• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.18
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• pp.7583-7588
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• 2014

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major cause of cancer-related death and cancer-related incidence worldwide. The potential of microRNA-21 (miR-21) as a biomarker for CRC detection has been studied in several studies. However, the results were inconsistent. Therefore, we conducted the present meta-analysis to systematically assess the diagnostic value of miR-21 for CRC. Materials and Methods: Using a random-effect model, the pooled sensitivity (SEN), specificity (SPE), positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) were calculated to evaluate the diagnostic performance of miR-21 for CRC. A summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve and an area under the curve (AUC) were also generated to assess the diagnosis accuracy of miR-21 for CRC. Q test and I2 statistics were used to assess between-study heterogeneity. Publication bias was evaluated by the Deeks' funnel plot asymmetry test. Results: A total of 986 CRC patients and 702 matched healthy controls from 8 studies were involved in the meta-analysis. The pooled results for SEN, SPE, PLR, NLR, DOR, and AUC were 57% (95%CI: 39%-74%), 87% (95%CI: 78%-93%), 4.4 (95%CI: 2.4-8.0), 0.49 (95%CI: 0.32-0.74), 9 (95%CI: 4-22), and 0.83 (95%CI: 0.79-0.86), respectively. Subgroup analyses further suggested that blood-based studies showed a better diagnostic accuracy compared with feces-based studies, indicating that blood may be a better matrix for miR-21 assay and CRC detection. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that miR-21 has a potential diagnostic value for CRC with a moderate level of overall diagnostic accuracy. Hence, it could be used as auxiliary means for the initial screening of CRC and avoid unnecessary colonoscopy, which is an invasive and expensive procedure.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea TC
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.15-23
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• 2011

An interleaver rearranges a channel-encoded data in the symbol unit to spread burst errors occurred in channels into random errors. Thus, the interleaving process makes it difficult for a receiver, who does not have information of the interleaver parameters used in the transmitter, to de-interleave an unknown interleaved signal. Recently, various researches on the reconstruction of an unknown interleaved signal have been studied in many places of literature by estimating the interleaver parameters. They, however, have been mainly focused on the estimation of the block interleaver parameters required to reconstruct the de-interleaver. In this paper, as an extension of the previous researches, we estimate the convolutional interleaver parameters, e.g., the number of shift registers, a shift register depth, and a codeword length, required to de-interleave the unknown data stream, and propose the de-interleaving procedure by reconstructing the de-interleaver.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.241-254
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• 2015

This study attempts to examine farmers' preference and perception towards cropland agroforestry (CAF) and its economic benefits in Bangladesh. It surveys 84 farmers of two sub-districts named Manirampur and Bagherpara under Jessore district of Bangladesh to address the study objectives with the help of a questionnaire during the period of June to July 2013. We follow a multistage random sampling procedure for selecting respondents of the survey. A total of 27 plant species under 19 families are identified in the surveyed crop fields, among which 11 are tree species and 1 is shrub from 8 families and 15 species are agricultural crops from 11 families. According to the survey findings, most of the farmers prefer multipurpose tree species like Swietenia macrophylla (67 percent), Phoenix sylvestris (48 percent), Mangifera indica (48 percent) and Cocos nucifera (43 percent). We also find that Curcuma longa (92 percent), Oryza spp. (56 percent), Solanum melongena (43 percent) and Amorphophallus campanulatus (33 percent) are the available agriculture crops which are grown in association with trees in the study area. The surveyed farmers report that they practice CAF to get fuel wood, fodder, juice, fruit and food for family consumption and revenue earnings. About 76 percent of the surveyed farmers endorse the existence of a positive interaction between trees and agriculture crops, while the rest 24 percent endorse the existence of a negative interaction between trees and agriculture crops. This study finds that CAF farmers on an average earn US$ 1,410 per farm per year and the yearly average revenue difference between CAF and non-cropland agroforestry (NCAF) farmers is US$ 214. Overall, CAF needs to develop through scientific intervention in the study area to conserve the biodiversity and to enhance farmers' sustainable livelihood.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.1227-1232
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• 2008

Carcass characteristics data of Hanwoo (N = 1,084) were collected from two stations of the National Livestock Institute of Animal Science (NIAS), Korea and records from thirteen individual cow-calf operators were analyzed to estimate variance and covariance components and the effect of different slaughter endpoints. Carcass traits analyzed were cold carcass weight (CWT, kg), REA (rib eye area, cm2), back fat thickness (mm) and marbling score (1-7). Four different models were examined. All models included sex and contemporary group as fixed effects and the animal's direct genetic potential and environment as random effects. The first model fitted a linear covariate of age at slaughter. The second model fitted both linear and quadratic covariates of age at slaughter. The third model fitted a linear covariate of body weight at slaughter. The fourth model fitted both linear covariates of age at slaughter and body weight at slaughter. Variance components were estimated using the REML procedure with Gibb's sampler. Heritability estimate of CWT was in the range of 0.08-0.11 depending on the model applied. Heritability estimates of BF, REA and MS were in the ranges of 0.23-0.28, 0.19-0.26, and 0.44-0.45, respectively. Genetic correlations between CWT and BF, between CWT and REA, and between CWT and MS were in the ranges of -0.33 - -0.14, 0.73-0.84, and -0.01- 0.11, respectively. Genetic correlations between REA and BF, between MS and BF and between REA and MS were in the ranges of -0.82 ~ -0.72, 0.04~0.28 and -0.08 ~ -0.02, respectively. Variance and covariance components estimated varied by model with different slaughter endpoints. Body weight endpoint was more effective for direct selection in favor of yield traits and body weight endpoints affected more of the correlated response to selection for the traits of yield and quality of edible portion of beef.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.1771-1777
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• 2012

