use. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of our system using the above benchmark tests. The benchmark procedures are comprised of three parts. a) speed of photon beams dose calculation inside a given phantom of 30.5 cm$\times$39.5 cm $\times$ 30 cm deep and filled with 5 ㎣ voxels within 2% statistical uncertainty. b) speed of electron beams dose calculation inside the same phantom as that of the photon beams. c) accuracy of photon and electron beam calculation inside heterogeneous slab phantom compared with the reference results of EGS4/PRESTA calculation. As results of the speed benchmark tests, it took 5.5 minutes to achieve less than 2% statistical uncertainty for 18 MV photon beams. Though the net calculation for electron beams was an order of faster than the photon beam, the overall calculation time was similar to that of photon beam case due to the overhead time to maintain parallel processing. Since our Monte Carlo code is EGSnrc, which is an improved version of EGS4, the accuracy tests of our system showed, as expected, very good agreement with the reference data. In conclusion, our Monte Carlo treatment planning system shows clinically meaningful results. Though other more efficient codes are developed such like MCDOSE and VMC＋＋, BEAMnrc based on EGSnrc code system may be used for routine clinical Monte Carlo treatment planning in conjunction with clustering technique.

• Progress in Medical Physics
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.71-80
• /
• 2012

In order to verify exact dose distributions in the state-of-the-art radiation techniques, a newly designed three-dimensional dosimeter and technique has been took strongly into consideration. The main purpose of our study is to verify the optimized parameters of polymer gel as a real volumetric dosimeter in terms of the various study of MRI. We prepared a gel dosimeter by combing 8% of gelatin, 8% of MAA, and 10 mM of THPC. We used a Co-60 gamma-ray teletherapy unit and delivered doses of 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 Gy to each polymer gel with a solid phantom. We used a fast spin-echo pulse to acquire the characterized T2 time of MRI. The signal noise ratio (SNR) of the head & neck coil was a relatively lower sensitivity than the body coil; therefore the dose uncertainty of head & neck coil would be lower than body coil's. But the dose uncertainty and resolution of the head & neck coil were superior to the body coil in this study. The TR time between 1,500 ms and 2,000 ms showed no significant difference in the dose resolution, but TR of 1,500 ms showed less dose uncertainty. For the slice thickness of 2.5 mm, less dose uncertainty of TE times was at 4 Gy, as well, it was the lowest result over 4 Gy at TE of 12 ms. The dose uncertainty was not critical up to 6 Gy, but the best dose resolution was obtained at 20 ms up to 8 Gy. The dose resolution shows the lowest value was over 20 ms and was an excellent result in the number of excitation (NEX) of three. The NEX of two was the highest dose resolution. We concluded that the better result of slice thickness versus NEX was related to the NEX increment and thin slice thickness.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.104-112
• /
• 1998

