• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.575-588
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• 2024

Objective: Differentiating intracranial aneurysms from normal variants using CT angiography (CTA) or MR angiography (MRA) poses significant challenges. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of proton-density MRA (PD-MRA) compared to high-resolution time-of-flight MRA (HR-MRA) in diagnosing aneurysms among patients with indeterminate findings on conventional CTA or MRA. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective analysis, we included patients who underwent both PD-MRA and HR-MRA from August 2020 to July 2022 to assess lesions deemed indeterminate on prior conventional CTA or MRA examinations. Three experienced neuroradiologists independently reviewed the lesions using HR-MRA and PD-MRA with reconstructed voxel sizes of 0.25³ mm³ or 0.2³ mm³, respectively. A neurointerventionist established the gold standard with digital subtraction angiography. We compared the performance of HR-MRA, PD-MRA (0.25³-mm³ voxel), and PD-MRA (0.2³-mm³ voxel) in diagnosing aneurysms, both per lesion and per patient. The Fleiss kappa statistic was used to calculate inter-reader agreement. Results: The study involved 109 patients (average age 57.4 ± 11.0 years; male:female ratio, 11:98) with 141 indeterminate lesions. Of these, 78 lesions (55.3%) in 69 patients were confirmed as aneurysms by the reference standard. PD-MRA (0.25³-mm³ voxel) exhibited significantly higher per-lesion diagnostic performance compared to HR-MRA across all three readers: sensitivity ranged from 87.2%-91.0% versus 66.7%-70.5%; specificity from 93.7%-96.8% versus 58.7%-68.3%; and accuracy from 90.8%-92.9% versus 63.8%-69.5% (P ≤ 0.003). Furthermore, PD-MRA (0.25³-mm³ voxel) demonstrated significantly superior per-patient specificity and accuracy compared to HR-MRA across all evaluators (P ≤ 0.013). The diagnostic accuracy of PD-MRA (0.2³-mm³ voxel) surpassed that of HR-MRA and was comparable to PD-MRA (0.25³-mm³ voxel). The kappa values for inter-reader agreements were significantly higher in PD-MRA (0.820-0.938) than in HR-MRA (0.447-0.510). Conclusion: PD-MRA outperformed HR-MRA in diagnostic accuracy and demonstrated almost perfect inter-reader consistency in identifying intracranial aneurysms among patients with lesions initially indeterminate on CTA or MRA.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.37 no.7
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• pp.1168-1176
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• 2024

Objective: As a charismatic species, cashmere goats have rich genetic resources. In the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, there are three cashmere goat varieties named and approved by the state. These goats are renowned for their high cashmere production and superior cashmere quality. Therefore, it is vitally important to protect their genetic resources as they will serve as breeding material for developing new varieties in the future. Methods: Three breeds including Inner Mongolia cashmere goats (IMCG), Hanshan White cashmere goats (HS), and Ujimqin white cashmere goats (WZMQ) were studied. IMCG were of three types: Aerbas (AEBS), Erlangshan (ELS), and Alashan (ALS). Nine DNA samples were collected for each population, and they were genomically re-sequenced to obtain high-depth data. The genetic diversity parameters of each population were estimated to determine selection intensity. Principal component analysis, phylogenetic tree construction and genetic differentiation parameter estimation were performed to determine genetic relationships among populations. Results: Samples from the 45 individuals from the five goat populations were sequenced, and 30,601,671 raw single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) obtained. Then, variant calling was conducted using the reference genome, and 17,214,526 SNPs were retained after quality control. Individual sequencing depth of individuals ranged from 21.13× to 46.18×, with an average of 28.5×. In the AEBS, locus polymorphism (79.28) and expected heterozygosity (0.2554) proportions were the lowest, and the homologous consistency ratio (0.1021) and average inbreeding coefficient (0.1348) were the highest, indicating that this population had strong selection intensity. Conversely, ALS and WZMQ selection intensity was relatively low. Genetic distance between HS and the other four populations was relatively high, and genetic exchange existed among the other four populations. Conclusion: The Inner Mongolia cashmere goat (AEBS type) population has a relatively high selection intensity and a low genetic diversity. The IMCG (ALS type) and WZMQ populations had relatively low selection intensity and high genetic diversity. The genetic distance between HS and the other four populations was relatively high, with a moderate degree of differentiation. Overall, these genetic variations provide a solid foundation for resource identification of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region cashmere goats in the future.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.56-68
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• 2024

