• Title/Summary/Keyword: adaptive changes

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Canadian Public and Stakeholder Engagement Approach to a Spent Nuclear Fuel Management (사용후핵연료 관리를 위한 캐나다 공론화 방안)

  • Hwang, Yong-Soo;Kim, Youn-Ok;Whang, Joo-Ho
    • Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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    • v.6 no.3
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    • pp.179-187
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    • 2008
  • After Canada has struggled with a radioactive waste problem over for 20 years, the Canadian government finally found out that its approach by far has been lack of social acceptance, and needed a program such as public and stakeholder engagement (PSE) which involves the public in decision-making process. Therefore, the government made a special law, called Nuclear Fuel Waste Act (NFWA), to search for an appropriate nuclear waste management approach. NFWA laid out three possible approaches which were already prepared in advance by a nuclear expert group, and required Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) to be established to report a recommendation as to which of the proposed approaches should be adopted. However, NFWA allowed NWMO to consider additional management approach if the other three were not acceptable enough. Thus, NWMO studied and created a fourth management approach after it had undertaken an comparison of the benefits, risks and costs of each management approach: Adaptive Phased Management. This approach was intended to enable the implementers to accept any technological advancement or changes even in the middle of the implementation of the plan. The Canadian PSE case well shows that technological R&D are deeply connected with social acceptance. Even though the developments and technological advancement are carried out by the scientists and experts, but it is important to collect the public opinion by involving them to the decision-making process in order to achieve objective validity on the R&D programs. Moreover, in an effort to ensure the principles such as fairness, public health and safety, security, and adoptability, NWMO tried to make those abstract ideas more specific and help the public understand the meaning of each concept more in detail. Also, they utilized a variety of communication methods from face-to-face meeting to e-dialogue to encourage people to participate in the program as much as possible. Given the fact that Korea has been also having a hard time in dealing with spent nuclear fuel management, all of these efforts that Canada has made with a PSE program would give good lessons and implications to the Korean case. In conclusion, as a deliberative participation program, PSE could be a possible breakthrough approach for the Korean spent nuclear fuel management.

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Enhancement of the Deformable Image Registration Accuracy Using Image Modification of MV CBCT (Megavoltage Cone-beam CT 영상의 변환을 이용한 변환 영상 정합의 정확도 향상)

  • Kim, Min-Joo;Chang, Ji-Na;Park, So-Hyun;Kim, Tae-Ho;Kang, Young-Nam;Suh, Tae-Suk
    • Progress in Medical Physics
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    • v.22 no.1
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    • pp.28-34
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    • 2011
  • To perform the Adaptive Radiation Therapy (ART), a high degree of deformable registration accuracy is essential. The purpose of this study is to identify whether the change of MV CBCT intensity can improve registration accuracy using predefined modification level and filtering process. To obtain modification level, the cheese phantom images was acquired from both kilovoltage CT (kV CT), megavoltage cone-beam CT (MV CBCT). From the cheese phantom images, the modification level of MV CBCT was defined from the relationship between Hounsfield Units (HUs) of kV CT and MV CBCT images. 'Gaussian smoothing filter' was added to reduce the noise of the MV CBCT images. The intensity of MV CBCT image was changed to the intensity of the kV CT image to make the two images have the same intensity range as if they were obtained from the same modality. The demon deformable registration which was efficient and easy to perform the deformable registration was applied. The deformable lung phantom which was intentionally created in the laboratory to imitate the changes of the breathing period was acquired from kV CT and MV CBCT. And then the deformable lung phantom images were applied to the proposed method. As a result of deformable image registration, the similarity of the correlation coefficient was used for a quantitative evaluation of the result was increased by 6.07% in the cheese phantom, and 18% in the deformable lung phantom. For the additional evaluation of the registration of the deformable lung phantom, the centric coordinates of the mark which was inserted into the inner part of the phantom were measured to calculate the vector difference. The vector differences from the result were 2.23, 1.39 mm with/without modification of intensity of MV CBCT images, respectively. In summary, our method has quantitatively improved the accuracy of deformable registration and could be a useful solution to improve the image registration accuracy. A further study was also suggested in this paper.

A Modification of The Fuzzy Logic Based DASH Adaptation Algorithm for Performance Improvement (성능 향상을 위한 퍼지 논리 기반 DASH 알고리즘의 수정)

  • Kim, Hyun-Jun;Son, Ye-Seul;Kim, Joon-Tae
    • Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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    • v.22 no.5
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    • pp.618-631
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    • 2017
  • In this paper, we propose a modification of fuzzy logic based DASH adaptation algorithm(FDASH) for seamless media service in time-varying network conditions. The proposed algorithm selects more appropriate bit-rate for the next segment by the modification of the Fuzzy Logic Controller(FLC) and reduces the number of video bit-rate changes by applying Segment Bit-rate Filtering Module(SBFM). Also, we apply the Start Mechanism for clients not to watch the low quality videos in the very beginning stage of streaming service and add the Sleeping Mechanism to avoid any buffer overflow expected. Ultimately, we verified by using NS-3 Network Simulator that the proposed method shows better performance compared to FDASH. According to the experimental results, there is no buffer underflow/overflow within the limited buffer size, which is not guaranteed in FDASH on the other hand. Also, we confirmed that mFDASH has almost the same level of average video quality against FDASH and reduces about 50% of number of video bit-rate changes compared to FDASH in Point-to-Point network and Wi-Fi network.

