• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.53 no.11
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• pp.965-970
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• 2010

Purpose: The life expectancy of patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) type I is generally considered to be less than 2 years. Recently, with the introduction of proactive treatments, a longer survival and an improved survival rate have been reported. In this study, we analyzed the natural courses and survival statistics of SMA type I patients and compared the clinical characteristics of the patients based on their survival periods. Methods: We reviewed the medical records of 14 pediatric patients diagnosed with SMA type I during a 9-year period. We examined the demographic and clinical characteristics of these patients, calculated their survival probabilities, and plotted survival curves as on the censoring date, January 1, 2010. We also compared the characteristics of the patients who died before the age of 24 months (early-death, ED group) and those who survived for 24 months or longer (long-survival, LS group). Results: The mean survival time was $22.8{\pm}2.0$ months. The survival probabilities at 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, and 30 months were 92.9%, 92.9%, 76.0%, 76.0%, and 65.1%, respectively. Birth weight was the only factor that showed a statistically significant difference between the ED and LS groups ($P$=0.048). Conclusion: In this study, the survival probabilities at 2 years were far greater than expected. Because of the limited number of patients and information in this study, the contribution of improved supportive care on longer survival could not be clarified; this may be elucidated in larger cohort studies.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.37-47
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• 2013

This study investigates regional financial markets and proposes some policy measures for boosting up the regional financial system. Financial supports for start-ups, small and medium sized enterprises(SMEs) in early stage growth have been constrained due to expanded financial gaps among regions during financial restructuring period. The bank consolidation through M&A is associated with widening financial gaps between Seoul area and others, and between regions where regional banks survives or not. Loans to small firms are associated with relationship lending techniques that may be better supported by smaller regional banks. The loan rate to SMEs in locals where regional banks are activated has tended to be 10%point higher than the locals where regional banks closed, and also drive the greater contribution for preventing local capital outflow and promoting local capital investment by local penetrating strategy. Government should develop regional financial policies to boost up regional financial system, and expand the business area of regional financial institutions for supporting start-ups and SMEs.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.59-64
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• 1988

Because carcinoma of breast is known to readily metastasize to the bone, early detection of metastasis spread is very important. Two hundred thirty four consecutive patients who had $^{99m}Tc-MDP$ bone scans prior to treatment and during the follow up period were studied retrospectively to determine the contribution of the scans to staging, treatment and follow up examination between Jan. 1980 and Apr. 1987 in Seoul National University Hospital. 1) Positive bone scan rates in initial clinical stage I, II, III and IV were 0%, 4%, 14% and 53%, respectively. 2) The higher clinical stage is, the more cumulative risk of conversion to positive bone scan is during the same follow up period. 3) Conversion rate to positive bone scan in patients with lymph node metastasis is higher (50%) than those without metastasis (18%) (P < 0.001). We concluded that the bone scan in primary breast cancer was very useful to evaluate initial clinical stage and to perform the follow up examination.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.28-38
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• 2020

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to identify the perceived problems of and suggest improvement measures for asbestos abatement companies in support of asbestos-related systems and policies. Methods: For this study a questionnaire was prepared consisting of current work (two questions), the contribution and necessity of a risk assessment system for asbestos abatement (two questions), and problems with and improvement measures for systems and policies (nine questions). The questionnaires were sent to 2,170 asbestos abatement companies and were returned by 83 companies (return rate = 3.8%). We conducted frequency analysis, ANOVA, and a Chi-squared test at the 5% significance level. Results: Asbestos abatement companies expressed difficulties with complying with wet work (43% of unenrolled managers), negative pressure enclosure (36% of all respondents), and installation and use of decontamination units (26% of all respondents) as stipulated in the relevant regulations. In addition, 43% of the respondents expressed concerns that the expertise of the company was not considered during bidding for asbestos abatement and hoped that an advantage (e.g., bid point) would be given to the upper grades for asbestos risk assessment (38%). Asbestos abatement companies generally rented and used negative pressure devices (including negative pressure recording devices) and suggested that periodic calibration (32%) is needed to ensure the performance of the rented equipment. Finally, the respondents asked for clear definitions for three situations specified in the Occupational Safety and Health Acts: (1) temporarily leaving the asbestos abatement workplace; (2) tasks with less airborne asbestos; and (3) physically breaking or cutting using a machine. Conclusions: The problems and improvement measures identified in this study of asbestos abatement companies can be utilized as fundamental information for the improvement of the systems and policies for safe asbestos abatement.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.71-80
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• 1990

Model tests for the ultimate pullout resistance of anchorages and investigation of failure behaviors in cohesionless soil have been conducted. The factors affecting the anchorage are mostly the geometry of the system, and soil properties of sands. The main conclusions of the experimental work were as follows. 1. The load - displacement relationship can be a form of parabolic curve for all plates. 2. The change in ultimate pullout resistance of anchor is mostly affected by embedment ratio and size of anchor, and influenced to a lesser degree by its shape. 3. Critical embedment ratio which is defined as the failure mode changes from shallow to deep mode is increased with increasing height of anchor. 4. For a constant anchor height, as the width of anchor increases the ultimate pullout resistance also increases. However, considering the efficiency of anchor for unit area, width of anchor does not appear to have any sigrnificant contribution on increasing anchor city. 5. Anchor capacity has a linear relation to sand density for any given section and the rate of change increases as the section increases. Critical depth determining the failure patterns of anchor is decreased with a decrease of sand density. 6. With increasing inclination angle, size of anchor, and decreasing embedment ratio, the ultimate pullout resistance of anchor under inclined loading is significantly decreased. 7. The ultimate pullout resistance of double anchor, a method of improving single of anchor capacity, is influenced by the center - to - center spacing adjacent anchors. It is also found that tandem and parallel anchor rigging arrangements decrease the anchor system capacity to less than twice the single anchor capacity due to anchor interference.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.303-314
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• 2020

