• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.15-22
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was performed to assess the reproducibility of identifying the sella turcica landmark in a three-dimensional (3D) model by using a new sella-specific landmark reference system. Materials and Methods: Thirty-two cone-beam computed tomographic scans (3D Accuitomo$^{(R)}$ 170, J. Morita, Kyoto, Japan) were retrospectively collected. The 3D data were exported into the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine standard and then imported into the Maxilim$^{(R)}$ software (Medicim NV, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium) to create 3D surface models. Five observers identified four osseous landmarks in order to create the reference frame and then identified two sella landmarks. The x, y, and z coordinates of each landmark were exported. The observations were repeated after four weeks. Statistical analysis was performed using the multiple paired t-test with Bonferroni correction (intraobserver precision: p<0.005, interobserver precision: p<0.0011). Results: The intraobserver mean precision of all landmarks was <1 mm. Significant differences were found when comparing the intraobserver precision of each observer (p<0.005). For the sella landmarks, the intraobserver mean precision ranged from $0.43{\pm}0.34mm$ to $0.51{\pm}0.46mm$. The intraobserver reproducibility was generally good. The overall interobserver mean precision was <1 mm. Significant differences between each pair of observers for all anatomical landmarks were found (p<0.0011). The interobserver reproducibility of sella landmarks was good, with >50% precision in locating the landmark within 1 mm. Conclusion: A newly developed reference system offers high precision and reproducibility for sella turcica identification in a 3D model without being based on two-dimensional images derived from 3D data.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.1773-1777
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• 2016

Diagnostic and therapeutic radiation fields are planned so as to reduce side-effects while maximising the dose to site but effects on healthy tissues are inevitable. Radiation causes strand breaks in DNA of exposed cells which can lead to chromosomal aberrations and cause malfunction and cell death. Several researchers have highlighted the damaging effects of high dose radiation but still there is a lacuna in identifying damage due to low dose radiation used for diagnostic purposes. Blood is an easy resource to study genotoxicity and to estimate the effects of radiation. The micronucleus assay and chromosomal aberration can indicate genetic damage and our present aim was to establish these with lymphocytes in an in vitro model to predict the immediate effects low dose radiation. Blood was collected from healthy individuals and divided into 6 groups with increasing radiation dose i.e., 0Gy, 0.10Gy, 0.25Gy, 0.50Gy, 1Gy and 2Gy. The samples were irradiated in duplicates using a LINAC in the radiation oncology department. Standard protocols were applied for chromosomal aberration and micronucleus assays. Metaphases were stained in Giemsa and 200 were scored per sample for the detection of dicentric or acentric forms. For micronuclei detection, 200 metaphases. Giemsa stained binucleate cells per sample were analysed for any abnormality. The micronuclei (MN) frequency was increased in cells exposed to the entire range of doses (0.1-2Gy) delivered. Controls showed minimal MN formation ($2.0%{\pm}0.05$) with triple MN ($5.6%{\pm}2.0$) frequency at the lowest dose. MN formation increased exponentially with the radiation dose thereafter with a maximum at 2Gy. Significantly elevated numbers of dicentric chromosomes were also observed, even at doses of 0.1-0.5Gy, compared to controls, and acentric chromosomes were apparent at 2Gy. In conclusion we can state that lymphocytes can be effectively used to study direct effect of low dose radiation.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.42 no.7
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• pp.525-535
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• 2009

In this paper a heuristic method for identifying individual pipes in water pipe networks to determine specific sections of the pipes that need to be replaced due to deterioration. An appropriate minimum pipe length is determined by selecting the pipe length that has the greatest variance of the average cumulative break number slopes among the various pipe lengths used. As a result, the minimum pipe length for the case study water network is determined as 4 m and a total of 39 individual pipe IDs are obtained. The economically optimal replacement times of the individual pipe IDs are estimated by using the threshold break rate of an individual pipe ID and the pipe break trends models for which the General Pipe Break Prediction Model(Park and Loganathan, 2002) that can incorporate the linear, exponential, and in-between of the linear and exponetial failure trends and the ROCOFs based on the modified time scale(Park et al., 2007) are used. The maximum log-likelihoods of the log-linear ROCOF and Weibull ROCOF estimated for the break data of a pipe are compared and the ROCOF that has a greater likelihood is selected for the pipe of interest. The effects of the social costs of a pipe break on the optimal replacement time are also discussed.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.93-107
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• 2016

