• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.221-233
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• 2024

Lignin, a prominent constituent of woody biomass, is abundant in nature, cost-effective, and contains various functional groups, including hydroxyl groups. Owing to these characteristics, they have the potential to replace petroleum-based polyols in the polyurethane industry, offering a solution to environmental problems linked to resource depletion and CO₂ emissions. However, the structural complexity and low reactivity of lignin present challenges for its direct application in polyurethane materials. In this study, Kraft lignin (KL), a representative technical lignin, was fractionated with ethanol, an eco-friendly solvent, and mixed with conventional polyols in varying proportions to produce polyurethane films. The results of ethanol fractionation showed that the polydispersity of ethanol-soluble lignin (ESL) decreased from 3.71 to 2.72 and the hydroxyl content of ESL increased from 4.20 mmol/g to 5.49 mmol/g. Consequently, the polyurethane prepared by adding ESL was superior to the KL-based film, exhibiting improved miscibility with petrochemical-based polyols and reactivity with isocyanate groups. Consequently, the films using ESL as the polyol exhibited reduced shrinkage and a more uniform structure. Optical microscope and scanning electron microscope observations confirmed that lignin aggregation was lower in polyurethane with ESL than in that with KL. When the hydrophobicity of the samples was measured using the water contact angle, the addition of ESL resulted in higher hydrophobicity. In addition, as the amount of ESL added increased, an increase of 7.4% in the residual char was observed, and a 4.04% increase in Tmax the thermal stability of the produced polyurethane was effectively improved.

• The Korean Journal of Petroleum Geology
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• v.5 no.1_2 s.6
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• pp.48-58
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• 1997

Core samples from the B, E, F, H wells in the Tertiary Pohang Basin were analysed for total organic carbon (TOC) content and subject to Rock-Eval pyrolysis in order to assess petroleum geochemical characteristics of organic matter. Following geochemical screening, we selected samples from each well for the study of bitumen and kerogens such as optical observation, infra-red spectroscopy and biomarker analyses. Sediments of the Tertiary Yonil Group contain total organic carbon ranging from $0.55{\%} to 3.74{\%}$ with S1+S2 values higher than 2mgHC/g Rock in B, E and F wells, which indicates fair hydrocarbon generation potential. Most organic matter in the B, E, F wells is compared to type II based on the Rock-Eval pyrolysis, infra-red spectroscopy and optical observation. However, organic matter in the H well is compared to type III because the well is located at the margin of the basin where the preservation of terrestrial material is dominant. Geochemical analyses show that organic matter in the Yonil Group is thermally immature although thermal maturity slightly increases with depth. Maturity levels of the extracted kerogens are similar to those of bulk samples ($Tmax<435^{\circ}C$. Petroleum geochemical charateristics of the sediments in the Tertairy Yonil Group is fair in terms of the organic richness and hydrocarbon genetic potential, but organic matter is thermally immature due to the shallow burial depth. Optical observation of the kerogens and biomarker analysis show that organic matter in the Yonil Group is both marine and terrestrial origin, although it was deposited in marine environment. Pristane/phytane ratio suggests rather anoxic depositional environment. Transitional characteristics of organic matter indicate that the marine Yonil Group was deposited near the terrestrial environments. Input of terrestrial organic matter is more prevalent in the samples recovered from the lowermost horizon in the wells due to the terrestrial environment at the time of basin formation.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.113-145
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• 2009

