• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.215-223
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• 2016

Purpose: The management of metal-induced field inhomogeneities is one of the major concerns of distortion-free magnetic resonance images near metallic implants. The recently proposed method called "Slice Encoding for Metal Artifact Correction (SEMAC)" is an effective spin echo pulse sequence of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) near metallic implants. However, as SEMAC uses the noisy resolved data elements, SEMAC images can have a major problem for improving the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) without compromising the correction of metal artifacts. To address that issue, this paper presents a novel reconstruction technique for providing an improvement of the SNR in SEMAC images without sacrificing the correction of metal artifacts. Materials and Methods: Low-rank approximation in each coil image is first performed to suppress the noise in the slice direction, because the signal is highly correlated between SEMAC-encoded slices. Secondly, SEMAC images are reconstructed by the best linear unbiased estimator (BLUE), also known as Gauss-Markov or weighted least squares. Noise levels and correlation in the receiver channels are considered for the sake of SNR optimization. To this end, since distorted excitation profiles are sparse, $l_1$ minimization performs well in recovering the sparse distorted excitation profiles and the sparse modeling of our approach offers excellent correction of metal-induced distortions. Results: Three images reconstructed using SEMAC, SEMAC with the conventional two-step noise reduction, and the proposed image denoising for metal MRI exploiting sparsity and low rank approximation algorithm were compared. The proposed algorithm outperformed two methods and produced 119% SNR better than SEMAC and 89% SNR better than SEMAC with the conventional two-step noise reduction. Conclusion: We successfully demonstrated that the proposed, novel algorithm for SEMAC, if compared with conventional de-noising methods, substantially improves SNR and reduces artifacts.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.183-190
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• 2018

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to investigate how a Portulaca oleracea L. extract (POE) stimulates insulin secretion in INS-1 pancreatic ${\beta}-cells$. MATERIALS/METHOD: INS-1 pancreatic ${\beta}-cells$ were incubated in the presence of various glucose concentrations: 1.1 or 5.6, 16.7 mM glucose. The cells were treated with insulin secretagogues or insulin secretion inhibitor for insulin secretion assay using an insulin ELISA kit. In order to quantify intracellular influx of $Ca^{2+}$ caused by POE treatment, the effect of POE on intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ in INS-1 pancreatic ${\beta}-cells$ was examined using Fluo-2 AM dye. RESULTS: POE at 10 to $200{\mu}g/mL$ significantly increased insulin secretion dose-dependently as compared to the control. Experiments at three glucose concentrations (1.1, 5.6, and 16.7 mM) confirmed that POE significantly stimulated insulin secretion on its own as well as in a glucose-dependent manner. POE also exerted synergistic effects on insulin secretion with secretagogues, such as L-alanine, 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine, and especially tolbutamide, and at a depolarizing concentration of KCl. The insulin secretion caused by POE was significantly attenuated by treatment with diazoxide, an opener of the $K{^+}_{ATP}$ channel (blocking insulin secretion) and by verapamil (a $Ca^{2+}$ channel blocker). The insulinotropic effect of POE was not observed under $Ca^{2+}$-free conditions in INS-1 pancreatic ${\beta}-cells$. When the cells were preincubated with a $Ca^{2+}$ fluorescent dye, Fluo-2 (acetoxymethyl ester), the cells treated with POE showed changes in fluorescence in red, green, and blue tones, indicating a significant increase in intracellular $Ca^{2+}$, which closely correlated with increases in the levels of insulin secretion. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that POE stimulates insulin secretion via a $K{^+}_{ATP}$ channel-dependent pathway in INS-1 pancreatic ${\beta}-cells$.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.11
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• pp.403-415
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors affecting the beauty Probono activities and to find ways to revitalize the related activities. In this study, the research models and hypotheses were set up, and the results of the main analysis were obtained by conducting the questionnaire analysis of 701 beauty majors in the metropolitan area. First, it was found that the participation of Beauty Probono is to utilize beauty technology and knowledge, mainly through volunteer club activities. Second, Satisfaction with beauty Probono activities was highly correlated with recruitment of service organization. The reliability of the service organization tended to be higher as the level of institutional operation and satisfaction through participation were higher. Third, satisfaction with beauty Probono activities was high, and the more trust in organization, the higher the sustainability of activities. The beauty Probono activation plan suggested the development of various public relations channels, strengthened education for volunteers, and transparent management of the volunteer organization. However, this research has limitations in the limitation of research subject, and it is expected that the study of various aspects of beauty student major students will be continued in the future.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.527-534
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• 2018

