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An Analysis of Factors That Affect Image Quality Deterioration in The Potable X-ray Examination on using Digital Wireless Detector (디지털 무선 검출기를 이용한 이동형 X선검사에서 영상품질 저하의 요인분석)

  • Yu, Young-Eun;Lim, Cheong-Hwan;Ko, Joo-Young
    • Journal of radiological science and technology
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    • v.37 no.2
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    • pp.93-100
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    • 2014
  • Recently the development of portable digital wireless imaging system, which acquires digital radiation images by using wireless LAN telecommunications function in an easy and fast way, provides lots of convenience for people. Considering the characteristics of portable imaging tests on emergency and critical patients, this study aims to suggest guidelines for Digital wireless detector by evaluating the effect of de-centering of focus-grid and displacement of subject in detector on the quality of image. The equipments used for this study were Elmo-T6 Digital Mobile X-ray system (SIMAZU Corp.), el' Tor ($14{\times}17$ "Wireless detector), Grid (10:1) and Chest & head phantom. After acquiring post-processing image according to dose increase and de-centering image of grid-focus and head phantom displacement image, this study compared, analyzed and evaluated these images by using a digital image analysis program by Image J. In the change of images based on dose increase, images were rough in the dose of 0.5 mAs, while there was no difference among images in the proper dose of 1~2 mAs and, especially from 2.5 mAs, average value of pixels radically decreased, affecting contrast. Over 3 mAs, contrast dropped due to saturation phenomenon of lungs. As the result of analysis using Image J program, with the increase of displacement between focus-grid and head phantom, the frequency of low pixel value also increase, causing the outline of surface image to disappear, which in turn affects contrast. For better quality imaging, a radiographer must be aware before the time of test that the image quality can be changed based on the critical patient's posture, movement, respiration, displacement of X-ray tube and distance of imaging.

An Empirical Study on the Importance of Psychological Contract Commitment in Information Systems Outsourcing (정보시스템 아웃소싱에서 심리적 계약 커미트먼트의 중요성에 대한 연구)

  • Kim, Hyung-Jin;Lee, Sang-Hoon;Lee, Ho-Geun
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.49-81
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    • 2007
  • Research in the IS (Information Systems) outsourcing has focused on the importance of legal contracts and partnerships between vendors and clients. Without detailed legal contracts, there is no guarantee that an outsourcing vendor would not indulge in self-serving behavior. In addition, partnerships can supplement legal contracts in managing the relationship between clients and vendors legal contracts by itself cannot deal with all the complexity and ambiguity involved with IS outsourcing relationships. In this paper, we introduce a psychological contract (between client and vendor) as an important variable for IS outsourcing success. A psychological contract refers to individual's mental beliefs about his or her mutual obligations in a contractual relationship (Rousseau, 1995). A psychological contract emerges when one party believes that a promise of future returns has been made, a contribution has been given, and thus, an obligation has been created to provide future benefits (Rousseau, 1989). An employmentpsychological contract, which is a widespread concept in psychology, refers to employer and employee expectations of the employment relationship, i.e. mutual obligations, values, expectations and aspirations that operate over and above the formal contract of employment (Smithson and Lewis, 2003). Similar to the psychological contract between an employer and employee, IS outsourcing involves a contract and a set of mutual obligations between client and vendor (Ho et al., 2003). Given the lack of prior research on psychological contracts in the IS outsourcing context, we extend such studies and give insights through investigating the role of psychological contracts between client and vendor. Psychological contract theory offers highly relevant and sound theoretical lens for studying IS outsourcing management because of its six distinctive principles: (1) it focuses on mutual (rather than one-sided) obligations between contractual parties, (2) it's more comprehensive than the concept of legal contract, (3) it's an individual-level construct, (4) it changes over time, (5) it affects organizational behaviors, and (6) it's susceptible to organizational factors (Koh et al., 2004; Rousseau, 1996; Coyle-Shapiro, 2000). The aim of this paper is to put the concept, psychological contract commitment (PCC), under the spotlight, by finding out its mediating effects between legal contracts/partnerships and IS outsourcing success. Our interest is in the psychological contract commitment (PCC) or commitment to psychological contracts, which is the extent to which a partner consistently and deeply concerns with what the counter-party believes as obligations during the IS project. The basic premise for the hypothesized relationship between PCC and success is that for outsourcing success, client and vendor should continually commit to mutual obligations in which both parties believe, rather than to only explicit obligations. The psychological contract commitment playsa pivotal role in evaluating a counter-party because it reflects what one party really expects from the other. If one party consistently shows high commitment to psychological contracts, the other party would evaluate it positively. This will increase positive reciprocation efforts of the other party, thus leading to successful outsourcing outcomes (McNeeley and Meglino, 1994). We have used matched sample data for this research. We have collected three responses from each set of a client and a vendor firm: a project manager of the client firm, a project member from the vendor firm with whom the project manager cooperated, and an end-user of the client company who actually used the outsourced information systems. Special caution was given to the data collection process to avoid any bias in responses. We first sent three types of questionnaires (A, Band C) to each project manager of the client firm, asking him/her to answer the first type of questionnaires (A).

