• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.528-534
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• 2008

Purpose: Marginal fit is one of the important components for the successful prosthodontic restoration. Poor fitting margin of the restoration causes hypersensitivity, secondary caries, and plaque accumulation, which later result in prosthodontic failure. CAD/CAM zirconia all-ceramic restorations, such as $LAVA^{(R)}$ (3M ESPE, St.Paul, MN) and $EVEREST^{(R)}$ (KaVo Dental GmbH, Biberach, Germany) systems were recently introduced in Korea. It is clinically meaningful to evaluate the changes of the marginal fit of the CAD/CAM zirconia systems before and after build-up. The purposes of this study are to compare the marginal fit of the two CAD/CAM all-ceramic systems with that of the ceramometal restoration, before and after porcelain build-up Material and methods: A maxillary first premolar dentiform tooth was prepared with 2.0 mm occlusal reduction, 1.0 mm axial reduction, chamfer margin, and 6 degree taperness in the axial wall. The prepared dentiform die was duplicated into the metal abutment die. The metal die was placed in the dental study model, and the full arch impressions of the model were made. Twenty four copings of 3 groups which were $LAVA^{(R)}$, $EVEREST^{(R)}$, and ceramometal restorations were fabricated. Each coping was cemented on the metal die with color-mixed Fit-checker $II^{(R)}$ (GC Cor., Tokyo, Japan). The marginal opening of each coping was measured with $Microhiscope^{(R)}$ system (HIROX KH-1000 ING-Plus, Seoul, Korea. X300 magnification). After porcelain build-up, the marginal openings of $LAVA^{(R)}$, $EVEREST^{(R)}$,and ceramometal restorations were also evaluated in the same method. Statistical analysis was done with paired t-test and one-way ANOVA test. Results: In coping states, the mean marginal opening for $EVEREST^{(R)}$ restorations was $52.00{\pm}11.94\;{\mu}m$ for $LAVA^{(R)}$ restorations $56.97{\pm}10.00\;{\mu}m$, and for ceramometal restorations $97.38{\pm}18.54\;{\mu}m$. After porcelain build-up, the mean marginal opening for $EVEREST^{(R)}$ restorations was $61.69{\pm}19.33\;{\mu}m$, for $LAVA^{(R)}$ restorations $70.81{\pm}12.99\;{\mu}m$, and for ceramometal restorations $1115.25{\pm}23.86\;{\mu}m$. Conclusion: 1. $LAVA^{(R)}$ and $EVEREST^{(R)}$ restorations in comparison with ceramometal restorations showed better marginal fit, which had significant differences (P < 0.05) in coping state and also after porcelain build-up . 2. The mean marginal opening values between $LAVA^{(R)}$ and $EVEREST^{(R)}$ restorations did not showed significant differences after porcelain build-up as well as in coping state (P > .05). 3. $EVEREST^{(R)}$, $LAVA^{(R)}$ and ceramometal restorations showed a little increased marginal opening after porcelain build-up, but did not show any statistical significance (P > .05).

