• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.16-24
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• 2023

ESG (environmental, social, governance) management is being introduced with the goal of sustainable development of the company in risk management, which identifies and judgement various risks that may occur in the industry. In the future, ESG evaluation will be used more as a value judgment tools for corporate sustainability. This ESG evaluation was used to manage the company's accident prevention level. Through morphological analysis of the current ESG evaluation system, it was found that the quantitative 'safety evaluation index' available in ESG was insufficient through analysis of safety evaluation items. In this study, domestic and foreign industrial accident data was analyzed, 'accident contributing factors' that required intensive management were derived, and major safety management items that needed supplementation were selected based on the results. ESG safety evaluation indicators were developed through the process of optimizing the selected items into evaluation factors suitable for 'accident prevention management'.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.38.1-38.16
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• 2024

Importance: Deaths due to neonatal calf diarrhea are still one of the most critical problems of cattle breeding worldwide. Determining the parameters that can predict diarrhea-related deaths in calves is especially important in terms of prognosis and treatment strategies for the disease. Objective: The primary purpose of this study was to determine mortality rates and durations, survival status, and predictive prognosis parameters based on vital signs, hematology, and blood gas analyses in neonatal diarrheic calves. Methods: The hospital automation system retrospectively obtained data from 89 neonatal diarrheic calves. Results: It was found that 42.7% (38/89) of the calves brought with the complaint of diarrhea died during hospitalization or after discharge. Short-term and long-term fatalities were a median of 9.25 hours and a median of 51.50 hours, respectively. When the data obtained from this study is evaluated, body temperature (℃), pH, base excess (mmol/L), and sodium bicarbonate (mmol/L) parameters were found to be lower, and hemoglobin (g/dL), hematocrit (%), lactate (mmol/L), chloride (mmol/L), sodium (mmol/L) and anion gap (mmol/L) parameters were found to be higher in dead calves compared to survivors. Accordingly, hypothermia, metabolic acidosis, and dehydration findings were seen as clinical conditions that should be considered. Logistic regression analysis showed that lactate (odds ratio, 1.429) and CI^- (odds ratio, 1.232) concentration were significant risk factors associated with death in calves with diarrhea. Conclusions and Relevance: According to the findings obtained from this study, the determination of lactate and Cl^- levels can be used as an adjunctive supplementary test in distinguishing calves with diarrhea with a good prognosis.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.431-444
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• 2023

Purpose - This study applies the traditional Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP) model from industrial organization theory to investigate the relationship between market structure and performance in China's banking industry. Design/methodology/approach - For analysis, financial data from the People's Bank of China's "China Financial Stability Report" and financial reports of 6 state-owned banks and 11 joint-stock banks for the period 2010 to 2021 were collected to create a balanced panel dataset. The study employs panel fixed-effects regression analysis to assess the impact of changes in market structure and ownership structure on performance variables including return on asset, profitability, costs, and non-performing loan ratios. Findings - Empirical findings highlight significant differences in the effects of market structure between state-owned and joint-stock banks. Notably, increased market competition positively correlates with higher profits for state-owned banks and with lower costs for joint-stock banks. Research implications or Originality - State-owned banks demonstrate larger scale and stability, yet they struggle to respond effectively to market shifts. Conversely, joint-stock banks face challenges in raising profitability against competitive pressures. Additionally, the study emphasizes the importance for Chinese banks to strengthen risk management due to the increase of non-performing loans with competition. The results provide insights into reform policies for Chinese banks regarding the involvement of private sector in the context of market liberalization process in China.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.194-201
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• 2024