Recently, due to the globalization of the IT(Information Technology) market, devices and systems designed in one country are used in other countries as well. This phenomenon is becoming the key factor for increased interest on cross-cultural, or cross-national, research within the IT area. However, as the IT market is becoming bigger and more globalized, a great number of IT practitioners are having difficulty in designing and developing devices or systems which can provide optimal experience. This is because not only tangible factors such as language and a country's economic or industrial power affect the user experience of a certain device or system but also invisible and intangible factors as well. Among such invisible and intangible factors, the cultural characteristics of users from different countries may affect the user experience of certain devices or systems because cultural characteristics affect how they understand and interpret the devices or systems. In other words, when users evaluate the quality of overall user experience, the cultural characteristics of each user act as a perceptual lens that leads the user to focus on a certain elements of experience. Therefore, there is a need within the IT field to consider cultural characteristics when designing or developing certain devices or systems and plan a strategy for localization. In such an environment, existing IS studies identify the culture with the country, emphasize the importance of culture in a national level perspective, and hypothesize that users within the same country have same cultural characteristics. Under such assumptions, these studies focus on the moderating effects of cultural characteristics on a national level within a certain theoretical framework. This has already been suggested by cross-cultural studies conducted by scholars such as Hofstede(1980) in providing numerical research results and measurement items for cultural characteristics and using such results or items as they increase the efficiency of studies. However, such national level culture has its limitations in forecasting and explaining individual-level behaviors such as voluntary device or system usage. This is because individual cultural characteristics are the outcome of not only the national culture but also the culture of a race, company, local area, family, and other groups that are formulated through interaction within the group. Therefore, national or nationally dominant cultural characteristics may have its limitations in forecasting and explaining the cultural characteristics of an individual. Moreover, past studies in psychology suggest a possibility that there exist different cultural characteristics within a single individual depending on the subject being measured or its context. For example, in relation to individual vs. collective characteristics, which is one of the major cultural characteristics, an individual may show collectivistic characteristics when he or she is with family or friends but show individualistic characteristics in his or her workplace. Therefore, this study acknowledged such limitations of past studies and conducted a research within the framework of 'theoretically integrated model of user satisfaction and emotional attachment', which was developed through a former study, on how the effects of different experience elements on emotional attachment or user satisfaction are differentiated depending on the individual cultural characteristics related to a system or device usage. In order to do this, this study hypothesized the moderating effects of four cultural dimensions (uncertainty avoidance, individualism vs, collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity, and power distance) as suggested by Hofstede(1980) within the theoretically integrated model of emotional attachment and user satisfaction. Statistical tests were then implemented on these moderating effects through conducting surveys with users of four digital devices (mobile phone, MP3 player, LCD TV, and refrigerator) in three countries (US, Germany, and Russia). In order to explain and forecast the behavior of personal device or system users, individual cultural characteristics must be measured, and depending on the target device or system, measurements must be measured independently. Through this suggestion, this study hopes to provide new and useful perspectives for future IS research.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.43-72
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• 2009

Recently, user-created content (UCC) have emerged as popular medium of on-line participation among users. The Internet environment has been constantly evolving, attracting active participation and information sharing among common users. This tendency is a significant deviation from the earlier Internet use as an one-way information channel through which users passively received information or contents from contents providers. Thanks to UCCs online users can now more freely generate and exchange contents; therefore, identifying the critical factors that affect content-generating activities has increasingly become an important issue. This paper proposes a set of critical factors for stimulating contents generation and sharing activities by Internet users. These factors were derived from the theories of folklores such as tales and songs. Based on some shared traits of folklores and UCC content, we found four critical elements which should be heeded in constructing UCC contents, which are: context of culture, context of situation, skill of generator, and response of audience. In addition, we selected three major UCC websites: a specialized contents portal, a general internet portal, and an official contents service site, They have different use environments, user interfaces, and service policies, To identify critical factors for generating, sharing and transferring UCC, we traced user activities, interactions and flows of content in the three UCC websites. Moreover, we conducted extensive interviews with users and operators as well as policy makers in each site. Based on qualitative and quantitative analyses of the data, this research identifies nine critical factors that facilitate contents generation and sharing activities among users. In the context of culture, we suggest voluntary community norms, proactive use of copyrights, strong user relationships, and a fair monetary reward system as critical elements in facilitating the process of contents generation and sharing activities. Norms which were established by users themselves regulate user behavior and influence content format. Strong relationships of users stimulate content generation activities by enhancing collaborative content generation. Particularly, users generate contents through collaboration with others, based on their enhanced relationship and specialized skills. They send and receive contents by leaving messages on website or blogs, using instant messenger or SMS. It is an interesting and important phenomenon, because the quality of contents can be constantly improved and revised, depending on the specialized abilities of those engaged in a particular content. In this process, the reward system is an essential driving factor. Yet, monetary reward should be considered only after some fair criterion is established. In terms of the context of the situation, the quality of contents uploading system was proposed to have strong influence on the content generating activities. Among other influential factors on contents generation activities are generators' specialized skills and involvement of the users were proposed. In addition, the audience response, especially effective development of shared interests as well as feedback, was suggested to have significant influence on contents generation activities. Content generators usually reflect the shared interest of others. Shared interest is a distinct characteristic of UCC and observed in all the three websites, in which common interest is formed by the "threads" embedded with content. Through such threads of information and contents users discuss and share ideas while continuously extending and updating shared contents in the process. Evidently, UCC is a new paradigm representing the next generation of the Internet. In order to fully utilize this innovative paradigm, we need to understand how users take advantage of this medium in generating contents, and what affects their content generation activities. Based on these findings, UCC service providers should design their websites as common playground where users freely interact and share their common interests. As such this paper makes an important first step to gaining better understand about this new communication paradigm created by UCC.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.195-200
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• 2001