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.15-24
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• 2021

Purpose SPECT/CT was noted for its excellent correction method and qualitative functions based on fusion images in the early stages of dissemination, and interest in and utilization of quantitative functions has been increasing with the recent introduction of companion diagnostic therapy(Theranostics). Unlike PET/CT, various conditions like the type of collimator and detector rotation are a challenging factor for image acquisition and reconstruction methods at absolute quantification of SPECT/CT. Therefore, in this study, We want to find out the effect on the radioactivity concentration estimate by the increase or decrease of the total acquisition time according to the number of projections and the acquisition time per projection among SPECT/CT imaging conditions. Materials and Methods After filling the 9,293 ml cylindrical phantom with sterile water and diluting 99mTc 91.76 MBq, the standard image was taken with a total acquisition time of 600 sec (10 sec/frame × 120 frames, matrix size 128 × 128) and also volume sensitivity and the calibration factor was verified. Based on the standard image, the comparative images were obtained by increasing or decreasing the total acquisition time. namely 60 (-90%), 150 (-75%), 300 (-50%), 450 (-25%), 900 (+50%), and 1200 (+100%) sec. For each image detail, the acquisition time(sec/frame) per projection was set to 1.0, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 15.0 and 20.0 sec (fixed number of projections: 120 frame) and the number of projection images was set to 12, 30, 60, 90, 180 and 240 frames(fixed time per projection:10 sec). Based on the coefficients measured through the volume of interest in each acquired image, the percentage of variation about the contrast to noise ratio (CNR) was determined as a qualitative assessment, and the quantitative assessment was conducted through the percentage of variation of the radioactivity concentration estimate. At this time, the relationship between the radioactivity concentration estimate (cps/ml) and the actual radioactivity concentration (Bq/ml) was compared and analyzed using the recovery coefficient (RC_Recovery Coefficients) as an indicator. Results The results [CNR, radioactivity Concentration, RC] by the change in the number of projections for each increase or decrease rate (-90%, -75%, -50%, -25%, +50%, +100%) of total acquisition time are as follows. [-89.5%, +3.90%, 1.04] at -90%, [-77.9%, +2.71%, 1.03] at -75%, [-55.6%, +1.85%, 1.02] at -50%, [-33.6%, +1.37%, 1.01] at -25%, [-33.7%, +0.71%, 1.01] at +50%, [+93.2%, +0.32%, 1.00] at +100%. and also The results [CNR, radioactivity Concentration, RC] by the acquisition time change for each increase or decrease rate (-90%, -75%, -50%, -25%, +50%, +100%) of total acquisition time are as follows. [-89.3%, -3.55%, 0.96] at - 90%, [-73.4%, -0.17%, 1.00] at -75%, [-49.6%, -0.34%, 1.00] at -50%, [-24.9%, 0.03%, 1.00] at -25%, [+49.3%, -0.04%, 1.00] at +50%, [+99.0%, +0.11%, 1.00] at +100%. Conclusion In SPECT/CT, the total coefficient obtained according to the increase or decrease of the total acquisition time and the resulting image quality (CNR) showed a pattern that changed proportionally. On the other hand, quantitative evaluations through absolute quantification showed a change of less than 5% (-3.55 to +3.90%) under all experimental conditions, maintaining quantitative accuracy (RC 0.96 to 1.04). Considering the reduction of the total acquisition time rather than the increasing of the image acquiring time, The reduction in total acquisition time is applicable to quantitative analysis without significant loss and is judged to be clinically effective. This study shows that when increasing or decreasing of total acquisition time, changes in acquisition time per projection have fewer fluctuations that occur in qualitative and quantitative condition changes than the change in the number of projections under the same scanning time conditions.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.49-61
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• 2014

Purpose: With the aging of the population, the attack rate of osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture is in the increasing trend, and percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) is the most commonly performed standardized treatment. Although there is a research report of the excellence of usefulness of the SPECT/CT examination in terns of the exact diagnosis before and after the procedure, the bone cement material used in the procedure influences the image quality by forming an artifact in the CT image. Therefore, the objective of the research lies on evaluating the effect the bone cement gives to a SPECT/CT image. Materials and Methods: The images were acquired by inserting a model cement to each cylinder, after setting the background (3.6 kBq/mL), hot cylinder (29.6 kBq/mL) and cold cylinder (water) to the NEMA-1994 phantom. It was reconstructed with Astonish (Iterative: 4 Subset: 16), and non attenuation correction (NAC), attenuation correction (AC+SC-) and attenuation and scatter correction (AC+SC+) were used for the CT correction method. The mean count by each correction method and the count change ratio by the existence of the cement material were compared and the contrast recovery coefficient (CRC) was obtained. Additionally, the bone/soft tissue ratio (B/S ratio) was obtained after measuring the mean count of the 4 places including the soft tissue(spine erector muscle) after dividing the vertebral body into fracture region, normal region and cement by selecting the 20 patients those have performed PVP from the 107 patients diagnosed of compression fracture. Results: The mean count by the existence of a cement material showed the rate of increase of 12.4%, 6.5%, 1.5% at the hot cylinder of the phantom by NAC, AC+SC- and AC+SC+ when cement existed, 75.2%, 85.4%, 102.9% at the cold cylinder, 13.6%, 18.2%, 9.1% at the background, 33.1%, 41.4%, 63.5% at the fracture region of the clinical image, 53.1%, 61.6%, 67.7% at the normal region and 10.0%, 4.7%, 3.6% at the soft tissue. Meanwhile, a relative count reduction could be verified at the cement adjacent part at the inside of the cylinder, and the phantom image on the lesion and the count increase ratio of the clinical image showed a contrary phase. CRC implying the contrast ratio and B/S ratio was improved in the order of NAC, AC+SC-, AC+SC+, and was constant without a big change in the cold cylinder of the phantom. AC+SC- for the quantitative count, and AC+SC+ for the contrast ratio was analyzed to be the highest. Conclusion: It is considered to be useful in a clinical diagnosis if the application of AC+SC+ that improves the contrast ratio is combined, as it increases the noise count of the soft tissue and the scatter region as well along with the effect of the bone cement in contrast to the fact that the use of AC+SC- in the spine SPECT/CT examination of a PVP performed patient drastically increases the image count and enables a high density of image of the lesion(fracture).

