• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.169-184
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• 2016

Objectives: To investigate the neurophysiological effect of acupuncture treatment on insomnia patients using quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) and standardized Low Resolution Brain Electromagnetic Tomography method (sLORETA).Background: Insomnia is one of the commonly encountered symptoms in primary medical care. Recent studies of acupuncture for insomnia reported that the acupuncture groups showed significant improvements compared with the control groups. However, the neurophysiological mechanism of acupuncture in the treatment of insomnia has not been revealed and a few studies have measured the effect of acupuncture treatment using QEEG.Methods: Participants who had some problems in initiating or maintaining sleep, or had non-restorative sleep for more than 3 days a week and ISI scores above 8 and below 21 were treated by acupuncture for 2 weeks (3 times a week, total 6 times). We assessed the effectiveness of acupuncture for insomnia by the PSQI (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index) at baseline and at 2 weeks after the end of treatment (4th week). Also, we performed EEG and analysed the EEG data at baseline and at the end of treatment (2nd week) on the linked ears montage using the Neuroguide software program and sLORETA.Results: Thirty-two participants were enrolled and 2 participants dropped out because of personal reasons. Among the 30 participants, EEGs of 12 participants were included in the analysis of QEEG and sLORETA. Total score on the ISI and PSQI was significantly decreased after acupuncture treatment. The number of electrodes exceeding the range of 90% (±1.65) or 95% (±1.96) in the z scored absolute power of beta was significantly decreased after acupuncture treatment. There was no significant change in brain activation between pre- and post-acupuncture using sLORETA.Conclusions: The deviation of absolute power compared to the normative database was significantly decreased after acupuncture treatment in the alpha and beta ranges. Therefore, we suggest that acupuncture treatment for insomnia might be effective through the central nervous system especially in the brain. There are many limitations to drawing any conclusion. Further studies are needed in the future to overcome these limitations.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.227-235
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• 2014

For technology level assessment of KIGAM World Class Laboratories (WCL) candidates, bibliometric and qualitative analysis was conducted on their research papers listed on the SCIE database during 2009-2012. For the six research areas of geoscience and mineral resources, a research excellence indicator was applied using a Modified Rank Normalized Impact Factor (mrnIF), which was introduced by Heo et al. (2008) and Cho (2013). The KIGAM research department in rare metals utilization had the highest score for Impact Factor (IF) per paper in 2012 but the groundwater department or the exploration geophysics department came first based on the position and the mrnIF. Applying the mrnIF, the KIGAM research department in groundwater achieved excellent results in 2009 and 2011 and the urban mine department or exploration geophysics department came first place in other years. In the groundwater area, the percentage of research papers over 80 or 90 mrnIF, using Cho (2013)'s research excellence index, was the highest in 2011. The Cho (2013)'s excellent research indicator, 20%, the ratio of over 90 mrnIF was matched in the urban mining area for the whole research period, 2009-2012, and in the groundwater area for several years except 2010. Qualitative analysis of research papers can show the technology level of research departments. KIGAM World Class Laboratories (WCL) candidates should focus on increasing the quality and the quantity of their research papers.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.251-267
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• 2017

This study aimed to analyze open access features of 1,890 Korean scientific journals registered in the Korea Citation Index (KCI). To this end, this study classified open access features of the target scientific journals into two main aspects, free access and free redistribution. The analysis results indicated that the target scientific journals had strong free access aspects. Based on websites, 67% of the target scientific journals allowed for free access without a login process and based on free database, 48% provided free access. On the other hand, the target scientific journals had weaker free redistribution aspects compared to their free access aspects. Only 14% of them offered the CC (creative commons) license. Another finding was that there were clear differences in open access aspects by academic field. Medicine, pharmacy, natural science, agriculture, fisheries, oceanography, and engineering had stronger open access aspects than humanities, sociology, arts, physical education, and interdisciplinary science. It appears that the difference was caused by the presence or absence of organizations supporting distribution of scientific journals of the fields concerned. To narrow the gap, it is recommended that the open access governance system is established to set up open access policies for Korean scientific journals regardless of academic fields and to support them.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.440-448
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• 2001

