• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.183-190
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• 2004

Objectives: Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) mutation are commonly associated with hyperhomocysteinemia, and through their defects in homocysteine metabolism, they have been implicated as a risk factor for recurrent spontaneous abortion. Recent report describe that 28-bp tandem repeat polymorphism in thymidylate synthase enhancer region (TSER) that influence enzyme activity would affect plasma homocysteine level. We have investigated the relationship between TSER genotype and plasma homocysteine level in 54 patients with recurrent spontaneous abortion. Methods: Plasma homocysteine level was measured by fluorescent polarizing immunoassay. MTHFR mutation (C677T and A1298C) was identified by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism assay and TSER mutation was analyzed by PCR method. The data were analyzed using the program SAS 8.2 for Windows. Results: Total homocysteine level was significantly higher in MTHFR 677TT genotype ($9.80{\pm}3.87{\mu}mol/L$) than MTHFR 677CC genotype ($8.14{\pm}1.74{\mu}mol/L$) in Korean patients with unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion (p=0.0143). However, the plasma homocysteine level was not significantly different in the MTHFR 1298AA ($8.42{\pm}2.65{\mu}mol/L$) and 1298CC ($6.09{\pm}0.32{\mu}mol/L$; p=0.2058) and, TSER 2R2R ($8.61{\pm}1.68{\mu}mol/L$) and 3R3R ($8.05{\pm}2.81{\mu}mol/L$; p=0.9319) mutant genotypes, respectively. In this study, we found the combination effects of TSER and MTHFR C677T genotypes. Plasma homocysteine levels were the highest ($11.47{\pm}4.66{\mu}mol/L$) in individuals with TSER 3R3R ($8.05{\pm}2.81{\mu}mol/L$) and MTHFR 677TT ($9.80{\pm}3.87{\mu}mol/L$) genotypes. Individuals with a combination of both TSER 2R2R/2R3R and MTHFR 677CC/CT genotypes ($7.69{\pm}1.77{\mu}mol/L$) had lower plasma homocysteine levels than TSER 2R2R ($8.61{\pm}1.68{\mu}mol/L$) and MTHR 677CC ($8.14{\pm}1.74{\mu}mol/L$) genotypes, respectively. The effect of MTHFR polymorphism in the homocysteine metabolism appears to be stronger than that of TSER polymorphism. Conclusion: Although statistically not significant, we found the elevated level of plasma homocysteine in combined genotypes with TSER and MTHFR (C677T and A1298C) in Korean patients with unexplained habitual abortion. In this study, we reported the possibility that TSER polymorphism is a genetic determinant of plasma homocysteine levels in the Korean patients as well as MTHFR C677T polymorphism. A large prospective study is needed to verify our findings.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.6249-6256
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• 2013

One-carbon metabolism plays an important role in colorectal carcinogenesis. Meta-analyses have suggested protective associations of folate and vitamin $B_6$ intakes with colorectal cancer primarily based on studies in Caucasians, and genetic polymorphisms pertaining to the folate metabolism have been a matter of interest. Less investigated are the roles of methionine synthase (MTR) and thymidylate synthetase (TS) polymorphisms in colorectal carcinogenesis. In a study of 816 cases and 815 community controls in Japan, we investigated associations of dietary intakes of folate, methionine, vitamin $B_2$, vitamin $B_6$, and vitamin $B_{12}$ with colorectal cancer risk. The associations with MTR 2756A>G, MTRR 66A>G, and TSER repeat polymorphism were examined in 685 cases and 778 controls. Methionine and vitamin $B_{12}$ intakes were inversely associated with colorectal cancer risk, but the associations were totally confounded by dietary calcium and n-3 fatty acids. The other nutrients showed no association with the risk even without adjustment for calcium and n-3 fatty acids. The TSER 2R allele was dose-dependently associated with an increased risk. The MTR and MTRR polymorphisms were unrelated to colorectal cancer risk. There was no measurable gene-gene or gene-nutrient interaction, but increased risk associated with the TSER 2R allele seemed to be confined to individuals with high folate status. This study does not support protective associations for folate and vitamin $B_6$. The TSER 2R allele may confer an increased risk of colorectal cancer. The role of the TSER polymorphism in colorectal carcinogenesis may differ by ethnicity.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.2605-2610
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• 2012