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.27-36
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• 1975

The success of the family planning program in Korea is reflected in the decrease in the growth rate from 3.0% in 1962 to 2.0% in 1971, and in the decrease in the fertility rate from 43/1,000 in 1960 to 29/1,000 in 1970. However, it would be erroneous to attribute these reductions entirely to the family planning program. Other socio-economic factors, such as the increasing age at marriage and the increasing use of induced abortions, definitely had an impact on the lowered growth and fertility rate. Despite the relative success of the program to data in meeting its goals, there is no room for complacency. Meeting the goal of a further reduction in the population growth rate to 1.3% by 1981 is a much more difficult task than any one faced in the past. Not only must fertility be lowered further, but the size of the target population itself will expand tremendously in the late seventies; due to the post-war baby boom of the 1950's reaching reproductive ages. Furthermore, it is doubtful that the age at marriage will continue to rise as in the past or that the incidence of induced abortion will continue to increase. Consequently, future reductions in fertility will be more dependent on the performance of the national family planning program, with less assistance from these non-program factors. This paper will describe various approaches to help to the solution of these current problems. 1. PRACTICE RATE IN FAMILY PLANNING In 1973, the attitude (approval) and knowledge rates were quite high; 94% and 98% respectively. But a large gap exists between that and the actual practice rate, which is only 3695. Two factors must be considered in attempting to close the KAP-gap. The first is to change social norms, which still favor a larger family, increasing the practice rate cannot be done very quickly. The second point to consider is that the family planning program has not yet reached all the eligible women. A 1973 study determineded that a large portion, 3096 in fact, of all eligible women do not want more children, but are not practicing family planning. Thus, future efforts to help close the KAP-gap must focus attention and services on this important large group of potential acceptors. 2. CONTINUATION RATES Dissatisfaction with the loop and pill has resulted in high discontinuation rates. For example, a 1973 survey revealed that within the first six months initial loop acceptance. nearly 50% were dropouts, and that within the first four months of inital pill acceptance. nearly 50% were dropouts. These discontinuation rates have risen over the past few years. The high rate of discontinuance obviously decreases the contraceptive effectiveness. and has resulted in many unwanted births which is directly related to the increase of induced abortions. In the future, the family planning program must emphasize the improved quality of initial and follow-up services. rather than more quantity, in order to insure higher continuation rates and thus more effective contraceptive protection. 3. INDUCED ABORTION As noted earlier. the use of induced abortions has been increase yearly. For example, in 1960, the average number of abortions was 0.6 abortions per women in the 15-44 age range. By 1970. that had increased to 2 abortions per women. In 1966. 13% of all women between 15-44 had experienced at least one abortion. By 1971, that figure jumped to 28%. In 1973 alone, the total number of abortions was 400,000. Besides the ever incre.sing number of induced abortions, another change has that those who use abortions have shifted since 1965 to include- not. only the middle class, but also rural and low-income women. In the future. in response to the demand for abortion services among rural and low-income w~men, the government must provide and support abortion services for these women as a part of the national family planning program. 4. TARGET SYSTIi:M Since 1962, the nationwide target system has been used to set a target for each method, and the target number of acceptors is then apportioned out to various sub-areas according to the number of eligible couples in each area. Because these targets are set without consideration for demographic factors, particular tastes, prejudices, and previous patterns of acceptance in the area, a high discontinuation rate for all methods and a high wastage rate for the oral pill and condom results. In the future. to alleviate these problems of the methodbased target system. an alternative. such as the weighted-credit system, should be adopted on a nation wide basis. In this system. each contraceptive method is. assigned a specific number of points based upon the couple-years of protection (CYP) provided by the method. and no specific targets for each method are given. 