Stress and Coping in Parents of Cerebral Palsy Children (뇌성마비아 부모의 스트레스와 대처방안에 대한 연구)

  • Song Young-Hwa
    • The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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    • v.6 no.1
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    • pp.49-60
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    • 1994
  • Stress is experienced when a person tries to maintain stability in the face of life change but is not able to meet the adaptive demands of change. This can be especially true for the parents who has a cerebral palsy childs who needs long term rare, where parents, are the primary source of care and responsibility. Successful coping leads to maintenance of the parents role and this has an effect on the health status of the child. This descriptive study was attempted to identify stress factors, levels and helpful coping patterns for parents who must take care of cerebral palsy children. Data were collected from 43 subjects who were parents of children diagnosed with cerebral palsy The informations gathered from March 25, 1994 to April 14, 1994 by means of structured questionnaires were analyzed. Two instruments were used to collect the data 1) Lee's stress questionnaire consisted of 33 stress factors and measured by four point Likert scale. 2) Modified Chronic Health Inventory for parents: The modified CHIP included 43 items of coping methods with four point Likert scale. The results of this study were as follows: 1) Stress items could have a maximum score of three points, for a total possible score of 132 points. The mean score for the total was 92.02 points. The item mean score was 2.85 points showing that the parents were experiencing moderate to much stress. 2) The items with the highest stress items were 16 items. The stress items with the lowest mean scores were 10 items. 3) Of the stress categories: The highest stress category was related to changes in the illness status of the child and difficulty in taking rare of the child. The second stressful category was related to the prognosis of the child's condition. The least stress was noticed to social-personal relationships and the responsibility of the care givers. 4) Items measuring coping in the parents had a maximum score of three points each with a total possible roping score of 172 points. The mean score for the total was 103,9 paints. The item mean score was 2.42 points indicating that there were responses of little helpful to moderately helpful on each coping pattern. 5) The most helpful coping items were 7 items. The least helpful coping items were 2 items. 6) Effectiveness of the coping for each patterns was examined : Understanding the illness condition from communication with parents of children with the same condition and consultation with the medical team was the most helpful coping pattern. Family's coorperation and integration and optimism were a moderately helpful coping pattern. Social support psychological stability and self esteem were the least helpful toping pattern. In conclusion, the highest stress for parents of children with cerebropalsy was found to be very stressful changes in the illness of the child and to taking care of a child who is suffering. The parents were helped by the coping methods using understanding of the illness condition through consultation with the medical learn and communication with parents in the same situation. Based on the knowledge, care could develop intervention strategies appropriate for them, help them to develop their effective coping patterns, and give support them in the process of coping with their stress.

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Energy Minimization Model for Pattern Classification of the Movement Tracks (행동궤적의 패턴 분류를 위한 에너지 최소화 모델)

  • Kang, Jin-Sook;Kim, Jin-Sook;Cha, Eul-Young
    • The KIPS Transactions:PartB
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    • v.11B no.3
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    • pp.281-288
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    • 2004
  • In order to extract and analyze complex features of the behavior of animals in response to external stimuli such as toxic chemicals, we implemented an adaptive computational method to characterize changes in the behavior of chironomids in response to treatment with the insecticide, diazinon. In this paper, we propose an energy minimization model to extract the features of response behavior of chironomids under toxic treatment, which is applied on the image of velocity vectors. It is based on the improved active contour model and the variations of the energy functional, which are produced by the evolving active contour. The movement tracks of individual chironomid larvae were continuously measured in 0.25 second intervals during the survey period of 4 days before and after the treatment. Velocity on each sample track at 0.25 second intervals was collected in 15-20 minute periods and was subsequently checked to effectively reveal behavioral states of the specimens tested. Active contour was formed around each collection of velocities to gradually evolve to find the optimal boundaries of velocity collections through processes of energy minimization. The active contour which is improved by T. Chan and L. Vese is used in this paper. The energy minimization model effectively revealed characteristic patterns of behavior for the treatment versus no treatment, and identified changes in behavioral states .is the time progressed.

