• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.2711-2717
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• 2016

Background: Through search the possible randomized control trials, we make a renewed meta-analysis in order to assess the impact of aspirin in preventing the recurrence of colorectal adenoma. Materials and Methods: The Medicine/PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Chinese biomedical literature service system (SinoMed) databases were searched for the related randomized controlled trials until to the April 2016. Three different authors respectively evaluated the quality of studies and extracted data, and we used the STATA software to analyze, investigate heterogeneity between the data, using the fixed-effects model to calculate and merge data. Results: 7 papers were included the renewed meta-analysis, among these studies, two pairs were identified as representing the same study population, with the only difference being the duration of follow-up. Thus there were only five papers included our meta-analysis, and one Chinese paper were also included the work. Results were categorized by the length of follow-up, different kinds of people, varied dose of oral aspirin. The relative of adenoma in patients taking aspirin vs placebo were 0.73 (95% CI 0.55-0.98, P=0.039) with 1 year follow up; 0.84 (95% CI 0.72-0.98, P=0.484) with greater than 1 year follow up; for the advanced adenoma, the RR 0.68 (95% CI 0.49-0.94, P=0.582),for one year; RR=0.75 (95% CI 0.52-1.07, P=0.552) for greater one year. Furthermore the white population could divided into two subgroups according to the different length of follow-up time. When the length of follow-up time less than 3-year, The RR of two subgroups respective were RR=0.86 (95% CI 0.76-0.98, P=0.332), $I^2=0%$, RR=0.68 (95% CI 0.47-0.98, P=0.552), $I^2=64.6%$, But with the extension of follow-up time greater than 2-year, with the white, oral aspirin without considering dose had no efficacy on preventing the recurrence of any adenoma, the RR was 0.86 (95% CI 0.71-1.05, P=0.302), $I^2=16.4%$. Conclusions: This meta-analysis indicated that oral aspirin is associated with a remarkable decrease in the recurrence of any adenoma and advanced adenomas in patients follow-up for 1 year without concerning the dose of aspirin, but with the extension of follow-up time for greater than 1 year, oral aspirin can be effective on preventing the recurrence of any adenoma, but for the advanced adenoma, the result indicated that oral aspirin had no efficacy, According to the inclusion of ethnic groups, we also divided relevant papers into two subgroups as the yellow and white group. Then the follow-up time was less than 3 years, oral aspirin without considering the dose, had an significant efficacy on preventing the recurrence of any adenoma. But with the follow-up greater than 2 years, oral aspirin had no effect in the white.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.25-41
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• 2014

Recently, the number of social media users has increased rapidly because of the prevalence of smart devices. As a result, the amount of real-time data has been increasing exponentially, which, in turn, is generating more interest in using such data to create added value. For instance, several attempts are being made to analyze the relevant search keywords that are frequently used on new portal sites and the words that are regularly mentioned on various social media in order to identify social issues. The technique of "topic analysis" is employed in order to identify topics and themes from a large amount of text documents. As one of the most prevalent applications of topic analysis, the technique of issue tracking investigates changes in the social issues that are identified through topic analysis. Currently, traditional issue tracking is conducted by identifying the main topics of documents that cover an entire period at the same time and analyzing the occurrence of each topic by the period of occurrence. However, this traditional issue tracking approach has two limitations. First, when a new period is included, topic analysis must be repeated for all the documents of the entire period, rather than being conducted only on the new documents of the added period. This creates practical limitations in the form of significant time and cost burdens. Therefore, this traditional approach is difficult to apply in most applications that need to perform an analysis on the additional period. Second, the issue is not only generated and terminated constantly, but also one issue can sometimes be distributed into several issues or multiple issues can be integrated into one single issue. In other words, each issue is characterized by a life cycle that consists of the stages of creation, transition (merging and segmentation), and termination. The existing issue tracking methods do not address the connection and effect relationship between these issues. The purpose of this study is to overcome the two limitations of the existing issue tracking method, one being the limitation regarding the analysis method and the other being the limitation involving the lack of consideration of the changeability of the issues. Let us assume that we perform multiple topic analysis for each multiple period. Then it is essential to map issues of different periods in order to trace trend of issues. However, it is not easy to discover connection between issues of different periods because the issues derived for each period mutually contain heterogeneity. In this study, to overcome these limitations without having to analyze the entire period's documents simultaneously, the analysis can be performed independently for each period. In addition, we performed issue mapping to link the identified issues of each period. An integrated approach on each details period was presented, and the issue flow of the entire integrated period was depicted in this study. Thus, as the entire process of the issue life cycle, including the stages of creation, transition (merging and segmentation), and extinction, is identified and examined systematically, the changeability of the issues was analyzed in this study. The proposed methodology is highly efficient in terms of time and cost, as it sufficiently considered the changeability of the issues. Further, the results of this study can be used to adapt the methodology to a practical situation. By applying the proposed methodology to actual Internet news, the potential practical applications of the proposed methodology are analyzed. Consequently, the proposed methodology was able to extend the period of the analysis and it could follow the course of progress of each issue's life cycle. Further, this methodology can facilitate a clearer understanding of complex social phenomena using topic analysis.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.80-87
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• 2010

