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Immune Cells Are Differentially Affected by SARS-CoV-2 Viral Loads in K18-hACE2 Mice

  • Jung Ah Kim;Sung-Hee Kim;Jeong Jin Kim;Hyuna Noh;Su-bin Lee;Haengdueng Jeong;Jiseon Kim;Donghun Jeon;Jung Seon Seo;Dain On;Suhyeon Yoon;Sang Gyu Lee;Youn Woo Lee;Hui Jeong Jang;In Ho Park;Jooyeon Oh;Sang-Hyuk Seok;Yu Jin Lee;Seung-Min Hong;Se-Hee An;Joon-Yong Bae;Jung-ah Choi;Seo Yeon Kim;Young Been Kim;Ji-Yeon Hwang;Hyo-Jung Lee;Hong Bin Kim;Dae Gwin Jeong;Daesub Song;Manki Song;Man-Seong Park;Kang-Seuk Choi;Jun Won Park;Jun-Won Yun;Jeon-Soo Shin;Ho-Young Lee;Ho-Keun Kwon;Jun-Young Seo;Ki Taek Nam;Heon Yung Gee;Je Kyung Seong
    • IMMUNE NETWORK
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    • v.24 no.2
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    • pp.7.1-7.19
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    • 2024
  • Viral load and the duration of viral shedding of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are important determinants of the transmission of coronavirus disease 2019. In this study, we examined the effects of viral doses on the lung and spleen of K18-hACE2 transgenic mice by temporal histological and transcriptional analyses. Approximately, 1×105 plaque-forming units (PFU) of SARS-CoV-2 induced strong host responses in the lungs from 2 days post inoculation (dpi) which did not recover until the mice died, whereas responses to the virus were obvious at 5 days, recovering to the basal state by 14 dpi at 1×102 PFU. Further, flow cytometry showed that number of CD8+ T cells continuously increased in 1×102 PFU-virus-infected lungs from 2 dpi, but not in 1×105 PFU-virus-infected lungs. In spleens, responses to the virus were prominent from 2 dpi, and number of B cells was significantly decreased at 1×105 PFU; however, 1×12 PFU of virus induced very weak responses from 2 dpi which recovered by 10 dpi. Although the defense responses returned to normal and the mice survived, lung histology showed evidence of fibrosis, suggesting sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our findings indicate that specific effectors of the immune response in the lung and spleen were either increased or depleted in response to doses of SARS-CoV-2. This study demonstrated that the response of local and systemic immune effectors to a viral infection varies with viral dose, which either exacerbates the severity of the infection or accelerates its elimination.

Investigation of Microbial Contamination in the Raw Materials of Meal Kits (간편조리세트 원재료의 미생물 오염도 조사)

  • Hyun-Kyung Lee;Young-Sook Do;Min-Jung Park;Kyoung Suk Lim;Seo-In Oh;Jeong-Hwa Lim;Hyun-Soo Kim;Hyun-Kyung Ham;Yeo-Jung Kim;Myung-Jin Lee;Yong-Bae Park
    • Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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    • v.39 no.2
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    • pp.109-117
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    • 2024
  • This study investigated the microbial contamination of agricultural, livestock, and marine ingredients in 55 meal kits distributed across Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. Of the 55 meal kits, 48 contained agricultural ingredients, 43 contained livestock ingredients, and 16 contained marine ingredients. The detection rate of the total aerobic bacteria in the agricultural, livestock, and marine products was 100%. The average numbers of the total aerobic bacteria were 6.57 log colony-forming units (CFU)/g in the agricultural products, 4.60 log CFU/g in the livestock products, and 5.47 log CFU/g in the marine products. The coliform detection rates in the agricultural, livestock, and marine products were 81.25%, 69.77%, and 43.75%, respectively. The average numbers of coliforms were 2.83 log CFU/g in the agricultural products, 1.34 log CFU/g in the livestock products, and 1.12 log CFU/g in the marine products. Escherichia coli was detected in 13 livestock products (30.23%), with levels ranging from 0.70 to 2.36 log CFU/g. Contrastingly, E. coli was detected in only one marine product (6.25%) and was not detected in any agricultural products. The detection rates of fungi in agricultural, livestock, and marine products were 97.92%, 93.02%, and 93.75%, respectively. The average numbers of fungi were 3.82 log CFU/g for the agricultural products, 2.92 log CFU/g for the livestock products, and 2.82 log CFU/g for the marine products. The isolation rates of foodborne pathogens from the agricultural, livestock, and marine products were 35.42%, 37.21%, and 31.25%, respectively. Forty-five foodborne pathogens of seven species, including Bacillus cereus and Salmonella spp., were isolated from the raw materials of the agricultural, livestock, and marine products in 55 meal kits. To prevent foodborne diseases caused by meal kits, it is necessary to focus on washing, heating, and preventing cross-contamination during cooking.

