• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.107-120
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• 2014

This study proposes a novel recommender system using the structural hole analysis to reflect qualitative and emotional information in recommendation process. Although collaborative filtering (CF) is known as the most popular recommendation algorithm, it has some limitations including scalability and sparsity problems. The scalability problem arises when the volume of users and items become quite large. It means that CF cannot scale up due to large computation time for finding neighbors from the user-item matrix as the number of users and items increases in real-world e-commerce sites. Sparsity is a common problem of most recommender systems due to the fact that users generally evaluate only a small portion of the whole items. In addition, the cold-start problem is the special case of the sparsity problem when users or items newly added to the system with no ratings at all. When the user's preference evaluation data is sparse, two users or items are unlikely to have common ratings, and finally, CF will predict ratings using a very limited number of similar users. Moreover, it may produces biased recommendations because similarity weights may be estimated using only a small portion of rating data. In this study, we suggest a novel limitation of the conventional CF. The limitation is that CF does not consider qualitative and emotional information about users in the recommendation process because it only utilizes user's preference scores of the user-item matrix. To address this novel limitation, this study proposes cluster-indexing CF model with the structural hole analysis for recommendations. In general, the structural hole means a location which connects two separate actors without any redundant connections in the network. The actor who occupies the structural hole can easily access to non-redundant, various and fresh information. Therefore, the actor who occupies the structural hole may be a important person in the focal network and he or she may be the representative person in the focal subgroup in the network. Thus, his or her characteristics may represent the general characteristics of the users in the focal subgroup. In this sense, we can distinguish friends and strangers of the focal user utilizing the structural hole analysis. This study uses the structural hole analysis to select structural holes in subgroups as an initial seeds for a cluster analysis. First, we gather data about users' preference ratings for items and their social network information. For gathering research data, we develop a data collection system. Then, we perform structural hole analysis and find structural holes of social network. Next, we use these structural holes as cluster centroids for the clustering algorithm. Finally, this study makes recommendations using CF within user's cluster, and compare the recommendation performances of comparative models. For implementing experiments of the proposed model, we composite the experimental results from two experiments. The first experiment is the structural hole analysis. For the first one, this study employs a software package for the analysis of social network data - UCINET version 6. The second one is for performing modified clustering, and CF using the result of the cluster analysis. We develop an experimental system using VBA (Visual Basic for Application) of Microsoft Excel 2007 for the second one. This study designs to analyzing clustering based on a novel similarity measure - Pearson correlation between user preference rating vectors for the modified clustering experiment. In addition, this study uses 'all-but-one' approach for the CF experiment. In order to validate the effectiveness of our proposed model, we apply three comparative types of CF models to the same dataset. The experimental results show that the proposed model outperforms the other comparative models. In especial, the proposed model significantly performs better than two comparative modes with the cluster analysis from the statistical significance test. However, the difference between the proposed model and the naive model does not have statistical significance.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.8-19
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• 2008

The physicochemical properties of soils having high uranium content, located around Duckpyungri in Korea, were investigated and the lab scale soil washing experiments to remove uranium from the soil were preformed with several washing solutions and on various washing conditions. SPLP (Synthetic Precipitation Leaching Procedure), TCLP (Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure), and SEP (Sequential Extraction Procedure) for the soil were conducted and the uranium concentration of the extracted solution in SPLP was higher than Drinking Water Limit of USEPA (30 ${\mu}g$/L), suggesting that the continuous dissolution of uranium from soil by the weak acid rain may generate the environmental pollution around the research area. For the soil washing experiments, the uranium removal efficiency of pH 1 solution for S2 soil was about 80 %, but dramatically decreased as pH of solution was > 2, suggesting that strong acidic solutions are available to remove uranium from the soil. For solutions with 0.1M of HCl and 0.05 M of ${H_2}{SO_4}$, their removal efficiencies at 1 : 1 of soil vs. washing solution ratio were higher than 70%, but the removal efficiencies of acetic acid, and EDTA were below 30%. At 1 : 3 of soil vs. solution, the uranium removal efficiencies of 0.1M HCl, 0.05 M ${H_2}{SO_4}$, and 0.5M citric acid solution increased to 88%, 100%, and 61% respectively. On appropriate washing conditions for S2 soil such as 1 : 3 ratio for the soil vs. solution ratio, 30 minute for washing time, and 2 times continuous washing, TOC (Total Organic Contents) and CEC (Cation Exchange Capacity) for S2 soil were measured before/after soil washing and their XRD (X-Ray Diffraction) and XRF (X-Ray Fluorescence) results were also compared to investigate the change of soil properties after soil washing. TOC and CEC decreased by 55% and 66%, compared to those initial values of S2 soil, suggesting that the soil reclaimant may need to improve the washed soils for the cultivated plants. Results of XRF and XRD showed that the structural change of soil after soil washing was insignificant and the washed soil will be partially used for the further purpose.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2008

