• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.85-94
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• 2002

Overall objective of this study was to evaluate the electrochemical characteristics of fine soils during the electrokinetic(EK) remediation. Zeta potential of kaolinite as a function of solution pH and surfactant concentration was investigated to make a relationship with electroosmotic flow direction and rate. During the EK experiments, pH of pore solution, electroosmotic permeability($k_e$), electric conductivity($\delta_e$) and voltage distribution was measured, respectively, The point of zero charge(PZC) of kaolinite was estimated to be about 4.2 and the zeta potential of kaolinite above PZC was more negative as solution pH increased. Sorption of surfactants on the kaolinite altered the zeta potential of kaolinite. resulting from the variation of electrochemical characteristics of kaolinite surface. hs the EK experiment progressed, low pH was predominant over most of the kaolinite specimen and thus resulted in very low mass and charge flow. The $k_e$ and $\delta_e$ was also affected by the variation of voltage drop across the EK column with time. Results from this study implied that zeta potential of kaolinite affected by the pH variation of pore solution and voltage distribution in soil column played important role in the determination of mass and charge flow during EK process. It was also suggested that pH adjustment or addition of suitable sorbates could alter the electrochemical characteristics of soil surface and thus maintain high mass and charge flow rate with time.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.1861-1864
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• 2016

Although early diagnosis of thyroid nodule type is very important, the diagnostic accuracy of standard tests is a challenging issue. We here aimed to find an optimal combination of factors to improve diagnostic accuracy for distinguishing malignant from benign thyroid nodules before surgery. In a prospective study from 2008 to 2012, 345 patients referred for thyroidectomy were enrolled. The sample size was split into a training set and testing set as a ratio of 7:3. The former was used for estimation and variable selection and obtaining a linear combination of factors. We utilized smoothly clipped absolute deviation (SCAD) logistic regression to achieve the sparse optimal combination of factors. To evaluate the performance of the estimated model in the testing set, a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was utilized. The mean age of the examined patients (66 male and 279 female) was $40.9{\pm}13.4years$ (range 15- 90 years). Some 54.8% of the patients (24.3% male and 75.7% female) had benign and 45.2% (14% male and 86% female) malignant thyroid nodules. In addition to maximum diameters of nodules and lobes, their volumes were considered as related factors for malignancy prediction (a total of 16 factors). However, the SCAD method estimated the coefficients of 8 factors to be zero and eliminated them from the model. Hence a sparse model which combined the effects of 8 factors to distinguish malignant from benign thyroid nodules was generated. An optimal cut off point of the ROC curve for our estimated model was obtained (p=0.44) and the area under the curve (AUC) was equal to 77% (95% CI: 68%-85%). Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive values for this model were 70%, 72%, 71% and 76%, respectively. An increase of 10 percent and a greater accuracy rate in early diagnosis of thyroid nodule type by statistical methods (SCAD and ANN methods) compared with the results of FNA testing revealed that the statistical modeling methods are helpful in disease diagnosis. In addition, the factor ranking offered by these methods is valuable in the clinical context.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.7
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• pp.53-59
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• 2018

Purpose - This study examines the effect of control-ownership wedge on stock crash risk. In Korea, controlling shareholders have exclusive control rights compared to their cash flow rights. With increasing disparity, controlling shareholders abuse their power and extract private benefits at the expense of the minority shareholders. Managers who are controlling shareholders of the companies tend not to disclose critical information that would prevent them from pursuing private interests. They accumulate negative information in the firm. When the accumulated bad news crosses a tipping point, it will be suddenly released to the market at once, resulting in an abrupt decline in stock prices. We predict that stock price crash likelihood due to information opaqueness increases as the wedge increases. Research design, data, and methodology - 831 KOSPI-listed firm-year observations are from KisValue database from 2005 to 2011. Control-ownership wedge is measured as the ratio (UCO -UCF)/UCO where UCF(UCO) is the ultimate cash-flow(control) rights of the largest controlling shareholder. Dependent variable CRASH is a dummy variable that equals one if the firm has at least 1 crash week during a year, and zero otherwise. Logistic regression is used to examine the relationship between control-ownership wedge and stock price crash risk. Results - Using a sample of KOSPI-listed firms in KisValue database for the period 2005-2011, we find that stock price crash risk increases as the disparity increases. Specifically, we find that the coefficient of WEDGE is significantly positive, supporting our prediction. The result implies that as controlling shareholders' ownership increases, controlling shareholders tend to withhold bad news. Conclusions - Our results show that agency problems arising from the divergence between control rights and cash flow rights increase the opaqueness of accounting information. Eventually, the accumulated bad news is released all at once, leading to stock price crashes. It could be seen that companies with high control-ownership wedge are likely to experience future stock price crashes. Our study is related to a broader literature that examined the effect of the control-ownership wedge on stock markets. Our findings suggest that the disparity is a meaningful predictor for future stock price crash risk. The results are expected to provide useful implications for firms, regulators, and investors.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.1-16
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• 2001