As diverse physiological functions of taurine have been reported, taurine-containing health drinks and products are marketed worldwide for the treatment of various conditions such as improvements of liver, heart and circulatory functions or as an aid to athletic performance. Although animal studies have shown that taurine is fairly safe when supplemented in the diet for an extended period, the effective dose range of taurine for dietary supplements is in controversy. Reports on dietary taurine intakes have been sparse, and would serve as a guideline for determining an appropriate taurine dosage. The present study was aimed to estimate dietary intake level of taurine using the taurine content database of commonly used food stuffs established recently in our laboratory, and also to evaluate plasma concentration and urinary excretion of taurine in adolescents and adults residing in Seoul area. Dietary taurine intakes of the subjects were 219$\pm$16.9mg/day for 16-19 years old(n=123), 177$\pm$18.1mg/day for adults older than 20 years old(n=123). Male subjects(n=115) consumed 216$\pm$21.1mg of taurine/day, while female subjects(n=131) consumed 181$\pm$14.3mg of taurine/day(p<0.05). The level of dietary taurine intake was positively correlated with the levels of dietary intakes of energy, carbohydrate, total lipids, cholesterol, vitamin A, vitamin B$_1$, niacin, vitamin C, calcium, phosphorous, sodium and potassium at p<0.01, and with dietary intakes of iron and animal lipids at p<0.05, respectively. Plasma taurine concentration of subjects were 135$\pm$5.9$\mu$mol/L, which is considered to be within a normal range for healthy subjects. The subjects excreted 1158$\pm$72.7nmol/ of tarine mg creatinine in their urine, which is approximated as 150-170mg of taurine/24hr urine based on the assumption that 18mg creatinine/kg/day is excreted in the urine of healthy adults, and this would be about 80% of the daily taurine intake observed in the same subjects. Dietary taurine intake level was positively correlated with plasma taurine concentration, as well as with urinary taurine excretion corrected by creatinine excretion at p<0.05. The present study was the first report of taurine intake, and plasma concentration and urinary excretion of taurine in a Korean population so far, and these results would serve as an index for the future study evaluating taurine status in a diverse population within and outside Korea. (Korean J Nutrition 34(4) : 440~448, 2001)

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.799-813
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• 2020

Fatigue cracks of rib-to-deck (RD) joints have been frequently observed in the orthotropic steel decks (OSD) using conventional U-ribs (CU). Thickened edge U-rib (TEU) is proposed to enhance the fatigue strength of RD joints, and its effectiveness has been proved through fatigue tests. In-depth full-scale tests are further carried out to investigate both the fatigue strength and fractography of RD joints. Based on the test result, the mean fatigue strength of TEU specimens is 21% and 17% higher than that of CU specimens in terms of nominal and hot spot stress, respectively. Meanwhile, the development of fatigue cracks has been measured using the strain gauges installed along the welded joint. It is found that such the crack remains almost in semi-elliptical shape during the initiation and propagation. For the further application of TEUs, the design curve under the specific survival rate is required for the RD joints using TEUs. Since the fatigue strength of welded joints is highly scattered, the design curves derived by using the limited test data only are not reliable enough to be used as the reference. On this ground, an experiment-numerical hybrid approach is employed. Basing on the fatigue test, a probabilistic assessment model has been established to predict the fatigue strength of RD joints. In the model, the randomness in material properties, initial flaws and local geometries has been taken into consideration. The multiple-site initiation and coalescence of fatigue cracks are also considered to improve the accuracy. Validation of the model has been rigorously conducted using the test data. By extending the validated model, large-scale databases of fatigue life could be generated in a short period. Through the regression analysis on the generated database, design curves of the RD joint have been derived under the 95% survival rate. As the result, FAT 85 and FAT 110 curves with the power index m of 2.89 are recommended in the fatigue evaluation on the RD joint using TEUs in terms of nominal stress and hot spot stress respectively. Meanwhile, FAT 70 and FAT 90 curves with m of 2.92 are suggested in the evaluation on the RD joint using CUs in terms of nominal stress and hot spot stress, respectively.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.2465-2472
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• 2015