Specific protocols to increase the differentiation of neuronal cells from embryonic stem (ES) cells have been well established, such as retinoic acid induction and lineage selection of neuronal cells. For the neuropathological studies, ES-derived neurons (ES neurons) must show normal physiological characteristics related to cell death and survival and should be maintained in vitro for a sufficient time to show insults-specific cell death without spontaneous death. When mouse ES cells were plated onto astrocytes monolayer after retinoic acid induction, most ES cells differentiated into neuronal cells, which were confirmed by the presence of specific neuronal markers, and the cultures were viable for at least four weeks. When these cultures were examined for vulnerability to glutamate excitotoxicity, ES neurons were vulnerable to excitotoxic insults mediated by agonist-specific receptors. The vulnerability to excitotoxic death increased with developmental age of ES neurons in vitro. Specific receptors for Neurotrophin and GDNF family ligands were present in ES neurons. GDNF and NT-3 could modulate the survival and excitotoxic vulnerability of ES neurons. The vulnerability and resistance to toxic insults, which are essential requirements of model culture systems for neuropathological studies, make ES neurons to a useful model culture system. Especially ES cell are highly amenable to genetic modification unlikely to primary neuronal cells, which will give us a chance to answer more complicated neurophysiological questions. Recently there was an outstanding attempt to explore the cellular toxicity using human ES cells (Schrattenholz & Klemm, 2007) and it suggested that ES cells could be a new model system for neurophysiological studies soon and go further a large-scale screening system for pharmacological compounds in the future.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.365-377
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• 2012

Objectives : This research was conducted to determine the effect of the Visiting Oral Health Care Program by examining the oral health of the elderly women, who are the beneficiaries of this Visiting Oral Care Program. Methods : This research was conducted from November of 2011 to February of 2012, in Chilgok-gun in the Kyeongbuk Province, South Korea. One hundred and twenty five (125) elderly women among the beneficiaries of the Visiting Oral Care Program within the area were randomly selected for the research. The research subjects would regularly visit the area senior citizen center, and they were divided into two groups, with 64 of them belonging to a control group, and the rest (61 people) belonged to a intervention group. The research subjects were examined for their dental health condition, and we investigated the effect of the Visiting Oral Care Program through this research. Results : 1. When they were asked about how many times they wash their dentures, the majority of the control group, 57.4% of them answered that they do it "once" a day. The majority of the intervention group answered "more than 3 times", with 35.2% of group mentioning that they wash their dentures more than 3 times a day(p<.001). 2. When the research subjects were asked to scale their overall quality of life before and after the Visiting Oral Care Program, the control group had rated 49.3 before the Service and 56.8 after the Service (p<.01), and scores for the individual factors to determine the overall quality of life has significantly improved as well (p<.01, p<.01, p<.01, p<.01, p<.01, p<.01, p<.01). 3. The oral hygiene condition after the Visiting Oral Care Program has shown improvement as well. The control group scored 64.2 for the severity of the symptoms of dental plaque before the dental care, and scored 46.8 after the dental care (p<0.1). The control group was diagnosed for the symptoms of coated tongue, and the severity of the symptoms were scaled as 3.7 before the Program and 2.0 after the Program (p<.01). Furthermore, the overall functionality of the oral cavity was improved as well. The control group showed 1.0 time increase in repetitive voluntary swallowing test (p<0.1), increased amount of sublingual saliva from 0.8mm to 1.4mm, and from 1.6mm to 2.0mm in dorsum linguae(p<0.1). Also, the control group showed an improvement in mouth opening as well, increased from 3.9 to 4.0cm after the oral care program (p<.05). When compared the result with the examination after the Visiting Oral Care Program, the two groups showed a significant difference with the control group showing a significant improvement compared to the intervention group(p<.01, p<.01, p<.01, p<.01, p<.05). 4. The correlation between the dental hygiene condition and the functionality of oral was made for the result of examining the beneficiaries for Visiting Oral Care Program. The amount of saliva showed a negative correlation with the severity of dental plaque (p<.05), and a positive correlation with the repetitive voluntary swallowing count (p<0.1). Also, mouth opening showed a positive correlation with repetitive voluntary swallowing count (p<.05). Conclusions : After the Visiting Orall Care Program, the beneficiaries of the program experienced improvement in their quality of life related to oral health, overall oral hygiene and functionality of oral.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.87-97
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• 2018

