• Title/Summary/Keyword: Information Gaps

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Are There Standardized Cutoff Values for Neutrophil-Lymphocyte Ratios in Bacteremia or Sepsis?

  • Gurol, Gonul;Ciftci, Ihsan Hakki;Terzi, Huseyin Agah;Atasoy, Ali Riza;Ozbek, Ahmet;Koroglu, Mehmet
    • Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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    • v.25 no.4
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    • pp.521-525
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    • 2015
  • Bacteremia and sepsis are common causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, with incorrect or delayed diagnoses being associated with increased mortality. New tests or markers that allow a more rapid and less costly detection of bacteremia and sepsis have been investigated. The aim of this study was to clarify the cutoff value of the neutrophillymphocyte ratio (NLR) according to procalcitonin (PCT) level in the decision-making processes for bacteremia and sepsis. In addition, other white blood cell subgroup parameters, which are assessed in all hospitals, for bacteremia and sepsis were explored. This retrospective study included 1,468 patients with suspected bacteremia and sepsis. Patients were grouped according to the following PCT criteria: levels <0.05 ng/ml (healthy group), 0.05-0.5 ng/ml (local infection group), 0.5-2 ng/ml (systemic infection group), 2-10 ng/ml (sepsis group), and >10 ng/ml (sepsis shock group). One important finding of this study, which will serve as a baseline to measure future progress, is the presence of many gaps in the information on pathogens that constitute a major health risk. In addition, clinical decisions are generally not coordinated, compromising the ability to assess and monitor a situation. This report represents the first study to determine the limits of the use of NLR in the diagnosis of infection or sepsis using a cutoff value of <5 when sufficient exclusion criteria are used.

Impact of Review Characteristics on Female Consumer Perceptions of Review Usefulness and Patronage Intent of Online Stores Hosting the Reviews

  • Hong, Heesook;Kim, Hye-Shin
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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    • v.40 no.6
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    • pp.994-1009
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    • 2016
  • Applying the S-O-R Model within an online context, a hypothesized model incorporates three review characteristics (perceived concreteness, exaggeration, and sufficient quantity of reviews) for apparel products in order to present their impact on consumer perceptions of review usefulness and consumer attitude toward and patronage intent for the online stores hosting the reviews. An online survey of Korean women (N=299) reported their experiences in purchasing apparel products online and reading apparel reviews on a regular basis. Testing of the hypothesized model showed the usefulness of reviews were determined by two review characteristics (S: perceived concreteness and sufficient quantity of reviews); however, the negative effect of exaggerated reviews were insignificant. In addition, the perceived usefulness of reviews (O-cognitive) hosted by an online store influenced online store attitude (O-affective) which subsequently led to online store patronage intent (R). This study systemically advances online retail literature by showing how the characteristics of online reviews (as a part of the online store environment) can influence attitude toward online stores and patronage intent for online stores. Long term relationships with consumers can be achieved through the building of mechanisms to enhance the perceived usefulness of reviews by employing the strategies of hosting concrete reviews and offering a sufficient quantity of reviews. This study addresses removes research gaps by testing an adapted the S-O-R Model that frames review information as an element of an online store environment using a large sample.

Relationship of oral health behavior to subjective oral health status and the DMFT index in Korean adults (한국 성인의 구강보건행태와 주관적인 구강건강인지 및 우식경험영구치지수와의 관련성)

  • Jang, Yun-Jung;Kim, Nam-Song
    • Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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    • v.11 no.4
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    • pp.499-509
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    • 2011
  • Objectives : The purpose of this study was to provide some information on down-to-earth oral health policy to improve the systemic health involving oral health and the quality of life in Korean adults. Methods : The third-year data of the 4th National Health and Nutrition Survey in 2009 were analyzed, and $x^2$(Chi-square) test was carried out to see whether there would be any gaps in subjective oral health status according to demographic characteristics, systemic health state, frequency of eating between meals and oral health behavior. In terms of the DMFT index, one-way ANOVA was utilized, and then Scheffe post-hoc analysis was conducted. Besides, multiple regression analysis was made to grasp the relationship of oral health behavior to subjective oral health state and the DMFT index. Results : The demographic characteristics, systemic health status and oral health behavior had a significant relationship to both of subjective oral health status and the DMFT index. As a result of analyzing the relationship of oral health behavior to subjective oral health state and the DMFT index, the subfactors of oral health behavior exerted a significant independent influence on subjective oral health status and the DMFT index. Conclusions : The findings of the study suggest that in order to promote the oral health of adults, preventive measures should be taken, and systematic oral health education should be provided. As there is an increase in the elderly population in Korea, the successful implementation of senior oral health plans and the development of oral health programs geared toward adults are both required.