5. INCREASE OF STERILIZA.TION TARGET Two special projects. the hospital-based family planning program and the armed forces program, has greatly contributed to the increasing acceptance in female and male sterilization respectively. From January-September 1974, 28,773 sterilizations were performed. During the same time in 1975, 46,894 were performed; a 63% increase. If this trend continues, by the end of 1975. approximately 70,000 sterilizations will have been performed. Sterilization is a much better method than both the loop and pill, in terms of more effective contraceptive protection and the almost zero dropout rate. In the future, the. family planning program should continue to stress the special programs which make more sterilizations possible. In particular, it should seek to add the laparoscope techniques to facilitate female sterilization acceptance rates. 6. INCREASE NUMBER OF PRIVATE ACCEPTORS Among the current family planning users, approximately 1/3 are in the private sector and thus do not- require government subsidy. The number of private acceptors increases with increasing urbanization and economic growth. To speed this process, the government initiated the special hospital based family planning program which is utilized mostly by the private sector. However, in the future, to further hasten the increase of private acceptors, the government should encourage doctors in private practice to provide family planning services, and provide the contraceptive supplies. This way, those do utilize the private medical system will also be able to receive family planning services and pay for it. Another means of increasing the number of private acceptors, IS to greatly expand the commercial outlets for pills and condoms beyond the existing service points of drugstores, hospitals, and health centers. 7. IE&C PROGRAM The current preferred family size is nearly twice as high as needed to achieve a stable poplation. Also, a strong boy preference hinders a small family size as nearly all couples fuel they must have at least one or more sons. The IE&C program must, in the future, strive to emphasize the values of the small family and equality of the sexes. A second problem for the IE&C program to work. with in the: future is the large group of people who approves family planning, want no more children, but do not practice. The IE&C program must work to motivate these people to accept family planning And finally, for those who already practice, an IE&C program in the future must stress continuation of use. The IE&C campaign, to insure highest effectiveness, should be based on a detailed factor analysis of contraceptive discontinuance. In conclusion, Korea faces a serious unfavorable sociodemographic situation- in the future unless the population growth rate can be curtailed. And in the future, the decrease in fertility will depend solely on the family planning program, as the effect of other socio-economic factors has already been maximumally felt. A second serious factor to consider is the increasing number of eligible women due to the 1950's baby boom. Thus, to meet these challenges, the program target must be increased and the program must improve the effectiveness of its current activities and develop new programs.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.166-184
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• 1979

In order to prevent the water loss in the irrigation canal constructed on the sandy gravel layer or on the other highly permeable ground layer, lining has been practiced. Many studies have been done so far on the lining method to prevent the water loss in the irrigation canal and recently studies on the lining with plastic film or polyethylene film were also reported. However, the plastic film or polyethylene film has low strength and is liable to break, and water loss from pin hole caused by contacting with sand or gravel is highly predicted. This study was then conducted to find proper lining and buring method in canal construction of polypropylene mat after coated with vinyl, as one way to overcome the shortcoming frequently observed when plastic or usual polyehtylene film were used. Eventhough rather longer periods of experiments are needed to attain reliable and accurate results on the variation of durability, the durability of asphalt coated area, or on the damage due to freeze after burial or exposure of polypropylene mat, the experiemental results obtained during one year of period are summarized as follows: 1. The curvature at the area between canal bottom and side slope had increased stability and saved consruction cost. The relationship among the variation of curvature, the reduction of polypropylene mat and the reduced amount of soil cutting at each side slope was presented in Fig. 7 through 9. 2. The depth of covering material to protect polypropylene mat was desired to be over 30cm, considering the water depth, side slope, canal cleaning practices, traffic, or back pressure of irrigation period. 