• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.109-132
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• 2013

Current codes incorporate simplified methods for the prediction of acceleration demands on secondary structural and non-structural elements at different levels of a building. While the use of simple analysis methods should be advocated, damage to both secondary structural and non-structural elements in recent earthquakes have highlighted the need for improved design procedures for such elements. In order to take a step towards the formation of accurate but simplified methods of predicting floor spectra, this work examines the floor spectra on elastic and inelastic single-degree of freedom systems subject to accelerograms of varying seismic intensity. After identifying the factors that appear to affect the shape and intensity of acceleration demands on secondary structural and non-structural elements, a new series of calibrated equations are proposed to predict floor spectra on single degree of freedom supporting structures. The approach uses concepts of dynamics and inelasticity to define the shape and intensity of the floor spectra at different levels of damping. The results of non-linear time-history analyses of a series of single-degree of freedom supporting structures indicate that the new methodology is very promising. Future research will aim to extend the methodology to multi-degree of freedom supporting structures and run additional verification studies.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.384-389
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• 2018

Background: Airway anastomotic complications are a leading cause of mortality after lung transplantation. Among the factors that cause airway complications, preoperative steroid use has been considered to be related with postoperative airway healing. We analyzed the influence of preoperative steroid use on postoperative airway complications. Methods: The medical records of 66 double-lung transplant recipients from January 2014 to December 2015 were reviewed. Forty patients were prescribed steroids preoperatively. The daily steroid dose was standardized using the patient's body mass index (BMI). Patients who received preoperative steroids were sub-divided into high-dose (HD) and low-dose (LD) groups (cut-off value, 1.6 mg/BMI/day). Results: Thirteen patients suffered from airway complications postoperatively (bronchopulmonary fistula, 9; bronchial stenosis, 4). There was a tendency for early development of airway complications in the steroid use group compared to the non-steroid use group, but it was not significant (percentage free from airway complications in year 1: non-steroid group, 90.9% vs. steroid group, 79.2%; p=0.43). The percentage of patients in the LD and HD groups who were free from airway complications in year 1 was not significantly different (84.0% vs. 77.8%, p=0.39). Conclusion: The airway complication rate did not vary significantly according to steroid use. Additionally, in patients who received preoperative steroids, the dose did not affect the rate of development of airway complications.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.85-102
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• 2002

Learners and users of a second language have to resort to a variety of conversational strategies or structures to enable them to communicate effectively and competently. Factors affecting effective communication among English as a second or English as foreign language (ESL/EFL) learners are diverse in nature because of different socio-cultural backgrounds. Gambits as a conversational strategy are used to a large extent and teachers must be made aware of such conversational strategies used by English as second or foreign language learners. Thus, studies focusing on conversational strategies among ESL/EFL learners in the English language classroom are important in order to identify the types of conversational strategies used and to help teachers to understand the appropriate conversational strategies and structures. Such understanding can be used to guide learners to use correct conversational strategies when communicating in English. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the use of gambits as a communication strategy in conversation among non-native speakers of English in an English as a second language(ESL) context based on Kellers conversational strategy signals. (175 words)

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.17-26
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• 2014

Background: Despite children's unique characteristics that distinguish them from adults, relatively few attempts have been made to measure exposure factors for characterization of children's exposure to hazardous chemicals in child-specific products (CSP). This study was conducted to establish the child-specific exposure factors for exposure and risk assessment of hazardous substances in CSP. Methods: We investigated the exposure factors (e.g., time use of child-products, time and frequency of object-to-body contact, time and frequency of object-to-mouth contact) influencing children's exposure to CSP (e.g., toys, playmats, oil pastels, etc.) in 650 children through a parent-completed questionnaire using a web-based survey. Participants were recruited in five age groups, <1, 1-2, 2-3, 3-6, and 6-12 years of age. Results: The child-specific exposure factors were presented as the mean, median, $95^{th}$ percentile, minimum, and maximum values. Time activity for play mats was the longest among CSP and infants spent more time on them than did elder age groups (189.3-224.7 min/day for <1-2 years vs. 91.2 min/day for 6-12 years). It is apparent that time and frequency of toy block- and plastic toy-to-mouth contact significantly decreased as a function of age. When the variation of CSP use patterns was compared by gender, the only variable that was statistically different between genders was time activity in child-products exposure space. Conclusion: We believe the five child-specific exposure factors suggested in the present study will be valuable for reducing uncertainty in the estimation of chemical exposure during risk assessment of CSP and furthermore, in the appropriate regulations to protect children's health.