Identifying Variable-Length Palindromic Pairs in DNA Sequences (DNA사슬 내에서 다양한 길이의 팰린드롬쌍 검색 연구)

  • Kim, Hyoung-Rae;Jeong, Kyoung-Hee;Jeon, Do-Hong
    • The KIPS Transactions:PartB
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    • v.14B no.6
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    • pp.461-472
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    • 2007
  • The emphasis in genome projects has Been moving towards the sequence analysis in order to extract biological "meaning"(e.g., evolutionary history of particular molecules or their functions) from the sequence. Especially. palindromic or direct repeats that appear in a sequence have a biophysical meaning and the problem is to recognize interesting patterns and configurations of words(strings of characters) over complementary alphabets. In this paper, we propose an algorithm to identify variable length palindromic pairs(longer than a threshold), where we can allow gaps(distance between words). The algorithm is called palindrome algorithm(PA) and has O(N) time complexity. A palindromic pair consists of a hairpin structure. By composing collected palindromic pairs we build n-pair palindromic patterns. In addition, we dot some of the longest pairs in a circle to represent the structure of a DNA sequence. We run the algorithm over several selected genomes and the results of E.coli K12 are presented. There existed very long palindromic pair patterns in the genomes, which hardly occur in a random sequence.

Deprivation and Mortality at the Town Level in Busan, Korea: An Ecological Study

  • Choi, Min-Hyeok;Cheong, Kyu-Seok;Cho, Byung-Mann;Hwang, In-Kyung;Kim, Chang-Hun;Kim, Myoung-Hee;Hwang, Seung-Sik;Lim, Jeong-Hun;Yoon, Tae-Ho
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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    • v.44 no.6
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    • pp.242-248
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    • 2011
  • Objectives: Busan is reported to have the highest mortality rate among 16 provinces in Korea, as well as considerable health inequality across its districts. This study sought to examine overall and cause-specific mortality and deprivation at the town level in Busan, thereby identifying towns and causes of deaths to be targeted for improving overall health and alleviating health inequality. Methods: Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) for all-cause and four specific leading causes of death were calculated at the town level in Busan for the years 2005 through 2008. To construct a deprivation index, principal components and factor analysis were adopted, using 10% sample data from the 2005 census. Geographic information system (GIS) mapping techniques were applied to compare spatial distributions between the deprivation index and SMRs. We fitted the Gaussian conditional autoregressive model (CAR) to estimate the relative risks of mortality by deprivation level, controlling for both the heterogeneity effect and spatial autocorrelation. Results: The SMRs of towns in Busan averaged 100.3, ranging from 70.7 to 139.8. In old inner cities and towns reclaimed for replaced households, the deprivation index and SMRs were relatively high. CAR modeling showed that gaps in SMRs for heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and physical injury were particularly high. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that more deprived towns are likely to have higher mortality, in particular from cardiovascular disease and physical injury. To improve overall health status and address health inequality, such deprived towns should be targeted.

ASSESSMENT OF CFD CODES USED IN NUCLEAR REACTOR SAFETY SIMULATIONS

  • Smith, Brian L.
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.42 no.4
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    • pp.339-364
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    • 2010
  • Following a joint OECD/NEA-IAEA-sponsored meeting to define the current role and future perspectives of the application of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to nuclear reactor safety problems, three Writing Groups were created, under the auspices of the NEA working group WGAMA, to produce state-of-the-art reports on different aspects of the subject. The work of the second group, WG2, was to document the existing assessment databases for CFD simulation in the context of Nuclear Reactor Safety (NRS) analysis, to gain a measure of the degree of quality and trust in CFD as a numerical analysis tool, and to take initiatives to extend the existing databases. The group worked over the period of 2003-2007 and produced a final state-of-the-art report. The present paper summarises the material gathered during the study, illustrating the points with a few highlights. A total of 22 safety issues were identified for which the application of CFD was considered to potentially bring real benefits in terms of better understanding and increased safety. A list of the existing databases was drawn up and synthesised, both from the nuclear area and from other parallel, non-nuclear, industrial activities. The gaps in the technology base were also identified and discussed. In order to initiate new ways of bringing experimentalists and numerical analysts together, an international workshop -- CFD4NRS (the first in a series) -- was organised, a new blind benchmark activity was set up based on turbulent mixing in T-junctions, and a Wiki-type web portal was created to offer online access to the material put together by the group giving the reader the opportunity to update and extend the contents to keep the information source topical and dynamic.