Bottled water companies submit monthly hydrologic data including periodical environmental effects investigation, daily water production capacity, water production, water level, water chemistry (pH, EC, temperature) per hour and strictly manage groundwater by periodical analyses. Thus few problems concerning drawdown due to excess intake of groundwater take place. Nevertheless, bottled water companies are imprinted as a contribution to civil affairs resulted regarding groundwater near the companies. Therefore, a new method is required during water balance analysis in environmental effects evaluation, which should be compatible with the evaluation by hydrologic experts as well more accessible to non-experts. In this study, water level of surface water and recharge rate in subcatchment where water production wells are located were measured and monthly baseflow rates were separated from normal streams. Besides, recharge properties of groundwater and surface water in the same catchment area were estimated using analyses of oxygen and hydrogen isotopes in groundwater (production well), surface water, and rainfall.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.622-626
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• 2007

Using multi-trait animal model BLUP, selection was conducted over seven generations for growth rate (DG), real-time ultrasound loin-eye muscle area (LEA), backfat thickness (BF), and intramuscular fat content (IMF) to develop a new line of purebred Duroc pigs with enhanced meat production and meat quality. This study was intended to investigate the relationship between restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of a heart fatty acid-binding protein (H-FABP) gene and intramuscular fat content (IMF) of this Duroc purebred population. The present experiment examined the RFLP of 499 slaughtered pigs. The DNA was separated from the blood or ear tissue of the pigs, which were slaughtered at 105 kg of body weight. Intramuscular fat content of the longissimus muscle was measured using chemical analysis. A significant difference was detected in the breeding value of IMF among the H-FABP PCR RFLP genotypes. The AA genotype has a significantly larger positive effect on the IMF breeding value than do the Aa and aa genotypes for the MspI RFLP. In addition, the DD genotype has a significantly greater positive effect on IMF breeding value than the Dd and dd genotypes for the HaeIII RFLP. For the HinfI RFLP, the hh genotype has a significantly larger positive effect on IMF breeding value than the HH genotype. Multiple regression analysis was performed using the IMF breeding values as the dependent variable and the three H-FABP genotypes as independent variables. Results revealed that the contribution of the genotypes to variation in IMF breeding values was approximately 40%. These results demonstrated that H-FABP RFLPs affect IMF in this Duroc population.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.461-467
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• 2011

Accurate classification of input signals is the key prerequisite for variable bit-rate coding, which has been introduced in order to effectively utilize limited communication bandwidth. Especially, recent surge of multimedia services elevate the importance of speech/music classification. Among many speech/music classifier, the ones based on support vector machine (SVM) have a strong selling point, high classification accuracy, but their computational complexity and memory requirement hinder their way into actual implementations. Therefore, techniques that reduce the computational complexity and the memory requirement is inevitable, particularly for embedded systems. We first analyze implementation of an SVM-based classifier on embedded systems in terms of execution time and energy consumption, and then propose two techniques that alleviate the implementation requirements: One is a technique that removes support vectors that have insignificant contribution to the final classification, and the other is to skip processing some of input signals by virtue of strong correlations in speech/music frames. These are post-processing techniques that can work with any other optimization techniques applied during the training phase of SVM. With experiments, we validate the proposed algorithms from the perspectives of classification accuracy, execution time, and energy consumption.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.37-42
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• 2016

In this paper, in today's highly complex video and broadcast operations, broadcasters are constantly challenged to reliably deliver low-latency, high-quality video to multiscreen audiences on-air and online. The Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) protocols enable internet video to a wide range of multiscreen devices. However, video quality is often marginal and would prove unacceptable for valued linear broadcast content delivered to the Big Screen today. The Media information processing technology advances in ABR enables service providers to take control and offer quality managed linear video services to ALL screens in the home, including the Big Screen, with a single unified IP Video infrastructure. The New Multiscreen-Assisted ABR (MSA-ABR) delivery management system proposed using Cloud based multicast-assisted ABR for a broadcast facility that performs routing of contribution content and online publishing services within a virtual, centralized cloud infrastructure.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.277-290
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• 2015

The main purpose of study is to identify relevance between nature and types of risk factors that delinquent teenagers are exposed and types of methodologies implemented to prevent committing school violence, domestic violence, and suicide or to help recovering from violent activities and suicide attempts. The results show that school dropout has much relevance in risk factors such as probation, lawbreaking, smoking, drinking, runaway, domestic violence victim, and suicidal attempt. Risk rate of school dropout for those teenagers who smoke and drink in the period of runaway is 2.76 times higher than those teenagers who do not smoke or drink. More specifically, drinking increases more risk of school dropout than smoking. Contribution of this study is to identify empirical evidence that calls for comprehensive risk management for delinquent teenagers encompassing home, school, and community rather than focusing on risk itself.