Purpose - This study aims to derive directions and implications for improving performance in operating agrifood export organizations by identifying significant performance impact factors. Research design, data, and methodology - A seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) model was estimated using data from a survey conducted among 120 exporters including 16 leading export organizations. In the SUR estimation, the export volume and price are used as dependent variables and securing the quantity of products ordered and exported, quality management, and marketing activities are considered as explanatory variables for the operation performance. Results - The amount of farmer education, the manpower in charge of marketing, and the interaction terms between whether or not they belong to a leading export organization and the item dummy for mushrooms have a significant impact on the export volume where the export volume is specified as a dependent variable. The export volume is greater with a greater amount of farmer education and greater manpower in charge of marketing from the perspective of quality management. When the export price is estimated as a dependent variable, the manpower in charge of marketing is shown to have a significant impact on the export price. Conclusions - The government needs to strengthen its support of the performance of agrifood export organizations. The analysis indicates that the education of and consulting with farmers, and the manpower number in charge of marketing are key factors in the operation performance of export organizations. Therefore, supporting the export organizations in expanding their human resources in charge of marketing can increase the export volumes for agrifoods. Given, however, that the export volume associated with joint payments, human resources specialized in quality management, and the amount of participation in export exhibitions are not significant factors, it is essential to improve the supporting policies for those areas. The manpower in charge of marketing from the perspective of marketing has a significant impact on both the export volume and export price. Thus, we identify this as the most important category that should be supported to enhance performance in export organizations.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.11
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• pp.89-99
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• 2012

Purpose - Mobile devices, especially mobile terminals capable of telecommunication and wireless connectivity, are leading the advancements in consumer electronics. Digital convergence drives the functions of various devices, such as cellular phones, MP3 players, personal digital assistants, and gaming, into a single device. This trend would continue and applications such as digital audio and video streaming (including personalized content delivery mechanisms) would soon be on a handheld device. As customers want mobile convergence devices, manufacturers are driving new initiatives in the emerging mobile device market. Given the roles played by device design and service content in user satisfaction of a mobile convergence device, this study focuses on identifying and measuring the constructs for the process by which user satisfaction is achieved. This study synthesizes the expectation-disconfirmation paradigm with empirical theories in user satisfaction. Device and service levels are separated, and nine key constructs for user satisfaction of mobile convergence devices are proposed. Insight into this process could help web-based businesses to improve user satisfaction, thus enhancing the effectiveness of e-commerce for sellers and buyers. Research design, data, methodology - This study draws on three users of mobile convergence devices as examples. To test there search model and hypotheses, survey questionnaires were sent to 607 mobile device users. Mobile device users were initially identified from several members, and subjects were randomly drawn. Data from 577 survey responses were finally analyzed. The unit of measurement and analysis in this research study is at a personal level. Results - The measurements for the constructs were developed and tested in a two-phase study. In the first phase, the device and service dimensions were identified, and instruments for measuring them were developed and tested. In the second phase, using the salient dimensions of the device and service as the formulating first-order factors, instruments were developed and empirically tested to measure satisfaction of the device and service. In measuring satisfaction of mobile convergence devices, the critical tasks are to identify the key constructs of such user satisfaction and to develop validated instruments to measure them. Hence, the results of this study have immediate implications for businesses and for research in user satisfaction of mobile convergence devices. Conclusions - This study provides reliable instruments for operationalizing key constructs in the analysis of user satisfaction of mobile convergence devices within the expectation-disconfirmation paradigm. Hence, convergence device makers will be able to examine whether their websites meet their customers' expectations by examining the device aspect of the mobile convergence device customers, and the service aspect expectations and disconfirmation. Moreover, the introduction of expectation and disconfirmation constructs brings the marketing aspect of convergence devices into focus for such retailers, an aspect crucial to the effective design of websites for online businesses. In addition,this study provides the metrics required to initiate future studies on user satisfaction of mobile convergence devices.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.7-17
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• 2011

Traffic problems caused by drunk drivers have been steadily raised from the past. Even though the previous researches have focused on the development of countermeasures for preventing drunk driving, the number of drivers violating the DUI (Driving-Under-Influence) regulation is still increasing. Many studies seek countermeasures for preventing drunk driving by comparing the differences between general and drunk drivers. However, few researches have investigated focusing only on the characteristics of drunk drivers. It is well known that characteristics of general drivers are different from those of drunk drivers, and also habitual drunk drivers have different characteristics from non-habitual drunk drivers. Motivated by this fact, only the drivers who have violated DUI regulation are considered in the analysis. This study primarily aims to provide alternative solutions for reducing habitual drunk drivers who are highly inclined to do drunk driving repeatedly. For the analysis, various types of variables potentially effecting drunk driving behavior were investigated, and then truncated count data models were developed to analyze the effects of the variables selected on drunk driving. The results showed that 1) a truncated negative binomial model is better fitted to the data; and 2) five variables including experiential learning, the lack of self-control, self-reflection, the fear of crackdown, and the level of dependence on vehicles were found to be statistically significant.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.58-65
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• 2012

