• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.557-563
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• 2013

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is ranked as one of the top five causes of cancer-related deaths. ICC in Thai patients is associated with infection with the liver fluke, Opisthorchis viverrini, but the molecular basis for development remains unclear. The present study employed a microarray approach to compare gene expression profiles of ICCs and normal liver tissues from the same patients residing in Northeast Thailand, a region with a high prevalence of liver fluke infection. In ICC samples, 2,821 and 1,361 genes were found to be significantly up- and down-regulated respectively (unpaired t-test, p<0.05; fold-change ${\gep}2.0$). For validation of the microarray results, 7 up-regulated genes (FXYD3, GPRC5A, CEACAM5, MUC13, EPCAM, TMC5, and EHF) and 3 down-regulated genes (CPS1, TAT, and ITIH1) were selected for confirmation using quantitative RT-PCR, resulting in 100% agreement. The metallothionine heavy metal pathway contains the highest percentage of genes with statistically significant changes in expression. This study provides exon-level expression profiles in ICC that should be fruitful in identifying novel genetic markers for classifying and possibly early diagnosis of this highly fatal type of cholangiocarcinoma.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.15-23
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• 2005

Background MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of noncoding RNAs found in various organisms such as plants and mammals. However, most of the mRNAs regulated by miRNAs are unknown. Furthermore, miRNA targets in genomes cannot be identified by standard sequence comparison since their complementarity to the target sequence is imperfect in general. In this paper, we propose a kernel-based method for the efficient prediction of miRNA targets. To help in distinguishing the false positives from potentially valid targets, we elucidate the features common in experimentally confirmed targets. Results The performance of our prediction method was evaluated by five-fold cross-validation. Our method showed 0.64 and 0.98 in sensitivity and in specificity, respectively. Also, the proposed method reduced the number of false positives by half compared with TargetScan. We investigated the effect of feature sets on the classification of miRNA targets. Finally, we predicted miRNA targets for several miRNAs in the Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) 3' untranslated region (3' UTR) database. Condusions The targets predicted by the suggested method will help in validating more miRNA targets and ultimately in revealing the role of small RNAs in the regulation of genomes. Our algorithm for miRNA target site detection will be able to be improved by additional experimental­knowledge. Also, the increase of the number of confirmed targets is expected to reveal general structural features that can be used to improve their detection.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.3B
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• pp.285-291
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• 2011

Accurate assessment of the water and energy cycles is essential to understand hydrologic, climatologic, and ecological processes. Common Land Model (CLM) is one of the well-developed Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere Transfer (SVAT) models based on the water and energy balance equation for accurate prediction of hydro-environmental cycles. The CLM can estimate realistic and reliable results using relatively simple parameters. It has been widely used in the world, however in Korea practical applications of the CLM are rare due to lack of information and input data. In this study, the CLM with Korea Flux network (KoFlux) and Kore Land Data Assimilation System (KLDAS) data were individually validated for domestic applications. This study showed that all comparisons between observations and model results from KoFlux and KLDAS had reasonable correlation with determination coefficient of 0.73~1.00 via regression. The results confirmed the applicability of the CLM and the possibility of the KLDAS usage for the region where input data are not existed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.279-288
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• 2012

The material removal mechanism in machining is significantly affected by the cutting edge geometry. Its effect becomes even more substantial when the depth of cut is relatively small as compared to the characteristic length which represents the shape and size of the cutting edge. Conventionally, radius or focal length has been employed as the characteristic length with the assumption that the shape of cutting edge is round or parabolic. However, in reality, there could be various ways to determine the radius or focal length even for the same tool edge profile, depending on the region to be considered as cutting edge in the measured profile and the constraints to be set in constructing the best fitted circle or parabola. In this regard, the present study proposes various models to determine the characteristic length in terms of radius or focal length. Their physical compatibility are validated by carrying out 2D orthogonal cutting experiments using inserts with a wide range of characteristic length ($30{\sim}180\;{\mu}m$ in terms of radius) and then by investigating the correlation between the characteristic length and the cutting forces. Such validation is based on the common belief that the larger the characteristic length is, the blunter the cutting edge is and the higher the cutting forces are. Interestingly, the results showed that the correlation is higher for the radius or focal length obtained with a constraint that the center of best fitted circle or the focus of the best fitted parabola should be on the bisectional line of the wedge angle of tool.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.71-77
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• 2017