Severe Human Rhinovirus Lower Respiratory Tract Infections in Young Children

  • Doo Ri Kim;Kyung-Ran Kim;Hwanhee Park;Esther Park;Joongbum Cho;Jihyun Kim;Hee Jae Huh;Kangmo Ahn;Nam Yong Lee;Yae-Jean Kim
    • Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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    • v.30 no.3
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    • pp.111-120
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    • 2023
  • Purpose: Human rhinovirus (HRV) infections can result in lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs). We aimed to investigate the characteristics of severe HRV LRTI in young children. Methods: Medical records were reviewed retrospectively in patients who were hospitalized for HRV LRTIs from 2016 to 2020 at the Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, Korea. Patients aged 90 days or older and younger than 5 years were included. Patients with co-infections with other respiratory pathogens were excluded. Severe HRV LRTI was defined as the following: the need for high-flow oxygenation, mechanical ventilation, or intensive care unit admission. Results: A total of 115 cases were identified. The median age was 17 months (range, 3-56 months) and the median hospital days were 4 days (range, 2-31 days). Of the 115 cases, 18 patients (15.7%) developed severe HRV LRTI. The median age was younger in the severe group compared to the non-severe group (9.5 months vs. 19.0 months, P=0.001). Of 18 patients with severe HRV LRTI, 11 (61.1%) had underlying diseases - chronic lung diseases accounted for the largest proportion (63.6%). Six patients (33.3%) required mechanical ventilation. Of note, 7 previously healthy children were diagnosed with severe HRV LRTI. Of those 7 children, 4 of them were diagnosed with asthma later. When the 115 cases were divided into previously healthy (n=60) and underlying disease (n=55) groups, severe courses of HRV LRTI were observed in 11.7% and 20.0% of children, respectively (P=0.219). Conclusions: HRV can cause severe LRTI even in previously healthy children as well as in children with comorbidities.

Contrast Media in Abdominal Computed Tomography: Optimization of Delivery Methods