A construction standard production rates system for the factory built and on-site installation phases of OSC (Off-Site Construction)-based precast concrete (PC) structures in apartment buildings was recently proposed to establish an objective cost standard (Lee et al., 2021). In addition, the Korean government has taken steps to improve the institutional foundation for the systematic calculation of PC construction costs such as revising construction standard production rates for major components that can be applied to the on-site installation phase of PC method. In this study, we analyzed the results of a field survey of apartment building PC structures and collected expert opinions to develop factory-built and on-site installation standard production rates that can be applied to apartment building PC method. We also propose directions for improving the standard production rates so that they can be applied to the site and component of apartment buildings by comparing them with the current standard production rates. This study also derived the cost characteristics and cost reduction measures of PC construction by calculating the construction costs using the developed rates and comparing the construction costs with the RC methods of apartment buildings of the same scale. The construction standard production rates for PC construction derived in this study are expected to contribute to the spread of PC construction by ensuring the objectivity and consistency of the results of PC methods cost estimation.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.3-12
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• 2024

This study examined affective representation by analyzing physiological responses measured using wearable devices and affective ratings in response to emotional videos. To achieve this aim, a published dataset was reanalyzed using multidimensional scaling to demonstrate affective representation in two dimensions. Cross-participant classification was also conducted to identify the consistency of emotional responses across participants. The accuracy and misclassification in each emotional condition were described by exploring the confusion matrix derived from the classification analysis. Multidimensional scaling revealed that the represented objects, namely, emotional videos, were positioned along the rated valence and arousal vectors, supporting the core affect theory (Russell, 1980). Vector fittings of physiological responses also showed the associations between heart rate acceleration and low arousal, increased heart rate variability and negative and high arousal, and increased electrodermal activity and negative and low arousal. Using the data of behavioral and physiological responses across participants, the classification results revealed that emotional videos were more accurately classified than the chance level of classification. The confusion matrix showed that awe, enthusiasm, and liking, which were categorized as positive, low arousal emotions in this study, were less accurately classified than the other emotions and were misclassified for each other. Through multivariate analyses, this study confirms the core affect theory using physiological responses measured through wearable devices and affective ratings in response to emotional videos.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.343-350
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• 2024

Since the release of Meta's Segment Anything Model (SAM), a large-scale vision transformer generation model with rapid image segmentation capabilities, several studies have been conducted to apply this technology in various fields. In this study, we aimed to investigate the applicability of SAM for water bodies detection and extraction using the QGIS Geo-SAM plugin, which enables the use of SAM with satellite imagery. The experimental data consisted of Compact Advanced Satellite 500 (CAS500)-1 images. The results obtained by applying SAM to these data were compared with manually digitized water objects, Open Street Map (OSM), and water body data from the National Geographic Information Institute (NGII)-based hydrological digital map. The mean Intersection over Union (mIoU) calculated for all features extracted using SAM and these three-comparison data were 0.7490, 0.5905, and 0.4921, respectively. For features commonly appeared or extracted in all datasets, the results were 0.9189, 0.8779, and 0.7715, respectively. Based on analysis of the spatial consistency between SAM results and other comparison data, SAM showed limitations in detecting small-scale or poorly defined streams but provided meaningful segmentation results for water body classification.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.202-213
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• 2024

