• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.89-100
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• 2024

Purpose : The objective of this study was to determine the major factors influencing the onset of diabetes and prediabetes and for collection of the basic data required to reduce the prevalence of diabetes and plan for administration of an effective health care system. By classifying the level of blood sugar management according to three categories: normal, prediabetes, and diabetes diagnosis, and determining the causes of diabetes in consideration of various variables, we will conduct an analysis of the main factors to be addressed for effective management of blood sugar and for preparation of basic data for use in early management. Methods : In this study, an analysis of raw data from the 8th National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey collected over a period of three years from 2019 to 2021, including 8,110 subjects in 2019, 7,359 subjects in 2020, and 7,090 subjects in 2021 was performed. A total of 22,559 subjects were aged 19 years or older, and 15,821 subjects were classified as subjects for inclusion in the final analysis. In the analysis, categorical variables were tested for difference, analysis of continuous variables using regression was performed, and analysis of influencing factors was performed using multinomial logistic analysis. Result : Significant factors related to the onset of diabetes and prediabetes included age (p<.001), marital status (p<.001), occupation (p<.001), hypertension (p<.001), dyslipidemia (p<.001), cardiovascular disease (p=.008), alcohol (p=.030) smoking (p=.005), systolic blood pressure (p<.001), diastolic blood pressure (p<.001), body mass index (p<.001) and waist circumference (p=.037), blood triglycerides (p<.001), and blood cholesterol (p<.001). Conclusion : Diabetes, a complex disease affected by a variety of diseases, requires active management from the prediabetes stage, and providing an appropriate level of medical information and services to elderly individuals without family support is considered a long-term health care system requirement in Korean society where the demographic structure is changing. In particular, determining the causes of prediabetes and development of a preventive approach to administering the health care system will be important for efficient management of diabetic patients.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.803-811
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• 2024

Nuclear accidents such as Fukushima Daiichi have highlighted the potential of passive safety systems to replace or complement active safety systems as part of the overall prevention and/or mitigation strategies. In addition, passive systems are key features of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), for which they are becoming almost unavoidable and are part of the basic design of many reactors available in today's nuclear market. Nevertheless, their potential to significantly increase the safety of nuclear power plants still needs to be strengthened, in particular the ability of computer codes to determine their performance and reliability in industrial applications and support the safety demonstration. The PASTELS project (September 2020-February 2024), funded by the European Commission "Euratom H2020" programme, is devoted to the study of passive systems relying on natural circulation. The project focuses on two types, namely the SAfety COndenser (SACO) for the evacuation of the core residual power and the Containment Wall Condenser (CWC) for the reduction of heat and pressure in the containment vessel in case of accident. A specific design for each of these systems is being investigated in the project. Firstly, a straight vertical pool type of SACO has been implemented on the Framatome's PKL loop at Erlangen. It represents a tube bundle type heat exchanger that transfers heat from the secondary circuit to the water pool in which it is immersed by condensing the vapour generated in the steam generator. Secondly, the project relies on the CWC installed on the PASI test loop at LUT University in Finland. This facility reproduces the thermal-hydraulic behaviour of a Passive Containment Cooling System (PCCS) mainly composed of a CWC, a heat exchanger in the containment vessel connected to a water tank at atmospheric pressure outside the vessel which represents the ultimate heat sink. Several activities are carried out within the framework of the project. Different tests are conducted on these integral test facilities to produce new and relevant experimental data allowing to better characterize the physical behaviours and the performances of these systems for various thermo-hydraulic conditions. These test programmes are simulated by different codes acting at different scales, mainly system and CFD codes. New "system/CFD" coupling approaches are also considered to evaluate their potential to benefit both from the accuracy of CFD in regions where local 3D effects are dominant and system codes whose computational speed, robustness and general level of physical validation are particularly appreciated in industrial studies. In parallel, the project includes the study of single and two-phase natural circulation loops through a bibliographical study and the simulations of the PERSEO and HERO-2 experimental facilities. After a synthetic presentation of the project and its objectives, this article provides the reader with findings related to the physical analysis of the test results obtained on the PKL and PASI installations as well an overall evaluation of the capability of the different numerical tools to simulate passive systems.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.85-95
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• 1996