  • Joon Koo Han;Byung Ihn Choi;Ah Young Kim;Soo Jung Kim
    • Korean Journal of Radiology
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    • v.2 no.1
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    • pp.28-36
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    • 2001
  • Objective: To provide a systematic overview of the effects of various parameters on contrast enhancement within the same population, an animal experiment as well as a computer-aided simulation study was performed. Materials and Methods: In an animal experiment, single-level dynamic CT through the liver was performed at 5-second intervals just after the injection of contrast medium for 3 minutes. Combinations of three different amounts (1, 2, 3 mL/kg), concentrations (150, 200, 300 mgI/mL), and injection rates (0.5, 1, 2 mL/sec) were used. The CT number of the aorta (A), portal vein (P) and liver (L) was measured in each image, and time-attenuation curves for A, P and L were thus obtained. The degree of maximum enhancement (Imax) and time to reach peak enhancement (Tmax) of A, P and L were determined, and times to equilibrium (Teq) were analyzed. In the computed-aided simulation model, a program based on the amount, flow, and diffusion coefficient of body fluid in various compartments of the human body was designed. The input variables were the concentrations, volumes and injection rates of the contrast media used. The program generated the time-attenuation curves of A, P and L, as well as liver-to-hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) contrast curves. On each curve, we calculated and plotted the optimal temporal window (time period above the lower threshold, which in this experiment was 10 Hounsfield units), the total area under the curve above the lower threshold, and the area within the optimal range. Results: A. Animal Experiment: At a given concentration and injection rate, an increased volume of contrast medium led to increases in Imax A, P and L. In addition, Tmax A, P, L and Teq were prolonged in parallel with increases in injection time The time-attenuation curve shifted upward and to the right. For a given volume and injection rate, an increased concentration of contrast medium increased the degree of aortic, portal and hepatic enhancement, though Tmax A, P and L remained the same. The time-attenuation curve shifted upward. For a given volume and concentration of contrast medium, changes in the injection rate had a prominent effect on aortic enhancement, and that of the portal vein and hepatic parenchyma also showed some increase, though the effect was less prominent. A increased in the rate of contrast injection led to shifting of the time enhancement curve to the left and upward. B. Computer Simulation: At a faster injection rate, there was minimal change in the degree of hepatic attenuation, though the duration of the optimal temporal window decreased. The area between 10 and 30 HU was greatest when contrast media was delivered at a rate of 2 3 mL/sec. Although the total area under the curve increased in proportion to the injection rate, most of this increase was above the upper threshould and thus the temporal window was narrow and the optimal area decreased. Conclusion: Increases in volume, concentration and injection rate all resulted in improved arterial enhancement. If cost was disregarded, increasing the injection volume was the most reliable way of obtaining good quality enhancement. The optimal way of delivering a given amount of contrast medium can be calculated using a computer-based mathematical model.

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Seasonal Morphodynamic Changes of Multiple Sand Bars in Sinduri Macrotidal Beach, Taean, Chungnam (충남 태안군 신두리 대조차 해빈에 나타나는 다중사주의 계절별 지형변화 특성)

  • Tae Soo Chang;Young Yun Lee;Hyun Ho Yoon;Kideok Do
    • Journal of the Korean earth science society
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    • v.45 no.3
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    • pp.203-213
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    • 2024
  • This study aimed to investigate the seasonal patterns of multiple bar formation in summer and flattening in winter on the macrotidal Sinduri beach in Taean, and to understand the processes their formation and subsequent flattening. Beach profiling has been conducted regularly over the last four years using a VRS-GPS system. Surface sediment samples were collected seasonally along the transectline, and grain size analyses were performed. Tidal current data were acquired using a TIDOS current observation system during both winter and summer. The Sinduri macrotidal beach consists of two geomorphic units: an upper high-gradient beach face and a lower gentler sloped intertidal zone. High berms and beach cusps did not develop on this beach face. The approximately 400-m-wide intertidal zone comprises distinct 2-5 lines of multiple bars. Mean grain sizes of sand bars range from 2.0 to 2.75 phi, corresponding to fine sands. Mean sizes show shoreward coarsening trend. Regular beach-profiling survey revealed that the summer profile has a multi-barred morphology with a maximum of five bar lines, whereas, the winter profile has a non-barred, flat morphology. The non-barred winter profiles likely result from flattening by scour-and-fill processes during winter. The growth of multiple bars in summer is interpreted to be formed by a break-point mechanism associated with moderate waves and the translation of tide levels, rather than the standing wave hypothesis, which is stationary at high tide. The break-point hypothesis for multi-bars is supported by the presence of the largest bar at mean sea-level, shorter bar spacing toward the shore, irregular bar spacing, strong asymmetry of bars, and the 10-30 m shoreward migration of multi-bars.

A Study of Microbial Contamination in Fresh-Cut and Ready-to-Eat Foods Purchased from Online Markets (온라인 판매 신선편의식품 및 즉석섭취식품의 미생물 오염도 연구)