Hand Gesture Segmentation Method using a Wrist-Worn Wearable Device

  • Lee, Dong-Woo;Son, Yong-Ki;Kim, Bae-Sun;Kim, Minkyu;Jeong, Hyun-Tae;Cho, Il-Yeon
    • Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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    • v.34 no.5
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    • pp.541-548
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    • 2015
  • Objective: We introduce a hand gesture segmentation method using a wrist-worn wearable device which can recognize simple gestures of clenching and unclenching ones' fist. Background: There are many types of smart watches and fitness bands in the markets. And most of them already adopt a gesture interaction to provide ease of use. However, there are many cases in which the malfunction is difficult to distinguish between the user's gesture commands and user's daily life motion. It is needed to develop a simple and clear gesture segmentation method to improve the gesture interaction performance. Method: At first, we defined the gestures of making a fist (start of gesture command) and opening one's fist (end of gesture command) as segmentation gestures to distinguish a gesture. The gestures of clenching and unclenching one's fist are simple and intuitive. And we also designed a single gesture consisting of a set of making a fist, a command gesture, and opening one's fist in order. To detect segmentation gestures at the bottom of the wrist, we used a wrist strap on which an array of infrared sensors (emitters and receivers) were mounted. When a user takes gestures of making a fist and opening one's a fist, this changes the shape of the bottom of the wrist, and simultaneously changes the reflected amount of the infrared light detected by the receiver sensor. Results: An experiment was conducted in order to evaluate gesture segmentation performance. 12 participants took part in the experiment: 10 males, and 2 females with an average age of 38. The recognition rates of the segmentation gestures, clenching and unclenching one's fist, are 99.58% and 100%, respectively. Conclusion: Through the experiment, we have evaluated gesture segmentation performance and its usability. The experimental results show a potential for our suggested segmentation method in the future. Application: The results of this study can be used to develop guidelines to prevent injury in auto workers at mission assembly plants.

Effect of Naeso-san on Gastric Motility between Normal Intact and Antral Dilatated Rats (내소산(內消散)의 정상 및 위 유문부 확장 흰 쥐의 위 운동성에 대한 효능)

  • Kim, Jin-Seok;Yoon, Sang-Hyub
    • The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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    • v.29 no.1
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    • pp.117-129
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    • 2008
  • Background & Objective : Naeso-san(NSS) has been used for the treatment of functional dyspepsia, regarded as a gastric dysmotility disease. A main cause of gastric dysmotility is antral dilatation or antroduodenal uncoordination. Therefore, we investigated the effect of NSS on gastric motility and its mechanism of action, as well as the morphologic changes in antral dilatated rats. Methods : Antral dilatated rats were induced by wrapping a nonabsorbable rubber ring(D:6mm, W:4mm, T:1mm) around the 1st portion of the duodenum for 8 weeks. Then morphologic changes were investigated and compared with normal intact rats before and after 8 weeks. Gastric emptying was measured by administration of normal saline(NS) or NSS in normal intact and antral dilatated rats. In another series of experiments to evaluate the mechanism of NSS under delayed conditions, normal intact rats were treated with atropine sulfate(1mg/kg, s.c.), quinpirole HCl(0.3mg/kg, i.p.), $NAME(N^{G}-nitro-L-arginine$ methyl ester, 75mg/kg, s.c.) and cisplatin(10mg/kg, i.p.), respectively. The myoelectrical activity of the gastric smooth muscle was recorded in normal intact and antral dilatated rats. The contractile waves were measured for 30 minutes before and after administration of each solution(NS, NSS). Results : Body weight gain of antral dilatated rats was significantly lower than that of the controls. Futhermore, we found the thickness of the mucosal and muscular layers and surface area of the stomach increased significantly compared with controls. NSS 278㎎/㎏ improved gastric emptying more than normal saline or NSS 93mg/kg in normal intact(p=0.026) and antral dilatated rats(p=0.03). NSS enhanced gastric emptying significantly in the NAME treated group(p=0.002). NSS 278mg/kg increased the significant postprandial dominant power than that of NS in normal intact rats, whereas there was no statistical significance in antral dilatated rats. Conclusions : NSS stimulates gastric motility through the cholinergic pathway. We expect that pathologic model with antral dilatation can be used as an exprimental tool which is similar to dyspepsia and NSS would be effective especially in dysmotility-like functional dyspepsia with antral dilatation or impaired reservoir functions such as gastric adaptive relaxation.