• Journal of Construction Engineering and Project Management
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.5-13
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• 2012

The lacks of local workforce supply become a problematic in Malaysian construction industry. Meanwhile, HRP is important during workforce supply to help organizations in order to appoint the right people in the right job. This paper reports on the use of factors influencing HRP towards local workforce supply in the construction industry in general, and Malaysian construction in particular. Semi structured interviews were conducted to 10 interviewees from the government and non-government organizations to investigate current issues of local workforce and the practices of HRP in the construction organization. The analysis methods were based on descriptions of previous tested research. The findings reveal that the lack of local workforce is due to low wages system, safety issues, educational changes, low status and unsecured work, environment in construction industry, developments and technologies changes in Malaysia. The internal factors of HRP were practiced among construction organization are organization strategy, organizational culture, organization changes, leadership and experience, nature of work and empowerment of labor. Meanwhile, the external factors are technology changes, economic changes, legislation and demographic changes. The paper provides valuable information on the practices of factors influencing HRP for local workforce supply in Malaysian construction industry.

• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.191-202
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• 2023

This study aims to propose a framework for evaluating the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) services, based on the concept of AI service impact. It also suggests a model for evaluating this impact and identifies relevant factors and measurement approaches for each item of the model. The study classifies the impact of AI services into five categories: ethics, safety and reliability, compliance, user rights, and environmental friendliness. It discusses these five categories from a broad perspective and provides 21 detailed factors for evaluating each category. In terms of ethics, the study introduces three additional factors-accessibility, openness, and fairness-to the ten items initially developed by KISDI. In the safety and reliability category, the study excludes factors such as dependability, policy, compliance, and awareness improvement as they can be better addressed from a technical perspective. The compliance category includes factors such as human rights protection, privacy protection, non-infringement, publicness, accountability, safety, transparency, policy compliance, and explainability.For the user rights category, the study excludes factors such as publicness, data management, policy compliance, awareness improvement, recoverability, openness, and accuracy. The environmental friendliness category encompasses diversity, publicness, dependability, transparency, awareness improvement, recoverability, and openness.This study lays the foundation for further related research and contributes to the establishment of relevant policies by establishing a model for evaluating the impact of AI services. Future research is required to assess the validity of the developed indicators and provide specific evaluation items for practical use, based on expert evaluations.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.49-57
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• 2017

Purpose - In Korea, general super markets have a great impact on the market performance of traditional markets. We propose a modified two stage DEA model for evaluating the performance of traditional markets in Incheon, Korea by identifying the influence of external environmental factors including the presence of general super markets as non-discretionary variables in DEA. Research design, data, and methodology - After obtaining bias-corrected estimates of original DEA efficiency scores using the input and output data of 49 traditional markets, we regress them on several external environmental factors by bootstrap-truncated regression. Results - We obtain bias-corrected efficiency scores from the original DEA efficiency scores by bootstrap and among the five environmental factors, the residential population and the presence of general super markets or SSMs can be considered as the driving forces influencing bias-corrected efficiency scores, positively and negatively, respectively. Conclusions - When DEA efficiency scores tend to be overestimated, we need to use a biased-corrected efficiency score by bootstrap. It is important to note that the efficiency of traditional markets can be largely influenced by external environmental factors such as the presence of general super markets or SSMs that traditional markets can not control. Therefore, it is desirable to consider such environmental factors appropriately for a reasonable performance evaluation.

• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.16-25
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• 2010

Objectives: Compliance of herbal medicine is extremely important in Korean oriental medicine, since herbal medicine is main approach to the most of outpatients in Korean pediatrics. The more compliant to the medication, the more effective care is given to children. Thus, we conducted this research to evaluate the compliance of herbal medicine, and factors associated with compliance in children. Methods: 61 children (men 28, women 33) were participated who visited the Korean Oriental Medicine Department in university hospital for two weeks. We used Morisky's self-reported questionnaire which is consisted of four questions. Also, we checked medical records and researched respondent to acquire more factors. We defined as a "full compliant" if answers were 'No' to all of the questions. We analyzed the compliance and associated factors with Pearson's $x^2$-test and Fisher's exact test, and Spearman correlation coefficient. Compliance and associated factors were analyzed with linear regression. Results: Compliance of herbal medicine was not related to respondent, and 34 children (55.7%) were non-compliant. The best compliant type of herbal medicine was granule medication (p=0.046). However, there was no relationship between compliance and age, sex, sibling, purpose of medication, period of disease, frequency of medication, and medication duration. The age, frequency of medication, medication duration, and purpose of medications(period of disease) had correlation(p<0.01). Also, older children tended to forget to take herbal medicine(p=0.004). Conclusions: Over an half of the total subjects (55.7%) were non-compliant, so we should improve compliance of herbal medicine. Since granule form of medication was shown to have the best compliance, we should try to use granule form of medication instead of liquid medications. Also, we can also improve compliance with giving attention to the patients, especially older children in order to improve their compliance.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.62-71
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• 2007

Purpose: This study was done to compare sleep patterns, factors of sleep disturbance and sleep enhancement behaviors between sleep disturbance and non-sleep disturbance elderly patients. Method: The participants were 117 patients over 65 years old who were hospitalized at 5 general hospitals in Seoul. There were 83 patients in the good sleeper group and 34 in the poor sleeper group. The survey questionnaires included questions on general characteristics, sleep patterns, sleep disturbing factors, and sleep enhancement behaviors of the patients. Results: For sleep patterns and environmental factors of sleep disturbance, the poor sleepers was significantly higher than that of the good sleepers. Significant differences between good sleepers and poor sleepers were also found on the following variables: Environmental factors of sleep disturbance -'Sound of other patient's or care-giver's', 'Discomfort of bed, linen, pillow and patient's gown', 'Light in the room', 'Emergency situations', 'Temperature of patients rooms too hot or too cold'. The significant physical factor of sleep disturbance was 'Hard to breath even without moving' and for sleep enhancement behaviors: 'Use of ear plugs or eye covers' Conclusion: Consequently it is necessary to develop positive and differentiated programs for sleep enhancement for the inactive and poor sleeper among the elderly patients.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.18
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• pp.8541-8551
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• 2016

Background: The coverage of breast and cervical cancer screening has only slightly increased in the past decade in Thailand, and these cancers remain leading causes of death among women. This study identified socioeconomic and contextual factors contributing to the variation in screening uptake and coverage. Materials and Methods: Secondary data from two nationally representative household surveys, the Health and Welfare Survey (HWS) 2007 and the Reproductive Health Survey (RHS) 2009 conducted by the National Statistical Office were used. The study samples comprised 26,951 women aged 30-59 in the 2009 RHS, and 14,619 women aged 35 years and older in the 2007 HWS were analyzed. Households of women were grouped into wealth quintiles, by asset index derived from Principal components analysis. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses were performed. Results: Screening rates for cervical and breast cancers increased between 2007 and 2009. Education and health insurance coverage including wealth were factors contributing to screening uptake. Lower or non-educated and poor women had lower uptake of screenings, as were young, unmarried, and non-Buddhist women. Coverage of the Civil Servant Medical Benefit Scheme increased the propensity of having both screenings, while the universal coverage scheme increased the probability of cervical screening among the poor. Lack of awareness and knowledge contributed to non-use of both screenings. Women were put off from screening, especially Muslim women on cervical screening, because of embarrassment, fear of pain and other reasons. Conclusions: Although cervical screening is covered by the benefit package of three main public health insurance schemes, free of charge to all eligible women, the low coverage of cervical screening should be addressed by increasing awareness and strengthening the supply side. As mammography was not cost effective and not covered by any scheme, awareness and practice of breast self examination and effective clinical breast examination are recommended. Removal of cultural barriers is essential.