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South Korea established the National Construction Standards Center to efficiently manage the national construction standards and orchestrate various efforts such as the development and export of the unified code system, and the conduction of code reform research for securing safety and ever increasing disaster prevention of buildings and infrastructure. Significant national budgets must be put in place to develop, promote, and continually improve the unified construction code system. In order to confirm the appropriateness of this continuous investment, this article intends to estimate the socioeconomic ripple effect of the coordinated efforts over the next 30 years by developing a hybrid method that combines an analytical hierarchical process and system dynamics (SD). In this article, the interacting behavior of the developed SD model is illustrated parametrically. We found that the center's integrative codification efforts including the development and diffusion of the unified code system has the effect of offsetting the decreasing national construction budget. We also found that the Monte Carlo multivariate simulation-based uncertainty analysis on the developed SD model is well-suited for effectively quantifying and integrating various benefits to empower decision makers; in particular, providing information both on the mean and the most conservative socioeconomic ripple effects over the long term.

Impulse-radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) radar devices can be used to monitor vital signs, such as respiratory and cardiac rates. For this purpose, the phase of an echo signal received from the chest or back of a human is usually used; subsequently, respiratory rate estimation (RRE) and cardiac rate estimation (CRE) can be achieved by estimating two fundamental frequencies corresponding to the respiratory and cardiac rates, respectively. However, the interference caused by undesirable terms would inevitably be induced in an echo signal; thus, the cardiac rate information contained in the phase of the received signal is often smeared and destroyed. Among several sources of interference such as high-order harmonics of respiratory rate, random body movement of an individual, and system noise, the body movement of an individual is the most critical for reliable CRE, making it a very challenging task. To address this problem, we herein propose a new framework comprising four steps: 1) RRE via differentiation and spectrum analysis for an unwrapped phase of received signal, 2) coarse estimation of cardiac rate candidates, 3) selection of three promising candidates for the desired cardiac rate based on a histogram of several candidates, and 4) determination of the desired cardiac rate via a fuzzy logic rule-based method. In experiments using 7.29 GHz IR-UWB radar hardware, we observed that our proposed framework is capable of performing accurate and robust real-time CRE even in the presence of body movement.

Conventional radar-based people counting systems are designed mainly for dense spatial distributions in a small region of interest (ROI). Therefore, a system with only conventional energy-based features, which are effective for a small ROI with a limited spatial distribution of individuals, generally fails to cope with the diverse and complex spatial distributions that arise from the freer movements of individuals as the ROI widens. To address this problem, a novel approach that achieves robust people counting in both wide and small ROIs is presented in this study. The proposed technique incorporates modified CLEAN-based features in the range domain and energy-based features in the frequency domain to efficiently address both dense and dispersed distributions of individuals. Subsequently, principal component analysis and an appropriate normalization of the proposed features are performed for improving the people counting system further. Based on several experiments in practical environments with wide ROIs and severe multipath effects, we observed that the proposed approach yields significantly improved performance compared with traditional people counting systems.

We present a high-accuracy distributed bend sensor suitable for high-curvature structures based on Brillouin frequency measurement using a multi-fiber probe. Brillouin optical correlation domain analysis (BOCDA) with differential measurement is adopted for distributed strain sensing with a cm-order spatial resolution (minimum 1 cm), and a specially designed sensing probe embedding three optical fibers is used to enhance the minimum measurable bending radius and accuracy of bend sensing. Analysis on the reconstruction accuracy is performed for various spatial resolutions (10, 20, 30, 40 mm) and steps (1, 5, 10, 15, 20 mm) of the BOCDA system. Our results show that the maximum measurable curvature of three-dimensional bending is 143 m−1, which is the highest curvature so far measured by Brillouin sensors in three-dimensional space, with about 0.7% of tip position error. Additionally, both pseudo-discrete sensing and fully distributed sensing are performed together to analyze the relation between the methods of sensing (discrete or distributed) and the accuracy of probing multi-bend curvatures according to the measurement step.

Despite being the gold standard for diagnosis of osteoporosis, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) could not be widely used as a screening tool for osteoporosis. This study aimed to predict osteoporosis via simple hip radiography using deep learning algorithm. A total of 1001 datasets of proximal femur DXA with matched same-side cropped simple hip bone radiographic images of female patients aged ≥ 55 years were collected. Of these, 504 patients had osteoporosis (T-score ≤ − 2.5), and 497 patients did not have osteoporosis. The 1001 images were randomly divided into three sets: 800 images for the training, 100 images for the validation, and 101 images for the test. Based on VGG16 equipped with nonlocal neural network, we developed a deep neural network (DNN) model. We calculated the confusion matrix and evaluated the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV). We drew the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. A gradient-based class activation map (Grad-CAM) overlapping the original image was also used to visualize the model performance. Additionally, we performed external validation using 117 datasets. Our final DNN model showed an overall accuracy of 81.2%, sensitivity of 91.1%, and specificity of 68.9%. The PPV was 78.5%, and the NPV was 86.1%. The area under the ROC curve value was 0.867, indicating a reasonable performance for screening osteoporosis by simple hip radiography. The external validation set confirmed a model performance with an overall accuracy of 71.8% and an AUC value of 0.700. All Grad-CAM results from both internal and external validation sets appropriately matched the proximal femur cortex and trabecular patterns of the radiographs. The DNN model could be considered as one of the useful screening tools for easy prediction of osteoporosis in the real-world clinical setting.

