• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.67-79
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• 2014

Purpose - This study aims to accomplish three major research goals. First, it strives to change consumers' focus from peripheral routes to a central route of public service advertising related to the good health policy, without problematic effects, by influencing consumers' knowledge or involvement. Second, this study examines the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and construal level theory (CLT). Specifically, we consider that the central route of ELM might correspond with the focal goal of CLT. Third, this study analyzes ELM through CLT. That is, ELM predicted that low involvement would take the peripheral route, and high involvement would take the central route. Research design, data, and methodology - This study consisted of three experiments. The first experiment had a 2×2 between-subject design. The subjects were university students and the research period was approximately one year. The first independent variable was the involvement of the overweight issue; this variable was measured and split by the median. The second independent variable was the temporal distance (near vs. distant future); this variable was manipulated. The second experiment also had a 2×2 between-subject design. The first variable was the involvement of cervical adenocarcinoma prevention, and was considered already manipulated by sex. Specifically, males had a low involvement of the disease, but females had high involvement. The second independent variable was priming (power vs. submissive). Power priming would induce abstract thinking, but submissive priming would take concrete processing. The third experiment had a 2×2×2 between-subject design. The first variable was cognitive depletion, and was manipulated by memorizing 9-digit numbers. The second and third independent variables were involvement and abstract thinking induction, such as prior experiments. Data were collected through questionnaires, and were analyzed by an SPSS program. Major hypotheses were tested by examining the interaction effects through ANOVA. Results - Major findings are as follows. First, even for low-involved consumers in the overweight category, distant future manipulation induced them to focus not on the peripheral route but on the central route of the public service advertisement. This result does not correspond to the typical ELM prediction. Second, under power priming, low-involved males of the cervical adenocarcinoma category focused on the peripheral route because of the induction to abstract thinking. This result replicated the first experiment, and confirmed the theoretical robustness. Third, high-involved females focused not on the central but on the peripheral route under the mixed condition of cognitive depletion and near future manipulation. Depletion consumed cognitive resources, and the processing mode of consumers changed from systematic to heuristic. Conclusions - ELM needs to be complemented through CLT in context of public service good health advertising. Specifically, the involvement of ELM may impact consumers' thinking mode (abstract vs. concrete), and the interaction effects may influence consumers' focus on advertising (central vs. peripheral route). This study's limitations were bounded subjects, limited stimuli, and somewhat weak external validity.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.291-303
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• 2016

The number of traffic accidents at intersections has been increased over the past decade, and in 2014, accounted for 44% of the total traffic accidents. In addition, since most of road accident black spots include signalized intersections, the improvement of safety on signalized intersection is top priority for national road safety program in Korea. For the decision of most effective action plan for the safety of signalized intersection, this study conducted meta-analyses to assess the effects of various road safety facilities at signalized intersection on traffic accidents. We selected 19 articles regarding the prediction of traffic accidents at signalized intersection and calculated 34 individual effect sizes on 8 variables included in the articles. The results found that there was a statistically significant negative relationship between the occurrence of traffic accident and the presence of all of road safety facilities except an exclusive left turn bay. It shows that most of the road safety facilities could prevent traffic accidents, and intersection channelization has the most effective on the reduction of traffic accidents followed by left-turn acceleration lane, lightning, crosswalk, exclusive right-turn lane and median barrier.

• Experimental and Molecular Medicine
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• v.50 no.12
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• pp.13.1-13.12
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• 2018

We aimed to explore whether changes in circulating levels of miRNAs according to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) or prediabetes status could be used as biomarkers to evaluate the risk of developing the disease. The study included 462 patients without T2DM at baseline from the CORDIOPREV trial. After a median follow-up of 60 months, 107 of the subjects developed T2DM, 30 developed prediabetes, 223 maintained prediabetes and 78 remained disease-free. Plasma levels of four miRNAs related to insulin signaling and beta-cell function were measured by RT-PCR. We analyzed the relationship between miRNAs levels and insulin signaling and release indexes at baseline and after the follow-up period. The risk of developing disease based on tertiles (T1-T2-T3) of baseline miRNAs levels was evaluated by COX analysis. Thus, we observed higher miR-150 and miR-30a-5p and lower miR-15a and miR-375 baseline levels in subjects with T2DM than in disease-free subjects. Patients with high miR-150 and miR-30a-5p baseline levels had lower disposition index (p = 0.047 and p = 0.007, respectively). The higher risk of disease was associated with high levels (T3) of miR-150 and miR-30a-5p ($HR_{T3-T1}=4.218$ and $HR_{T3-T1}=2.527$, respectively) and low levels (T1) of miR-15a and miR-375 ($HR_{T1-T3}=3.269$ and $HR_{T1-T3}=1.604$, respectively). In conclusion, our study showed that deregulated plasma levels of miR-150, miR-30a-5p, miR-15a, and miR-375 were observed years before the onset of T2DM and pre-DM and could be used to evaluate the risk of developing the disease, which may improve prediction and prevention among individuals at high risk for T2DM.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.337-343
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• 2021