Introduction: Acknowledging the global issue of diseases potentially caused by overwork, this study aims to develop an AI model to help workers understand the connection between cerebrocardiovascular diseases and their work environment. Materials and methods: The model was trained using medical and legal expertise along with data from the 2021 occupational disease adjudication certificate by the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance and Prevention Service. The Polyglot-ko-5.8B model, which is effective for processing Korean, was utilized. Model performance was evaluated through accuracy, precision, sensitivity, and F1-score metrics. Results: The model trained on a comprehensive dataset, including expert knowledge and actual case data, outperformed the others with respective accuracy, precision, sensitivity, and F1-scores of 0.91, 0.89, 0.84, and 0.87. However, it still had limitations in responding to certain scenarios. Discussion: The comprehensive model proved most effective in diagnosing work-related cerebrocardiovascular diseases, highlighting the significance of integrating actual case data in AI model development. Despite its efficacy, the model showed limitations in handling diverse cases and offering health management solutions. Conclusion: The study succeeded in creating an AI model to discern the link between work factors and cerebrocardiovascular diseases, showcasing the highest efficacy with the comprehensively trained model. Future enhancements towards a template-based approach and the development of a user-friendly chatbot webUI for workers are recommended to address the model's current limitations.

• Korean small business review
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.103-120
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• 2009

As business incubation centers (BICs) have been operating for more than 10 years in Korea, many early stage startups tend to use the services provided by the incubating centers. BICs in Korea have accumulated the knowledge and experience in the past ten years and their services have been considerably improved. The business incubating service has three facets : (1) business infrastructure service, (2) direct service, and (3) indirect service. The mission of BICs is to provide the early stage entrepreneurs with the incubating service in a limited period time to help them grow strong enough to survive the fierce competition after graduating from the incubation. However, the incubating services sometimes fail to foster the independence of new startup companies, and raise the dependence of many companies on BICs. Thus, the dependence on BICs is a very important factor to understand the survival of the incubated startup companies after graduation from BICs. The purpose of this study is to identify the main factors that influence the firm's dependence on BICs and to characterize the relationships among the identified factors. The business incubating service is a core construct of this study. It includes various activities and resources, such as offering the physical facilities, legal service, and connecting them with outside organizations. These services are extensive and take various forms. They are provided by BICs directly or indirectly. Past studies have identified various incubating services and classify them in different ways. Based on the past studies, we classify the business incubating service into three categories as mentioned above : (1) business infrastructure support, (2) direct support, and (3) networking support. The business infrastructure support is to provide the essential resources to start the business, such as physical facilities. The direct support is to offer the business resources available in the BICs, such as human, technical, and administrational resources. Finally, the indirect service was to support the resource in the outside of business incubation center. Dependence is generally defined as the degree to which a client firm needs the resources provided by the service provider in order to achieve its goals. Dependence is generated when a firm recognizes the benefits of interacting with its counterpart. Hence, the more positive outcomes a firm derives from its relationship with the partner, the more dependent on the partner the firm must inevitably become. In business incubating, as a resident firm is incubated in longer period, we can predict that her dependence on BICs would be stronger. In order to foster the independence of the incubated firms, BICs have to be able to manipulate the provision of their services to control the firms' dependence on BICs. Based on the above discussion, the research model for relationships between dependence and its affecting factors was developed. We surveyed the companies residing in BICs to test our research model. The instrument of our study was modified, in part, on the basis of previous relevant studies. For the purposes of testing reliability and validity, preliminary testing was conducted with firms that were residing in BICs and incubated by the BICs in the region of Gwangju and Jeonnam. The questionnaire was modified in accordance with the pre-test feedback. We mailed to all of the firms that had been incubated by the BICs with the help of business incubating managers of each BIC. The survey was conducted over a three week period. Gifts (of approximately ₩10,000 value) were offered to all actively participating respondents. The incubating period was reported by the business incubating managers, and it was transformed using natural logarithms. A total of 180 firms participated in the survey. However, we excluded 4 cases due to a lack of consistency using reversed items in the answers of the companies, and 176 cases were used for the analysis. We acknowledge that 176 samples may not be sufficient to conduct regression analyses with 5 research variables in our study. Each variable was measured through multiple items. We conducted an exploratory factor analysis to assess their unidimensionality. In an effort to test the construct validity of the instruments, a principal component factor analysis was conducted with Varimax rotation. The items correspond well to each singular factor, demonstrating a high degree of convergent validity. As the factor loadings for a variable (or factor) are higher than the factor loadings for the other variables, the instrument's discriminant validity is shown to be clear. Each factor was extracted as expected, which explained 70.97, 66.321, and 52.97 percent, respectively, of the total variance each with eigen values greater than 1.000. The internal consistency reliability of the variables was evaluated by computing Cronbach's alphas. The Cronbach's alpha values of the variables, which ranged from 0.717 to 0.950, were all securely over 0.700, which is satisfactory. The reliability and validity of the research variables are all, therefore, considered acceptable. The effects of dependence were assessed using a regression analysis. The Pearson correlations were calculated for the variables, measured by interval or ratio scales. Potential multicollinearity among the antecedents was evaluated prior to the multiple regression analysis, as some of the variables were significantly correlated with others (e.g., direct service and indirect service). Although several variables show the evidence of significant correlations, their tolerance values range between 0.334 and 0.613, thereby demonstrating that multicollinearity is not a likely threat to the parameter estimates. Checking some basic assumptions for the regression analyses, we decided to conduct multiple regression analyses and moderated regression analyses to test the given hypotheses. The results of the regression analyses indicate that the regression model is significant at p < 0.001 (F = 44.260), and that the predictors of the research model explain 42.6 percent of the total variance. Hypotheses 1, 2, and 3 address the relationships between the dependence of the incubated firms and the business incubating services. Business infrastructure service, direct service, and indirect service are all significantly related with dependence (β = 0.300, p < 0.001; β = 0.230, p < 0.001; β = 0.226, p < 0.001), thus supporting Hypotheses 1, 2, and 3. When the incubating period is the moderator and dependence is the dependent variable, the addition of the interaction terms with the antecedents to the regression equation yielded a significant increase in R2 (F change = 2.789, p < 0.05). In particular, direct service and indirect service exert different effects on dependence. Hence, the results support Hypotheses 5 and 6. This study provides several strategies and specific calls to action for BICs, based on our empirical findings. Business infrastructure service has more effect on the firm's dependence than the other two services. The introduction of an additional high charge rate for a graduated but allowed to stay in the BIC is a basic and legitimate condition for the BIC to control the firm's dependence. We detected the differential effects of direct and indirect services on the firm's dependence. The firms with long incubating period are more sensitive to indirect service positively, and more sensitive to direct service negatively, when assessing their levels of dependence. This implies that BICs must develop a strategy on the basis of a firm's incubating period. Last but not least, it would be valuable to discover other important variables that influence the firm's dependence in the future studies. Moreover, future studies to explain the independence of startup companies in BICs would also be valuable.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.65-88
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• 2004