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome(OSAS) in childhood is unique and different n-om that in adulthood in several aspects, including pathophysiology, clinical features, diagnostic criteria, complications, management, and prognosis. Characteristic features of childhood OSAS in comparison with the adult form are the variety of severe complications such as developmental delay, more prominent behavioral and cognitive impairments, vivid cardiovascular symptoms, and increased death risk, warranting a special attention to the possible diagnosis of OSAS in children who snore. However, the childhood OSAS is often neglected and unrecognized. We, therefore, report a case of very severe OSAS in a 5-year-old boy who was sucessfully treated with continuous positive airway pressure(CPAP) treatment. Interestingly, the patient was comor-bid with the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Prior to the initial visit to us, adenotonsillectomy had been done at the age of 4 with no significant improvement of apneic symptoms and heavy snoring. On the initial diagnostic procedures, marked degree of snoring was audible even in the daytime wake state and the patient was observed to be very hyperactive. Increased pulmonary vascularity with borderline cardiomegaly was noted on chest X-ray. The baseline polysomnography revealed that the patient was very sleep-apneic and snored very heavily, with the respiratory disturbance index(RDI) of 46.9 per hour of sleep, the mean SaO2 of 78.8%, and the lowest SaO2 of 40.0%(the lowest detectable oxygen level by the applied oxymeter). The second night polysomnography was done for CPAP titration and the optimal pressure turned out to be $8.0\;cmH_2O$. The applied CPAP treatment was well tolerated by the patient and was found to be very effective in alleviating heavy snoring and severe repetitive sleep apneas. After 18 months of the CPAP treatment, the patient was followed up with nocturnal polysomnography(baseline and CPAP nights) and clinical examination. Sleep apneas were still present without CPAP on the baseline night. However, the severity of OSAS was significantly decreased(RDI of 15.7, mean SaO2 of 96.2%, and the lowest SaO2 of 83.0%), compared to the initial polysomnographic findings before initiation of long-term CPAP treatment. Wechsler intelligence tests done before and after the CPAP treatment were compared with each other and surprising improvement of intelligence(total 9 points, performance 16 points) was noted. Clinically he was found to be markedly improved in his attention deficit hyperactive behavior after CPAP treatment, but with minimal change of TOVA(test of variables of attention) scores except conversion of reaction time score into normal range. On the chest X-ray taken after 18 months of CPAP application, the initial cardiopulmonary abnormalities were not found at all. We found that the CPAP treatment in a young child is very effective, safe, and well-tolerated and also improves the co-morbid attention deficit hyperactive symptoms. Overall, the growth and development of the child has been facilitated with the long-term use of CPAP. Cardiovascular complications induced by OSAS have been also normalized with CPAP treatment. We suggest that early diagnosis and active treatment intervention of OSAS in children are crucial in preventing and ameliorating possible serious complications caused by repetitive sleep apneas and consequent hypoxic damage during sleep.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.15-19
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• 2004

The expression of a chimeric transgene (nos-npt II) has been examined in 9 years old transgenic poplars (Populus koreana x P. nigra) growing in a nursery. The expression of the gene in twenty six independentely transformed plants were examined by 1) enzyme (NPT II) assay, 2) RT-PCR, and 3) resistance to kanamycin. High NPT II activities in young leaves of all the transformed plants were found even without a selection pressure for antibiotics for 9 years. However, the activity varied with the positions of leaves in the stem in that young leaves showed higher activity than did mature tissues. When leaf segments were cultured in the presence of 150 mg/l kanamycin, only those from young leaves produced vigorously growing callus. However, as in the case of NPTII assay, the leaf segments from mature leaves did not form callus well on the media. RT-PCR with nptII specific primers also showed that amplification products were observed only when RNAs from young tissues were used. The total RNA gel showed that while RNA in young leaves are relatively stable and in a large quantity, those in old leaves were mostly degraded. All the above results suggest that the gene is transcriptionally active only in young tissue even though it is attached to a constituitive promoter. Therefore, the expression of foreign gene in poplar plants seemed to be affected by the metabolic state of the cells and thus vary greatly with the developmental stages and the age of tissue.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.465-474
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• 2001

Type 304SS coatings were performed at 200$\square$ onto AISI 1045 carbon steel substrate using unbalanced magnetron sputtering (UBMS) with an austenitic AISI 304 stainless steel (SS) target of 100mm diameter. The total deposition pressure in the active Ar gas was 2$\times$10$^{-3}$ Torr. Coatings were done at various target power densities and bias voltages. Chemical compositions of metallic elements of the coatings were measured by energy dispersive X-rays spectroscopy (EDS). The structure and the morphology of Type 304SS coatings were investigated by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Corrosion properties of the coated specimens were examined using electrochemical polarization measurements and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy in a deaerated 3.5% NaCl solution. The porosity rate was obtained from a comparison of the dc polarization resistance of the uncoated and coated substrates. Scratch adhesion testing was used to compare the critical loads for different coatings. XRD results showed that the sputtered films exhibit a ferritic b.c.c. $\alpha$-phase. Potentiodynamic polarization curves indicated that all samples had much higher corrosion potential and better corrosion resistance than the bare steel substrate. The corrosion performance increased with increasing power density and the adhesion was enhanced at the bias voltage of -50V. An improvement in the corrosion resistance can be obtained with a better coating adhesion. Finally, an optimized deposition condition for corrosion protection was found as $40W/cm^2$ and -50V.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.330-338
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• 2010

In this study, removal characteristics of nitrogen oxides $(NO_x)$ from road transport by using peat as the packing media for biodegradation have been investigated in the long term. Physicochemical and biological treatment of peatmixed media eliminates any requirement to use chemical substances and also facilitates the biodegradable actions of microorganism. Safe biodegradation of pollutants, no need to apply additional microbes owing to their active growth, and no generation of secondary pollutants were found in this experiment. It was concluded that average removal efficiencies of nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide $(NO_2)$ were 80% and 97% respectively with respect to the linear velocity 35~40 mm/s and 0.3 ppm ozone concentration in the long period operation. Inflow concentration of nitric oxide over 0.05 ppm was suitable when pretreated with ozone. Non-ozone stage was performed with linear velocity 20~100 mm/s and then the average removal efficiency of nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide were 38% and 94% respectively. Other results showed that the apparent static pressure was raised with increases in applied water content and aerial velocity in mixed media during fan operation.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.261-268
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• 2012