Background: Asthma is a chronic inflammatory airway disease associated with systemic inflammation and increased prevalence of various comorbid conditions. This study investigates the prevalence of non-respiratory comorbidities among adult asthma patients in South Korea, aiming to elucidate potential correlations and impacts of asthma on overall health, thereby affecting patients' quality of life and healthcare systems. Methods: This retrospective cohort study utilized the National Health Insurance Service data (HIRA-NPS-2020) and included adults diagnosed with asthma. Non-respiratory diseases were identified using the Korean Standard Disease Classification (KCD-8) codes, with exclusions applied for other respiratory conditions. The prevalence of comorbidities was analyzed and compared between asthma and non-asthma patients, adjusting for confounders such as age, gender, and insurance status through inverse probability treatment weighting (IPTW). Results: The analysis revealed that asthma patients exhibit significantly higher rates of cardiovascular diseases, metabolic disorders, gastrointestinal conditions, and mental health issues compared to the control group. Notably, conditions such as heart failure, gastroesophageal reflux disease, and anxiety were more prevalent, with odds ratios (OR) ranging from 1.18 to 3.90. These results demonstrate a substantial burden of comorbidities associated with asthma, indicating a broad impact on health beyond the respiratory system. Conclusion: The findings highlight the systemic nature of asthma and the interconnectedness of inflammatory processes across different organ systems. This comprehensive analysis confirms previous research linking asthma with an increased risk of various non-respiratory diseases, providing insights into the multifaceted impact of asthma on patient health.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.464-472
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• 2009

Background: We analyzed the clinical results and the factors for survival of patients who underwent extracorporeal life support system after adult cardiovascular surgery. Material and Method: We retrospectively reviewed the medical record of 44 patients (1.6% of the total adult cardiovascular surgical cases) who underwent the use of a ventricular assisted device or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation from January 2002 to August 2008. There were 32 (72.7%) males and their mean age was 61.7$\pm$14.9(range: 20$\sim$73) years old. The mean duration of extracorporeal life support system was 5.3$\pm$3.0 (range: 1$\sim$12) days. Result: Of these 44 patients, 24 (54.5%) patients were successfully weaned from the extracorporeal device. Eighteen (40.9%) survivors were able to be discharged from the hospital. Complications were noted in 38 patients (86.4%). An emergency operation, no usage of a concomitant intraaortic balloon pump and major complications during use of the extra corporeal life support system such as bleeding, flow instability and renal failure were identified as significant risk factors for poor survival on univariated analysis. Owing to educational support and a continuous renal replacement therapy system, the clinical outcomes of these patients have improved since 2006. On multivariated analysis, renal failure and bleeding during extracorporeal life support were significant risk factors for poor survival. Conclusion: Although using. extracorporeal life support systems after adult cardiovascular surgery revealed acceptable clinical results, determining the optimal treatment strategy and further well designed larger studies are needed to improve the survival rate of patients who undergo extracorporeal life support after adult cardiovascular surgery.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.81 no.4
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• pp.330-338
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• 2018

Background: We developed an additional laser guidance system to improve the efficacy and safety of conventional computed tomography (CT)-guided percutaneous transthoracic needle biopsy (PTNB), and we conducted this study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of our system. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of 244 patients who underwent CT-guided PTNB using our additional laser guidance system from July 1, 2015, to January 20, 2016. Results: There were nine false-negative results among the 238 total cases. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and diagnostic accuracy of our system for diagnosing malignancy were 94.4% (152/161), 100% (77/77), 100% (152/152), 89.5% (77/86), and 96.2% (229/238), respectively. The results of univariate analysis showed that the risk factors for a false-negative result were male sex (p=0.029), a final diagnosis of malignancy (p=0.033), a lesion in the lower lobe (p=0.035), shorter distance from the skin to the target lesion (p=0.003), and shorter distance from the pleura to the target lesion (p=0.006). The overall complication rate was 30.5% (74/243). Pneumothorax, hemoptysis, and hemothorax occurred in 21.8% (53/243), 9.1% (22/243), and 1.6% (4/243) of cases, respectively. Conclusion: The additional laser guidance system might be a highly economical and efficient method to improve the diagnostic efficacy and safety of conventional CT-guided PTNB even if performed by inexperienced pulmonologists.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.6
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• pp.781-789
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• 2019

There are frequent accidents by chemicals during laboratory experiments and pilot plant and reactor operations. It is necessary to find and comprehend relevant information to prevent accidents before starting synthesis experiments. In the process design stage, reaction information is also necessary to prevent runaway reactions. Although there are various sources available for synthesis information, including the Internet, it takes long time to search and is difficult to choose the right path because the substances used in each synthesis method are different. In order to solve these problems, we propose an intelligent synthetic path search system to help researchers shorten the search time for synthetic paths and identify hazardous intermediates that may exist on paths. The system proposed in this study automatically updates the database by collecting information existing on the Internet through Web scraping and crawling using Selenium, a Python package. Based on the depth-first search, the path search performs searches based on the target substance, distinguishes hazardous chemical grades and yields, etc., and suggests all synthetic paths within a defined limit of path steps. For the benefit of each research institution, researchers can register their private data and expand the database according to the format type. The system is being released as open source for free use. The system is expected to find a safer way and help prevent accidents by supporting researchers referring to the suggested paths.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.5_3
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• pp.873-885
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• 2022

