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A Study on Determinants of Korean SMEs' Foreign Direct Investment in Gaeseong Industrial Complex & Vietnam (중소기업의 개성공단 및 베트남 직접투자 결정요인 연구)

  • Cho, Heonsoo
    • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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    • v.16 no.4
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    • pp.167-178
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    • 2021
  • The purpose of this study is to analyze the direct investment decision factors in the Kaesong Industrial Complex and Vietnam, and to contribute to the creation of domestic jobs and the revitalization of the inter-Korean economy. According to the analysis, most of the Kaesong Industrial Complex and Vietnamese investment companies are entering the complex for the purpose of utilizing cheap labor, cheap factory locations, sales/development of local markets, and bypass export production bases in third countries. This can be divided into production-efficient investors using differences in production price such as labor costs and market-oriented investors to sell and expand the local market, which seems to be consistent with global direct investment patterns such as Nike, Apple, and Amazon. However, even if the North Korea-U.S. denuclearization talks ease or lift sanctions, Vietnamese investors' willingness to invest in the North Korea has been most burdened by the possibility of closing special economic zones due to political risks. Last but not least, it is important to note that those willing to invest in North Korea are mostly smaller enterprises in textiles, sewing, footwear and leather industries-those that benefit from low-cost labor. Since their size is small, they need policy support in financing, especially in the early stages of their business. Even after they grow past the early stages, those without collateral would still need state guarantee letters to get financing. Thus, it is worth considering to use the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund to compensate commercial banks for bad loan loss or for low-interest loans for smaller SMEs. The interviews with SMEs found that red-tape is one of the biggest difficulties they face. Thus, it is recommended that a one-stop service agency should be established to cover all processes and issues related to inter-Korean economic cooperation to eliminate redundancy and expediate government support for SMEs.

Correlation of Unmet Healthcare Needs and Employment Status for a Population over 65 Years of Age (65세 이상 인구의 고용형태와 의료요구 미충족 경험률의 관련성)

  • Kang, Jeong-Hee;Kim, Chul-Woung;Seo, Nam-Kyu
    • 한국노년학
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    • v.37 no.2
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    • pp.281-291
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    • 2017
  • The present study aimed to investigate the rate of unmet healthcare needs for elderly over the age of 65 years, as well as analyze the relevance between employment status and unmet healthcare needs due to financial reasons. With regard to the study method, a logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the correlation between employment status and unmet healthcare needs due to financial reasons, targeting 5,528 subjects over the age of 65 years. The results showed that the rate of unmet healthcare needs was 18.9%, in which the rate of unmet healthcare needs due to financial reason was 8.1%. The rate of unmet health needs was higher for temporary workers(ORs=1.75) than for retirement workers. However, the rate of unmet healthcare needs caused by financial reasons was higher among day workers(ORs=1.92). In conclusion, in order to prevent unmet healthcare needs for senior Korean patients, it is necessary to not only improve the income security system for the elderly, but also improve the occupational form and level of income of these economically active citizens, considering the increase in average life expectancy. Moreover, it is also necessary to reinforce health insurance coverage systems for settling medical expenses.

Study on the Inheritance and Transformation of the Goryeo Tradition in the Illustrations of the Sixteen Contemplations of the Amitayurdhyana Sutra of the Early Joseon Dynasty -with the Focus on the Concept of Rebirth in the Pure Land- (조선전기 관경십육관변상도에 보이는 고려 전통의 계승과 변용 -정토인식과 왕생관의 변화를 통해-)

