• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1811-1815
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• 2014

Background: In clinical trials with no upper age limit, the proportion of older patients is usually small, probably reflecting the more conservative approach adopted by clinicians when treating the elderly. An exploratory analysis of elderly patients in the RECORD-1 Trial showed that patients ${\geq}$ 65 y.o. had superior median PFS than overall RECORD-1 population (5.4 months and 4.9 months, respectively). We investigated the efficacy, relative benefit and safety of Everolimus (EVE) as sequential therapy after failure of VEGFr-TKI therapy for older patients with metastatic renal cell cancer (mRCC), in daily practice. Materials and Methods: 172 consecutive IRB approved patients with mRCC (median age 65, M:F 135/37, 78% clear cell) who received salvage EVE at 39 tertiary institutions between October 2009 and August 2011 were included in this analysis. Some 31% had progressed on sunitinib, 22% on sorafenib, 1% on axitinib, 41% on sequential therapy, and 5% had received other therapy. Patients with brain metastases were not included and 95% of the patients had a ECOG (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group) performance status (PS) of 0 or 1. Previous radiotherapy was an exclusion criterion, but prior chemotherapy was permitted. Adequate organ function and hematologic parameters were mandatory. EVE administration was approved by the institutional review board at each participating institution and signed informed consent was obtained from all patients. Results: Median time of the whole cohort to last follow-up was 3.5 months (range 0.4-15.2 months). Forty four percent were continuing to take EVE at last followup. There were 86 (50%) patients ${\geq}$ 65 y.o. and 86 (50%) <65 y.o. The percentage of patients who showed PR/SD was higher in the older group than in the younger one (5.9%/61.2% vs 1.2%/46.5%, respectively). Median survival of older patients was also significantly longer (3.5 +/- 0.31 vs 3.1 +/- 0.34, hazard ratio=0.45, CI; 0.255-0.802). Analysis using Cox regression model adjusted for gender, PS, number of metastases, site of metastases, histology, smoking history and age detected an association between age and PFS (p=0.011). The frequency of adverse events in elderly patients treated with EVE was no greater than that in younger patients, although such toxicity may have had a greater impact on their quality of life. Conclusions: Older patients should not generally be excluded from accepted therapies (mTOR inhibitors after failure of VEGFr-TKI therapy) for mRCC.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.23
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• pp.41-74
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• 2007

In Korea, corporate merger activities were activated since 1980, and nowadays(particuarly since 1986) the changes in domestic and international economic circumstances have made corporate managers have strong interests in merger. Korea and America have different business environments and it is easily conceivable that there exists many differences in motives, methods, and effects of mergers between the two countries. According to recent studies on takeover bids in America, takeover bids have information effects, tax implications, and co-insurance effects, and the form of payment(cash versus securities), the relative size of target and bidder, the leverage effect, Tobin's q, number of bidders(single versus multiple bidder), the time period (before 1968, 1968-1980, 1981 and later), and the target firm reaction (hostile versus friendly) are important determinants of the magnitude of takeover gains and their distribution between targets and bidders at the announcement of takeover bids. This study examines the theory of takeover bids, the status quo and problems of merger in Korea, and then investigates how the announcement of merger are reflected in common stock returns of bidding firms, finally explores empirically the factors influencing abnormal returns of bidding firms' stock price. The hypotheses of this study are as follows ; Shareholders of bidding firms benefit from mergers. And common stock returns of bidding firms at the announcement of takeover bids, shows significant differences according to the condition of the ratio of target size relative to bidding firm, whether the target being a member of the conglomerate to which bidding firm belongs, whether the target being a listed company, the time period(before 1986, 1986, and later), the number of bidding firm's stock in exchange for a stock of the target, whether the merger being a horizontal and vertical merger or a conglomerate merger, and the ratios of debt to equity capital of target and bidding firm. The data analyzed in this study were drawn from public announcements of proposals to acquire a target firm by means of merger. The sample contains all bidding firms which were listed in the stock market and also engaged in successful mergers in the period 1980 through 1992 for which there are daily stock returns. A merger bid was considered successful if it resulted in a completed merger and the target firm disappeared as a separate entity. The final sample contains 113 acquiring firms. The research hypotheses examined in this study are tested by applying an event-type methodology similar to that described in Dodd and Warner. The ordinary-least-squares coefficients of the market-model regression were estimated over the period t=-135 to t=-16 relative to the date of the proposal's initial announcement, t=0. Daily abnormal common stock returns were calculated for each firm i over the interval t=-15 to t=+15. A daily average abnormal return(AR) for each day t was computed. Average cumulative abnormal returns($CART_{T_1,T_2}$) were also derived by summing the $AR_t's$ over various intervals. The expected values of $AR_t$ and $CART_{T_1,T_2}$ are zero in the absence of abnormal performance. The test statistics of $AR_t$ and $CAR_{T_1,T_2}$ are based on the average standardized abnormal return($ASAR_t$) and the average standardized cumulative abnormal return ($ASCAR_{T_1,T_2}$), respectively. Assuming that the individual abnormal returns are normal and independent across t and across securities, the statistics $Z_t$ and $Z_{T_1,T_2}$ which follow a unit-normal distribution(Dodd and Warner), are used to test the hypotheses that the average standardized abnormal returns and the average cumulative standardized abnormal returns equal zero.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.287-292
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• 2008