The particulate matter (PM) has emerged as a hot topic around the world as it has been reported that PM is related to an increase in mortality and prevalence rates. In South Korea, the importance of PM has been recognized since the late 1990s, and various studies on PM have been conducted. This study investigated the PM research topics and trends for papers (D=2,764) published in Research Information Sharing Service (RISS) using topic modeling based on Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). As a result, a total of 10 topics were identified in the whole papers, and the PM research topics were classified as 'PM reduction (Topic 1)', 'Government policy and management (Topic 2)', 'Characteristics of PM (Topic 3)', 'PM model (Topic 4)', 'Environmental education (Topic 5)', 'Bio (Topic 6)', 'Traffic (Topic 7)', 'Asian dust (Topic 8)', 'Indoor PM (Topic 9)', 'Human risk (Topic 10)'. In particular, the proportion of papers on topics 'Government policy and management (Topic 2)', 'PM model (Topic 4)', 'Environmental education (Topic 5)', and 'Bio (Topic 6)' to the toal number of papers increased over time (linear slope > 0). The results of this study provide the new literature review methodology related to particulate matter and the history and insight.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.77-84
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• 2023

Welding and cutting, which are representative tasks in handling firearms at industrial sites, are the basis for production and maintenance processes across all industries. They are also essential in the root industry. Specifically, they are widely used in the manufacturing industry, including equipment industries such as shipbuilding, automobiles, and chemicals, and subsequent maintenance work and general facility repair. However, such hot work carries a high fire risk owing to sparks scattering and inadequate management, resulting in a high occurrence of accidents. In response, the government and relevant organizations have recently revised the Occupational Safety and Health Act to prevent accidents during hot work. These revisions impose more stringent regulations than before, which are expected to help prevent actual fire accidents. However, whether the fire observer system, which is the core element of the revision, would be practically applied and maintained is unclear. Therefore, this study compared the fire observer system in the revised Occupational Safety and Health Act with those in the laws and systems of developed countries, conducted interviews with safety and health experts to assess the suitability of the new system for fire observer operations, and improvement plans were derived accordingly. Therefore, the laws and systems of developed countries grant more authority to fire observers compared with those of Korea. Moreover, professional training in handling emergency is required. Interviews with safety and health experts revealed that regardless of company size, the same operating standards were applied, and standards for deploying fire observers in various locations were unclear. Furthermore, there was a lack of professional education and training, and the role and authority of fire observers were limited. These findings revealed a problem in this sector. The results of this study are expected to serve as basic data for establishing a practical system for placing fire observers and supplementing laws, guidelines, and systems for preventing fire accidents.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.3370-3377
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• 2015

FMECA(Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis) techniques to make quantitative evaluation of failure effects severity and criticality have been applied to systematic failure analysis for reliability improvement of train which should provide regular service and secure high level of safety as a mass transportation system. These FMECA techniques do not fully reflect the inherent train operation and maintenance circumstances because they are based on the FMECA standards devised for other industries such as automobile industry and FMECA standard dedicated to train industry has not been established yet. This paper analyzes FMECA standards for various industries, and suggests a FMECA technique dedicated to train industry which makes failure effect analysis and criticality analysis step by step and makes criticality analysis placing emphasis on the severity of the failure effect. The proposed technique is applied to FMECA of high-speed current breaker which is a core safety device of train using field failure data for 15 years of train maintenance. The FMECA results show that breakage of arc chute has the highest risk with 3rd severity class and 5th criticality class among all the components of high-speed circuit breaker. Damage and poor contact of electronic valve, and cylinder breakage with 3rd severity class and 4th criticality class are followed by. These results can be applied to improvement of design and maintenance process for high-speed circuit breaker of train.