• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.77-83
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• 2015

Wuchereria bancrofti, Dirofilaria immitis, and Dirofilaria repens are filarial nematodes transmitted by mosquitoes belonging to Culex, Aedes, and Anopheles genera. Screening by vector dissection is a tiresome technique. We aimed to screen filarial parasites in their vectors by single and multiplex PCR and evaluate the usefulness of multiplex PCR as a rapid xenomonitoring and simultaneous differentiation tool, in area where 3 filarial parasites are coexisting. Female mosquitoes were collected from 7 localities in Assiut Governorate, were microscopically identified and divided into pools according to their species and collection site. Detection of W. bancrofti, D. immitis, and D. repens using single PCR was reached followed by multiplex PCR. Usefulness of multiplex PCR was evaluated by testing mosquito pools to know which genera and species are used by filarial parasites as a vector. An overall estimated rate of infection (ERI) in mosquitoes was 0.6%; the highest was Culex spp. (0.47%). W. bancrofti, D. immitis, and D. repens could be simultaneously and differentially detected in infected vectors by using multiplex PCR. Out of 100 mosquito pools, 8 were positive for W. bancrofti (ERI of 0.33%) and 3 pools each were positive for D. immitis and D. repens (ERI 0.12%). The technique showed 100% sensitivity and 98% specificity. El-Nikhila, El-Matiaa villages, and Sahel Seleem district in Assiut Governorate, Egypt are still endemic foci for filarial parasites. Multiplex PCR offers a reliable procedure for molecular xenomonitoring of filariasis within their respective vectors in endemic areas. Therefore, it is recommended for evaluation of mosquito infection after lymphatic filariasis eradication programs.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.61-69
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to examine the factors influencing usage intention of social network service (SNS) in social enterprise. This model tests various theoretical research hypotheses relating the social enterprise, task-technology fit (TTF), technology acceptance model (TAM), and usage intention of SNS. The data were gathered from 84 questionnaire respondents. Smart partial least square (PLS) 2.0 have been utilized for deriving the study results. The result of hypothesis testing are as follows. First, TTF positively influence perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and usage intention of SNS. Second, perceived usefulness positively influence usage intention of SNS. But perceived ease of use does not influence usage intention of SNS. This study will provide theoretical and practical implications of TTF and usage intention of SNS in social enterprise.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.83-104
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• 2019

Purpose Recently, Internet personal broadcasting has been widely spreaded as a new media type by replacing traditional legacy media such as TV. Considering this phenomenon, this study aims to explore the effect of Aristoteles' persuasion factors on Internet personal broadcasting from a rhetorical view. The reason why users watch the Internet personal broadcasting is that they are persuaded by creator's expertness, empathy, or content usefulness. These factors can be regarded as persuasion factors. Therefore, with Aristoteles' rhetorical persuasion factors composed of ethos, pathos, and logos, this paper tries to investigate how persuasion factors affect user's emotional\ attachment and voluntary donation intention. Design/methodology/approach This paper proposes a model of the relationships among three rhetorical factors, user's emotional attachment, and donation intention. Specifically, ethos is regarded as creator's expertness and trustworthiness, and pathos refers to creator's empathy and social interaction. Last, logos refers to content usefulness and credibility. For testing a hypothetical research model, this study collected 468 surveys and empirically tested hypotheses using a structural equation model. Findings This study investigated how rhetorical factors (ethos, pathos, and logos) and emotional attachment further influence user's donation intention. The findings suggest that rhetorical factors of ethos and pathos enhances emotional attachment, followed by donation intention. Contrary to an expectation, however, logos was not significantly related to emotional attachment. Creators of Internet personal media and MCN providers should focus on the different effects of rhetorical factors and pay attention to the role of emotional attachment to encourage user donation.

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.23-45
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• 2011

People could possess different self-identity under virtual world from physical world because of anonymity of the virtual world and this difference could influence their behavior in the virtual world. Based on self-discrepancy theory, this research proposes that continuous use model in self-expression goal. We defined the difference bet ween actual self~identity and ideal self~identity in the virtual world as "self-discrepancy in virtual world", and the difference between actual self-identity in the physical world and actual self-identity in the virtual world as "cross-world self-discrepancy". Before testing hypothesis, we compare the actual self-identity in the online community with the actual self-identity in the physical world, and with ideal self-identity in the virtual world. We derived an index for two different types of self-identity in terms of Personal Self-identity and Social Self-identity through factor analysis. Our results show that online community members have a higher level of ideal self-identity than actual self-identity in online community, and they have better personal self-identity in online community than physical world while a lower level of social self-identity in online community than physical world. The results of the hypothesis testing analysis based on 300 respondents showed that "self-discrepancy in virtual world" negatively influenced perceived usefulness for self-expression while "cross-world self-discrepancy" positively influenced perceived usefulness for self-expression. The perceived usefulness for self-expression and ease of use positively influence both continuous use and knowledge contribution. Specially, the effect of perceived usefulness for self-expression on knowledge contribution is much bigger than the effect of ease of use. This study extends self-discrepancy theory to virtual worlds by suggesting various types of self-discrepancy and by applying the effect of self-discrepancies in online community. Also, this study extends technology acceptance model in the personal goal in terms of self-expression. This study hopes to offer practical insights by suggesting positive effect of self-discrepancy on behavior in the online community.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
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• v.37 no.3 s.122
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• pp.204-211
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• 2007