  • Lee, Seung-Hee
    • Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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    • v.51 no.1
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    • pp.126-147
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    • 2018
  • The compositions and iconographies of the three Illustrations of the Sixteen Contemplations produced in the early Joseon Dynasty effectively manifest the transitional period of Joseon society as well as the Joseon people's perception of the Pure Land. In particular, the painting at titled Chionji (知恩寺) dated 1435 and another painting at titled Chion' in (知恩院) from 1465, which were commissioned by the Joseon royal family and high-ranking monk, embody the Pure Land faith of the Tiantai School of Buddhism (天台宗) which thrived during the late Goryeo period. This indicates that the Joseon royal court continued to favor the Pure Land faith that emphasized salvation through "self-power" (自力), which was popular among both the royal family and the nobility of Goryeo. On the other hand, in the painting at titled $H{\bar{o}}rinji$ (法輪寺), which is presumed to have been made in the sixteenth century, the compositions and iconographies shown in late Goryeo examples of the Illustrations of the Sixteen Contemplations are disassembled. Moreover, a new iconographical motif, i.e. "welcoming the dragon boat" (龍船接引), emerged with this painting. This motif symbolizes the idea that the souls of the deceased are guided by Amitabha Buddha to rebirth in the Pure Land of Extreme Bliss, which is based on the "other-power" of the Pure Land faith that emphasizes the power of Amitabha Buddha in attaining salvation rather than the educational "self-power" of the Pure Land faith. The emergence of this motif demonstrates the transformation of the Pure Land belief into a faith that relied on the "other-power" of Amitabha in Joseon's Confucian society.

Southeast Asia and ASEAN in 2016: Disappointing Records and Increasing Uncertainty (동남아와 아세안 2016: 기대와 혼돈 속에 커져가는 불확실성)

  • SHIN, Yoon Hwan
    • The Southeast Asian review
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    • v.27 no.1
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    • pp.95-129
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    • 2017
  • This study surveys and reviews political change, economic performance, and regional cooperation that were carried out in 2016 by Southeast Asian countries and ASEAN. This paper reports that what has followed the inauguration of new governments in Myanmar, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Laos fails to live up to the expectation and optimism that arose in the aftermath of elections and party congresses that took place in the first half of the year. In other countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia, where authoritarian regimes are faced with strong oppositions, the prospects for democratic change worsened to a substantial degree, as schisms and internal strives complicated the opposition camp as a result of instigation and intervention by the authoritarian leaders and their followers. In stable political systems, both democratic and authoritarian, no significant changes that may entail serious political implications were noticed. In 2016, the national economy of almost each and every country continued its slow but steady recovery that had started in 2014 and grew by 5% on the average. For 2017 onward, however, the earlier optimism that it would grow at least as fast dimmed down as uncertainty about the world economy looms larger due to the unexpected win by Donald Trump as U.S. president and the expected 'hard landing' of the Chinese economy around 2018. ASEAN declared the launch of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) only one day before the New Year, but its track record looked already bad and unpromising by the end of 2016. ASEAN leaders were tied up by their domestic politics and affairs too tightly to take time off to work seriously to observe the schedule as laid out in the AEC Blueprint 2025. Korea's relationship with Southeast Asian countries and ASEAN was "as good as it gets" in 2016 as ever but could become subject to tough review in the near future, if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is found out to have been implicated in the ongoing Choi Sun Sil scandal and if the opposition wins the next presidential election to be held by this year.

Colombia Border Area Refugees: Centered on Venezuela, Panama, and Ecuador Border Areas (콜롬비아 국경지역 난민증가 원인: 베네수엘라, 파나마 그리고 에콰도르 접경지역 강제실향민을 중심으로)

