• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.640-648
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• 2005

Purpose : Kawasaki disease(KD) is known as an acute multi-systemic vasculitis with various immunologic abnormalities. Adhesion of leukocyte to endothelial cells is a key event in the sequence of inflammatory response. This study was performed to investigate the clinical significance of serum soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1(sICAM-1) and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1) in acute and subacute stages of typical KD for diagnostic and prognostic value. Methods : A typical KD group was 32 patients who were hospitalized from Jan. 2002 to Jun. 2004 was enrolled. Control was 16 non-KD patients with febrile illness. sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 were measured and compared by Echocardiographic and clinical findings and cardiac troponin T and I. Results : sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 levels of acute KD were significantly elevated over control(P=0.019 vs. P=0.049, respectively) and sICAM-1 was significantly decreased in subacute stage(P=0.0015). sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 had positive correlation with each other in both stages(P=0.0067, P=0.015, retrospectively). Neither sICAM-1 nor sVCAM-1 correctly reflected the coronary abnormalities and responsiveness to intravenous gammaglobulin(IVGG) in both stages. But sVCAM-1 was significantly increased in the carditis group in both stages(P=0.025, P=0.014, retrospectively) and had a positive correlation with troponin T(r=0.63, P=0.00063). Conclusion : The levels of sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 were not very useful tools for detecting and predicting subsequent coronary abnormalities and responsiveness to IVGG in KD patients. However, sVCAM-1 appears to play a significant role in carditis of KD. Further studies are needed about various adhesion molecules and cytokines in the pathogenesis of KD.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.68-76
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• 1993

Pregnancy induced hypertension is multifaceted syndrome with variable involvement of several key organ systems, so sensitive and specific laboratory tests for predicting severity and prognosis, and early diagnosis of this disease are required. Because heme catabolism results in equimolar production of carboxyhemoglobin, iron and bilirubin, a concomittant rise of these parameters would provide confirmation of increased heme catabolism. Microangiopathic hemolytic anemia may occurs in severe preeclampsia, but it is not known whether increased red cell turnover occurs with mild preeclampsia as complication. The purpose of this study was to confirm that increased heme catabolism also occurs in patients with mild preeclampsia. The analysis of data was done on 23 cases with mild preeclampsia and 35 normal pregnant women, who were admitted to Yeungnam University Hospital from October 1992 to March 1993. The results were as follows. 1. The mean antepartum serum iron concentration was significantly higher in the group with mild preeclampsia($86.5{\pm}6.1{\mu}g/dl$) than in the controls($53.2{\pm}5.3{\mu}g/dl$). 2. The mean antepartum and postpartum carboxyhemoglobin concentrations were significantly higher in the group with mild preeclampsia(antepartum : $2.55{\pm}0.42{\mu}g/dl$, postpartum : $1.21{\pm}0.4{\mu}g/dl$) than the controls(antepartum : $0.61{\pm}0.2{\mu}g/dl$, postpartum $0.53{\pm}0.2{\mu}g/dl$) 3. During postpartum, carboxyhemoglobin concentration in preeclampsia reduced significantly from antepartum level, but, there was no difference between antepartum and postpartum carboxyhemoglobin concentrations among controls. 4. Bilirubin concentrations were similar in both groups.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.131-146
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• 2011