The risk of atopic dermatitis (AD)-like skin lesions has increased due to the elevated levels of allergens worldwide. Natural-origin agents, which are effective and safe, show promise for the prevention and treatment of inflammatory conditions. Orostachys japonicus (OJ) A. Berger is an ingredient of traditional herbal medicines for fever, gingivitis, and cancer in Korea, China, and Japan. However, the effect of OJ on AD-like skin lesions is unknown. Therefore, we investigated the effect of OJ ethanol extract (OJEE) on AD-like skin symptoms in mice and cells. OJEE reduced the 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene-induced AD severity, serum levels of IgE and TARC, and mRNA levels of TARC, TNF-α, and IL-4 in NC/Nga mice. Histopathological analysis showed that OJEE reduced the thickness of the epidermis/dermis and dermal infiltration of inflammatory cells in ear tissue. Furthermore, OJEE suppressed the TNF-α/IFN-γ-increased TARC mRNA level by inhibiting NF-κB and STAT1 activation in HaCaT cells. Taken together, our findings show that OJEE reduced the risk of AD-like skin symptoms by decreasing TARC expression via inhibiting NF-κB and STAT1 activation in skin keratinocytes and thus shows promise as an alternative therapy for AD-like skin lesions.

Although alcohol intake is known to be associated with the development of colorectal cancer, the effect of alcohol consumption on the development of colorectal neoplasm (CRN) is unclear. We performed a retrospective cohort analysis with 1 to 1 propensity score matching in a single center of Korea. Among 1,448 patients who underwent index and surveillance colonoscopy, 210 matched pairs were analyzed. The 5-year cumulative occurrence of overall CRN after index colonoscopy was higher in the significant alcohol consumption group (defined as alcohol consumption more than 30 g/day in men and 20 g/day in women) (vs. without significant alcohol consumption group) (40% vs. 27.6%, p = 0.004). Significant alcohol consumption increased the development of overall CRN (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR]: 1.86, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.28–2.70, p = 0.001) at surveillance colonoscopy. However, this effect was not valid on the development of advanced CRN. In subgroup analysis considering the risk classification of index colonoscopy, significant alcohol consumption increased the overall CRN development at surveillance colonoscopy in the normal group (patients with no detected adenoma in the index colonoscopy) (aHR: 1.90, 95% CI: 1.16–3.13, p = 0.01). Alcohol consumption habits should be considered in optimizing time intervals of surveillance colonoscopy.

With regard to the technical challenge on health and safety in megaprojects, this article puts forward a new evidence-based health and safety analysis (EHSA) approach in megaprojects. The purpose o...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Little is known for the capacity and quality of colonoscopy, and adherence to colonoscopy surveillance guidelines in Korea. This study aimed to investigate the present and potential colonoscopic capacity, colonoscopic quality, and adherence to colonoscopy surveillance guidelines in Korea. METHODS We surveyed representative endoscopists of 72 endoscopy units from June to August 2015, using a 36-item questionnaire regarding colonoscopic capacity, quality, and adherence to colonoscopy surveillance guidelines of each hospitals. RESULTS Among the 62 respondents who answered the questionnaire, 51 respondents were analyzed after exclusion of 11 incomplete answers. Only 1 of 3 of endoscopy units can afford to perform additional colonoscopies in addition to current practice, and the potential maximum number of colonoscopies per week was only 42. The quality of colonoscopy was variable as reporting of quality indicators of colonoscopy were considerably variable (29.4%-94.1%) between endoscopy units. Furthermore, there are substantial gaps in the adherence to colonoscopy surveillance guidelines, as concordance rate for guideline recommendation was less than 50% in most scenarios. CONCLUSIONS The potential capacity and quality of colonoscopy in Korea was suboptimal. Considering suboptimal reporting of colonoscopic quality indicators and low adherence rate for colonoscopy surveillance guidelines, quality improvement of colonoscopy should be underlined in Korea.

In this study, a novel radar-based people counting (PC) method is presented using the deep learning (DL) approach. The DL algorithm is a great tool that enables the automatic formation of the optimal features; however, it must be utilized carefully, considering the domain knowledge to prevent the concerns of learning unnecessary information, followed by overfitting. To address the problem and successfully apply the DL framework to the radar-based PC, we propose three novel solutions. First, we establish the preprocessing pipelines to transform the raw signals into a suitable form for network inputs. Second, a network architecture is newly proposed considering the radar signal characteristics and PC application. Finally, we propose several data augmentation strategies to artificially increase the size of training data. It was observed from experiments using real measured data that the proposed DL-based PC approach outperforms the conventional PC methods.