This study was conducted to develop a reservoir modelling workflow to reproduce the heterogeneous distribution of effective permeability that impacts on the performance of SAGD (Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage), the in-situ bitumen recovery technique in the Athabasca Oil Sands. Lithologic facies distribution is the main cause of the heterogeneity in bitumen reservoirs in the study area. The target formation consists of sand with mudstone facies in a fluvial-to-estuary channel system, where the mudstone interrupts fluid flow and reduces effective permeability. In this study, the lithologic facies is classified into three classes having different characteristics of effective permeability, depending on the shapes of mudstones. The reservoir modelling workflow of this study consists of two main modules; facies modelling and permeability modelling. The facies modelling provides an identification of the three lithologic facies, using a stochastic approach, which mainly control the effective permeability. The permeability modelling populates mudstone volume fraction first, then transforms it into effective permeability. A series of flow simulations applied to mini-models of the lithologic facies obtains the transformation functions of the mudstone volume fraction into the effective permeability. Seismic data contribute to the facies modelling via providing prior probability of facies, which is incorporated in the facies models by geostatistical techniques. In particular, this study employs a probabilistic neural network utilising multiple seismic attributes in facies prediction that improves the prior probability of facies. The result of using the improved prior probability in facies modelling is compared to the conventional method using a single seismic attribute to demonstrate the improvement in the facies discrimination. Using P-wave velocity in combination with density in the multiple seismic attributes is the essence of the improved facies discrimination. This paper also discusses sand matrix porosity that makes P-wave velocity differ between the different facies in the study area, where the sand matrix porosity is uniquely evaluated using log-derived porosity, P-wave velocity and photographically-predicted mudstone volume.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.34 no.1 s.93
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• pp.1-8
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• 2001

During April 1993 to November 1994, cations, anions, and conductivity were analyzed to examine how summer monsoon influences the ionic content of Taechung Reservoir, Korea. Interannual variability of ionic content reflected hydrological characteristics between the two years(high-flood year in 1993 vs. draught year in 1994). Cations, anions and conductivity were lowest during peak inflow in 1993 and highest during a drought in 1994. Floods in 1993 markedly decreased total salinity as a result of reduced Ca$^{2+}$ and HCO$_{3}\;^{-}$ and produced extreme spatial heterogeneity (i.e., longitudinal, vertical, and horizontal variation) in ionic concentrations. The dominant process modifying the longitudinal (the headwaters-to-downlake) and vertical (top-to-bottom) patterns in salinity was an interflow current during the 1993 monsoon. The interflow water plunged near a 27${\sim}$37 km-location (from the dam) of the mid-lake and passed through the 10${\sim}$30m stratum of the reservoir, resulting in an isolation of epilimnetic high conductivity water (>100 ${\mu}$S/cm) from advected river water with low conductivity (65${\sim}$75 ${\mu}$S/cm), During postmonsoon 1993, the factors regulating salinity differed spatially; salinity of downlake markedly declined as a result of dilution through the mixing of lake water with river water, whereas in the headwaters it increased due to enhanced CaCO$_{3}$ (originated from limestone/metamorphic rock) of groundwaters entering the reservoir. This result suggests an importance of the basin geology on ion compositions with hydrological characteristics. In 1994, salinity was markedly greater (p<0.001) relative to 1993 and ionic dilution did not occur during the monsoon due to reduced inflow. Overall data suggest that the primary factor influencing seasonal ionic concentrations and compositions in this system is the dilution process depending on the intensity of monsoon rainfall.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.253-260
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• 2010