It is becoming more essential than ever for office professionals to become competent in information collection/gathering and problem solving in today's global business society. In particular, office professionals do not only assist simple chores but are also forced to make decisions as quickly and efficiently as possible in problematic situations that can end in either profit or loss to their company. Since office professionals rely heavily on their tacit knowledge to solve problems that arise in everyday business situations, it is truly helpful and efficient to refer to similar business cases from the past and share or reuse such previous business knowledge for better performance results. Case-based reasoning(CBR) is a problem-solving method which utilizes previous similar cases to solve problems. Through CBR, the closest case to the current business situation can be searched and retrieved from the case or knowledge base and can be referred to for a new solution. This reduces the time and resources needed and increase success probability. The main purpose of this study is to design a system called COKRS(Case-based reasoning Office Knowledge Recommender System) and develop a prototype for it. COKRS manages cases and their meta data, accepts key words from the user and searches the casebase for the most similar past case to the input keyword, and communicates with users to collect information about the quality of the case provided and continuously apply the information to update values on the similarity table. Core concepts like system architecture, definition of a case, meta database, similarity table have been introduced, and also an algorithm to retrieve all similar cases from past work history has also been proposed. In this research, a case is best defined as a work experience in office administration. However, defining a case in office administration was not an easy task in reality. We surveyed 10 office professionals in order to get an idea of how to define a case in office administration and found out that in most cases any type of office work is to be recorded digitally and/or non-digitally. Therefore, we have defined a record or document case as for COKRS. Similarity table was composed of items of the result of job analysis for office professionals conducted in a previous research. Values between items of the similarity table were initially set to those from researchers' experiences and literature review. The results of this study could also be utilized in other areas of business for knowledge sharing wherever it is necessary and beneficial to share and learn from past experiences. We expect this research to be a reference for researchers and developers who are in this area or interested in office knowledge recommendation system based on CBR. Focus group interview(FGI) was conducted with ten administrative assistants carefully selected from various areas of business. They were given a chance to try out COKRS in an actual work setting and make some suggestions for future improvement. FGI has identified the user-interface for saving and searching cases for keywords as the most positive aspect of COKRS, and has identified the most urgently needed improvement as transforming tacit knowledge and knowhow into recorded documents more efficiently. Also, the focus group has mentioned that it is essential to secure enough support, encouragement, and reward from the company and promote positive attitude and atmosphere for knowledge sharing for everybody's benefit in the company.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.51 no.9
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• pp.971-976
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• 2008

Purpose : Surveillance for detecting and managing latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) is a key component of tuberculosis control. The classic surveillance tool, the tuberculin skin test (TST), may have some limitations when used in the Bacillus Calmette-$Gu{\acute{e}}rin$ (BCG)-vaccinated population. The object was to perform a blood test $QuantiFERON^{(R)}$-TB Gold In Tube (QFT-G IT) based on the detection of interferon-$\gamma$ ($IFN-{\gamma}$) released by T cells in response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific antigens, and to compare the efficacy of this new diagnostic tool for LTBI with that of TST. Methods : For six months, between October 1, 2006 and April 30, 2007, data were collected from 111 patients under 15 years of age at Severance Children's Hospital. TST and QFT-G IT tests were performed with children with or without contact histories of tuberculosis. In addition to these tests, we examined comparative data from 29 adults who had tuberculosis, to detect false negative rates in the QFT-G IT method. Results : Thirty-three children had household contact histories. In this group, 15% and 42% of cases were found to be positive using the QFT-G IT assay and TST, respectively. Agreement was low between these two tests (${\kappa}=0.39$). In the adult active tuberculosis group, the QFT-G IT false negative rate defined as a positive culture and a negative QFT-G IT result was 12.5%. Conclusion : In diagnosing LTBI in children, the usefulness of a whole-blood $IFN-{\gamma}$ assay employing TB-specific antigens will be revealed only by examining additional longitudinal clinical data; this study serves as a starting point in that process.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.333-339
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• 2017