Background/Purpose. Peat is a plant material that is decayed in anaerobic and acidic conditions. Peat is known for its pain relief effect on degenerative and rheumatologic diseases for hundreds of years. This research aims to see effects of peat intervention on knee osteoarthritis patients’ pain, biomarkers, and parameters about gait. Methods. Knee osteoarthritis patients with Visual Analog Scale (VAS) of 3 or more and Kellgren–Lawrence osteoarthritis grades 1 to 3 were included. Patients with history of intraarticular injection treatment were excluded. Forty-one participants were randomly allocated to the peat intervention group (n = 22) or the hot-pack-only control group (n = 19). Peat and hot pack were applied to both knees of each group of patients. Each intervention session lasted 20 minutes, and eight sessions were completed over five days. VAS, serum cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP), and gait parameters were evaluated before and after the whole interventions. Results. VAS in the peat group decreased from 6.000 to 3.409 after intervention (p<0.001) and also decreased in the control group from 5.737 to 4.421 (p<0.001). VAS score reduction between two periods was greater in the peat group than that in the control group (p<0.001). There was no significant difference in the serum COMP level in either intergroup or intragroup analysis. In gait analysis, the gait velocity of the peat group increased from 0.781 m/s to 0.873 m/s after intervention (p=0.002), while it decreased in the control group. The knee varus/valgus range of motion during gaits was reduced from 11.455° to 8.439° after intervention in the peat group (p=0.006). Conclusions. This study showed that peat can be considered as a therapeutic option for pain relief of knee osteoarthritis patients. The reduction in knee joint varus/valgus range of motion and the increase in gait velocity after peat intervention were also identified through this research, which is the first to analyze the effects of peat on gait.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the magnification of an aneurysm size according to the type of reconstruction of a 3-dimensional Computed tomography (CT) scan. The aneurysm was prepared by mixing angiografin and saline in a rubber balloon of 51 mm in width and 77 mm in length. The balloon was placed in a plastic barrel and fixed with paraffin. CT scans were used to obtain scan data of the balloons, and the multi planar reformation (MPR), maximum intensity projection (MIP), shaded surface display (SSD), and volume rendering technique (VRT) were obtained by using 3D reconstruction. The size of the measurement points was measured and compared with the measured values of the actual aneurysm phantom. As a result of the comparison between measured and actual values in the 3D reconstruction images, all of them were enlarged. The VRT method displayed the smallest enlargement. On the other hand, the sagittal images that were obtained using the MPR method displayed an average difference of about 5.32 mm in transverse length and an average transverse length of about 2.72 mm. In conclusion, the reconstruction technique that produced an aneurysm size similar to the actual size was the VRT, and the reconstruction of the aneurysm using the VRT could be performed three-dimensionally and compared with other techniques. Therefore, observation of the anatomical site is excellent. In addition, the size determined from the enlargement of the reconstructed image was similar to the actual size; therefore, it can be helpful for establishing an effective treatment plan.

The plasma resistance of these commercial quartz glasses was compared, and the product formed by the reaction with plasma was analyzed. Plasma etching was performed in an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) process with a mixture of CF4, O2, and Ar gases. The mean etching rate of the commercial quartz glasses was 235.5㎚/min, and the p-value of 0.638 determined from the analysis of variance (ANOVA) test showed no statistical significance difference between the impurity content and the etching rate for the samples prepared by the various methods. Thus, it was determined that impurity differences on the ppm level in commercial quartz glasses does not affect the plasma resistance. After plasma etching, the surface roughness was 6.5㎛, which is 45 times greater than the initial surface roughness of 0.14㎛. This is due to the reaction product formed by the chemical reaction of SiO2 and fluorocarbon during plasma treatment. The product comprised spherical particles with a size of 5–10 ㎛, where silicon oxide and fluoride were the main reaction products, leading to coarsening of the plasma-treated quartz glass.