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Veggiecation was developed to improve children's vegetable consumption through classroom lecture and cooking activities. In this study, we explored potential determinants of vegetable consumption behavior and intention, and examined the impact of Veggiecation on vegetable consumption behavior, intention and personal factors among Korean children. SUBJECTS/METHODS: The 4-week Veggiecation program was implemented for second-graders in South Korea (35 children in the intervention group, 36 in the control group). We identified personal and environmental factors influencing vegetable consumption behavior and intention using multiple regression analyses. Consumption behavior, intention and, personal factors such as preference, attitude, and self-efficacy were compared between the groups before and after the intervention. RESULTS: Children's vegetable consumption behavior was significantly correlated with personal, social-, and physical-environmental factors as well as intention. Among the variables, preference was the most influential factor on intention, and attitude and intention had great influence on the behavior. After the program, children in the intervention group demonstrated significant improvements in vegetable consumption, intention, attitude, preference, and self-efficacy compared with children in the control group. CONCLUSION: Veggiecation, a school-based culinary nutrition education program, improved vegetable consumption and intention, as well as preference, attitude, and self-efficacy, in second-graders. Veggiecation has great potential, as a global program, to increase children's vegetable consumption. This program can be expanded through various channels, such as after-school programs or camps, to provide a positive impact for children.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.639-649
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• 2021

Background and objective: Various images from visual display terminals (VDTs) as well as living lighting are important parts of our daily life; thus, properly controlling the lighting environment - that is, illuminance, color temperature and good images from VDTs - can have a substantial effect on improving the mental health and work efficiency in everyday life. We examined electroencephalography (EEG) and heart rate variability (HRV) responses to various lighting conditions in 25 university students as they viewed images of a green landscape or traffic congestion. Methods: EEG was performed in darkness and when the room was illuminated with 10 different light-emitting diode (LED) color temperatures, while the EEG and HRV responses to green landscape or traffic congestion image stimuli were measured in darkness and during room illumination with three different LED color temperatures. Results: We found a significant difference between darkness and high LED illumination (400 lx) at 7 (CZ, F4, FZ, O1, O2, OZ, and T6) of 30 channels, while the alpha wave activity increased during darkness. In the second experiment, the green landscape image stimuli in the 30 lx-2600 K lighting condition elicited theta wave activity on the EEG, whereas the traffic congestion image stimuli under high LED illumination elicited high beta and gamma wave activities. Moreover, the subjects exhibited better stress coping ability and heart rate stability in response to green landscape image stimuli under illuminated conditions, according to their HRV. Conclusion: These results suggest that lower color temperatures and illumination levels alleviate tension, and that viewing green landscape image stimuli at low illumination, or in darkness, is effective for reducing stress. Conversely, high illumination levels and color temperatures are likely to increase tension and stress in response to traffic congestion image stimuli.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.147-153
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to investigate various types of 'flow' that can be observed in the daily lives of science-gifted students, and the correlation between 'flow' and creativity. For two months, we have gathered data on 'flow' in the main activities of science-gifted students through a qualitative application of the Experience Sampling Method (ESM). We then use correlation analysis to determine whether there have been correlations between 'flow' and creativity. Among the four channels, activities involving 'flow' have been the most common (40.4%) in the daily lives of the students. The types of tasks done by the students are, in descending order of frequency, productive activities, social activities, leisure activities, and basic activities. The students have shown the least interest in tasks that do not require specific skills or pose significant challenges; thus the least interest show in basic activities and the most interest has been shown in productive activities. 'Flow' and creativity are significantly correlated at the level of 0.01, which means that the more the students experience 'flow,' the more they express creativity. Based on the results above, we have found that there is a need for the development of science programs or environments, including productivity while at the same time, to reduce uneasiness and patience raising activities, where students can experience more 'flow' in daily life.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.39A no.12
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• pp.708-717
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• 2014