Background: The Quality Audit (BQA) program of the Breast Surgeons of Australia and New Zealand (NZ) collects data on early female breast cancer and its treatment. BQA data covered approximately half all early breast cancers diagnosed in NZ during roll-out of the BQA program in 1998-2010. Coverage increased progressively to about 80% by 2008. This is the biggest NZ breast cancer database outside the NZ Cancer Registry and it includes cancer and clinical management data not collected by the Registry. We used these BQA data to compare socio-demographic and cancer characteristics and survivals by ethnicity. Materials and Methods: BQA data for 1998-2010 diagnoses were linked to NZ death records using the National Health Index (NHI) for linking. Live cases were followed up to December $31^{st}$ 2010. Socio-demographic and invasive cancer characteristics and disease-specific survivals were compared by ethnicity. Results: Five-year survivals were 87% for Maori, 84% for Pacific, 91% for other NZ cases and 90% overall. This compared with the 86% survival reported for all female breast cases covered by the NZ Cancer Registry which also included more advanced stages. Patterns of survival by clinical risk factors accorded with patterns expected from the scientific literature. Compared with Other cases, Maori and Pacific women were younger, came from more deprived areas, and had larger cancers with more ductal and fewer lobular histology types. Their cancers were also less likely to have a triple negative phenotype. More of the Pacific women had vascular invasion. Maori women were more likely to reside in areas more remote from regional cancer centres, whereas Pacific women generally lived closer to these centres than Other NZ cases. Conclusions: NZ BQA data indicate previously unreported differences in breast cancer biology by ethnicity. Maori and Pacific women had reduced breast cancer survival compared with Other NZ women, after adjusting for socio-demographic and cancer characteristics. The potential contributions to survival differences of variations in service access, timeliness and quality of care, need to be examined, along with effects of comorbidity and biological factors.

• Journal of KIISE:Databases
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.546-553
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• 2007

As ontologies are used widely, interest for semantic similarity search is also increasing. In this paper, we suggest a query evaluation scheme for k-nearest neighbor query, which retrieves k most similar objects to the query object. We use the best match method to calculate the semantic similarity between objects and use the signature tree to index annotation information of objects in database. The signature tree is usually used for the set similarity search. When we use the signature tree in similarity search, we are required to predict the upper-bound of similarity for a node; the highest similarity value which can be found when we traverse into the node. So we suggest a prediction function for the best match similarity function and prove the correctness of the prediction. And we modify the original signature tree structure for same signatures not to be stored redundantly. This improved structure of signature tree not only reduces the size of signature tree but also increases the efficiency of query evaluation. We use the Gene Ontology(GO) for our experiments, which provides large ontologies and large amount of annotation data. Using GO, we show that proposed method improves query efficiency and present several experimental results varying the page size and using several node-splitting methods.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.114-125
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• 2009

In this study, a design value analysis technique that considered stochastic LCC and stochastic performance evaluation was proposed, and by introducing the concept of reliability analysis, a decision making that secured reliability was supported. The results of this study, which was carried out according to the above objectives and methods, are summarized as follows: 1) The design value analysis procedures and value state function, improved in order to carry out a reliable analysis when evaluating alternate proposals that were extracted after the function definition was complete, were formalized, and in order to secure consistency and efficiency for value evaluation procedures, an evaluation index scheme was proposed; 2) Database collection and analysis were done for a bridge's LCC analysis. As for the collection scope of data, literature of previous research done on a bridge's LCC analysis was used as the basis for analysis, and for securing reliability regarding analysis results and dealing with uncertainty of collected data, the MCS technique was applied; 3) Weights and evaluation ranks for performance evaluation of each of the alternate proposals, as well as LCC analysis model, analysis period, discount rate, user expense, safety inspection and safety diagnosis expense conditions for LCC analysis were proposed. Lastly, a feasibility study was done and conclusion was made about "OO grand bridge and connecting road construction work execution design" project centered on value analysis execution case.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.271-297
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• 2005

