• The Korean Nurse
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.77-96
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• 1997

The duty shifts of hospital nurses not only affect nurses' physical and mental health but also present various personnel management problems which often result in high turnover rates. In this context a study was carried out from October to November 1995 for a period of two months to find out the status of hospital nurses' duty shift patterns, and preferred duty hours and fixed duty shifts. The study population was 867 RNs working in five general hospitals located in Seoul and its vicinity. The questionnaire developed by the writer was used for data collection. The response rate was 85.9 percent or 745 returns. The SAS program was used for data analysis with the computation of frequencies, percentages and Chi square test. The findings of the study are as follows: 1. General characteristics of the study population: 56 percent of respondents was (25 years group and 76.5 percent were "single": the predominant proportion of respondents was junior nursing college graduates(92.2%) and have less than 5 years nursing experience in hospitals(65.5%). For their future working plan in nursing profession, nearly 50% responded as uncertain The reasons given for their career plan was predominantly 'personal growth and development' rather than financial reasons. 2. The interval for rotations of duty stations was found to be mostly irregular(56.4%) while others reported as weekly(16.1%), monthly(12.9%), and fixed terms(4.6%). 3. The main problems related to duty shifts particularly the evening and night duty nurses reported were "not enough time for the family, " "afraid of security problems after the work when returning home late at night." and "lack of leisure time". "problems in physical and physiological adjustment." "problems in family life." "lack of time for interactions with fellow nurses" etc. 4. The forty percent of respondents reported to have '1-2 times' of duty shift rotations while all others reported that '0 time'. '2-3 times'. 'more than 3 times' etc. which suggest the irregularity in duty shift rotations. 5. The majority(62.8%) of study population found to favor the rotating system of duty stations. The reasons for favoring the rotation system were: the opportunity for "learning new things and personal development." "better human relations are possible. "better understanding in various duty stations." "changes in monotonous routine job" etc. The proportion of those disfavor the rotating 'system was 34.7 percent. giving the reasons of"it impedes development of specialization." "poor job performances." "stress factors" etc. Furthermore. respondents made the following comments in relation to the rotation of duty stations: the nurses should be given the opportunity to participate in the. decision making process: personal interest and aptitudes should be considered: regular intervals for the rotations or it should be planned in advance. etc. 6. For the future career plan. the older. married group with longer nursing experiences appeared to think the nursing as their lifetime career more likely than the younger. single group with shorter nursing experiences ($x^2=61.19.{\;}p=.000;{\;}x^2=41.55.{\;}p=.000$). The reason given for their future career plan regardless of length of future service, was predominantly "personal growth and development" rather than financial reasons. For further analysis, the group those with the shorter career plan appeared to claim "financial reasons" for their future career more readily than the group who consider the nursing job as their lifetime career$(x^2$= 11.73, p=.003) did. This finding suggests the need for careful .considerations in personnel management of nursing administration particularly when dealing with the nurses' career development. The majority of respondents preferred the fixed day shift. However, further analysis of those preferred evening shift by age and civil status, "< 25 years group"(15.1%) and "single group"(13.2) were more likely to favor the fixed evening shift than > 25 years(6.4%) and married(4.8%)groups. This differences were statistically significant ($x^2=14.54, {\;}p=.000;{\;}x^2=8.75, {\;}p=.003$). 7. A great majority of respondents(86.9% or n=647) found to prefer the day shifts. When the four different types of duty shifts(Types A. B. C, D) were presented, 55.0 percent of total respondents preferred the A type or the existing one followed by D type(22.7%). B type(12.4%) and C type(8.2%). 8. When the condition of monetary incentives for the evening(20% of salary) and night shifts(40% of. salary) of the existing duty type was presented. again the day shift appeared to be the most preferred one although the rate was slightly lower(66.4% against 86.9%). In the case of evening shift, with the same incentive, the preference rates for evening and night shifts increased from 11.0 to 22.4 percent and from 0.5 to 3.0 percent respectively. When the age variable was controlled. < 25 yrs group showed higher rates(31.6%. 4.8%) than those of > 25 yrs group(15.5%. 1.3%) respectively preferring the evening and night shifts(p=.000). The civil status also seemed to operate on the preferences of the duty shifts as the single group showed lower rate(69.0%) for day duty against 83. 6% of the married group. and higher rates for evening and night duties(27.2%. 15.1%) respectively against those of the married group(3.8%. 1.8%) while a higher proportion of the married group(83. 6%) preferred the day duties than the single group(69.0%). These differences were found to be statistically all significant(p=.001). 9. The findings on preferences of three different types of fixed duty hours namely, B, C. and D(with additional monetary incentives) are as follows in order of preference: B type(12hrs a day, 3days a wk): day shift(64.1%), evening shift(26.1%). night shift(6.5%) C type(12hrs a day. 4days a wk) : evening shift(49.2%). day shift(32.8%), night shift(11.5%) D type(10hrs a day. 4days a wk): showed the similar trend as B type. The findings of higher preferences on the evening and night duties when the incentives are given. as shown above, suggest the need for the introductions of different patterns of duty hours and incentive measures in order to overcome the difficulties in rostering the nursing duties. However, the interpretation of the above data, particularly the C type, needs cautions as the total number of respondents is very small(n=61). It requires further in-depth study. In conclusion. it seemed to suggest that the patterns of nurses duty hours and shifts in the most hospitals in the country have neither been tried for different duty types nor been flexible. The stereotype rostering system of three shifts and insensitiveness for personal life aspect of nurses seemed to be prevailing. This study seems to support that irregular and frequent rotations of duty shifts may be contributing factors for most nurses' maladjustment problems in physical and mental health. personal and family life which eventually may result in high turnover rates. In order to overcome the increasing problems in personnel management of hospital nurses particularly in rostering of evening and night duty shifts, which may related to eventual high turnover rates, the findings of this study strongly suggest the need for an introduction of new rostering systems including fixed duties and appropriate incentive measures for evenings and nights which the most nurses want to avoid, In considering the nursing care of inpatients is the round-the clock business. the practice of the nursing duty shift system is inevitable. In this context, based on the findings of this study. the following are recommended: 1. The further in-depth studies on duty shifts and hours need to be undertaken for the development of appropriate and effective rostering systems for hospital nurses. 2. An introduction of appropriate incentive measures for evening and night duty shifts along with organizational considerations such as the trials for preferred duty time bands, duty hours, and fixed duty shifts should be considered if good quality of care for the patients be maintained for the round the clock. This may require an initiation of systematic research and development activities in the field of hospital nursing administration as a part of permanent system in the hospital. 3. Planned and regular intervals, orientation and training, and professional and personal growth should be considered for the rotation of different duty stations or units. 4. In considering the higher degree of preferences in the duty type of "10hours a day, 4days a week" shown in this study, it would be worthwhile to undertake the R&D type studies in large hospital settings.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.57-65
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• 2001