Purpose : To evaluate the clinical utility of diffusion-weighted imaging by analyzing the signal intersity of lesions in patients with various intracranial diseases. Materials and Methods : difusion-weighted MR imaging was prospectively perormed in randomly selected 70 patients with various intracranial idseases. They consisted of 20 patients with acute infarct, 21 patients with chronic infarct of small vessel disease, 14 patients with primary intracranial tumor, three patients with brain metastasis, five patient with brain abscess, five patients with brain abscess, five patients with cerebral hemorrhage, one patient with neurocysticercosis, and one patient with epidermoid cyst. the diffusion-weighted images were obtained immediately after routine T2-weighted imaging on a 1.5T MR unit using single shot spin echo EPI technique with 6500 ms TR, 107ms TE, $128{\times}128$ matrix, 1 number of excitation, $24{\times}24$ field of view, 5-7 mm slice thickness, 2-3 mm inter-slice gap. The diffusion-gradients (b value of ($1000s{\;}/{\;}textrm{mm}^2$)) were applied along three directions(x, y, z). On visual inspection of diffusion-weighted images, the signal intersity of lesions was arbitrarily graded as one of 5 grades. In quantitative assessment, we measured the signal intensity of all the lesions and the contralateral corresponding normal area using round region of interest(ROI), and then calculated the signal intensity ratio of the lesion to the normal brain parenchyma. Results : On visual inspection, markedly hyperintense signals were seen in all cases of acute infarct, brain abscess, epidermoid cyst, and neurocysticercosis in degenerating stage. In all cases of cerebral hematoma, the very high signal internsity was intermingled with low signal intensity. focal very high signal intersity was also seen in a solid portion of the tumor in a patient. the mean signal intensity ratios of all those lesions to the normal brain parenchyma were above 2.5. Gliosis, solid component of brain tumor, brain metastasis, and vasogenic dedma appeared isointense to the normal brain parenchyma in 71%, 64%, 100%, and 67%, respectively ; the mean signal intensity ratios of those lesions to the normal brain parenchyma ranged 1.15 to 1.28 and there was no significant difference among these(p>0.1). Cystic cerebromalacia and necrotic or cystic portions in tumor were markedly or slightly hypointense, and the mean signal intensity ratios were 0.45 and 0.42, respectively. Conclusion : Very high signal intensity of acute infarct, brain abscess, epidermoid cyst, and cystic neurocysticercosis in degenerating stage on diffusion-weighted images may be helpful in differentiating from other diseases that are hypointense or isointense to the normal brain parenchyma. It may be especially useful differentiation of brain abscess from brain tumor with necrotic or cystic portion.

• Management & Information Systems Review
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.169-184
• /
• 2016

Deferred tax assets (liability) in a company's financial statements are to reflect the temporary difference between taxable income and accounting income and therefore can provide useful information as a proxy for discretionary accruals. In addition, deferred tax assets allow a company to manage its earnings by reviewing the feasibility of the assets' recognition. As such, this study focused on deferred tax assets to examine their relationship with discretionary accruals, which were measured by a modified Jones model (Dechow et al. 1995), and investigated the impact of audit quality on this relationship. In order to control for the effects of tax rate change and measurement credibility, deferred tax assets of 2,670 non-financial firms from 2009 to 2010 were collected as samples for the study. The results of the empirical analysis are as follows. First, the samples as a whole indicated that deferred tax assets have a negative relationship with discretionary accruals in a general sense, but a high-quality audit did not reveal a significant relationship between them. Second, the 1,379 samples with negative discretionary accruals did not reveal a significant relationship between deferred tax assets and discretionary accruals; however, the result showed a significant negative relationship under a high-quality audit. These findings suggest that in the case of negative discretionary accruals, a high-quality audit restricts an earnings management technique that utilizes deferred tax assets and that the assets can be a useful tool for detecting discretionary accruals. The present study is meaningful in that, unlike previous research, it combined the two contrasting roles of deferred tax assets-that of an earnings management detector and an earnings management tool-to examine their general relationship. The study also suggested that audit quality could influence the usefulness of deferred tax assets in providing information on discretionary accruals.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.40 no.2
• /
• pp.177-184
• /
• 1993

Background: Accurate staging of bronchogenic carcinoma is important in determining resectability and metastasis of tumor to the subcarinal nodes is generally believed to indicate poor prognosis. The technique of Transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) has offered a safe & effective way to asscess mediastinal lymph node involvement in the staging of lung cancer. We performed TBNA in patients who were suspected lung cancer to evaluate the clinical usefulness of the TBNA. Method: TBNA of the subcarinal lymph node was performed at the time of initial diagnostic bronchoscopy in 60 patients with suspected lung cancer, and 42 cases of histologically proved bronchogenic cancer were analized. Results: The frequency of adequate samples by transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) was 81% and the positive rate of malignant cells by TBNA was 14.7%. There were no differences in positive rates by tumor cell types. In patients with thickened carina on bronchoscopy, the TBNA was positive in 33.3% as compared to 5.3% of normal carina on bronchoscopy, and the difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). In patients with enlarged subcarinal lymph node on chest CT, the positive rate of malignant cells (50.0%) was higher than that of normal sized subcarinal lymph node on chest CT (4.8%) (p<0.01). There were no specific complications in the TBNA procedure. Conclusion: TBNA is a relatively safe procedure and it offers the possibility of avoiding the cost and morbidity of surgical staging in patients especially whose carina is thickened on bronchoscopy and whose subcarinal LN was enlarged on chest CT.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2002.09a
• /
• pp.24-45
• /
• 2002

