• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.6
• /
• pp.2861-2866
• /
• 2012

Background: The aim of our study was to assess the practical utility of the palliative prognostic index (PPI) as a prognostic tool used by nurse specialists in a hospice consultation setting in Taiwan. Methods: In total, 623 terminal cancer patients under hospice consultation care from one medical center in northern Taiwan were enrolled between January 1 and June 30, 2011. PPI was assessed by a nurse specialist at first hospice consultation and patients categorized into groups by prognosis (good, intermediate, poor). Patient survival was analyzed retrospectively to determine significance of between-group differences. Results: By PPI sum score, 37.2% of patients were in the good prognosis group, 18% in the intermediate prognosis group and 44.8% in the poor prognosis group. The death rates were 56%, 81.2% and 89.6% and median survivals were 76, 18 and 7 days, respectively. The hazard ratio was 0.19 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.10-0.24, p<0.001) for the poor versus good prognosis group and 0.54 (95% CI 0.43-0.69, p<0.001) for the poor versus intermediate prognosis group. The sensitivity and specificity for the poor prognosis group was 66% and 71%; the positive predictive value and negative predictive value were 81% and 52%, respectively, to predict patient death within 21 days (area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic was 0.68). Conclusions: Assessment by PPI can accurately predict survival of terminal cancer patients receiving hospice consultation care. PPI is a simple tool and can be administered by nurse members of hospice consultation teams.

• Current Optics and Photonics
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.69-80
• /
• 2020

A Rayleigh Lidar used for wind detection works by transmitting laser pulses to the atmosphere and receiving backscattering signals from molecules. Because of the weak backscattering signals, a lidar usually uses a high sensitivity photomultiplier as detector and photon counting technology for signal collection. The capturing of returned extremely weak backscattering signals requires the lidar to work on dark background with a long time accumulation to get high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Because of the strong solar background during the day, the SNR of lidar during daytime is much lower than that during nighttime, the altitude and accuracy of detection are also restricted greatly. Therefore this article describes an ultra-narrow bandwidth filter (UNBF) that has been developed on 354.7 nm wavelength of laser. The UNBF is used for suppressing the strong solar background that degrades the performance of Rayleigh wind lidar during daytime. The optical structure of UNBF consists of an interference filter (IF), a low resolution Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) and a high resolution FPI. The parameters of each optical component of the UNBF are presented in this article. The transmission curve of the aligned UNBF is measured with a tunable laser. Contrasting the result of with-UNBF and with-IF shows that the solar background received by a Licel transient recorder decreases by 50~100 times and that the SNR with-UNBF was improved by 3 times in the altitude range (35 km to 40 km) compared to with-IF at 10:26 to 10:38 on August 29, 2018. By the SNR comparison at four different times of one day, the ratio-values are larger than 1 over the altitude range (25~50 km) in general, the results illustrate that the SNR with-UNBF is better than that with-IF for Rayleigh Lidar during daytime and they demonstrate the effective improvements of solar background restriction of UNBF.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.37-43
• /
• 2006

In 2006, the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC) plans to undertake (subject to receiving the necessary approvals) a Pilot program for $CO_2$ storage within a depleted gas reservoir. The Otway Basin Pilot Program (OBPP) aims to demonstrate that subsurface $CO_2$ storage is both economically and environmentally sustainable in Australia. This will be the first $CO_2$ storage program in the world to utilise a depleted gas reservoir and, hence, the experience gained will be a valuable addition to the range of international $CO_2$ storage programs that are underway or being planned. A key component of the OBPP is the design of an appropriate geophysical monitoring strategy that will allow the subsurface migration of the $CO_2$ plume to be tracked and to verify that containment has been successful. This paper presents the results from modelling the predicted gravity response to $CO_2$ injection into the Otway Basin reservoir, where the goal was to determine minimum volumes of $CO_2$ that may be detectable using non-seismic geophysical techniques. Modelling results indicate that gravity measurements at 10 m spacing within the existing observation well and the planned $CO_2$ injection well would provide excellent vertical resolution, even for the smallest $CO_2$ volume modelled (10000 tonnes), but resolving the lateral extent of the plume would not be possible without additional wells at closer spacing.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.418-425
• /
• 2014