In this paper, we present a secret key distribution protocol without resorting to a key management infrastructure targeting at providing a low-complexity distributed solution to wireless network. The proposed scheme extracts a secret key from the random fluctuation of wireless channels. By exploiting time division duplexing transmission, two legitimate users, Alice and Bob can have highly correlated channel gains due to channel reciprocity, and a pair of random bit sequences can be generated by quantizing the channel gains. We propose a novel adaptive quantization scheme that adjusts quantization thresholds according to channel variations and reduces the mismatch probability between generated bit sequences by Alice and Bob. BCH codes, as a low-complexity and pratical approach, are also employed to correct the mismatches between the pair of bit sequences and produce a secret key shared by Alice and Bob. To maximize the secret key extraction rate, the parameters, quantization levels and code rates of BCH codes are jointly optimized.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.525-534
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• 2014

Environmental problems typically occurring in abandoned mine lands (AML) include: contaminated and acidic surface water and groundwater; stockpiled waste rock and mill tailings; and ground subsidences due to mining operations. This study examines the effectiveness of various geophysical techniques for mapping potential hazard and contaminated zones. Four AML sites with sedimentation contamination problems, acid mine drainage (AMD) channels, ground subsidence, manmade liner leakage, and buried mine tailings, were selected to examine the applicability of various geophysical methods to the identification of the different types of mine hazards. Geophysical results were correlated to borehole data (core samples, well logs, tomographic profiles, etc.) and water sample data (pH, electrical conductivity (EC), and heavy metal contents). Zones of low electrical resistivity (ER) corresponded to areas contaminated by heavy metals, especially contamination by Cu, Pb, and Zn. The main pathways of AMD leachate were successfully mapped using ER methods (low anomaly peaks), self-potential (SP) curves (negative peaks), and ground penetrating radar (GPR) at shallow penetration depths. Mine cavities were well located based on composite interpretations of ER, seismic tomography, and well-log records; mine cavity locations were also observed in drill core data and using borehole image processing systems (BIPS). Damaged zones in buried manmade liners (used to block descending leachate) were precisely detected by ER mapping, and buried rock waste and tailings piles were characterized by low-velocity zones in seismic refraction data and high-resistivity zones in the ER data.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.5-14
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• 2009

This study is to analyze numerically the spatial behaviors of the solute transport in a spatially correlated variable-aperture fracture under the effective normal stress conditions. Numerical results show that the solute transport in a fracture is strongly affected by the spatial correlation length of apertures and applied effective normal stress. According to increasing spatial correlation length, the mean residence time of solute is decreased and the tortuosity and Peclet number (is a dimensionless number relating the rate of advection of a flow to its rate of diffusion) is also decreased. These results mean that the geometry of the aperture distribution is favorable to the solute transport as the spatial correlation length is increased. However, according to the applied effective normal stress is increased, the mean residence time and tortuosity have a tendency to increase but the Peclet number is decreased. The main reason that the Peclet number is decreased, is that the solute is displaced by one or two channels with relatively higher local flow rate due to the increment of contact areas by increasing effective normal stress. Moreover, based on numerical results of the solute transport in this study, the exponential-type correlation formulae between the mean residence time and the effective normal stress are proposed.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.117-133
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• 2003

A field survey and Landsat ETM+ image acquisition carried out simultaneously. Using these data, we attempted to establish relationships between tidal flat environmental factors and reflectance observed by ETM+, and to set up a new critical grain size useful for optical remote sensing. Although the grain size of 4 $\Phi$ has been conventionally used as a critical size by sedimentologists, the correlation with optical reflectance was very low. Instead, the grain size of 2 $\Phi$ showed a relatively high correlation coefficient, 0.699, with ETM+ band 4, except near tidal channels in upper tidal flat. We concluded that the grain size of 2 $\Phi$ would be better to use for a critical grain size in Gomso Bay. The grain size also correlated well with moisture content having a correlation coefficient of -0.811 when the 2 $\Phi$ criterion was used. The results of factor analysis showed moisture content was more important parameter than topographic relief, and they were different from German tidal flats in which topographic relief was the prior factor This can be explained by finer grain composition of the Gomso bay tidal flat. In short, moisture content and topography as well as grain size should be considered in tidal flat remote sensing.