• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.43 no.4
• /
• pp.280-289
• /
• 2022

In this paper, we present a QRS-complex detection algorithm to calculate an accurate heartbeat and clearly recognize irregular rhythm from ECG signals. The conventional Pan-Tompkins algorithm brings false QRS detection in the derivative when QRS and noise signals have similar instant variation. The proposed algorithm uses amplitude differences in 7 adjacent samples to detect QRS-complex which has the highest amplitude variation. The calculated amplitude is cubed to dominate QRS-complex and the moving average method is applied to diminish the noise signal's amplitude. Finally, a decision rule with a threshold value is applied to detect accurate QRS-complex. The calculated signals with Pan-Tompkins and proposed algorithms were compared by signal-to-noise ratio to evaluate the noise reduction degree. QRS-complex detection performance was confirmed by sensitivity and the positive predictive value(PPV). Normal ECG, muscle noise ECG, PVC, and atrial fibrillation signals were achieved which were measured from an ECG simulator. The signal-to-noise ratio difference between Pan-Tompkins and the proposed algorithm were 8.1, 8.5, 9.6, and 4.7, respectively. All ratio of the proposed algorithm is higher than the Pan-Tompkins values. It indicates that the proposed algorithm is more robust to noise than the Pan-Tompkins algorithm. The Pan-Tompkins algorithm and the proposed algorithm showed similar sensitivity and PPV at most waveforms. However, with a noisy atrial fibrillation signal, the PPV for QRS-complex has different values, 42% for the Pan-Tompkins algorithm and 100% for the proposed algorithm. It means that the proposed algorithm has superiority for QRS-complex detection in a noisy environment.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
• /
• v.23 no.8
• /
• pp.177-189
• /
• 2023

Malware detection is an increasingly important operational focus in cyber security, particularly given the fast pace of such threats (e.g., new malware variants introduced every day). There has been great interest in exploring the use of machine learning techniques in automating and enhancing the effectiveness of malware detection and analysis. In this paper, we present a deep recurrent neural network solution as a stacked Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) with a pre-training as a regularization method to avoid random network initialization. In our proposal, we use global and short dependencies of the inputs. With pre-training, we avoid random initialization and are able to improve the accuracy and robustness of malware threat hunting. The proposed method speeds up the convergence (in comparison to stacked LSTM) by reducing the length of malware OpCode or bytecode sequences. Hence, the complexity of our final method is reduced. This leads to better accuracy, higher Mattews Correlation Coefficients (MCC), and Area Under the Curve (AUC) in comparison to a standard LSTM with similar detection time. Our proposed method can be applied in real-time malware threat hunting, particularly for safety critical systems such as eHealth or Internet of Military of Things where poor convergence of the model could lead to catastrophic consequences. We evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed method on Windows, Ransomware, Internet of Things (IoT), and Android malware datasets using both static and dynamic analysis. For the IoT malware detection, we also present a comparative summary of the performance on an IoT-specific dataset of our proposed method and the standard stacked LSTM method. More specifically, of our proposed method achieves an accuracy of 99.1% in detecting IoT malware samples, with AUC of 0.985, and MCC of 0.95; thus, outperforming standard LSTM based methods in these key metrics.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
• /
• v.49 no.4
• /
• pp.239-247
• /
• 2022

Objective: Asafoetida is a gum derived from Ferula assa-foetida, which is used in traditional Iranian medicine to treat some reproductive system disorders. The effects of asafoetida on ovarian tissue, expression of certain genes associated with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and levels of liver, kidney, and blood cell factors after treatment in a rat model were investigated. Methods: Thirty rats were divided into five groups: normal, polycystic, and treatment with three doses of asafoetida (12.5, 25, and 50 mg/kg for 3 weeks after PCOS induction). PCOS was induced by letrozole at a dose of 1 mg/kg administered orally for 3 weeks. Blood samples were taken, and the ovaries were removed and prepared for histomorphometric examination. Liver and kidney parameters were measured. The mRNA expression levels of luteinizing hormone receptor, CYP11A1, adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase, adiponectin, and adiponectin receptors 1 and 2 were also measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results: The levels of liver, kidney, and blood parameters did not significantly differ between the treatment groups and the control group. At doses of 25 and 50 mg/kg, ovarian histopathology, especially the thicknesses of the theca and granulosa layers, was significantly improved relative to the PCOS group. The expression of target genes also improved in the 25 and 50 mg/kg treatment groups. Conclusion: Asafoetida can be used to treat PCOS as a complementary approach to conventional therapies. Asafoetida appears to act by regulating and activating metabolic and ovarian cycle enzymes.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
• /
• v.45 no.1
• /
• pp.19-30
• /
• 2022