Impact of Net-Based Customer Service on Firm Profits and Consumer Welfare (기업의 온라인 고객 서비스가 기업의 수익 및 고객의 후생에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Eun-Jin;Lee, Byung-Tae
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.123-137
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    • 2007
  • The advent of the Internet and related Web technologies has created an easily accessible link between a firm and its customers, and has provided opportunities to a firm to use information technology to support supplementary after-sale services associated with a product or service. It has been widely recognized that supplementary services are an important source of customer value and of competitive advantage as the characteristics of the product itself. Many of these supplementary services are information-based and need not be co-located with the product, so more and more companies are delivering these services electronically. Net-based customer service, which is defined as an Internet-based computerized information system that delivers services to a customer, therefore, is the core infrastructure for supplementary service provision. The importance of net-based customer service in delivering supplementary after-sale services associated with product has been well documented. The strategic advantages of well-implemented net-based customer service are enhanced customer loyalty and higher lock-in of customers, and a resulting reduction in competition and the consequent increase in profits. However, not all customers utilize such net-based customer service. The digital divide is the phenomenon in our society that captures the observation that not all customers have equal access to computers. Socioeconomic factors such as race, gender, and education level are strongly related to Internet accessibility and ability to use. This is due to the differences in the ability to bear the cost of a computer, and the differences in self-efficacy in the use of a technology, among other reasons. This concept, applied to e-commerce, has been called the "e-commerce divide." High Internet penetration is not eradicating the digital divide and e-commerce divide as one would hope. Besides, to accommodate personalized support, a customer must often provide personal information to the firm. This personal information includes not only name and address, but also preferences information and perhaps valuation information. However, many recent studies show that consumers may not be willing to share information about themselves due to concerns about privacy online. Due to the e-commerce divide, and due to privacy and security concerns of the customer for sharing personal information with firms, limited numbers of customers adopt net-based customer service. The limited level of customer adoption of net-based customer service affects the firm profits and the customers' welfare. We use a game-theoretic model in which we model the net-based customer service system as a mechanism to enhance customers' loyalty. We model a market entry scenario where a firm (the incumbent) uses the net-based customer service system in inducing loyalty in its customer base. The firm sells one product through the traditional retailing channels and at a price set for these channels. Another firm (the entrant) enters the market, and having observed the price of the incumbent firm (and after deducing the loyalty levels in the customer base), chooses its price. The profits of the firms and the surplus of the two customers segments (the segment that utilizes net-based customer service and the segment that does not) are analyzed in the Stackelberg leader-follower model of competition between the firms. We find that an increase in adoption of net-based customer service by the customer base is not always desirable for firms. With low effectiveness in enhancing customer loyalty, firms prefer a high level of customer adoption of net-based customer service, because an increase in adoption rate decreases competition and increases profits. A firm in an industry where net-based customer service is highly effective loyalty mechanism, on the other hand, prefers a low level of adoption by customers.