Toxin-induced liver diseases lack effective therapies despite increased understanding of the role factors such as an overactive innate immune response play in the pathogenesis of this form of hepatic injury. Pentamidine is an effective antimicrobial agent against several human pathogens, but studies have also suggested that this drug inhibits inflammation. This potential anti-inflammatory mechanism of action, together with the development of a new oral form of pentamidine isethionate VLX103, led to investigations of the effectiveness of this drug in the prevention and treatment of hepatotoxic liver injury. Pretreatment with a single injection of VLX103 in the D-galactosamine (GalN) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) model of acute, fulminant liver injury dramatically decreased serum alanine aminotransferase levels, histological injury, the number of terminal deoxynucleotide transferase-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate nick end-labeling (TUNEL)-positive cells and mortality as compared to vehicle-injected controls. VLX103 decreased GalN/LPS induction of TNF but had no effect on other proinflammatory cytokines. VLX103 prevented the proinflammatory activation of cultured hepatic macrophages and partially blocked liver injury from GalN/TNF. In GalN/LPS-treated mice, VLX103 decreased activation of both the mitochondrial death pathway and downstream effector caspases 3 and 7 which resulted from reduced c-Jun N-terminal kinase activation and initiator caspase 8 cleavage. Delaying VLX103 treatment for up to 3 h after GalN/LPS administration was still remarkably effective in blocking liver injury in this model. Oral administration of VLX103 also decreased hepatotoxic injury in a second more chronic model of alcohol-induced liver injury, as demonstrated by decreased serum alanine and aspartate aminotransferase levels and numbers of TUNEL-positive cells. Conclusion: VLX103 effectively decreases toxin-induced liver injury in mice and may be an effective therapy for this and other forms of human liver disease. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Background: Delta neutrophil index (DNI) is the ratio of the number of immature granulocytes and the total neutrophil count in peripheral circulation. DNI precedes changes in white blood cell or neutrophil counts due to the course of granular leukocyte differentiation in infectious and inflammatory conditions, beginning with immature granulocyte formation. The role of DNI as a biomarker of various infectious or inflammatory conditions has been reported. However, no studies explored the potential role of DNI as an initial biomarker for predicting disease severity, surgical outcomes, and mortality rates of gastrointestinal diseases with pooled diagnostic test accuracy. This study aims to provide evidence that DNI is a predictor of disease severity, surgical outcomes, and mortality rates in patients with gastrointestinal diseases in emergency medical departments. Methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library will be searched using common keywords (inception to July 2019) by 2 independent evaluators. Inclusion criteria will be patients with gastrointestinal diseases, DNI measurements performed in the emergency department, indices of diagnostic performance (sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, and likelihood ratios) of DNI for predicting severity, surgical outcomes, and mortality rate of gastrointestinal diseases. True and false positives and negatives will be calculated based on the diagnostic indices of each study. All types of study designs with full-text literature written in English will be included. Risk of bias will be assessed using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 (QUADAS-2) tool. Descriptive data synthesis will be conducted and quantitative synthesis (bivariate and hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic model) will be performed if the included studies are sufficiently homogenous. Meta-regression, sensitivity analysis, publication bias, and Fagan nomogram will be analyzed and described. Results: The pooled synthesis of the diagnostic performance of various gastrointestinal diseases with different cut-off values for DNI may limit the interpretation of uniform diagnostic validity. The authors will contact the corresponding authors for the missing values, requesting the original data in each study. However, if there are no responses from these authors, these studies will be excluded. Conclusion: This study will provide diagnostic validity of DNI as an initial marker for the prediction of severity, surgery, and mortality of gastrointestinal diseases.

Background Visual inspection, lesion detection, and differentiation between malignant and benign features are key aspects of an endoscopist’s role. The use of machine learning for the recognition and differentiation of images has been increasingly adopted in clinical practice. This study aimed to establish convolutional neural network (CNN) models to automatically classify gastric neoplasms based on endoscopic images. Methods Endoscopic white-light images of pathologically confirmed gastric lesions were collected and classified into five categories: advanced gastric cancer, early gastric cancer, high grade dysplasia, low grade dysplasia, and non-neoplasm. Three pretrained CNN models were fine-tuned using a training dataset. The classifying performance of the models was evaluated using a test dataset and a prospective validation dataset. Results A total of 5017 images were collected from 1269 patients, among which 812 images from 212 patients were used as the test dataset. An additional 200 images from 200 patients were collected and used for prospective validation. For the five-category classification, the weighted average accuracy of the Inception-Resnet-v2 model reached 84.6 %. The mean area under the curve (AUC) of the model for differentiating gastric cancer and neoplasm was 0.877 and 0.927, respectively. In prospective validation, the Inception-Resnet-v2 model showed lower performance compared with the endoscopist with the best performance (five-category accuracy 76.4 % vs. 87.6 %; cancer 76.0 % vs. 97.5 %; neoplasm 73.5 % vs. 96.5 %; P Conclusion The evaluated deep-learning models have the potential for clinical application in classifying gastric cancer or neoplasm on endoscopic white-light images.

We demonstrate the suppression of errors caused by the AM-FM phase delay of light source in the Brillouin optical correlation domain analysis. With an injection-locked DFB-LD the maximum error is suppressed by over 70 %.