The cesium (Cs) removal from the contaminated water system has been considered to be difficult because the cesium likes to exist as soluble phases such as ion and complexes than the solid in water system. Many researches have focused on developing the breakthrough adsorbent to increase the cesium removal efficiency in water. In this study, the laboratory scale experiments were performed to investigate the feasibility of the adsorption process using the bamboo charcoal for the Cs contaminated water system. The Cs removal efficiency of the bamboo charcoal were measured and the optimal adsorption conditions were determined by the adsorption batch experiments. Total 5 types of commercialized bamboo charcoals in Korea were used to identify their surface properties from SEM-EDS and XRD analyses and 3 types of bamboo charcoals having large specific surface areas were used for the adsorption batch experiment. The batch experiments to calculate the Cs removal efficiency were performed at conditions of various Cs concentration (0.01 - 10 mg/L), pH (3 - 11), temperature ($5-30^{\circ}C$), and adsorption time (10 - 120 min.). Experimental results were fitted to the Langmuir adsorption isotherm curve and their adsorption constants were determined to understand the adsorption properties of bamboo charcoal for Cs contaminated water system. From results of SEM-EDS analyses, the surfaces of bamboo charcoal particles were composed of typical fiber structures having various pores and dense lamella structures in supporting major adsorption spaces for Cs. From results of adsorption batch experiments, the Cs-133 removal efficiency of C type bamboo charcoal was the highest among those of 3 bamboo charcoal types and it was higher than 75 % (maximum of 82 %) even when the initial Cs concentration in water was lower than 1.0 mg/L, suggesting that the adsorption process using the bamboo charcoal has a great potential to remove Cs from the genuine Cs contaminated water, of which Cs concentration is low (< 1.0 mg/L) in general. The high Cs removal efficiency of bamboo charcoal was maintained in a relatively wide range of temperatures and pHs, supporting that the usage of the bamboo charcoal is feasible for various types of water. Experimental results were similar to the Langmuir adsorption model and the maximum amount of Cs adsorption (qm:mg/g) was 63.4 mg/g, which was higher than those of commercialized adsorbents used in previous studies. The surface coverage (${\theta}$) of bamboo charcoal was also maintained in low when the Cs concentration in water was < 1.0 mg/L, investigating that the Cs contaminated water can be remediated up with a small amount of bamboo charcoal.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.438-446
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• 2006

