• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.115-121
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• 2017

This paper is to introduce the main modeling assumptions and data structures associated with right-censored data to describe the successful methodological ideas for analyzing such a field-failure-data when components operating in different environments. The Kaplan - Meier method is the most popular method used for survival analysis. Together with the log-rank test, it may provide us with an opportunity to estimate survival probabilities and to compare survival between groups. An important advantage of the Kaplan - Meier curve is that the method can take into account some types of censored data, particularly right-censoring. The above non-parametric method was used to verify the equality of parts life used in different environments. After that, we performed the life distribution analysis using the parametric method. We simulated data from three distributions: exponential, normal, and Weibull. This allowed us to compare the results of the estimates to the known true values and to quantify the reliability indices. Here we used the Akaike information criterion to find a suitable life time distribution. If the Akaike information criterion is the smallest, the best model of failure data is presented. In this paper, no-nparametrics and parametrics methods are analyzed using R program which is a popular statistical program.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1563-1566
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• 2014

Background: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) accounts for most esophageal cancer in Asia, and is the sixth common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Previous studies indicated HOXB7 is overexpressed in ESCC tissues, but data on prognostic value are limited. Methods: A total of 76 advanced ESCC cases were investigated. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to detect the expression levels of HOXB7 and Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression models to determine prognostic significance. Stratified analysis was also performed according to lymph node (LN) status. Results: Kaplan-Meier curve analysis indicated that HOXB7 positive patients had significantly shorter overall survival (OS) than HOXB7 negative patients. Multivariate analysis using the Cox proportional hazards model indicated only TNM stage and HOXB7 expression to be independent predictors of overall survival of advanced ESCC patients. HOXB7 indicated poor OS in both lymph node negative (LN-) and lymph node positive (LN+) patients. Conclusion: HOXB7 predicts poor prognosis of advanced ESCC patients and can be applied as an independent prognostic predictor.

• International Journal of Reliability and Applications
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.89-99
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• 2009

Oriented Strand Board (OSB) is an important engineered wood product used in housing construction which has a lower environmental impact or "carbon footprint." In this paper, reliability and statistical tools are applied to gain insights on the strand thickness of OSB panels. An OSB panel consists of several hundred wood strands that are resinated and pressed. The variability of OSB strand thickness for six manufacturers in the Eastern United States is examined as a whole, as well as individually. Little research exists on OSB strand thickness across mills even though strand thickness variability has been documented in laboratory experiments to greatly influence the dimensional stability of OSB panels. Our aims are to quantify and characterize strand thickness, plus apply reliability techniques, such as Kaplan-Meier curves, to characterize the probability of strand thickness. We further explore graphically and statistically the thickness of the strands.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.96-107
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• 1997

The recent stream to reliability prediction is that it is totally inclusive in depth to consider even the operating and environmental condition at the level of finished goods as well as component itselves. In this study, firstly we present the reliability prediction methods by entire failure rate model which failure rate at the system level is added to the failure rate model at the component level. Secondly we build up the improved bases of reliability demonstration through a, pp.ication of Kaplan-Meier, Cumulative hazard, Johnson's methods as non-parametric and Maximum Likelihood Estimator under exponential & Weibull distribution as parametric. And also present the methods of curve fitting to piecewise failure rate under Weibull distribution, PRST (Probability Ratio Sequential Test), curve fitting to S-shaped reliability growth curve, computer programs of each methods. Lastly we show the practical for determination of optimal burn-in time as a method of reliability enhancement, and also verify the practical usefulness of the above study through the a, pp.ication of failure and test data during 1 year.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.21
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• pp.9453-9458
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• 2014

Background: Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death for women in the United States. Differences in survival of breast cancer have been noted among racial and ethnic groups, but the reasons for these disparities remain unclear. This study presents the characteristics and the survival curve of two racial and ethnic groups and evaluates the effects of race on survival times by measuring the lifetime data-based half-normal model. Materials and Methods: The distributions among racial and ethnic groups are compared using female breast cancer patients from nine states in the country all taken from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results cancer registry. The main end points observed are: age at diagnosis, survival time in months, and marital status. The right skewed half-normal statistical probability model is used to show the differences in the survival times between black Hispanic (BH) and black non-Hispanic (BNH) female breast cancer patients. The Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazard ratio are used to estimate and compare the relative risk of death in two minority groups, BH and BNH. Results: A probability random sample method was used to select representative samples from BNH and BH female breast cancer patients, who were diagnosed during the years of 1973-2009 in the United States. The sample contained 1,000 BNH and 298 BH female breast cancer patients. The median age at diagnosis was 57.75 years among BNH and 54.11 years among BH. The results of the half-normal model showed that the survival times formed positive skewed models with higher variability in BNH compared with BH. The Kaplan-Meir estimate was used to plot the survival curves for cancer patients; this test was positively skewed. The Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazard ratio for survival analysis showed that BNH had a significantly longer survival time as compared to BH which is consistent with the results of the half-normal model. Conclusions: The findings with the proposed model strategy will assist in the healthcare field to measure future outcomes for BH and BNH, given their past history and conditions. These findings may provide an enhanced and improved outlook for the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer patients in the United States.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.2245-2250
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• 2015