  • Hye-Sun Hwang;Jae-Hoon Jeong;Young-Hee Kwon;Ye-Jee Byun;Ji-Young Park;Ho-Cheol Yun
    • Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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    • v.39 no.4
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    • pp.335-342
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    • 2024
  • This study aimed to examine the delivery conditions and microbial contamination of fresh-cut and ready-to-eat foods purchased from online markets between February and November 2023. Upon arrival, the average surface temperature of the products was 11.3℃. In the fresh-cut foods, the average number of total aerobic bacteria and coliforms was 4.5 log colony-forming units (CFU)/g and 1.2 log CFU/g, respectively, whereas in the ready-to-eat foods, these values were 10.6 log CFU/g and 1.2 log CFU/g, respectively. Pathogens, such as Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella spp., Clostridium perfringens, Listeria monocytogenes, and pathogenic Escherichia coli were absent from all samples. Bacillus cereus was found in 2.7% of the fresh-cut foods and 0.9% of the ready-to-eat foods, with contamination levels averaging 0.05 log CFU/g and 0.01 log CFU/g, respectively. In the four samples in which B. cereus was detected, genetic testing of the six toxin genes produced by B. cereus revealed the presence of at least one enterotoxin gene, excluding the emetic toxin. L. monocytogenes was absent from ready-to-eat foods but was detected in 0.9% of fresh-cut foods. Analysis of the isolated L. monocytogenes confirmed the presence of six pathogenicity-related genes, including iap, indicating the potential risk of foodborne diseases.

9 Provinces and 5 Secondary Capitals, Myeong-ju(Haseo-ju) - Revolve Around Urban Structure - (구주오소경과 명주(하서주) - 그 도시구조를 중심으로 -)

