A Schedulability Analysis Framework for Real-time Infrastructure Systems Managing Heterogeneous Resources

REACTION 2012. 1st International workshop on Real-time and distributed computing in emerging applications. December 4th, 2012, San Juan, Puerto Rico.Electricity generating systems, such as smart grid systems, and water management systems are infrastructure systems that manage resources critical to human life. In the systems, resources are produced and managed to supply them to various consumers, such as building, car, factory, and household, according to their needs and priorities. Reliable supply of resources depends not only on sufficient production of resources but also on reliable sharing of resource supply facilities. This paper presents a schedulability analysis framework. A prominent characteristic of the framework is that it considers at once the two types of resources, i.e. consumable resources, such as electricity, energy, and water, and sharable resources, such as pipelines, storages, and processors, are considered. To apply a formal approach to schedulability analysis of infrastructure system, this paper classifies the types of resources and real-time jobs for infrastructure systems. Then based on the classification , it presents an architectural model and a schedulability analysis framework.This research was supported by the KAIST High Risk High Return Project (HRHRP)

Design and Fabrication of Remote Welding Equipment in a Hot-Cell

The remote welding equipment for nuclear fuel bundle fabrication in a hot-cell was designed and developed. To achieve this, a preliminary investigation of hands-on fuel fabrication outside a hot-cell was conducted with a consideration of the constraints caused by the welding in a hot-cell. Some basic experiments were also carried out to improve the end-plate welding process for nuclear fuel bundle fabrication. The resistance welding equipment using end-plate welding was also improved. It was found that the remote resistance welding was more suitable for joining an end-plate to end caps in a hot-cell. This paper presents an outline of the developed welding equipment for nuclear fuel bundle fabrication and reviews a conceptual design of remote welding equipment using a master-slave manipulator. Furthermore, the mechanical considerations and a mock-up simulation test were described. Finally, its performance test results were presented for a mock-up of the remote resistance welding equipment for nuclear fuel bundle fabrication

The Largest Known Survival Analysis of Patients with Brain Metastasis from Thyroid Cancer Based on Prognostic Groups

To analyze the clinical features and prognostic factors associated with the survival of patients with a very rare occurrence of brain metastasis (BM) from differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC).A total of 37 patients with DTC who were diagnosed with BM between 1995 and 2014 were included. We reviewed the clinical characteristics, treatment modalities, and image findings of BM. Factors associated with survival were evaluated, and the patients were divided into three prognostic groups (Groups A, B, and C) for comparative analysis.The median age at BM was 63 years, and the median time from initial thyroid cancer diagnosis to BM was 3.8 years. The median survival and the 1-year actuarial survival rate after BM were 8.8 months and 47%, respectively. According to univariate and multivariate analyses, four good prognostic factors (GPFs) were identified including age ≤ 60 years, PS ≤ ECOG 2, ≤ 3 BM sites, and without extracranial metastasis prior to BM. Three prognostic groups were designed based on age and number of remaining GPFs: patients ≤ 60 years of age with at least 2 GPFs (Group A) had the most favorable prognosis with a median survival of 32.8 months; patients ≤ 60 years of age with fewer than 2 GPFs and those > 60 years of age with at least 2 GPFs (Group B) had an intermediate prognosis with a median survival of 9.4 months; and patients > 60 years of age with fewer than 2 GPFs (Group C) had the least favorable prognosis with a median survival of 1.5 months.The survival of patients with BM form DTC differed among the prognostic groups based on the total number of good prognostic factors

The burden and characteristics of tuberculosis/human immunodeficiency virus (TB/HIV) in South Korea: a study from a population database and a survey

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although, in South Korea, human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome(HIV/AIDS) keeps increasing and tuberculosis(TB) burden is still significant, there have been few reports on TB/HIV cases. In this study, we investigated the burden and characteristics of TB/HIV patients in South Korea, an area with intermediate burden of TB and a low prevalent area with HIV/AIDS.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We identified patients with TB and cases with HIV between January 1 2001 and December 31 2005, from nationwide reporting system (TBnet and HIV/AIDS registry) through an electronic record linkage method. A questionnaire survey was also conducted and determined the rate of diagnosis of HIV among TB cases in public health units in 2005.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The number of cases with both HIV and TB was 137 (0.07% among 197,562 TB cases) and the newly detected TB/HIV cases per 100,000 population was increasing annually: 2001, 0.025; 2002, 0.031; 2003, 0.025; 2004, 0.071; 2005, 0.095. Males between 20 and 59 years of age accounted for 87.6% of TB/HIV patients. Compared with patients with TB alone, those with TB/HIV had a higher percentage of extrapulmonary TB (8.0% vs 19.0%; p < 0.0001). The standardized prevalence ratio (SPR) of HIV among patients with TB was 18.46 (95% CI, 15.50-21.83). SPR of HIV among male TB patients aged 20-59 and extrapulmonary TB cases was 39.64 (95% CI, 32.87-47.40) and 43.21 (95% CI, 28.22-63.31) respectively. Through a questionnaire survey of public health units, six patients (0.08%) were confirmed as having HIV among 7,871 TB patients in public health centers in 2005, which is similar to the result from the study through nationwide reporting systems.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The prevalence rate of TB/HIV patients is still low but increasing in South Korea. Physicians should consider performing HIV tests among TB patients, especially in higher-risk groups, such as young males with extrapulmonary TB in South Korea.</p

Measuring patient acuity and nursing care needs in South Korea: application of a new patient classification system

Background An accurate and reliable patient classification system (PCS) can help inform decisions regarding adequate assignments for nurse staffing. This study aimed to evaluate the criterion validity of the Asan Patient Classification System (APCS), a new tertiary hospital-specific PCS, by comparing its rating and total scores with those of KPCS-1 and KPCS-GW for measuring patient activity and nursing needs. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of the medical records of 50,314 inpatients admitted to the general wards of a tertiary teaching hospital in Seoul, South Korea in March, June, September, and December 2019. Spearman’s correlation and Kappa statistics according to quartiles were calculated to examine the criterion validity of the APCS compared with the KPCS-1 and KPCS-GW. Results The average patient classification score was 28.3 points for APCS, 25.7 points for KPCS-1, and 21.6 points for KPCS-GW. The kappa value between APCS and KPCS-1 was 0.91 (95% CI:0.9072, 0.9119) and that between APCS and KPCS-GW was 0.88 (95% CI:0.8757, 0.8810). Additionally, Spearman's correlation coefficients among APCS, KPCS-1, and KPCS-GW showed a very strong correlation. However, 10.8% of the participants’ results were inconsistent, and KPCS-1 tended to classify patients into groups with lower nursing needs compared to APCS. Conclusion This study showed that electronic health record-generated APCS can provide useful information on patients’ severity and nursing activities to measure workload estimation. Additional research is needed to develop and implement a real-world EHR-based PCS system to accommodate for direct and indirect nursing care while considering diverse population and dynamic healthcare system