Purpose : $T_2$-weighted half courier Echo Planar Imaging (T2HEPI) method is proposed to reduce measurement time of existing EPI by a factor of 2. In addition, high $T_2$ contrast is obtained for clinical applications. High resolution single-shot EPI images with $T_2$ contrast are obtained with $128{\times}128$ matrix size by the proposed method. Materials and methods : In order to reduce measurement time in EPI, half courier space is measured, and rest of half courier data is obtained by conjugate symmetric filling. Thus high resolution single shot EPI image with $128{\times}128$ matrix size is obtained with 64 echoes. By the arrangement of phase encoding gradients, high $T_2$ weighted images are obtained. The acquired data in k-space are shifted if there exists residual gradient field due to eddy current along phase encoding gradient, which results in a serious problem in the reconstructed image. The residual field is estimated by the correlation coefficient between the echo signal for dc and the corresponding reference data acquired during the pre-scan. Once the residual gradient field is properly estimated, it can be removed by the adjustment of initial phase encoding gradient field between $70^{\circ}$ and $180^{\circ}$ rf pulses. Results : The suggested T2EPl is implemented in a 1.0 Tela whole body MRI system. Experiments are done with the effective echo times of 72ms and 96ms with single shot acquisitions. High resolution($128{\times}128$) volunteer head images with high $T_2$ contrast are obtained in a single scan by the proposed method. Conclusion : Using the half courier technique, higher resolution EPI images are obtained with matrix size of $128{\times}128$ in a single scan. Furthermore $T_2$ contrast is controlled by the effective echo time. Since the suggested method can be implemented by software alone (pulse sequence and corresponding tuning and reconstruction algorithms) without addition of special hardware, it can be widely used in existing MRI systems.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.17-31
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• 2006

