• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.265-278
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• 2014

Microbes such as bacteria, fungi, archaea, protists, and viruses are ubiquitous and people are exposed to them continuously. Endotoxin is a component of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria and a potent proinflammaotry substance. When a person is exposed to environmental endotoxin, an innate immune response is initiated upon the initial recognition and this response produces various inflammatory mediators and recruits inflammatory cells to the exposed tissues. A purified chemical form of endotoxin is called lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and the lipid A portion of the molecule is a biologically active moiety. Exposure to endotoxin may result in various complex health effects depending on time, route, and dose of exposure, as well as host susceptibility. Gene-environment interactions play important roles in health effects of endotoxin exposure, e.g. development or aggravation of asthma. To accurately assess exposure to endotoxin in environmental or epidemiologic studies, methods of sampling, extraction, and analysis must be carefully selected since the selected methods may substantially affect analytical results and there is no internationally-agreed standard method to date. The lack of a standardized method hampers the establishment of exposure-response relationships. While an internationally-agreed health-based exposure limit does not exist, the Dutch Expert Committee on Occupational Safety recently recommended $90EU/m^3$ as a health-based occupational exposure limit. The current article reviews various scientific issues on how we measure environmental endotoxin and the health effects of endotoxin exposure.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.406-413
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• 2023

Captive breeding and reintroduction are crucial strategies for conserving endangered species populations. However, fish raised in predator-free environments, show a lack of recognition of predationrelated stimuli such as chemical and visual signals. It is critical to recognize chemical signals from injured conspecifics, also known as alarm signals, and the order or shape of predators to indicate the spread of predation risk in the habitat. We conducted a laboratory experiment to determine and adjust the optimal exposure period to induce appropriate anti-predator behavior response to different types of stimuli (Chemical, Visual and Chemical+Visual) for the endangered species Microphysogobio rapidus. Our results demonstrate that predator avoidance behavior varies depending on the types of stimuli and the duration of predation risk exposure. First, the results showed captive-breed M. rapidus show lack of response against conspecific alarm signal (Chemical cue) before the predation risk exposure period and tend to increase response over predation risk exposure time. Second, response to predator (visual cue) tend to peak at 48 hours cumulative exposure, but show dramatic decrease after 72 hours cumulative exposure. Finally, response to the mixed cue (Chemical+visual) tend to peak prior to the predation risk exposure period and show reduced response during subsequent exposure periods. This experiment confirms the lack of responsiveness to conspecific alarm signals in captive-bred M. rapidus and the need for an optimal nature behavior enhancement program prior to release of endangered species. Furthermore, responsiveness to predator visual signal peak at 48 hours cumulative exposure, suggest an optimal predation risk exposure period of up to 48 hours.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2015

The purpose of this research is to study methods for performing transition that have visual representation of corresponding animations with no bounce in subsequently recognized user information when attempting to interact with a virtual 3D character in real-time using user motion. If the transitions of the animation are needed owing to a variety of external environments, continuous recognition of user information is required to correspond to the motion. The proposed method includes linear interpolation of the transition using cross-fades and blending techniques. The normalized playing time of the source animation was utilized for automatically calculating the transition interpolation length of the target animation and also as the criteria in selecting the crossfades and blending techniques. In particular, in the case of blending, the weighting value based on the degree of similarity between two animations is used as a blending parameter. Accordingly, transitions for visually excellent animation are performed on interactive holographic projection systems.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.11-19
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• 1983

An irregulary formed chamber was designed and constructed to recognize the direct sound radiated from the sound source and the reflected sound from the walls of the chamber. The sound signal used was tone burst in the frequency response characteristics with the signal detection after transient effect. The direct wave, transient phenomena and the primary reflected sound could be asiily distinguished each other by measurements of the arrival time of the time difference. And also noise could be easily distinguished by the same method. The result obtained can be used in industries for automatic measurement of the sound pressure reponse characteristics with respect to frequencies.

• BMB Reports
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.264-269
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• 2013

Pattern recognition receptors are known to participate in the activation of Prophenoloxidase system. In this study, a 1,3-${\beta}$-D-glucan recognition protein was detected for the first time in Antheraea pernyi larvae (Ap-${\beta}GRP$). Ap-${\beta}GRP$ was purified to 99.9% homogeneity from the hemolymph using traditional chromatographic methods. Ap-${\beta}GRP$ specifically bind 1,3-${\beta}$-D-glucan and yeast, but not E. coli or M. luteus. The 1,3-${\beta}$-D-glucan dependent phenoloxidase (PO) activity of the hemolymph inhibited by anti-Ap-${\beta}GRP$ antibody could be recovered by addition of purified Ap-${\beta}GRP$. These results demonstrate that Ap-${\beta}GRP$ acts as a biosensor of 1,3-${\beta}$-Dglucan to trigger the Prophenoloxidase system. A trace mount of 1,3-${\beta}$-D-glucan or Ap-${\beta}GRP$ alone was unable to trigger the proPO system, but they both did. Ap-${\beta}GRP$ was specifically degraded following the activation of proPO with 1,3-${\beta}$-Dglucan. These results indicate the variation in the amount of Ap-${\beta}GRP$ after specific immune challenge in A. pernyi hemolymph is an important regulation mechanism to immune response.

