• Clinical Endoscopy
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.401-407
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• 2022

Background/Aims: Surgeons and endoscopists have started to use endoscopically inserted double pigtail stents (DPTs) in the management of upper gastrointestinal (UGI) leaks, including UGI anastomotic leaks. We investigated our own experiences in this patient population. Methods: From March 2017 to June 2020, 12 patients had endoscopic internal drainage of a radiologically proven anastomotic leak after UGI surgery in two tertiary UGI centers. The primary outcome measure was the time to removal of the DPTs after anastomotic healing. The secondary outcome measure was early oral feeding after DPT insertion. Results: Eight of the 12 patients (67%) required only one DPT, whereas four (33%) required two DPTs. The median duration of drainage was 42 days. Two patients required surgery due to inadequate control of sepsis. Of the remaining 10 patients, nine did not require a change in DPT before anastomotic healing. Nine patients were allowed oral fluids within the 1st week and a soft diet in the 2nd week. One patient was allowed clear oral feeds on the 8th day after DPT insertion. Conclusions: Endoscopic internal drainage is becoming an established minimally invasive technique for controlling anastomotic leak after UGI surgery. It allows for early oral nutritional feeding and minimizes discomfort from conventional external drainage.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.87 no.3
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• pp.234-251
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• 2024

Globally, providing evidence on the economic burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is becoming essential as it assists the health authorities to efficiently allocate resources. This study aimed to summarize the literature on economic burden evidence for COPD from 1990 to 2019. This study examined the economic burden of COPD through a systematic review of studies from 1990 to 2019. A search was done in online databases, including Web of Science, PubMed/Medline, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library. After screening 12,734 studies, 43 articles that met the inclusion criteria were identified. General study information and data on direct, indirect, and intangible costs were extracted and converted to 2018 international dollars (Int$). Findings revealed that the total direct costs ranged from Int$ 52.08 (India) to Int$ 13,776.33 (Canada) across 16 studies, with drug costs rannging from Int$ 70.07 (Vietnam) to Int$ 8,706.9 (China) in 11 studies. Eight studies explored indirect costs, while one highlighted caregivers' direct costs at approximately Int$ 1,207.8 (Greece). This study underscores the limited research on COPD caregivers' economic burdens, particularly in developing countries, emphasizing the importance of increased research support, particularly in high-resource settings. This study provides information about the demographics and economic burden of COPD from 1990 to 2019. More strategies to reduce the frequency of hospital admissions and acute care services should be implemented to improve the quality of COPD patients' lives and reduce the disease's rising economic burden.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.293-312
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• 2024

Researchers are actively investigating the potential for utilizing alternative materials in construction to tackle the environmental and economic challenges linked to traditional concrete-based materials. Nevertheless, conventional laboratory methods for testing the mechanical properties of concrete are both costly and time-consuming. The limitations of traditional models in predicting the tensile strength of concrete composited with geopolymer have created a demand for more advanced models. Fortunately, the increasing availability of data has facilitated the use of machine learning methods, which offer powerful and cost-effective models. This paper aims to explore the potential of several machine learning methods in predicting the tensile strength of geopolymer concrete under different curing conditions. The study utilizes a dataset of 221 tensile strength test results for geopolymer concrete with varying mix ratios and curing conditions. The effectiveness of the machine learning models is evaluated using additional unseen datasets. Based on the values of loss functions and evaluation metrics, the results indicate that most models have the potential to estimate the tensile strength of geopolymer concrete satisfactorily. However, the Takagi Sugeno fuzzy model (TSF) and gene expression programming (GEP) models demonstrate the highest robustness. Both the laboratory tests and machine learning outcomes indicate that geopolymer concrete composed of 50% fly ash and 40% ground granulated blast slag, mixed with 10 mol of NaOH, and cured in an oven at 190°F for 28 days has superior tensile strength.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.91-103
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• 2024

A tourist destination ranking system was designed that employs a semantic search to extract information with reasonable accuracy. To this end the process involves collecting data, preprocessing text reviews of tourist spots, and embedding the corpus and queries with SBERT. We calculate the similarity between data points, filter out those below a specified threshold, and then rank the remaining tourist destinations using a count-based algorithm to align them semantically with the query. To assess the efficacy of the ranking algorithm experiments were conducted with four queries. Furthermore, 58,175 sentences were directly labeled to ascertain their semantic relevance to the third query, 'crowdedness'. Notably, human-labeled data for crowdedness showed similar results. Despite challenges including optimizing thresholds and imbalanced data, this study shows that a semantic search is a powerful method for understanding user intent and recommending tourist destinations with less time and costs.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.137-147
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• 2024

Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) are considered a promising alternative to graphene for future nanoelectronic applications. However, GNRs-based device modeling is still at an early stage. This research models the electronic properties of n-doped rough-edged 13-armchair graphene nanoribbons (13-AGNRs) and quantum transport properties of n-doped rough-edged 13-armchair graphene nanoribbon field-effect transistors (13-AGNRFETs) at different doping concentrations. Step-up and edge doping are used to incorporate doping within the nanostructure. The numerical real-space nearest-neighbour tight-binding (NNTB) method constructs the Hamiltonian operator matrix, which computes electronic properties, including the sub-band structure and bandgap. Quantum transport properties are subsequently computed using the self-consistent solution of the two-dimensional Poisson and Schrödinger equations within the non-equilibrium Green's function method. The finite difference method solves the Poisson equation, while the successive over-relaxation method speeds up the convergence process. Performance metrics of the device are then computed. The results show that highly doped, rough-edged 13-AGNRs exhibit a lower bandgap. Moreover, n-doped rough-edged 13-AGNRFETs with a channel of higher doping concentration have better gate control and are less affected by leakage current because they demonstrate a higher current ratio and lower off-current. Furthermore, highly n-doped rough-edged 13-AGNRFETs have better channel control and are less affected by the short channel effect due to the lower value of subthreshold swing and drain-induced barrier lowering. The inclusion of dopants enhances the on-current by introducing more charge carriers in the highly n-doped, rough-edged channel. This research highlights the importance of optimizing doping concentrations for enhancing GNRFET-based device performance, making them viable for applications in nanoelectronics.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.90-97
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• 2024

Objectives: This study aimed to explore the influence of depression severity, disease course, treatment status, and other factors on cognitive function in adolescents with depressive disorders. Methods: Participants who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled in the study. Sociodemographic data of each participant were recorded, including age, sex, and family history of mental disorders. Zung's Self-Rating Depression Scale was used to assess depression status in adolescents. Moreover, P300 and mismatch negativity (MMN) were used to objectively evaluate the participants' cognitive function. Results: Only 26.8% of the adolescents with depression received standard antidepressant treatment. The latencies of N2 (267.80±23.34 ms), P3 (357.71±32.09 ms), and MMN (212.10±15.61 ms) in the adolescent depression group were longer than those in the healthy control group (p<0.01). Further analysis revealed that the latency of MMN was extended with increased levels of depression in adolescents. The MMN latency was short in participants with depression receiving standardized treatment. Furthermore, the latency of MMN was positively correlated with the severity and duration of depression (correlation coefficients were 0.465 and 0.479, respectively) (p<0.01). Conclusion: Receiving standardized treatment and shortening the course of depression can reduce cognitive impairment in adolescents with depression.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.127-133
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• 2024

Textile reinforced concrete (TRC) has gained attention as a viable alternative to conventional reinforced concrete due to its improved mechanical properties and design adaptability. Despite significant research into the mechanical properties of TRC, studies regarding the flexural effect of pre-stretching with different numbers of textile reinforcements are currently limited. Therefore, this research focuses on assessing the flexural characteristics of TRC panels with the incorporation of mesh pre-stretching. Additionally, the study compares the flexural behaviour between alkali-resistant (AR) glass fibre TRC and carbon fibre TRC. A three-point bending test was conducted to assess the flexural behaviour of TRC, investigating the impact of the number of textile layers and the application of pre-stretching on flexural strength and post-cracking stiffness. The findings, exhibited by the flexural stress vs. displacement curve, indicate that applying pre-stretching to carbon fibre TRC effectively increases the flexural strength of carbon textiles and enhances post-cracking stiffness. Moreover, the greater the number of carbon textiles, the higher the flexural stress of the specimens, provided the textiles are placed in the tensile zone. Nevertheless, when comparing carbon fibre TRC with AR glass fibre TRC, it is found that the increase in flexural strength is more significant for carbon fibre TRC. Overall, applying pre-stretching to carbon fibre significantly improves the TRC's flexural performance, specifically during the post-cracking stage and in crack distribution. Furthermore, due to the higher elastic modulus and tensile strength of carbon fibre, TRC reinforced with carbon textiles shows greater flexural strength and ductility compared to AR glass fibre TRC.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.515-527
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• 2014

