• ETRI Journal
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.772-782
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• 2014

Two-microphone binary mask speech enhancement (2mBMSE) has been of particular interest in recent literature and has shown promising results. Current 2mBMSE systems rely on spatial cues of speech and noise sources. Although these cues are helpful for directional noise sources, they lose their efficiency in diffuse noise fields. We propose a new system that is effective in both directional and diffuse noise conditions. The system exploits two features. The first determines whether a given time-frequency (T-F) unit of the input spectrum is dominated by a diffuse or directional source. A diffuse signal is certainly a noise signal, but a directional signal could correspond to a noise or speech source. The second feature discriminates between T-F units dominated by speech or directional noise signals. Speech enhancement is performed using a binary mask, calculated based on the proposed features. In both directional and diffuse noise fields, the proposed system segregates speech T-F units with hit rates above 85%. It outperforms previous solutions in terms of signal-to-noise ratio and perceptual evaluation of speech quality improvement, especially in diffuse noise conditions.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.12
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• pp.535-543
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• 2020

Investors from the whole world are looking for those stock markets that are less affected by interest rates. Pakistan is a good place to invest and the investors from the whole world are considering Pakistan for future ventures. The current study, therefore, aims to analyze the factors affecting investors' decision making in Pakistan with the interaction effect of locus of control. The primary data are gathered from 300 respondents. Structural equation modelling (SEM-PLS) is used to analyze the interactions among variables. The study finds positive impact of availability and representative biases on investment decision making. The study could not find any moderating role of locus of control. The results imply that decisions made by Pakistani investors are driven by the most easily or currently available information and they trust on the information obtained from family and friends without any authentication and verification. One possible description of insignificant moderation effect of locus of control can be the sample traits used in the study, e.g., personal characteristics, that change from culture to culture. Another description of these findings may be the association between heuristic biases, including availability, representative and psychological biases and decision-making regarding investment is not personality specific.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.3815-3817
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• 2013

Background: Breast cancer is a common cancer worldwide. With the establishment of Thailand's population-based cancer registry and availability of complete data from 2002-2011, it is of interest to investigate the epidemiologic and clinic-pathological profiles of breast cancer based on the population-based registry data. Methods: The data of all breast cancer patients in the registry for the period of 2002-2011 were included. All medical records of the patients diagnosed from documents of National Cancer Registry of Thailand were retrieved and the following information abstracted: age, clinical characteristics, and histological variables. Thailand census data for the period of 2002-2011 were used to provide the general population's statistics on age, gender, and other related demographic factors. Results: Over the 10 year-period, 7,711 breast cancer cases were included. The disease incidence under age 40 years was relatively low (4.13/$10^5$) while the incidence in the age groups 40 and older was very high (39.2/$10^5$). The vast majority of breast cancer cases (88.8%) were diagnosed by histology as primary lesions in the breast. The most common of patients with breast cancer (36.4%) had regional lymph node involvement and the most common of histopathology diagnosed in patients (84.2%) was an infiltrating duct carcinoma. Conclusions: This study showed a high incidence of breast cancer in older subjects, and high rate of breast cancer in Thailand. Future studies should explore clinical and molecular disease patterns.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.27-37
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• 2015

Objectives: As the increasing of the length of the lifespan, more recent policy interest are concerned with how many years of life are lived without functional disability or activity limitation. We investigated the relationship between deprivation and activity limitation at the 251 local authority level. Methods: The data were derived from the 2010 Census 10% sample data. Crude and age-standardized activity limitation rates by gender at the ages of 50 or over and deprivation index were calculated. Mapping and multiple linear regression analysis were applied to explore relationship between area activity limitation and area deprivation. Results: There were considerable differences in activity limitation rate across the 251 local authorities. Age-standardized activity limitation rate in both male and female were strongly associated with the level of area deprivation. Especially, low social class, male unemployment, or non-apartment residents at the local level were strong positive association with local authorities' age-standardized activity limitation. Conclusion: More policy attention is needed for tackling regional inequality in activity limitation among older adults.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.3-54
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• 2003

This paper studies the effects of the special surcharge on deposits, proposed as a plan to finance the costs of restructuring Korean corporate and financial sectors. Specifically, the study analyzes the change in the autonomous behavior of economic agents in terms of cost transfer and substitution effects. Given the result that the growth rate of deposits does not respond to the change of interest rates so much as that of loans, financial institutions have more incentive to transfer the costs incurred by the special surcharge to depositors. This paper also reports that the portfolio of households show a noteworthy feature that insured deposits have a relatively small portion in terms of total assets for high-asset class households, whereas most assets for low-asset class households are subject to the special surcharge.

• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.11-20
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• 2014

Recent changes in the dynamics of national economies, market liberalization, changes in technologies and movement of capital have had a major effect on the Asian Pacific region since the early 1990's, as there has been an increasing role for foreign housing developers in those countries that experienced economic liberalization, high urbanization rates and reforms in the housing sectors. Recently the cosmopolitan cities of Indonesia attracted a global interest due to its rapid economic development and great potential of population and natural resources. New town development emerged as one of the solutions to reduce urbanization problems in Indonesia. This study aims to explore the contemporary planning principles of new town developments in representative new town projects supplied by of major housing development companies in Indonesia. We conducted case study on the new town named Kota Baru Parahyangan, which is located in outskirt of Bandung, the third biggest city in Indonesia and supplied by PT. Belaputra Intiland. As a result of this study, we can identify unique characteristics of new town development in Indonesia.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 1981

This report presents the results of the environmental radiation program at Korea Advanced Energy Research Institute (KAERI) ($37^{\circ}38'N,\;127^{\circ}05'E$) and its surroundings for the last two decades (January, 1961 through December, 1980). In the 1960s, the monthly mean levels of environmental external radiation encountered ranged from a low of 14.2 microroentgen per hour to a high of 42.2 microroentgen per hour with a mean of 21.7 microroentgen per hour, while in 1970s it ranged from a low of 12.4 microroentgen per hour to a high of 40.8 microroentgen per hour with a mean of 20.4 microroentgen per hour. It may, therefore, be said that environmental radiation dose rates remained almost unchanged for the two decades except for the second half of 1960s and the first half of 1970s during which the off-site and on-site patterns were frequently unlike in form and intensity with appreciable differences between average values. Particular results of interest with respect to the effects of the fallout gamma dose rate on environmental radiation show that elevated levels were encountered in association with the deposits of fresh debris from Chinese and Russian nuclear weapons tests in particular.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.210-215
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• 2002

In respect of global environment protection and efficient utilization of energy, co-generation systems, which have greatly higher efficiency than the other generations, have been developed and put to practical use. Assuming that the co-generation system would be operating in Park Hotel, this paper calculates the difference between the heat and electricity rates by the conventional method and the co-generation system, considers the cost of new investment and analyzes introduction economics based on the return on investment. The introduction is turned out to be recommendable, since the return of investment for co-gen oration equipment is about ten years when the co-generation profits in heat and electricity rate. Additionally, accounting for interest rate drop, improvement of environmental matters or electricity rate increase, it is shown to be even more economical.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.159-163
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• 2015

Background Interest in global health and international mission trips among medical student and resident trainees is growing rapidly. How these electives and international mission experiences affect future practice is still being elucidated. No study has identified if participation in international surgical missions during residency is a predictor of participation in international surgical missions in practice after training completion. Methods All trainees of our plastic surgery residency program from 1990 to 2011, during the implementation of optional annual international surgical missions, were surveyed to determine if the graduate had gone on a mission as a resident and as a plastic surgeon. Data were compared between graduates who participated in missions as residents and graduates who did not, from 1990 to 2011 and 1990 to 2007. Results Of Plastic Surgery graduates from 1990 to 2011 who participated in international missions as residents, 60% participated in missions when in practice, versus 5.9% of graduates participating in missions in practice but not residency (P<0.0001). When excluding last 5 years, graduates participating in international missions in practice after doing so as residents increases to 85.7%, versus 7.41% who participate in practice but not residency P<0.002. Conclusions Results reveal plastic surgeons who participate in international surgical missions as residents participate in international surgical missions in practice at higher rates than graduates who did not participate in missions during residency. International missions have significant intrinsic value both to trainee and international communities served, and this opportunity should be readily and easily accessible to all plastic surgery residents nationwide.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Tobacco Science
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.21-27
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• 2011

Amadori compounds(1-deoxy-1-amino-2-ketoses) are important precursors of color, flavor and aroma produced in foods. Amadori compounds occur naturally in tobacco. The contribution of amadori compounds to smoke quality has been (of) interest because of their roles of the Maillard reaction in the leaf chemistry. The amounts of these compound in tobacco are affected by the processes of aging, drying and storage conditions. In this study, eight compounds were chemically synthesized because amadori compounds (have not been sold commercially these days.) were not available for obtaining commercially. The aim of this study was to develop the analytical method of amadori compounds in tobacco leaf by the liquid chromatography mass spectrometry using triple quadrupole analyzer(LC-MS/MS). This method was simple, rapid, selective and sensitive, and eight amadori compounds were simultaneously and quantitatively analyzed within 20 minutes. This method showed excellent accuracy and precision. Recovery rates of amadori compounds ranged from 86% to 102%, with relative standard deviation(RSD) ranged from 2.6% to 5.9%. This method was applied to analysis of amadori compounds contents of tobacco leaves in different varieties. Furthermore, it was expected that the method could be extended to the analysis of other amadori compounds.