• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.15-25
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• 1993

In order to promote the efficient use of composite materials, effort is currently being directed at the development of design criteria for composite structures. Insofar as design against buckling is concerned, it is well known that, for metal shells, a key step is the definition of 'knockdown' factors on the elastic critical buckling stress accounting mainly for the influence of initial geometric imperfections. At present, the imperfection sensitivity of composite shells has not been explored in detail. Due to the large number of parameters influencing buckling response (considerably larger than for isotropic shells), a very large number of tests would be needed to quantify imperfection sensitivity experimentally. An alternative approach is to use validated numerical models for this task. Thus, the objective of this paper is to outline the underlying theory used in developing a composite shell element and to present results from a validation exercise and subsequently from a parametric study on axially loaded glass fibre-reinforced plastic (GFRP) curved panels using finite element modelling. Both eigenvalue and incremental analyses are performed, the latter including the effect of initial geometric imperfection shape and amplitude, and the results are used to estimate 'knockdown' factors for such panels.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.4971-4975
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• 2015

Background: Several methods have been presented for the evaluation of the endometrium in patients with abnormal uterine bleeding, which include minimal invasive and invasive approaches such as diagnostic curettage or endometrial biopsy by Pipelle. Many studies have been performed in order to compare two methods; diagnostic curettage and outpatient endometrial biopsy. This investigation compared sampling adequacy, endometrial histopathology, failure rates, duration and costs between diagnostic curettage in a hospital and endometrial biopsy. Materials and Methods: This single blind clinical trial was performed on 130 patients older than 35 years who was referred to Amir training hospital in 2013 for elective diagnostic curettage because of abnormal uterine bleeding. For all patients eligible for the study, an endometrial sample by Pipelle was taken without anesthesia or dilatation. Then under general anesthesia diagnostic curettage was performed by sharp curette. Sampling duration was calculated and both samples were sent to the same pathologist. The diagnostic values of two methods in the diagnosis of normal endometrium, endometrial hyperplasia and carcinoma were compared. The costs of these two methods were also compared. Data analysis was performed by SPSS (version 16.0) software. Chi-Square, Fisher, and Pearson tests were used and were considered statistically significant at P values less than 0.05. Results: Two methods were agreed upon 88% of sampling adequacy and 94% of pathological results. Specificity of 100% and sensitivity of 90% for detection of proliferative endometrium, secretory endometrium, simple hyperplasia without atypia and 100% for cancer were recorded. Pipelle diagnostic accuracy in comparison with curettage, have been reported over 97%, so the failure rate in this study was below 5%. Sensitivity of Pipelle for detection of atrophic endometrium was reported below 50%. Duration and cost was lower in Pipelle versus curettage. Conclusions: It is concluded that due to high agreement and cohesion coefficient between curettage and Pipelle on the issue of sampling adequacy, histopathology finding (except atrophic endometrium), low failure rate, duration of sampling and cost, Pipelle can be introduced as a suitable alternative of diagnostic curettage.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.381-385
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• 2015

Background:Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second most common malignancy in Egypt. Data mining is a method of predictive analysis which can explore tremendous volumes of information to discover hidden patterns and relationships. Our aim here was to develop a non-invasive algorithm for prediction of HCC. Such an algorithm should be economical, reliable, easy to apply and acceptable by domain experts. Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled 315 patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) related chronic liver disease (CLD); 135 HCC, 116 cirrhotic patients without HCC and 64 patients with chronic hepatitis C. Using data mining analysis, we constructed a decision tree learning algorithm to predict HCC. Results: The decision tree algorithm was able to predict HCC with recall (sensitivity) of 83.5% and precession (specificity) of 83.3% using only routine data. The correctly classified instances were 259 (82.2%), and the incorrectly classified instances were 56 (17.8%). Out of 29 attributes, serum alpha fetoprotein (AFP), with an optimal cutoff value of ${\geq}50.3ng/ml$ was selected as the best predictor of HCC. To a lesser extent, male sex, presence of cirrhosis, AST>64U/L, and ascites were variables associated with HCC. Conclusion: Data mining analysis allows discovery of hidden patterns and enables the development of models to predict HCC, utilizing routine data as an alternative to CT and liver biopsy. This study has highlighted a new cutoff for AFP (${\geq}50.3ng/ml$). Presence of a score of >2 risk variables (out of 5) can successfully predict HCC with a sensitivity of 96% and specificity of 82%.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.169-173
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• 2008

