• Title/Summary/Keyword: 2R method

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ROC Analysis of Visual Assessments Made in Gated Blood Pool Scans of Patients with Coronary Artery Disease (관상동맥질환에서 심장풀 스캔의 육안적 평가에 대한 ROC 분석)

  • Lee, Kyun-Han;Choi, Yoon-Ho;Lee, Bum-Woo;Moon, Dae-Hyuk;Koong, Sung-Soo;Chung, June-Key;Lee, Myung-Chul;Koh, Chang-Soon
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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    • v.23 no.2
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    • pp.175-181
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    • 1989
  • Visual assessment of regional wall motion abnormality (RWMA) by gated blood pol scan (GBPS) serves as an useful parameter in the diagnosis, functional evaluation, and follow up in various clinical settings, but are still subject to some inherent limitations. On important problem may be the interobserver as well as intraobsever variation that may well be present due to the subjective nature of the interpretations. This study was carried out to determine the reliability and reproducibility of visual assessments made in GBPSs, and to observe the degree to which the results would be influenced by observer variation. Fifty two patients with coronary heart disease had resting GBPS and contrast ventriculography within 4 days appall. Contrast ventriculography-showed normal wall motion in 6 patients and the remaining 46 had RWMA in one or more segments. The anterior and left anterolateral views of all 52 GBPSs were analyzed by three independent observers, who selected from 5 scales, their level of confidence that there was RWMA in that segment. Reciever operating characteristic (ROC) curves for each analysis was plotted and the area under the curve $(\theta)$ was used as a parameter representing each observer's performance in his interpretations. The findings of contrast ventriculographies were used as the standard for RWMA. The apical and inferoapical segments showed the best correlation with contrast ventriculography ($\theta=0.90-0.94$, 0.81-0.94, respectively), and the inferior wall showed the poorest correlation $(\theta=0.70-0.74)$. The interpretations of the inferior, septal, apical, and posteroinferior, segments showed no difference between the observers, but there was significantly better performance in assessment by observer A compared to that by B or C for the anterolateral segments ($\theta=0.87$, 0.78, 0.76, respectively. p<0.01 for A vs B, p<0.05 for A vs C), as well as when all segments were considered altogether ($\theta=0.88$, 0.83, 0.82, respectively. both p<0.05). This was also true for the infero-apical segment between A and C ($\theta=0.09$, 0.81, p<0.05). The intraobserver variation, however, did not appear significant, with only the inferior segment for observer B showing any significant difference when observer A and B repeated the analysis 10 days latter. There was no difference in assessing dyskinesia, with all observers showing a high performance ($\theta=0.98$, 0.87, 0.97, respectively). The visual assessment of left ventricular ejection fraction by all three observers correlated well with the calculated value from a semiautomated method (Spearman's r = 0.91, 0.83, 0.83. p<0.01, p<0.05, p < 0.05). The assessment of LV and RV size also correlated well between the three observers (Kendall's w = 0.80, 0.51, p<0.01 for both left and right ventricles). The above findings suggest that RWMA visually assessed by GBPS correlates well with that done by contrast ventriculography. And although the observer's experience or skill may influence the results in certain segments, visual analysis of GBPS may serve as a reliable and reproducible means for evaluating ventricular function.

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A Study of the Vegetation in the Deogyusan National Park - Focused on the deciduous forest at Namdeogyu area - (덕유산국립공원의 식생에 관한 연구 -남덕유지역 낙엽활엽수림을 중심으로-)