Metabolism and phamacokinetics of albendazole have been studied in Korean native cattle after oral administration of 5 mg/kg of albendazole. As ABZ is known to be rapidly biotransformed to many metabolites in most animal species, it is very imperative to establish the analytical conditions for its metabolites. LC/MS methods for ABZSO and ABZS $O_2$met every requirement enough to study the metabolism of pharmacokinetics of albendazole in Korean native cattle. The parent drug (ABZ) was only measured at first two time points of 0.5 h and 1h, whereas two metabolites were consistently formed between 0.5 h to 48-72 h post-treatment. Formation kinetics for ABZSO and ABZS $O_2$were similar. Time to peak concentration (Tmax) of ABZ-SO appeared at 12h post-treatment of ABZ, faster than that of ABZS $O_2$at 24h. Cmax of ABZS $O_2$(1.05$\pm$0.05 ug/ml) was 1.09 times higher than that of ABZSO (0.96$\pm$0.15). Elimination half-life of ABZS $O_2$(4.2 h) was much shorter than ABZS $O_2$(7.0h) (p<0.005). ABZSO was detected until 48h post-administration but ABZS $O_2$was measurable even at 72h post-dosing. AU $C_{0longrightarrow{\infty}}$ of ABZSO was smaller than that of ABZS $O_2$. Regimen of ABZ is advised to take into consideration is metabolite profiles, especially that of ABZSO, an active metabolite.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.89-99
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• 2001

Purpose: In this study, we developed a new software tool for the analysis of renal scintigraphy which can be modified more easily by a user who needs to study new clinical applications, and the appropriateness of the results from our program was studied. Materials and Methods: The analysis tool was programmed with IDL5.2 and designed for use on a personal computer running Windows. For testing the developed tool and studying the appropriateness of the calculated glomerular filtration rate (GFR), $^{99m}Tc$-DTPA was administered to 10 adults in normal condition. In order to study the appropriateness of the calculated mean transit time (MTT), $^{99m}Tc-DTPA\;and\;^{99m}Tc-MAG3$ were administered to 11 adults in normal condition and 22 kidneys were analyzed. All the images were acquired with ORBITOR. the Siemens gamma camera. Results: With the developed tool, we could show dynamic renal images and time activity curve (TAC) in each ROI and calculate clinical parameters of renal function. The results calculated by the developed tool were not different statistically from the results obtained by the Siemens application program (Tmax: p=0.68, Relative Renal Function: p:1.0, GFR: p=0.25) and the developed program proved reasonable. The MTT calculation tool proved to be reasonable by the evaluation of the influence of hydration status on MTT. Conclusion: We have obtained reasonable clinical parameters for the evaluation of renal function with the software tool developed in this study. The developed tool could prove more practical than conventional, commercial programs.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.357-367
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• 2010

The pharmacokinetic properties of amoxicillin trihydrate (Amox) were studied after single oral administration and single intravenous injection to cultured eel, Anguilla japonica, respectively (average $220{\pm}10\;g$, $28{\pm}1^{\circ}C$). Plasma samples were taken at 3, 5, 10, 15, 24, 30, 48, 96 and 144 h post-dose. The kinetic profile of absorption, distribution and elimination of Amox in plasma were analyzed fitting to a two-compartment model by WinNonlin program. In oral dosage of 40 and 80 mg/kg body weight, the peak plasma concentrations of Amox, which attained at 3~12 h post-dose, were 3.4 and $3.3\;{\mu}g/ml$, respectively. In intravenous injection with 1 mg/kg, the peak plasma concentrations of Amox, which attained at 9 h post-dose, was $7.2\;{\mu}g/ml$. The following parmeters were calculated for a single oral dosage of 40 and 80 mg/kg body weight, respectively: AUC (the area under the concentration-time curve)= 464 and $667\;{\mu}g{\cdot}h/ml$; $T_{max}$ (time for maximum concentration)= 2.1 and 3.6 h; $C_{max}$ (maximum concentration)= 3.04 and $3.4\;{\mu}g/ml$. Following intravenous injection at 1 mg/kg, this parameters were AUC= $748\;{\mu}g{\cdot}h/ml$; $C_{max}=4.2\;{\mu}g/ml$. The apparent oral bioavailability at 40 and 80 mg/kg were 1.6 and 1.1%, respectively. Despite using the trihydrate form of amoxicillin, the oral bioavailability was low in eel.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information Security & Cryptology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.3-16
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• 2008

