Joohwan Lee

An Advanced BIRA for Memories With an Optimal Repair Rate and Fast Analysis Speed by Using a Branch Analyzer

As memory capacity and density grow, a corresponding increase in the number of defects decreases the yield and quality of embedded memories for systems-on-chip as well as commodity memories. For embedded memories, built-in redundancy analysis (BIRA) is widely used to solve quality and yield issues by replacing faulty cells with healthy redundant cells. Many BIRA approaches require extra hardware overhead in order to achieve optimal repair rates, or they suffer a loss of repair rate in minimizing the hardware overhead. An innovative BIRA approach is proposed to achieve optimal repair rates, lower area overhead, and increase analysis speed. The proposed BIRA minimizes area overhead by eliminating some storage coverage for only must-repair faulty information. The proposed BIRA analyzes redundancies quickly and efficiently by evaluating all nodes of a branch in parallel with a new analyzer which is simple and easy-to-implement. Experimental results show that the proposed BIRA allows for a much faster analysis speed than that of the state-of-the-art BIRA, as well as the optimal repair rate, and relatively small area overhead.

Antiadhesive effect of the mixed solution of sodium hyaluronate and sodium carboxymethylcellulose after endoscopic sinus surgery.

Background We evaluated the clinical efficacy and safety of the mixed solution of sodium hyaluronate and sodium carboxymethylcellulose (HA-CMC) for prevention of adhesion after endoscopic sinus surgery. Methods Preoperative computed tomography (CT) scans were graded. At the completion of surgery, HA-CMC was applied to Merocel and repeatedly applied after the removal of Merocel. As a control, normal saline was applied. Endoscopic examination was performed postoperatively and grading was done. Results The rate of adhesion was the highest at 2 weeks postoperatively and was significantly lower in the HA-CMC–treated group than the control on all postoperative days. The grouping of cases by CT scores at 2 weeks postoperatively showed lower adhesion formation with the HA-CMC treatment than the control. The safety profile of the patients was normal at 4 weeks postoperatively. Conclusion HA-CMC is an efficacious and safe material in decreasing the incidence of adhesion after endoscopic sinus surgery.

Re-irradiation of recurrent esophageal cancer after primary definitive radiotherapy

Purpose For recurrent esophageal cancer after primary definitive radiotherapy, no general treatment guidelines are available. We evaluated the toxicities and clinical outcomes of re-irradiation (re-RT) for recurrent esophageal cancer. Materials and Methods We analyzed 10 patients with recurrent esophageal cancer treated with re-RT after primary definitive radiotherapy. The median time interval between primary radiotherapy and re-RT was 15.6 months (range, 4.8 to 36.4 months). The total dose of primary radiotherapy was a median of 50.4 Gy (range, 50.4 to 63.0 Gy). The total dose of re-RT was a median of 46.5 Gy (range, 44.0 to 50.4 Gy). Results The median follow-up period was 4.9 months (range, 2.6 to 11.4 months). The tumor response at 3 months after the end of re-RT was complete response (n = 2), partial response (n = 1), stable disease (n = 2), and progressive disease (n = 5). Grade 5 tracheoesophageal fistula developed in three patients. The time interval between primary radiotherapy and re-RT was less than 12 months in two of these three patients. Late toxicities included grade 1 dysphagia (n = 1). Conclusion Re-RT of recurrent esophageal cancer after primary radiotherapy can cause severe toxicity.

An area-efficient built-in redundancy analysis for embedded memories with optimal repair rate using 2-D redundancy

A novel built-in redundancy analysis (BIRA) is proposed for embedded memories. The proposed BIRA algorithm has two phases. In the first phase, detected faults are collected to area-efficient fault storing content addressable memory (CAM). In order to determine a correct repair solution, spare memories are allocated in the second phase using linear feedback shift register (LFSR) with fast analyzing speed. Experimental results show that the proposed BIRA algorithm achieves optimal repair rate and very low area overhead.