What happens after IT adoption?: Role of habits, confirmation, and computer self-efficacy formed by the experiences of use (정보기술 수용 후 주관적 지각 형성: 사용 경험에서 형성된 습관, 기대일치, 자기효능감의 역할)

  • Kim, Yong-Young;Oh, Sang-Jo;Ahn, Joong-Ho;Jahng, Jung-Joo
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.18 no.1
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    • pp.25-51
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    • 2008
  • Researchers have been continuously interested in the adoption of information technology (IT) since it is of great importance to the information systems success and it is also an important stage to the success. Adoption alone, however, does not ensure information systems success because it does not necessarily lead to achieving organizational or individual objectives. When an organization or an individual decide to adopt certain information technologies, they have objectives to accomplish by using those technologies. Adoption itself is not the ultimate goal. The period after adoption is when users continue to use IT and intended objectives can be accomplished. Therefore, continued IT use in the post-adoption period accounts more for the accomplishment of the objectives and thus information systems success. Previous studies also suggest that continued IT use in the post-adoption period is one of the important factors to improve long-term productivity. Despite the importance there are few empirical studies focusing on the user behavior of continued IT use in the post-adoption period. User behavior in the post-adoption period is different from that in the pre-adoption period. According to the technology acceptance model, which explains well about the IT adoption, users decide to adopt IT assessing the usefulness and the ease of use. After adoption, users are exposed to new experiences and they shape new beliefs different from the thoughts they had before. Users come to make decisions based on their experiences of IT use whether they will continue to use it or not. Most theories about the user behaviors in the pre-adoption period are limited in describing them after adoption since they do not consider user's experiences of using the adopted IT and the beliefs formed by those experiences. Therefore, in this study, we explore user's experiences and beliefs in the post-adoption period and examine how they affect user's intention to continue to use IT. Through deep literature reviews on the construction of subjective beliefs by experiences, we draw three meaningful constructs which theoretically have great impacts on the continued use of IT: perceived habit, confirmation, and computer self-efficacy. Then, we examine the role of the subjective beliefs on the cognitive/affective attitudes and intention to continue to use that IT. We set up a research model and conducted survey research. Since IT use implies interactions among a user, IT, and a task, we carefully selected the sample of users using same/similar IT to perform same/similar tasks, to exclude unwanted influences of other factors than subjective beliefs on the IT use. We also considered that the sample of users were able to make decisions to continue to use IT volitionally or at least quasi-volitionally. For each construct, we used measurement items recognized for reliability and widely used in the previous research. We slightly modified some items proper to the research context and a pilot test was carried out for forty users of a portal service in a university. We performed a full-scale survey after verifying the reliability of the measurement. The results show that the intention to continue to use IT is strongly influenced by cognitive/affective attitudes, perceived habits, and computer self-efficacy. Confirmation affects the intention to continue indirectly through cognitive/affective attitudes. All the constructs representing the subjective beliefs built by the experiences of IT use have direct and/or indirect impacts on the intention of users. The results also show that the attitudes in the post-adoption period are formed, at least partly, by the experiences of IT use and newly shaped beliefs after adoption. The findings suggest that subjective beliefs built by the experiences have deep impacts on the continued use. The results of the study signify that while experiencing IT in the post-adoption period users form new beliefs, attitudes, and intentions which may be different from those of the pre-adoption period. The results of this study partly demonstrate that the beliefs shaped by the behaviors, those are the experiences of IT use, influence users' attitudes and intention. The results also suggest that behaviors (experiences) also change attitudes while attitudes shape behaviors. If we combine the findings of this study with the results of the previous research on IT adoption, we can propose a cycle of IT adoption and use where behavior shapes attitude, the attitude forms new behavior, and that behavior shapes new attitude. Different from the previous research, the study focused on the user experience after IT adoption and empirically demonstrated the strong influence of the subjective beliefs formed in the post-adoption period on the continued use. This partly confirms the differences between attitudes in the pre-adoption and in the post-adoption period. Users continuously change their attitudes and intentions while experiencing (using) IT. Therefore, to make users adopt IT and to make them use IT after adoption is a different problem. To encourage users to use IT after adoption, experiential variables such as perceived habit, confirmation, and computer self-efficacy should be managed properly.