This study conducted experiment for understanding engineering characteristics of domestic sands by examining standard sand and sand from Yokji Island and Nakdong River in terms of confining pressure, $K_0$, over consolidation and relative density factors through triaxial compression test. The test showed that deviator stress by strain positively changed as confining pressure and relative density grow while $K_0$ and over consolidation factors do not directly correlated with it. Angle of internal friction decreases as confining pressure increases which strengthens contact force between particles, and declines as relative density drops, whereas $K_0$ and over consolidation factors hardly affect the results. When it comes to volumetric strain, volume expansion decreases as confining pressure increase due to crushability and rearrangement of particles while $K_0$ and over consolidation shows same movement unconditionally, and relative density appears compressed as it grows at the beginning however it expands as axial strain increases. Modulus of elasticity ($E_{sec}$) by strain has tendency into convergence resulting in initial secant modulus of elasticity ($E_{ini}$) > secant modulus of elasticity($E_{sec}$) > tangent modulus of elasticity ($E_{tan}$). On the other hand, it grows as confining pressure and relative density increase while indicating similar modulus of elasticity ($E_{sec}$) regarding on $K_0$ and over consolidation. Slope of critical line (M) tended to decrease as confining pressure increases, follow same line according to $K_0$, confining pressure and relative density, and increase as relative density grows.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2017

Bio-oil has attracted considerable interest as one of the promising renewable energy resources because it can be used as a feedstock in conventional petroleum refineries for the production of high value chemicals or next-generation hydrocarbon fuels. Zeolites have been shown to effectively promote cracking reactions during pyrolysis resulting in highly deoxygenated and hydrocarbon-rich compounds and stable pyrolysis oil products. In this study, catalytic pyrolysis was applied to upgrade bio-oil from yellow poplar and then fuel characteristics of upgraded bio-oil was investigated. Yellow Poplar(500 g) which ground 0.3~1.4 mm was processed into bio-oil by catalytic pyrolysis for 1.64 seconds at $465^{\circ}C$ with Control, Blaccoal, Whitecoal, ZeoliteY and ZSM-5. Under the catalyst conditions, bio-oil productions decreased from 54.0%(Control) to 51.4 ~ 53.5%, except 56.2%(Blackcoal). HHV(High heating value) of upgraded bio-oil was more lower than crude bio-oil while the water content increased from 37.4% to 37.4 ~ 45.2%. But the other properties were improved significantly. Under the upgrading conditions, ash and TAN(Total Acid Number) is decrease and particularly important as transportation fuel, the viscosity of bio-oil decreased from 6,933 cP(Control) to 2,578 ~ 4,627 cP. In addition, ZeoliteY was most effective on producing aromatic hydrocarbons and decreasing of from the catalytic pyrolysis.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.16-21
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• 2017

In this paper, a Small-sized and planer resonator design of Magnetic Resonance - Wireless Power Transfer(MR-WPT) were proposed for practical applications of mobile devices, such as a laptop, a smart-phone and a tablet pc. The proposed MR-WPT system were based on four coil MR-WPT and designed as a transmitter part (Tx) and a receiver part (Rx) both are the same shape with the same loop and resonator. There are four different spiral coil type of resonators with variable of line length, width, gap and turns in $50mm{\times}50mm$ size. The both of top and bottom side of substrate(acrylic; ${\varepsilon}_r=2.56$, tan ${\delta}=0.008$) ere used to generate high inductance and capacitance in limited small volume. Loops were designed on the same plane of resonator to reduce their volume, and there are three different size. The proposed MR-WPT system were fabricated with two acrylic substrate plane of Tx and Rx each, the Rx and Tx loops and resonators were fabricated of copper sheets. There are 12 combinations of 3 loops and 4 resonators, each combination were measured to calculate transfer efficiency and resonance frequency in transfer distance from 1cm to 5cm. The measured results, the highest transfer efficiency was about 70%, and average transfer efficiency was 40%, on the resonance frequency was about 6.78 MHz, which is standard band by A4WP. We proposed small-sized and planer resonator of MR-WPT and showed possibility of mobile applications for small devices.