  • Kim, Hyoun-Sook;Lee, Sang-Myong;Chung, Heung-Lak;Song, Ho-Kyung
    • Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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    • v.23 no.5
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    • pp.471-484
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    • 2009
  • This study was carried out to classify vegetation structure on the deciduous forest at Namdeogyu area in Deogyusan National Park from May 2007 to September 2008 using the gradient analyses and phytosociological method. The vegetation was classified into Quercus mongolica community(Typical subcommunity, Rhododendron sehlippenbaehii-Q. mongolica subcommunity, Carex lanceolata-Q. mongolica subcommunity), Q. Serrata community(Typical subcommunity, Q. variabilis -Q. serrata subcommunity, Carpinus laxiflora - Q. serrata subcommunity), C. laxiflora community, Fraxinus mandshurica community and Corn us controversa community. Ecological characteristics such as species composition, layer structure, vegetation ratio, and the distribution of individual trees by DBH(diameter at breast height) were significantly different among communities. The order of important value of the forest community with DBH 2cm above plants was Q. mongolica(67.8), F. mandshurica(44.8), Q. serrata(27.5), Acer pseudo-sieboldianum(17.0), C. controversa(l5.9), F. sieboldiana(l1.5), R. schlippenbachii(11.0), C. cordata(11.0), Styrax obassia(10.9), Magnolia sieboldii(10.4) and C. laxiflora(9.8). Distribution of DBH of Q. mongolica had a formality distribution, suggesting a continuous domination of these species over the other species for the time being. In contrast, F. mandshurica appeared limited to the valley of the sheet and a higher frequency of young individuals, suggesting a continuous domination of these species the development of a climax forest terrain. Q. serrata had a higher frequency of young individuals and middle individuals, suggesting a continuous domination of these species over the other species for the time being in contrast. This study examined the correlation between each community and the environment according to DCCA ordination. The Q. mongolica community predominated in the highest elevation habitats which had many C.E.C and T-N. F. mandshurica community predominated in the highest elevation habitats which had many Moisture and EX-Cation. The Q. serrata community and C. laxiflora community mainly occurred in the low elevation habitats which had few C.E.C and T-N. The C. controversa community appeared on the park in the middle habitats.

Clinical Significance of PCR-Based Rapid Detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA in Peripheral Blood (결핵 환자에서 말초혈액 결핵균 중합효소 연쇄반응 양성의 임상적 의의)

  • Kim, Gyu-Won;Lee, Jae-Myung;Kang, Min-Jong;Son, Jee-Woong;Lee, Seung-Joon;Kim, Dong-Gyu;Lee, Myung-Goo;Hyun, In-Gyu;Jung, Ki-Suck;Lee, Young-Kyung;Lee, Kyung-Wha
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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    • v.50 no.5
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    • pp.599-606
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    • 2001
  • Background : Since the advent of AIDS, tuberculosis has become a major public health problem in the western society. Therefore, it is essential that pulmonary tuberculosis be rapidly diagnosed. Light microscopic detection of acid-fast organisms in sputum has traditionally been used for rapidly diagnosing tuberculosis. However positive smears are only observed in about one-half to three-quarters of cases. Studies using PCR for diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis disclosed several shortcomings suggesting an inability to distinguish between active and treated or inactive tuberculosis. In this study, the clinical significance of a PCR-based rapid technique for detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA in peripheral blood was investigated. Materials and Methods : From July 1, 1998 through to August 30, 1999, 59 patients with presumed tuberculosis, who had no previous history of anti-tuberculosis medication use within one year prior to this study were recruited and followed up for more than 3 months. AFB stain and culture in the sputum and/or pleural fluids and biopsies when needed were performed. Blood samples from each of the 59 patients were obtained in order to identify Mycobacterium Tuberculosis DNA by a PCR test. Results : 1) Forty five out of 59 patients had a final diagnosis of tuberculosis ; Twenty eight were confirmed as having active pulmonary tuberculosis by culture or biopsy. Four were clinically diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis. The other 13 patients were diagnosed as having tuberculous pleurisy (9) and extrapulmonary tuberculosis (4). 2) Fourteen patients showed a positive blood PCR test. The PCR assay correctly identified active tuberculosis in 13 out of 14 patients. The overall sensitivity and specificity of this blood peR assay for diagnosing tuberculosis were 29% and 93%, respectively. The positive predictive value was 93%, the negative predictive value was 29% and the diagnostic accuracy was 44%.3) Six out of 14(43%) patients with blood PCR positive tuberculosis were immunologically compromised hosts. 4) A simple chest radiograph in blood PCR positive tuberculosis patients showed variable and inconsistent findings. Conclusion : A peripheral blood PCR assay for Mycobacterium tuberculosis is not recommended as a screening method for diagnosing active tuberculosis. However, it was suggested that the blood PCR assay could contribute to an early diagnostic rate due to its high positive predictive value.