Early treatment volume reduction rate as a prognostic factor in patients treated with chemoradiotherapy for limited stage small cell lung cancer

Purpose To investigate the relationship between early treatment response to definitive chemoradiotherapy (CRT) and survival outcome in patients with limited stage small cell lung cancer (LS-SCLC). Materials and Methods We retrospectively reviewed 47 patients with LS-SCLC who received definitive CRT between January 2009 and December 2012. Patients were treated with systemic chemotherapy regimen of etoposide/carboplatin (n = 15) or etoposide/cisplatin (n = 32) and concurrent thoracic radiotherapy at a median dose of 54 Gy (range, 46 to 64 Gy). Early treatment volume reduction rate (ETVRR) was defined as the percentage change in gross tumor volume between diagnostic computed tomography (CT) and simulation CT for adaptive RT planning and was used as a parameter for early treatment response. The median dose at adaptive RT planning was 36 Gy (range, 30 to 43 Gy), and adaptive CT was performed in 30 patients (63.8%). Results With a median follow-up of 27.7 months (range, 5.9 to 75.8 months), the 2-year locoregional progression-free survival (LRPFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were 74.2% and 56.5%, respectively. The mean diagnostic and adaptive gross tumor volumes were 117.9 mL (range, 5.9 to 447 mL) and 36.8 mL (range, 0.3 to 230.6 mL), respectively. The median ETVRR was 71.4% (range, 30 to 97.6%) and the ETVRR >45% group showed significantly better OS (p < 0.0001) and LRPFS (p = 0.009) than the other group. Conclusion ETVRR as a parameter for early treatment response may be a useful prognostic factor to predict treatment outcome in LS-SCLC patients treated with CRT.

Tracheal intubation using the Airtraq®: a comparison with the lightwand

The Airtraq® laryngoscope is a new tracheal intubation device that has been developed for the management of normal and difficult airways. As with the lightwand, the Airtraq can be used without placing the patient in the ‘sniffing position’ for direct laryngoscopy. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy and usability of the Airtraq with that of the lightwand during routine airway management. One hundred ASA 1‐2 patients scheduled for elective surgery under general anaesthesia were randomly assigned to either the Airtraq (n = 50) or lightwand (n = 50). Intubation was performed by one of two anaesthetists experienced in the use of both devices. There was no difference in success rate, intubation time, and haemodynamic response between the two groups. In conclusion, the Airtraq® and lightwand have similar efficacy in patients without risk factors for difficult intubation.

Path delay fault diagnosis using path scoring

With the increasing complexity of VLSI devices, more complex faults have appeared. The process of locating input-output paths in the chip that caused the delay fault is termed as delay-fault diagnosis. In this paper, we propose a path delay fault diagnosis algorithm using path scoring. The proposed diagnosis algorithm utilizes reasoning-based diagnosis technique and stuck-at fault diagnosis results to improve diagnosis the resolution of delay-fault diagnosis. We propose a path scoring algorithm to increase first-hit-rate (FHR). Experimental results for ISCAS85 and full-scan version of ISCAS89 benchmark circuits prove the accuracy of the proposed algorithm.

Upiquitous Home Healthcare Management System with Early Warning Reporting

The changes of medical environments such as the growth of a patient with a chronic disease and the elderly, and the advance of the IT technology require highly qualified medical service of new paradigm. For the reason, home health management service has been focused with much expectations and interests. Our proposed home health management system (H2MS) monitors and manages daily physiological status which is easily acquired from multiple-sensor based ubiquitous bio-signal sensor during sleeping, bathing, evacuating, and living at home. H2MS is largely consisted of four functional subsystems: multiple-sensor based ubiquitous bio-signal sensor, home health intermediary client (H2IC), home health center (H2C), and home health service provider (H2SP). Each subsystem carried out their own processes and collaborated on a work with each other. H2MS provides various home health services for the wellness, as well as the elderly, chronic patients illness, or terminal illness. Also, it is available to suggest various services: an early warning service according to the change of health status, advice service for health improvement, and appointment service for medical treatment. Moreover, this early warning service makes promptly emergency repairs as soon as occurrence of physiologically abnormal symptom. Consequently, early warning reports reduce the frequent intervention of high costed service of medical professionals.

High-efficiency BIRA for embedded memories with a high repair rate and low area overhead

High-efficiency built-in redundancy analysis (BIRA) is presented. The proposed BIRA uses three techniques to achieve a high repair rate using spare mapping registers with adjustable fault tags to reduce area overhead. Simulation results show that the proposed BIRA is a reasonable solution for embedded memories.

An area efficient programmable built-in self-test for embedded memories using an extended address counter

Programmable memory built-in self-tests (BIST) have increased test flexibility but result in large area overhead. In this research, a new finite state machine (FSM) based programmable memory BIST that can select march algorithms was proposed in order to overcome this problem. The proposed BIST efficiently generates various march algorithms utilizing an extended address counter while also taking into consideration the characteristics of the march algorithms. The experimental results of this research indicated that the proposed BIST improved test flexibility and resulted in a smaller area overhead, as compared to the results of previous studies.