  • Cha, Kyung-Mi
    • Journal of International Area Studies (JIAS)
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    • v.15 no.1
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    • pp.109-134
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    • 2011
  • Drug-related crime has increased in spite of visible results of Uribe government's hard-line policies on drug eradication and illegally armed organizations which were pursued under U.S. support, without the accompaniment of quantity change in drug cultivation and trade. Military disputes of left-right illegally armed communities surrounding illegal crop cultivation rights were rather intensified, and the number of refugees was increased through enforced displaced people. The 2005 refugee registration committee RUPD reports that 3,316,862 people, 7.3% of total population, were refugees. In particular, the number of refugees presented a large increase rate of 624% when compared to the past year due to enforced displaced people. Main discharge areas of enforced displaced people are connected with drug crime and activities of illegally armed organizations, and are places of increased armed disputes in the process of occupied territory expansion of illegally armed communities and militia. Undiscriminated attacks were executed on farmers in the process of occupation of illegal crop cultivation sites by illegally armed organization and militia to emit enforced displaced people, who moved to border areas by crossing national borders. Enforced displaced people were restricted to certain areas before the appearance of Uribe administration. However, enforced displaced people not only presented quantitative expansion, but also showed tendency of nationwide expansion after national security policy was pursued. With the closing of the Amazon area, previously the main route of drug trade, activity base of illegally armed organizations was moved to the Pacific region, and Panama border area experienced refugee increase due to the new policy of enforced displaced people. This study aims to understand the actual condition and cause for the increase in refugees in Colombia based on border areas of Venezuela, which is the nation of highest dispersion of Columbian refugees, Panama, which has appeared as a new destination for refugees after the 90s, and Ecuador, which has experienced sudden refugee increase in 2000.

Myelin Content in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Patients with Post-Concussion Syndrome: Quantitative Assessment with a Multidynamic Multiecho Sequence

  • Roh-Eul Yoo;Seung Hong Choi;Sung-Won Youn;Moonjung Hwang;Eunkyung Kim;Byung-Mo Oh;Ji Ye Lee;Inpyeong Hwang;Koung Mi Kang;Tae Jin Yun;Ji-hoon Kim;Chul-Ho Sohn
    • Korean Journal of Radiology
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    • v.23 no.2
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    • pp.226-236
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    • 2022
  • Objective: This study aimed to explore the myelin volume change in patients with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) with post-concussion syndrome (PCS) using a multidynamic multiecho (MDME) sequence and automatic whole-brain segmentation. Materials and Methods: Forty-one consecutive mTBI patients with PCS and 29 controls, who had undergone MRI including the MDME sequence between October 2016 and April 2018, were included. Myelin volume fraction (MVF) maps were derived from the MDME sequence. After three dimensional T1-based brain segmentation, the average MVF was analyzed at the bilateral cerebral white matter (WM), bilateral cerebral gray matter (GM), corpus callosum, and brainstem. The Mann-Whitney U-test was performed to compare MVF and myelin volume between patients with mTBI and controls. Myelin volume was correlated with neuropsychological test scores using the Spearman rank correlation test. Results: The average MVF at the bilateral cerebral WM was lower in mTBI patients with PCS (median [interquartile range], 25.2% [22.6%-26.4%]) than that in controls (26.8% [25.6%-27.8%]) (p = 0.004). The region-of-interest myelin volume was lower in mTBI patients with PCS than that in controls at the corpus callosum (1.87 cm3 [1.70-2.05 cm3] vs. 2.21 cm3 [1.86-3.46 cm3]; p = 0.003) and brainstem (9.98 cm3 [9.45-11.00 cm3] vs. 11.05 cm3 [10.10-11.53 cm3]; p = 0.015). The total myelin volume was lower in mTBI patients with PCS than that in controls at the corpus callosum (0.45 cm3 [0.39-0.48 cm3] vs. 0.48 cm3 [0.45-0.54 cm3]; p = 0.004) and brainstem (1.45 cm3 [1.28-1.59 cm3] vs. 1.54 cm3 [1.42-1.67 cm3]; p = 0.042). No significant correlation was observed between myelin volume parameters and neuropsychological test scores, except for the total myelin volume at the bilateral cerebral WM and verbal learning test (delayed recall) (r = 0.425; p = 0.048). Conclusion: MVF quantified from the MDME sequence was decreased at the bilateral cerebral WM in mTBI patients with PCS. The total myelin volumes at the corpus callosum and brainstem were decreased in mTBI patients with PCS due to atrophic changes.