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Radiographic change of grafted sinus floor after maxillary sinus floor elevation and placement of dental implant (상악동저 거상술과 임플란트 식립 후 상악동저 변화에 대한 연구)

  • Cho, Sang-Ho;Kim, Ok-Su
    • Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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    • v.36 no.2
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    • pp.345-359
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    • 2006
  • Loss of maxillary molar teeth leads to rapid loss of crestal bone and inferior expansion of the maxillary sinus floor (secondary pneumatization). Rehabilitation of the site with osseointegrated dental implants often represents a clinical challenge because of the insufficient bone volume resulted from this phenomenon. Boyne & James proposed the classic procedure for maxillary sinus floor elevation entails preparation of a trap door including the Schneiderian membrane in the lateral sinus wall. Summers proposed another non-invasive method using a set of osteotome and the osteotome sinus floor elevation (OSFE) was proposed for implant sites with at least 5-6mm of bone between the alveolar crest and the maxillary sinus floor. The change of grafted material in maxillary sinus is important for implant survival and the evaluation of graft height after maxillary sinus floor elevation is composed of histologic evaluation and radiomorphometric evaluation. The aim of the present study was radiographically evaluate the graft height change after maxillary sinus floor elevation and the influence of the graft material type in height change and the bone remodeling of grafts in sinus. A total of 59 patients (28 in lateral approach and 31 in crestal approach) who underwent maxillary sinus floor elevation composed of lateral approach and crestal approach were radiographically followed for up to about 48 months. Change in sinusgraft height were calculated with respect to implant length (IL) and grafted sinus height(BL). It was evaluated the change of the graft height according to time, the influence of the approach technique (staged approach and simultaneous approach) in lateral approach to change of the graft height, and the influence of the type of graft materials to change of the graft height. Patients were divided into three class based on the height of the grafted sinus floor relative to the implant apex and evaluated the proportion change of that class (Class I, in which the grafted sinus floor was above the implant apex; Class II, in which the implant apex was level with the grafted sinus floor; and Class III, in which the grafted sinus floor was below the implant apex). And it was evaluated th bone remodeling in sinus during 12 months using SGRl(by $Br\ddot{a}gger$ et al). The result was like that; Sinus graft height decreased significantly in both lateral approach and crestal approach in first 12 months (p$MBCP^{TM}$ had minimum height loss. Class III and Class II was increased by time in both lateral and crestal approach and Class I was decreased by time. SGRI was increased statistically significantly from baseline to 3 months and 3 months(p<0.05) to 12 months(p$ICB^{(R)}$ single use, more reduction of sinusgraft height was appeared. Therefore we speculated that the mixture of graft materials is preferable as a reduction of graft materials. Increasing of the SGRI as time goes by explains the stability of implant, but additional histologic or computed tomographic study will be needed for accurate conclusion. From the radiographic evaluation, we come to know that placement of dental implant with sinus floor elevation is an effective procedure in atrophic maxillary reconstruction.

An Integrated Model based on Genetic Algorithms for Implementing Cost-Effective Intelligent Intrusion Detection Systems (비용효율적 지능형 침입탐지시스템 구현을 위한 유전자 알고리즘 기반 통합 모형)

  • Lee, Hyeon-Uk;Kim, Ji-Hun;Ahn, Hyun-Chul
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.18 no.1
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    • pp.125-141
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    • 2012
  • These days, the malicious attacks and hacks on the networked systems are dramatically increasing, and the patterns of them are changing rapidly. Consequently, it becomes more important to appropriately handle these malicious attacks and hacks, and there exist sufficient interests and demand in effective network security systems just like intrusion detection systems. Intrusion detection systems are the network security systems for detecting, identifying and responding to unauthorized or abnormal activities appropriately. Conventional intrusion detection systems have generally been designed using the experts' implicit knowledge on the network intrusions or the hackers' abnormal behaviors. However, they cannot handle new or unknown patterns of the network attacks, although they perform very well under the normal situation. As a result, recent studies on intrusion detection systems use artificial intelligence techniques, which can proactively respond to the unknown threats. For a long time, researchers have adopted and tested various kinds of artificial intelligence techniques such as artificial neural networks, decision trees, and support vector machines to detect intrusions on the network. However, most of them have just applied these techniques singularly, even though combining the techniques may lead to better detection. With this reason, we propose a new integrated model for intrusion detection. Our model is designed to combine prediction results of four different binary classification models-logistic regression (LOGIT), decision trees (DT), artificial neural networks (ANN), and support vector machines (SVM), which may be complementary to each other. As a tool for finding optimal combining weights, genetic algorithms (GA) are used. Our proposed model is designed to be built in two steps. At the first step, the optimal integration model whose prediction error (i.e. erroneous classification rate) is the least is generated. After that, in the second step, it explores the optimal classification threshold for determining intrusions, which minimizes the total misclassification cost. To calculate the total misclassification cost of intrusion detection system, we need to understand its asymmetric error cost scheme. Generally, there are two common forms of errors in intrusion detection. The first error type is the False-Positive Error (FPE). In the case of FPE, the wrong judgment on it may result in the unnecessary fixation. The second error type is the False-Negative Error (FNE) that mainly misjudges the malware of the program as normal. Compared to FPE, FNE is more fatal. Thus, total misclassification cost is more affected by FNE rather than FPE. To validate the practical applicability of our model, we applied it to the real-world dataset for network intrusion detection. The experimental dataset was collected from the IDS sensor of an official institution in Korea from January to June 2010. We collected 15,000 log data in total, and selected 10,000 samples from them by using random sampling method. Also, we compared the results from our model with the results from single techniques to confirm the superiority of the proposed model. LOGIT and DT was experimented using PASW Statistics v18.0, and ANN was experimented using Neuroshell R4.0. For SVM, LIBSVM v2.90-a freeware for training SVM classifier-was used. Empirical results showed that our proposed model based on GA outperformed all the other comparative models in detecting network intrusions from the accuracy perspective. They also showed that the proposed model outperformed all the other comparative models in the total misclassification cost perspective. Consequently, it is expected that our study may contribute to build cost-effective intelligent intrusion detection systems.