In this paper, passport recognition and face verification methods which can automatically recognize passport codes and discriminate forgery passports to improve efficiency and systematic control of immigration management are proposed. Adjusting the slant is very important for recognition of characters and face verification since slanted passport images can bring various unwanted effects to the recognition of individual codes and faces. Therefore, after smearing the passport image, the longest extracted string of characters is selected. The angle adjustment can be conducted by using the slant of the straight and horizontal line that connects the center of thickness between left and right parts of the string. Extracting passport codes is done by Sobel operator, horizontal smearing, and 8-neighborhood contour tracking algorithm. The string of codes can be transformed into binary format by applying repeating binary method to the area of the extracted passport code strings. The string codes are restored by applying CDM mask to the binary string area and individual codes are extracted by 8-neighborhood contour tracking algerian. The proposed RBF network is applied to the middle layer of RBF network by using the fuzzy logic connection operator and proposing the enhanced fuzzy ART algorithm that dynamically controls the vigilance parameter. The face is authenticated by measuring the similarity between the feature vector of the facial image from the passport and feature vector of the facial image from the database that is constructed with PCA algorithm. After several tests using a forged passport and the passport with slanted images, the proposed method was proven to be effective in recognizing passport codes and verifying facial images.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.23-30
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• 2007

The ultimate objective of this study is to develop oxygen-enriched combustion techniques applicable to the system of practical industrial boiler. To this end the combustion characteristics of lab-scale LNG combustor were investigated as a first step using the method of numerical simulation by analyzing the flame characteristics and pollutant emission behaviour as a function of oxygen enrichment level. Several useful conclusions could be drawn based on this study. First of all, the increase of oxygen enrichment level instead of air caused long and thin flame called laminar flame feature. This was in good agreement with experimental results appeared in open literature and explained by the effect of the decrease of turbulent mixing due to the decrease of absolute amount of oxidizer flow rate by the absence of the nitrogen species. Further, as expected, oxygen enrichment increased the flame temperatures to a significant level together with concentrations of $CO_2$ and $H_2O$ species because of the elimination of the heat sink and dilution effects by the presence of $N_2$ inert gas. However, the increased flame temperature with $O_2$ enriched air showed the high possibility of the generation of thermal $NO_x$ if nitrogen species were present. In order to remedy the problem caused by the oxygen-enriched combustion, the appropriate amount of recirculation $CO_2$ gas was desirable to enhance the turbulent mixing and thereby flame stability and further optimum determination of operational conditions were necessary. For example, the adjustment of burner with swirl angle of $30\sim45^{\circ}$ increased the combustion efficiency of LNG fuel and simultaneously dropped the $NO_x$ formation.

• Journal of the Korean Professional Engineers Association
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.54-75
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• 1995

This synthesis has been prepared from a review of literature on Truck Escape Ramps technology and a survey of current practice by state department of transportation. Their locations have been determined usually from a combination of accident experience and en-gineering judgement, but new tools are emerging that can identify needs and sites without waiting for catastrophic accidents to happen. The Grade Severity Rating Systems holds promise in this regard. Design Procedures for truck excape ramps continue to evolve. Gravel arrester beds are clearly the preferred choice across the country Rounded aggregate, uniformly graded in the approximate size range of 13 to 18mm. Tech-nical publications typically have dassified TER types as paved gravity, sandpile, and ar-rester bed ramps. The design speed for vehicle entry into the ramp in critical to the deter-mination of ramp length. An escape ramp should be designed for a minimum entry speed of 130km/hr, a 145km/hr design being preferred. The ramps should be straight and their angle to the roadway align-ment should be as possible. The grade of truck escape ramps show the adjustment of ramp design to local topography, such as the tradeoff of ramp length against earthwork requirements. A width of 9 to 12m would more safety acommodate two or more outof con-trol vehicles. Reguarding comments on the most effective material, most respondents cited their own specification or referred to single graded, rounded pea gravel. The consensus essentially Is that single graded, well -rounded gravel is the most desirable material for use in arrester beds. The arrester beds should be constructed with a minimum aggregate depth of 30cm. Successful ramps have used depths between 30 and 90cm.