The aquifer storage and water quality enhancement (ASWQE) method is a potential alternative to overcome the limitations of water resource policies that focus on surface water and act as an effective measure against water shortage caused by climate change. According to the physical/technical characteristics and operational complexity of the ASQWE, there are various legal/institutional issues to be considered at every stage in the development and implementation of the project. However, in Korea, there is no legislation or legal basis directly related to the ASWQE projects, resulting in large gaps between the initiatives of ASWQE and the relevant laws and statutes. In this respect, this study, to introduce approaches for the establishment of a legal system in line with the requirements of ASWQE projects, mainly analyzes the gaps between the abovementioned principal legal/institutional issues/subjects and the indispensable elements at each phase of the project&rsquo, s process in the existing Korean legal system concerning the ASWQE, particularly based on the issue tree approach. Through this comprehensive, systematic, and comparative case study, large gaps have been definitely identified between the initiatives surrounding ASWQE projects and the existing Korean legal system, and to conclude, legally multilateral approaches to fill and make up for the gaps have been presented. It is expected that the Korean government will continue to pursue the establishment of a comprehensive and integrated legal system in line with the requirements of ASWQE projects based on this research&rsquo, s findings. When these attempts succeed, the expected legal achievement for the development and implementation of ASWQE projects could serve as an exemplary legal case for the entire world.

Background: Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is a primary treatment for the early gastric cancer (EGC) who has a negligible risk of lymph node metastasis. Papillary adenocarcinoma (PAC) of stomach is a rare histologic variant of gastric cancer and categorized into EGC with differentiated-histology. However, aggressive features such as higher rate of lymphovascular invasion (LVI) or submucosal invasion have been reported, whereas comparable lymph node metastasis (LNM) rate to the lesions meeting the current ESD criteria also has been reported. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of ESD for EGC with PAC. Methods: We will search the core databases (MEDLINE (through PubMed), the Cochrane Library, and Embase) from their inception to December 2018 by 2 independent evaluators. The P.I.C.O. is as follows; Patients: who have EGC with PAC, Intervention: ESD or surgery, Comparison: none, Outcome: at least one among the rate of complete resection, curative resection, en bloc resection, recurrence, procedure-related adverse event, LVI or LNM that enabled an evaluation of the feasibility of ESD. All types of study design with full text will be sought and included. The risk of bias will be assessed using the ROBINS-I tool. Descriptive data synthesis is planned, and quantitative synthesis will be used if the included studies are sufficiently homogenous. Publication bias will be assessed with quantitative analyses if more than 10 articles are enrolled. Results: The results will provide evidence for efficacy and safety of ESD for EGC with PAC. Conclusion: This study will provide evidence of ESD for EGC with PAC.

Particulate matter (PM) is one of the primary pollutants of the environment. The amount of PM discharged from construction projects is considerably high; it generates 70-80% of the overall PM. The composition of PM is complex and may contain various toxic substances that have severe health effects on human health. Existing health risk assessment in the construction industry lacks the efficiency to reduce the risk level of PM exposure. This study systematically reviews literature in this research area to understand the primary reasons which generates PM health risk assessments. The authors reviewed health risk assessment studies in the construction industry to analyze the current situation, and then reviewed health risk assessment studies from four different industries to compare the advancement of research and outcomes in all the five industries. From the study it is understood that the area of research related to ambient air were more developed compared to those in other areas due to their sampling methods and the size of the PM studied. From the findings of the systematic review, it is understood that majority of the risk assessment studies still rely on a two decade-old system and neglect recent research findings pertaining inhalation rate and size of PM. To overcome this, the level of risk involved in various common construction activities needs to be explored using real-time location-based PM monitoring and real-time inhalation monitoring methods. The findings of this review will help researchers gain a better perspective while conducting occupational health risk studies in the construction industry.

Epidural steroid injections have been gaining popularity as an alternative to surgical treatment of radicular pain with associated spinal derangement. To determine the effectiveness and indications of lumbar epidural steroid injections in patients with or without surgery, we performed a prospective observational study. We gathered data from 262 degenerative short-segment spinal disease patients (affected at one or 2 levels) with greater than 12 weeks of medication-resistant radicular pain without neurological deficits but with moderate disability (visual analog scale < 6.5; Oswestry Disability Index < 35). All patients received initial fluoroscopically guided transforaminal epidural steroid injections of the affected vertebral level(s) corresponding to their symptoms. Those with inadequate responses or who wanted subsequently surgery underwent decompression surgery. Clinical and demographic characteristics were assessed to compare the differences between the groups. Results: Of the 262 patients who received epidural steroid injections, 204 did not have operations for up to one year. However, 58 patients experienced inadequate relief of pain or wanted operations and therefore underwent surgery. At baseline, the 2 groups had similar mean disability indices and pain scores, as well as gender ratios, ages, and durations of symptoms (P > 0.05). In the patients who underwent surgery, the mean disability and pain scores were not significantly decreased after injection compared to those in the injection-alone group, although the scores for the injection plus surgery patients decreased significantly after surgery (P < 0.05). In contrast, patients who underwent epidural steroid injection alone experienced a significant decrease in disability and pain after injection, and that persisted up to one year of follow-up (P < 0.05). Epidural steroid injection can decrease the pain and disability in the majority of a moderate disability group for up to one year, although a significant number of patients underwent surgery regardless of injection. We recommend epidural steroid injection as a first-line treatment in patients with moderate disability that can be converted to surgery without significant delay. Key words: Epidural steroid injection, spinal surgery, lumbar spinal disease, lumbar radiculopathy, lumbar radicular pain

