• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.421-430
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• 2004

Clinically, it is almost impossible for a physician to distinguish subtle changes of frequency spectrum by using a stethoscope alone especially in the early stage of thrombus formation. Considering that reliability of mechanical valve is paramount because the failure might end up with patient death, early detection of valve thrombus using noninvasive technique is important. Thus the study was designed to provide a tool for early noninvasive detection of valve thrombus by observing shift of frequency spectrum of acoustic signals with computer aid diagnosis system. A thrombus model was constructed on commercialized mechanical valves using polyurethane or silicon. Polyurethane coating was made on the valve surface, and silicon coating on the sewing ring of the valve. To simulate pannus formation, which is fibrous tissue overgrowth obstructing the valve orifice, the degree of silicone coating on the sewing ring varied from 20％, 40％, 60％ of orifice obstruction. In experiment system, acoustic signals from the valve were measured using microphone and amplifier. The microphone was attached to a coupler to remove environmental noise. Acoustic signals were sampled by an AID converter, frequency spectrum was obtained by the algorithm of spectral analysis. To quantitatively distinguish the frequency peak of the normal valve from that of the thrombosed valves, analysis using a neural network was employed. A return map was applied to evaluate continuous monitoring of valve motion cycle. The in-vivo data also obtained from animals with mechanical valves in circulatory devices as well as patients with mechanical valve replacement for 1 year or longer before. Each spectrum wave showed a primary and secondary peak. The secondary peak showed changes according to the thrombus model. In the mock as well as the animal study, both spectral analysis and 3-layer neural network could differentiate the normal valves from thrombosed valves. In the human study, one of 10 patients showed shift of frequency spectrum, however the presence of valve thrombus was yet to be determined. Conclusively, acoustic signal measurement can be of suggestive as a noninvasive diagnostic tool in early detection of mechanical valve thrombosis.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.427-436
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• 2020

It is uncertain how global climate change will influence future drought characteristics over the Korean peninsula. This study aims to project the future droughts using climate change and land use change scenarios over the Korean peninsula with the land surface modeling system, i.e., Weather Research and Forecasting Model Hydrological modeling system (WRF-Hydro). The Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) 2.6 and 8.5 are used as future climate scenarios and the Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs), specifically SSP2, is adopted for the land use scenario. The using Threshold Level Method (TLM), we identify future hydrological and ecological drought events with runoff and Net Primary Productivity (NPP), respectively, and assess drought characteristics of durations and intensities in different scenarios. Results show that the duration of drought is longer over RCP2.6-SSP2 for near future (2031-2050) and RCP8.5-SSP2 (2080-2099) for the far future for hydrological drought. On the other hand, RCP2.6-SSP2 for the far future and RCP8.5-SSP2 for the near future show longer duration for ecological drought. In addition, the drought intensities in both hydrological and ecological drought show different characteristics with the drought duration. The intensity of the hydrological droughts was greatly affected by threshold level methods and RCP2.6-SSP2 for far future shows the severest intensity. However, for ecological drought, the difference of the intensity among the threshold level is not significant and RCP2.6-SSP2 for near future and RCP2.6-SSP2 for near future show the severest intensity. This study suggests a possible future drought characteristics is in the Korea peninsula using combined climate and land use changes, which will help the community to understand and manage the future drought risks.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.31-38
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• 2008

Ad-Hoc network is a network architecture which has no backbone network and is deployed temporarily and rapidly in emergency or war without fixed mobile infrastructures. All communications between network entities are carried in ad-hoc networks over the wireless medium. Due to the radio communications being extremely vulnerable to propagation impairments, connectivity between network nodes is not guaranteed. Therefore, many new algorithms have been studied recently. This study proposes the secondary header approach to the cluster based routing protocol (CBRP). The primary header becomes abnormal status so that the primary header can not participate in the communications between network entities, the secondary header immediately replaces the primary header without selecting process of the new primary header. This improves the routing interruption problem that occurs when a header is moving out from a cluster or in the abnormal status. The performances of proposed algorithm ACBRP(Advanced Cluster Based Routing Protocol) are compared with CBRP. The cost of the primary header reelection of ACBRP is simulated. And results are presented in order to show the effectiveness of the algorithm.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.44 no.11
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• pp.1700-1707
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• 2015