An Exploratory Study of Hospice Care to Patients with Advanced Cancer (암환자를 위한 호스피스 케어에 관한 탐색적 연구)

  • Park, Hye-Ja
    • The Korean Nurse
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    • v.28 no.3
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    • pp.52-67
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    • 1989
  • True nursing care means total nursing care which includes physical, emotional and spiritual care. The modern nursing care has tendency to focus toward physical care and needs attention toward emotional and spiritual care. The total nursing care is mandatory for patients with terminal cancer and for this purpose, hospice care became emerged. Hospice case originated from the place or shelter for the travellers to Jerusalem in medieval stage. However, the meaning of modem hospice care became changed to total nursing care for dying patients. Modern hospice care has been developed in England, and spreaded to U.S.A. and Canada for the patients with terminal cancer. Nowaday, it became a part of nursing care and the concept of hospice care extended to the palliative care of the cancer patients. Recently, it was introduced to Korea and received attention as model of total nursing care. This study was attempted to assess the efficacy of hospice care. The purpose of this study was to prove a difference in terms of physical, emotional a d spiritual aspect between the group who received hospice care and who didn't receive hospice care. The subject for this study were 113 patients with advanced cancer who were hospitalized in the S different hospitals. 67 patients received hospice care in 4 different hospitals, and 46 patients didn't receive hospice care in another 4 different hospitals. The method of this study was the questionaire which was made through the descriptive study. The descriptive study was made by individual contact with 102 patients cf advanced cancer for 9 months period. The measurement tool for questionaire was made by author through the descriptive study, and included the personal religious orientation obtained from chung(originated R. Fleck) and 5 emotional stages before dying from Kubler Ross. The content ol questionaire consisted in 67 items which included 11 for general characteristics, 10 for related condition with cancer, 13 for wishes far physical therapy, 13 for emotional reactions and 20 for personal religious orientation. Data for this study was collected from Aug. 25 to Oct. 6 by author and 4 other nurse's who received education and training by author for the collection of data. The collected data were ana lysed using descriptive statistics, $X^2-test$, t-test and pearson correlation coefficient. Results of the study were as follows: "H.C Group" means the group of patient with cancer who received hospice care. "Non H.C Group" means the group of patient with cancer who did not receive hospice care. 1. There is a difference between H.C Group and Non H.C Group in term of the number of physical symptoms, subjective degree of pain sensation and pain control, subjective beliefs in physical cure, emotional reaction, help of present emotional and spiritual care from other personal, needs of emotional and spiritual care in future, selection of treatment method by patients and personal religious orientation. 2. The comparison of H.C Group and Non H.C Group 1) There is no difference in wishes for physical therapy between two groups(p=.522). Among Non H.C Group, a group, who didn't receive traditional therapy and herb medicine was higher than a group who received these in degree of belief that the traditional therapy and herb medicine can cure their disease, and this result was higher in comparison to H.C Group(p=.025, p=.050). 