• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.2483-2504
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• 2023

Most existing low-light enhancement algorithms either use a large number of training parameters or lack generalization to real-world scenarios. This paper presents a novel lightweight and robust pixel-wise polynomial approximation-based deep network for low-light image enhancement. For mapping the low-light image to the enhanced image, pixel-wise higher-order polynomials are employed. A deep convolution network is used to estimate the coefficients of these higher-order polynomials. The proposed network uses multiple branches to estimate pixel values based on different receptive fields. With a smaller receptive field, the first branch enhanced local features, the second and third branches focused on medium-level features, and the last branch enhanced global features. The low-light image is downsampled by the factor of 2b-1 (b is the branch number) and fed as input to each branch. After combining the outputs of each branch, the final enhanced image is obtained. A comprehensive evaluation of our proposed network on six publicly available no-reference test datasets shows that it outperforms state-of-the-art methods on both quantitative and qualitative measures.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.541-550
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• 2023

The escalating growth of industrial sectors has led to a pervasive global problem—oil pollution, particularly in industrial areas. The release of substantial volumes of oil and its by-products into the environment has resulted in extensive contamination. Multiple factors contribute to the entry of these substances into water bodies and soils, thereby inflicting irreparable consequences on ecosystems, natural resources, and human health. Consequently, it becomes imperative to comprehend the characteristics and behavior of oil pollution, anticipate its impacts, and develop effective mitigation strategies. Understanding this intricate issue requires considering the physicochemical properties of the environment, the interactions between oil and sediments, and biological factors such as evaporation and dissolution. Although the oil industry has brought about remarkable advancements, its activities have raised significant concerns regarding pollution from extraction and production processes. Oil-rich nations face a particularly challenging predicament of soil pollution caused by petroleum compounds. The areas surrounding oil exploration mines and refineries often endure contamination due to oil leakages from storage tanks and transmission lines resulting from deterioration and damage. Investigating the dispersion of such pollutants and devising methods to remediate petroleum-contaminated soil represent crucial and intricate issues within the realm of environmental geotechnics.

• Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.1-13
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• 2023

Being one of the first and hardest hit countries by the coronavirus, Iran still continues to preserve its place among nations with the highest rates of infection and COVID-19 related deaths. While on the surface, such worrying status evinces the failure of the authorities in handling the crisis, at deeper levels, it points to the fundamentalist nature of the government and political system of the country. In this view, the current devastating condition in Iran is a clear indication of the all-out influence of the Islamic regime's ideologies on officials' decision-making and their political agendas throughout the pandemic. Accordingly, the staterun mainstream media, as the most preeminent institution of power, have been incessantly engaged in disseminating a series of ideology-laden information around the issues concerning the coronavirus, and in line with the developing political discourses during pandemic. Far from being based on factual accounts or scientific facts, these disseminated messages inevitably grew into a source of disinformation, ultimately resulting in overall public confusion and skepticism. Through examining the data gathered from some of the most prominent online news agencies run by the government, this study identifies five major discursive trends through which the mainstream media propagated ambiguous and manipulative information about COVID-19. These findings are then explained in the light of media system dependency theory, leading to the argument that within autocratic nation-states, public reliance on media during a national/global crisis brings about new opportunities for state exploitation, and further distressing consequences for the people.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.1-16
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• 2021

This study suggests improvements in the management performance of the five largest exhibition and convention centers in Korea through financial ratio analysis. For this research, the financial ratios of each center were compared to the average of the centers as well as to the overall industry average during the past five years. According to the analysis results, the stability and growth ratios of the centers were excellent, but the profitability and activity ratios were poor. In particular, the ratios of profitability were in state of urgent need for improvement because they were at the level of severe deficits. It was analyzed that sales increase can be the key factor to improve centers' operation income and net profit to improve profitability. This study recommends measures to increase sales by using centers' facilities and their functions. The first is to actively host large-scale international meetings and conventions that only exhibition and convention centers can accommodate. The second is to attract brand exhibitions through strategic alliances with global Professional Exhibition Organizers (PEOs). Lastly, it is to organize sports and cultural events that are appropriate for incentive tours of associations and corporations.

• ALGAE
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.203-215
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• 2023

Oomycete pathogens are one of the most serious threats to the rapidly growing global algae aquaculture industry but research into how they spread and how algae respond to infection is unresolved, let alone a proper classification of the pathogens. Even the taxonomy of the genera Pythium and Olpidiopsis, which contain the most economically damaging pathogens in red algal aquaculture, and are among the best studied, needs urgent clarification, as existing morphological classifications and molecular evidence are often inconsistent. Recent studies have reported a number of genes involved in defense responses against oomycete pathogens in red algae, including pattern-triggered immunity and effector-triggered immunity. Accumulating evidence also suggests that calcium-mediated reactive oxygen species signaling plays an important role in the response of red algae to oomycete pathogens. Current management strategies to control oomycete pathogens in aquaculture are based on the high resistance of red algae to abiotic stress, these have environmental consequences and are not fully effective. Here, we compile a revised list of oomycete pathogens known to infect marine red algae and outline the current taxonomic situation. We also review recent research on the molecular and cellular responses of red algae to oomycete infection that has only recently begun, and outline the methods currently used to control disease in the field.

