• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• 제4권4호
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• pp.362-373
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• 2012

The ship recycling industry is growing rapidly. It is estimated that the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) decision to phase-out single hull tankers by 2015 will result in hundreds of ships requiring disposal. At present, the ship recycling industry is predominantly based in South Asia. Due to the bad practice of current scrapping procedure, the paper will highlight the harm occurring to health, safety and environment. The efforts of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) which led to the signing of the Hong Kong International Convention are also reviewed. The criteria and standards required to reduce the risk and damage to the environment are discussed and a proposed plan for the safe scrapping of ships is then presented. A technological and economic study for the ship recycling in Egypt is carried out as a case study. This includes the ship recycling facility size and layout. The equipment and staff required to operate the facility are also evaluated. A cost analysis is then carried out. This includes site development, human resources, machineries and equipment. A fuzzy logic approach is used to assess the benefits of the ship breaking yard. The use of the fuzzy logic approach is found suitable to make decisions for the ship breaking industry. Based on given constraints, the proposed model has proved capable of assessing the profit and the internal rate of return.

• 한국지역사회생활과학회지
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• 제20권4호
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• pp.503-514
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to explore the influencing factors of consumption behavior of healthy functional foods including vitamin/mineral products for overweight and obese Koreans. Overweight and obese Koreans were selected based on the body mass index(BMI) from the KNHANES that was collected in 2007. Probit estimation model was used to find the influencing factors such as age, gender, job, education, income, nutrition education, and cultural capital(parents' education) on consuming the healthy functional foods. Overweight consumers were found to consume vitamin/mineral products and healthy functional foods at 17.5% and 22.7%, respectively. Obese consumers were found to consume vitamin/mineral products and healthy functional foods at 18.2% and 22.8%, respectively. In addition, self decision was found to be a significant factor to consume both products in both groups. Nutritional education and job were significant factors to consume vitamin/mineral products in overweight consumers, while mother's education and job(service) were significant factors in obese consumers. Weight control for body shape, gender, age, and income were significant factors to consume healthy functional foods in overweight consumers, while nutrition label and perceived health status were significant for obese consumers. Therefore, providing consumer information on functional foods might be useful for consumers to consider the healthy functional foods as an available option to purchase. Various influencing factors between two groups might be concerned to develop different strategies for promoting the healthy functional foods consumption including vitamin/mineral products.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제9권6호
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• pp.11-21
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• 2022

The perspectives on aging women's financial security during their retirement years are based on their behavior, planning, and decision-making processes during their working years. Elderly women are considered vulnerable and have a longer life expectancy, lower-income, and limited financial understanding compared to males; therefore, drastic steps need to be taken to improve their financial stability and quality of life. The current study sought to determine the most important contributors to retired women's financial health by measuring the value of four factors/variables: capability, opportunity, willingness, and biopsychosocial. This study used a mixed model approach, with qualitative analysis in the first phase involving a focus group discussion session, a pilot analysis, and quantitative analysis for phase two involving the distribution and collection of questionnaires completed by retired women. The surveys were distributed across Malaysia in five distinct zones and yielded 339 usable replies to support the theory. The outcomes of the Multiple Regression Analysis in Malaysia revealed that capability, opportunity, and biopsychosocial factors are significant predictors of retired women's financial security, whereas the willingness indicator lacked statistical significance.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• 제23권6호
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• pp.202-206
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• 2023

Today, social media has become a vital tool. The world communicates and reaches the news and each other's opinions through social media accounts. Recently, considerable research has been done on analyzing social media due to its rich data content. At the same time, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has afflicted so many around the world, the search for a vaccine has been intense. There have been many studies analyzing people's feelings during a crisis. This study aims to understand people's opinions about available Coronavirus vaccines through a learning model that was developed for this purpose. The dataset was collected using Twitter's streaming Application Programming Interface (API) , then combined with another dataset that had already been collected. The final dataset was cleaned, then analyzed using Python. Polarity and subjectivity functions were used to obtain the results. The results showed that most people had positive opinions toward vaccines in general and toward the Pfizer one. Our study should help governments and decision-makers dispel people's fears and discover new symptoms linked to those listed by the World Health Organization.