3. In order to increase the canal stability and to prevent slope erosion, sandy soil was required, to be placed under ground, and coarse gravel should cover the surface area of canal. 4. The studies on the stability of side slope in the canal should consider the passive area on the bottom and the slope should be about 1 to 2, considering the slope stability, allowable velocity and tractive force. 5. When compared with earth lining, the lining with polypropylene mat coated with vinyl was responsible to save 28% and 37% of canal lining cost, when the soil carrying distances were 500 and 700m. respectively. 6. The water interception was almost completely attained when the polypropylene mat coated with vinyl was used for lining. But further studies were assumed to be necessary for the use of asphalt since the strength of polypropylene mat connected with asphalt will vary with duration.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.225-233
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• 2004

Purpose: The Ideal breast irradiation method should provide an optimal dose distribution In the treated breast volume and a minimum scatter dose to the nearby normal tissue. Physical wedges have been used to Improve the dose distribution In the treated breast, but unfortunately Introduce an Increased scatter dose outside the treatment yield, pavllculariy to the contralateral breast. The typical physical wedge (FW) was compared with 4he virtual wedge (VW) to do)ermine the difference In the dose distribution affecting on the treated breast and the contralateral breast, lung, heart and surrounding perlpheral soft tissue. Methods and Materials: The data collected consisted of a measurement taken with solid water, a Humanoid Alderson Rando phantom and patients. The radiation doses at the ipsllateral breast and skin, contralateral breast and skin, surrounding peripheral soft tissue, and Ipsllateral lung and heart were compared using the physical wedge and virtual wedge and the radiation dose distribution and DVH of the treated breast were compared. The beam-on time of each treatment technique was also compared Furthermore, the doses at treated breast skin, contralateral breast skin and skin 1.5 cm away from 4he field margin were also measured using TLD in 7 patients of tangential breast Irradiation and compared the results with phantom measurements. Results: The virtual wedge showed a decreased peripheral dose than those of a typical physical wedge at 15$^{\circ}$, 30$^{\circ}$, 45$^{\circ}$, and 60$^{\circ}$. According to the TLD measurements with 15$^{\circ}$ and 30$^{\circ}$ virtual wedge, the Irradiation dose decreased by 1.35$\%$ and 2.55$\%$ In the contralateral breast and by 0.87$\%$ and 1.9$\%$ In the skin of the contralateral breast respectively. Furthermore, the Irradiation dose decreased by 2.7$\%$ and 6.0$\%$ in the Ipsllateral lung and by 0.96$\%$ and 2.5$\%$ in the heart. The VW fields had lower peripheral doses than those of the PW fields by 1.8$\%$ and 2.33$\%$. However the skin dose Increased by 2.4$\%$ and 4.58$\%$ In the Ipsliateral breast. VW fields, In general, use less monitor units than PW fields and shoriened beam-on time about half of PW. The DVH analysis showed that each delivery technique results In comparable dose distribution in treated breast. Conclusion: A modest dose reduction to the surrounding normal tissue and uniform target homogeneity were observed using the VW technique compare to the PW beam in tangential breast Irradiation The VW field is dosmetrically superlor to the PW beam and can be an efficient method for minimizing acute, late radiation morbidity and reduce 4he linear accelerator loading bV decreasing the radiation delivery time.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.79-89
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• 2009

Naphthalene is a volatile, hydrophobic, and possibly carcinogenic compound that is known to have a severe detrimental effect to aquatic ecosystem. Our research examined the effects of various operating conditions (temperature, pH, initial concentration, and frequency and type of ultrasound) on the sonochemical degradation of naphthalene and OH radical production. The MDL (Method detection limit) determined by LC/FLD (1200 series, Agilient) using C-18 reversed column is measured up to 0.01 ppm. Naphthalene vapor produced from ultrasound irradiation was detected under 0.05 ppm. Comparison of naphthalene sonodegradion efficiency tested under open and closed reactor cover fell within less than 1% of difference. Increasing the reaction temperature from $15^{\circ}C$ to $40^{\circ}C$ resulted in reduction of naphthalene degradation efficiency ($15^{\circ}C$: 95% ${\rightarrow}$ $40^{\circ}C$: 85%), and altering pH from 12 to 3 increased the effect (pH 12: 84% ${\rightarrow}$pH 3: 95.6%). Pseudo first-order constants ($k_1$) of sonodegradation of naphthalene decreased as initial concentration of naphthalene increased (2.5 ppm: $27.3{\times}10^{-3}\;min^{-3}\;{\rightarrow}$ 