This research was aimed to establish rapid analysis technique for the determination of nitrate ($NO_3{^-}$) concentration in the leaves of paprika, which has key role for the stable vegetative and reproductive growth. Leaf petiole and blade sap of two paprika cultivars ('Raon red' and 'Raon yellow') were used for the determination of $NO_3{^-}$ concentration, separately using rapid detection kit (RQ-flex) and spectroscopy quantification methods. In addition, two paprika cultivars namely, 'Nicole' and 'TP2001' were used to determine the status of $NO_3{^-}$ concentration in leaf of each fruiting group. $NO_3{^-}$ concentration in leaf blade sap and the content in leaf showed significant correlation ($R^2=0.8628$), analysed by RQ-flex and spectroscopy methods, respectively. Furthermore, leaf petiole sap and the content in leaf also showed significant correlation ($R^2=0.6734$) but the relationship was poor compared to leaf blade sap and the leaf content. $NO_3{^-}$ concentration in petiole sap decreased in all the cultivars from early to late fruiting group. The higher concentration in the lower leaves and the continuous decrease towards the upper leaves in the both years were found through the analysis of $NO_3{^-}$ concentration in different leaf position. In addition, daily short-term fluctuation of $NO_3{^-}$ in petiole sap could be rapidly monitored. These results showed that long-term or short-term monitoring by test strip-based rapid analysis technique might be useful tool for the diagnosis of nutritional status for the stable of nutritional management in paprika.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.99-108
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• 2010

This study lays its purpose on examining the effects of lessons with the application of drawing tasks on changes in conception among gifted science students. The lesson with the application of drawing tasks means the lesson where students express key concepts regarding lesson subjects in drawings which are then applied to the lessons to develop conception among the learners. This study analyzed the effectiveness of lessons by comparing conception scores before and after experiments between an experiment group with the application of drawing tasks and a control group with normal lessons for the gifted in general for 8 months from March to October, 2008. In addition, the researcher examined how the effectiveness of the developed lessons show differently according to levels of meta-cognition, creative problem-solving abilities, and scientific inquiry skills among the gifted students. The results from this study are as the following. First, lessons with the application of drawing tasks were effective in changing conception among the gifted science students. It is possibly because in the process where one student compare his/her own drawings with the others' ones and discuss them, changes in conception occurred effectively among the learners. Second, it was revealed that lessons utilizing drawing tasks have equal effects on changes in conception among both student groups irrespective of their levels of meta-cognition. Accordingly the lesson for changing perceptions utilizing drawing tasks developed in this study is a program which can be applied to all gifted science students in order to change conception among them. Third, lessons utilizing drawing tasks have the greatest effects on the gifted science students at a 'middle' level of creative problem solving abilities. Fourth, lessons utilizing drawing tasks have the greatest effects on the gifted science students at a 'middle' level of scientific inquiry skills. Putting these results together, it is thought that if lessons utilizing drawing tasks are applied to gifted science students, not only their concepts would be changed effectively but also their attitudes toward science would be changed positively.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.195-221
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• 2009