Purpose: Sacrococcygeal pilonidal sinus is a chronic inflammatory disease that mostly affects young people, which warrants surgical intervention. Although many surgical methods have been suggested, an optimal surgical method remains controversial because of high recurrence rates and postoperative complications. The objective of this study is to evaluate the results of wide excision and coverage with fasciocutaneous advancement flap for the treatment of sacrococcygeal pilonidal sinus, and to assess the usefulness of this method Methods: From May 1995 to October 2006, the authors treated 19 patients with the use of coverage with fasciocutaneous flap after wide excision. The results were evaluated regarding recurrence rates, complications, and the change in sensitivity of the gluteal region after surgery. The follow-up period was 7 to 142 months (mean, 76 months). All patients were male. Results: Postoperative complications were wound infection at the suction drain insertion site and skin necrosis around the suture margin in one case, respectively. During the follow up period, only one recurrence (5.3%) was seen in fifth postoperative month, which was successfully treated by the same operative procedure. There was no other complications such as seroma, hematoma, wound dehiscence and flap loss. Extensive scarring and anatomic distortion did not occur in the reconstructed area. In addition, sensitivity of the gluteal region did not diminish. The aesthetic results were satisfactory for all patients as well. Conclusion: The authors advocate that fasciocutaneous flap closure be a good alternative method to cover defects after the excision of sacrococcygeal pilonidal sinus.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.253-261
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• 2014

Porcine circovirus disease (PCVD) is a major problem of swine industry worldwide, and diagnosis of PCV2, causal agent of PCVD, has been doing in clinical laboratories of pig disease by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods. But the PCR analyses have a serious problem of misdiagnosis by contamination of DNA, in particular, from carryover contamination with previously amplified DNA or extracted DNA from field samples. In this study, an uracil DNA glycosylase (UNG)-based direct PCR (udPCR) without DNA extraction process and DNA carryover contamination was developed and evaluated on PCV2 culture and field pig samples. The sensitivity of the udPCR combined with dPCR and uPCR was same or better than that of the commercial PCR (cPCR) kit (Median diagnostics, Korea) on PCV2-positive serum, lymph node and lung samples of the pigs. In addition, the udPCR method confirmed to have a preventing ability of mis-amplification by contamination of pre-amplified PCV2 DNA from previous udPCR. In clinical application, 170 pig samples (86 tissues and 84 serum) were analysed by cPCR kit and resulted in 37% (63/170) of positive reaction, while the udPCR was able to detect the PCV2 DNA in 45.3% (77/170) with higher sensitivity than cPCR. In conclusion, the udPCR developed in the study is a time, labor and cost saving method for the detection of PCV2 and providing a preventing effect for DNA carryover contamination that can occurred in PCR process. Therefore, the udPCR assay could be an useful alternative method for the diagnosis of PCV2 in the swine disease diagnostic laboratories.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.221-228
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• 2010

As container traffic is increasing, the introduction of mega-vessel has had a significant impact on the ports and terminals business. This movement of container shipping has led to intensely competitive environment among ports, so substantial pressures to develop new container ports or to expand existing ones, have been grown. However, it requires a huge investment, especially cost and time, to overcome environmental, geographical and financial restrictions generated from developing a port. This study addressed the Mobile Harbor, the new concept of marine logistics system as an alternative strategy. We performed an economic analysis on the introduction of the Mobile Harbor in coastal transport sector and also a sensitivity analysis to examine the effects of changing factors related on the economic evaluation. We have examined the value and application of Mobile Harbor as a preliminary study, which may contribute to further studies on the Mobile Harbor.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.100-109
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• 2011

Recently, the concrete-steel hybrid extradosed bridge has been proposed as alternative bridge type at long span site. The hybrid extradosed bridge adopts light orthogonal deck girder instead of heavy concrete deck girder at the center span of bridge, and it enables to construct long-span bridge. And also, for this bridge type the decrease of self-weight of girder enables to reduce girder depth and side span length of extradosed bridge, so its type has more efficient structural behavior and makes it possible to perform optimal bridge design. Therefore, it is very important to set up the procedure and parameters of optimal design for concrete-steel hybrid extradosed bridge. In this study, the effects of design parameters (the variation of pylon height, bridge deck depth and orthogonal deck girder length) are discussed. And numerical analysis and sensitivity analysis are carried out according to these parameters. And design weight values about these parameters are quantitatively suggested to reflect characteristics of concrete-steel hybrid bridge.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.126-135
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• 2008

Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is a highly lethal neoplasm arising in pleura and the peritoneum and a rapid and accurate diagnosis is crucial for treatment of the disease. However, the sensitivity of cytological analysis using pleural or ascitic fluid is relatively low, yielding an accurate diagnosis in only $32{\sim}79%$ of cases. We tested the diagnostic value of epigenetic alterations in body fluid cytology as a supplement to conventional methods. Paraffin-embedded tissue blocks from 21 MM patients and associated body fluid cytology slides considered no evidence of malignancy were used to test for epigenetic alteration. Using methylation-specific PCR, we detected methylation of RASSF1A and p16 in 47.6% (10/21) of both surgically resected tumor samples, respectively. Body fluid samples of MM also showed abnormal methylation of RASSF1A and p16INK4a genes in 38.1% (8/21) and 33.3% (7/21) of cases. The concordance in the rates of RASSF1A and p16INK4a gene-methylation abnormalities determined from cytology samples and tissue samples were 61.9% (13/21) and 66.7% (14/21), respectively. Combining both genes increases the sensitivity of the test to 57.1 % (12 of 21) of cases. Our results suggest that testing for methylation abnormalities in selected individual genes or gene combinations has diagnostic value as an alternative or adjunct method to conventional cytological diagnosis.

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.66-71
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• 2021

Background: Extra-articular distal humerus locking plates (EADHPs) are precontoured anatomical plates widely used to repair distal humeral extra-articular diaphyseal fractures. However, EADHPs frequently cause distal protrusion and resulting skin discomfort. The purpose of this study was to predict the occurrence of anatomic fit mismatch. We hypothesized that the smaller the humerus size, the greater the anatomic fit mismatch with EADHP. Methods: Twenty humeri were analyzed in this study. Humeral length and distal humeral width were used as parameters of humeral size. Plate protrusion was measured between the EADHP distal tip and the distal humerus. We set the level of unacceptable EADHP anatomic fit mismatch as ≥10 mm plate protrusion. Results: A significant negative linear correlation was also confirmed between humeral size and plate protrusion, with a coefficient of determination of 0.477 for humeral length and 0.814 for distal humeral width. The cutoff value of humeral length to avoid ≥10 mm plate protrusion was 293.6 mm (sensitivity, 88.9%; specificity, 81.8%) and for distal humeral width was 60.5 mm (sensitivity, 100%; specificity, 81.8%). Conclusions: Anatomic fit mismatch in distal humeral fractures after EADHP fixation has a negative linear correlation with humeral length and distal humeral width. For patients with a distal humeral width <60.5 mm, ≥10 mm plate protrusion will occur when an EADHP is used, and an alternative implant or approach should be considered.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2023

The unconfined compression strength (UCS) of soils is commonly used either before or during the construction of geo-structures. In the pre-design stage, UCS as a mechanical property is obtained through a laboratory test that requires cumbersome procedures and high costs from in-situ sampling and sample preparation. As an alternative way, the empirical model established from limited testing cases is used to economically estimate the UCS. However, many parameters affecting the 1D soil compression response hinder employing the traditional statistical analysis. In this study, gene expression programming (GEP) is adopted to develop a prediction model of UCS with common affecting soil properties. A total of 79 undisturbed soil samples are collected, of which 54 samples are utilized for the generation of a predictive model and 25 samples are used to validate the proposed model. Experimental studies are conducted to measure the unconfined compression strength and basic soil index properties. A performance assessment of the prediction model is carried out using statistical checks including the correlation coefficient (R), the root mean square error (RMSE), the mean absolute error (MAE), the relatively squared error (RSE), and external criteria checks. The prediction model has achieved excellent accuracy with values of R, RMSE, MAE, and RSE of 0.98, 10.01, 7.94, and 0.03, respectively for the training data and 0.92, 19.82, 14.56, and 0.15, respectively for the testing data. From the sensitivity analysis and parametric study, the liquid limit and fine content are found to be the most sensitive parameters whereas the sand content is the least critical parameter.