• Proceedings of the Korean DIstribution Association Conference
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• 2003.02a
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• pp.123-166
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• 2003

Marketing channel is recognized as one of the society systems which have the character of functional organization. These organizations are related to each other for specialized and cooperative work. Channel members in distribution channel are striving to accomplish exchange through reciprocal action. Thus channel members exercise their power to take better position in exchange. There will be struggling between members about satisfaction and conflict during this power exercise. Now a days, buyers use more harsh power as large retail firms are increasing. This phenomenon is occurring in the distribution channel. However, there will be different phenomenon in case of agricultural products. Not like industrial product suppliers, agricultural product suppliers have various supply channels and many agricultural products are seasonal. It has also unstable amount supplies. There should be differentiated marketing in agricultural products. Relatively weaker powered suppliers have to strengthen comparative factors and also have to be technically specialized through assessed experience in order to establish strong product sales chain. Making a brand of agricultural product would be also a good idea to increase the product comparability. Channel members need to be recognized their specialized functions in order to make balanced distribution channel. There have to be conversion of concept of relation between suppliers and buyers from subordinate relationship to cooperative relationship.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.27 no.2 s.46
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• pp.200-216
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• 1994

In present study, the authors investigated the possible effect of coffee consumption on serum cholesterol level in 1017 men between the ages of 40 and 59 years, who were randomly selected from the members of Seoul Cohort Study. Serum total cholesterol data was collected with other serologic indices (e.g. systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, hight, weight, etc.) through the program of biennial health check-up offered by Korean Medical Insurance Corporation (KMIC). The amount of coffee consumption was assessed by a self-administered questionnaire through mailing. Other confounding factors, such as age, body mass index, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, and other dietary intake pattern were also determined by the questionnaire. The differences in means of serum total cholesterol in compared to non consumers were $-0.4{\pm}3.56mg/dl$ for those drinking less than 1 cup a day, $-0.6{\pm}3.60mg/dl$ for those drinking 1 cup a day, and $7.1{\pm}3.41mg/dl$ for those drinking more than 2 cups a day. Since smoking interacted the relationship between coffee consumption and serum total choleaterol, we re-analyzed those relationship in smokers and non-smokers separately Other atherogenic behaviors were well correlated with total cholesterol, so we adjusted the mean values of serum total cholesterol through multivariate model selection with age(r=0.12), total cigarette index (cigarette-years; r=0.10), Quetelet's index ($Kg/m^2$, r=0.16), daily calory expenditure (kcal/day, r=0.06), weekly meat and poultry consumption(g/week, r=0.05), weekly fish consumption (g/week, r=0.08), other caffeinated beverage intake (cups/week), and the amount of sugar and prim added to the coffee. Among those variables only age, Quetelet's index, fish consumption, and total cigarette index (in smokers) were remained in the models. After adjustment, the corresponing differences of total cholesterol in smokers were changed to $0.4{\pm}5.24mg/dl,\;-0.5{\pm}4.97mg/dl,\;and\;8.9{\pm}4.78mg/dl$, which were significantly different among themselves (P=0.011). In non-smokers, however, the differences were not statistically significant (P=0.76). Adjusted mean values of systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure were also determined to evaluate the direct effect of coffee to cardiovascular system, but their means were not significantly different by coffee consumption(p=0.18 for SBP, p=0.48 for DBP). Asuming instant coffee in the most popular type of coffee in Korea, the association observed in our study between coffee and serum total cholesterol, especially in smokers, is very interesting finding for the connection between coffee and serum total cholesterol, because only 'boiled coffee' tend to show significant lipid raising effect rather than to other types of coffee, like filtered or espresso, in most of the western countries. We concluded that people who drink coffee more than 2 cups a day have significantly higher serum total cholesterol level than those who never drink coffee, especially in smokers.

• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.171-198
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• 2009

The primary purpose of this study is to examine the impact of new BIS regulation, which is the preparations to incorporate not only credit risk but also market and operation risk, on the bank behaviors. As methodology, SUR(seemingly unrelated regression) and pool unit test are used in the empirical analysis of banks survived in Korea. It is employed that quarterly data of BIS capital ratio, ratio of standard and below loans to total loans, ratio of liquid assets to liquid liabilities, allowances for credit losses, real GDP, yields of corporate bonds(3years, AA) covering the period of 2000Q1~2009Q1. As a result, it could be indicated that effectiveness and promoting improvements of BIS capital regulation policy as follows; First, it is explicitly seen that weight of lending had decreased and specific gravity of international investment had increased until before BIS regulation is built up a step for revised agreement in late 2001. Second, after more strengthening of BIS standard in late 2002, banks had a tendency to decrease the adjustment of assets weighted risk through issuing of national loan that is comparatively low profitability. Also, it is implicitly sought that BIS regulation is a bit of a factor to bring about credit crunch and then has become a bit of a factor of economic stagnation. Third, as the BIS regulation became hard, it let have a effort to raise the soundness of a credit loan because of selecting good debtor based on its credit ratings. Fourth, it should be arranged that the market disciplines, the effective superintendence system and the sound environment to be able to raise enormous bank capital easily, against the credit stringency and reinforce the soundness of banks etc. in Korea capital market.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.1-26
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• 2017