This paper presents the measurement and analysis results for the performance of HGCHP system using a cooling tower as a supplemental heat rejector. In order to demonstrate the performance of the hybrid approach, we installed the monitoring equipments including sensors for measuring temperature and power consumption, and measured operation parameters from February 1, 2014 to February 28, 2015. Leaving load temperatures to building showed an average value of 11.7℃ for cooling and 39.5℃ for heating, respectively. From the analysis, the daily PF of hybrid GCHP system varied from 2.6 to 6.6 over the measurement period. Corresponding Author, byonghu@kict.re.krⒸ 2016 The Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers 1. 서 론 지열 히트펌프 시스템은 대상 건물의 냉난방 에너지 사용량이 균형을 이룰 때 효과를 크게 본다. 반면, 냉방 에너지 사용량이 큰 건물(cooling-dominated building)에서는 지중 순환수의 온도가 지속적으로 상승할 것이며, 이는 시스템의 성능 저하로 이어진다. 난방 에너지 사용량이 큰 건물(heating-dominated building)에서는 이와 반대 현상이 발생하며, 이는 시스템의 난방 성능 저하를 야기한다. 이에 대한 대안으로 하이브리드 지열 히트펌프 시스템(이하 ‘하이브리드 지열 시스템’)이 주목받고 있다.

Geothermal heat pump (GHP) systems have been proved to be one of the most efficient systems for heating and cooling in buildings. However, an optimal energy performance depends on a good control of the system components, including heat pumps and circulation pumps, which affect to the total energy consumption of system. This paper presents the simulation results of the heat pump performance for two different control schemes, i.e. constant setting temperature (Control-A) and variable setting temperatures (Control-B) in buffer tank. A dynamic simulation tool, TRNSYS 17, was used to model the entire system and to assess the performance of the system. Simulation results show that the Control-B, which controls the temperature in buffer tank with outdoor air temperature, is a effective way to reduce the energy consumptions in heat pump (7.7%) and circulation pump (7.5%). Corresponding Author, byonghu@kict.re.krⒸ 2016 The Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers 1. 서 론 여러 신·재생에너지 시스템 중, 지열 히트펌프(geothermal heat pump, GHP) 시스템은 땅(지중)이 보유한 에너지를 활용하여 건물 냉난방 에너지와 온수를 공급한다. 이러한 지열 히트펌프 시스템(이하 ‘지열 시스템’)은 지열 히트펌프, 지중열교환기(ground heat exchanger), 순환수 펌프(circulation pump) 등 각종 부속 설비 등으로 구성된다. 아울러 지열 시스템은 지중의 항온성을 활용하기 때문에 연중 냉난방 성능이 우수하고 이산화탄소와 같은 온실효과 가스를 적게 배출한다.

This study found that there are problems in sending mails at the postal service reception desks and proposes a system which transmits address information to POSNET(the terminals at post office reception) without the use of an additional security system based on address information which is stored in the terminals of mobile phones. The system proposed transforms the information of users into two-dimensional barcode(QR code) of the POSNET and a number of address information is texturized and transmitted to the POSNET with the use of how to read QR code and LAN such as bluetooth. When the system proposed is connected to the postal reception system, it can create and output mail addresses for mobile computers automatically and contribute to better performance for the post office reception clerks and better economic results.

The construction industry is one of the primary sources of fine dust pollution. Aging labor, occupational health impacts, and stagnant productivity are the concerns within the construction industry. Even though control measures are implemented to reduce exposure to fine dust during construction works, occupational health impacts for construction practitioners still exist. At the worst, it can lead the construction practitioner to premature death or long-term illness. The authors used content analysis with deductive reasoning and a concept based review approach to collate a broader knowledge within the scope of this research. It is found that the research and applications of fine dust emitted from construction equipment are in a progressive stage, but that of the construction activities is still in an early stage. The majority of recent publications in this area of research are associated with the control measures, health impacts, monitoring systems, and emission from the construction activities. However, still, there is no consensus about an appropriate real-time monitoring system or a targeted countermeasure. Researchers and construction practitioners can accommodate significant factors such as the distributional characteristics of different sizes of particles while using different materials and tools for various activities simultaneously. This study will support the future researchers in this area by directing their attention towards research areas such as real-time monitoring of construction dust by considering distributional characteristics of particles and formulation of a standard PM inventory for the construction works. This will in turn advocate for a refined construction practice and in the creation of targeted control measures.