Midterm Results of Mitral Valve Repair by the New Chordae Formation Technique (승모판막 폐쇄부전증에서 신건삭 형성술을 이용한 판막 성형술의 임상분석)

  • Lee, Jae-Won;Lim, Han-Jung;Jung, Sung-Ho;Kim, Kun-Il;Choo, Suk-Jung;Song, Hyun;Song, Meung-Gun
    • Journal of Chest Surgery
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    • v.34 no.4
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    • pp.329-337
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    • 2001
  • 배경: 승포판 전엽이나 교련 또는 여러 판엽에 걸쳐 광범위한 병변으로 인한 승모판 역류의 경우 수술수기에 대한 뚜렷한 정립이 되어 있지 않은 실정이다. 최근 이러한 병변의 승모판 역류의 경우 PTEE(Polytetrafluro-ethylene)을 이용한 신건삭 형성술의 시행이 점차 늘고 있다. 이에 저자들은 PTEE를 이용한 신건삭 형성술이 승모판 성형술에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지 알아보고자 하였다. 대상 및 방법: 1994년 1월부터 1999년 12월까지 승모판막 성형술을 시행 받은 322명의 환자 중에서 신건삭 형성술을 이용하여 승모판 성형술을 시행한 144례(I군)과 신건삭 형성술 이외의 방법으로 승모판 성형술을 시행한 178례(II군)를 대상으로 하였다. 두 군에서 수술 직후ㅘ 수술 후 6개월, 1년 및 1년 단위로 주기적인 심초음파를 시행하였고 이를 통계적 검정하였다. 결과: 같은 기간 승모판 성형술은 승모판막 폐쇄 부전증으로 내원한 환자의 95%(306)에서 추적 관찰이 가능하였다. 두 구난에 수술 전 혈류 역학적인 차이를 보이지 않았고, 수술 전 평균 승모판막 폐쇄 부전의 정도는 I군이 3.8$\pm$0.4, II군이 3.6$\pm$0.3였으나 수술 후 추적 관찰에서 각각 1.3$\pm$0.9와 1.1$\pm$0.7 정도의 양호한 판막 성형술의 결과를 보였고 승모판막 면적의변화나 승모판막에서의 평균 압력차이 등 혈류 역학적인 결과에도 차이를 보이고 있지 않았다. 술 후 3명(0.9%)의 조기 사망과 4명 (1.2%)의 후기 사망이 있었으나 두 군간의 차이는 보이지 않았다. 만기 생존율( 93.7$\pm$3.3 vs 88.0$\pm$1.95) 및 판막살패가 발생하기 않을 확률( 93.7$\pm$3.6 vs 93.3$\pm$3.4%) 과 재수술이 필요치 않을 활률(99.3$\pm$0.7 vs 96.0$\pm$1.9%), 색전증, 감염성 심내막염, 판막과 관련된 합병증 발생률 등에서 두 군간에 의미 있는 차이는 없었다. 전엽과 후엽에서 신건삭 형성술을 시행한 환자에서는 통계학적인 차이가 없었다(p=0.29) 결론: 신건삭 형성술을 이용한 승모판 성형술은 승모판 성형술의 증가(r=0.98, p<0.01)를 가져 왔을 뿐만 아니라 내구성과 안정성에 있어 기존의 안전화된 수술 수기와 견줄만하다. 특히 이러한 신건삭 형성술은 승모판 전엽에 병변이 있는 경우와 교련부 및 여러 엽에 광범위한 병변으로 인하여 재건술이 어려운 경우에도 승모판 재건을 가능하게 하는 우수한 수술 수리가 사료된다.

