A life-threatening cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)-related injury can cause recurrent arrest after return of circulation. Such injuries are difficult to identify during resuscitation, and their contribution to failed resuscitation can be missed given the limitations of conventional CPR. Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR), increasingly being considered for selected patients with potentially reversible etiology of arrest, may identify previously occult CPR-related injuries by restoring arterial pressure and flow. Herein, we describe two cases of severe CPR-related injuries contributing to recurrent arrest. Each case had ECPR implemented within 60 minutes of the start of CPR. After the presumed cardiac etiology had been addressed with percutaneous coronary intervention, life-threatening cardiovascular injuries with recurrent arrest were noted, and resuscitative thoracotomy was performed under ECPR. One patient survived to hospital discharge.

ECPR may provide an opportunity to identify and correct severe resuscitation-related injuries causing recurrent arrest. Chest compression depth >6 cm, especially in older women, may contribute to these injuries.

The Sewol ferry disaster is one of the most tragic events in Korea’s modern history. Among the 476 people on board, which included Danwon High School students (324) and teachers (14), 304 passengers died in the disaster (295 recovered corpses and 9 missing) and 172 survived. Of the rescued survivors, 72 were attending Danwon High School, located in Ansan City, and residing in a residence nearby. Because the students were young, emotionally susceptible adolescents, both the government and the parents requested the students be grouped together at a single hospital capable of appropriate psychiatric care. Korea University Ansan Hospital was the logical choice, as the only third-tier university-grade hospital with the necessary faculty and facilities within the residential area of the families of the students. We report the experiences and the lessons learned from the processes of preparing for and managing the surviving young students as a community-based hospital. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:389–393)

The technological development of all kinds of lightweight transportation devices including vehicles, aircraft, ships, etc. has progressed markedly with the demand for energy saving and environmental protection. Aluminum alloy is in the spotlight as it is a suitable environmentally friendly material. However, deformation is a major problem during the welding process because aluminum alloy has a large thermal expansion coefficient. In addition, it is known that its corrosion resistance is excellent; nevertheless, in practice, considerable corrosion is generated and this is a major problem. To solve this problem, the friction stir welding (FSW) technology is applied extensively at various industrial fields as a new welding technique. This method involves a process in which materials are joined by frictional heat and physical force. Therefore, we evaluated improvements in mechanical properties and corrosion resistance through annealing heat treatment after FSW. The electrochemical experiment did not show a significant difference. However, the microstructure observation showed defectless, fine crystal particles, indicating excellent properties at 200–225°C.

The microstructural analysis of the dehydrogenation products of the Ca(BH4)2–MgH2 composite was performed using transmission electron microscopy. It was found that nanocrystalline CaB6 crystallites formed as a dehydrogenation product throughout the areas where the signals of Ca and Mg were simultaneously detected, in addition to relatively coarse Mg crystallites. The uniform distribution of the nanocrystalline CaB6 crystallites appears to play a key role in the rehydrogenation of the dehydrogenation products, which implies that microstructure is a crucial factor determining the reversibility of reactive hydride composites.

Nb-doped Bi4Ti3O12 (Nb-BIT) ferroelectric thin films were prepared in the presence of a nonionic surfactant (pluronic P123) added as an additive to the sol solution and by rapid thermal annealing (RTA). The film annealed at the relatively low temperature of 600 °C was well crystallized and showed good ferroelectricity. The switching charge of capacitors with polarization reversal rapidly increased with a large amplitude and low frequency of the applied pulse, and gradually decreased with a small amplitude and high frequency. The remanent polarization (2Pr) after subjecting the Nb-BIT capacitors to 108 read/write cycles was 46 μC/cm2, which is remarkably higher than 20 μC/cm2 observed in the initial state. These phenomena seem to appear by the presence of space charges trapped after heat treatment by the RTA process.

We have studied infrared photoluminescence (PL) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) of 400 nm and 1500 nm thick InAs epilayers on GaAs, and 4 nm thick InAs on graded InGaAs layer with total thickness of 300 nm grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The PL peak positions of 400 nm, 1500 nm and 4 nm InAs epilayer measured at 10 K are blue-shifted from that of InAs bulk by 6.5, 4.5, and 6 meV, respectively, which can be largely explained by the residual strain in the epilayer. The residual strain caused by the lattice mismatch between InAs and GaAs or graded InGaAs/GaAs was observed from XRD measurements. While the PL peak position of 400 nm thick InAs layer is linearly shifted toward higher energy with increase in excitation intensity ranging from 10 to 140 mW, those of 4 nm InAs epilayer on InGaAs and 1500 nm InAs layer on GaAs is gradually blue-shifted and then, saturated above a power of 75 mW. These results suggest that adopting a graded InGaAs layer between InAs and GaAs can efficiently reduce the strain due to lattice mismatch in the structure of InAs/GaAs.