2) Non H.C Group was higher than H.C Group in degree of emotional reaction(p=.050). H.C Group was higher than Non H.C Group in denial and acceptant stage among 5 different emotional stages before dying described by Kubler Ross, especially among the patient who had disease more than 13 months(p=.0069, p=.0198). 3) Non H.C Group was higher than H. C Group in demanding more emotional and spiritual care to doctor, nurse, family and pastor(p=. 010). 4) Non H.C Group was higher than H.C Group in demanding more emotional and spiritual care to each individual of doctor, nurse and family (p=.0110, p=.0029, P=. 0053). 5) H.C Group was higher th2.n Non H.C Group in degree of intrinsic behavior orientation and intrinsic belief orientation of personal religious orientation(p=.034, p=.026). 6) In H.C Group and Non H.C Group, the degree of emotional demanding of christians was significantly higher than non christians to doctor, nurse, family and pastor(p=. 000, p=.035). 7) In H.C Group there were significant positive correlations as following; (1) Between the degree of emotional demandings to doctor, nurse, family & pastor and: the degree of intrinsic behavior orientation in personal religious orientation(r=. 5512, p=.000). (2) Between the degree of emotional demandings to doctor, nurse. family & pastor and the degree of intrinsic belief orientation in personal religious orientation(r=.4795, p=.000). (3) Between the degree of intrinsic behavior orientation and the degree of intrinsic: belief orientation in personal religious orientation(r=.8986, p=.000). (4) Between the degree of extrinsic religious orientation and the degree of consensus religious orientation in personal religious orientation (r=. 2640, p=.015). In H.C. Group there were significant negative correlations as following; (1) Between the degree of intrinsic behavior orientation and extrinsic religious orientation in personal religious orientation (r=-.4218, p=.000). (2) Between the degree or intrinsic behavior orientation and consensus religious orientation in personal religious orientation(r=-. 4597, p=.000). (3) Between the degree of intrinsic belief orientations and the degree of extrinsic religious orientation in personal religious orientation(r=-.4388, p=.000). (4) Between the degree of intrinsic belief orientation and the degree of consensus religious orientation in personal religious orientation(r=-. 5424, p=.000). 8) In Non H.C Group there were significant positive correlation as following; (1) Between the degree of emotional demandings to doctor, nurse, family & pastor and the degree of intrinsic behavior orientation in personal religious orientation(r= .3566, p=.007). (2) Between the degree of emotional demandings to doctor, nurse, family & pastor and the degree of intrinsic belief orientation in personal religious orientation(r=.3430, p=.010). (3) Between the degree of intrinsic behavior orientation and the degree of intrinsic belief orientation in personal religious orientation(r=.9723, p=.000). In Non H.C Group there were significant negative correlation as following; (1) Between the degree of emotional demandings to doctor, nurse, family & pastor and the degree of extrinsic religious orientation in personal religious orientation(r= -.2862, p=.027). (2) Between the degree of intrinsic behavior orientation and the degree of extrinsic religious orientation in personal religious orientation(r=-. 5083, p=.000). (3) Between the degree of intrinsic belief orientation and the degree of extrinsic religious orientation in personal religious orientation(r=-. 5013, p=.000). In conclusion above datas suggest that hospice care provide effective total nursing care for the patients with terminal cancer, and hospice care is mandatory in all medical institutions.