GFRs Measured by Gates' Method According to 5 Background Sites: Comparison with GFR Measured by I-125-Iothalamate Method (다양한 배후 방사능 설정에 따른 Cates 법 사구체 여과율의 차이: I-125-Iothalamate 측정법과의 비교)

  • Jung, Hyun-Seok;Chung, Yong-An;Kim, Sung-Hoon;Kim, Chung-Ho;Lee, Sung-Young;Sohn, Hyung-Seon;Baik, Jun-Hyun;Chung, Soo-Kyo
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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    • v.38 no.4
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    • pp.306-310
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    • 2004
  • Purpose: The aim was to assess how the background site affects the Gates' glomerular filtration rate(GFR) measurement using Tc-99m-DTPA in correlation with GFR by I-125-lothalamate method. Material and methods: The study populations were 63 adults with 39 men and 24 women aged from 20 to 59 yrs (mean=37.9 yrs). The fellowing five background regions of interest were used in measurement of GFR using Gates' method: 1) lower side of each kidney(subrenal), 2) around each kidney(circumferential), 3) upper side of each kidney(suprarenal), 4) lateral side of each kidney(lateral), 5) between the two kidneys(inter-renal). We also measured GFR using I-125-iothalamate in each subject. The two studies were separated by 1 to 3 weeks. The subjects were divided into two groups by renal depth. Group 1 with renal $depth{\geq}7cm$ and group 2 with renal depth<7cm. We calculated the means and standard deviations of the GFRs measured by two studies. And we statistically analyzed the correlation and differences among GFRs by Gates' method and the GFR by iothalamate method with correlation analysis. Results: The GFRs by Gates' method using suprarenal and inter-renal background correction showed better correlation with the GFR measured by I-125-iothalamate. And GFRs measured by Gates' method showed statistically significant correlation with the GFR measured by I-125-iothalamate in the group with renal depth<7cm. But GFRs measured by Gates' method did not show statistically significant correlation with the GFR measured by I-125-iothalamate in the group with renal $depth{\geq}7cm$. Conclusion: GFRs measured with Gates' method showed higher correlation with the GFR measured by I-125-iothalamate when the regions of interest were plated over the suprarenal and inter-renal backgrounds. And GFRs measured with Gates method showed statistically significant correlation with the GFR measured by I-125-iothalamate in the group with renal depth<7cm.

A Study of Injection Dose for Patients and Exposure Dose for Technologists from the PET/CT Systems (PET/CT 장비 특성에 따른 방사성 의약품 주입량이 방사선 종사자에게 미치는 영향)