Since the 1980s, the western welfare states have experienced a wide spectrum of socio-economic changes; changes in population composition, the economic globalization, the post-industrialization, an increasing flexibility in the labor market. etc. This study examines the trend of poverty in welfare states, and analyzes how those socio-economic changes are related to it. For these purposes, this study first calculates the poverty indices for several years in 10 welfare states using the Luxembourg Income Study database, and then decomposes the index by subpopulation and income sources. Major findings of this study can be summarized as follows. First of all, the welfare state in general has experienced an increasing trend in the degree of poverty since the 1980s. In particular, poverty has greatly intensified in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Many other welfare states including Canada, Germany, Sweden, and Norway have also experienced substantial increases in poverty. The increasing trend of poverty is not wholly due to changes in population composition such as increases in the aging population and one-parent(mother) families. Contrary to the traditional belief, these population groups are not as much poor as the working-age population. In particular, the degree of poverty in the elderly is less severe than in the working-age group. Furthermore, since the 1980s the market income poverty in the aging population has shown a decreasing trend in many welfare states. The degree and trend of poverty in one-parent families vary greatly across countries, owing to the labor market and income transfer policies. The most important reason for the increasing poverty trend in the welfare state is that the degree of poverty has been deepening in the working-age population. Especially, the market income poverty of the working-age population has considerably increased in every country except the Netherlands. Structural changes in the economy and the labor market may drive the increasing trend of poverty. Further studies and deliberate anti-poverty policies are needed to tackle the factors relating to the increase in the market income poverty.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.93-114
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• 2012

Objective : This study aimed to review the performance of traditional herbal prescriptions for treating dementia and present a strategy for research on dementia therapy utilizing herbal medicine. Methods : A definition was made to clarify the technology regarding the development of herbal prescriptions for treating dementia. The queries were compounded based on the initial keywords provided by experts in the field, then applied to the Web of Science database search engines from January 1986 to September 2011 to search related scientific articles. Before performing the analysis, papers were extracted from the initial search reviewed by experts and 80 articles were selected. Then, the selected papers were analyzed in terms of publish year, country, and type of herbal prescriptions. Furthermore, the research performance evaluation for treating dementia by herbal prescriptions was also created in terms of country and organization based on forward citation analysis. In addition to, for the evaluation regarding research quality, we classified and reviewed papers into two types: clinical studies and experimental studies. Results : According to the quantitative information analysis of 80 articles, the number of papers has increased by 21.9% per the yearly mean from 1995, and Japan had the largest portion within this research field. There were 34 kinds of traditional herbal prescriptions, among them Ukgansan had the highest number of studies followed by Jodeungsan, Dangkisoosan and so on. In addition, quality index as calculated by cites per paper is higher than average in Switzerland, Turkey and Japan. In the view of the evaluation on quality there were 12 clinical studies, 8 RCT reported that herbal prescriptions had efficacy at cognition, behavioral & psychological symptoms (BPSD) and activity of daily life (ADL) in various type of dementia. In experimental studies most of the studies were performed using animal models. The studies using Ukgansan were aimed at improving BPSD. The papers studied with Jodeungsan and Dangkisoosan targeted vascular dementia. Conclusions : In this study, research to develop traditional herbal prescriptions for treating dementia has the potential to improve symptoms since herbal medicines work as both multi-function and multi-target in dementia with multiple pathological or neurotoxic pathways. Therefore, the results of the research should be used in order to establish strategies to develop technology for treating dementia with traditional herbal prescriptions in the future.