The effects of drying temperature on drying characteristics of soybeans with different grain sizes [6.0 (S), 7.5 (M), and 9.0 mm (L) (${\pm}0.2$)] with 25.0% (${\pm}0.8$) initial moisture content were studied. Drying temperatures varied at 25, 35, and $45^{\circ}C$, with a constant air velocity (13.2 m/s). Thin-layer drying models were applied to describe the drying process of soybeans. The Midilli-Kucuk model showed the best fit ($R^2$ >0.99). Based on the model parameters, drying time to achieve the target moisture content (10%) was successfully estimated. Drying time was strongly dependent on the size of soybeans and the drying temperature. The effective moisture diffusivity ($D_{eff}$) was estimated by the diffusion model based on Fick's second law. $D_{eff}$ values increased as grain size and drying temperature increased due to the combined effect of high temperatures and high drying rates, which promote compact tissue. Deff values of S, M, and L estimated were in the range of $0.83{\times}10^{-10}$ to $1.51{\times}10^{-10}m^2/s$, $1.17{\times}10^{-10}$ to $2.17{\times}10^{-10}m^2/s$, and $1.53{\times}10^{-10}$ to $2.95{\times}10^{-10}m^2/s$, respectively, whereas activation energy ($E_a$) based on drying temperature showed no significant differences in the size of soybeans.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.936-946
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• 2015

This study is aimed to analyze the reduction performance of building energy consumption according to planting base types of panel-type green walls which can be applied to existing buildings. The performance was compared to the general performance of green walls that have demonstrated effects of improving the thermal environment and reducing building energy consumption in urban areas. The number of planting base types was 4 in total, and simulations were conducted to analyze the thermal conductivity, thermal transmittance, and overall building energy consumption rate of each planting base type. The highest thermal conductivity by the planting base type was Case C (0.053W/mK), followed by Case B (0.1W/mK) and Case D (0.17W/mK). According to the results of energy simulation, the most significant reduction of cooling peak load per unit area was Case C (1.19%), followed by Case B (1.14%) and Case D (1.01%) when compared to Case A to which green wall was not applied; and the most significant reduction of heating peak load per unit area was estimated to be Case C (2.38%), followed by Case B (1.82%) and case D (1.50%) when compared to Case A. The amount of yearly cooling and heating energy use per unit area showed 3.04~3.22% of reduction rate. The amount of the 1st energy use showed 5,844 kWh/yr of decrease on average for other types when compared to Case A. The amount of yearly $CO_2$ emission showed 996kg of decrease on average when compared to Case A to which the green wall was not applied. According to the results of energy performance evaluation by planting location, the most efficient energy performance was eastward followed by westward, southward and northward. According to the results of energy performance evaluation by planting location by green wall ratio, it was found that as the ratio of green wall increased, the energy performance displayed better results, showing approx. double reduction rate in energy consumption at 100% of green wall ratio than the reduction rate at 20% to 80% of green wall ratio.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.79-86
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• 2015

$^3He$ gas has been used for neutron monitors as the neutron converter owing to its advantages such as high sensitivity, good ${\gamma}$-discrimination capability, and long-term stability. However, $^3He$ is becoming more difficult to obtain in last few years due to a global shortage of $^3He$ gas. Accordingly, the cost of a neutron monitor using $^3He$ gas as a neutron converter is becoming more expensive. Demand on a neutron monitor using an alternative neutron conversion material is widely increased. $^{10}B$ has many advantages among various $^3He$ alternative materials, as a neutron converter. In order to develop a neutron converter using $^{10}B$ (actually $B_4C$), we calculated the optimal thickness of a neutron converter with a Monte Carlo simulation using MCNP6. In addition, a neutron converter was fabricated by the Ar sputtering method and the neutron signal detection efficiencies were measured with respect to various thicknesses of fabricated a neutron converter. Also, we developed a 2-dimensional multi-wire proportional chamber (MWPC) for neutron beam profile monitoring using the fabricated a neutron converter, and performed experiments for neutron response of the neutron monitor at the 30 MW research reactor HANARO at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. The 2-dimensional MWPC with boron ($B_4C$) neutron converter was proved to be useful for neutron beam monitoring, and can be applied to other types of neutron imaging.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.404-415
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• 1998