Objective: With an increasing demand for esthetic orthodontic appliances, the interest in polycarbonate brackets has also increased. However, polycarbonate bracket wings are prone to fracture. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical usefulness of a newly-developed polycarbonate bracket by measuring the fracture strength of bracket tie wings. Methods: Alice (K.M. Daicom, Seoul, Korea) and Spirit MB (Ormco, Glendora, CA, USA) brackets were used as an experimental and control bracket respectively. Each bracket group was divided into halves. One half was untreated and the other half was treated with 2,000 times of thermocycling between $5^{\circ}C\;and\;55^{\circ}C$. The fracture strength of the wing was measured by a universal testing machine. Results: Alice bracket wings showed significantly higher strength than Spirit MB bracket wings in both untreated and thermocycled bracket cases. Conclusion: Alice brackets may be used clinically in terms of the strength of bracket wings.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.1061-1073
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• 2009

Stock price index option investing is a scientific investment method and various index and investment strategies have been developed. The purpose of this study is to apply the variety of option investment strategies that have been introduced in the market and validate them using past option trading data. Option data was based on an actual stock exchange market tick data ranging from September 2001 to January 2007. Visual Basic is used to propose an option back-testing model. Validation process was carried out by transferring the tick data into ten-minute intervals and empirically analyzed. Furthermore, most option-related strategies have been applied to the model, and the usefulness of each strategies can be easily evaluated. As option investment has high leverage followed by high risks and profit, the optimal option investment strategy should be used according to the market condition at the time to make stable profit with minimum risk.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.405-414
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• 2009

This paper proposed a methodology based on ultrasonic diffraction technique to inspect the depth of a crack initiated from a notch of CT specimen by fatigue test, and its usefulness was verified by experiments. Especially, in order to identify accurately the diffractive waves from the crack tip in the situation where there are extra diffractive elements such as a notch, we have tried imaging by transducer scan and analyzed the propagation path of diffracted wave. Two specimens with and without a crack were experimented. Higher frequency and larger refractive angle of transducer showed a tendency to decrease the error in the measurements, and the measured crack depth showed an error less than 0.38 mm in case of 4 MHz $60^{\circ}-60^{\circ}$. The proposed methodology is applicable to weak diffractive sources, and so that it would be useful to inspect micro cracks and for their depth sizing.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.157-163
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• 2007

Crack detection technique for concrete structures has been developed in this study. Experimental tests were carried out to detect a surface and internal crack, employing common fiber optic cables and OTDR(optical time domain reflectometry), an optical signal analyzer which is widely used to detect damages at fiber optic cables in the field of optical engineering. While initial concrete crack is ready to occur under cracking force, the occurrence and location of the crack are simultaneously detected to give the same damage to fiber optic cables which have been attached to and/or embedded into concrete in advance. It is obtained through successive tests that the principal factors for crack detection is the covering state of fiber optic cable, and total 4 tests including a preliminary test were conducted and the crack detection technique was verified. The practical usefulness would be expected at crack management and maintenance of concrete structures.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.285-290
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• 2006

The evaluation of clamping condition has been regarded as the main issue in the safety-maintenance of the clamped high-tension bolts. For this, this paper proposes a method to estimate the axial stress by measuring the TOF (Time-Of-Flight) of ultrasonic wave, which is based on the acoustoelasticity or the dependency of sound speed on the stress. In this method, however, the variation of sound speed within the range of stress induced under the field condition is very small, and thus the accuracy of the TOF measurement is important. We adopted the phase detection method using tone-burst ultrasonic wave to measure the precise TOF. In order to verify the usefulness of the proposed method experiments are carried out and the results were compared with the stress measured by the strain gage. The results show good agreement with each other, and from these we can conclude that the proposed method is highly useful fnr the evaluation of clamping condition in the clamped high-tension bolts.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.369-377
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• 1999

Recently, it is gradually raised necessity that thickness of thin film is measured accuracy and managed in industrial circles and medical world. Ultrasonic signal processing method is likely to become a very powerful method for NDE method of detection of microdefects and thickness measurement of thin film below the limit of ultrasonic distance resolution in the opaque materials, provides useful information that cannot be obtained by a conventional measuring system. In the present research. considering a thin film below the limit of ultrasonic distance resolution sandwiched between three substances as acoustical analysis model, demonstrated the usefulness of ultrasonic signal processing technique using information of ultrasonic frequency for NDE of measurements of thin film thickness. Accordingly, for the detection of delamination between the junction condition of boundary microdefect of thin film sandwiched between three substances the results from digital image processing.