Most brachytherapy treatment planning systems employ a dosimetry formalism based on the AAPM TG-43 report which does not appropriately consider tissue heterogeneity. In this study we aimed to set up a simple Monte Carlo-based intracavitary high-dose-rate brachytherapy (IC-HDRB) plan verification platform, focusing particularly on the robustness of the direct Monte Carlo dose calculation using material and density information derived from CT images. CT images of slab phantoms and a uterine cervical cancer patient were used for brachytherapy plans based on the Plato (Nucletron, Netherlands) brachytherapy planning system. Monte Carlo simulations were implemented using the parameters from the Plato system and compared with the EBT film dosimetry and conventional dose computations. EGSnrc based DOSXYZnrc code was used for Monte Carlo simulations. Each $^{192}Ir$ source of the afterloader was approximately modeled as a parallel-piped shape inside the converted CT data set whose voxel size was $2{\times}2{\times}2\;mm^3$. Bracytherapy dose calculations based on the TG-43 showed good agreement with the Monte Carlo results in a homogeneous media whose density was close to water, but there were significant errors in high-density materials. For a patient case, A and B point dose differences were less than 3%, while the mean dose discrepancy was as much as 5%. Conventional dose computation methods might underdose the targets by not accounting for the effects of high-density materials. The proposed platform was shown to be feasible and to have good dose calculation accuracy. One should be careful when confirming the plan using a conventional brachytherapy dose computation method, and moreover, an independent dose verification system as developed in this study might be helpful.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.39 no.1 s.115
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• pp.73-84
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• 2006

The objective of this study was to analyze long-term temporal trends of water chemistry and spatial heterogeneity for 10 sampling sites of the Yeongsan River watershed using water quality dataset during 1995 to 2004 (obtained from the Ministry of Environment, Korea). The water quality, based on multi-parameters of biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), conductivity, dissolved oxygen (Do), total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN) and total suspended solids (TSS), largely varied depending on the sampling sites, seasons and years. Largest seasonal variabilities in most parameters occurred during the two months of July to August and these were closely associated with large spate of summmer monsoon rain. Conductivity, used as a key indicator for a ionic dilution during rainy season, and nutrients of TN and TP had an inverse function of precipitation (absolute r values> 0.32, P< 0.01, n= 119), whereas BOD and COD had no significant relations(P> 0.05, n= 119) with rainfall. Minimum values in conductivity, TN, and TP were observed during the summer monsoon, indicating an ionic and nutrient dilution of river water by the rainwater. In contrast, major inputs of total suspended solids (TSS) occurred during the period of summer monsoon. BOD values varied with seasons and the values was closely associated (r=0.592: P< 0.01) with COD, while variations of TN were had high correlations (r=0.529 : P< 0.01) with TP. Seasonal fluctuations of DO showed that maximum values were in the cold winter season and minimum values were in the summer seasons, indicating an inverse relation with water temperature. The spatial trend analyses of TP, TN, BOD, COD and TSS, except for conductivity, showed that the values were greater in the mid-river reach than in the headwater and down-river reaches. Conductivity was greater in the down-river sites than any other sites. Overall data of BOD, COD, and nutrients (TN, TP) showed that water quality was worst in the Site 4, compared to those of others sites. This was due to continuous effluents from the wastewater treatment plants within the urban area of Gwangju city. Based on the overall dataset, efficient water quality management is required in the urban area for better water quality.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.764-776
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• 2015