In the meantime, research on corporate informatization focuses on the completeness of information technology itself and its financial effects, so there is insufficient research on whether information technology can support business strategy. It is necessary to verify whether the management strategy implementation of the company can be led through the informatization of the enterprise and the relation between the main mechanism factors and the informatization performance. In this study, what a mechanism factor is applied in the process of result creation of informatization from three mechanism perspectives such as selecting mechanism, learning mechanism and coordinating mechanism with cases of representative domestic IT company and what an importance mechanism factors have been ascertained. This study results in 8 propositions. For a main agent of companies, securement of information capability of organizations has been selected to realize informatization results and investment of informatization has been selected to solve organizational decentralization problems as the most important factor. Additionally, as competition in the industry gets fierce, investment on informatization has been changed to a utility way of implementation of strategies and decision on investment has been made through the official process and information technology. Differentiated company capability has been made based on acquisition of technical knowledge and company information has been expanded to its whole employees through the information system. Also, informatization change management and outside subcontractor management have been acknowledged as an important adjustment factor of company. The first implication of this study is that since case studies on mechanism factors that preceding studies on informatization results did not empirically cover have directly been dealt with based on experiences of executives in charge of business and in charge of informatization, this study can provide practical views about factors that should be mainly managed for informatization results of IT companies. Secondly, since ser-M framework has been applied for IT companies for the first time, this study can academically contribute to companies in other fields about main mechanism factors for result creation of informatization based on deeper understanding and empirical cases.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.45-57
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• 1996

A serious disease in a family influences the entire family member given the fact that the members closely interact with each other. Especially in terms of pediatric nursing, study on family gains importance as the need to care of families whose children with developmental disabilities and chronic disease This study was done based on The Resiliency Model of Family Adjustment and Adaptation(McCubbin, 1991) is intended to examine the stress of parents whose children suffer from cleft lip or /and cleft palate. It also helps them to cope with the stress and analyze the relationship between the stress and coping This study used Family Inventory of Life Events and Changes (FILE) and Coping Health Inventory for Parents(CHIP) for measuring family stress and coping. The two instruments are revised to fit the social and cultural environment of Korean culture. Data collection was done from April 18, 1996 to May 18, 1996 at 8 University medical centers located in Seoul. Those who answered questionnaires were 84 parents whose children have cleft lip or /and cleft palate. SPSS PC+ was used to analyze the data collotted. Programs used for data analysis were t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient. The study is summarized as follows .1. The average score of family stress is 10.46(percentage of the full score 24.90) and 'finance and business strains'(3.25), and 'intrafamily strains'(2.65) ranked the highest. The average score of family's coping is 1.93, which is close to the answer of' moderately helpful' and they are measured to put their utmost efforts to' intergration and cooperation of family and optimistic definition on the situation'. 2. There is no significant statistical correlation between the family stress and coping. 3. Mothers show more stress than fathers in the parts of 'illness and family care strains' and 'losses'(t〓-2.34, t〓-2.32, p<.05). 4. Fathers show more willingness to cope with the stress than mothers do in the parts of' seeking social support','self-esteem','emotional comfort' 5. Mothers are more stress than fathers in the parts of family stress and its coping with it by usual traits(t〓-2.78, p<.05). Parents with religion are measured to cope more willingly than those who are not 6. Income of a family shows positive correlationship with family coping (r〓.28, p<.05). The study shows that gender difference is significant variable in studying on family stress and coping. Mothers get more stress than fathers, which has much to do with the fact that they are in charge of raising children and keeping houseworks. Accordingly, managing family crisis and its survival can be induced by giving support for the mothers, studying fathers including the rest of the family members and giving nursing care and arbitration ; religious background is also considered to be one of the important factors in family stress , judging from the relationship between family income and family's coping, caring given to suffering children is needed on societal levels. The above considerations bring up the need to have a longitudinal study of children with congenital anomaly including cleft lip or /and cleft palate and their families about family stress and coping. Resiliency programs on family system and their effectiveness and the relationship between the enlarged families with social and cultural values reflecting Korean tradition are also needed to be studied.