Position information of radiation interactions in detection material is essential to reconstruct a radiation source image. With most position sensing techniques, the position information of a single interaction inside the detectors can be precisely obtained. Each interaction position of multi-scattering inside scintillators, however, can not be individually measured and only the average of the scattering positions can be obtained, which causes the uncertainty in the measured interaction position. In this paper, the position uncertainties due to the multi-scattering were calculated by Monte Carlo simulation. The simulation model was a 50 by 50 by 5 mm $LaCl_3$(Ce) scintillator(pixel size is 2 by 2 by 5mm) which was utilized for the dual collimation camera. The dual collimation camera uses the information from both photoelectric effect and Compton scattering, and therefore, position uncertainties for both partial and full energy deposition of radiation interactions are calculated. In the case of partial energy deposition(PED), the standard deviations of positions are less than $1{\sim}2mm$, which means the uncertainty caused by multi-scattering is not significant. Because the effect of the multi-scattering with PED is insignificant, the multi-scattering has little effect on the performance of Compton imaging of dual collimation camera. In the case of full energy deposition(FED), however, the standard deviation of the positions is about twice that of the pixel size of the 1stdetector, except for 122keV incident radiations. Therefore, the standard deviations caused by multi-scatterings should be considered in the design of the coded mask of the dual collimation camera to avoid artifact on the reconstructed image. The position uncertainties of the FEDs are much larger than those of the PEDs for all radiation energies and the ratio of PEDs to FEDs increases when the incident radiation energy increases. The position uncertainties of both PEDs and FEDs are dependent on the incident radiation energy.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.3-30
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• 1991

This paper examines Korea's exports of manufactures to the United States, Japan, and other OECD member countries in the 1974-89 period, focusing on the market share in the trade partners' imports. It decomposes the growth of exports into various effects, following the "constant-market-shares" analysis. For this purpose, the entire period is divided into three subperiods: 1974-78, 1978-83, and 1983-89. The paper also estimates a regression model of the market share determination, using the data of Korea's market share in U.S. imports. In the three subperiods under study, Korea's exports grew at different paces for varied reasons. The average annual growth rate was 28 %, 11 %, and 21 %, respectively. A large drop in the "competitiveness effect", that is, in the market-share growth rate, was mainly responsible for the decline in the export growth rate. The largest drop in the competitiveness effect was found in the light manufactures exports in the second period. The market share did not regain the rapid growth momentum. The main reason for the rise in export growth rate in the last subperiod was the "market-size effect"-a rise in the growth rate of the trade partners' imports. According to the regression results, high intensities in physical and human capital tended to lower the Korean manufacturing industries' market shares in the United States. This negative correlation was stronger in the case of human capital intensity, suggesting that Korea is relatively poorer in human capital endowment than in physical capital endowment when compared to the United States. This negative correlation between the market share and each of the two intensities became weaker overtime. This may be interpreted as the consequence of both physical and human capital accumulation which were faster than the labor force growth. Depreciation of the Japanese yen was estimated to have a negative influence on the Korean manufacturing industries' market share in the United States, and this negative influence became stronger each year in the 1980s. This seems to reflect the intensifying competition between the two countries' exports in U.S. import markets. The Heavy and Chemical Industry Policy of the 1970s, which promoted a number of selected industries by providing them with various incentives and inevitably discriminated against the rest of the industries, was estimated to have had strong negative effects on the export performance of the light manufacturing industries. This finding and the largest decline in the "competitiveness effect" -found in the light manufactures exports in the 1978-83 period-indicate that the Heavy and Chemical Industry Policy was mainly accountable for the drop in the export growth rate during the period. On the other hand, the rise in export growth rate during the subsequent subperiod was greatly impacted by the large scale exchange rate realignments of major currencies, especially by the appreciation of the Japanese yen, and other changes in international economic conditions.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.328-336
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• 1999