In general, empowerment is defined as the motivational concept of autonomy and self-efficacy. Recently, the concept of empowerment is applied to improve organizational staff's job satisfaction and organizational commitment in many organizations. Empower-ment in service organizations, i.e., hospitals, has certainly generated more publicity than any other organizations. The objectives of this study are, first, to measure the degree of hospital employees' empowerment using Spreitzer(1995)'s empowerment theory, second, to analyze the causal relationship of organizational and job characteristics, a degree of empowerment, and organizational performance(job satisfaction and organizational commitment), and third, to offer the strategy for the improvement of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Spreitzer insists that the empowerment is composed of 4 dimensions(meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact). And he argues that various work-related characteristics is a direct cause of empowerment and the indirect cause of job satisfaction and organizational commitment, mediated by the empowerment latent variable. In order to perform this study, data were collected by self-administered questionnaires from hospital employees working in administrative department of 3 university hospitals in Inchon and Kyunggi-Do region. The number of cases is 181(response rate; 86%). The Collected data were analyzed with SPSS Ver. 10.0 and AMOSV Ver. 4.0. First, to test validity of variables, the factor analysis was used. Second, to test reliability, Cronbach's alpha coefficients was calculated. Cronbach's alpha of empowerment variable is 0.8323 showing that there's no problem in regard to the internal consistency. Also the Cronbach's alpha of other variables are 0.8301 of the degree of perceived control, 0.6705 of job characteristics, O.8787 of compensation, 0.9254 of job satisfaction, and 0.8389 of organizational commitment, respectively. Among the questions of job characteristics, two survey questions are deleted due to lowering the reliability. Third, to test multicollinearity and correlation of variables, the correlation analysis was performed. There was no problem of multicollinearity. Finally structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis was conducted to find the causal relationship of organizational and job Characteristics, empowerment, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The 16 variables are included for the SEM analysis. The major results of this study are as follows: First, in the case of model fitness, the condition of x$^2$ statistic(92.187) is not fully satisfied, but the indices of GFI(0.912), AGFI(0.863), NFI(0.917) and CFI(0.928) are partially satisfied, which needs to upper 0.90. Second, in the result of hypotheses testing, all hypotheses are accepted and have a positive effect in 95% or 99% confidence interval(P<0.05 or P<0.001) except the effect of compensation variable on empowerment(P=0.082). Third, in regard to the direct, indirect, and total effect of variables, the direct effect of perceived control, task characteristics, and compensation on job satisfaction are 0.728, 2.264, 0.328 and on organizational commitment are 0.094, 1.411, 0.418, respectively. Also the indirect effect of perceived control, task characteristics, and compensation on job satisfaction are 0.311, 0.196, 0.028 and on organizational commitment are 0.210, 0.132, 0.019, respectively. Thus, these findings imply that various work-related factors are direct effect of empowerment and indirect effect of result variables, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Also These results showed that the workplace empowerment is significant mediating factor of employee's job satisfaction and organizational commitment.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.381-390
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• 2017