Background: Sleep apnea syndrome, which occurs in 1~4 % of the adult population, frequently has different cardiovascular complications such as hypertension, ischemic heart disease, cardiac arrythmia as well as sleep-wake disorder such as excessive daytime hypersomnolence or insomnia. Mortality and vascular morbidity are reported to be significantly higher in sleep apnea syndrome patients than in normal population. According to the recent studies, autonomic dysfunction as well as hypoxemia, hypercapneic acidosis, and increased respiratory effort, may playa role in the high prevalence of cardiovascular complications in patients with sleep apnea syndrome. However the cause and mechanism of autonomic neuropathy in patients with sleep apnea syndrome are not well understood. We studied the existence of autonomic neuropathy in patients with sleep apnea syndrome and factors which influence the pathogenesis of autonomic neuropathy. Method: We used the cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy(CAN) test as a method for evaluation of autonomic neuropathy. The subjects of this study were 20 patients who diagnosed sleep apnea syndrome by polysomnography and 15 persons who were normal by polysomnography. Results: Body mass index and resting systolic blood pressure were higher in sleep apnea group than control group. Apnea index(Al), respiratory disturbance index(RDI) and snoring time percentage were significantly higher in sleep apnea group compared with control group. But there were no significant differences in saturation of oxygen and sleep efficiency in two groups. In the cardiac autonomic neuropathy test, the valsalva ratio was significantly low in sleep apnea group compared with control group but other tests had no differences between two groups. The CAN scores and corrected QT(QTc) interval were calculated significantly higher in sleep apnea group, but there were no significant correlations between CAN scores and QTc interval. There were no significant data of polysomnography to correlate to the CAN score. It meant that the autonomic neuropathy in patients with sleep apnea was affected by other multiple factors. Conclusion: The cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy test was a useful method for the evaluation of autonomic neuropathy in patients with sleep apnea syndrome and abnormalities of cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy were observed in patients with sleep apnea syndrome. However, we failed to define the factors that influence the pathogenesis of autonomic neuropathy of sleep apnea syndrome. This study warrants futher investigations in order to define the pathogenesis of autonomic neuropathy in patients with sleep apnea syndrome.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.37-50
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• 2020

Information security has become an important issue in the world. Various information and communication technologies, such as the Internet of Things, big data, cloud, and artificial intelligence, are developing, and the need for information security is increasing. Although the necessity of information security is expanding according to the development of information and communication technology, interest in information security investment is insufficient. In general, measuring the effect of information security investment is difficult, so appropriate investment is not being practice, and organizations are decreasing their information security investment. In addition, since the types and specification of information security measures are diverse, it is difficult to compare and evaluate the information security countermeasures objectively, and there is a lack of decision-making methods about information security investment. To develop the organization, policies and decisions related to information security are essential, and measuring the effect of information security investment is necessary. Therefore, this study proposes a method of constructing an investment portfolio for information security measures using game theory and derives an optimal defence probability. Using the two-person game model, the information security manager and the attacker are assumed to be the game players, and the information security countermeasures and information security threats are assumed as the strategy of the players, respectively. A zero-sum game that the sum of the players' payoffs is zero is assumed, and we derive a solution of a mixed strategy game in which a strategy is selected according to probability distribution among strategies. In the real world, there are various types of information security threats exist, so multiple information security measures should be considered to maintain the appropriate information security level of information systems. We assume that the defence ratio of the information security countermeasures is known, and we derive the optimal solution of the mixed strategy game using linear programming. The contributions of this study are as follows. First, we conduct analysis using real performance data of information security measures. Information security managers of organizations can use the methodology suggested in this study to make practical decisions when establishing investment portfolio for information security countermeasures. Second, the investment weight of information security countermeasures is derived. Since we derive the weight of each information security measure, not just whether or not information security measures have been invested, it is easy to construct an information security investment portfolio in a situation where investment decisions need to be made in consideration of a number of information security countermeasures. Finally, it is possible to find the optimal defence probability after constructing an investment portfolio of information security countermeasures. The information security managers of organizations can measure the specific investment effect by drawing out information security countermeasures that fit the organization's information security investment budget. Also, numerical examples are presented and computational results are analyzed. Based on the performance of various information security countermeasures: Firewall, IPS, and Antivirus, data related to information security measures are collected to construct a portfolio of information security countermeasures. The defence ratio of the information security countermeasures is created using a uniform distribution, and a coverage of performance is derived based on the report of each information security countermeasure. According to numerical examples that considered Firewall, IPS, and Antivirus as information security countermeasures, the investment weights of Firewall, IPS, and Antivirus are optimized to 60.74%, 39.26%, and 0%, respectively. The result shows that the defence probability of the organization is maximized to 83.87%. When the methodology and examples of this study are used in practice, information security managers can consider various types of information security measures, and the appropriate investment level of each measure can be reflected in the organization's budget.