A green microalga, Chlorella vulgaris UTX 259, was cultivated in a bench-scale raceway pond. During the culture, 15%(v/v) $CO_2$ was supplied and industrial wastewater discharged from a steel-making plant was used as a culture medium. In a small scale culture bottle, the microalga grew up to 1.8 g $dm^{-3}$ of cell concentration and ammonia was completely removed from the wastewater with an yield coefficient of 25.7 g dry cell weight $g^{-1}\;NH_3-N$. During the bottle-culture, microalga was dominant over heterotrophic microorganisms in the culture medium. Therefore, the amount of carbon dioxide fixation could be estimated from the change of dry cell weight. In a semi-continuous operation of raceway pond with intermittent lighting (12 h light and 12 h dark), increase of dilution rate resulted in increase of the ammonia removal rate as well as the $CO_2$ fixation rate but the ammonia removal efficiency decreased. Ammonia was not completely removed from the medium (wastewater) of raceway pond which was operated in a batch mode under a light intensity up to 20 klux. The incomplete removal of ammonia was believed due to insufficient light supply. A mathematical model, capable of predicting experimental data, was developed in order to simulate the performance of the raceway pond under the light intensity of sun during a bright daytime. Simulation results showed that the rates of $CO_2$ fixation and ammonia removal could be enhanced by increasing light intensity. According to the simulation, 80 mg $dm^{-3}$ of ammonia in the medium could be completely removed if the light intensity was over 60 klux with a continuous lighting. Under the optimal operating condition determined by the simulation, the rates of carbon dioxide fixation and ammonia removal in the outdoor operation of raceway pond were estimated as high as $24.7 g m^{-2} day^{-1}$ and $0.52 g NH_3-N m^{-2} day^{-1}$, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.45 no.9
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• pp.1249-1256
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• 2016

Black ginseng (BG) obtained by a 9-fold steaming process of Panax ginseng has been reported to have anti-oxidative, anti-obesity, and anti-diabetes effects. The current study evaluated the protective effect of BG by steaming time in an HCl/ethanol-induced acute gastritis model. BG was divided into four samples according to steaming-drying processing (Gin1, Gin3, Gin6, and BG). High performance liquid chromatography analysis, free radical scavenging activity, and total phenol and flavonoid contents were examined in ginseng and four BG samples. Compared with ginseng, BG showed a stronger radical scavenging effect and higher contents of total phenol and flavonoids. To evaluate the anti-gastritic effect of BG, mice were distributed into five groups: normal mice (N), acute gastritic mice with distilled water (CON), acute gastritic mice with 100 mg/kg of ginseng (Gin0), acute gastritic mice with 100 mg/kg of BG (BG), and acute gastritic mice with 10 mg/kg of sucralfate (SC). After 1 hour of pre-treatment with water, extracts (Gin0 and BG), or drug (SC), experimental groups except for N were orally administered 0.5 mL of 150 mM HCl/60% ethanol (v/v) mixture. Blood was collected 1 hour later from the heart, and gastric tissue was harvested. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels were measured in serum, and related protein expression was examined by Western blot assay. In HCl/ethanol-induced acute gastritic mice, treatment with ginseng or BG improved mucosal damage in the histological evaluation. The serum ROS level significantly decreased in the BG-treated group compared with the CON group. Furthermore, expression of inflammatory cytokines significantly decreased in the BG-treated group compared with the CON group. Based on these results, antioxidant and anti-gastritic activities of ginseng were enhanced by streaming-drying processing, in part due to an increase in biological active compounds.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.5011-5017
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• 2012