In this study, a simple loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) combined with visual detection method (vLAMP) assay was developed for the rapid and specific detection of African swine fever virus (ASFV), overcoming the shortcomings of previously described LAMP assays that require additional detection steps or pose a cross-contamination risk. The assay results can be directly detected by the naked eye using hydroxynaphthol blue after incubation for 40 min at 62℃. The assay specifically amplified ASFV DNA and no other viral nucleic acids. The limit of detection of the assay was <50 DNA copies/reaction, which was ten times more sensitive than conventional polymerase chain reaction (cPCR) and comparable to real-time PCR (qPCR). For clinical evaluation, the ASFV detection rate of vLAMP was higher than cPCR and comparable to OIE-recommended qPCR, showing 100% concordance, with a κ value (95% confidence interval) of 1 (1.00~1.00). Considering the advantages of high sensitivity and specificity, no possibility for cross-contamination, and being able to be used as low-cost equipment, the developed vLAMP assay will be a valuable tool for detecting ASFV from clinical samples, even in resource-limited laboratories.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.44 no.2
• /
• pp.37.3-37.3
• /
• 2019

We study the stellar populations of the brightest group galaxies (BGGs) in groups whose halos have different dynamical states, using observational data from the GAMA survey. The two independent indicators to probe the dynamical state of the halo are the magnitude gap between two most luminous galaxies (∆M12) and offset between BGG and the luminosity center (Doffset) of the group. Such indicators complement each other in identifying relaxed and unrelaxed galaxy groups in our samples. We find that the BGGs of unrelaxed groups have significantly bluer NUV-r colours than in relaxed groups. This is also true at fixed sersic index. We find the bluer colours cannot be explained away by differing dust fraction, suggesting there are real differences in their stellar populations. SFRs derived from SED-fitting tend to be higher in unrelaxed systems. This could be partly because there is a greater fraction of BGGs with non-elliptical morphology, but also because unrelaxed systems are expected to have larger numbers of mergers, some of which may bring fuel for star formation. The SED-fitted stellar metallicities of BGGs in unrelaxed systems also tend to be higher, perhaps because the building blocks of the unrelaxed systems were more massive and had more time to enrich themselves. We find that the ∆M12 parameter is the most important parameter behind the observed differences in the relaxed/unrelaxed groups. We also find that groups selected to be unrelaxed using our criteria tend to have higher velocity offsets between the BGG and their group.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.26 no.5D
• /
• pp.747-754
• /
• 2006

Real-time traffic information disseminated through VMS is known to have effects not only on driver to plan a route choice, detour the congestion, and cope with incident, but also on VMS operator to manage the traffic volume indirectly. But, the dissemination of traffic information is operated in the side of provider, not of user. Importance-Performance analysis (IPA) offers a simple, useful method for simultaneously considering both the importance and performance dimensions when evaluating or improving strategy. This technique has been successfully used in a variety of settings to define priorities and guide resource optimization decisions. This study uses IPA to evaluate traffic information strategies through VMS to make resource improvement recommendations. It gained 760 samples by field surveys, which are conducted in Korean Thanksgiving Day, weekday and weekend at the service areas of expressways. The results indicate that the motivations in quadrant I (concentrate here) are dissemination of exactly information and quick transmission, while distance of VMS, most drivers are not satisfied with that is located in quadrant III (low priority).

• Analytical Science and Technology
• /
• v.36 no.5
• /
• pp.216-223
• /
• 2023

Aluminium (Al) is one of the major elements in rocks and its concentration can be varied, depending on different rock types as well as sources. The present study aimed to propose an analytical method based on the UV-Vis as a cheap, simple, and common instrument equipped in most laboratories for Al quantification in rocks after the microwave assisted acid digestion. The aluminone and 8-hydroxyquinoline were investigated for the colorimetric assay. The results show that the 8-hydroxyquinoline reagent was more favorable in terms of the minimized affects of the potential interferences present in the digested solutions, i.e., Fe³⁺, Si⁴⁺ and F^-. The calibration curve was constructed from 0.10 mg/L to 3.00 mg/L with the goodness of linearity (R² = 0.9996). The limits of detection and quantification (LOD and LOQ) were estimated, i.e., 0.029 mg/L and 0.087 mg/L, respectively. The 8-hydroxyquinoline was applied to real rock samples, demonstrating favorable precision (RSD = 0.34 %-1.8 %) and no remarkable differences were found compared to the inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) as a reference measurement approach.