This study aims to identify the structure of the plant community, and the ecological succession sere and the change in the forest ecosystem in Jungdaesa-Birobong area, Odaesan National Park_(i._e., located at high altitudes(over 1,000m)). It seeks to offer the basic data for the planning of vegetation management. In order to verify the status of the forest vegetation between Jungdaesa-Birobong, seventeen plots(size is $20m{\times}20m$) were set up as research sites at high altitudes. Importance value, distribution by diameter at breast height(DBH), the growth volume and age of the sample trees, similarity index and species diversity index of each survey plot were analysed. According to the results of DCA(Detrended Correspondence Analysis), one of the multivariate statistical techniques. It was found that the plant communities were classified into five groups: community I_(Quercus mongolica-Tilia amurensis community), community II_(Q. mongolica-Deciduous broad-leaved community), community III_(Q. mongolica-Pinus koraiensis community), community IV_(Abies holophylla-Q. mongolica community) and community V_(A. holophylla-Deciduous broad-leaved community). Community I which is dominated by Quercus mongolica and Deciduous broad-leaved communities is located at an altitude of over 1,300 meters(ranging from 1,335m to 1,495m), the community IV and V which are dominated by Abies holophylla are located at an altitude of under 1,200 meters(ranging from 1,115m to 1,175m) and the community II and III which include the main species of Quercus mongolica, Pinus koraiensis and Abies holophylla are located at an altitude of between 1,160 meters and 1,300 meters. The results showed that Quercus mongolica tends to have a higher importance value of woody species at a higher altitude while Abies holophylla tends to have higher importance value at a lower altitude. For the importance value woody species and -DBH class distribution, the communites I, II and III are expected to continuously maintain the present status. Whereas, for the influence of communities IV and V, Q. mongolica is predicted to be weakened. The age of sample trees was between 85 and 161; the average age was 123. The index of Shannon's Species diversity (H') showed heterogeneity was found among community I_(i._e., located at high altitude) and communities IV and V_(i._e., located at low altitude). As a results of analysing the index of Shannon's Species diversity (H': unit: $400m^2$), community III showed the highest diversity intex with 1.1109 followed by community II with 1.0475, community I with 1.0125, community IV with 0.9918 and community V with 0.8686. This study verified that the index of Shannon's species was significantly different by plant communities. For instance, when comparing the index of Shannon's species diversity in Quercus mongolica communities of this study and that of past relevant research, the value of index is very similar. However, the diversity index for the community which is dominated by Abies holophylla showed lower value when compared to the results from past relevant research.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.25-32
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• 2000

To analyze the relationship between climatic factors (monthly temperatures and precipitations) and the radial growths or Pinus densiflora with different topographical settings in Worak National Park, Korea, 20 stands were chosen and 10 trees were selected from each stand. After crossdating, each ring-width series was double detrended (standardized) by fitting first a negative exponential or straight regression line and secondly a 60-year cubic spline. The growth patterns coud be categorized by four groups using cluster analysis. Cluster Ⅰ stand has north aspect, but others have south or southwest aspects. Cluster Ⅰ (one), cluster Ⅱ (ten), and cluster Ⅲ (two) stands are located in lower. elevation (305∼580 m), however, cluster Ⅳ (seven) stands are located in higher elevation, mostly in 560～870 m. Cluster Ⅱ and Ⅲ stands are located at similar elevation with the same aspect, however, cluster Ⅱ stands are located on more rocky and stiff slope with shallow soil depth. The response functions were used to examine the difference in the relationships between climatic factors and tree growths among the 4 cluster chronologies. The climatic factors are not limiting the growth in the cluster Ⅰ stand as highly as in other cluster plots because of rather mesic conditions in the north slope. The precipitation in the spring appears to be the main limiting factor in the cluster Ⅱ stands. The topographical characteristics of the sites of cluster Ⅱ, shallow soil depths on the rocky slope in the south aspect at lower elevation, may enhance the sensitivity of growth to moisture stress. In cluster Ⅲ and cluster Ⅳ, winter and spring temperature prior to the growth become more important than for cluster Ⅱ. This pattern is com-mon for Pinus densiflora trees growing in higher. elevation (equation omitted 800 m) in South Korea. It nay be re-lated with preconditioning effects of temperature as the temperature decreases with increasing elevation (cluster Ⅳ) or in the valley (cluster Ⅲ). The results obtained by tree-ring analysis were digitalized by GIS and spatio-temporal information on tree-ring data and topographic setting were analyzed and displayed simultaneously. The results of this study can be used to predict the future change of Pinus densiflora ecosystem to climate change expected in central Korea.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.105-138
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• 2009