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Estimation of Reference Crop Evapotranspiration Using Backpropagation Neural Network Model (역전파 신경망 모델을 이용한 기준 작물 증발산량 산정)

  • Kim, Minyoung;Choi, Yonghun;O'Shaughnessy, Susan;Colaizzi, Paul;Kim, Youngjin;Jeon, Jonggil;Lee, Sangbong
    • Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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    • v.61 no.6
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    • pp.111-121
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    • 2019
  • Evapotranspiration (ET) of vegetation is one of the major components of the hydrologic cycle, and its accurate estimation is important for hydrologic water balance, irrigation management, crop yield simulation, and water resources planning and management. For agricultural crops, ET is often calculated in terms of a short or tall crop reference, such as well-watered, clipped grass (reference crop evapotranspiration, $ET_o$). The Penman-Monteith equation recommended by FAO (FAO 56-PM) has been accepted by researchers and practitioners, as the sole $ET_o$ method. However, its accuracy is contingent on high quality measurements of four meteorological variables, and its use has been limited by incomplete and/or inaccurate input data. Therefore, this study evaluated the applicability of Backpropagation Neural Network (BPNN) model for estimating $ET_o$ from less meteorological data than required by the FAO 56-PM. A total of six meteorological inputs, minimum temperature, average temperature, maximum temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and solar radiation, were divided into a series of input groups (a combination of one, two, three, four, five and six variables) and each combination of different meteorological dataset was evaluated for its level of accuracy in estimating $ET_o$. The overall findings of this study indicated that $ET_o$ could be reasonably estimated using less than all six meteorological data using BPNN. In addition, it was shown that the proper choice of neural network architecture could not only minimize the computational error, but also maximize the relationship between dependent and independent variables. The findings of this study would be of use in instances where data availability and/or accuracy are limited.