The impact of anatomic resection (AR) as compared to non-anatomic resection (NAR) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) as a factor for preventing intra-hepatic and local recurrence after the initial surgical procedure remains controversial. A systematic review and meta-analysis of nonrandomized trials comparing anatomic resection with non-anatomic resection for HCC published from 1990 to 2010 in PubMed and Medline, Cochrane Library, Embase, and Science Citation Index were therefore performed. Intra-hepatic recurrence, including early and late, and local recurrence were considered as primary outcomes. As secondary outcomes, 5 year survival and 5 year disease-free survival were considered. Pooled effects were calculated utilizing either fixed effects or random effects models. Eleven non-randomized studies including 1,576 patients were identified and analyzed, with 810 patients in the AR group and 766 in the NAR group. Patients in the AR group were characterized by lower prevalence of cirrhosis, more favorable hepatic function, and larger tumor size and higher prevalence of macrovascular invasion compared with patients in the NAR group. Anatomic resection significantly reduced the risks of local recurrence and achieved a better 5 years disease-free survival. Also, anatomic resection was marginally effective for decreasing the early intra-hepatic recurrence. However, it was not advantageous in preventing late intra-hepatic recurrence compared with non-anatomic resection. No differences were found between AR and NAR with respect to postoperative morbidity, mortality, and hospitalization. Anatomic resection can be recommended as superior to non-anatomic resection in terms of reducing the risks of local recurrence, early intra-hepatic recurrence and achieving a better 5 year disease-free survival in HCC patients.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.11 no.8
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• pp.1072-1081
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• 2008

We can categorize the network address allocation mechanism into two types. One is to assign a unique network address using the address allocation server and the other is to make a random address by itself and process the DAD(Duplicate Address Detection) procedure. In this paper we suggest a new address allocation mechanism based on the signal strength for the PLC-based home network. As the combined mechanism of two types this mechanism allocates a unique address for the new node from one of the existing nodes with the simple equation and with the priority based on the signal strength from the new node to the existing nodes. We can use this mechanism for the self-healing function when the packet from the source node may not be delivered to the destination node directly. We developed the simulator for our mechanism using the C# programming and verified the network address assigned uniquely based on the signal strength.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.57-64
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• 1989

This study presents a reliability-based optimum design of reinforced concrete frames, in which the AFOSM and SOSM methods are applied for the evaluation of the failure probabilities, and the sequential linear programming method is used as a practical approach to the system optimization. One-story two-bay reinforced concrete frame is chosen for the numerical illustration of the proposed reliability-based optimum design. As a result, it is found that the proposed procedure for the reliability-based optimization of RC frames could provide the accurate estimation of the optimal level of safety, and appears applicable to real structures with reasonable complexity. It is shown in the paper that the probability distributions of the basic random variables and the uncertainties of the applied loadings and material strengths may have great effect on the optimum design, but the AFOSM and SOSM methods do not show significant discrepancy in the optimum design results, but the former appears more realistic and time saving than the latter for this specific study.

• Survey Research
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.69-85
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• 2008

Stratification is a feature of the majority of field sample design. This paper considers the multivariate stratification strategy for multipurpose sample survey with several auxiliary variables. In a multipurpose survey, stratification procedure is very complicated because we have to simultaneously consider the efficiencies of stratification for several variables of interest. We propose stratification strategy based on factor analysis and cluster analysis using several stratification variables. To improve the efficiency of stratification, we first select the stratification variables by factor analysis, and then apply the K-means clustering algorithm to the formation of strata. An application of the stratification strategy in the sampling design for the Fisher Production Survey is discussed, and it turns out that the variances of estimators are significantly less than those obtained by simple random sampling.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.31 no.10
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• pp.10-20
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• 2003

In this study, the effective properties were numerically calculated for laminated plain weave textile composites with arbitrary s tacking orientation angles. A single-field macroelement with modified sub-domain integration was used in the analysis to reduce computer resource requirement while efficiently accounting for the internal microstructure. A sample calculation procedure based on the Monte Carlo method was employed to consider the random shift between the layers. Results showed that a significant deviation occurred when the orientation angles were near 0 deg for extensional modulus and Poisson's ratio and 45 deg for the shear modulus. It was also found that the average properties calculated by the 2-layer numerical specimen had large differences compared to the CLT results, which indicated that a caution must be needed when designig of thin plain weave composite structures.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.84-90
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• 2010

Fillet welding accounts for about 80% of all constructing process of ship and ocean structure. T-joint is one of the typical shapes which are frequently reported to experience the fatigue damage when the marine structure meets the storm loads. The fatigue damage is affected by the magnitude of residual stresses on the weld. Recently, many shipping registers and design guidances have required that the fatigue strength assessment method should be compensated by the effect of the residual stress in case that the random loading or storm loading is applied to the marine vessels. This study suggests the computational procedure to analyze the residual stresses of T-joint specimen that is frequently reported to get damaged by the storm loading. Experiment by XRD as well as the 3-D computational welding model is presented in order to get the profile of residual stress. Throughout the comparison of experimental result with the computational result, the computational model was validated. Thereafter, characteristics of he residual stresses in the joint are discussed.