A lab-scale batch test was conducted to develop capping materials to reduce the sediment phosphorus in the stagnant water zone of Gyeongancheon in Paldang Lake. The mean grain size(Mz) of sediment in the investigated area was 7.7 ${\phi}$, which is very fine, and the contents of organic carbon($C_{org}$) was 2.4%, which is very high. For the phosphorous release experiment to select the optimal capping material, sand layer, powder-gypsum($CaSO_4{\cdot}2H_2O$), granule-gypsum, complex layer(gypsum+sand) and the control were compared and evaluated in the 150 L reactor for 45 days. In case of the capping with the sand, it was found that the phosphorous from the sediment could be reduced by around 50%. However, it was found that this caused the reduction of the dissolved oxygen in the water column(by less than 3 mg/L) due to the resuspension of sediment and the organic matter decomposition that comes from the generation of $CH_4$ gas in the 1 cm of the sand layer. Therefore, it is likely that the sand layer has to be thickener in case of the sand capping. Powder-gypsum and granule-Gypsum reduced phosphorous release by more than 80%. However, the concentration of ${SO_4}^{2-}$ in the water column increased, making it difficult to apply it to the drinking water protection zone. We developed Fe-Gypsum and $SiO_2$-gypsum materials to reduce the solubility of ${SO_4}^{2-}$. Powder-Gypsum creates the interception film that does not have any aperture on the sediment layer when it is combined with the water. However phosphorous release caused by the generation of $CH_4$ gas may happen at a time when the gypsum layer has the crack. Capping through the complex layer(granule-Gypsum+sand(1 cm)) found to be suitable for the drinking water protection zone because it was effective to prevent phosphorus release. Moreover, this leads to the lower solubility from the concentration of ${SO_4}^{2-}$ into the water column than the powder-Gypsum and granule-Gypsum. The addition of gypsum($CaSO_4{\cdot}2H_2O$) into the sediment can reduce the progress of methanogensis because fast early diagenesis and sufficient supply of ${SO_4}^{2-}$ to the sediment, stimulate the SRB(sulfate reducing bacteria) highly.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.2047-2058
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• 2000

The effects of operating parameters on performance of upflow anaerobic sludge blanket(UASB). anaerobic filter(AF), and two-stage anaerobic sludge bed filter (ASBF) bioreactors in treating swine wastewater were evaluated by operating the lab-scale bioreactors upto hydraulic retention time(HRT) of 1 day and organic loading rate (OLR) of $5.1kg-COD/m^3{\cdot}d$ for 200 days. Swine wastewaters of which characteristics were affected by types of hog raising and seasons contained high concentrations of COD, SS, and ammonia. Inoculation of the bioreactors with waste sludge from anaerobic treatment facility of local municipal wastewater treatment plant was effective in developing biomass in the bioreactors. Acclimation period of the bioreactors with swine wastewaters required approximately 40 days, but that for AF and two-stage ASBF, which were filled with media, was faster than VASB. The bioreactors showed high and stable COD removal efficiency of 77~91% at influent T-N concentrations of 370~800mg/L but low and unstable COD removal efficiency of 24~94% at influent T-N concentrations of 760~1,310mg/L. It is essential to remove ammonia prior to anaerobic treatment since the concentrations of ammonia in swine wastewaters showed toxic effects to methanogenic bacteria. The bioreactors were effective in treating swine wastewaters with COD removal efficiency of 78.9~81.5% and biogas generation rate of $0.39{\sim}0.59m^3/kg-COD_r$ at OLR of $1.1{\sim}2.2kg-COD/m^3{\cdot}d$: however, an increase of OLR by reducing HRT and increasing influent COD caused decrease of COD removal efficiency. The extent of decrease in COD removal efficiency was higher in UASB than AF and two-stage ASBF. AF and two-stage ASBF anaerobic bioreactors were effective in treating varing characteristics of swine wastewaters since they showed high and stable COD removal efficiency at high OLR due to effective retention of biomass by media and staging.

• Archives of design research
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• v.19 no.5 s.67
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• pp.119-128
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• 2006

The scale of visual expression has expanded from freeze frame to motion picture as media have developed. Moving pictures such as animation, movies, TV CM and GUI become formative elements whose movement is necessary compared to freeze frame as apparent movement phenomenon and unit structure such as short and scene appear. Therefore, of formative elements such as a shape, color, space, size and movement, movement is importantly distinguished in the moving image. The expression and form of image as a relationship between the signified and signifier explained by Saussure are accepted as a sign by mutual complement even though they limit the content. This makes it possible to infer that the formal feature of movement participates in the message content. To verify this, the result of moving picture visual perception experiment based on the gestalt grouping principle result shows that 70-80 percent of subjects think that 'movement' is the important grouping clue in perception. Movement affects the maintenance of the context of message content in the communication process when the meaning structure of moving picture is analyzed based on the structural feature. The identity can be maintained with if there is a movement with similar directive point even if the color and shape of people, things and background are changed. Second, the clarity of the content is elevated by a distinguished object as a figure by movement. Third, it acts as a knowledge representation which can predict similar movement process of next information processing. Forth, movement gives the content consistency even though more than two scenes have fast switch and complicated editing structure like cross-cutting. Movement becomes a clue which can make grouping information input by visual perception reaction. Also, it gives the order to the visual expression which can be used improperly by formation of structural frame of image message and has the effectiveness which elevates the clarity of signification. Moving picture has discourse with several mixed unit structures because it fundamentally contains time and the common and distinguished expression is needed by media-mix circumstances. Therefore, by the application of gestalt grouping principle to moving picture field, movement becomes the more distinguished than other formative elements and affects the formation of meaning structure. This study propose a viewpoint that develops structural formative beauty and new image expression in the media image field.