Background: Cardiac computed tomography (CT) has emerged as an alternative to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for ventricular volumetry. However, the clinical use of cardiac CT requires external validation. Methods: Both cardiac CT and MRI were performed prior to pulmonary valve implantation (PVI) in 11 patients (median age, 19 years) who had undergone total correction of tetralogy of Fallot during infancy. The simplified contouring method (MRI) and semiautomatic 3-dimensional region-growing method (CT) were used to measure ventricular volumes. Results: All volumetric indices measured by CT and MRI generally correlated well with each other, except for the left ventricular end-systolic volume index (LV-ESVI), which showed the following correlations with the other indices: the right ventricular end-diastolic volume index (RV-EDVI) (r=0.88, p<0.001), the right ventricular end-systolic volume index (RV-ESVI) (r=0.84, p=0.001), the left ventricular end-diastolic volume index (LV-EDVI) (r=0.90, p=0.001), and the LV-ESVI (r=0.55, p=0.079). While the EDVIs measured by CT were significantly larger than those measured by MRI (median RV-EDVI: $197mL/m^2$ vs. $175mL/m^2$, p=0.008; median LV-EDVI: $94mL/m^2$ vs. $92mL/m^2$, p=0.026), no significant differences were found for the RV-ESVI or LV-ESVI. Conclusion: The EDVIs measured by cardiac CT were greater than those measured by MRI, whereas the ESVIs measured by CT and MRI were comparable. The volumetric characteristics of these 2 diagnostic modalities should be taken into account when indications for late PVI after tetralogy of Fallot repair are assessed.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.217-225
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• 2019

We apply a modified Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model in conjunction with transfer learning to predict whether an active region (AR) would produce a ≥C-class or ≥M-class flare within the next 24 hours. We collect line-of-sight magnetogram samples of ARs provided by the SHARP from May 2010 to September 2018, which is a new data product from the HMI onboard the SDO. Based on these AR samples, we adopt the approach of shuffle-and-split cross-validation (CV) to build a database that includes 10 separate data sets. Each of the 10 data sets is segregated by NOAA AR number into a training and a testing data set. After training, validating, and testing our model, we compare the results with previous studies using predictive performance metrics, with a focus on the true skill statistic (TSS). The main results from this study are summarized as follows. First, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the CNN model with transfer learning is used in solar physics to make binary class predictions for both ≥C-class and ≥M-class flares, without manually engineered features extracted from the observational data. Second, our model achieves relatively high scores of TSS = 0.640±0.075 and TSS = 0.526±0.052 for ≥M-class prediction and ≥C-class prediction, respectively, which is comparable to that of previous models. Third, our model also obtains quite good scores in five other metrics for both ≥C-class and ≥M-class flare prediction. Our results demonstrate that our modified CNN model with transfer learning is an effective method for flare forecasting with reasonable prediction performance.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.19-27
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• 2010

To discover genetic markers for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we previously applied genome-wide BAC array comparative genomic hybridization (array-CGH) to 28 autistic patients and 62 normal controls in Korean population, and identified that chromosomal losses on 8p23.1 and on 17p11.2 are significantly associated with autism. In this study, we developed an 8.5K ASD-specific BAC array covering 27 previously reported ASD-associated CNV loci including ours and examined whether the associations would be replicated in 8 ASD patient cell lines of four different ethnic groups and 10 Korean normal controls. As a result, a CNV-loss on 8p23.1 was found to be significantly more frequent in patients regardless of ethnicity (p<0.0001). This CNV region contains two coding genes, DEFA1 and DEFA3, which are members of DEFENSIN gene family. Two other CNVs on 17p11.2 and Xp22.31 were also distributed differently between ASDs and controls, but not significant (p=0.069 and 0.092, respectively). All the other loci did not show significant association. When these evidences are considered, the association between ASD and CNV of DEFENSIN gene seems worthy of further exploration to elucidate the pathogenesis of ASD. Validation studies with a larger sample size will be required to verify its biological implication.

• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.145-155
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• 2016

Background: Asia is on track to become the region with the most elderly people in the world. The elderly population will reach 922.7 million by the middle of this century. Therefore, they will be cared for by the today's youth. Negative attitudes toward older people can make adolescents more uncomfortable relating to them. Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate validity and reliability of Kogan's attitude toward old people among nursing students in Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia. Methods: Content validation of the 34-item Kogan's attitude toward old people was examined by three geriatric nursing experts. The reliability was evaluated on 600 nursing students, from nursing colleges in Thailand (200), Myanmar (200), and Indonesia (200). Findings: The attitude scores towards the elderly ranged from 34 to 238. All of the 34 items were found to have significant item-to-total correlations (p< .05). The reliability results were as follows: In Thailand, Cronbach's alpha was .70 for the total scale, .72 for the positive scale, and .68 for the negative scale. In Myanmar, Cronbach's alpha was .68 for the total scale, .65 for the positive scale, and .66 for the negative scale. In Indonesia, Cronbach's alpha was .66 for the total scale, .71 for the positive scale, and .72 for the negative scale. Conclusions: These findings suggest that Kogan's attitude toward old people is reliable and valid for nursing students from Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia. However, Kogan's attitude toward old people should be revised by these countries, including changing wording on all items for better reliability. The revised version must then be tested for reliability and validity.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.291-297
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• 2015

The Homeobox B13 (HOXB13):Interleukin 17 Receptor B (IL17BR) index of estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer (ER (+) BC) patients may be a potential biomarker of recurrence/ metastasis. However, effects of microRNA (miRNA) binding to the 3' untranslated region (3' UTR) of HOXB13 and IL17BR and its function on recurrence/metastasis in ER (+) BC remains elusive. The aims of this study were to determine the expression of miRNAs that bind to 3' UTR of HOXB13 and IL17BR in ER (+) BC patients and asess the effects of these miRNAs on recurrence/metastasis. The expression profiles of HOXB13 and IL17BR were evaluated using RT-PCR in tumors and normal tissue samples from 40 ER (+) BC patients. The expression level of 4 miRNAs, which were predicted to bind the 3' UTR of HOXB13 and IL17BR using TargetScan, microRNA.org and miRDB online databases, were further evaluated with RT-PCR. Our findings demonstrated that high miR-1266 levels might be significant prognostic factor for recurrence/metastasis occurrence (3.05 fold p=0.004) and tamoxifen response (3.90 fold; p=0.2514) in ER (+) BC cases. Although we suggest that modulation of miR-1266 expression may be an important mechanism underlying the chemoresistance of ER (+) BC, advanced studies and validation are required.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1998.05a
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• pp.15-28
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• 1998

As an alternative for solving the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, we present a vorticity-based integro-differential formulation for vorticity, velocity and pressure variables. One of the most difficult problems encountered in the vorticity-based methods is the introduction of the proper value-value of vorticity or vorticity flux at the solid surface. A practical computational technique toward solving this problem is presented in connection with the coupling between the vorticity and the pressure boundary conditions. Numerical schemes based on an iterative procedure are employed to solve the governing equations with the boundary conditions for the three variables. A finite volume method is implemented to integrate the vorticity transport equation with the dynamic vorticity boundary condition . The velocity field is obtained by using the Biot-Savart integral derived from the mathematical vector identity. Green's scalar identity is used to solve the total pressure in an integral approach similar to the surface panel methods which have been well-established for potential flow analysis. The calculated results with the present mettled for two test problems are compared with data from the literature in order for its validation. The first test problem is one for the two-dimensional square cavity flow driven by shear on the top lid. Two cases are considered here: (i) one driven both by the specified non-uniform shear on the top lid and by the specified body forces acting through the cavity region, for which we find the exact solution, and (ii) one of the classical type (i.e., driven only by uniform shear). Secondly, the present mettled is applied to deal with the early development of the flow around an impulsively started circular cylinder.