Background: Overexposure to sunlight in childhood and the adolescent period and associsated sunburns significantly increase the risk of skin cancer in adulthood. In Turkey, the incidence of skin cancer in the general population is 0.8%. The incidence is 0.6% and the mortality rate is 0.4% for men, while these rates are 1.0% and 0.7%, respectively, for women. If skin cancer is found early, its treatment is facilitated. Therefore, personal skin examination is important for early diagnosis. Objectives: Our aim was to determine the effects of training for raising consciousness among adolescents to protect against skin cancer by influencing skin self examination behavior. Method: This quasi experimental intervention study was conducted between February and April 2012 in Izmir. The study population consisted of students attending $6^{th}$, $7^{th}$ and $8^{th}$ classes of a primary school (n:302). No sampling was performed. Data were collected with a form developed by the researchers based on the literature. The first part of form is aimed to determine demographic characteristics of adolescents (3 questions) and their risk status of skin cancer (6 questions). The second part was prepared for skin cancer risks of adolescents (8 questions) and indications of skin cancer (12 questions). The last part was intended to determine their knowledge about skin self examination (4 questions) and behavioral stages of skin self examination (1 question). Data collection was achieved with a questionnaire form in three phases. In the 1st phase, data about demographic characteristics of students, risk status of skin cancer, knowledge level of skin cancer and behavior stages were collected. In the $2^{nd}$ phase, skin self examination training based on the transtheoretical model was performed within the same day just after obtaining preliminary data. In the $3^{rd}$ phase, adolescents were followed up three times to establish the efficacy of the training (on the $15^{th}$ day after training program and at end of the $1^{st}$ and $2^{nd}$ months). Follow-up data were evaluated by questioning skin self examination performing behavior stages through electronic mail. Results: Half of the adolescents (50.5%) are male, and 58.4% of them are 13 years old with a mean age of $12{\pm}1.15$ years. About 29.4% of adolescents had brown hair color, 37.9% had brown/hazel eye color, 29.4% had white skin, and 47.2% had fewer than 10 moles in their body. The pretest mean score on knowledge level about risks of skin cancer was found to be $4.19{\pm}1.96$, while the post-test mean score was $6.79{\pm}1.67$ (min:0, max:8).The pretest mean score about indications of skin cancer was $7.45{\pm}3.76$, while the post-test mean score was $10.7{\pm}2.60$ (min:0, max:12). The increases were statistically significant (p<0.05). The behavior "I do not perform skin self examination regularly in every month and I do not think to perform it in the next 6 months" was reduced from 52.8 to 35.5% after training. Conclusion: The training program organized to raise consciousness among adolescents for protection against skin cancer increased the knowledge level about risks and indications of skin cancer and it also improved the behavior of performing skin self examination.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2008

Purpose: In general, We discharged radioactive wastewater and sewages less than $8.1{\times}10^{-13}$ Ci/ml in a exclusive water-purifier tank. Our hospital operating three exclusive water-purifier tank for radioactive wastewater and sewages of 60 tons capacity respectively. In order to meet the criteria it need a enough decay more than 125 days per each exclusive tank. However, recently we fell into the serious situation that decay period was decreased remarkably, owing to the wastewater amount increased rapidly by enlarge the therapy ward. For that reason, in this article, I'd like to say the way that reducing of radioactive wastewater and sewages rationally. Materials and Methods: From January, 2006 to October, four hundred and two cases were analyzed. They were all hospitalized during 3 days and 2 nights. We calculated the average amount of water used (include toilet water used, shower water used, washstand water used, $\cdots$), each exclusive water-purifier tank's decay period, as well as try to search the increased factors about water-purifier tank inflow flux by re-analysis of the procedure of radioisotope therapy step by step. Results: We could increase each exclusive water-purifier tank's decay period from 84 days to 130 days through the improvement about following cause: (1) Improvement of conventional toilet stool for excessive water waste $\rightarrow$ Replacement of water saving style toilet stool (2) Prevention of unnecessary shower and wash (3) Stop the diuretics taking during hospitalization (4) Analysis of relationship between water intakes and residual dose of body (5) Education about outside toilet utilization before the administration (6) Changed each water-purifier tank's maximum level from85% to 90% Conclusion: The originality of our efforts are not only software but hardware performance improvements. Incidentally the side of software's are change of therapy procedures and protocols, the side of hardware's are replacement of water saving style toilet stool and change of each water-purifier tank's maximum level. Thus even if a long lapse of time, problem such as return to the former conditions may not happen. Besides, We expect that our trials become a new reasonable model in similar situation.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.603-610
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• 2008