  • Park, Hoon-Hee;Oh, Ki-Beak;Lee, Seung-Jae;Bhan, Young-Kag;Kang, Chun-Goo;Lim, Han-Sang;Kim, Jae-Sam;Lee, Chang-Ho
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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    • v.15 no.1
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    • pp.45-50
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    • 2011
  • Purpose: It appears the different value when the injection dose is calculating for patients on each PET/CT systems. It directly affects the technologists' radiation exposed dose. We studied the effect of the variable injection doses from several PET/CT systems to exposure dose for technologists. Materials and Methods: Six technologists have worked for 5 months through unit rotations with 3 PET/CT systems {Scanner 1 (S1): 0.15 mCi/kg, Scanner 2 (S2): 0.17 mCi/kg, Scanner 3 (S3): 0.12 mCi/kg}. Eighteen to 19 patients have had examinations per a day on each PET/CT systems. Examination parameters were adjusted to the same. TLDs were used for checking the exposure dose of technologists. Results: Each technologists' the monthly average exposure dose was as follows; S1: 0.76 mSv, S2: 0.93 mSv, S3: 0.47 mSv. The maximum exposure dose was 1.12 mSv, and minimum was 0.42 mSv. The results showed significance in the correlation between the PET/CT system and the exposure dose (p<0.005). Conclusion: When the amount of injection dose was small, the exposure dose was decreased not only the patients but also the technologists. The exposure dose was decreased by the individual proficiency of technologists. However, the low injection dose can highly reduce the exposure dose for technologist so that there will be needed to following studies.

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Prediction Model of Pine Forests' Distribution Change according to Climate Change (기후변화에 따른 소나무림 분포변화 예측모델)

  • Kim, Tae-Geun;Cho, Youngho;Oh, Jang-Geun
    • Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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    • v.48 no.4
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    • pp.229-237
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    • 2015
  • This study aims to offer basic data to effectively preserve and manage pine forests using more precise pine forests' distribution status. In this regard, this study predicts the geographical distribution change of pine forests growing in South Korea, due to climate change, and evaluates the spatial distribution characteristics of pine forests by age. To this end, this study predicts the potential distribution change of pine forests by applying the MaxEnt model useful for species distribution change to the present and future climate change scenarios, and analyzes the effects of bioclimatic variables on the distribution area and change by age. Concerning the potential distribution regions of pine forests, the pine forests, aged 10 to 30 years in South Korea, relatively decreased more. As the area of the region suitable for pine forest by age was bigger, the decreased regions tend to become bigger, and the expanded regions tend to become smaller. Such phenomena is conjectured to be derived from changing of the interaction of pine forests by age from mutual promotional relations to competitive relations in the similar climate environment, while the regions suitable for pine forests' growth are mostly overlap regions. This study has found that precipitation affects more on the distribution of pine forests, compared to temperature change, and that pine trees' geographical distribution change is more affected by climate's extremities including precipitation of driest season and temperature of the coldest season than average climate characteristics. Especially, the effects of precipitation during the driest season on the distribution change of pine forests are irrelevant of pine forest's age class. Such results are expected to result in a reduction of the pine forest as the regions with the increase of moisture deficiency, where climate environment influencing growth and physiological responses related with drought is shaped, gradually increase according to future temperature rise. The findings in this study can be applied as a useful method for the prediction of geographical change according to climate change by using various biological resources information already accumulated. In addition, those findings are expected to be utilized as basic data for the establishment of climate change adaptation policies related to forest vegetation preservation in the natural ecosystem field.

Vertical Distribution of Vascular Plant Species along an Elevational Gradients in the Gyebangsan Area of Odaesan National Park (오대산국립공원 계방산지구 관속식물의 고도별 수직분포)

  • An, Ji-Hong;Park, Hwan-Jun;Nam, Gi-Heum;Lee, Byoung-Yoon;Park, Chan-Ho;Kim, Jung-Hyun
    • Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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    • v.50 no.4
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    • pp.381-402
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    • 2017
  • In order to investigate distribution of vascular plants along elevational gradient in the Nodong valley of Gyebangsan, vascular plants of eight sections with 100-meter-high were surveyed from the Auto-camping site (800 m) to the top of a mountain (1,577 m). There were a total of 382 taxa: 89 families, 234 genera, 339 species, 7 subspecies, 34 varieties, and 2 forms. As a result of analyzing the pattern of species richness, it showed a reversed hump-shaped with minimum richness at mid-high elevation. As a result of analyzing habitat affinity types, the proportion of forest species increased with increasing elevation. But, the ruderal species decreased with increasing elevation, and then increased at the top of a mountain. As for the proportion of life forms, the annual herbs gradually decreased with increasing elevation, but it did not appear between 1,300 m and 1,500 m and then increased at the top of a mountain. The trees gradually increased with elevation and decreased from 1,300~1,400 m. The vascular plants divided into four groups by using DCA. The arrangement of each stands was arranged in order from right to left on the I axis according to the elevation. The distribution of vascular plants is determined by their own optimal ranges of vegetation. Also, rise in temperature due to climate change affects the distribution of vascular plants, composition, and diversity. Therefore, continuous monitoring is necessary to confirm ecological and environmental characteristics of vegetation, distribution ranges, changes of habitat. Furthermore, plans for conservation and management based on these data should be prepared according to climate change.