Background: The interaction between tumor cells and inflammatory cells has not been systematically investigated in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether preoperative the lymphocyte-monocyte ratio (LMR), the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and the platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) could predict the prognosis of ESCC patients undergoing esophagectomy. Materials and Methods: Records from 218 patients with histologically diagnosed ESCC who underwent attempted curative surgery from January 2007 to December 2008 were retrospectively reviewed. Besides clinicopathological prognostic factors, we evaluated the prognostic value of the LMR, the NLR, and the PLR using Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression models. Results: The median follow-up was 38.6 months (range 3-71 months). The cut-off values of 2.57 for the LMR, 2.60 for the NLR and 244 for the PLR were chosen as optimal to discriminate between survival and death by applying receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis of patients with low preoperative LMR demonstrated a significant worse prognosis for DFS (p=0.004) and OS (p=0.002) than those with high preoperative LMR. The high NLR cohort had lower DFS (p=0.004) and OS (p=0.011). Marginally reduced DFS (p=0.068) and lower OS (p=0.039) were found in the high PLR cohort. On multivariate analysis, only preoperative LMR was an independent prognostic factor for both DFS (p=0.009, HR=1.639, 95% CI 1.129-2.381) and OS (p=0.004, HR=1.759, 95% CI 1.201-2.576) in ESCC patients. Conclusions: Preoperative LMR better predicts cancer survival compared with the cellular components of systemic inflammation in patients with ESCC undergoing esophagectomy.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.179-185
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• 2023

Background: Assessments of air leaks are usually performed subjectively, precluding the use of air leaks as an evaluation factor. We aimed to identify objective parameters as predictive factors for prolonged air leak (PAL) and air leak cessation (ALC) from air flow data produced by a digital drainage system. Methods: Flow data records of 352 patients who underwent lung lobectomy were reviewed, and flow data at designated intervals (1, 2, and 3 hours postoperatively [POH] and 3 times a day thereafter [06:00, 13:00, 19:00]) were extracted. ALC was defined by flow less than 20 mL/min over 12 hours, and PAL was defined as ALC after 5 days. Cumulative incidence curves were obtained using Kaplan-Meier estimates of time to ALC. Cox regression analysis was performed to determine the effects of variables on the rate of ALC. Results: The incidence of PAL was 18.2% (64/352). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed cut-off values of 180 mL/min for the flow at 3 POH and 73.3 mL/min for the flow on postoperative day 1; the sensitivity and specificity of these values were 88.9% and 82.5%, respectively. The rates of ALC by Kaplan-Meier analysis were 56.8% at 48 POH and 65.6% at 72 POH. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that the flow at 3 POH (≤80 mL/min), operation time (≤220 minutes), and right middle lobectomy independently predicted ALC. Conclusion: Air flow measured by a digital drainage system is a useful predictor of PAL and ALC and may help optimize the hospital course.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.2567-2570
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• 2013

Background: This study analyzed Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) data to assess if socio-economic factors (SEFs) impact on endometrial cancer survival. Materials and Methods: Endometrial cancer patients treated from 2004-2007 were included in this study. SEER cause specific survival (CSS) data were used as end points. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were computed for predictors. Time to event data were analyzed with Kaplan-Meier method. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify independent risk factors. Results: This study included 64,710 patients. The mean follow up time (S.D.) was 28.2 (20.8) months. SEER staging (ROC area of 0.81) was the best pretreatment predictor of CSS. Histology, grade, race/ethnicity and county level family income were also significant pretreatment predictors. African American race and low income neighborhoods decreased the CSS by 20% and 3% respectively at 5 years. Conclusions: This study has found significant endometrial survival disparities due to SEFs. Future studies should focus on eliminating socio-economic barriers to good outcomes.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers P
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• v.59 no.2
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• pp.154-157
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• 2010

In this paper, the Time-varying Failure Rates(TFR) of power distribution system components are extracted from the recorded failure data of KEPCO(Korea Electric Power Corporation) and the reliability of power distribution system is evaluated using Mean Failure Rate(MFR) and TFR. The TFR is approximated to bathtub curve using the exponential and Weibull distribution function. In addition, Kaplan-Meier estimation is applied to TFR extraction because of incomplete failure data of KEPCO. Also the reliability of the real power distribution system of Korea is evaluated using the MFR and TFR extracted from real failure data, respectively and the results of each case are compared with each other. As a result, it is proved that the reliability evaluation using the TFR is more realistic than MFR. In addition, it is presented that the application method at power distribution system maintenance and repair using the result of TFR.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of IIIuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.366-368
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• 2007

In this paper, the Time-varying Failure Rate (TFR) of power distribution system equipment is extracted from the recorded failure data of Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO). For TFR extraction, it is used that the fault data accumulated by KEPCO during 10 years. The TFR is approximated to bathtub curve using the exponential (random failure) and Weibull (aging failure) distribution function. In addition, Kaplan-Meier estimation is applied to TFR extraction because of incomplete failure data of KEPCO. Finally, Probability plot and regression analysis is applied. It is presented that the extracted TFR is more effective and useful than Mean Failure Rate (MFR) through the comparison between TFR and MFR.