  • Takahumi, Yamada
    • Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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    • v.45 no.2
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    • pp.20-37
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    • 2012
  • After withdrawal of military troops of Chinese Tang dynasty in the 18th year of King Moon-moo's reign(678), the Silla Kingdom had actually unified the Korean peninsula and had divided the territory into 9 states benchmarking the China's local administrations adjustment system. He had established local administrative units by deploying secondary capitals, counties and prefectures in the nine states. The so-called "9 Provinces and 5 Secondary capitals" are what constitutes the local administrations system. The provinces can be compared to current provinces of the Republic of Korea(hereinafter Korea), and secondary capitals to megalopolises. According to a chapter of the Samkuksaki(三?史記) which had recorded the achievements of king Kyoungdeok in December in his 16th year on the throne(757), the local administrative units had amounted to 5 secondary capitals, 117 counties and 293 prefectures. There are still lots of ambiguous points since there have never been any consultation on locations of provinces and secondary capitals' castles, and on structures of cities because the researches for local cities inside the 9 Provinces and 5 Secondary capitals in the Unified Silla Kingdom has been conducted centering on the historic literatures only. The research for restoring structures of cities seen from an archeological perspective are limited to the studies of Taewoo Park("A study on the local cities in the Unified Kingdom Age" 1987) and that of the author("A study on the restoration of planned cities for the Unified Silla Kingdom in terms of the structures and realities of the castles in the 9 Provinces and 5 Secondary capitals" 2009). The Gangneung city of Gangwon province was originally called Haseoryang(河西良) of the Gogureo Kingdom as an ancient nation of Ye(濊). According to "Samkuksaki", it had evolved from Haseoju(河西州) to a secondary capitals in the 8th year of King Seonduk(639). Afterwards, it had been renamed as Myeongju(溟洲) in the 16th year of King Kyoungduk(757), and then several other names were given to it after Goryo dynasty. Taewoo Park claims that it is being defined as a sanctuary remaining in Myoungjudong because of the vestige of bare castle, and this cannot be ascertained due to the on-going urbanization processes. Also, the Kwandong university authority is suggesting an opinion of regarding Myeongju mountain castle located 3 Kms southwest of the center of Gangwon city as commanding post for the pertinent state. The author has restored the pertinent area into a city composed of villages within a lattice framework like Silla Keumkyoung and many other cities. The structure is depicted next. The downtown of Gangneung is situated on a flat terrain at the west bank of Namdaecheon stream flowing southwest to northeast along the inner area of the city. Though there isn't any hill comparatively higher than others in the vicinity, hills are continuously linked east to west along the northern area of the downtown, and the maximum width of flat terrain is about 1 Km and is not so large. Currently, urbanization is being proceeded into the inner portion of Gangneung city, the lands in all directions from the hub of Gangneung station have been readjusted, and thus previous land-zoning program is almost nullified. However, referring to the topographic chart drawn at the time of Japanese colonial rule, it can be validated that land-zoning program to accord the lattice framework with the length of its one side equaling to 190m leaves its vestige about 0.8Km northwest to southeast and about 1.7Km northeast to southwest of the vicinity of Okcheondong, Imdangdong, Geumhakdong, Myeongjudong, and etcetera which comprize the hub of the downtown. The land-zoning vestige within the lattice framework, compared to other cases related with the '9 states and 5 secondary capitals', is very much likely to be that of the Unified Silla Kingdom. That the length of a side of a lattice framework is 190m as opposed to that of Silla Geumkyoung and other cities with their 140m or 160m long sides is a single survey item in the future. The baseline direction for zoning the lands is tilting approximately 37.5 degrees west of northwest to southeast axis in accordance with the topographic features. It seems that this phenomenon takes place because of the direction of Namdaecheon and the geographic constraints of the hills in the north. Reviewing minimally, a rectangular size of zoned land by 4 Pangs(坊) on the northwest to southeast side multiplied by 7 Pangs(坊) on the northeast to southwest side had been restored within a lattice framework. Otherwise, considering the extent of expansion of the existing zoned lands in the lattice framework and one more Pang(坊) being added to each side, it is likely that the size could have been with 5 Pangs(坊) on the northwest to southeast side multiplied by 8 Pangs(坊) on the northeast to southwest side(950 M on the northwest to southeast side multiplied by 1,520m on the northeast to southwest side). The overall shape is rectangle, but land-zoning programs reminiscent of rebuilt roads(red phoenix road) like Jang-an castle(長安城) of Chinese Tang dynasty or Pyoungseong castle(平城城) in Japan is not to be validated. There are some historic items among the roof tiles and earthen wares excavated at local administrative office sites or Gangneung's town castle in Joseon dynasty inside the area assumed to be containing municipal vestiges even though archeological survey for the vestige of Myeongju has not been made yet, and these items deserve dating back to the Unified Silla Kingdom age. Also, all of the construction sites at local administrative authorities of the Joseon dynasty are showing large degrees of slant in the azimuth. This is a circumstantial evidence indicating the fact that the inherited land-zoning programs to be seen in Gangneung in terms of the lattice framework had ever existed in the past. Also, the author does not decline that Myeongju mountain castle had once been the commanding post when reviewing the roof tiles at the edge of eaves in this stronghold. The ancient municipal castles in the Korean peninsula are composed of castles on the flat terrain as well as hilly areas and the cluster of strongholds like Myounghwal, Namhan, Seohyoung mountain castles built around municipal castle of Geumkyoung based on a lattice framework program. Considering that mountain castles are spread in the vicinity of municipal vestiges in other cities other than the 9 states and 5 secondary capitals, it is estimated that Myeongju was assuming the function of commanding post incorporating cities on the flat terrain and castles on the hills.

Crystal Structures of $Cd_6-A$ Dehydrated at $750^{\circ}C$ and Dehydrated $Cd_6-A$ Reacted with Cs Vapor ($750^{\circ}C$ 에서 탈수한 $Cd_6-A$의 결정구조와 이 결정을 세슘 증기로 반응시킨 결정구조)