This study discusses some theoretical implications for efficient utilization of the global E-commerce in a world of uncertainty by beginning with measures of risk and return for the global E-commerce, and by moving to risk and return for a efficient transaction portfolio of many risky methods of transaction. Decision rules are developed to show how individuals choose optimal transaction portfolios that maximize their expected utility of wealth. First, the individuals will generally want to allocate positive amount to the global E-commerce, which requires that the expected marginal utility of wealth equals zero. Secondly, the optimal transaction portfolio will be determined by finding the point of tangency between the efficient trading line and the hightest indifference curve in the mean-variance plane. Thirdly, if the global E-commerce is positively correlated with wealth, it must have an expected return that is higher than the risk-free transaction methods in order to compensate for its risk. Fourthly, on the other hand, if the global E-commerce is negatively correlated with wealth, it will have an expected return that is less than the risk-free transaction methods. Finally, the valuation of global E-commerce depends on the degree of individual's risk aversion and the covariance between the expected return of total wealth and the return of global E-commerce.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.252-259
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• 2018

An acidic, real metal-plating wastewater was treated by a fluidized bed membrane reactor introduced with granular activated carbon (GAC) as fluidized media. With GAC fluidization, there was no increase in suction pressure with time at each flux set-point applied. At neutral solution pH, much less fouling rate was observed than acidic pH under GAC fluidization. Higher solution pH resulted in the increase in particle size in metal-finishing wastewater, thus producing a less dense cake structure on membrane. More than 95% of chemical oxygen demand was observed from the fluidized bed membrane reactor under GAC fluidization. Total suspended solid concentration in membrane permeate was near zero. At the raw wastewater pH, no removal of copper and chromium by the fluidized bed membrane reactor was observed. As the pH was increased to 7.0, removal efficiency of copper and chromium was increased considerably to 99 and 94%, respectively. Regardless of solution pH tested, more than 95% of cyanide was removed possibly due to the strong adsorption of organic-cyanide complex on GAC in fluidized bed membrane reactor.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.109-114
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• 2015

Purpose - The movie market has the characteristics of being a perfectly competitive market as well as a pure monopolistic market at the same time. This is because there are competitors in the industry but prices, although not fixed, have not changed a lot. Price competition may not have spread, but the competition is focused on artistic value, and the degree of box office success is most important. The artistic value is determined in the course of the production process. However, the degree of box office success is dependent upon the marketing manager. The marketing strategy represents the difference in the standard or quality of the movie. Inherently, the marketing manager adopts the entertainment strategy based on the quality of the foundation of the completed movie. At this time, the marketing manager knows the pertinent information (high quality/low quality) regarding the movie. This research study tries to reveal what should be the reasonable movie marketing expense, dependent on the quality of the movie. Research design, data, and methodology - Using a game scenario with different market players, the goal of the research analysis is to find out the following. First, the marketing expense is determined to maximize the profits after film production. Second, after the production costs are already committed, the manufacturer gets to choose the marketing level. At this time, there will be a profit maximization point, considering the competition. The premise of the research is as follows: if it is a good movie of quality, positive word of mouth increasing the audience continuously slows down the speed of the demand curve. If the movie quality is bad, the negative word of mouth decreasing the audience gradually hastens the speed of the demand curve. On the marketing side, when the manufacturer invests heavily in the marketing expense of the movie, consumer expectations increase to drive up the audience numbers. On the other hand, it is difficult to improve the profits excessively. When the manufacturer invests in marketing a little bit, the marketing expense is only relatively committed, therefore a lot of demand cannot be gained. Results - If a fixed market share is in a competitive situation, a low quality manufacturer expends relatively more marketing expense. If the situation assumes two manufacturers spend the same for the cost of production, the high quality manufacturer takes more profit. If the manufacturer expends less marketing budget to save costs, the optimum profit cannot be achieved since the other party (opponent) grabs the initial market share. Conclusions - In conclusion, investment is essential for market share to increase. We must refrain from a zero-sum game and have models where the game participants pursue the creative profits together. In the current film industry, there is the dominating logic of winner and loser but we have to create a film industry environment where the participants can be altogether satisfied and live together.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.121-130
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• 1997