We investigated the structural evolution of the Ni/Au contact on GaN(000l) during annealing in N2, using in-situ x-ray diffraction, anomalous x-ray scattering, and high resolution electron microscopy. GaN decomposition occurred mostly along GaN dislocations at temperature higher than 500°C. The decomposed Ga diffused into Au and Ni substitutional positions, and the decomposed nitrogen reacted with Ni, forming Ni4N. Interestingly, Ni4N was grown epitaxially. The epitaxial relationship of the Ni4N, Au, and Ni was identified as M(111)//GaN(0002) and M[1 −1 0]//GaN[1 1 −2 0] (M= Ni4N, Au, and Ni). At dislocation free regions, however, the atomically smooth interface remained intact up to 700 °C. Remarkable improvement of device reliability is expected in the contact on dislocation free regions compared with the contact on dislocations.

We investigated the structural behavior of the Ni/Au contact on GaN(000l) during annealing in N2, using in-situ x-ray diffraction, anomalous x-ray scattering, and high resolution electron microscopy. Thermally activated atomic mobility caused the two metal atoms, Au and Ni, to interdiffuse during annealing and form solid solutions. At temperature higher than 500°C, GaN decomposition and reactions occurred mostly along GaN dislocations. By decomposed nitrogen reacted with Ni, interestingly, epitaxial Ni4N phase was formed. The epitaxial relationship of the Ni4N, Au, and Ni was identified as M(111)//GaN(0002) and M[0 1 1]//GaN[0211] (M= Ni4N, Au, and Ni).

Microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of gas-pressure-sintered Si3N4 with 4 wt% Yb2O3 as a sintering aid were investigated. The microstructure was not uniform throughout the specimen. Extremely large elongated grains were formed at the outer region near the surface, while relatively small elongated grains were formed at the inner region of the specimen. The outer region expanded inward with the sintering time. Mechanical properties, such as flexural strength, fracture toughness, and R-curve behavior of the specimens were strongly influenced by these variations in microstructure. The fracture toughness and the R-curve behavior of the outer region were higher than those of the inner region of the same specimen. On the other hand, the strength of the inner region was higher than that of the outer region. By controlling the relative thickness of each region, Si3N4 specimens having functionally graded microstructure were obtained. The Si3N4 with such microstructure exhibited high strength, high fracture toughness, and good flaw tolerance at the same time.

Monoclinic gallium oxide (β-Ga2O3) nanowires were catalytically synthesized by electric arc discharge of GaN powders mixed with a small amount (less than 5 %) of transition metals under a pressure of 500 Torr (80 %-Ar + 20 %-O2). Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) images showed that the average diameter of the wires were about 30 nm and their lengths were as long as up to one hundred micrometer, resulting in extremely large aspect ratio. Fourier diffractogram was indicative of single crystalline nature of the β-Ga2O3 wire. HRTEM image also showed β-Ga2O3 with twin defects at the center of the wire which might play as nucleation seeds. Both X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and FT-Raman spectra of the wires identified the observed nanowires as monoclinic crystalline gallium oxides.

GaN epitaxial thin films were grown on a nitridated sapphire at low temperature (550°C) using remote plasma enhanced ultrahigh vacuum chemical vapor deposition system and these films were investigated by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS), X-ray diffraction(XRD) θ-rocking technique and the Ultraviolet-Visible-Nearinfrared (UV-VIS-NIR) absorption spectrum. The FWHM of the X-ray θ-rocking curve was about 0.4 degree using the (0002) reflection from the GaN layer with 5000Å thickness grown on the nitridated sapphire. An analysis of XRD and the UV-VIS-NIR absorption spectrum showed that the crystalline and optical qualities of GaN are dependent on the nitridation time of the sapphire even at low temperature when a plasma source is used for nitridation. This means that the density of protrusion, which is formed by a relaxation of the elastic energy caused by the lattice difference between the sapphire and AlxO1-xN, with the sapphire nitridation time plays a key role in the crystalline and optical properties of grown GaN films. The RBS channeling data and the FWHM value of the θ-rocking curve for GaNr(0002) also indicated that the truncated hexagonals are tilted towards each other. These results showed that the GaN epitaxial film can be successfully grown on nitridated sapphire by RPE-UHVCVD even at low temperature.