• Archives of design research
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• v.19 no.2 s.64
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• pp.323-332
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• 2006

Information devices such as a cellular phone, smart phone, and PDA become smaller to such an extent that people put them into their pockets without any difficulties. This drastic miniaturization causes to deteriorate the readability of text-based contents. The morphological characteristics of size and proportion are supposed to have close relationships with the pocketability and text readability of mobile information devices. This research was aimed to investigate the optimal morphological characteristics to satisfy the two usability factors together. For this purpose, we conducted an controlled experiment, which was designed to evaluate the pocketability according to $size(4000mm^2/8000mm^2)$, proportion(1:1/2:1/3:1), and weight(100g/200g) of information devices as well as participants' pose and carrying method. In the case of male participants putting the models of information device into their pockets, 2:1 morphological proportion was preferred. On the other hand, the female participants carrying the models in their hands preferred 2:1 proportion$(size:4000mm^2{\times}2mm)$ and 3:1 proportion$(size:8000mm^2{\times}20mm)$. For the device in the size of $4000mm^2$, it was found that the weight of device has an significant effect on pocketability. In consequence, 2:1 proportion is optimal to achieve better pocketability. The second experiment was about how text readability is affected by size $(2000mm^2/4000mm^2/8000mm^2)$ and proportion(1:1/2:1/3:1) of information devices as well as interlinear space of displayed text(135%/200%). From this experiment result, it was found that reading speed was increased as line length increased. Regarding the subjective assessment on reading task, 2:1 proportion was strongly preferred. Based on these results, we suggest 2:l proportion as an optimal proportion that satisfy pocketability of mobile information devices and text readability displayed on the screen together. To apply these research outputs to a practical design work efficiently, it is important to take into account the fact that the space for input devices is also required in addition to a display screen.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.41-52
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• 2017

Purpose: The objective of the study was to investigate the effects of xylobiose-sugar mixture intake on defecation frequency and constipation symptoms in 31 young women with constipation. Methods: Thirty-one subjects were assigned to two groups, and subjects in each group were administered 10 g of a 7% xylobiose-sugar mixture (Experiment 1: XBS, n = 15) or 10 g of a 7% xylobiose-sugar mixture containing coffee mix (Experiment 2: XBS coffee mix, n = 16) twice per day for 6 weeks. During the study, clinical efficacy was assessed by a daily diary record. The subjects recorded their defecation frequency and fecal characteristics. Results: During pretreatment week, mean defecation frequency of XBS subjects was 2.13 times/week, whereas that of XBS coffee mix subjects was 1.56 times/week. The mean defecation frequencies of XBS and XBS coffee mix subjects increased significantly to 3.73 times/week (p < 0.05) and 3.56 times/week by week 6 (p < 0.05), respectively. After treatment with either XBS or XBS coffee mix, patients presented significant improvements in their amounts of stool, feelings of residual stool leftness, and abdominal pain symptoms (p < 0.05). The total constipation scoring system (CSS) for diagnosing constipation symptoms significantly decreased in the XBS group (10.53 score vs 7.22 score) and in the XBS coffee mix group (10.75 score vs 6.51 score) after 6 weeks. Improvement due to intake of 7% xylobiose-containing sugar seemed to last during the experimental period. Conclusion: The addition of approximately 7% xylobiose to commercially available sweeteners has been shown to improve constipation.