The aim of this study is to develop a teamwork self-assessment tool for Korean nursing students (K-self assessment of teamwork) to evaluate the effects of simulation education, and to test the validity of the tool. As the research method, data were collected from 185 third- and fourth-year nursing students who had completed emergency simulation practice courses while attending nursing schools at two universities in K region. The collected data were analyzed using such statistical programs as SPSS/WIN 22.0 and AMOS 17.0. A test of the construct validity was conducted using confirmatory factor analysis and explanatory factor analysis. To test the criterion validity of the K-self assessment of teamwork, its correlation with the Mayo High Performance Teamwork Scale (MHPTS) was analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficients. In addition, of the reliability items, the internal consistency was tested using Chronbach's ${\alpha}$. The results of the study are as follows: The construct validity was demonstrated through the confirmatory factor analysis and explanatory factor analysis. As regards the test of reliability, there was one item for which the reliability of its validity was increased to .937 when a (single/particular) question was removed. However, in the end, no questions were removed, because the correlation coefficient between the questions and the total score was greater than .4. The overall reliability of the K-self assessment tool of teamwork was found to be .934, confirming its reliability. The translated version of the K-self assessment of teamwork developed in this study was also demonstrated to be applicable to domestic settings, in which the teamwork of nursing students can be assessed during simulation education. The results of the use of this tool in the future will be used to assess the effects of simulation education at nursing colleges, and will become the basis of various types of educational programs aimed at improving teamwork in emergency situations.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.109-138
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• 2010

This study examined how practical reasoning process is reflected in the 2007 revised home economics textbook of the 7th grade that is being used in schools since 2010. For a textbook analysis of the components of practical reasoning process, 12 published textbooks were all analyzed, and analysis areas were decided by reconstructing the textbook system into introduction, body contents, learning activities, evaluation. Analysis criteria were extracted from the previous literatures. Practical reasoning process was classified into Valued Ends, Context and Background, Alternatives and Means, on sequence, and Action and Reflection. As a result of analyzing categories and problems that practical reasoning process is reflected in the textbook, firstly, here was a category, which Valued Ends was absent in the practical reasoning process. In the relevant category, general problem solving progress and practical reasoning process could not be differentiated, and activity was developed with 'strategies for solution' as objective. Second, there was a category that the practical reasoning process was reflected in body contents. In this category, knowledge, concept, principle, and theory were insufficiently dealt with. Third, there was a category that reflected components of practical reasoning process but was covered with general problem solving process. Fourth, there was a category that described theme of sub-unit and body contents from the different curriculum perspectives. A curriculum perspective works as the foundation of preparing class contents or consistency of methods when developing lessons. Therefore, confusion might occur when a teacher plans a class with this kind of textbook. Fifth, a category that suggested partial components of practical reasoning process was shown the most and this category is difficult to maximize effects of practical reasoning process.