• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.31-37
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• 2018

Pitch trajectories reflect a continuous variation of vocal fold movements over time. This study examined the pitch trajectories of English vowels produced by 139 American English speakers, statistically analyzing their trajectories using the Generalized Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs). First, Praat was used to read the sound data of Hillenbrand et al. (1995). A pitch analysis script was then prepared, and six pitch values at the corresponding time points within each vowel segment were collected and checked. The results showed that the group of men produced the lowest pitch trajectories, followed by the groups of women, boys, then girls. The density line showed a bimodal distribution. The pitch values at the six corresponding time points formed a single dip, which changed gradually across the vowel segment from 204 to 193 to 196 Hz. The normality tests performed on the pitch data rejected the null hypothesis. Nonparametric tests were therefore conducted to discover the significant differences in the values among the four groups. The GAMMs, which analyzed all the pitch data, produced significant results among the pitch values at the six corresponding time points but not between the two groups of boys and girls. The GAMMs also revealed that the two groups were significantly different only at the first and second time points. Accordingly, the methodology of this study and its findings may be applicable to future studies comparing curvilinear data sets elicited by experimental conditions.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2019

Formant trajectories reflect the continuous variation of speakers' articulatory movements over time. This study examined formant trajectories of English vowels produced by ninety-three American men and women; the values were normalized using the scale function in R and compared using generalized additive mixed models (GAMMs). Praat was used to read the sound data of Hillenbrand et al. (1995). A formant analysis script was prepared, and six formant values at the corresponding time points within each vowel segment were collected. The results indicate that women yielded proportionately higher formant values than men. The standard deviations of each group showed similar patterns at the first formant (F1) and the second formant (F2) axes and at the measurement points. R was used to scale the first two formant data sets of men and women separately. GAMMs of all the scaled formant data produced various patterns of deviation along the measurement points. Generally, more group difference exists in F1 than in F2. Also, women's trajectories appear more dynamic along the vertical and horizontal axes than those of men. The trajectories are related acoustically to F1 and F2 and anatomically to jaw opening and tongue position. We conclude that scaling and nonlinear testing are useful tools for pinpointing differences between speaker group's formant trajectories. This research could be useful as a foundation for future studies comparing curvilinear data sets.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.32 no.4 s.91
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• pp.304-315
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• 2006

This study is performed to reexamine the association between ambient air pollution and daily mortality in seven major cities of Korea using a method of meta-analysis with the data filed for the period 1998-2001. These cities account for half of the Korean population (about 23 million). The observed concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO, mean=1.08 ppm), ozone ($O_3$, mean=33.97 ppb), particulate matter less than 10 ${\mu}m$ ($PM_{10},\;mean=57.11\;{\mu}g/m^3$), nitrogen dioxide ($NO_2$, mean=25.09 ppb), and sulfur dioxide ($SO_2$, mean=9.14 ppb) during the study period were at levels below Korea's current ambient air quality standards. Generalized additive models were applied to allow for the highly flexible fitting of seasonal and long-term time trends in air pollution as well as nonlinear associations with weather variables, such as air temperature and relative humidity. Also, we calculated a weighted mean as a meta-analysis summary of the estimates and its standard error. In city-specific analyses, an increase of $41.17{\mu}g/m^3(IQR)\;of\;PM_{10}$ corresponded to $1{\sim}12%$ more deaths, given constant weather conditions. Like most of air pollution epidemiologic studies, this meta-analysis cannot avoid fleeing from measurement misclassification since no personal measurement was taken. However, we can expect that a measurement bias be reduced in district-specific estimate since a monitoring station is better representative of air quality of the matched district. Significant heterogeneity was found for the effect of all pollutants. The estimated relative risks from meta-like analysis increased compared to those relative risks from pooled analysis. The similar results to those from the previous studies indicated existence of health effect of air pollution at current levels in many industrialized countries, including Korea.