Recent research activities on hybrid rocket in Japan

  • Harunori, Nagata
    • Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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    • 2011.04a
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    • pp.1-2
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    • 2011
  • Hybrid rockets have lately attracted attention as a strong candidate of small, low cost, safe and reliable launch vehicles. A significant topic is that the first commercially sponsored space ship, SpaceShipOne vehicle chose a hybrid rocket. The main factors for the choice were safety of operation, system cost, quick turnaround, and thrust termination. In Japan, five universities including Hokkaido University and three private companies organized "Hybrid Rocket Research Group" from 1998 to 2002. Their main purpose was to downsize the cost and scale of rocket experiments. In 2002, UNISEC (University Space Engineering Consortium) and HASTIC (Hokkaido Aerospace Science and Technology Incubation Center) took over the educational and R&D rocket activities respectively and the research group dissolved. In 2008, JAXA/ISAS and eleven universities formed "Hybrid Rocket Research Working Group" as a subcommittee of the Steering Committee for Space Engineering in ISAS. Their goal is to demonstrate technical feasibility of lowcost and high frequency launches of nano/micro satellites into sun-synchronous orbits. Hybrid rockets use a combination of solid and liquid propellants. Usually the fuel is in a solid phase. A serious problem of hybrid rockets is the low regression rate of the solid fuel. In single port hybrids the low regression rate below 1 mm/s causes large L/D exceeding a hundred and small fuel loading ratio falling below 0.3. Multi-port hybrids are a typical solution to solve this problem. However, this solution is not the mainstream in Japan. Another approach is to use high regression rate fuels. For example, a fuel regression rate of 4 mm/s decreases L/D to around 10 and increases the loading ratio to around 0.75. Liquefying fuels such as paraffins are strong candidates for high regression fuels and subject of active research in Japan too. Nakagawa et al. in Tokai University employed EVA (Ethylene Vinyl Acetate) to modify viscosity of paraffin based fuels and investigated the effect of viscosity on regression rates. Wada et al. in Akita University employed LTP (Low melting ThermoPlastic) as another candidate of liquefying fuels and demonstrated high regression rates comparable to paraffin fuels. Hori et al. in JAXA/ISAS employed glycidylazide-poly(ethylene glycol) (GAP-PEG) copolymers as high regression rate fuels and modified the combustion characteristics by changing the PEG mixing ratio. Regression rate improvement by changing internal ballistics is another stream of research. The author proposed a new fuel configuration named "CAMUI" in 1998. CAMUI comes from an abbreviation of "cascaded multistage impinging-jet" meaning the distinctive flow field. A CAMUI type fuel grain consists of several cylindrical fuel blocks with two ports in axial direction. The port alignment shifts 90 degrees with each other to make jets out of ports impinge on the upstream end face of the downstream fuel block, resulting in intense heat transfer to the fuel. Yuasa et al. in Tokyo Metropolitan University employed swirling injection method and improved regression rates more than three times higher. However, regression rate distribution along the axis is not uniform due to the decay of the swirl strength. Aso et al. in Kyushu University employed multi-swirl injection to solve this problem. Combinations of swirling injection and paraffin based fuel have been tried and some results show very high regression rates exceeding ten times of conventional one. High fuel regression rates by new fuel, new internal ballistics, or combination of them require faster fuel-oxidizer mixing to maintain combustion efficiency. Nakagawa et al. succeeded to improve combustion efficiency of a paraffin-based fuel from 77% to 96% by a baffle plate. Another effective approach some researchers are trying is to use an aft-chamber to increase residence time. Better understanding of the new flow fields is necessary to reveal basic mechanisms of regression enhancement. Yuasa et al. visualized the combustion field in a swirling injection type motor. Nakagawa et al. observed boundary layer combustion of wax-based fuels. To understand detailed flow structures in swirling flow type hybrids, Sawada et al. (Tohoku Univ.), Teramoto et al. (Univ. of Tokyo), Shimada et al. (ISAS), and Tsuboi et al. (Kyushu Inst. Tech.) are trying to simulate the flow field numerically. Main challenges are turbulent reaction, stiffness due to low Mach number flow, fuel regression model, and other non-steady phenomena. Oshima et al. in Hokkaido University simulated CAMUI type flow fields and discussed correspondence relation between regression distribution of a burning surface and the vortex structure over the surface.

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The effect of superheated steam drying on physicochemical and microbial characteristics of Korean traditional actinidia (Actinidia arguta) leaves (과열증기 건조가 토종 다래순의 이화학적 및 미생물학적 특성에 미치는 영향)

  • Kim, Ah-Na;Ko, Hee-Suk;Lee, Kyo-Yeon;Rahman, M. Shafiur;Heo, Ho Jin;Choi, Sung-Gil
    • Food Science and Preservation
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    • v.24 no.3
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    • pp.464-471
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    • 2017
  • The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of superheated steam drying on physicochemical and microbial characteristics of Korean traditional actinidia (Actinidia arguta) leaves. Actinidia leaves were dried at steam temperature of $350^{\circ}C$ and oven temperature of $150^{\circ}C$ for 40-200 sec. Moisture content and water activity decreased with increasing the drying time, while color values including L, a, and b values and total color difference (${\Delta}E$) increased as drying time increased. The relationship between moisture content and water activity showed an exponential fit with high correlation vlaue ($R^2=0.9909$). Total phenolics and flavonoids content and antioxidant activity such as DPPH radical scavenging activity, ABTS radical scavenging activity, and FRAP assay of dried actinidia leaves increased with increasing the drying time up to 160 sec, but dramatically decreased at drying of 200 sec. The numbers of total areobic bacteria of leaves was not detected at drying time over 120 sec and coliform of all the samples was not detected. As a results, the superheated steam was an very effective drying method of increase to the nutritional and sanitary quality of dried Korean traditional actinidia leaves.