It has been demonstrated that majority of cells in the mammalian body such as myocytes and epithelial cells of skin and intestine respond to mechanical force or environmental factors and exhibit partial disruption of cell membrane, i. e., cell wounding, even in a physiological condition. Myocardial cells are rather apt to be wounded than other cells since they are definitely exposed to mechanical stress by contraction-relaxation and blood flow. However, the mechanism how myocardial cells protect themselves against cell wounding is not yet clarified. On this background, the present study was performed to elucidate whether albumin leakage is related to cell wounding and to assess whether diltiazem, a potent calcium channel blocker, is beneficial in isoproterenol-induced cell wounding in the heart. Hearts isolated from New Zealand White rabbits ($1.5\sim2.0kg$ body weight, n=20) were perfused with Tyrode solution by Langendorff technique. After stabilization of baseline hemodynamics, the hearts were subjected to bolus administration of isoproterenol and diltiazem as following order: $1.6{\mu}M$ isoproterenol at zero min (the beginning point): $16{\mu}M$ diltiazem at 20min; $1.6{\mu}M$ isoproterenol at 25min; $16{\mu}M$ isoproterenol at 45 min; $160{\mu}M$ diltiazem at 65 min; $16{\mu}M$ isoproterenol at 70 min. During all experiments, the left ventricular function was recorded, albumin leakage in the coronary effluents was analyzed by electrophoresis and Western blot, and myocardial cell membranes were examined by conventional transmission electron microscopy. Data were analyzed by t-test and linear regression test. Isoproterenol significantly increased the inotropic and chronotropic contractions, coronary flow, and frequency of arrhythmia, however, diltiazem did not influence on hemodynamics except decrease in the frequency of arrhythmia and a slight decrease in contractility. Isoproterenol also resulted partial disruption of myocardial cell membrane and inclose in albumin leakage, while diltiazem pretreatment showed number of electron-dense plaques in the cell membrane and a tendency of decrease in albumin leakage. These results indicate that albumin leakage may be an indirect index of cell wounding in the heart and diltiazem nay be beneficial to protect myocardial cells against isoproterenol-induced cell wounding. It is likely that diltiazem promotes resealing process of the cell membrane.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.871-875
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• 1999

We calculated the characteristics of a phosphoric cation exchanger and studied on an accurately computable method to determine the ion exchange capacity for type of potentiometric titration curve. The ion exchanger was prepared by phosphorylation of a styrene-divinylbenzene copolymer with 4% crosslinking. The ion exchange capacity is 5.7 meq/g. The experimental pK values versus ${\mathit{x}}$ in phosphoric cation exchanger can be expressed as a linear equation. The ${\Delta}pK$ values were obtained from the slope of linear equation. The ${\Delta}pK$ values are the differences of antilogarithms(pK) values of the apparent equilibrium constant at complete and zeroth neutralization of the ion exchanger. Also the experimental pK values at ${\mathit{x}}=0.5$ were accorded well with theoretical data. And when it is titrated with NaOH and $Ba(OH)_2$ solutions, a good agreement between experimental and theoretical pK values for various ${\mathit{x}}$ was seen in all the potentiometric titration curves. We knew that the inflection point of potentiometric titration curve in the case of divalent ions are changed much large than that for monovalent ions. If the relation between g values and ${\partial}pH/{\partial}g$ was plotted to the Lorentz distribution curve, ion exchange capacity can be accurately evaluated.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.306-312
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• 1986

Color changes of a mixture of 0.8 M glucose, fructose or sucrose and 0.8 M glycine were evaluated by Hunter 'L', 'a', 'b' values during Maillard reaction at the temperature range of $70^{\circ}-100^{\circ}C$. The results suggested the reaction to be devided into three stages. In initial reaction the 'L' and 'a' values decreased slowely, and 'b' rapidly increased to maximum, which were followed by a rapid decrease in 'L' and 'b' and rapid increase in 'a' values at intermediate stage. At final reaction period the both 'L' and 'b' were slowed down in their reduction rate while 'a' decreased rapidly from its maximum point. All of the Hunter values were reached to nea. zero. Linear equations, which can be used for prediction of cole. change in Maillared reaction, of $1/\sqrt{(L_t-L_{\circ})^2\;+\;(a_t-a_{\circ})^2\;+\;(b_t-b_{\circ})^2}\;=\;a(1/t)\;+\;b$ for Hunter values and $1/\sqrt{X\;+\;Y\;+Z}\;=\;a(1/t)\;+\;b$ for CIE tristimulus values were found to have a very high correlation coefficient. Relationships between 'L' and 'a', 'L' and 'b' and 'a' and 'b' were also graphcally compared.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.45-54
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• 2002

This paper proposes a video compression algorithm using characteristics of wavelet coefficients. The proposed algorithm can provide lowed bit rate and faster running time while guaranteeing the reconstructed image qualify by the human virtual system. In this approach, each video sequence is decomposed into a pyramid structure of subimages with various resolution to use multiresolution capability of discrete wavelet transform. Then similarities between two neighboring frames are obtained from a low-frequency subband which Includes an important information of an image and motion informations are extracted from the similarity criteria. Four legion selection filters are designed according to the similarity criteria and compression processes are carried out by encoding the coefficients In preservation legions and replacement regions of high-frequency subbands. Region selection filters classify the high-frequency subbands Into preservation regions and replacement regions based on the similarity criteria and the coefficients In replacement regions are replaced by that of a reference frame or reduced to zero according to block-based similarities between a reference frame and successive frames. Encoding is carried out by quantizing and arithmetic encoding the wavelet coefficients in preservation regions and replacement regions separately. A reference frame is updated at the bottom point If the curve of similarity rates looks like concave pattern. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm provides high compression ratio with proper Image quality. It also outperforms the previous Milton's algorithm in an Image quality, compression ratio and running time, leading to compression ratio less than 0.2bpp. PSNR of 32 dB and running tome of 10ms for a standard video image of size 352${\times}$240 pixels.