• Journal of Communications and Networks
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.182-189
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• 2016

The focus in this paper is on obtaining tight, simple algebraic-form bounds and invertible expressions for the average symbol error probability (ASEP) of M-ary phase shift keying (MPSK) in a class of composite fading channels. We employ the mixture gamma (MG) distribution to approximate the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) distributions of fading models, which include Nakagami-m, Generalized-K ($K_G$), and Nakagami-lognormal fading as specific examples. Our approach involves using the tight upper and lower bounds that we recently derived on the Gaussian Q-function, which can easily be averaged over the general MG distribution. First, algebraic-form upper bounds are derived on the ASEP of MPSK for M > 2, based on the union upper bound on the symbol error probability (SEP) of MPSK in additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) given by a single Gaussian Q-function. By comparison with the exact ASEP results obtained by numerical integration, we show that these upper bounds are extremely tight for all SNR values of practical interest. These bounds can be employed as accurate approximations that are invertible for high SNR. For the special case of binary phase shift keying (BPSK) (M = 2), where the exact SEP in the AWGN channel is given as one Gaussian Q-function, upper and lower bounds on the exact ASEP are obtained. The bounds can be made arbitrarily tight by adjusting the parameters in our Gaussian bounds. The average of the upper and lower bounds gives a very accurate approximation of the exact ASEP. Moreover, the arbitrarily accurate approximations for all three of the fading models we consider become invertible for reasonably high SNR.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.184-194
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• 2012

Objectives: We investigated the effects of air pollution on allergic diseases (allergic rhinitis, asthma, atopic dermatitis) in metropolitan cities in Korea, adjusting for meteorological factors. Methods: Data on daily hospital visits and hospital admissions for 2003-2010 was obtained from the National Health Insurance Cooperation. Meteorological data was obtained from the Korea Meteorological Administration. We then calculated daily mean temperature, daily mean humidity, daily mean air pressure at sea level, and diurnal temperature range. We used data on air pollution provided by the National Institute of Environmental Research. Maximum daily eight-hour average ozone concentrations and the daily mean $PM_{10}$ were used. We estimated excess risk and 95% confidence interval for the increasing interquatile range (IQR) of each air pollutant using Generalized Additive Models (GAM) that appropriate for time series analysis. Results: In this study, we observed an association between ozone and hospital visits for allergic rhinitis, asthma, and atopic dermatitis in all metropolitan cities, adjusting for temperature, humidity, air pressure at sea level, diurnal temperature range, and day of the week. Ozone was associated with hospital visits for allergic rhinitis, asthma, and atopic dermatitis across all metropolitan cities. However $PM_{10}$ was associated with allergic-related diseases in only select cities. Also, ozone and $PM_{10}$ were associated with hospital admission for asthma in all cities except Gwangju. Hospitalization for the other diseases failed to show consistent association with air pollutants. Conclusion: In the findings of this study, there was a significant association between air pollutants and allergic-related diseases. More detailed research subdivided age group or conducting meta-analyses combining data of all cities is required.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.347-355
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• 2008

This study analyzed and modeled the relationships between the species richness of fish, plant, and bird and environmental factors such as climatic and geographical variables based on data collected from 109 major drainage systems in Japan from 1990 until 2005. As a result, the most parts of the distributions of the fish, plant, and bird species richness were clarified by the average annual atmospheric temperature, dimension of drainage areas, and annual rainfall, respectively. In addition, this study predicted the value of each organism species distributed in national drainage areas in Japan using GAMs(Generalized Additive Models) for each organism model created by environmental factors on a wide-ranging scale, and also mapped out the value. Mapping out the predicted value could make it easier for its managers to newly set up the areas needing to be protected to obtain diversity of the organism species and to assess their availability of conservation for bio-diversity.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.66-77
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• 2015

The association between daily total/cardiovascular mortality and air pollution in Yeosu was investigated over 11-year period (January 2001 to December 2011). The purpose of this study was to evaluate th relative importance of the major air pollutants [particulate matter ($PM_{10}$), sulfur dioxide ($SO_2$)] as predictors of daily total/cardiovascular mortality. People aged 65 and older showed total mortality increase by 5.0% with $SO_2$ concentration increase by 11.67ppb(IQR) was found to raise mortality caused by circulatory diseases by 8.6%, exhibiting a statistically significant result.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.151-169
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• 2015

