• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.381-386
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• 2020

Objectives: Few studies have been published regarding the relevance of the admission diagnosis to the smoking cessation rate. We studied smoking cessation rates in relation to admission diagnoses in our inpatient smoking cessation programmes. Methods: This retrospective study included all patients recruited into our inpatient smoking cessation programmes at 2 institutions in Singapore between June 2008 and December 2016. Patients were given individualized intensive counselling and were followed up via phone interviews for up to 6-month to assess their smoking status. Multivariable logistic regression was used to analyse potential associations between admission diagnoses and 6-month abstinence. Results: A total of 7194 patients were included in this study. The mean age was 54.1 years, and 93.2% were male. In total, 1778 patients (24.7%) were abstinent at the 6-month follow-up call. Patients who quit smoking tended to be of Chinese ethnicity, have initiated smoking at a later age, be better educated, and have lower Fagerström Test of Nicotine Dependence scores. After adjusting for these factors, patients with a cardiovascular admission diagnosis had a significantly higher probability of quitting tobacco use than patients with a respiratory or other diagnosis. Conclusions: In patients acutely admitted to the hospital, a diagnosis of cardiovascular disease was associated with the highest quit rate. Smoking cessation interventions need to be incorporated into all cardiovascular disease treatment pathways to leverage the patient's motivation and to improve the quit rate. In addition, patients in groups with lower quit rates may benefit from more intensive programmes to increase the rate of successful cessation.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.337-346
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• 1993

This is a retrospective cohort analysis of 58 patients who treated with postoperative radiation therapy following radical hysterectomy and bilateral pelvic adenectomy for early stage carcinoma of uterine cervix between January 1988 and December 1990 at department of radiation oncology, Keimyoung University Hospital. Sixteen percent of patients (9/58) had chemotherapy. Most patients were FIGO I b (47 patients), and FIGO I a and II a were one and ten patients, respectively. The median follow-up periods were 48.5 months. The indications for radiation therapy included pelvic lymph node metastasis, large tumor size, deep stromal invasion, lymphovascular invasion, positive surgical margin, endometrial invasion and parametrial invasion. Eighty five percent of the patients had more than one risk factor. The actuarial overall five year survival rate (5 YSR) and five year disease free survival rate (5 YDFSR) were $89.5\%,\;and\;87.8\%,$ respectively. Their overall recurrence rate was $12.1\%,$(758). Distant metastasis was the most common cause of treatment failure $(71.4\%:5/7).$ The univariate analysis of prognostic factors affecting to five year survival rate disclosed pelvic lymph node status (negative: $95.5\%,\;positive:69.2\%,$ p=0.006) and hemoglobin level $(\le11 :75\%,>11g/dl:93.3\%,p=0.05)$ as significant factor. The age status was marginally significant $(\le40:96.0\%,\;>\;40:84.3\%p=0.15).$ Multivariate analysis clarified three independent prognostic factors: pelvic lymph node metastasis (p=p.006), hemoglobin level (p=0.015) and age (p=0.035). Multivariate analysis of prognostic factor affecting to five year disease free survival rate disclosed pelvic lymph node status (p=0.0078) and status of surgical margin (p=0.008). Complications relating to radiotherapy were $10.3\%,(6/58).$ There were no severe major complication requiring surgical intervention or a long hospital stay. It is our opinion that the benefit of postoperative pelvic radiotherapy may be gained in such a high risk patient population with acceptible morbidity.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.128-136
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• 2021

It is generally known that a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) consumes immense energy even if it can produce energy. With an aim to increase the energy independence rate of WWTP from 3.5% in 2010 to 50% in 2030, the Korean government has invested enormous research funds. In this study, cost-effective operating alternatives were investigated by analyzing the energy efficiency and economic feasibility for biogas and power generation using new and renewable energy. Based on the US EPA Energy Conservation Measures and Korea ESCO projects, energy production and independence rate were also analyzed. The main energy consumption equipment in WWTP is the blower for aeration, discharge pump for effluent, and pump for influent. Considering the processes of WWTP, the specific energy consumption rate of the process using media and MBR was the lowest (0.549 kWh/㎥) and the highest (1.427 kWh/㎥), respectively. Energy-saving by enhancing anaerobic digester efficiency was turned out to be efficient when in conjunction with stable wastewater treatment. The result of economic analysis (B/C ratio) was 2.5 for digestive gas power generation, 0.86 for small hydropower, 0.49 for solar energy, and 0.15 for wind energy, respectively. Furthermore, it was observed that the energy independence rate could be enhanced by installing energy production facilities such as solar and small hydropower and reducing energy consumption via the replacement of high-efficiency operating.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.579-603
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• 2018

In this paper we propose a QoS-enhanced intelligent stochastic optimal fair real-time packet scheduler, QUEST, for 4G LTE traffic in routers. The objective of this research is to maximize the system QoS subject to the constraint that the processor utilization is kept nearly at 100 percent. The QUEST has following unique advantages. First, it solves the challenging problem of starvation for low priority process - buffered streaming video and TCP based; second, it solves the major bottleneck of the scheduler Earliest Deadline First's failure at heavy loads. Finally, QUEST offers the benefit of arbitrarily pre-programming the process utilization ratio.Three classes of multimedia 4G LTE QCI traffic, conversational voice, live streaming video, buffered streaming video and TCP based applications have been considered. We analyse two most important QoS metrics, packet loss rate (PLR) and mean waiting time. All claims are supported by discrete event and Monte Carlo simulations. The simulation results show that the QUEST scheduler outperforms current state-of-the-art benchmark schedulers. The proposed scheduler offers 37 percent improvement in PLR and 23 percent improvement in mean waiting time over the best competing current scheduler Accuracy-aware EDF.