A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN for short) is a wireless network consisting of distributed small devices which are called sensor nodes or motes. Recently, there has been an extensive research on WSN and also on its security. For secure storage and secure transmission of the sensed information, sensor nodes should be equipped with cryptographic algorithms. Moreover, these algorithms should be efficiently implemented since sensor nodes are highly resource-constrained devices. There are already some existing algorithms applicable to sensor nodes, including public key ciphers such as TinyECC and standard block ciphers such as AES. Stream ciphers, however, are still to be analyzed, since they were only recently standardized in the eSTREAM project. In this paper, we implement over the MicaZ platform nine software-based stream ciphers out of the ten in the second and final phases of the eSTREAM project, and we evaluate their performance. Especially, we apply several optimization techniques to six ciphers including SOSEMANUK, Salsa20 and Rabbit, which have survived after the final phase of the eSTREAM project. We also present the implementation results of hardware-oriented stream ciphers and AES-CFB fur reference. According to our experiment, the encryption speeds of these software-based stream ciphers are in the range of 31-406Kbps, thus most of these ciphers are fairly acceptable fur sensor nodes. In particular, the survivors, SOSEMANUK, Salsa20 and Rabbit, show the throughputs of 406Kbps, 176Kbps and 121Kbps using 70KB, 14KB and 22KB of ROM and 2811B, 799B and 755B of RAM, respectively. From the viewpoint of encryption speed, the performances of these ciphers are much better than that of the software-based AES, which shows the speed of 106Kbps.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.57-67
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• 2010

Effects of temperature ($13{\pm}1.5^{\circ}C$, $23{\pm}1.5^{\circ}C$) on the pharmacokinetic properties of nalidixic acid (NA), piromidic acid (PA) and oxolinic acid (OA) were studied after oral administration to cultured olive flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus. Serum concentrations of these antimicrobials were determined after oral administration of a single dosage of 60 mg/kg body weight (average 700 g). At $23{\pm}1.5^{\circ}C$, the peak serum concentrations of NA, PA and OA, which attained at 10 h, 24 h and 30 h post-dose, were 11.55, 3.79 and $1.12{\mu}g/m\ell$, respectively. At $13{\pm}1.5^{\circ}C$, the peak serum concentrations of NA, PA and OA, which attained at 10 h, 15 h and 30 h post-dose, were 6.36, 1.4 and $1.01{\mu}g/m\ell$, respectively. Better absorption of NA and PA was noted at $23{\pm}1.5^{\circ}C$ compared to $23{\pm}13^{\circ}C$. The elimination of NA from serum of olive flounder was considerably faster at $23{\pm}1.5^{\circ}C$ than at $13{\pm}1.5^{\circ}C$. However, both absorption and elimination of OA were not affected significantly by temperature. The kinetic profile of absorption, distribution and elimination of these antimicrobials in serum were analyzed by fitting to a one- and two compartment model, with WinNonlin program. In the one compartment model for NA, AUC, Tmax and Cmax at $23{\pm}1.5^{\circ}C$ were $258.26{\mu}g{\cdot}h/m\ell$, 10.67 h and $8.91{\mu}g/m\ell$, respectively. The AUC, $T_{max}$ and $C_{max}$ at $13{\pm}1.5^{\circ}C$ were $341.45 {\mu}g{\cdot}h/m\ell$, 7.72 h and $6.23{\mu}g/m\ell$, respectively. In the one compartment model for PA, AUC, $T_{max}$ and $C_{max}$ at $23{\pm}1.5^{\circ}C$ were $248.12{\mu}g{\cdot}h/m\ell$, 21.15 h and $3.09{\mu}g/m\ell$, respectively. The AUC, $T_{max}$ and $C_{max}$ at $13{\pm}1.5^{\circ}C$ were $103.89{\mu}g{\cdot}h/m\ell$, 12.89 h and $1.22{\mu}g/m\ell$, respectively. In the two compartment model for OA, AUC, $T_{max}$ and $C_{max}$ at $23{\pm}1.5^{\circ}C$ were $138.20{\mu}g{\cdot}h/m\ell$, 23.95 h and $1.06{\mu}g/m\ell$, respectively. The AUC, $T_{max}$ and $T_{max}$ at $13{\pm}1.5^{\circ}C$ were $159.10{\mu}g{\cdot}h/m\ell$, 28.03 h and $1.02{\mu}g/m\ell$, respectively.