An Empirical Study on Motivation Factors and Reward Structure for User's Createve Contents Generation: Focusing on the Mediating Effect of Commitment (창의적인 UCC 제작에 영향을 미치는 동기 및 보상 체계에 대한 연구: 몰입에 매개 효과를 중심으로)

  • Kim, Jin-Woo;Yang, Seung-Hwa;Lim, Seong-Taek;Lee, In-Seong
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.20 no.1
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    • pp.141-170
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    • 2010
  • User created content (UCC) is created and shared by common users on line. From the user's perspective, the increase of UCCs has led to an expansion of alternative means of communications, while from the business perspective UCCs have formed an environment in which an abundant amount of new contents can be produced. Despite outward quantitative growth, however, many aspects of UCCs do not meet the expectations of general users in terms of quality, and this can be observed through pirated contents and user-copied contents. The purpose of this research is to investigate effective methods for fostering production of creative user-generated content. This study proposes two core elements, namely, reward and motivation, which are believed to enhance content creativity as well as the mediating factor and users' committement, which will be effective for bridging the increasing motivation and content creativity. Based on this perspective, this research takes an in-depth look at issues related to constructing the dimensions of reward and motivation in UCC services for creative content product, which are identified in three phases. First, three dimensions of rewards have been proposed: task dimension, social dimension, and organizational dimention. The task dimension rewards are related to the inherent characteristics of a task such as writing blog articles and pasting photos. Four concrete ways of providing task-related rewards in UCC environments are suggested in this study, which include skill variety, task significance, task identity, and autonomy. The social dimensioni rewards are related to the connected relationships among users. The organizational dimension consists of monetary payoff and recognition from others. Second, the two types of motivations are suggested to be affected by the diverse rewards schemes: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation occurs when people create new UCC contents for its' own sake, whereas extrinsic motivation occurs when people create new contents for other purposes such as fame and money. Third, commitments are suggested to work as important mediating variables between motivation and content creativity. We believe commitments are especially important in online environments because they have been found to exert stronger impacts on the Internet users than other relevant factors do. Two types of commitments are suggested in this study: emotional commitment and continuity commitment. Finally, content creativity is proposed as the final dependent variable in this study. We provide a systematic method to measure the creativity of UCC content based on the prior studies in creativity measurement. The method includes expert evaluation of blog pages posted by the Internet users. In order to test the theoretical model of our study, 133 active blog users were recruited to participate in a group discussion as well as a survey. They were asked to fill out a questionnaire on their commitment, motivation and rewards of creating UCC contents. At the same time, their creativity was measured by independent experts using Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. Finally, two independent users visited the study participants' blog pages and evaluated their content creativity using the Creative Products Semantic Scale. All the data were compiled and analyzed through structural equation modeling. We first conducted a confirmatory factor analysis to validate the measurement model of our research. It was found that measures used in our study satisfied the requirement of reliability, convergent validity as well as discriminant validity. Given the fact that our measurement model is valid and reliable, we proceeded to conduct a structural model analysis. The results indicated that all the variables in our model had higher than necessary explanatory powers in terms of R-square values. The study results identified several important reward shemes. First of all, skill variety, task importance, task identity, and automony were all found to have significant influences on the intrinsic motivation of creating UCC contents. Also, the relationship with other users was found to have strong influences upon both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Finally, the opportunity to get recognition for their UCC work was found to have a significant impact on the extrinsic motivation of UCC users. However, different from our expectation, monetary compensation was found not to have a significant impact on the extrinsic motivation. It was also found that commitment was an important mediating factor in UCC environment between motivation and content creativity. A more fully mediating model was found to have the highest explanation power compared to no-mediation or partially mediated models. This paper ends with implications of the study results. First, from the theoretical perspective this study proposes and empirically validates the commitment as an important mediating factor between motivation and content creativity. This result reflects the characteristics of online environment in which the UCC creation activities occur voluntarily. Second, from the practical perspective this study proposes several concrete reward factors that are germane to the UCC environment, and their effectiveness to the content creativity is estimated. In addition to the quantitive results of relative importance of the reward factrs, this study also proposes concrete ways to provide the rewards in the UCC environment based on the FGI data that are collected after our participants finish asnwering survey questions. Finally, from the methodological perspective, this study suggests and implements a way to measure the UCC content creativity independently from the content generators' creativity, which can be used later by future research on UCC creativity. In sum, this study proposes and validates important reward features and their relations to the motivation, commitment, and the content creativity in UCC environment, which is believed to be one of the most important factors for the success of UCC and Web 2.0. As such, this study can provide significant theoretical as well as practical bases for fostering creativity in UCC contents.