Antibiotic resistance is growing worldwide, and patients who have failed consecutive 1st- and 2nd-lineH. pylorieradication regimens are increasing. Therefore, the role of the bacterial culture with antibiotic susceptibility testing and molecular susceptibility testing is important for avoiding the use of ineffective antibiotics. However, antibiotic susceptibility testing-guided treatment does not necessarily guarantee successful eradication, and there have been mixed results for the effectiveness of a 3rd-line rescue therapy. Therefore, providing patients with pretreatment medication instructions and education is important. It is also crucial to determine the reason of the eradication failure, including host-related factors (poor compliance to eradication regimen, smoking, and cytochrome P450 2C19 genetic polymorphism) or treatment-related factors (inadequate dosage or duration of therapy and gastric acidity), as such factors can be modified for a tailored therapy. Although the indications forH. pylorieradication have widened, patients at a high risk of gastric cancer can gain definitive benefits with a 3rd-line or even 4th-line therapy.

Direct current modulation of a laser diode (LD) is widely used in optical correlation-domain distributed Brillouin sensors such as Brillouin optical correlation domain analysis (BOCDA) and reflectometry (BOCDR) for the synthesis of optical coherence function. We report the direct modulation of a DFB-LD induces asymmetry in the frequency modulation that causes unique distortion in the Brillouin frequency map obtained by BOCDA and BOCDR systems. We present the simulation result on the effects of asymmetric frequency modulation in correlation-domain distributed sensors and the experimental result of measuring the asymmetry in the frequency modulation of the LD using an optical sampling method. Finally, the experimental result of distributed measurements by a BOCDA system with the asymmetric modulation is provided to compare with simulation data.

Various issues on network routing in a mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) have been studied with outstanding results. However, there is still room for improvement with regard to data accessibility, especially when the number of nodes increases in the network. To enhance the data accessibility in a MANET, a few replica allocation schemes have been proposed. In these schemes, the nodes are partitioned into groups so that each group has as many different data items as possible. However, grouping in a MANET requires an enormous amount of communication cost, since the network topology is changed dynamically. In this paper, we propose a scalable replica allocation scheme in which the nodes are grouped based on the mobility of the nodes. Grouping in the proposed scheme is done with one-hop communications in a fully distributed manner. Within each group, replicas are allocated to the group nodes based on the estimated data access frequencies that are computed periodically by the allocator of the group. It turns out that grouping with mobility and utilizing the estimated access frequency information enhances the stability of the topology of each group as well as the data accessibility. We evaluate the proposed scheme by simulations with the Network Simulator NS-3 along with the analytical evaluations. The results of simulations and analytical evaluations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme in terms of communication cost. The proposed scheme reduces the communication cost by 347.1 % on average over the existing replica allocation scheme, while achieving comparable data accessibility.

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are harmful compounds generated by nonspecific glycation of proteins and lipids. The accumulation of AGEs is associated with various diseases, including breast cancer. AGEs have been shown to promote a breast cancer cell line by enhancing proliferation, invasion and migration. In this study, we investigated the effect and associated mechanism of AGEs on triple negative breast cancer cells. AGEs enhanced the proliferation, tumorigenicity, invasion and migration of primary breast cancer cells. AGEs also enhanced the RNA and protein expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 and its gelatinase activity. Enhanced MMP-9 expression was mediated by extracellular-signal regulated kinase (ERK) and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) pathways. Moreover, inhibitors of ERK and NF-κB signaling attenuated the effect of AGEs on tumorigenicity, invasion and migration of primary breast cancer cells. Taken together, we suggest that AGEs directly promote primary breast cancer cells via the ERK and NF-κB pathway, which may lead to advanced therapeutic modalities of breast cancer.

In this paper, a new framework for tracking non-rigid objects is introduced. By spatially masking the target with an isotropic kernel, a spatially smooth similarity function can be defined, and the target localization problem is then reduced to a search in the basin of attraction of this function. The smoothness of the similarity function allows for the application of a gradient optimization method by adopting a background weighted histogram. The proposed approach is effective for detecting objects in complex background and occlusion. Experimental results using various test videos containing objects in motion with rotation and scale changes show us superb detection accuracy over the conventional method.

This paper analyzes wastewater treatment Transfer-Operate-Transfer (TOT) projects in China since the early 2000s, addressing both risks and risk mitigation efforts. Special attention is paid to the Hefei Wangxiaoying Wastewater Treatment TOT Project as a case study. The project unveils various risks, i.e., institutional and regulatory, financial, and human resource risks. To mitigate the risks, the government established relevant institutions alongside the organizational reform and adjusted the wastewater tariff. Berlinwasser secured long-term revenue through the service fee increase agreement and guaranteed job security for plant employees. The TOT model seems to become increasingly popular in the Chinese wastewater treatment market despite diverse risks involved.