Background: Studies investigating the association of 2R/3R polymorphism in the thymidylate synthase 5'-untranslated enhanced region (TSER) and colorectal cancer (CRC) risk have reported conflicting results. Thus, a meta-analysis was performed to summarize the data on the potential association. Methods: Pubmed, Embase and CBM databases were searched for all available studies. Links between the TSER 2R/3R polymorphism and CRC risk were estimated by odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: Seven case-control studies with a total of 2723 cases and 4030 controls were included in this meta-analysis. The results showed that the 3R variant of TSER 2R/3R polymorphism contributes to CRC risk in two comparison models (OR 3R vs. 2R =1.10, 95%CI 1.02-1.18, P = 0.015; OR Homozygote comparison model = 1.22 1.04-1.43, 95%CI 1.04-1.43, P = 0.012). Subgroup analyses by ethnicity further demonstrated a contribution in Caucasians with three comparison models (OR 3R vs. 2R = 1.10, 95%CI 1.02-1.19, P = 0.015; OR Homozygote comparison model = 1.21, 95%CI 1.03-1.41, P = 0.019; OR Recessive comparison model = 1.18, 95%CI 1.05-1.33, P = 0.008). However, the association in the Asian population was still uncertain due to the limited data (all P values were more than 0.05). Conclusions: Our meta-analysis suggests that the 3R variant of Thymidylate synthase 5'-untranslated enhanced region 2R/3R polymorphism contributes to gastric cancer risk in the Caucasian population, while any association in Asian populations needs further study.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.18
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• pp.8287-8292
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• 2016

Background: Thymidylate synthase (TS) catalyzes the methylation of deoxyuridylate to deoxythymidylate and is involved in DNA methylation, synthesis and repair. Two common polymorphisms have been reported, tandem repeats in the promoter-enhancer region (TSER), and 6bp ins/del in the 5'UTR, that are implicated in a number of human diseases, including cancer. The association between the two polymorphisms in risk for lung cancer (LC) was here investigated in the Jordanian population. Materials and Methods: An age, gender, and smoking-matched case-control study involving 84 lung cancer cases and 71 controls was conducted. The polymerase chain reaction/restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technique was used to detect the polymorphism of interest. Results: Individuals bearing the ins/ins genotype were 2.5 times more likely to have lung cancer [(95%CI: 0.98-6.37), p=0.051]. Individuals who were less than or equal to 57 years and carrying ins/ins genotype were 4.6 times more susceptible to lung cancer [OR<57 vs >57years: 4.6 (95%CI: 0.93-22.5), p=0.059)]. Genotypes and alleles of TSER were distributed similarly between cases and controls. Weak linkage disequilibrium existed between the two loci of interest (Lewontin's coefficient [D']) (LC: D' =0.03, r2: 0. 001, p=0.8; Controls: D' =0.29, r2: 0.08, p=0.02). Carriers of the "3 tandem repeats_insertion" haplotype (3R_ins) were 2 times more likely to have lung cancer [2 (95%CI: 1.13-3.48), p=0.061]. Conclusions: Genetic polymorphism of TS at 3 'UTR and its haplotype analysis may modulate the risk of lung cancer in Jordanians. The 6bp ins/del polymorphism of TS at 3 'UTR is more informative than TSER polymorphism in predicting increased risk.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.5-13
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• 2014

Purpose - We seek feasible strategies to draw customers into a state of attitudinal/behavioral loyalty through perceived quality and perceived risk in the experienced food industry. Research design, data, and methodology - We utilize the LISREL model to examine the cause and effect relationships between customer loyalty, perceived quality, perceived risk, and three marketing proposals (brand image, store image, and promotion). We employed the quota sampling method to conduct the survey questionnaires, collecting365 effective customer samples in coffee shops/stores in Taipei City. Results - We find that store image substantially benefits consumer loyalty through perceived quality. Marketing managers can enhance store environment and atmosphere to elicit both attitudinal and behavioral aspects of customer-perceived quality and loyalty. Conclusions - This is the first paper to investigate simultaneously customer loyalty across brand image, store image, and promotion/marketing proposals in the food industry. Managers can promote brand image and store image at the same time to enhance customer-perceived quality.