• 한국정보처리학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국정보처리학회 2023년도 춘계학술발표대회
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• pp.417-419
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• 2023

Hypertension is one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide. In recent years, the incidence of hypertension has increased dramatically, not only among the elderly but also among young people. In this regard, the use of machine-learning methods to diagnose the causes of hypertension has increased in recent years. In this study, we improved the prediction of hypertension detection using Mahalanobis distance-based multivariate outlier removal using the KNHANES database from the Korean national health data and the COVID-19 dataset from Kaggle. This study was divided into two modules. Initially, the data preprocessing step used merged datasets and decision-tree classifier-based feature selection. The next module applies a predictive analysis step to remove multivariate outliers using the Mahalanobis distance from the experimental dataset and makes a prediction of hypertension. In this study, we compared the accuracy of each classification model. The best results showed that the proposed MAH_RF algorithm had an accuracy of 82.66%. The proposed method can be used not only for hypertension but also for the detection of various diseases such as stroke and cardiovascular disease.

• 병원약사회지
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• 제35권4호
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• pp.409-417
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• 2018

Background : Febrile neutropenia (FN) is one of the side effects in the patients treated with chemotherapy, and the patients who have FN generally need immediate treatment with extended-spectrum antibiotics and hospitalization. Pegfilgrastim and pegteograstim, which are used for the prevention of FN as a granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF), have been granted insurance coverage in the Republic of Korea for certain breast cancer patients using doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide (AC) from September 2016. Methods : The data of the patients with breast cancer using AC regimen and G-CSF were collected retrospectively. This study involves cost-utility analysis of pegfilgrastim and pegteograstim. In this study, we constructed a simple decision tree model for short-term observation and calculated quality-adjusted life year (QALY) and the direct medical costs from the medical provider's perspective. Results : From September 2016 to May 2017, 15 patients were treated with pegfilgrastim and 15 patients were treated with pegteograstim. As a result of dividing the average cost by QALY for each treatment group, it was observed that pegfilgrastim and pegteograstim were consumed 24,923,384 won and 22,808,336 won per 1QALY, respectively. Consequently, incremental cost effectiveness ratio (ICER) showed 2,115,048 won more per pegfilgrastim than pegteograstim per 1QALY, and the cost per 1QALY of both the drugs was lower than 30,500,000 won; the Koreans were willing to pay this amount. Conclusions : This study suggests that pegfilgrastim and pegteograstim can be used to improve the quality of life of breast cancer patients undergoing AC therapy. Among the two drugs, pegteograstim seems to be more cost-effective. However, since this study was conducted as a retrospective observation method on a small scale, it is associated with many limitations. Therefore, a long-term prospective cohort study is needed to supplement the present findings.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제13권6호
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• pp.2721-2728
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• 2012

Background: There are limited data evaluating the cost-effectiveness of gastric cancer screening using endoscopy or upper gastrointestinal x-ray in the general population. Objective: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of population-based screening for gastric cancer in South Korea by decision analysis. Methods: A time-dependent Markov model for gastric cancer was constructed for healthy adults 30 years of age and older, and a deterministic sensitivity analysis was performed. Cost-utility analysis with multiple strategies was conducted to compare the costs and effects of 13 different screening alternatives with respect to the following eligibility criteria: age at the beginning of screening, screening interval, and screening method. The main outcome measurement was the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio. Results: The results revealed that annual endoscopic screening from ages 50-80 was the most cost-effective for the male population. In the females, biennial endoscopy screening from ages 50-80 was calculated as the most cost-effective strategy among the 12 screening alternatives. The most cost-effective screening strategy may be adjustable according to the screening costs and the distribution of cancer stage at screening. The limitation was that effectiveness data were obtained from published sources. Conclusions: Using the threshold of $19,162 per quality-adjusted life year on the basis of the Korean gross domestic product (2008), as suggested by the World Health Organization, endoscopic gastric cancer screening starting at the age of 50 years was highly cost-effective in the Korean population. The national recommendation for gastric cancer screening should consider the starting age of screening, the screening interval, and the screening modality.