Purpose The consequences of precipitously rising allergic skin inflammation rates worldwide have accelerated the risk of atopic dermatitis (AD). Natural product-based agents with good efficacy and low risk of side effects offer promising prevention and treatment strategies for inflammation-related diseases. We have already reported that Platycodon grandiflorum root-derived saponins (Changkil saponins, CKS) have many pharmacological effects, including anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic effects, but its influence on AD remains unclear. Therefore, we evaluated the inhibitory effect of CKS, mainly platycodin D, on AD-like skin symptoms in mice and the possible mechanisms in cells. Methods Mice were sensitized and challenged with 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB). Four weeks after challenge, mice were treated with oral administration of CKS for 4 weeks. In addition, cells were used to evaluate the effect of CKS, mainly platycodin D, on the TARC expression regulated mechanism. Results CKS attenuated DNCB-induced dermatitis severity, serum levels of IgE and TARC, and mRNA expression of TARC, TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13 in mice. Histopathological examination showed reduced thickness of the epidermis/dermis and dermal infiltration of inflammatory cells and mast cells in the ears. Moreover, CKS and platycodin D inhibited TNF-α/IFN-γ-induced TARC expression through the suppression of NF-κB and STAT1 and induction of Nrf2/ARE-mediated hemeoxygenase-1 (HO-1) expression in cells. Conclusion We suggest that CKS and platycodin D inhibited the development of AD-like skin symptoms by regulating cytokine mediators and may be an effective alternative therapy for AD-like skin symptoms.

In this study, we are a proposed system that could control a multi-functional welder of the current, voltage of the crater, gas control, the wire feeder`s driven, the constant voltage output control, high frequency control, rated current control and the ARC welding control etc., using the mobile-based smart phone. Approximately 90% of user of proposed system are very useful in multi-function welder in their task responded and rest of 10% of the answers don`t need it. 30% answered in 90% of the multi-function welding machine according to age group using a smart phone utilizing this "very difficult" at investigated. However, the use of smart phones is gradually lower the user`s age group can be seen that effective.

This study attempts to enhance the understanding of the two emerging public–private partnership (PPP) business models – Transfer-Operate-Transfer (TOT) and divestiture – in the context of Chinese water sector. Foreign investors aiming to enter or expand their share in the market need to select an optimal PPP model between competing ones through a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOTs) analysis. For the purpose, we employ the triangulation approach consisting of an opinion survey to measure the level of consensus on each of a total of eleven SWOT factors surrounding TOT and divestiture models, and in-depth case studies on the two-representative TOT and divestiture projects. Our assessments indicate the emergence of a strong consensus between interviewees regarding bid premium, financial burden, and bidding method in TOT and fixed-return provisions, operational management efficiency, majority control, and equity transfer proportion in divestiture. However, it is advised that foreign investors should be flexible in interpreting the factors and respond them at the solution level considering a project-specific environment.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the location of cylinder thyroid shielding materials and the size of radiation field in radiographic procedures for neurocranium on entrance surface dose in major organs.Methods/Statistical Analysis: Two SID (100cm and 70cm) of DR system with exposure conditions at 76 kVp and 25 mAs were used. ESD was measured by using OSLD and ART phantom with maximum radiation field of and 8 inch x 10 inch.Measurement points included the left, the right, the anterior and the posterior of the thyroid area using thyroid shielding. Findings: The ESD values of maximum field at the back shield were lower (SID 100cm and 70cm: 85.9% and 63.4% lower,respectively) than those at the front shield. For 8 inch x 10 inch field, the ESD values were lower by 64% and 54.3% for SID 100 cm and 70 cm, respectively. The ESD values when the cylinder device was used were lower by 67% and 27.6% for SID 100 cm and 70 cm, respectively. In addition, for SID 100 cm, the orbit ESD with maximum field was the highest (200.62uSV). Orbit ESD value was lower by 54.4% (91.57 uSV) for a field of 8 inch x 10 inch. It was also lower by 57% (86.28 uSV) when cylinder device was used. For SID of 70 cm, orbit ESD value with the maximum field was the highest (262.18 uSV).It was lower by 28% (188.87 uSV) than that for a field of 8 inch x 10 inch. It was also lower by 64% (94.59 uSV) when the cylinder was used. Improvements/Applications: Using cylinder device and back shielding for the thyroid could reduce ESD in sensitivity organs of patients.

Recently, an Opportunistic network is evolved from a mobile ad hoc network. In an opportunistic network, the mobility and resource constraints of mobile nodes lead to network partitioning or performance degradation. Several forwarding schemes are proposed to forward with less traffic and delay. However, these schemes utilize too much private information to get high performance, or creates too much traffic because schemes are based on flooding. In this paper, we propose efficient routing scheme based on novel concept, data posting. In our scheme, data is posted to location, not a node to make higher probability to forward a data. Consequently, the proposed routing protocol achieves low traffic with increasing some delay. Extensive simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme reduce the traffic up to 98% and delay increases up to 2.5 times higher than prophet, which is traditional forwarding scheme in opportunistic network.