A Study on the Factors Influencing Citation Speed and Citation Frequency of Scientific Articles Using Bibliometric Analysis in South Korea (한국 과학기술 논문의 인용속도 및 인용빈도에 영향을 미치는 서지 요인에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Wan-Jong
    • Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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    • v.46 no.4
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    • pp.285-309
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    • 2012
  • The purpose of this study is to analyze whether bibliographic factors influence citation speed and the number of citations or not and whether citation speed affects the number of citations. Another purpose of this study is that if bibliographic factors carry out a significant role. For this analysis, this study is based on the assumption that all papers published by researchers in South Korea distributed power law shape. The main results of this study are as follows: First, the papers written by foreign first authors or reprint authors were cited more quickly from first citation speed and average citation speed. These papers were cited much more from first citation speed and average citation speed than by domestic first authors or reprint authors. The papers, collaborated by international researchers, were cited more quickly from first citation speed but were not different from average citation speed than by only domestic researchers. The papers, collaborated by international researchers, were cited much more than by only domestic stand-alone researchers. The number of authors and the impact factor influenced first citation speed, average citation speed and the number of citations. Second, the faster first citation speed and the slower average citation speed, the more papers were cited. First citation speed more affected the higher number of citations than the average citation speed. Third, all five bibliographic factors influenced the impact relationship from first citation speed to the number of citations through the moderating effect analysis. Fourth, only three bibliographic factors (the country of the first author; the country of the reprint author; the number of the coauthors) affected the impact relationship from first citation speed to the number of citations but two bibliographic factors did not influence through the moderating effect analysis.

Changes in Quality of Fried Rice with Red Snow Crab Meat Depending on the Storage Period and Temperature (저장기간 및 저장온도에 따른 붉은대게풍미 볶음밥의 품질변화)

  • Jung, Ji Hee;Lim, Ji Hoon;Jeong, Min Jeong;Jeong, In Hack;Kim, Byoung Mok
    • Korean journal of food and cookery science
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    • v.31 no.4
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    • pp.387-394
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    • 2015
  • The red snow crab lives at a depth 200-2,000 m in the east coast. It has a smooth taste with a rich texture. However mostly red snow crab are only utilized materials. For seafood development, research is needed on using red snow crab in various products. In this study, quality changes in fried rice prepared with red snow crab meat, red snow crab emulsion sauce and red snow crab effluent were investigated. Physicochemical, microbiological and sensory characteristics were determined during storage at -20, 4 and $25^{\circ}C$ for 5 weeks to assess changes in the quality of the fried rice. The pH and acidity values did not show any significant differences at $-20^{\circ}C$. The VBN and TBA values of fried rice stored at 4 and $25^{\circ}C$ were significantly higher than those of fried rice stored at $-20^{\circ}C$ during the same storage period. The viable cell count of the fried rice stored at $-20^{\circ}C$ changed little during the storage period. During storage at $25^{\circ}C$, the overall quality was initially 8.0, but rapidly decreased to 1.0 after 5 weeks. In conclusion, the best storage temperature for both quality and safety was $-20^{\circ}C$. The storage condition for instant rice containing red snow crab affects the quality and we confirmed the applicability of using materials from red snow crab.