  • Se Bok Jang;Yang Kim
    • Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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    • v.37 no.2
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    • pp.191-198
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    • 1993
  • The crystal structures of $Cd_{6-}A$ evacuated at $2{\times}10^{-6}$ torr and $750^{\circ}C$ (a = 12.204(1) $\AA$) and dehydrated $Cd_{6-}A$ reacted with 0.1 torr of Cs vapor at $250^{\circ}C$ for 12 hours (a = 12.279(1) $\AA$) have been determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction techniques in the cubic space group Pm3m at $21(1)^{\circ}C.$ Their structures were refined to final error indices, $R_1=$ 0.081 and $R_2=$ 0.091 with 151 reflections and $R_1=$ 0.095 and $R_2=$ 0.089 with 82 reflections, respectively, for which I > $3\sigma(I).$ In vacuum dehydrated $Cd_{6-}A$, six $Cd^{2+}$ ions occupy threefold-axis positions near 6-ring, recessed 0.460(3) $\AA$ into the sodalite cavity from the (111) plane at O(3) : Cd-O(3) = 2.18(2) $\AA$ and O(3)-Cd-O(3) = $115.7(4)^{\circ}.$ Upon treating it with 0.1 torr of Cs vapor at $250^{\circ}C$, all 6 $Cd^{2+}$ ions in dehydrated $Cd_{6-}A$ are reduced by Cs vapor and Cs species are found at 4 crystallographic sites : 3.0 $Cs^+$ ions lie at the centers of the 8-rings at sites of $D_{4h}$ symmetry; ca. 9.0 Cs+ ions lie on the threefold axes of unit cell, ca. 7 in the large cavity and ca. 2 in the sodalite cavity; ca. 0.5 $Cs^+$ ion is found near a 4-ring. In this structure, ca. 12.5 Cs species are found per unit cell, more than the twelve $Cs^+$ ions needed to balance the anionic charge of zeolite framework, indicating that sorption of Cs0 has occurred. The occupancies observed are simply explained by two unit cell arrangements, $Cs_{12}-A$ and $Cs_{13}-A$. About 50% of unit cells may have two $Cs^+$ ions in sodalite unit near opposite 6-rings, six in the large cavity near 6-ring and one in the large cavity near a 4-ring. The remaining 50% of unit cells may have two Cs species in the sodalite unit which are closely associated with two out of 8 $Cs^+$ ions in the large cavity to form linear $(Cs_4)^{3+}$ clusters. These clusters lie on threefold axes and extend through the centers of sodalite units. In all unit cells, three $Cs^+$ ions fill equipoints of symmetry $D_{4h}$ at the centers of 8-rings.

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Development of smart education-based teaching and learning plans and a smart textbook for 'healthy diet and meal plans' unit in 「Technology·Home Economics」 (중학교 「기술·가정」의 '건강한 식생활과 식사 구성' 단원에 적용한 스마트 교수·학습 과정안과 교재 개발)

  • Choi, Song Eun;Chae, Jung-Hyun
    • Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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    • v.26 no.4
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    • pp.85-114
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    • 2014
  • The main purpose of this study was to develop teaching and learning plans and a smart textbook for food and nutrition education in Home Economics focusing on 'healthy diet and meal plans' unit in "Technology home Economics" textbooks for 7th graders to evaluate the effectiveness of the instruction conducted with the smart textbook. The content of the study to achieve the purpose is as follows: First, design a smart education-based teaching and learning curriculum for food and nutrition education in Home Economics, focusing on 'healthy diet and meal plans' unit. Second, develop a smart textbook for food and nutrition education based on the teaching and learning curriculum, using a smart content authoring tool. Third, evaluate the effectiveness of the instruction after applying the curriculum in real classroom situations. The results of this study were as follows: First, teaching and learning plans and materials were developed for two units, 'issues regarding teenagers' diet' and 'implementation of a healthy and balanced diet', under 'teenagers' life'. The first unit, 'issues regarding teenagers' diet', dealt with topics such as teenagers' dietary behaviors, nutrition, and health. Learning objectives for this unit were to help students identify and evaluate their own dietary behaviors. The second unit, 'implementation of a healthy and balanced diet', encouraged students to diagnose problems with their diet and plan nutrient rich meals. The objectives for this unit were to help students implement a healthy and balanced diet by providing them with nutrition and dietary guidelines for Koreans, sample meal plans, and guidelines for developing healthy eating habits for teenagers. In order to develop a teaching and learning plans to achieve these objectives, teaching and learning materials including inquiry tasks, materials for group activities, multimedia, applications and various pop-up learning materials were developed. Second, a smart textbook using DocZoom, which was a smart content authoring tool was developed. The textbook dealt with issues regarding teenagers' diet and implementation of a healthy and balanced diet. Multimedia material used in the textbook come from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety's food and nutrition education web sites and other sources. To develop student-oriented material, relevant video clips were added to the smart textbook to motivate students and enhance their interest in the course. Third, the outcome of this study indicated that the instruction using teaching and learning plans and learning materials with the smart textbook was effective for enhancing students' interest in Home Economics classes (t-value=-3.99, p<.001), creating enthusiasm for learning(t-value = -2.61, p<.05), encouraging self-directed and independent learning(t-value = -4.77, p<.001), and improving students' interest in food and nutrition courses(t-value = -3.83, p<.001). The students' evaluation of the instruction were as follows: the instruction using teaching and learning plans and learning materials with smart textbooks, instead of paper textbooks, helped them save time looking for learning materials; students evaluated that it was easier for them to see and understand video clips and charts. In addition, most students answered that instruction with smart textbooks were more fun and convenient, and they agreed that the courses enhanced their learning experience.