Although the decline in fertility rate is generally observed along the history of economic development throughout the world, the continuing decline hitting below the replacement level in Korea over the recent years gathered serious social concerns on the ground that it accelerates the process of population aging. The total fertility rate in Koreareached 2.08 in 1983, and gradually fell to the levels of 1.08 in 2005 and 1.26 in 2007. The policy debate over the role of the government has been focused mainly on the level of theoretical discussion without substantial basis on firm empirical evidence and the determinants of fertility. The objective of the paper is to empirically investigate the fertility effect of the female wage, which is understood as one of the most important determinants of fertility in Koreasince 1980 focusing on one aspect of fertility, namely birth spacing. Using the Korean National Fertility Survey conducted in 2006, I estimate a duration model of first and second births taking into account individual heterogeneity, which turned out to be an important factor to control for. Compared with previous studies in the literature on the Korean fertility, the study has an advantage of using the complete pregnancy history of women in a more representative sample. Unlike the previous studies, the analysis also deals with the endogeneity of marriage by treating a certain age, rather than age at marriage, as the time in which a woman becomes exposed to the risk of pregnancy. The study shares the common problem in the literature on birth spacing of lacking relevant wage information for respondents in a retrospective survey. I estimate the wage series as a function of the basic characteristics using the annual Wage Structure Survey from 1980 to 2005, which is considered as a nationally representative sample for wage information of employees. The results suggest that the increase in female wage by 10 percent leads to a decrease in second birth hazard by 0.56~0.92 percentage points and that the increase in spouse's wage by the equal amount is accompanied by the increase in second birth hazard by 0.36~1.13 percentage points. These estimates are more precisely estimated and of smaller magnitude than those presented by the previous studies. The results are robust to the different specifications of the wage equation. The simulation analysis based on the predicted values shows that about 17% of the change in the second birth hazard over the period 1980 to 2005 was due to the change in the female wage. Although there is some limitation in data, the results can be viewed as one estimate of the role of female wage on the recent fertility decline in Korea. The question raised by the paper is not a normative one of whether a government should promote childbearing but a positive one thatexplains fertility decline. Therefore, if there is a wide consensus on promoting childbearing, the finding suggests that the policies designed to reduce the opportunity cost of women in the labor market would be effective. The recent movement of implementing a wide range of family-friendly policies including child care support, maternity leave, parental leave and tax benefit in developed countries should be understood in this context.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.20-33
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• 2018

This study aims to illuminated landscape of Joseon Dynasty in the end of 19th century when Joseon dynasty began to modernize through the perspective of Westerners. Historical meaning to Western people's landscape records has been preceded. And landscape typology and their perception were analyzed. The results were as follows. First, the Westerners who visited Joseon dynasty at that time were involved in the historical and political situation of the Joseon Dynasty or understood their culture through traveling for so long. And record of Westerners is a significant data to analyze scenery at that time because common contents appear in various books. Second, the landscape of Joseon dynasty that appears in Western records was mainly recorded in small towns and villages, natural environments, scenic sites, historic sites, modern facilities, and cultivated areas. Small towns and villages are mainly mentioned with shabby alleys and dense houses. And natural landscape were identified to mountain landscapes and diverse geomorphological landscape that surrounding vegetation along the coast and rivers. The palaces, fortress and temples were recorded as main objects of scenic sites and historic site. And western-style buildings such as foreign legations and settlements, churches and schools were mentioned in the modernized facilities. A cultivated land was confirmed to be underdeveloped and neglected, but as range of view became wider, it was seen to a peaceful and prosperous rural landscape. Third, Westerners' landscape perception of Joseon dynasty at that time can be deduced from positive or negative perceptions. The residential environment was perceived as negative because it was unsanitary and backward. On the contrary, outstanding natural landscapes, scenic sites and historic sites, and upper class gardens were perceived as positive. For modernized landscapes, positive and negative perceptions were similarly mentioned. Positive perceptions were formed in improvement of civilized landscape, and appeared negative perception because damaged traditional landscapes and heterogeneity.