2,794 research outputs found
Technical Efficiency in the Iron and Steel Industry: A Stochastic Frontier Approach
In this paper we examine the technical efficiency of firms in the iron and steel industry and try to identify the factors contributing to the industry's efficiency growth, using a time-varying stochastic frontier model. Based on our findings, which pertain to 52 iron and steel firms over the period of 1978-1997, POSCO and Nippon Steel were the most efficient firms, with their production, on average, exceeding 95 percent of their potential output. Our findings also shed light on possible sources of efficiency growth in the industry. If a firm is government-owned, its privatization is likely to improve its technical efficiency to a great extent. A firm's technical efficiency also tends to be positively related to its production level as measured by a share of the total world production of crude steel. Another important source of efficiency growth identified by our empirical findings is adoption of new technologies and equipment. Our findings clearly indicate that continued efforts to update technologies and equipment are critical in pursuit of efficiency in the iron and steel industry.
Primary adenosquamous carcinoma of the liver: a case report
Adenosquamous carcinoma of the liver is a rare variant of cholangiocarcinoma. It is known to be a highly aggressive tumor with a poor prognosis, but its pathogenesis remains unclear owing to limited data in the literature. We report a case of 56-year-old woman who presented with a 1-week history of epigastric pain. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a 6.5-cm ill-defined mass with low signal intensity in the left lobe of the liver, which was suspicious of cholangiocarcinoma. The patient underwent left hemihepatectomy. Microscopically, the tumor consisted of malignant glandular and squamous components and staged as pT2aN1. Despite postoperative chemoradiation, the patient had recurrence 8 months after surgery
Charge Transfer Induced Molecular Hole Doping into Thin Film of Metal-Organic-Frameworks
Despite the highly porous nature with significantly large surface area, metal
organic frameworks (MOFs) can be hardly used in electronic, and optoelectronic
devices due to their extremely poor electrical conductivity. Therefore, the
study of MOF thin films that require electron transport or conductivity in
combination with the everlasting porosity is highly desirable. In the present
work, thin films of Co3(NDC)3DMF4 MOFs with improved electronic conductivity
are synthesized using layer-by-layer and doctor blade coating techniques
followed by iodine doping. The as-prepared and doped films are characterized
using FE-SEM, EDX, UV/Visible spectroscopy, XPS, current-voltage measurement,
photoluminescence spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, and incident photon to
current efficiency measurements. In addition, the electronic and semiconductor
property of the MOF films are characterized using Hall Effect measurement,
which reveals that in contrast to the insulator behavior of the as-prepared
MOFs, the iodine doped MOFs behave as a p-type semiconductor. This is caused by
charge transfer induced hole doping into the frameworks. The observed charge
transfer induced hole doping phenomenon is also confirmed by calculating the
densities of states of the as-prepared and iodine doped MOFs based on density
functional theory. Photoluminescence spectroscopy demonstrate an efficient
interfacial charge transfer between TiO2 and iodine doped MOFs, which can be
applied to harvest solar radiations.Comment: Main paper (19 pages, 6 figures) and supplementary information (15
pages, 10 figures), accepted in ACS Appl. Materials & Interface
Educational Inequalities in Self-Rated Health in Europe and South Korea
While numerous comparative works on the magnitude of health inequalities in Europe have been conducted, there is a paucity of research that encompasses non-European nations such as Asian countries. This study was conducted to compare Europe and Korea in terms of educational health inequalities, with poor self-rated health (SRH) as the outcome variable. The European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions and the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2017 were used (31 countries). Adult men and women aged 20+ years were included (207,245 men and 238,007 women). The age-standardized, sex-specific prevalence of poor SRH by educational level was computed. The slope index of inequality (SII) and relative index of inequality (RII) were calculated. The prevalence of poor SRH was higher in Korea than in other countries for both low/middle- and highly educated individuals. Among highly educated Koreans, the proportion of less healthy women was higher than that of less healthy men. Korea’s SII was the highest for men (15.7%) and the ninth-highest for women (10.4%). In contrast, Korea’s RII was the third-lowest for men (3.27), and the lowest among women (1.98). This high-SII–low-RII mix seems to have been generated by the high level of baseline poor SRH
A Passivity-based Nonlinear Admittance Control with Application to Powered Upper-limb Control under Unknown Environmental Interactions
This paper presents an admittance controller based on the passivity theory
for a powered upper-limb exoskeleton robot which is governed by the nonlinear
equation of motion. Passivity allows us to include a human operator and
environmental interaction in the control loop. The robot interacts with the
human operator via F/T sensor and interacts with the environment mainly via
end-effectors. Although the environmental interaction cannot be detected by any
sensors (hence unknown), passivity allows us to have natural interaction. An
analysis shows that the behavior of the actual system mimics that of a nominal
model as the control gain goes to infinity, which implies that the proposed
approach is an admittance controller. However, because the control gain cannot
grow infinitely in practice, the performance limitation according to the
achievable control gain is also analyzed. The result of this analysis indicates
that the performance in the sense of infinite norm increases linearly with the
control gain. In the experiments, the proposed properties were verified using 1
degree-of-freedom testbench, and an actual powered upper-limb exoskeleton was
used to lift and maneuver the unknown payload.Comment: Accepted in IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics (T-MECH
Measurement of the Background Activities of a 100Mo-enriched powder sample for AMoRE crystal material using a single high purity germanium detector
The Advanced Molybdenum-based Rare process Experiment (AMoRE) searches for
neutrino-less double-beta (0{\nu}\b{eta}\b{eta}) decay of 100Mo in enriched
molybdate crystals. The AMoRE crystals must have low levels of radioactive
contamination to achieve low background signals with energies near the Q-value
of the 100Mo 0{\nu}\b{eta}\b{eta} decay. To produce low-activity crystals,
radioactive contaminants in the raw materials used to form the crystals must be
controlled and quantified. 100EnrMoO3 powder, which is enriched in the 100Mo
isotope, is of particular interest as it is the source of 100Mo in the
crystals. A high-purity germanium detector having 100% relative efficiency,
named CC1, is being operated in the Yangyang underground laboratory. Using CC1,
we collected a gamma spectrum from a 1.6-kg 100EnrMoO3 powder sample enriched
to 96.4% in 100Mo. Activities were analyzed for the isotopes 228Ac, 228Th,
226Ra, and 40K. They are long-lived naturally occurring isotopes that can
produce background signals in the region of interest for AMoRE. Activities of
both 228Ac and 228Th were < 1.0 mBq/kg at 90% confidence level (C.L.). The
activity of 226Ra was measured to be 5.1 \pm 0.4 (stat) \pm 2.2 (syst) mBq/kg.
The 40K activity was found as < 16.4 mBq/kg at 90% C.L.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, 5 table
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