This paper presents a Ku-Band Doppler Radar System to measure respiration and heart rate. It was measured by using simultaneous radar and ECG(Electrocardiogram). Arctangent demodulation without dc offset compensation can be applied to transmitted I/Q(In-phase & Quadrature-phase) signal in order to improve the RMSE(Root Mean Square Error) about 50 %. The power leaked to receiving antenna from the transmitting antenna is always generated because of continuously opening the transceiver of CW(Continuous Wave) Doppler radar. As the output power increase, leakage power has an effect on the SNR(Signal-to-Noise Ratio) of the system. Therefore, in this paper, leakage cancellation technique that adds the signal having the opposite phase of the leakage power to the leakage power was implemented in order to minimize the decline of receiver sensitivity. By applying the leakage cancellation techniques described above, it is possible to measure the heart rate and respiration of the human at a distance of up to 35 m. the heart rate of the measured data at a distance of 35 m accords with the heart rate extracted from the ECG data.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.1411-1414
• /
• 2016

Background: Eosinophilic pleural effusion (EPE) is an eosinophil count more than 10% on cytology of pleural samples. Recently, it was reported that malignancy had been the most prevalent cause inducing EPE. Therefore, we conducted an analysis on the prevalence and etiology of EPE and investigated the relationship between EPE and malignancy. Materials and Methods: Data for pleural cell differential count from patients receiving thoracentesis during the period from January 2008 to December 2013 were compared with clinical data and established diagnosis of patients obtained via electronic chart review. Results: A total of 6,801 requests of pleural cytology from 3,942 patients with pleural effusion who had received thoracentesis were available at Far Eastern Memorial Hospital from 2008 to 2013, and of these subjects, 115 (2.9%) were found to have EPE. The most frequent cause of EPE was malignancy (33.0%, n=38), followed by parapneumonic effusions (27.8%, n=32), tuberculosis pleuritis (13.9%, n=16), transudate effusions (12.2%, n=14) and the presence of blood or air in pleural space (10.4%, n=12). Additionally, an inverse relationship of eosinophilia in pleural fluid was identified in patients with malignancy and EPE. The cut-off eosinophil count in pleural fluid was 15% for the most accurate discrimination between malignancy and benign disorders in patients with EPE. At the cut-off level, the sensitivity and specificity were 65.8% and 67.5%, respectively. Conclusions: Pleural fluid eosinophilia was a speculative negative predictor for malignancy, despite the fact that cancers, including lung cancers and metastatic cancers to lung, were the most leading cause of pleural fluid eosinophilia. An inverse correlation was observed between the pleural eosinophil percentage and the likelihood of malignancy in patients with EPE.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.296-314
• /
• 2014

In recent years, Ministry of Environment (MOE) has been implementing a phased strengthening of the effluent standards for sewage treatment plants. In this regard, a comprehensive system should be developed to help check the appropriateness of such standards by specifying the grounds for standard-setting and investigating the current operation of sewage treatment plants clearly. It is necessary to establish a new standard-setting system for the effluent that is in a closer connection with the environmental criteria and rating systems. In the United States, the federal government provides guidelines on the least provisions and requirements for the Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs). Local governments set the same or stricter guidelines that reflect the characteristics of each state. In Japan, the sewage treatment plants are subject to both the effluent standards and the discharge acceptable limits to pubic waters under the sewerage law. Specific requirements and limits are set in accordance with local government regulations. The European Union imposes sewage treatment plants with different provisions for effluent standards, depending on the sensitivity of public waters to eutrophication. The effluent standards for sewage treatment plants are classified by pollutant loads discharged to receiving waters. MOE also needs to introduce systems for setting new parameter standards on a POTW effluent by applying statistical means and treatment efficiencies or optimal treatment techniques, as seen in the cases of the US National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) or the EU Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC).