• Animal Bioscience
• /
• v.36 no.12
• /
• pp.1796-1805
• /
• 2023

Objective: This study aims to identify heat shock protein70-2 (HSP70-2) and protamine-1 (PRM1) mRNA and protein in Madura bull sperm and demonstrate their relation as bull fertility biomarkers. Methods: The Madura bull fertility rates were grouped based on the percentage of first service conception rate (%FSCR) as high fertility (HF) (79.04%; n = 4), and low fertility (LF) (65.84%; n = 4). mRNA of HSP70-2 and PRM1 with peptidylprolyl isomerase A (PPIA) as a housekeeping gene were determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, while enzyme-linked immunoassay was used to measure protein abundance. In the post-thawed semen samples, sperm motility, viability, acrosome integrity, and sperm DNA fragmentation index were analyzed. Data analysis was performed on the measured parameters of semen quality, relative mRNA expression, and protein abundance of HSP70-2 and PRM1, among the bulls with various fertility levels (HF and LF) in a one-way analysis of variance analysis. The Pearson correlation was used to analyze the relationship between semen quality, mRNA, proteins, and fertility rate. Results: Relative mRNA expression and protein abundance of HSP70-2 and PRM1 were detected and were found to be highly expressed in bulls with HF (p<0.05) and were associated with several parameters of semen quality. Conclusion: HSP70-2 and PRM1 mRNA and protein molecules have great potential to serve as molecular markers for determining bull fertility.

• Convergence Security Journal
• /
• v.23 no.5
• /
• pp.135-142
• /
• 2023

In addressing the prominent issues of climate change, resource scarcity, and environmental pollution associated with household waste, extensive research has been conducted on intelligent waste classification methods. These efforts range from traditional classification algorithms to machine learning and neural networks. However, challenges persist in effectively classifying waste in diverse environments and conditions due to insufficient datasets, increased complexity in neural network architectures, and performance limitations for real-world applications. Therefore, this paper proposes i-YOLOX as a solution for rapid classification and improved accuracy. The proposed model is evaluated based on network parameters, detection speed, and accuracy. To achieve this, a dataset comprising 10,000 samples of household waste, spanning 17 waste categories, is created. The i-YOLOX architecture is constructed by introducing the Involution channel convolution operator and the Convolution Branch Attention Module (CBAM) into the YOLOX structure. A comparative analysis is conducted with the performance of the existing YOLO architecture. Experimental results demonstrate that i-YOLOX enhances the detection speed and accuracy of waste objects in complex scenes compared to conventional neural networks. This confirms the effectiveness of the proposed i-YOLOX architecture in the detection and classification of multiple household waste objects.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.33 no.4
• /
• pp.261-269
• /
• 2023

Background: Acute rhinosinusitis (ARS) is a common condition encountered in ambulatory practice and is one of the most common reasons for antibiotic prescriptions. This study aimed to evaluate the potentially inappropriate antibiotic prescribing for ARS in South Korea and identify influencing factors. Methods: We analyzed Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service-National Patient Samples data. We selected outpatients aged 20 to 64 with ARS, prescribed antibiotics between February and November 2020. Potentially inappropriate antibiotic prescribing was categorized as: 1) inappropriate antibiotic selection and 2) inappropriate antibiotic dosage or duration. Multiple logistic regression was conducted to estimate the impact of various factors on inappropriate antibiotic prescribing. Results: Of 1,210 patients, 80.83% received potentially inappropriate ARS antibiotic prescriptions. Inappropriate antibiotic selection accounted for 43.55%, and inappropriate antibiotic dosage and duration contributed to 37.28%. Otolaryngologists had higher odds ratio (OR) of potentially inappropriate antibiotic prescribing compared to internal medicine practitioners, while dentists had lower OR. Patients aged 20 to 29 years had a higher OR than other age groups, and those who visited primary care clinics had a higher OR than those who visited hospitals. Conclusion: Potentially inappropriate antibiotic prescribing for ARS is prevalent in South Korea. This study identified physician specialty, patient age group, and the level of healthcare facility as factors influencing potentially inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions. Addressing this issue through targeted interventions, such as improved guidelines adherence and patient education, is imperative to mitigate the risks associated with antibiotic misuse and antibiotic resistance.