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.20-26
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• 2010

Purpose: To evaluate clinical features and surgical results for rotator cuff tear secondary to shoulder dislocation in middle-aged and elderly patients. Materials and Methods: We reviewed 19 patients over 50 years of age who had rotator cuff tears combined with shoulder dislocation between October 2004 and October 2008. There were 7 males and 12 females with a mean age 64.7 years (range, 50 to 78 years). The average follow-up duration was 22 months (range, 8 to 56 months). We investigated the number of dislocations, the size of the cuff tear, the presence of Bankart lesions and the time interval from dislocation to surgery. We also investigated the ASES score, UCLA score, SST score, and shoulder range of motion before and after surgery. We analyzed clinical outcomes and contributing factors. Results: ASES scores improved from 30.2 preoperatively to 72.3 postoperatively; UCLA scores improved from 12.9 to 26.5; SST scores improved from 2.4 to 7.3. Range of motion improved significantly: forward flexion, abduction, external rotation and internal rotation were, respectively, $110.8({\pm}39.3)^{\circ}$, $107.7({\pm}40)^{\circ}$, $22.5({\pm}17.6)^{\circ}$ and L5 level preoperatively; postoperatively they were $153.6({\pm}20.6)^{\circ}$, $152.1({\pm}20.8)^{\circ}$, $36.4({\pm}22.7)^{\circ}$ and L1 level. Age, the presence of Bankart lesions and the number of dislocations were not correlated with clinical outcomes. But the size of the cuff tear was correlated with clinical results. Also, the duration from dislocation to surgery was correlated with postoperative UCLA and SST scores (p=0.039, p=0.038). Conclusion: For shoulder dislocation, it is important to achieve early diagnoses of rotator cuff tears in middle-aged and elderly patients. If these injuries are both present, early rotator cuff repair should be performed for better clinical results.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.75-86
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• 2003

In the near future, the capacity of conventional anaerobic digester is thought to be insufficient because of the increase of the total solids from expansion of intercepting sewer, sewage quantity and direct input of night soil from near apartment districts. The objectives of this study was to investigate the improvement of digestion efficiency using microbial agent(Bio-dh). The system was a pilot-scale, two-staged, anaerobic sludge digestion system. The first-stage digester was heated and mixed. The agitation velocity of the first-stage digester was 120rpm. The second-stage digester was neither heated nor mixed. The Digestion temperature was kept at $35{\pm}1^{\circ}C$ The detention time of digester was 19 days. The dosage of sewage sludge and microbial agent were $0.65m^3/day$ and $0.5{\ell}/day$, respectively. The experiments was run for 25days. Three times a week, $COD_{Mn}$ and SS of effluent, TS, VS, and biogas production rate were measured. Temperature, pH, and alkalinity were measured daily. The results were as follows ; Without microbial agent, digestion efficiencies ranged 46.0%~50.9%(mean=48.6%), with microbial agent(Bio-dh), digestion efficiencies ranged 52.8%~57.3%(mean=54.2%). Consequently, microbial agent(Bio-dh) increased the sludge digestion efficiency about 12%. Also, Without microbial agent, the mean concentration of $COD_{Mn}$ and SS of second-stage digester effluent were 1,639mg/L, 4,888mg/L respectively. With microbial agent, the mean concentration of $COD_{Mn}$ and SS of second-stage digester effluent were 859mg/L, 2,405mg/L respectively. Consequently, microbial agent(Bio-dh) increased the removal efficiency of $COD_{Mn}$ and SS about 47.6% and 50.8%, respectively.