• Journal of Koreanology Reviews
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.7-13
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• 2024

The study aims to examine the development of the South Korean music industry over time in order to capture the evolution process of the industry from its initial stages to its current state as one of the world's leading music markets. Based on the above consideration, a systematic literature review was conducted in order to provide an overview of the achievements of the South Korean music industry with the help of PRISMA method. The reason for doing this is to ensure that the process of selecting, filtering and collecting literature from different sources is not only efficient and time-saving but also rigid and coherent. This paper will explore the various elements that have defined the industry, including culture, technology, marketing and government policies and regulations (Jang & Song, 2017). Furthermore, it will inquire the effects of the K-pop cultural export on other industries, whether it be tourism, fashion, consumer goods, and more, thereby illustrating its vast significance. In more detail, this study aims to give an adequate idea about the historical accomplishments of the South Korean music industry in the global music map, identify factors that facilitated the enhancement of the industry and examine the significance of the findings and their applications for the industry's progression and development in the future.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.95-111
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• 2023

Pollution, climate change, and waste accumulation are only some of the new problems that have arisen because of the exponential population growth of the past few decades. As the global population expands, managing municipal solid trash becomes increasingly difficult. This is by far the most difficult obstacle for governments to overcome, especially in less developed nations. The improper open dumping of trash, which is causing mayhem across the country, has two immediate effects: it contaminates groundwater and surface water. Air pollution and the accumulation of greenhouse gases are both exacerbated by the release of methane and other harmful waste gases. Leachate from the landfill leaks underground and pollutes groundwater. In most cases, leachate moves into the groundwater zone and pollutes it after forming in association with precipitation that infiltrates via waste. This has far-reaching effects on people's health and disturbs the natural environment. This review article critically examines the current state of Solid Waste Management (SWM), addressing both the highlighted concerns and the government management solutions that have been put in place to address these issues. In addition, the constraints, and difficulties that India will face in the future in terms of solid waste management and the role of models for such a system are discussed.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.44-55
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• 2024

High-utility itemset mining (HUIM) is a dominant technology that enables enterprises to make real-time decisions, including supply chain management, customer segmentation, and business analytics. However, classical support value-driven Apriori solutions are confined and unable to meet real-time enterprise demands, especially for large amounts of input data. This study introduces a groundbreaking model for top-N high utility itemset mining in real-time enterprise applications. Unlike traditional Apriori-based solutions, the proposed convolutional sequential embedding metrics-driven cosine-similarity-based multilayer perception learning model leverages global and contextual features, including semantic attributes, for enhanced top-N recommendations over sequential transactions. The MATLAB-based simulations of the model on diverse datasets, demonstrated an impressive precision (0.5632), mean absolute error (MAE) (0.7610), hit rate (HR)@K (0.5720), and normalized discounted cumulative gain (NDCG)@K (0.4268). The average MAE across different datasets and latent dimensions was 0.608. Additionally, the model achieved remarkable cumulative accuracy and precision of 97.94% and 97.04% in performance, respectively, surpassing existing state-of-the-art models. This affirms the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed model in real-time enterprise scenarios.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.66 no.1
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• pp.57-78
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• 2024

In a global context, bacterial diseases caused by pathogenic bacteria have inflicted sustained damage on both humans and animals. Although antibiotics initially appeared to offer an easy treatment for most bacterial infections, the recent rise of multidrug-resistant bacteria, stemming from antibiotic misuse, has prompted regulatory measures to control antibiotic usage. Consequently, various alternatives to antibiotics are being explored, with a particular focus on bacteriophage (phage) therapy for treating bacterial diseases in animals. Animals are broadly categorized into livestock, closely associated with human dietary habits, and companion animals, which have attracted increasing attention. This study highlights phage therapy cases targeting prominent bacterial strains in various animals. In recent years, research on bacteriophages has gained considerable attention, suggesting a promising avenue for developing alternative substances to antibiotics, particularly crucial for addressing challenging bacterial diseases in the future.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.45-55
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• 2024

Purpose: This study examines the impact of dessert cafe quality factors-interaction, environmental, outcome, and product quality-on hedonic and utilitarian values, satisfaction, and loyalty. It explores how these elements influence consumer behavior in the context of dessert cafe experiences. Research design, data and methodology: Data were collected from 563 consumers who visited dessert cafés within the last three months. The analysis was conducted using SPSS 28.0 and SmartPLS 4.0 to test the relationships among the café quality factors, consumption values, satisfaction, and loyalty. Result: Interaction, environmental, outcome, and product quality positively influenced hedonic value. Interaction and outcome quality impacted utilitarian value, while environmental and product quality did not. Satisfaction was positively affected by environmental and product quality but not by interaction or outcome quality. Satisfaction influenced loyalty, while neither hedonic nor utilitarian value significantly impacted loyalty. Conclusions: The study highlights the importance of understanding how different quality dimensions in dessert cafés affect consumer satisfaction and loyalty. The findings provide valuable insights for enhancing customer experiences and formulating effective marketing strategies in the dessert cafe industry.