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Dynamic Virtual Ontology using Tags with Semantic Relationship on Social-web to Support Effective Search (효율적 자원 탐색을 위한 소셜 웹 태그들을 이용한 동적 가상 온톨로지 생성 연구)

  • Lee, Hyun Jung;Sohn, Mye
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.19 no.1
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    • pp.19-33
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    • 2013
  • In this research, a proposed Dynamic Virtual Ontology using Tags (DyVOT) supports dynamic search of resources depending on user's requirements using tags from social web driven resources. It is general that the tags are defined by annotations of a series of described words by social users who usually tags social information resources such as web-page, images, u-tube, videos, etc. Therefore, tags are characterized and mirrored by information resources. Therefore, it is possible for tags as meta-data to match into some resources. Consequently, we can extract semantic relationships between tags owing to the dependency of relationships between tags as representatives of resources. However, to do this, there is limitation because there are allophonic synonym and homonym among tags that are usually marked by a series of words. Thus, research related to folksonomies using tags have been applied to classification of words by semantic-based allophonic synonym. In addition, some research are focusing on clustering and/or classification of resources by semantic-based relationships among tags. In spite of, there also is limitation of these research because these are focusing on semantic-based hyper/hypo relationships or clustering among tags without consideration of conceptual associative relationships between classified or clustered groups. It makes difficulty to effective searching resources depending on user requirements. In this research, the proposed DyVOT uses tags and constructs ontologyfor effective search. We assumed that tags are extracted from user requirements, which are used to construct multi sub-ontology as combinations of tags that are composed of a part of the tags or all. In addition, the proposed DyVOT constructs ontology which is based on hierarchical and associative relationships among tags for effective search of a solution. The ontology is composed of static- and dynamic-ontology. The static-ontology defines semantic-based hierarchical hyper/hypo relationships among tags as in (http://semanticcloud.sandra-siegel.de/) with a tree structure. From the static-ontology, the DyVOT extracts multi sub-ontology using multi sub-tag which are constructed by parts of tags. Finally, sub-ontology are constructed by hierarchy paths which contain the sub-tag. To create dynamic-ontology by the proposed DyVOT, it is necessary to define associative relationships among multi sub-ontology that are extracted from hierarchical relationships of static-ontology. The associative relationship is defined by shared resources between tags which are linked by multi sub-ontology. The association is measured by the degree of shared resources that are allocated into the tags of sub-ontology. If the value of association is larger than threshold value, then associative relationship among tags is newly created. The associative relationships are used to merge and construct new hierarchy the multi sub-ontology. To construct dynamic-ontology, it is essential to defined new class which is linked by two more sub-ontology, which is generated by merged tags which are highly associative by proving using shared resources. Thereby, the class is applied to generate new hierarchy with extracted multi sub-ontology to create a dynamic-ontology. The new class is settle down on the ontology. So, the newly created class needs to be belong to the dynamic-ontology. So, the class used to new hyper/hypo hierarchy relationship between the class and tags which are linked to multi sub-ontology. At last, DyVOT is developed by newly defined associative relationships which are extracted from hierarchical relationships among tags. Resources are matched into the DyVOT which narrows down search boundary and shrinks the search paths. Finally, we can create the DyVOT using the newly defined associative relationships. While static data catalog (Dean and Ghemawat, 2004; 2008) statically searches resources depending on user requirements, the proposed DyVOT dynamically searches resources using multi sub-ontology by parallel processing. In this light, the DyVOT supports improvement of correctness and agility of search and decreasing of search effort by reduction of search path.

Utility of Wide Beam Reconstruction in Whole Body Bone Scan (전신 뼈 검사에서 Wide Beam Reconstruction 기법의 유용성)

  • Kim, Jung-Yul;Kang, Chung-Koo;Park, Min-Soo;Park, Hoon-Hee;Lim, Han-Sang;Kim, Jae-Sam;Lee, Chang-Ho
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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    • v.14 no.1
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    • pp.83-89
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    • 2010
  • Purpose: The Wide Beam Reconstruction (WBR) algorithms that UltraSPECT, Ltd. (U.S) has provides solutions which improved image resolution by eliminating the effect of the line spread function by collimator and suppression of the noise. It controls the resolution and noise level automatically and yields unsurpassed image quality. The aim of this study is WBR of whole body bone scan in usefulness of clinical application. Materials and Methods: The standard line source and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) reconstructed spatial resolution measurements were performed on an INFINA (GE, Milwaukee, WI) gamma camera, equipped with low energy high resolution (LEHR) collimators. The total counts of line source measurements with 200 kcps and 300 kcps. The SPECT phantoms analyzed spatial resolution by the changing matrix size. Also a clinical evaluation study was performed with forty three patients, referred for bone scans. First group altered scan speed with 20 and 30 cm/min and dosage of 740 MBq (20 mCi) of $^{99m}Tc$-HDP administered but second group altered dosage of $^{99m}Tc$-HDP with 740 and 1,110 MBq (20 mCi and 30 mCi) in same scan speed. The acquired data was reconstructed using the typical clinical protocol in use and the WBR protocol. The patient's information was removed and a blind reading was done on each reconstruction method. For each reading, a questionnaire was completed in which the reader was asked to evaluate, on a scale of 1-5 point. Results: The result of planar WBR data improved resolution more than 10%. The Full-Width at Half-Maximum (FWHM) of WBR data improved about 16% (Standard: 8.45, WBR: 7.09). SPECT WBR data improved resolution more than about 50% and evaluate FWHM of WBR data (Standard: 3.52, WBR: 1.65). A clinical evaluation study, there was no statistically significant difference between the two method, which includes improvement of the bone to soft tissue ratio and the image resolution (first group p=0.07, second group p=0.458). Conclusion: The WBR method allows to shorten the acquisition time of bone scans while simultaneously providing improved image quality and to reduce the dosage of radiopharmaceuticals reducing radiation dose. Therefore, the WBR method can be applied to a wide range of clinical applications to provide clinical values as well as image quality.