For the last several decades, high-resolution shallow marine seismic technique has been used for various resources, engineering and geological surveys. Even though the multichannel method is powerful to image subsurface structures, single channel analog survey has been more frequently employed in shallow water exploration, because it is more expedient and economical. To improve the quality of the high-resolution seismic data economically, we acquired digital seismic data using a small air gun, 6 channel streamer and PC-based system, performed data processing and produced high-resolution seismic sections. For many years, such test acquisitions were performed with other studies which have different purposes in the area of off Pohang, Yellow Sea and Gyeonggi-bay. Basic data processing was applied to the acquired data and the processing sequence included gain recovery, deconvolution, filtering, normal moveout, static corrections, CMP gathering and stacking. Examples of digitally processed sections were shown and compared with analog sections. Digital seismic sections have a much higher resolution after data processing. The results of acquisition and processing show that the high-resolution shallow marine seismic surveys using a small air gun, 6 channel streamer and PC-based system may be an effective way to image shallow subsurface structures precisely.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.17 no.10
• /
• pp.1309-1314
• /
• 2007

Investigation on health conditions of Thai koi (Anabas testudineus) were carried out through clinical and histopathological observations from different farms of Mymensingh district for seven months during August 2006 to February 2007. Fish sampling and water quality parameters (temperature, dissolved oxygen and pH) were monitored on a monthly basis. Clinical examination of fishes was also carried out for any kind of abnormalities at monthly intervals. Samples of skin, muscle, gill, liver and kidney were observed by histological technique. Among the water quality parameters the values of water temperature, dissolved oxygen were found to be at unfavorable level for fish during the colder months in the farms. Clinically it was observed that fishes were more affected from December to January and almost normal in appearance during August to September and February. Different clinical symptoms like scale loss, dermal lesion, ulcer and loss of caudal fin were noticed in December and January. In histopathological study, structures of fish organs were normal from August to September. In the months of October and November, minor pathologies were found to be started. Marked pathological changes like necrosis, pyknosis, inflammation, hemorrhage, hypertrophy, hyperplasia, missing of primary and secondary gill lamellae were observed in the months of December and January. Whereas, in the month of February the pathological condition of fish gradually reduced. Again when considered individual fish farm, fishes of Reliance Aqua Farm were more affected than Sotota Matshya Hatchery. The study showed that severity of clinical and pathological changes were increased in December and January. During the period EUS and protozoan diseases were noticed in A. testudineus of the investigated farms.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.126-135
• /
• 2002

Plate bonding technique has been widely used in strengthening of existing concrete structures, although it has often a serious problem of premature falure such as interface separation and rip-off. However, this premature failure problem has not been well explored yet especially in view of local failure mechanism around the interface of plate ends. The purpose of the present study is, therefore, to identify the local failure of strengthened plates and to derive a separation criterion at the interface of plates. To this end, a comprehensive experimental program has been set up. The double lap pull-out tests considering pure shear force and half beam tests considering combined flexure-shear force were performed. The main experimental parameters include plate thickness, adhesive thickness, and plate end arrangement. The strains along the longitudinal direction of steel plates have been measured and the shear stress were calculated from those measures strains. The effects of plate thickness, bonded length, and plate end treatment have been also clarified from the present test results. Nonlinear finite element analysis has been performed and compared with test results. The Interface properties are also modeled to present the separation failure behavior of strengthened members. The cracking patterns as well as maximum failure loads agree well with test data. The relation between maximum shear and normal stresses at the interface has been derived to propose a separation failure criterion of strengthened members. The present study allows more realistic analysis and design of externally strengthened flexural member with steel plates.