Information sources cited and relayed in political conversations on Twitter

Using the Twitter data collected prior to the Presidential Election in Korea in 2012, we ask questions regarding influential sources of information in public political discourse. The frequently cited sources, being included as URLs in political tweet messages, are identified and categorized. The result shows that people rely on various sources of information beyond the traditional news media, but the pattern of sharing differ by sources

A Factor Analysis of Urban Railway Casualty Accidents and Establishment of Preventive Response Systems

AbstractSince the commencement of urban railways in 1974 and KTX service in 2014, the use of railways has been steadily increasing. The number of people using rail transportation has been steadily rising. As a result, this has also led to an increase in the number of passenger-related accidents that are occurring within railway stations. In an effort to prevent such accidents, much of the rail operation system is now automated. Nevertheless, the potential risks of railway accidents are very much present today. This study has utilized the railway accident databases of rail operators to allow for analysis of different types of railway accidents, age of accident victims, gender of accident victims, pedestrian facilities involved in accidents, passengers involved in accidents, and underlying causes of rail accidents. Based on these statistics and analyses, this paper proposes the development of a railway safety education program and the establishment of railway safety education centers as a means of preventing railway accidents

Ethanol Extract of the Flower Chrysanthemum morifolium Augments Pentobarbital-Induced Sleep Behaviors: Involvement of Cl− Channel Activation

Dried Chrysanthemum morifolium flowers have traditionally been used in Korea for the treatment of insomnia. This study was performed to investigate whether the ethanol extract of Chrysanthemum morifolium flowers (EFC) enhances pentobarbital-induced sleep behaviors. EFC prolonged sleep time induced by pentobarbital similar to muscimol, a GABAA receptors agonist. EFC also increased sleep rate and sleep time when administrated with pentobarbital at a subhypnotic dosage. Both EFC and pentobarbital increased chloride (Cl−) influx in primary cultured cerebellar granule cells. EFC increased glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) expression levels, but had no effect on the expression of α1-, β2-, and γ2-subunits of the GABAA receptor in the hippocampus of a mouse brain. This is in contrast to treatment with pentobarbital, which showed decreased α1-subunit expression and no change in GAD expression. In conclusion, EFC augments pentobarbital-induced sleep behaviors; these effects may result from Cl− channel activation

Voiding Dysfunction after Total Mesorectal Excision in Rectal Cancer

Purpose The aim of this study was to assess the voiding dysfunction after rectal cancer surgery with total mesorectal excision (TME). Methods This was part of a prospective study done in the rectal cancer patients who underwent surgery with TME between November 2006 and June 2008. Consecutive uroflowmetry, post-voided residual volume, and a voiding questionnaire were performed at preoperatively and postoperatively. Results A total of 50 patients were recruited in this study, including 28 male and 22 female. In the comparison of the preoperative data with the postoperative 3-month data, a significant decrease in mean maximal flow rate, voided volume, and post-voided residual volume were found. In the comparison with the postoperative 6-month data, however only the maximal flow rate was decreased with statistical significance (P=0.02). In the comparison between surgical methods, abdominoperineal resection patients showed delayed recovery of maximal flow rate, voided volume, and post-voided residual volume. There was no significant difference in uroflowmetry parameters with advances in rectal cancer stage. Conclusions Voiding dysfunction is common after rectal cancer surgery but can be recovered in 6 months after surgery or earlier. Abdominoperineal resection was shown to be an unfavorable factor for postoperative voiding. Larger prospective study is needed to determine the long-term effect of rectal cancer surgery in relation to male and female baseline voiding condition

Mysterious Influential Users in Political Communication on Twitter: Users' Occupation Information and Its Impact on Retweetability

This study attempts to examine the effect of user’s self-disclosed identification to measure his influence and activity on Twitter. By looking at the most frequently shared top 1076 tweets written by 250 users during the 2012 presidential election campaign South Korea, we particularly examine the relation between user’s occupation information and the measures of his ‘influence’: the number of followers and number of retweets by others. Influential users in South Korean political communication network on Twitter are classified as one group with self-disclosed occupation information and the other group without that information. User’s occupation information clearly shows the impact on the number of followers for both groups. On the other hand, user group without self-disclosed occupation information has a higher level of producing influential political tweets and wide retweetability over the other group, regardless the small number of followers. It suggests that further study needs to identify other variables that may influence particular user or tweet’s retweetability as an indicator of influence.ye