• MALSORI
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• no.37
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• pp.73-85
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• 1999

The prosodic characteristics of Korean particles in read speech were examined in this paper based on K-ToBI labeling system in order to see whether they are prosodically weak form like functions words in English. Acoustic measurements and statistical analysis were done focusing on the distribution of particles over a variety of prosodic positions, prosodic positional effects on the phonetic realization of particles, and acoustic strength of particles compared to those of their surrounding syllables. The panicles were distributed rather equally over all 4 prosodic positions with the highest frequency at IP-medial/AP-final position and the lowest at IP-medial/AP-medial position except that topic marker 'Un/nUn' showed preference for IP-final/AP-final position. There was a significant prosodic positional effect on the duration and F0 of the particles. Duration was the longest at IP-final/AP-final position and interestingly, at IP-medial/AP-medial position while F0 was the highest at IP-final/AP-medial Position as expected. The comparison of the acoustic properties of the particles with those of neighbor syllables showed that duration was generally significantly longer and energy also showed larger values, if not significant, in particles suggesting that the particles in Korean are not prosodically weaker like function words in English.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.129-139
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• 2005

This paper investigates any possible correlation between the information structure and the occurrence of clause internal pauses in the spontaneous discourse. One of the possible functions of pause is its capacity to signal the information structure of the discourse. However, this aspect was not much explored in Korean spontaneous speech. In the present study, information structure of spontaneous speech was defined for each word or word group on the basis of the information structure analysis model proposed by Van Donzel (1999) and Roulet (1991, 1997). Thus, at a local level (words or word groups) of discourse structure, a distinction was made between three types of information, new, given and inferable. The results showed that clause internal pauses tend to appear more frequently before new information than other types of information. However compared to the total number of words or word groups it was not noticed any specific ordering concerning different kind of information status and pausing. It was however found that clause internal pauses did not appear randomly. The majority of them occurred at the initial part of the clause or the sentence. This tendency was mostly related to the division of sentence (or clause) into topic and comment. Thus, the role of pauses as a marker of information structure seems to be less effective in spontaneous discourse.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.319-330
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• 2017

Introduction: The extent of lymphadenectomy in the surgical treatment of gastric cancer is a topic of controversy among surgeons. This study was conducted to analyze the American National Cancer Database (NCDB) and conclude the optimal extent of lymphadenectomy for gastric adenocarcinoma. Methods: The NCDB for gastric cancer was utilized. Patients who received at least a partial gastrectomy were included. Patients with metastatic disease, unknown TNM stages, R1/R2 resection, or treated with a palliative intent were excluded. Joinpoint regression was used to identify the extent of lymphadenectomy that reflects the optimal survival. Cox regression analysis and Bayesian information criterion were used to identify significant survival predictors. Kaplan-Meier was applied to study overall survival and stage migration. Results: 40,281 patients of 168,377 met the inclusion criteria. Joinpoint analysis showed that dissection of 29 nodes provides the optimal median survival for the overall population. Regression analysis reported the cutoff ${\geq}29$ to have a better fit in the prognostic model than that of ${\geq}15$. Dissection of ${\geq}29$ nodes in the higher stages provides a comparable overall survival to the immediately lower stage. Nonetheless, the retrieval of ${\geq}15$ nodes proved to be adequate for staging without a significant stage migration compared to ${\geq}29$ nodes. Conclusion: The extent of lymphadenectomy in gastric adenocarcinoma is a marker of improved resection which reflects in a longer overall survival. Our analysis concludes that the dissection of ${\geq}15$ nodes is adequate for staging. However, the dissection of 29 nodes might be needed to provide a significantly improved survival.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2004

The potential importance of proteomic approaches has been clearly demonstrated in other fields of human medical research, including liver and heart disease and certain forms of cancer. However, reproductive researches have been applied to proteomics poorly. Proteomics can be defined as the systematic analysis of proteins for their identity, quantity, and function. It could increase the predictability of early drug development and identify non-invasive biomarkers of toxicity or efficacy. Proteome analysis is most commonly accomplished by the combination of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis(2DE) and MALDI-TOF(matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight) MS(mass spectrometry) or protein chip array and SELDI-TOF(surface-enhanced laser desorption ionization-time of flight) MS. In addition understanding the possessing knowledge of the developing biomarkers used to assess reproductive biology will also be essential components relevant to the topic of reproduction. The continued integration of proteomic and genomic data will have a fundamental impact on our understanding of the normal functioning of cells and organisms and will give insights into complex cellular processes and disease and provides new opportunities for the development of diagnostics and therapeutics. The challenge to researchers in the field of reproduction is to harness this new technology as well as others that are available to a greater extent than at present as they have considerable potential to greatly improve our understanding of the molecular aspects of reproduction both in health and disease.