Background: Chromogranin A (CgA) levels have been reported to predict mortality in patients with heart failure. However, information on the prognostic value and clinical availability of CgA is limited. We compared the prognostic value of CgA to that of previously proven natriuretic peptide biomarkers in patients with acute heart failure. Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 272 patients (mean age, 68.5±15.6 years; 62.9% male) who underwent CgA test in the acute stage of heart failure hospitalization between June 2017 and June 2018. The median follow-up period was 348 days. Prognosis was assessed using the composite events of 1-year death and heart failure hospitalization. Results: In-hospital mortality rate during index admission was 7.0% (n=19). During the 1-year follow-up, a composite event rate was observed in 12.1% (n=33) of the patients. The areas under the receiver-operating characteristic curves for predicting 1-year adverse events were 0.737 and 0.697 for N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and CgA, respectively. During follow-up, patients with high CgA levels (>158 pmol/L) had worse outcomes than those with low CgA levels (≤158 pmol/L) (85.2% vs. 58.6%, p<0.001). When stratifying the patients into four subgroups based on CgA and NT-proBNP levels, patients with high NT-proBNP and high CgA had the worst outcome. CgA had an incremental prognostic value when added to the combination of NT-proBNP and clinically relevant risk factors. Conclusion: The prognostic power of CgA was comparable to that of NT-proBNP in patients with acute heart failure. The combination of CgA and NT-proBNP can improve prognosis prediction in these patients.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.316-331
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• 2019

Carbon dioxide($CO_2$) emission from rivers to the atmosphere is a key component in the global carbon cycle. Most of the rivers are supersaturated with $CO_2$. At a global scale, the amount of $CO_2$ emission from rivers is reported to be five-fold greater than that from lakes and reservoirs, but relevant data are rare in Korea. The objectives of this study is to estimate the $CO_2$ net atmospheric flux(NAF) from the upstream of Gangjeong-Goryeong Weir(GGW), Dalseong Weir(DSW), Hapcheon-Changnyeong Weir(HCW), and Changnyeong-Haman Weir(CHW) located in Nakdong River South Korea) using field and laboratory experiments and to apply data mining techniques to develop parsimonious prediction models that can be used to estimate $CO_2$ NAF with physical and water quality variables that can be collected easily. As a result, the study sites were all heterotrophic systems that often released $CO_2$ to the atmosphere, except when the algal photosynthesis was active.The median $CO_2$ NAF was minimum $391.5mg-CO_2/m^2$ day at GGW and maximum $1472.7mg-CO_2/m^2$ day at DSW. The $CO_2$ NAF showed a negative correlation with pH and Chl-a since the overgrowth of the algae consumed $CO_2$ in the water and increased the pH. As the parsimonious multiple regression model and random forest model developed, this study showed an excellent performance with the $Adj.R^2$ value higher than 0.77 in all weirs. Thus, these methods can be used to estimate $CO_2$ NAF in the river even if there is no $pCO_2$ measurement data.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.213-224
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• 2021

Objective: Clinical outcomes of patients who undergo transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) for single small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are not consistent, and may differ based on certain imaging findings. This retrospective study was aimed at determining the efficacy of pre-TACE CT or MR imaging findings in predicting survival outcomes in patients with small HCC upon being treated with TACE. Besides, the study proposed to build a risk prediction model for these patients. Materials and Methods: Altogether, 750 patients with functionally good hepatic reserve who received TACE as the first-line treatment for single small HCC between 2004 and 2014 were included in the study. These patients were randomly assigned into training (n = 525) and validation (n = 225) sets. Results: According to the results of a multivariable Cox analysis, three pre-TACE imaging findings (tumor margin, tumor location, enhancement pattern) and two clinical factors (age, serum albumin level) were selected and scored to create predictive models for overall, local tumor progression (LTP)-free, and progression-free survival in the training set. The median overall survival time in the validation set were 137.5 months, 76.1 months, and 44.0 months for low-, intermediate-, and high-risk groups, respectively (p < 0.001). Time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curves of the predictive models for overall, LTP-free, and progression-free survival applied to the validation cohort showed acceptable areas under the curve values (0.734, 0.802, and 0.775 for overall survival; 0.738, 0.789, and 0.791 for LTP-free survival; and 0.671, 0.733, and 0.694 for progression-free survival at 3, 5, and 10 years, respectively). Conclusion: Pre-TACE CT or MR imaging findings could predict survival outcomes in patients with small HCC upon treatment with TACE. Our predictive models including three imaging predictors could be helpful in prognostication, identification, and selection of suitable candidates for TACE in patients with single small HCC.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.23 no.12
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• pp.1269-1280
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• 2022