10 ppm : $19.3{\times}10^{-3}\;min^{-3}$). Degradation efficiency of 2.5 ppm of naphthalene subjected to 28 kHz of ultrasonic irradiation was found to be 1.46 times as much as when exposed under 132 kHz (132 kHz: 56%, 28 kHz: 82.7%). Additionally, its $k_1$ constant was increased by 2.3 times (132 kHz: $2.4{\times}10^{-3}\;min^{-1}$, 28 kHz: $5.0{\times}10^{-3}\;min^{-1}$). $H_2O_2$ concentration measured 10 minutes after the exposure to 132 kHz of ultrasound, when compared with the measurement under frequency of 28 kHz, was 7.2 times as much. The concentration measured after 90 minutes, however, showed the difference of only 10%. (concentration of $H_2O_2$ under 28 kHz being 1.1 times greater than that under 132 kHz.) The $H_2O_2$ concentration resulting from 2.5 ppm naphthalene after 90 minutes of sonication at 24 kHz and 132 kHz were lower by 0.05 and 0.1 ppm, respectively, than the concentration measured from the irradiated M.Q. water (no naphthalene added.) Degradation efficiency of horn type (24 kHz) and bath type (28 kHz) ultrasound was found to be 87% and 82.7%, respectively, and $k_1$ was calculated into $22.8{\times}10^{-3}\;min^{-1}$ and $18.7{\times}10^{-3}\;min^{-1}$ respectively. Using the multi- frequency and mixed type of ultrasound system (28 kHz bath type + 24 kHz horn type) simultaneously resulted in combined efficiency of 88.1%, while $H_2O_2$ concentration increased 3.5 times (28 kHz + 24 kHz: 2.37 ppm, 24 kHz: 0.7 ppm.) Therefore, the multi-frequency and mixed type of ultrasound system procedure might be most effectively used for removing the substances that are easily oxidized by the OH radical.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.353-360
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• 1984

As an effort to expand the utilization of mackerel which has been thought disadvantageous to processors due to the defects in bloody dark color of meat, high content of lipid, and low stability of protein, and to develope a new type of product, so called, preservative fish meat paste, the processing method was studied in which dielectric heating was applied by means of cooking, pasteurization, dehydration, and control of water activity. The principle of this method is based on that dielectric heating can initiate a rapid dispersion or displacement of moisture in the meat tissue so that the level of water acivity can be controlled by dehydration with hot air meanwhile the product is cooked, pasteurized, and texturized. And the product is finally heated with electric heaters and vacuum sealed to stabilize water activity and storage stability. In present paper, a formula for preparing the fish meat-stach paste, the conditions of dielectric heating and dehydration, shape and size of the product, and other parameters were tested to optimize the process operation. A formula of the fish meat-starch paste to provide proper textural properties and water activity was $10\%$ starch, $1.5\%$ salt, $3\%$ soybean, $0.6\%$ MSG, $2\%$ sucrose, and $3\%$ sorbitol against the weight of fish meat. A proper shape and size of the product to avoid foaming and case hardening during heating was sliced disc of 8 cm $diameter{\times}0.8$ cm thickness or $10{\times}10$ cm square plate with 1.0 cm thickness. The disc shape was recommended because it resulted more uniform heating, minimum foaming and case hardening. And it was also advantageous that disc was simply provided when the fish meat disc was stuffed in the same, solidified in boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes, and sliced. Condition of dielectric heating was critical to decide the levels of sterility, water activity, and textural property of the product. The temperature at the center of the meat disc slices was raised up to $95^{\circ}C$ in 1.5 minutes so that continuous exposure to microwave caused expanded tissue and hardening ending up with a higher water content. Heating for 5 to 6 minutes was adequate to yield the final water activity of 0.86 to 0.83(35 to $40\%$ moisture). It is important, however, that heating had to be done periodically, for instance, in the manner of 2.0, 1.5, 1.5, and 1.0 minute to give enough time to displace or evaporate moisture from the meat tissue. The product was dehydrated for 2 to 3 minutes by hot air of $60^{\circ}C$, 3 to 5m/sec and finally exposed to electric heaters for 5 to 6 minutes until the surface was roasted deep brown. These conditions of heating and dehydration resulted in a complete reduction of total plate count from an initial count of $5.3{\times}10^6/g$ to less than $3{\times}10^2/g$. General composition of the product was $40.1\%$ moisture, $20.8\%$ protein, $17.4\%$ lipid, $16.2\%$ carbohydrate, and $5.5\%$ ash. Textural properties revealed folding test AA, hardness 42, cohesiveness 0.53, toughness 4.6, and elasticity 0.8.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.29-45
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• 2012