The principal objective of current study was to evaluate the potential of near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) as a non-destructive method for the prediction of the amylose and protein contents of un-hulled and brown rice in broad-based calibration models. The average amylose and protein content of 75 rice accessions were 20.3% and 7.1%, respectively. Additionally, the range of amylose and protein content were 16.6-24.5% and 3.8-9.3%, respectively. In total, 79 rice germplasms representing a wide range of chemical characteristics, variable physical properties, and origins were scanned via NIRS for calibration and validation equations. The un-hulled and brown rice samples evidenced distinctly different patterns in a wavelength range from 1,440 nm to 2,400 nm in the original NIR spectra. The optimal performance calibration model could be obtained by MPLS (modified partial least squares) using the first derivative method (1:4:4:1) for un-hulled rice and the second derivative method (2:4:4:1) for brown rice. The correlation coefficients $(r^2)$ and standard error of calibration (SEC) of protein and amylose contents for the un-hulled rice were 0.86, 2.48, and 0.84, 1.13, respectively. The $r^2$ and SEC of protein and amylose content for brown rice were 0.95, 1.09 and 0.94, 0.42, respectively. The results of this study suggest that the NIRS technique could be utilized as a routine procedure for the quantification of protein and amylose contents in large accessions of un-hulled rice germplasms.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.3293-3301
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• 1974

An experimental work was conducted by using a laboratory-made model dryer to investigate the effect of the rate of natural forced-air on the drying rate of rough rice which was deposited in the deep-bed. The dryer consisted of 8 cylinderical containers with grain holding screen at their bottoms, each of which having 30cm in diameter and 15cm in height. The containers were sacked vertically with keeping them air-tight by using paper tape during dryer operation. Two separate layers of containers were operated in the same time to have two replications. The moisture contents of grains within each bins after predetermined period of dryer operation were determined indirectly by measuring the weight of the individual containers. The air-rates were maintained at 6 levels, or 5, 8, 10, 15, 18 and 20 millimenters of static head of water. The roomair conditions during dryer operation were maintained in the range of 10-l5$^{\circ}C$ in temperature and 40-60% in relative humidity. The results of the study are summarized as follows: 1. Drying characteristics of the grains in the bottom layers were approximately the same regardless of airdelivery rates, giving the average drying rate as about 0.35 percent per hour after 40-hour drying period, during which moisture content (w. b.) reduced from 24 percent to about 10 percent. 2. After about 40-hour drying period, the mean drying rates increased from 0.163 percent per hour to 0.263 percent per hour as air-flow rates increased from 5mm to 87.16mm of static head of water. In the same time, the moisture differences of grains between lower and upper layers varied from 12.7 percent at the air rate of 5mm of water head to 7.5 percent at the air-flow rate of 20mn of water head. Thus, the greater the air-flow rate was, the more overall improvement in drying performance was. Additionally, from the result of ineffectiveness of drying grain positioned at 70cm depth or above by the air rate of 5mm of static head of water it may be suggested in practical application that the height of grain deposit would be maintained adequately within the limits of air-rates that may be actually delivered. 3. Drying after layer-turning operation was continued for about 30 hours to test the effectiveness of reducing moisture differences in the thick layers. As a result of this layer-turning operation, moisture distribution through layers approached to narrow ranges, giving the moisture range as about 7 percent at air-flow rate of 5mm head of water, about 3 percent at 10mm head about 2 percent at 15mm head, and less than 1 percent at 20mm head. In addition, from the desirable results that drying rate was rapid in the lower layers and dully in the upper layers, layer-turning operation may be very effective in natural air drying with deep-layer grain deposit, especially when the forced air was kept in low rate. 4. Even though the high rate of air delivery is very desirable for deep-layer natural-air drying of rough rice, it can be happened that the required air delivery rate could not be attained because of limitation of power source available on farms. To give a guide line for the practical application, the power required to perform the drying with the specified air rate was analyzed for different sizes of drying bin and is given in Table (5). If a farmer selects a motor of which size is 1 or {{{{1 { 1} over {2 } }}}} H.P. and air-delivery rate which ranges from 8~10mm of head, the diameter of grain bin may be suggested to choose about 2.4m, also power tiller or other moderate size of prime motor may be recommended when the diameter of grain bin is about 5.0m or more for about 120cm grain deposit.