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Malacological Studies on Parafossarulus manchouricus(Gastropoda: Prosobranchia) in Korea (한국산(韓國産) 왜우렁(Parafossarulus manchouricus)의 패류학적(貝類學的) 연구(硏究))

  • Chung, Pyung-Rim
    • The Korean Journal of Malacology
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    • v.1 no.1
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    • pp.24-50
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    • 1985
  • Five different populations of Parafossarulus manchouricus (Chongpyung, Chinju and Kunsan, Korea; and Japan and Taiwan), a population of Bitbynia (Gabbia) misella (Gongju, Korea) and two different populations of Bithynta tentaculata (Michigan, U.S.A. and Bodensee, Germany) were compared in regard to eff-laying characteristics, morphology, chromosome cytology, natural infections of parasites and ecology of habitats. A satisfactory culture method was devised for laboratory rearing of the snails. Tropical fish food (Terra SML) and powdered green leaves (Ceralife) were used as the main food sources for the snails. Benthic diatoms such as Navicula and Gomphonema from the periphyton were also essential for satisfactory growth, especially for the baby snails. The aquaria were stabilized with small stones from a local stream. Young P. manchouricus snails grew to adult size in about 54 days after hatching. They laid eggs 150-156 days after hatching. The whole cycle (birth to egg-laying) took approximately 5 months. The three species of bithyniid snails are iteroparous and lay eggs once a year. There were no major morphological differences in the shells of genera or subgenera studied here. They did exhibit the following rather minor differences. The shell of Parafossarulus has spirally raised ridges, and its apex is usually eroded; the other two genera lack these characteristics. The shell of B. (Gabbia) misella is small, nor exceeding 7.5 mm in length, while the shells of the other two species are larger, being more than 10 mm in length. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of the protoconch of P. manchouricus reveals nearly smooth sculpture with small, low, spiral wrinkles. This sculpture is quite different from that of the Hydrobiidae, a family to which the bithyniids are frequently assigned. Scanning electron microscopy of the radulae of the three bithyniid species showed that their radular morphologies are very similar, but there are some small differences, which may be species-specific. There were some statistical differences in shell heights between the Korean and the other populations of P. manchouricus, and between this species and the other two bithyniids as well. The shell differences between the several populations of Korean P. manchouricus may be related to environment. Edtails of the chromosome cycle of these bithyniid snails are similar to those reported for other snails. No specific differences were observed in the chromosome cycle between the various species and populations of snails employed in this study. Reporred for the first time in molluscs are two darkly stained "nucleolar organizers" during pachyterne stages of meiosis. Two different chromosome numbers were observed in the three bithyniid species: n=17 in B. tentaculata and P. manchouricus, and n=18 in B. (G.) misella. no sex chromosomes or supernumerary chromosomes were seen. There were no morphological differences in karyotypes of three Korean strains of P. manchouricus. The infection rates of cercariae of Clonorchis sinensis in Chinju and Kunsan strains of P. manchouricus were 0.14% and 1.25%, respectively. However, Clonorchis cercariae were found in Chongpyung strain of P. manchouriceu and Gongju strain of B. (G.) misella. The habitats of P. manchouricus around Jinyang Lake were relatively clean without any heavy pollution of aquatic microorganisms and organic materials during the period of this study. The levels of dissolved oxygen (D.O.) and biochemical oxygen demand (B.O.D.) of the water specimens sampled from the study areas ranged from 6.0 to 9.6 ppm and from 0.4 to 1.6 ppm, respectively. Eight metalic constituents from the water samples were also assayed, and all metalic ions detercted were remarkably low below the legal criteria. However, calcium ion in the water samples from the habitats of P. manchouricus was considerably higher than others.

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