• 보건행정학회지
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.314-325
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• 2013

Background: Stem cell research competition is accelerating globally since President Obama signed an executive order, repealing Bush-era policy that limited use of federal tax dollars for embryonic stem cell research. Methods: In this paper, we conducted a comparative analysis of stem cell research policy changes in three countries, including the Human Fertilisation Embryology Act (HFEA) of UK, executive order 13,505 (removing barriers to responsible scientific research involving human stem cells) of USA, and Bioethics and Safety Act of South Korea. Debates on stem cell research are based on conflicts of fundamental beliefs that exist in the supporting and opposing coalitions. We compared regional characteristics of the advocacy coalitions in three countries and presented various factors that might be related to the policy changes. Results: The UK government, parliament, and the HFEA have sought expert consultations and public opinions to establish guidelines. UK has made social consensus through continued discussion for a long time. US President's veto power was one strongest factors influencing policy. South Korean policy was influenced by public opinion and policy brokers. Also, South Korea has not made social consensus. UK had a strong leadership and strong adjustment of coalitions but US and South Korea had not. Dr. Hwang's scandal has had one of the greatest impacts on policy decision in South Korea. Conclusion: The power of public opinion was critical in all three countries. In particular, the influence of public opinion was noticeable in South Korea. Also it turned out that in US and South Korea, the presence of a policy broker who could pursue his or her goals was the most powerful factor among the advocacy coalition factors.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제6권9호
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• pp.1057-1077
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• 2010

An early detection of structural damages is critical for the decision making of repair and replacement maintenance in order to guarantee a specified structural reliability. Consequently, the structural damage detection, based on vibration data measured from the structural health monitoring (SHM) system, has received considerable attention recently. The traditional time-domain analysis techniques, such as the least square estimation (LSE) method and the extended Kalman filter (EKF) approach, require that all the external excitations (inputs) be available, which may not be the case for some SHM systems. Recently, these two approaches have been extended to cover the general case where some of the external excitations (inputs) are not measured, referred to as the adaptive LSE with unknown inputs (ALSE-UI) and the adaptive EKF with unknown inputs (AEKF-UI). Also, new analysis methods, referred to as the adaptive sequential non-linear least-square estimation with unknown inputs and unknown outputs (ASNLSE-UI-UO) and the adaptive quadratic sum-squares error with unknown inputs (AQSSE-UI), have been proposed for the damage tracking of structures when some of the acceleration responses are not measured and the external excitations are not available. In this paper, these newly proposed analysis methods will be compared in terms of accuracy, convergence and efficiency, for damage identification of structures based on experimental data obtained through a series of laboratory tests using a scaled 3-story building model with white noise excitations. The capability of the ALSE-UI, AEKF-UI, ASNLSE-UI-UO and AQSSE-UI approaches in tracking the structural damages will be demonstrated and compared.

• 한국산업보건학회지
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• 제6권2호
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• pp.176-186
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• 1996

The fit of a respirator to the face of an individual can be determined by a qualitative fit test (QLFT) or a quantitative fit test (QNFT). The pass/fail decision from a QLFT or QNFT for the same respirator on the same individual may vary from one wearing to the next, because the human facial features are complex and the respirator may not fit to the face in the same way every time it is worn. This study reports how the fit factors (FF) resulting from a QNFT on an individual vary from day to day and depend on the movements in the six fit test exercises. The reported FFs provide an objective and numerical basis (FF) which does not depend on the subject's voluntary or involuntary response. Four half-mask (H1-H4) and four full-facepiece respirators (F1-F4) were fit tested on one wearer 10 times a day for 5 days with a PortaCount (model 8010, TSI). The FFs obtained for each set of 10 fit tests on a specific day and 50 fit tests on five days involving one of the six exercise regimes have been recorded as log-normal distributions. All of the geometric standard deviations (GSD) of the overall FFs varied widely among every wearing and day except for H1 and F3, and the variability of the half-mask respirators was larger than that of the full-facepiece respirators. Among the six exercise regimes, reading or talking (RT) had markedly the lowest exercise FFs on the tested individual. Generally, there were significant differences between the first normal breathing (NB1) FFs and the remaining exercise FFs.