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Korean Sentence Generation Using Phoneme-Level LSTM Language Model (한국어 음소 단위 LSTM 언어모델을 이용한 문장 생성)

  • Ahn, SungMahn;Chung, Yeojin;Lee, Jaejoon;Yang, Jiheon
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.23 no.2
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    • pp.71-88
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    • 2017
  • Language models were originally developed for speech recognition and language processing. Using a set of example sentences, a language model predicts the next word or character based on sequential input data. N-gram models have been widely used but this model cannot model the correlation between the input units efficiently since it is a probabilistic model which are based on the frequency of each unit in the training set. Recently, as the deep learning algorithm has been developed, a recurrent neural network (RNN) model and a long short-term memory (LSTM) model have been widely used for the neural language model (Ahn, 2016; Kim et al., 2016; Lee et al., 2016). These models can reflect dependency between the objects that are entered sequentially into the model (Gers and Schmidhuber, 2001; Mikolov et al., 2010; Sundermeyer et al., 2012). In order to learning the neural language model, texts need to be decomposed into words or morphemes. Since, however, a training set of sentences includes a huge number of words or morphemes in general, the size of dictionary is very large and so it increases model complexity. In addition, word-level or morpheme-level models are able to generate vocabularies only which are contained in the training set. Furthermore, with highly morphological languages such as Turkish, Hungarian, Russian, Finnish or Korean, morpheme analyzers have more chance to cause errors in decomposition process (Lankinen et al., 2016). Therefore, this paper proposes a phoneme-level language model for Korean language based on LSTM models. A phoneme such as a vowel or a consonant is the smallest unit that comprises Korean texts. We construct the language model using three or four LSTM layers. Each model was trained using Stochastic Gradient Algorithm and more advanced optimization algorithms such as Adagrad, RMSprop, Adadelta, Adam, Adamax, and Nadam. Simulation study was done with Old Testament texts using a deep learning package Keras based the Theano. After pre-processing the texts, the dataset included 74 of unique characters including vowels, consonants, and punctuation marks. Then we constructed an input vector with 20 consecutive characters and an output with a following 21st character. Finally, total 1,023,411 sets of input-output vectors were included in the dataset and we divided them into training, validation, testsets with proportion 70:15:15. All the simulation were conducted on a system equipped with an Intel Xeon CPU (16 cores) and a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 GPU. We compared the loss function evaluated for the validation set, the perplexity evaluated for the test set, and the time to be taken for training each model. As a result, all the optimization algorithms but the stochastic gradient algorithm showed similar validation loss and perplexity, which are clearly superior to those of the stochastic gradient algorithm. The stochastic gradient algorithm took the longest time to be trained for both 3- and 4-LSTM models. On average, the 4-LSTM layer model took 69% longer training time than the 3-LSTM layer model. However, the validation loss and perplexity were not improved significantly or became even worse for specific conditions. On the other hand, when comparing the automatically generated sentences, the 4-LSTM layer model tended to generate the sentences which are closer to the natural language than the 3-LSTM model. Although there were slight differences in the completeness of the generated sentences between the models, the sentence generation performance was quite satisfactory in any simulation conditions: they generated only legitimate Korean letters and the use of postposition and the conjugation of verbs were almost perfect in the sense of grammar. The results of this study are expected to be widely used for the processing of Korean language in the field of language processing and speech recognition, which are the basis of artificial intelligence systems.