• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.473-479
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• 2023

In this study, the dose of photoneutrons generated during radiotherapy of prostate cancer using high energy was measured using a photo-stimulated luminescence dosimeter. In addition, this study was intended to study the probability of side effects occurring in the abdomen. A medical linear accelerator capable of generating 15 MV energy, True Beam STx (Varian Medical Systems, USA) and a radiation treatment planning system (Eclipse, Varian Medical Systems, USA) were used. A human body phantom was installed on the couch of the linear accelerator, and an Albedo Neutron Optical Stimulation Luminescence Neutron Detector (Landauer Inc., IL, USA) was used to measure the photoneutron dose. The photoneutron dose value in the abdomen of VMAT and 3C-CRT was 52.8 mSv, more than twice as high as VMAT compared to 3D-CRT. During radiotherapy of prostate cancer, the probability of causing side effects in the abdomen due to light neutron dose was calculated to be 3.2 per 1,000 for VMAT and 1.4 for 3D-CRT. By studying the abdomen, which has a major side effect that can occur during radiotherapy of prostate cancer, it is expected that it will be used as a meaningful study to study the quality of life and stochastic effect of prostate cancer patients

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.237-245
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• 2022

Background: The current study reports measurements of activity concentrations of radon (²²⁰Rn) and thoron (²²⁰Rn) in dwellings, followed by inhalation dose assessment of the public, and then by the development of regulation and the national radon action plan (NRAP) in Cameroon. Materials and Methods: Radon, thoron, and thoron progeny measurements were carried out from 2014 to 2017 using radon-thoron discriminative detectors (commercially RADUET) in 450 dwellings and thoron progeny monitors in 350 dwellings. From 2019 to 2020, radon track detectors (commercially RADTRAK) were deployed in 1,400 dwellings. It was found that activity concentrations of radon range in 1,850 houses from 10 to 2,620 Bq/㎥ with a geometric mean of 76 Bq/㎥. Results and Discussion: Activity concentrations of thoron range from 20 to 700 Bq/㎥ with a geometric mean of 107 Bq/㎥. Thoron equilibrium factor ranges from 0.01 to 0.6, with an arithmetic mean of 0.09 that is higher than the default value of 0.02 given by UNSCEAR. On average, 49%, 9%, and 2% of all surveyed houses have radon concentrations above 100, 200, and 300 Bq/㎥, respectively. The average contribution of thoron to the inhalation dose due to radon and thoron exposure is about 40%. Thus, thoron cannot be neglected in dose assessment to avoid biased results in radio-epidemiological studies. Only radon was considered in the drafted regulation and in the NRAP adopted in October 2020. Reference levels of 300 Bq/㎥ and 1,000 Bq/㎥ were recommended for dwellings and workplaces. Conclusion: Priority actions for the coming years include the following: radon risk mapping, promotion of a protection policy against radon in buildings, integration of the radon prevention and mitigation into the training of construction specialists, mitigation of dwellings and workplaces with high radon levels, increased public awareness of the health risks associated with radon, and development of programs on the scientific and technical aspects.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.6A
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• pp.977-988
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• 2006

The goal of this study is to develop a realistic methodology for determination of the Life-Cycle Cost (LCC)-effective optimal seismic retrofit and maintenance strategy of deteriorating bridges. The proposed methodology is based on the concept of minimum LCC which is expressed as the sum of present value of seismic retrofit costs, expected maintenance costs, and expected economic losses with the constraints such as design requirements and acceptable risk of death. The proposed methodology is applied to the LCC-effective optimal seismic retrofit and maintenance strategy of a steel bridge considered as a example bridge in the accompanying study, and various conditions such as corrosion environments and Average Daily Traffic Volumes (ADTVs) are considered to investigate the effects on total expected LCC. In addition, to verify the validity of the developed methodology, the results are compared with the existing methodology. From the numerical investigation, it may be positively expected that the proposed methodology can be effectively utilized as a practical tool for the decision-making of LCC-effective optimal seismic retrofit and maintenance strategy of deteriorating bridges.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.1D
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• pp.1-10
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• 2010

Safety improvement has been a continuous challenge, especially at toll gate of express highway where traffic conflict often occurs due to frequent lane change by drivers of "Hi-pass" lane and regular "TCS" lane. As a part of research on safety at toll gate, this study videotaped traffic conflict data between vehicles using centrally located "Hi-pass" lane and regular "TCS" lane and analyzed accident risk. According to the correlation analysis of vehicle speed, relative vehicle speed, and sudden vehicle deceleration rate due to traffic conflict, when the relative vehicle speed between centrally located "Hi-pass" lane and regular "TCS" lane increases, sudden vehicle deceleration rate also increases. One of the findings is that centrally located "Hi-pass" lane at toll gate shows different location for traffic conflict, and frequency of traffic conflict and the relative vehicle speed was also different based on vehicle lane use. TA (Time to Accident) analysis shows that accident rate is high at toll gate where Hipass lane is installed in center lane, when the occurrence of sudden vehicle deceleration and deceleration time of vehicles rise for vehicles on "Hi-pass" lane. Furthermore, if the expressway entrance/exit point is closely located to toll gate, TA showed a low value. Thus, it is necessary to reduce the relative vehicle speed in order to improve safety. The Study presents reduction of the relevant vehicular speed and prevention of accidents at the centrally installed "Hi-pass" lane as an important strategy for safety improvement at toll gate.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1-32
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• 2014