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the usefulness of quantitative indices obtained from deep learning analysis of gadoxetic acid-enhanced hepatobiliary phase (HBP) MRI and their longitudinal changes in predicting decompensation and death in patients with advanced chronic liver disease (ACLD). Materials and Methods: We included patients who underwent baseline and 1-year follow-up MRI from a prospective cohort that underwent gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI for hepatocellular carcinoma surveillance between November 2011 and August 2012 at a tertiary medical center. Baseline liver condition was categorized as non-ACLD, compensated ACLD, and decompensated ACLD. The liver-to-spleen signal intensity ratio (LS-SIR) and liver-to-spleen volume ratio (LS-VR) were automatically measured on the HBP images using a deep learning algorithm, and their percentage changes at the 1-year follow-up (ΔLS-SIR and ΔLS-VR) were calculated. The associations of the MRI indices with hepatic decompensation and a composite endpoint of liver-related death or transplantation were evaluated using a competing risk analysis with multivariable Fine and Gray regression models, including baseline parameters alone and both baseline and follow-up parameters. Results: Our study included 280 patients (153 male; mean age ± standard deviation, 57 ± 7.95 years) with non-ACLD, compensated ACLD, and decompensated ACLD in 32, 186, and 62 patients, respectively. Patients were followed for 11-117 months (median, 104 months). In patients with compensated ACLD, baseline LS-SIR (sub-distribution hazard ratio [sHR], 0.81; p = 0.034) and LS-VR (sHR, 0.71; p = 0.01) were independently associated with hepatic decompensation. The ΔLS-VR (sHR, 0.54; p = 0.002) was predictive of hepatic decompensation after adjusting for baseline variables. ΔLS-VR was an independent predictor of liver-related death or transplantation in patients with compensated ACLD (sHR, 0.46; p = 0.026) and decompensated ACLD (sHR, 0.61; p = 0.023). Conclusion: MRI indices automatically derived from the deep learning analysis of gadoxetic acid-enhanced HBP MRI can be used as prognostic markers in patients with ACLD.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.57-67
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• 1998

Purpose : This study was undertaken to determine the preoperative predictors of mortality and morbidity after lung cancer resection. Method: During the period from October 1, 1995 to August 31, 1996, a prospective study was conducted in 92 lung resection candidates diagnosed as lung cancer. For preoperative predictors of nonpulmonary factors, we considered age, sex, weight loss, hematocrit, serum albumin, EKG and concomitant illness, and for those of pulmonary factors, smoking history, presence of pneumonia, dyspnea scale(1 to 4), arterial blood gas analysis with room air breathing, routine pulmonary function test. And predicted postoperative(ppo) pulmonary factors such as PPO-$FEV_1$, ppo-diffusing capacity(DLco), predicted postoperative product(PPP) of ppo-$FEV_1%{\times}ppo$-DLco% and ppo-maximal $O_2$ uptake($VO_2$max) were also considered. Results: There were 78 men and 14 women with a median age of 62 years(range 42 to 82) and a mean $FEV_1$ of $2.37\pm0.06L$. Twenty nine patients had a decreased $FEV_1$ less than 2.0L. Pneumonectomy was performed in 26 patients, bilobectomy in 12, lobectomy in 54. Pulmonary complications developed in 10 patients, cardiac complications in 9, other complications(empyema, air leak, bleeding) in 11, and 16 patients were managed in intensive care unit for more than 48hours. Three patients died within 30 days after operation. The ppo-$VO_2$max was less than 10ml/kg/min in these three patients, but its statistical significance could not be determined due to small number of patients. In multivariate analysis, the predictor related to postoperative death was weight loss(p<0.05), and as for pulmonary complications, weight loss, dyspnea scale, ppo-DLco and extent of resection(p<0.05). Conclusions: Based on this study, preoperative nonpulmonary factors such as weight loss and dyspnea scale are more important than the pulmonary factors in the prediction of postoperative mortality and/or morbodity in lung resection candidates, but exercise pulmonary fuction test may be useful Our study suggests that ppo-$VO_2$max value less than 10ml/kg/min is associated with death after lung cancer resection but further studies are needed to validate this result.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.756-765
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• 1997