Recent Progress in Strain Development of Zymomonas mobilis for Lignocellulosic Ethanol Production (Zymomonas mobilis를 이용한 목질계 에탄올 생산을 위한 균주 개선에 관한 연구 동향)

  • Jeon, Young Jae
    • Journal of Life Science
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    • v.29 no.1
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    • pp.135-145
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    • 2019
  • Zymomonas mobilis has been recognized as a potential industrial ethanologen for many decades due to its outstanding fermentation characteristics, including high ethanol tolerance, fast sugar uptake rate, and high theoretical ethanol yield. With the emergence of the postgenomic era and the recent announcement of DuPont's world largest cellulosic ethanol production process, research on this bacterium has become even more important to harness successful application not only for use in the bioethanol process but also in other biochemical processes, which can be included in bio-refinery. As an important industrial microorganism, Z. mobilis will likely be exposed to various stressful environments, such as toxic chemicals, including the end-product ethanol and fermentative inhibitory compounds (e.g., furan derivatives, organic acids, and lignin derivatives in pretreatment steps), as well as physical stresses, such as high temperature during large-scale ethanol fermentation. This review focuses on recent information related to the industrial robustness of this bacterium and strain development to improve the ethanol yield and productivity in the lignocellulosic ethanol process. Although several excellent review articles on the strain development of this bacterium have been published, this review aims to fill gaps in the literature by highlighting recent advances in physiological understanding of this bacterium that may aid strain developments and improve the ethanol productivity for lignocellulosic biomass.

Performance Analysis of QUIC Protocol for Web and Streaming Services (웹 및 스트리밍 서비스에 대한 QUIC 프로토콜 성능 분석)

  • Nam, Hye-Been;Jung, Joong-Hwa;Choi, Dong-Kyu;Koh, Seok-Joo
    • KIPS Transactions on Computer and Communication Systems
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    • v.10 no.5
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    • pp.137-144
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    • 2021
  • The IETF has recently been standardizing the QUIC protocol for HTTP/3 services. It is noted that HTTP/3 uses QUIC as the underlying protocol, whereas HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2 are based on TCP. Differently from TCP, the QUIC uses 0-RTT or 1-RTT transmissions to reduce the connection establishment delays of TCP and SCTP. Moreover, to solve the head-of-line blocking problem, QUIC uses the multi-streaming feature. In addition, QUIC provides various features, including the connection migration, and it is available at the Chrome browser. In this paper, we analyze the performance of QUIC for HTTP-based web and streaming services by comparing with the existing TCP and Streaming Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) in the network environments with different link delays and packet error rates. From the experimental results, we can see that QUIC provides better throughputs than TCP and SCTP, and the gaps of performances get larger, as the link delays and packet error rates increase.

Machine Learning Algorithm Accuracy for Code-Switching Analytics in Detecting Mood

  • Latib, Latifah Abd;Subramaniam, Hema;Ramli, Siti Khadijah;Ali, Affezah;Yulia, Astri;Shahdan, Tengku Shahrom Tengku;Zulkefly, Nor Sheereen
    • International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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    • v.22 no.9
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    • pp.334-342
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    • 2022
  • Nowadays, as we can notice on social media, most users choose to use more than one language in their online postings. Thus, social media analytics needs reviewing as code-switching analytics instead of traditional analytics. This paper aims to present evidence comparable to the accuracy of code-switching analytics techniques in analysing the mood state of social media users. We conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) to study the social media analytics that examined the effectiveness of code-switching analytics techniques. One primary question and three sub-questions have been raised for this purpose. The study investigates the computational models used to detect and measures emotional well-being. The study primarily focuses on online postings text, including the extended text analysis, analysing and predicting using past experiences, and classifying the mood upon analysis. We used thirty-two (32) papers for our evidence synthesis and identified four main task classifications that can be used potentially in code-switching analytics. The tasks include determining analytics algorithms, classification techniques, mood classes, and analytics flow. Results showed that CNN-BiLSTM was the machine learning algorithm that affected code-switching analytics accuracy the most with 83.21%. In addition, the analytics accuracy when using the code-mixing emotion corpus could enhance by about 20% compared to when performing with one language. Our meta-analyses showed that code-mixing emotion corpus was effective in improving the mood analytics accuracy level. This SLR result has pointed to two apparent gaps in the research field: i) lack of studies that focus on Malay-English code-mixing analytics and ii) lack of studies investigating various mood classes via the code-mixing approach.

Construction and Refinement of Conceptual Site Model Based on Scrutiny of Oil Contaminated Site (유류오염부지 정밀조사에 기반한 부지개념모델 구축 및 개선)

  • Min Seo Bae;Mingyeong Kim;Juhee Kim;Soonjae Lee;Man Jae Kwon;Ho Young Jo
    • Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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    • v.28 no.2
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    • pp.12-29
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    • 2023
  • Conceptual site model (CSM) development and enhancement for contaminated sites assists in identifying data gaps during the site investigation process. In this study, CSM was developed and enhanced for a contaminated site in Korea as a case study. Site Y was scrutinized four times previously. The site profiles for each scrutiny were reorganized based on the scrutiny reports, and the relevant data was utilized to develop and enhance CSMs. CSM for the first investigation was developed in various forms including table, flowchart, diagram, and narrative formats. CSM was enhanced in a stepwise manner by incorporating the updated profile information obtained in next investigation to existing CSM. The hypothetical data gap analysis between each investigation step was established to meet the purpose of the follow-up investigation. This case study showed that CSM is a useful tool to identify the history and current status of contaminated sites and thereby help in planning supplementary investigations for better site characterization.