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Fermented Chaga Mushroom (Inonotus obliquus) Effects on Hypolipidemia and Hepatoprotection in Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF) Rats

  • Cha, Jae-Young;Jun, Bang-Sil;Yoo, Ki-Soo;Hahm, Jong-Ryeal;Cho, Young-Su
    • Food Science and Biotechnology
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    • v.15 no.1
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    • pp.122-127
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    • 2006
  • The effects of fermented chaga mushroom (Inonotus obliquus) powder on the lipid concentrations and the activities of liver marker enzymes of serum in genetically diabetic Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima fatty (OLETF) rats were investigated. Rats were fed a semisynthetic diet supplemented with 50 g/kg chaga mushroom powder (CM) or 50 g/kg fermented chaga mushroom powder (FCM) for 8 weeks (26 to 34 weeks of age). Nondiabetic Long-Evans Toknshima Otsuka (LETO) rats were used as age-matched nondiabetic control animals. Water consumption was significantly higher in the OLETF control than the LETO rats. Water consumption in the FCM-fed OLETF rats tended to be less than in both the OLETF control and CM-fed OLETF rats. Serum concentrations of triglycerides and total cholesterol were significantly higher in the OLETF control rats than in the LETO rats while within the OLETF rat groups, the consumption of FCM resulted in a significantly lower serum triglyceride concentration and slightly lowered serum total cholesterol concentration when compared to the OLETF control and CM-fed rats. The alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activity was significantly higher in the OLETF control than in the LETO rats, but this difference was significantly reduced compared to the CM-fed rats and essentially no difference in the ALT levels was observed between the LETO and OLETF-FCM rats. This observation suggests an adaptive effect of the fermented chaga mushroom in liver function. Livers of the LETO rats showed no histopathological changes, whereas those of the OLETF control rats were characterized by many fat depositions in the central zone of the hepatocytes. The livers of the OLETF CM-fed rats showed less fatty changes compared to the OLETF control rats and fat deposition in the hepatocytes was nearly absent. These results suggest that orally ingested fermented chaga mushroom has a potential beneficial effect on the complications known to occur in the obesity-related non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NlDDM) OLETF rat.

Mitochondrial OXPHOS genes provides insights into genetics basis of hypoxia adaptation in anchialine cave shrimps

  • Guo, Huayun;Yang, Hao;Tao, Yitao;Tang, Dan;Wu, Qiong;Wang, Zhengfei;Tang, Boping
    • Genes and Genomics
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    • v.40 no.11
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    • pp.1169-1180
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    • 2018
  • Cave shrimps from the genera Typhlatya, Stygiocaris and Typhlopatsa (TST complex) comprises twenty cave-adapted taxa, which mainly occur in the anchialine environment. Anchialine habitats may undergo drastic environmental fluctuations, including spatial and temporal changes in salinity, temperature, and dissolved oxygen content. Previous studies of crustaceans from anchialine caves suggest that they have possessed morphological, behavioral, and physiological adaptations to cope with the extreme conditions, similar to other cave-dwelling crustaceans. However, the genetic basis has not been thoroughly explored in crustaceans from anchialine habitats, which can experience hypoxic regimes. To test whether the TST shrimp-complex hypoxia adaptations matched adaptive evolution of mitochondrial OXPHOS genes. The 13 OXPHOS genes from mitochondrial genomes of 98 shrimps and 1 outgroup were examined. For each of these genes was investigated and compared to orthologous sequences using both gene (i.e. branch-site and Datamonkey) and protein (i.e. TreeSAAP) level approaches. Positive selection was detected in 11 of the 13 candidate genes, and the radical amino acid changes sites scattered throughout the entire TST complex phylogeny. Additionally, a series of parallel/convergent amino acid substitutions were identified in mitochondrial OXPHOS genes of TST complex shrimps, which reflect functional convergence or similar genetic mechanisms of cave adaptation. The extensive occurrence of positive selection is suggestive of their essential role in adaptation to hypoxic anchialine environment, and further implying that TST complex shrimps might have acquired a finely capacity for energy metabolism. These results provided some new insights into the genetic basis of anchialine hypoxia adaptation.

The Development and Effects of a Group Counseling Program for Adaptive College to Work Transition through Enhancing Coping Resources (대학-직장 이행을 위한 대처자원 향상 집단상담 프로그램 개발 및 효과성 검증)

  • Kim, Ji Geun;Lee, JinKoo;Ki-Hak, Lee
    • Korean Journal of School Psychology
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    • v.16 no.3
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    • pp.283-313
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    • 2019
  • The purpose of this study was to develop and examine the effectiveness of 'Coping Resources Improvement Program' designed for emerging adults experiencing psychosocial difficulties during college to work transition. Based on transition model of Scholossberg(1995), the program was developed to intervene in 4S (Situation, Self, Support, Strategy) required in the transition. Participants included 31 job applicants who are senior or above and were assigned to the experimental group (N=10), comparison group (N=10), and control group (N=11). Data to verify effectiveness were collected pre-, mid-, and post treatment. Results indicated that the level of coping resources and psychosocial difficulties in the transition changed significantly after the program and those changes were still maintained after a month in the experimental group. However, there were no statistically significant changes on job-search burnout and career-adaptability in all groups. The implication and limitation of the study and the suggestions for the future studies were discussed.