Bond rating is regarded as an important event for measuring financial risk of companies and for determining the investment returns of investors. As a result, it has been a popular research topic for researchers to predict companies' credit ratings by applying statistical and machine learning techniques. The statistical techniques, including multiple regression, multiple discriminant analysis (MDA), logistic models (LOGIT), and probit analysis, have been traditionally used in bond rating. However, one major drawback is that it should be based on strict assumptions. Such strict assumptions include linearity, normality, independence among predictor variables and pre-existing functional forms relating the criterion variablesand the predictor variables. Those strict assumptions of traditional statistics have limited their application to the real world. Machine learning techniques also used in bond rating prediction models include decision trees (DT), neural networks (NN), and Support Vector Machine (SVM). Especially, SVM is recognized as a new and promising classification and regression analysis method. SVM learns a separating hyperplane that can maximize the margin between two categories. SVM is simple enough to be analyzed mathematical, and leads to high performance in practical applications. SVM implements the structuralrisk minimization principle and searches to minimize an upper bound of the generalization error. In addition, the solution of SVM may be a global optimum and thus, overfitting is unlikely to occur with SVM. In addition, SVM does not require too many data sample for training since it builds prediction models by only using some representative sample near the boundaries called support vectors. A number of experimental researches have indicated that SVM has been successfully applied in a variety of pattern recognition fields. However, there are three major drawbacks that can be potential causes for degrading SVM's performance. First, SVM is originally proposed for solving binary-class classification problems. Methods for combining SVMs for multi-class classification such as One-Against-One, One-Against-All have been proposed, but they do not improve the performance in multi-class classification problem as much as SVM for binary-class classification. Second, approximation algorithms (e.g. decomposition methods, sequential minimal optimization algorithm) could be used for effective multi-class computation to reduce computation time, but it could deteriorate classification performance. Third, the difficulty in multi-class prediction problems is in data imbalance problem that can occur when the number of instances in one class greatly outnumbers the number of instances in the other class. Such data sets often cause a default classifier to be built due to skewed boundary and thus the reduction in the classification accuracy of such a classifier. SVM ensemble learning is one of machine learning methods to cope with the above drawbacks. Ensemble learning is a method for improving the performance of classification and prediction algorithms. AdaBoost is one of the widely used ensemble learning techniques. It constructs a composite classifier by sequentially training classifiers while increasing weight on the misclassified observations through iterations. The observations that are incorrectly predicted by previous classifiers are chosen more often than examples that are correctly predicted. Thus Boosting attempts to produce new classifiers that are better able to predict examples for which the current ensemble's performance is poor. In this way, it can reinforce the training of the misclassified observations of the minority class. This paper proposes a multiclass Geometric Mean-based Boosting (MGM-Boost) to resolve multiclass prediction problem. Since MGM-Boost introduces the notion of geometric mean into AdaBoost, it can perform learning process considering the geometric mean-based accuracy and errors of multiclass. This study applies MGM-Boost to the real-world bond rating case for Korean companies to examine the feasibility of MGM-Boost. 10-fold cross validations for threetimes with different random seeds are performed in order to ensure that the comparison among three different classifiers does not happen by chance. For each of 10-fold cross validation, the entire data set is first partitioned into tenequal-sized sets, and then each set is in turn used as the test set while the classifier trains on the other nine sets. That is, cross-validated folds have been tested independently of each algorithm. Through these steps, we have obtained the results for classifiers on each of the 30 experiments. In the comparison of arithmetic mean-based prediction accuracy between individual classifiers, MGM-Boost (52.95%) shows higher prediction accuracy than both AdaBoost (51.69%) and SVM (49.47%). MGM-Boost (28.12%) also shows the higher prediction accuracy than AdaBoost (24.65%) and SVM (15.42%)in terms of geometric mean-based prediction accuracy. T-test is used to examine whether the performance of each classifiers for 30 folds is significantly different. The results indicate that performance of MGM-Boost is significantly different from AdaBoost and SVM classifiers at 1% level. These results mean that MGM-Boost can provide robust and stable solutions to multi-classproblems such as bond rating.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.105-129