Background : To study the prognosis of patients with lung cancer, many investigators have reported the methods to detect cell proliferation in tissues including PCNA, thymidine autoradiography, flow cytometry and Ki-67. PCNA, also known as cyclin, is a cell related nuclear protein with 36KD intranuclear polypeptide that is maximally elevated in S phase of proliferating cells. In this study, PCNA was identified by paraffin-embedding tissue using immunohistochemistry which has an advantage of simplicity and maintenance of tissue architecture. The variation of PCNA expression is known to be related with proliferating fraction, histologic type, anatomic(TNM) stage, degree of cell differentiation, S-phase fraction and survival rate. We analyzed the correlation between PCNA expression and S-phase fraction, survival. Method : To investigate expression of PCNA in primary lung cancer, we used immunohistochemical stain to paraffin-embedded sections of 57 resected primary non-small cell lung cancer specimen and the results were analyzed according to the cell type, cell differentiation, TNM stage, S-phase fraction and survival. Results : PCNA expression was divided into five group according to degree of staging(-, +, ++, +++, ++++). Squamous cell type showed high positivity than in adenocarcinoma. Nonsignificant difference related to TNM stage was noticed. Nonsignificant difference related to degree of cell differentiation was noticed. S-phase fraction was increased with advance of PCNA positivity, but it could not reach the statistic significance. The 2 year survival rate and median survival time were -50% 13 months, +75% 41.3 months, ++73% 33.6 months, +++67% 29.0 months, ++++25% 9 months with statistic significance (P<0.05, Kaplan-Meier, generalized Wilcox). Conclusion : From this study, PCNA expression was high positive in squamous cell cancer. And, there was no relationship between PCNA positivity and TNM stage, cellular differentiation or S-phase fraction. But, the patients with high positive PCNA staining showed poor survival rate than the patients with lower positive PCNA staining (p<0.05). It was concluded that PCNA immunostaining is a simple and useful method for survival prediction in paraffin embedded tissue of non-small cell lung cancer.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.42 no.7
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• pp.579-589
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• 2009

Hwang River in South Korea, has experienced channel adjustments due to dam construction. Hapcheon main dam and re-regulation dam. The reach below the re-regulation dam (45 km long) changed in flow regime, channel width, bed material distribution, vegetation expansion, and island formation after dam construction. The re-regulation dam dramatically reduced annual peak flow from 654.7 $m^3$/s to 126.3 $m^3$/s and trapped the annual 591 thousand $m^3$ of sediment load formerly delivered from the upper watershed since the completion of the dam in 1989. An analysis of a time series of aerial photographs taken in 1982, 1993, and 2004 showed that non-vegetated active channel width narrowed an average of 152 m (47% of 1982) and non-vegetated active channel area decreased an average of 6.6 km2 (44% of 1982) between 1982 and 2004, with most narrowing and decreasing occurring after dam construction. The effects of daily pulses of water from peak hydropower generation and sudden sluice gate operations are investigated downstream of Hapcheon Dam in South Korea. The study reach is 45 km long from the Hapcheon re-regulation Dam to the confluence with the Nakdong River. An analysis of a time series of aerial photographs taken in 1982, 1993, and 2004 showed that the non-vegetated active channel width narrowed an average of 152 m (47% reduction since 1982). The non-vegetated active channel area also decreased an average of 6.6 $km^2$ (44% reduction since 1982) between 1982 and 2004, with most changes occurring after dam construction. The average median bed material size increased from 1.07 mm in 1983 to 5.72 mm in 2003, and the bed slope of the reach decreased from 0.000943 in 1983 to 0.000847 in 2003. The riverbed vertical degradation is approximately 2.6 m for a distance of 20 km below the re-regulation dam. It is expected from the result of the unsteady sediment transport numerical model (GSTAR-1D) steady simulations that the thalweg elevation will reach a stable condition around 2020. The model also confirms the theoretical prediction that sediment transport rates from daily pulses and flood peaks are 21 % and 15 % higher than their respective averages.