• Culinary science and hospitality research
• /
• v.21 no.5
• /
• pp.25-37
• /
• 2015

By studying the awareness level of students, for the need to protect personal information, and also by studying students' level of perception as to which information needs protection, this study aims to show that increased education is beneficial, and necessary, across all university majors. This increased education is necessary to improve information security, and increase the responsible sharing of private data which has many benefits, specifically in the Healthcare field. Utilizing student volunteers across multiple majors at a university in South Korea. These questionnaires measured the students' awareness of private information, their perception of private information and also the students' experience in receiving university level education regarding private information and the need for its protection. This study shows that, when compared to students in other fields, students in the field of public health had a higher level of awareness regarding the consequences of personal information disclosure for both public purposes and medical research. Within the parameters of this study, this outcome can be explained as the result of exposure to educational curriculum which contained information related to personal information protection. This increased education raised the student's awareness of which information is considered private, as well as, which information is valuable when responsibly shared. As a result, this study shows that an increase in education regarding information privacy, should be included in all university majors, and gives us evidence to support that this additional education is valuable to students at all levels and should be encouraged.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.13-20
• /
• 2017

In this paper, we evaluate the basic test results of the 32 Gbps observational equipment introduced as the back-end system for the wideband VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) observation of KVN (Korean VLBI Network). Radio astronomers want to make a large radio telescope that has excellent performance in order to observe the superfine structure of a celestial body, but a lot of money is needed. Therefore, in order to increase the sensitivity, the performance improvement of the receiving system and the method of observing the wide frequency bandwidth are introduced. To do this, we adopted a wideband sampling method for converting analog signals to digital with ultra-fast speeds and a wideband sampler for performing digital filtering in order to observe a wide observational frequency bandwidth. The wideband sampler (OCTAD-K) supports up to 16 Gsps-2bits sampling and supports a variety of observational bandwidth using digital filtering techniques. In particular, it is designed to support KVN's 4-frequency simultaneous observation system and VERA(VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry)'s 2-beam observation system. It can also support polKVN(Korean VLBI Network), KaVA(KVN and VERA Array), 32Gbps Direct Sampler, Digital Filter, Widebandarization observations and supports the standard VDIF(VLBI Data Interchange Format) format of observed data. In this paper, the performance of the system and the problem solving are described in detail after performing the factory inspection and field test before the system is introduced.

• The Journal of Korean society of community based occupational therapy
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.63-74
• /
• 2020

Objective : The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of internal shame and self-control on interpersonal relationships in stroke patients, and to provide evidence and information necessary for clinical trials by analyzing the relationship. Methods : For this study, 150 stroke patients receiving occupational therapy services at institutions where occupational therapists work in Jeollanam-do and Chungnam regions were targeted through email and mail from March 1, 2019 to April 30, 2019. The questionnaire was conducted using general characteristics, Relationship Change Scales(RCS), Self-Control Scales(SCS), and Internalized Shame Scale(ISS) questionnaire. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed for the general characteristics of the study subjects, and t-test and one-way batch variance analysis (ANOVA) were used to compare interpersonal relationships according to general characteristics. The relationship between internalized shame, self-control, and interpersonal competence was analyzed by Pearson's correlation coefficient, and multiple regression analysis was performed to determine the factors affecting interpersonal relationships of stroke patients. Results : As a result of comparing interpersonal competence according to general characteristics, significant differences were found in terms of age and education level. Interpersonal relationships and internalized shame, internalized shame and self-control showed a negative correlation, and self-control and interpersonal relationships had a positive correlation, but self-control was the sub-factors of interpersonal relationships such as openness, sensitivity, intimacy, It was not statistically significant with the communication item. In addition, the items of inadequacy (β =-0.32) and adventure seeking (β =-0.23), which are sub-areas of internalized shame, affect the negative direction, and physical activity (β =0.22), which is the sub-area of self-control and the self-centered (β =0.24) item was found to have an effect on the positive direction. Conclusion : Therefore, additional research is needed that can operate a rehabilitation treatment program that applies various psychological factors for the formation of interpersonal relationships among stroke patients.