According to an industry report, a large number of organizations have invested in Organizational Information System(OIS) in the past few years. Several research results indicate that successful investments in OIS lead to productivity enhancement, while failed ones result in undesirable consequences such as financial losses and dissatisfaction among employees. In spite of huge investments, however, many organizations have failed in achieving the hoped-for returns from OIS. Thus, understanding user acceptance, adoption, and usage of new IS(Information Systems) is an important issue for IS practitioners. Indeed, study of the user acceptance of new information system has been one of the most important research topics in the contemporary IS literature. Several theoretical models are tested to examine 'user acceptance' and 'usage behavior' in IS context. While many research models incorporate 'ease of use' or 'usefulness' as important factors in explaining user acceptance, Technology Acceptance Model(TAM) has been one of the most widely applied models in user acceptance and usage behavior. Even in recent IS studies that employ theories of innovation diffusion in the area of IS implementation, a major focus has been on the user's perception of information technologies. In this research, we study 'voluntariness' as an important factor in IS acceptance by users. Voluntariness is defined as "the degree to which the use of the innovation is perceived as being voluntary, or of free will" When examining the diffusion of accepting OIS, a thoughtful consideration should be given to 'perceived voluntariness.' Current article has following research questions: 1) What models are appropriate to explain the success of OIS? and 2) How does the 'voluntariness' affect the success of OIS? In order to answer these questions, a research model is proposed to describe the detailed nature of association among three independent variables (IT usage level, task interdependency, and organizational support), a mediating variable (IS usage), a dependent variable (perceived performance), and a moderating variable(perceived voluntariness). The central claim of this article is that organizations hardly realize expected returns from OIS investments unless perceived voluntariness is effectively managed after operating OIS. As an example of OIS in this study we have selected the Intranet of Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF). ROKAF has implemented the Intranet in an attempt to improve communication and coordination within the organization. To test our research model and hypotheses, survey questionnaires were first sent out to 400 Intranet users. With the assistance of ROKAF, Intranet users were initially identified among its members, and subjects were randomly drawn from the pool. 377 survey responses were finally returned. The unit of measurement and analysis in this research is a personal level. Path analysis based on structural equation modeling was used to test research hypotheses. Construct validity represents accordance between the theoretical base concept of constructs and its measurement items. Tests for the reliability and discriminant validity are accepted, thus verifying our survey instrument. In this research, we have proposed a conceptual framework to highlight the importance of perceived voluntariness after organization deploys OIS. The results of our analysis present several key finding. First, all three independent variables (IT usage level, task interdependency, and organizational support) have significant effects on IS usage, which will eventually improve performance. Thus, IS usage plays a mediating role between antecedent variables (IT usage level. task interdependency, and organizational support) and performance improvement. Second, the effect of the task dependency was the highest for IS usage among the three antecedent variables. This is highly plausible since one of the Intranet's major capabilities is to facilitate communication among members within an organization. Accordingly, we conclude that the higher the task dependency, the higher Intranet usage. The effect of user's IT usage level was the second, while the effect of the organizational support was the third. Finally, the perceived voluntariness plays a pivotal role in enhancing perceived performance in personal level after launching the Intranet. Relationships among investigated variables were significantly different between groups with a high level and a low level of voluntariness. The impact of the Intranet usage on the performance was greater in the higher level voluntariness group than in the lower one. For the lower level voluntariness group, the user's IT usage had the highest effect on the Intranet usage among the three antecedent variables. In short, our study suggests that the higher the perceived voluntariness is the more IS usage will be. Perceived voluntariness was found to have a moderating effect on the relationships among user IT usage level, task interdependency, IS usage, and perceived performance, supporting all the hypotheses on the moderating effect. Most of all, user IT usage level has the strongest influence on IS usage, indicating that users with superior IT usage are more likely to enjoy a high level of perceived performance.

• Journal of The Korean Association of Information Education
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.9-22
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• 2008

The purpose of this research is to develop a prototype of the support system in order for team building associated with web-based project learning having applied Kolb's learning style. To accomplish this purpose, the following research tasks were performed. First, core idea in order to embody the system's value, key activities, tools that will support pertinent activities and the strategy so as to develop guidelines, etc. were devised and prepared. Second, a system was designed on the basis of structural model of teaching design, then after, interface was developed. The core factors in this system are inspection of learning style, organizing a team and team building. Above all, it is required to make learners know about learning environments, of which they are in favor, and also its distinctive features through inspection of learning style, and then focusing on learning style, a team should be organized insomuch as to accommodate a variety of learning styles as much as possible. For the purpose of team building, after learning style of each constituent member of the team has been made known, then the roles will be divided among the constituent members of the team so as to suit their individual characteristics referring to each of their learning styles that have been exposed. To verify the value of this system developed and efficiency thereof, a focus group interview was conducted. The focus group consisted of professionals, all from related fields. After the interview, the points required to make further improvements were elicited and taken care of by follow-up actions as needed. And having reflected such improvements made, the final system was developed. With this newly developed system, learners can get the results of inspection of learning style so quickly by performing inspection any time any where, and based on the results from such inspection, a team comprising dissimilar constituents who exhibit a variety of different propensities will be automatically organized. Thus, this system may be used not only for web-based project learning having unspecified persons elected as constituents, but in the offline space also.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.271-300
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• 1993