Objectives: The photocatalytic degradation of toluene in a batch mode photoreactor for the purpose of the hazardous waste treatment was investigated. Methods: Kinetic experiments using a low pressure mercury lamp (Lambda Scientific Pty Ltd, 50 Watt) emitting both UV and visible light were performed at $31^{\circ}C$ over toluene concentrations ranging from 10 to 50 mg/l in water with $50%TiO_2/6%WO_3$ (TW) concentration of 1 g/l at a pH of 6. Results: Kinetic studies showed that $50%TiO_2/6%WO_3$ (TW) photocatalyst was highly active in toluene degradation; we observed that 99% of the pollutant was degraded after six hours under visible irradiation; furthermore, we observed that adsorption onto TW catalyst was responsible for the decrease of toluene with pseudo-first order kinetics. It was also found that oxygen as a radical source in the sol medium played a significant role in affecting the photodegradation of toluene, especially with a two-fold elevation. This increase was achieved by a more than four-fold elevation of the photodegradation of toluene in the presence of acetone than without, presumably via an energy transfer mechanism. Conclusions: We concluded that photodegradation in acetone and oxygen molecules along with TW was an effective method for the removal of toluene from wastewater.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.165-171
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• 2011

A Consider the dead man's switch installed in each and every locomotive cab, which support operational safety on railways around the world. The concept is very simple - every 150 to 180 seconds an illuminated push-button demands to be acknowledged so as to know that the Train Driver is alive and active. In the absence of a response over a period of minutes, the vigilance control will automatically apply the train brakes and bring the train to a stand. If we multiply the resetting of the vigilance control 60 times per hour by a 10-hour shift it equals 600 presses of the button during the shift that a Train Driver must pay attention to and acknowledge. This adds a fair bit of pressure on the train driver's job, particularly when he/she is driving through stations, with passengers moving about on platforms in an environment of complex signaling arrangements - all the while looking out for restricting signals. From this perspective, the Vigilance System's demand to be acknowledged every 150/180 seconds is disturbing and can unnecessarily take a driver's attention away from what is happening outside the confines of the cab. A much more dramatic situation can happen when a train driver is driving hour after hour at night when, by Mother's Nature request - people need to sleep. Experience and research shows that the the dead man's switch can be pressed by train driver in a state of deep relaxation and 'micro-sleep'. The vigilance control system which is applied to reduce the drive load considering bio-response multiple unit train is proposed.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.294-304
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• 2014

Purpose: The influence of dietary composition on blood pressure is an important subject in healthcare. Interactions between antihypertensive drugs and diet (IBADD) is the most important factor in the management of hypertension. It is therefore essential to support healthcare providers' decision making role in active and continuous interaction control in hypertension management. The aim of this study was to implement an ontology-based clinical decision support system (CDSS) for IBADD management (IBADDM). We considered the concepts of antihypertensive drugs and foods, and focused on the interchangeability between the database and the CDSS when providing tailored information. Methods: An ontology-based CDSS for IBADDM was implemented in eight phases: (1) determining the domain and scope of ontology, (2) reviewing existing ontology, (3) extracting and defining the concepts, (4) assigning relationships between concepts, (5) creating a conceptual map with CmapTools, (6) selecting upper ontology, (7) formally representing the ontology with Protege (ver.4.3), (8) implementing an ontology-based CDSS as a JAVA prototype application. Results: We extracted 5,926 concepts, 15 properties, and formally represented them using Protege. An ontology-based CDSS for IBADDM was implemented and the evaluation score was 4.60 out of 5. Conclusion: We endeavored to map functions of a CDSS and implement an ontology-based CDSS for IBADDM.

• Clean Technology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.17-25
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• 2000

Catalytic oxidation of volatile organic compounds(benzene, toluene, xylene) over transition metals/ALO-6 catalysts was investigated in a fixed bed flow reactor system at atmospheric pressure. The orders of catalytic activities for the complete oxidation of toluene were Cu>Mn>Fe>V>Mo>Co>Ni>Zn for 15% transition metals/ALO-6 catalyst system. Increasing the calcination temperature resulted in decreasing the specific surface areas of catalyst, subsequently the catalytic activity. The loading of Cu on ALO-6 had a great effect on the catalytic activity and 5% Cu/ALO-6 catalyst showed higher catalytic activity, which may be contributed to the uniformly distributed active sites. Benzene, toluene and xylene were completely oxidized to carbon dioxide over 5% Cu/ALO-6 catalyst at over $380^{\circ}C$ and 4.5 g-cat.hr./g-mole. The orders of the kinds of reactants for catalytic activity over 5% Cu/ALO-6 were toluene>xylene>benzene. As the concentration of reactant increased, the catalytic activity decreased due to self-poison of reactant.