• The Journal of Korean Society for School & Community Health Education
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.113-125
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• 2012

Objectives: This study was aimed to inspect what relation there exists between the elderly's social support, self-esteem and the suicidal thinking, and examined factors influencing their suicidal ideation. Methods: For 207 old persons above 65 residing at Seoul, questionnaire survey was performed for 4 weeks. For response data, t-test and ANOVA, Pearson's Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Regression Analysis were performed using spss 18.0 program. Results: The results of analysis are like followings. 1. As for the social support according to the general characteristics, there was statistically significant difference in sex distinction, religion, living arrangement, educational level, monthly allowance and mode to use spare time. As for self-esteem according to the general characteristics, there was statistically significant difference in sex distinction, religion, living arrangement and monthly allowance. And as for the suicidal ideation, there was statistically significant difference in the marital status. 2. As for the relation between the social support, self-esteem and the suicidal ideation, it showed statistically very significant positive correlation in the social support and self-esteem. And there existed relatively higher positive correlation in family support among sub-factors of the social support and the positive self-recognition among sub-factors of self-esteem. 3. It showed that positive and negative self-recognition as sub-factors of self-esteem, others' support as sub-factor of the social support influence on the suicidal ideation. In other words, as positive self-recognition was lower, as negative self-recognition was higher, as social support of others was lower, they had much more effect on the suicidal ideation of the elderly. And it showed about 36.1% of the explanatory capability. Conclusions: Health care providers should develop school health education for the elderly.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.40-49
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• 1994

In this paper, we propose methods for improving the performance of word recognition system. The ray stratey of the first method is to apply the inertia to the feature vector sequences of speech signal to stabilize the transitions between VQ cdoes. The second method is generating the new observation probabilities using the transition matrix of VQ codes as weights at the observation probability of the output symbol, so as to take into account the time relation between neighboring frames in DHMM. By applying the inertia to the feature vector sequences, we can reduce the overlapping of probability distribution of the response paths for each word and stabilize state transitions in the HMM. By using the transition matrix of VQ codes as weights in conventional DHMM. we can divide the probability distribution of feature vectors more and more, and restrict the feature distribution to a suitable region so that the performance of recognition system can improve. To evaluate the performance of the proposed methods, we carried out experiments for 50 DDD area names. As a result, the proposed methods improved the recognition rate by $4.2\%$ in the speaker-dependent test and $12.45\%$ in the speaker-independent test, respectively, compared with the conventional DHMM.

• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.1-8
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• 2004

Purpose: This research aims to assess the effect of group education of hospice and palliative care program on recognition of home hospice care for terminal cancer patients and their family members. Methods: The terminal cancer patients or their family members who have visited Sam Anyang Hospital from January to September in 2004 participated in group education of hospice and palliative care program on one time a week. Of those, 32 patients or family members who were called education group has participated in group education more than 4 times and responded to a questionnaire. Sixty three patients or family members who were called non-education group have never participated in group education of hospice and palliative care program during the same period. Data were collected and done comparative analysis about both group. Results: A knowledge difference on definition of hospice and palliative care come out 29 people(91%) in education group and 26 people(41%) in non-education group. The recognition of home hospice care in education group(32 people, 100%) was significantly higher than non-education group(15 people,24%). A intention to home hospice care in education group(23 people, 72%) was significantly higher than non-education group(10 people,16%) and practically number of home hospice care was 15 people(50%) in education group and 8(13%) in non-education group. The recognition about cancer of patients was not significant differences in both group. People that the response to the question about 'Did you let your patient know to be the terminal cancer patient?' is 'yes' was 12 people(38%) in education group and 13(21%) in non-education group. Patients in education group had insight about terminal cancer significantly higher than non-education group. Conclusion: If we educated effective hospice and palliative care program in terminal cancer patients or their family members, we think the recognition of cancer and hospice and palliative care improve, and the home hospice care be activated more and more.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.37C no.10
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• pp.925-932
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• 2012

In this paper, we develop a pattern recognition algorithm applied to a humanoid robot which is exploited as a guide for visually handicapped persons to find a desired path to their destinations. Behavior primitives of a humanoid robot are defined, and Canny's edge detection algorithm is employed to extract the pattern and color of the paving blocks that especially devised for visually handicapped persons. Based on these, an efficient path finding algorithm is developed and implemented on a humanoid robot, running on an embedded linux operating system equipped with a video camera. The performance of our algorithm is experimentally examined in terms of the response time and the pattern recognition ratio. In order to validate our algorithm in various realistic environments, the experiments are repeatedly performed by changing the tilt of paving blocks and the brightness in surrounding area. The results show that our algorithm performs sufficiently well to be exploited as a path finding system for visually handicapped persons.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartB
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• v.9B no.6
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• pp.853-862
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• 2002

Face Detection can be defined as follows : Given a digitalized arbitrary or image sequence, the goal of face detection is to determine whether or not there is any human face in the image, and if present, return its location, direction, size, and so on. This technique is based on many applications such face recognition facial expression, head gesture and so on, and is one of important qualify factors. But face in an given image is considerably difficult because facial expression, pose, facial size, light conditions and so on change the overall appearance of faces, thereby making it difficult to detect them rapidly and exactly. Therefore, this paper proposes fast and exact face detection which overcomes some restrictions by using neural network. The proposed system can be face detection irrelevant to facial expression, background and pose rapidily. For this. face detection is performed by neural network and detection response time is shortened by reducing search region and decreasing calculation time of neural network. Reduced search region is accomplished by using skin color segment and frame difference. And neural network calculation time is decreased by reducing input vector sire of neural network. Principle Component Analysis (PCA) can reduce the dimension of data. Also, pose estimates in extracted facial image and eye region is located. This result enables to us more informations about face. The experiment measured success rate and process time using the Squared Mahalanobis distance. Both of still images and sequence images was experimented and in case of skin color segment, the result shows different success rate whether or not camera setting. Pose estimation experiments was carried out under same conditions and existence or nonexistence glasses shows different result in eye region detection. The experiment results show satisfactory detection rate and process time for real time system.