The purpose of this study was to analyze the stress distribution at supporting bone according to the types of connection modality between implant and tooth in the superstrcture. This investigation evaluated the stress patterns in a photoelastic model produced by three different types of dental implants such as Branemark, Steri-Oss, IMZ and resin tooth using the techniques of quasi three dimensional photoelasticity. The teeth-supported bridge had a first molar pontic supported by second premolar and second molar as a control group. The implant and toothsupported bridge had a first molar pontic supported by second premolar and implant posterior retainer as an experimental group. Prostheses were mechanically connected to an adjacent second premolar by the rigid of nonrigid connection, Nonrigid connection used an attachment placed between the tooth-supported and fixture-supported component. The female(keyway) of attachment was placed on the distal end of the retainer supported by the tooth ; the male(Key) of attachment connected to the osseointegrated bridge was engaged into the keyway. All prostheses were casted in the same nonprecious alloy and were cemented and screwed on their respective abutments and implants. 16㎏ of vertical loads on central fossae of second premolar, first molar pontic, implant of second molar were applied respectively and 6.5㎏ of inclined load on middle buccal surface of first molar pontic was applied. The results were as follows : 1. Under the vertical load on the central fossa of first mloar pontic, the stress developed at the apex of tooth of implat was more uniformly distributed in the case of nonrigid connection than in the case of rigid connection. 2. Under the vertical load on the central fossa of first molar pontic, the stress developed around the cervical area of tooth of implant was larger in the case of rigid connection than in the case of nonrigid connection because the bending moment was more occured in the case of rigid connection than in the case of nonrigid connection. 3. Stress was more restricted to the loaded side of nonrigid connection than to that of rigid connection 4. Under the inclined load. The set screw loosening of implant was more easily occured in the case of nonrigid connection than in the case of rigid connection due to torque moment. 5. In the case of Branemark implant, the stress concentration in second premolar was larger and the stress developed around the cervical area of implant was lower than any other cases under the vertical load, because Branemark implant with the flexible gold screw was showed in incline toward second premolar by a bending moment. 6. The stress developed around the apex of tooth or implant was more uniformly distributed in the case of Steri-Oss implant with stiff screw than in the case of Branemark implant under the vertical load. But, the stress developed around the cervical area of the Steri-Oss implant was larger than that of any other implants because bending moment was occured by vertical migration of second premolar. 7. The stress distribution in the case of IMZ implant was similar to the case of natural teeth under small vertical load. But, the residual stress around the implant was showed to occurdue to deformation of IMC and sinking of screw under larger vertical load.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.23-42
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to analyze the results of 133 studies related to patient compliance published between 1980 and 2001 and to assess the effectiveness of intervention on compliance by using meta-analysis. We collected the existing literatures by using web and manual search 'patient compliance', 'sick role behavior', 'major clinical disease', and 'intervention' as key words and by reviewing content of journals related to medicine, nursing and public health. The compliance interventions were classified by theoretical focus into educational, behavioral, and affective categories within which specific intervention strategies were further distinguished. The compliance indicators broadly represent five classes of compliance-related assessments: (1) health outcomes (eg, blood pressure and hospitalization), (2) direct indicators (eg, urine and blood tracers and weight change), (3) indirect indicators (eg, pill count and refill records), (4) subjective report (eg, patients' or others' reports), (5) utilization (appointment making and keeping, use of preventive services). Quantitative meta-analysis was performed by MetaKorea program which was developed for meta-analysis in Korea. Among the 133 articles, 10 studies were selected through the qualitative meta-analysis process, and then only 6 studies were selected for the quantitative meta-analysis finally. The interventions produced significant effects for all the compliance indicators with the magnitude of common effect size (4.1192) than the non-intervention group in a random effect model. The largest effects were each study for patient of hypertension using health outcome such as blood pressure (0.4679) and diabetes mellitus using direct indicator such as glucose level in blood and urine (0.7753). These results suggest that strategic interventions showed clear advantage for improvement of patient compliance compared with non-intervention group.