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• 2020

This study uses corporate data from 2012 to 2018 when K-IFRS was applied in earnest to predict default risks. The data used in the analysis totaled 10,545 rows, consisting of 160 columns including 38 in the statement of financial position, 26 in the statement of comprehensive income, 11 in the statement of cash flows, and 76 in the index of financial ratios. Unlike most previous prior studies used the default event as the basis for learning about default risk, this study calculated default risk using the market capitalization and stock price volatility of each company based on the Merton model. Through this, it was able to solve the problem of data imbalance due to the scarcity of default events, which had been pointed out as the limitation of the existing methodology, and the problem of reflecting the difference in default risk that exists within ordinary companies. Because learning was conducted only by using corporate information available to unlisted companies, default risks of unlisted companies without stock price information can be appropriately derived. Through this, it can provide stable default risk assessment services to unlisted companies that are difficult to determine proper default risk with traditional credit rating models such as small and medium-sized companies and startups. Although there has been an active study of predicting corporate default risks using machine learning recently, model bias issues exist because most studies are making predictions based on a single model. Stable and reliable valuation methodology is required for the calculation of default risk, given that the entity's default risk information is very widely utilized in the market and the sensitivity to the difference in default risk is high. Also, Strict standards are also required for methods of calculation. The credit rating method stipulated by the Financial Services Commission in the Financial Investment Regulations calls for the preparation of evaluation methods, including verification of the adequacy of evaluation methods, in consideration of past statistical data and experiences on credit ratings and changes in future market conditions. This study allowed the reduction of individual models' bias by utilizing stacking ensemble techniques that synthesize various machine learning models. This allows us to capture complex nonlinear relationships between default risk and various corporate information and maximize the advantages of machine learning-based default risk prediction models that take less time to calculate. To calculate forecasts by sub model to be used as input data for the Stacking Ensemble model, training data were divided into seven pieces, and sub-models were trained in a divided set to produce forecasts. To compare the predictive power of the Stacking Ensemble model, Random Forest, MLP, and CNN models were trained with full training data, then the predictive power of each model was verified on the test set. The analysis showed that the Stacking Ensemble model exceeded the predictive power of the Random Forest model, which had the best performance on a single model. Next, to check for statistically significant differences between the Stacking Ensemble model and the forecasts for each individual model, the Pair between the Stacking Ensemble model and each individual model was constructed. Because the results of the Shapiro-wilk normality test also showed that all Pair did not follow normality, Using the nonparametric method wilcoxon rank sum test, we checked whether the two model forecasts that make up the Pair showed statistically significant differences. The analysis showed that the forecasts of the Staging Ensemble model showed statistically significant differences from those of the MLP model and CNN model. In addition, this study can provide a methodology that allows existing credit rating agencies to apply machine learning-based bankruptcy risk prediction methodologies, given that traditional credit rating models can also be reflected as sub-models to calculate the final default probability. Also, the Stacking Ensemble techniques proposed in this study can help design to meet the requirements of the Financial Investment Business Regulations through the combination of various sub-models. We hope that this research will be used as a resource to increase practical use by overcoming and improving the limitations of existing machine learning-based models.