The purpose of this paper is to investigate upon a diversification strategy through market creation of CJ Group, which has contributed in positioning of the firm as one of the leading conglomerates in South Korea. With such objective, the background of CJ Group, followed by its business diversification strategies were explored, with reference to several case studies. The history of CJ Group began with establishment of CheilJedang Industrial Corporation in 1953, as the first domestic sugar producer and exporter of South Korea. The corporation gradually expanded its business ever since at both national and global level, to include the fields of food production, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and life chemicals. Later, CheilJedang (CJ) Group was established as an affiliate of CheilJedang Industrial Corporation. With such independence, extension of business has been witnessed across the industries of media, entertainment, finance, information technology and distribution. Thus, the current CJ Group pursues to define itself as a progressive global living culture company with four major business categories from food and food service, biotechnology, entertainment and media, and logistics. Despite its success in today's market, CJ Group underwent hardships in its business diversification in 1990s due to indiscreet management, along with the Asian financial crisis. Here, many firms overcame the financial difficulties by taking advantage of the exchange rate for overseas expansion. Though, CJ Group tried to differentiate itself by focusing on the domestic market by creating something out of nothing. Hence, CJ Group takes a unique position among many cases of business diversification and their categorization. In an effort to identify and classify the types of growth experienced by the top 30 companies in South Korea, the firms were categorized into four groups according to their diversification strategies adapted after the Asian financial crisis. Based on the mode and time of entry, corporations were identified either as the 'Explorer', 'Invader', 'Venture Capitalist', or 'Assimilator'. Here, the majority of the firms showed the qualities of Invader, entering mature markets through large-scaled mergers and acquisitions. However, CJ Group was the only firm that was categorized as an Explorer, for its focus on the newly emerging service sector in culture-contents industry. This diversification strategy through market creation is worth examining, due to its contribution in generating simultaneous growth between the market and the company itself. Diverse brands of CJ Group have been referred to as case studies in this regard, from 'Hatban', 'Cine de Chef', 'VIPS' to 'CJ GLS'. These four businesses, each to represent processed food, film, restaurant service, and logistics industries respectively, show CJ Group's effectiveness in creating a whole new category of goods and services that are innovative. In fact, such businesses not only contributed in advancement of consumers' wellbeing, but toward generating additional value and employment. It is true that the diversification strategy of CJ Group requires long-term capital investment with high risk, compared to the other strategies mentioned in the paper. However, this model does create high employment and additional values that are positive to both the society and the firm itself. Therefore, the paper comes to a conclusion that the diversification strategy through market creation conveys the most positive impact relative to the others.

• KIPS Transactions on Software and Data Engineering
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• v.12 no.11
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• pp.493-504
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• 2023

The Republic of Korea is located far from the boundary of the earthquake plate, and the intra-plate earthquake occurring in these areas is generally small in size and less frequent than the interplate earthquake. Nevertheless, as a result of investigating and analyzing earthquakes that occurred on the Korean Peninsula between the past two years and 1904 and earthquakes that occurred after observing recent earthquakes on the Korean Peninsula, it was found that of a magnitude of 9. In this paper, the Korean Peninsula Historical Earthquake Record (2 years to 1904) published by the National Meteorological Research Institute is used to analyze the relationship between earthquakes on the Korean Peninsula and statistical self-similarity. In addition, the problem solved through this paper was the first to investigate the relationship between earthquake data occurring on the Korean Peninsula and statistical self-similarity. As a result of measuring the degree of self-similarity of earthquakes on the Korean Peninsula using three quantitative estimation methods, the self-similarity parameter H value (0.5 < H < 1) was found to be above 0.8 on average, indicating a high degree of self-similarity. And through graph visualization, it can be easily figured out in which region earthquakes occur most often, and it is expected that it can be used in the development of a prediction system that can predict damage in the event of an earthquake in the future and minimize damage to property and people, as well as in earthquake data analysis and modeling research. Based on the findings of this study, the self-similar process is expected to help understand the patterns and statistical characteristics of seismic activities, group and classify similar seismic events, and be used for prediction of seismic activities, seismic risk assessments, and seismic engineering.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.17-26
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• 2023