• Journal of Communications and Networks
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.89-97
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• 2008

Anomaly detection systems playa significant role in protection mechanism against attacks launched on a network. The greatest challenge in designing systems detecting anomalous exploits is defining what to measure. Effective yet simple, Shannon entropy metrics have been successfully used to detect specific types of malicious traffic in a number of commercially available IDS's. We believe that Renyi entropy measures can also adequately describe the characteristics of a network as a whole as well as detect abnormal traces in the observed traffic. In addition, Renyi entropy metrics might boost sensitivity of the methods when disambiguating certain anomalous patterns. In this paper we describe our efforts to understand how Renyi mutual information can be applied to anomaly detection as an offline computation. An initial analysis has been performed to determine how well fast spreading worms (Slammer, Code Red, and Welchia) can be detected using our technique. We use both synthetic and real data audits to illustrate the potentials of our method and provide a tentative explanation of the results.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.346-354
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• 2022

The SYN flooding attack is widely used in cyber attacks because it paralyzes the network by causing the system and bandwidth resources to be exhausted. This paper proposed a self-information approach for detecting the SYN flooding attack and provided a detection algorithm with a hierarchical policy on a detection time domain. Compared with other detection methods of entropy measurement, the proposed approach is more efficient in detecting the SYN flooding attack, providing low misjudgment, hierarchical detection policy, and low time complexity. Furthermore, we proposed a detection algorithm with limiting system resources. Thus, the time complexity of our approach is only (log n) with lower time complexity and misjudgment rate than other approaches. Therefore, the approach can detect the denial-of-service/distributed denial-of-service attacks and prevent SYN flooding attacks.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.109-120
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• 2022

This study has incorporated the mechanics-dynamics-emotions (MDE) and two behavioral learning paths to investigate the customers' co-creation behavior in Taiwan. The intuitive path begins with a gamification design that reflects the customers' proactive and innovative behavior; the cognitive path begins with persuasion knowledge remarks based on rational and reactive reasoning. These two paths conclude what forms user co-creation. The study collects data of 505 active social media users in Taiwan and employs structural equation modeling. The empirical findings demonstrate persuasive knowledge and gamification design are significantly associated with self-reference, and in turn, positively associated with co-creation. It indicates that cognitive behavior plays the main role in forming co-creation. Participants are more drawn to co-creation behaviors by the marketing contents that prompt reactive behaviors than proactive ones. Therefore, marketing managers can use appropriate stimuli to enhance co-creation behavior. Companies can design activities related to users, and more accessible for reactive, instead of proactive behavior, i.e., asking for their initiatives. It also suggests that companies' marketing campaigns should involve key opinion leaders matching the product image and the target audience's preferences. The novelty of this study is to introduce a novel augmented MDE framework to extend the "dynamics" into the incubation and implementation stage.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.77-89
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• 2024

This study investigated central and peripheral route factors to assess the impact of Google Advertisements on how these factors contribute to users' call-to-action (CTA) and electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) behaviors. We explored the persuasive effects of Google Advertisements on consumers by using a dataset of 483 valid empirical samples from Taiwan. We employed structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the hypotheses. The empirical results of this study indicate that both peripheral (image appeal) and central (information completeness) routes positively lead to the persuasion effect. This finding confirms that the peripheral and central routes increase the persuasion effect. The empirical results indicate that the most effective pathway was image appeal to the persuasion effect and, ultimately, to call to action. Image appeal was also determined to be a secondary pathway that enhances the persuasion effect, ultimately leading to e-WOM. These findings have valuable implications for companies seeking to attract customers to purchase electronic products through the Google search engine. The novelty of our study is that it includes the peripheral route. Our study findings were derived from the symbolic value lens, rather than the central route based solely on the utilitarian and hedonistic value perspective.