Objectives: The deleterious effects of air pollution on various health outcomes have been demonstrated. However, few studies have examined the effects of air pollution on liver enzyme levels. Methods: Blood samples were drawn up to three times between 2008 and 2010 from 545 elderly individuals who regularly visited a community welfare center in Seoul, Korea. Data regarding ambient air pollutants (particulate matter ${\leq}2.5{\mu}m$ [$PM_{2.5}$], nitrogen dioxide [$NO_2$], ozone [$O_3$], carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide) from monitoring stations were used to estimate air pollution exposure. The effects of the air pollutants on the concentrations of three liver enzymes (aspartate aminotransferase [AST], alanine aminotransferase [ALT], and ${\gamma}$-glutamyltranspeptidase [${\gamma}$-GTP)]) were evaluated using generalized additive and linear mixed models. Results: Interquartile range increases in the concentrations of the pollutants showed significant associations of $PM_{2.5}$ with AST (3.0% increase, p=0.0052), ALT (3.2% increase, p=0.0313), and ${\gamma}$-GTP (5.0% increase, p=0.0051) levels; $NO_2$ with AST (3.5% increase, p=0.0060) and ALT (3.8% increase, p=0.0179) levels; and $O_3$ with ${\gamma}$-GTP (5.3% increase, p=0.0324) levels. Significant modification of these effects by exercise and alcohol consumption was found (p for interaction <0.05). The effects of air pollutants were greater in non-exercisers and heavy drinkers. Conclusions: Short-term exposure to air pollutants such as $PM_{2.5}$, $NO_2$, and $O_3$ is associated with increased liver enzyme levels in the elderly. These adverse effects can be reduced by exercising regularly and abstinence from alcohol.

• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.139-148
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• 2022

Saxifraga hirculus is classified as a vulnerable plant species in Europe, and it is confined to base-rich flushes in the British uplands. However, a lack of available information about its conservation status hampers the development of adaptive strategies for its in-situ conservation, especially with respect to grazing. To assess the effectiveness of sheep grazing in maintaining viable populations of S. hirculus, we compared the community dynamics of the vegetation in a base-rich flush over 44 years in two plots: one sheep-grazed under business-as-usual sheep grazing densities and the other fenced to exclude grazing. The plots were established in 1972, and the abundances of all vascular plants, bryophytes, and litter were measured at six intervals until 2016. Our results showed that although the presence of S. hirculus was maintained in both plots over the 44 years, it declined and reached a minimum between 1995 and 2010, when it was close to extinction. Since 2013, Saxifraga has recovered only slightly. Interestingly, the S. hirculus response appeared to be independent of grazing treatment, but it mirrored wider changes in the vegetation composition and structure within the flush over the 44 years. These changes are similar to others reported in broader uplands that have been attributed to a combination of reduced nitrogen and sulfur deposition and global warming. Thus, the simple adaptive management approach of "just managing" sheep grazing appeared ineffectual for preserving the S. hirculus population. S. hirculus showed signs of recovery at the end of the study period within this base-rich flush.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.25-39
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• 2017

Over 5 million people participate in cycle racing betting and its revenue is more than 2 trillion won. This study predicts the ranking of cycle racing using various statistical analyses and identifies important variables which have influence on ranking. We propose competitive ranking prediction models using various classification and regression methods. Our model can predict rankings with low misclassification rates most of the time. We found that the ranking increases as the grade of a racer decreases and as overall scores increase. Inversely, we can observe that the ranking decreases when the grade of a racer increases, race number four is given, and the ranking of the last race of a racer decreases. We also found that prediction accuracy can be improved when we use centered data per race instead of raw data. However, the real profit from the future data was not high when we applied our prediction model because our model can predict only low-return events well.