In this study, to reduce the motion of the vessels resulting from resonance and secondary undulation by long-period waves, numerical review on the control performance of resonator was carried out by attaching the resonator to the established harbor of real waters. In the numerical analysis, CGWAVE MODULE of commercial software SMS(Surface water Modeling System), a finite element model based on 2-dimensional elliptical mild slope equation was applied, and through comparative analysis of the existing experiments and analysis results on the rectangular model ports, the validity of the friction coefficients in which validity and effectiveness of SMS on the secondary undulation analysis is applied was verified. Based on this, the control performance of resonator was confirmed through comparative review of the secondary undulation according to whether or not to attach the resonator to rectangular harbor. In addition, to reduce long-period motion of the moored vessels and the secondary undulation which may occur in Pohang new port, the method to move the resonant period which causes abnormal motion of the vessels to long-term one was discussed through application of the resonators with various sizes, thereby identifying the availability.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.117-128
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• 2011

In this paper, we present a novel approach for contents-based medication image retrieval from a medication image database using the shape classification and color information of the medication. One major problem in developing a contents-based drug image retrieval system is there are too many similar images in shape and color and it makes difficult to identify any specific medication by a single feature of the drug image. To resolve such difficulty in identifying images, we propose a hybrid approach to retrieve a medication image based on shape and color features of the medication. In the first phase of the proposed method we classify the medications by shape of the images. In the second phase, we identify them by color matching between a query image and preclassified images in the first phase. For the shape classification, the shape signature, which is unique shape descriptor of the medication, is extracted from the boundary of the medication. Once images are classified by the shape signature, Hue and Saturation(HS) color model is used to retrieve a most similarly matched medication image from the classified database images with the query image. The proposed system is designed and developed especially for specific population- seniors to browse medication images by using visual information of the medication in a feasible fashion. The experiment shows the proposed automatic image retrieval system is reliable and convenient to identify the medication images.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.580-592
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• 2020

Background: Radix et Rhizoma Ginseng (thereafter called ginseng) has been used as a medicinal herb for thousands of years to maintain people's physical vitality and is also a non-organ-specific cancer preventive and therapeutic traditional medicine in several epidemiologic and preclinical studies. Owing to few toxic side effects and strong enhancement on body immunity, ginseng has admirable application potential and value in cancer chemoprevention. The study aims at investigating the chemopreventive effects of ginseng on cutaneous carcinoma and the underlying mechanisms. Methods: The mouse skin cancer model was induced by 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene/12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate. Ultraperformance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry was used for identifying various ginsenosides, the main active ingredients of ginseng. Comprehensive approaches (including network pharmacology, bioinformatics, and experimental verification) were used to explore the potential targets of ginseng. Results: Ginseng treatment inhibited cutaneous carcinoma in terms of initiation and promotion. The content of Rb1, Rb2, Rc, and Rd ginsenosides was the highest in both mouse blood and skin tissues. Ginseng and its active components well maintained the redox homeostasis and modulated the immune response in the model. Specifically, ginseng treatment inhibited the initiation of skin cancer by enhancing T-cell-mediated immune response through upregulating HSP27 expression and inhibited the promotion of skin cancer by maintaining cellular redox homeostasis through promoting nuclear translocation of Nrf2. Conclusion: According to the study results, ginseng can be potentially used for cutaneous carcinoma as a chemopreventive agent by enhancing cell-mediated immunity and maintaining redox homeostasis with multiple components, targets, and links.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.79-107
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• 2013

The purpose of this study purpose was to analyze the structural model of variables such as experiences and personal- and professional- beliefs of cultural diversity, and the culturally responsive teaching efficacy of early childhood preservice teachers including identifying the beliefs as mediating variables. Another purpose was finding the different structural relations among the research variables according to the stages of a teacher education program. The participants were 273 students who enrolled in K grade teacher education programs in the southwest areas of the U.S. The research variables were measured with the items used by Schroeder (2008), Pohan and Aguilar (2001), and Siwatu (2007). The structural equation model analysis showed that the direct effects were found between the paths from the cultural diversity experiences and personal beliefs to the culturally responsive teaching efficacy, from the experiences to personal beliefs, from the personal to professional beliefs. The personal beliefs were identified as a mediator of the path from the experiences to professional beliefs. By multi-group analysis, the path from professional beliefs to the culturally teaching efficacy showed a meaningful difference between the initial and final stage groups of a teacher education program. Suggestions for future research and early childhood teacher education programs were presented based on the results.