To consider the risk of damage and fracture of P.C strands, the existing post-maintenance system alone has the limitations, hence it is necessary to quantitatively evaluate and predict the deterioration, durability and safety of facilities and establish a reasonable maintenance system considering the asset value of facilities. Therefore, it is worth considering a preventive maintenance plan that allows proactive measures to be taken before a major defect occurs in the temporary anchor. This study devised a preventive over tension method, reviewed its effectiveness through design and field tests, by calculating the resistance factors by performing a reliability-based optimization design. At this time, the over tension anchor method was evaluated using the ratio of the residual tension force after the fracture of P.C strands to the effective tension force before the fracture of P.C strand, followed by the resistance factor calculated by the optimal solution for each random variables using Excel solver and applying it to the limit state equations. As a result of the study, if the over tension ratio is 125% to 130%, the remaining strands showed a high resistance effect even after the fracture of P.C strand. As a result of the optimization design, it was found that it is appropriate to apply the load factor (γ) of 1.25, and the resistance factors of Φ₁, Φ₂, Φ₃ as 0.7, 0.5, 0.6.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.320-329
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• 2023

Background: Oral frailty has garnered considerable interest following its identification as a risk factor for physical frailty. The Korean oral frailty diagnosis criteria have emphasized the need for extensive research on oral frailty diagnostic items and interventions. Our study performed an in-depth analysis of the tongue-palate pressure patterns in healthy community-dwelling older adults. Methods: Of the 217 older adults aged ≥60 years who visited a senior center in Wonju, 205 participants who completed tongue pressure measurement were included in the final analysis. Pressure changes over time were recorded by instructing the participants to press their tongue against the hard palate with for 7 seconds per cycle. The participants were divided into the normal and abnormal tongue pressure (NTP and ATP, respectively) groups based on whether they achieved the target tongue pressure at least once; tongue pressure patterns were compared between the groups. Furthermore, the average time taken to achieve the standard tongue pressure value was calculated for the participants in the NTP group and used to evaluate the decrease in tongue pressure in the ATP group. Results: Among the 205 participants, 40.5% had ATP. The tongue pressure graph revealed a gentle and consistent incline that was maintained even after achieving standard tongue pressure in the NTP group. The graph was more extreme in the ATP group, and the changes in the pressure type varied across individuals; the tongue pressure was only 48.4%, 40.7%, 31.9%, and 22.6% of the NTP in the participants in their 60s, 70s, 80s, and ≥90s, respectively (p<0.05). Conclusion: Tongue pressure weakness was observed in 40.5% of the healthy community-dwelling older adults. Furthermore, ATP graphs were observed in the patients with tongue pressure weakness. Thus, activities improving the oral function in community-dwelling older adults and systematic oral rehabilitation programs should be devised to promote normal swallowing.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.265-290
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• 2023

Even though crowdfunding has become popular as a novel means of raising capital for early-stage ventures and startups through an Internet-based platform, it is unclear how a funder's characteristics, such as motivation and ability, influence their information processing and pledging decision. This study aims to propose and test a research model for determining the relationships between a funder's personal attributes, information processing style, and funding intention. To test the research model, we collected data from 139 Amazon Mechanical Turk participants through an online questionnaire survey. The findings indicate that a funder's self-efficacy has a positive effect on heuristic processing but has no significant effect on systematic processing. By contrast, a funder's personal relevance positively influences both systematic and heuristic processing. Furthermore, heuristic processing, as well as perceived value and perceived risk, influence pledging intentions positively. Our findings potentially contribute to improving the design of crowdfunding platforms to better support a funder's information needs. Based on our findings, we discuss the implications of our study as well as the directions for future research.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.735-742
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• 2023

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is an independent risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, and kidney disease, and the clinical importance of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease has recently been increasing. In this study, we aim to extract feature values by applying GLCM, a texture analysis method, to ultrasound images of patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. By applying an artificial neural network model using extracted feature values, we would like to classify the degree of fat deposition in non-alcoholic fatty liver into normal liver, mild fatty liver, moderate fatty liver, and severe fatty liver. As a result of applying the GLCM algorithm, the parameters Autocorrelation, Sum of squares, Sum average, and sum variance showed a tendency for the average value of the feature values to increase as it progressed from mild fatty liver to moderate fatty liver to severe fatty liver. The four parameters of Autocorrelation, Sum of squares, Sum average, and sum variance extracted by applying the GLCM algorithm to ultrasound images of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease were applied as inputs to the artificial neural network model. The classification accuracy was evaluated by applying the GLCM algorithm to the ultrasound images of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and applying the extracted images to an artificial neural network, showing a high accuracy of 92.5%. Through these results, we would like to present the results of this study as basic data when conducting a texture analysis GLCM study on ultrasound images of patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.