• Journal of Korean Foot and Ankle Society
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.77-80
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• 2015

Acute Achilles tendon rupture is a frequent injury during sports and recreational activities. Treatments for Achilles tendon rupture have been controversial in recent decades. Traditionally the surgical treatment had benefit over nonsurgical treatment in terms of low rerupture rate and early functional restoration. Recently, nonsurgical treatment was found to show no statistically significant inferiority in re-rupture rate, functional outcome, and calf strength. Whereas, surgical treatment had some complications including adhesion, nerve injury, and infection. Nonsurgical treatment has been increasing due to functional rehabilitation with early weight bearing and restricted early motion. It focuses more attention on the course of caring for patients with deep discussion. There are open repair and minimally invasive repair in terms of surgical treatment. There are various techniques for minimally invasive repair of Achilles tendon, which has some advantages over the open repair. However, the optimal technique for minimally invasive repair has not been established. The number of suture strands is important regardless of suture technique.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.346-358
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify predictors of HPV (Human papillomavirus) vaccination among female university students. Methods: The participants in this study were 1,486 female university students. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaire from september 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, t-test, $x^2$-test and logistic regression. Results: The rate of HPV vaccination was 7.2%. Factors that influence HPV vaccination included residential region, smoking experience, family history of cervical cancer, experience having heard about the HPV vaccination, awareness that HPV is a sexual disease, HPV knowledge, perceived seriousness, perceived benefit and perceived barrier in health beliefs. Conclusion: The results suggest a need to increase HPV vaccination campaigns to increase awareness of HPV vaccination. University and health care facilities should provide health education emphasizing perceived seriousness and perceived benefits. Also, the national health insurance corporation should consider addressing cost issues as a barrier to HPV vaccination.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.84-91
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• 2006

A heavy duty hydrogen-natural gas fueled engine can obtain stable operation at ultra lean conditions and reduce emissions extremely. Reduction of $CO_2$ in its engine is one of the most benefit. In this study, rate of hydrogen addition($R_{dH2}$) and compression ratio($\varepsilon$) were investigated including performance of this engine. As results, it was found that phenomenon of pressure oscillation when increasing $R_{dH2}$ and $\varepsilon$, it means occurring knock. It consider that pressure oscillation was increased due to fast burning speed of hydrogen. Even if same compression ratio, pressure oscillation was remarkable increased according to increasing $R_{dH2}$. Therefore, limit compression ratio of knock occurring was reduced by increasing $R_{dH2}$.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.165-177
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• 2012

This study examined market size of private health insurance premium and individual characteristics associated with the market size change in Korea, using wave 1 (2008) and wave 2 (2009) of Korea Health Panel. The market size was 24.4 trillion Korean won in 2008 and 26.9 trillion in 2009. The increase rate of private health insurance premium among those who were the elderly, single, or the poor was higher than that among their counterpart respectively. Health status and utilization were insignificant in determining the increase rate of private health insurance premium. These findings were more obvious among the uninsured in 2008 than among the insured in 2008. The increase of private health insurance premium in Korea imply the increase of willingness-to-pay for health risk through private sector. The authors suggest policy intervention for accessability to health care for the underprivileged and weak through enlargement of Korean social health insurance benefit.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.88-108
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• 2001

Separation of prescribing and dispensing practice in Korea has changed the service pattern of the pharmacy. The prescription dispensing activities, however, are concentrated excessively on the pharmacies near hospitals or clinics. Thus this study was conducted to estimate the number of optimal dispensing cases for the community pharmacy. Forty-six pharmacies were selected using systematic stratified random sampling method, and ninety-five pharmacists were interviewed on their workload of dispensing and other activities at pharmacies. One hundred and seventy prescriptions were chosen based on the length of drug administration and drug dosage form, and the dispensing time was measured by time-watch method. Also pharmacy benefit claims data were analyzed to identify the characteristics of the pharmacies which performed more than optimal dispensing cases. According to the study results, the average work time per pharmacist per day was found to be 10hours 32minutes and the dispensing activities occupied 7hours 36minutes. It took 5.72minutes on average for each dispensing case. The optimal dispensing case was estimated as 75 cases under the condition of 10hours 32minutes work time and 6% allowance rate. Even though the pharmacies near hospitals or clinics participated dispensing services actively, only pharmacies near clinics dealt with more than optimal dispensing cases. For the pharmacies near hospitals they dealt with less than optimal cases, but drug administration period per prescription was almost 3 times longer than that of pharmacies near clinics. Thus the intensity of dispensing activities such as drug administration period is to be considered to estimate optimal dispensing cases more accurately.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.43-48
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• 1996

We investigated the energistics of the physiological heart model by comparing predictive indexes of the myocardial oxygen consumption (MOC), such as tension-time index (R), tension-time or force-time inteual (FTI), rate-pressure product (RPP), pressure-work index, and systolic pressure-volume area (PVA) when using the electro-hydraulic left ventricular device (LVAD). We developed the model of LVAD incorporated the closed-loop cardiovascular system with a baroreceptor which can control heart rate and time-varying elastance of left and right ventricles. On considering the benefit of the LVAD, the effects of various operation modes, especially timing of assistance, were evaluated using this coupled computer model. Overall results of the computer simulation shows that our LVAD can unload the ischemic (less contractile) heart by decreasing the MU and increasing coronary flow. Because the pump ejection at the end diastolic phase of the natural heart may increase the afterload of the left ventricle, the control scheme of our LVAD must prohibit ejecting at this time. Since the increment of coronary flow is proportional to the peak aortic pressure after ventricle contraction, the LVAD must eject immediately following the closure of the aortic valve to increase oxygen availability.