• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.100-106
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• 2019

Background: In Korean medicine, carpal tunnel syndrome is treated by stimulating the acupoints around the wrist. Although a deep understanding of anatomy and guidance is needed to stimulate these acupoints to avoid undesirable side-effects, currently there are no published guidelines for acupotomy treatment. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of fluoroscopy-guided acupotomy compared with conventional acupotomy treatment. Methods: This is a randomized, patient-assessor, patient blind, parallel clinical trial. A total of 30 patients will be enrolled at Wonkwang University Gwangju Hospital, and will be allocated to either an experimental group or a control group. The experimental group will be treated using fluoroscopy-guided acupotomy and the control group will be treated using the conventional acupotomy method. Results: The primary outcome measure will be identification of a cross-section area of the median nerve measured by ultrasonography, and the secondary outcome measure will be the alleviation of pain measured by the Visual Analogue Scale, improvement in the Nerve Conduction Study, Tinel test, Phalen's test, EuroQol 5-dimension scale, and Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire score. Safety components will be measured by monitoring vital signs, electrocardiographs, blood tests, general chemical tests, urine tests and pregnancy tests. In addition, observations for adverse effects will be performed during the trial. Conclusion: This study will provide a more effective, and less harmful way of treating carpal tunnel syndrome compared with conventional acupotomy. Fluoroscopy-guided acupotomy will help practitioners to be accurate in direction and depth of the needle for treating carpal tunnel syndrome.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.735-742
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• 2023

Background: Gintonin is a new material of ginseng that acts through the ginseng-derived lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) receptor ligand. The gintonin-enriched fraction (GEF) inhibits amyloid plaque accumulation in the cortex and hippocampus, improves cognitive dysfunction by increasing acetylcholine levels, and promoted hippocampal neurogenesis in an animal model of Alzheimer's disease. We evaluated the effect of the GEF on the cognitive performance of subjects with subjective memory impairment (SMI). Methods: In this eight-week, randomized, assessor- and participant-blinded, placebo-controlled study, participants with SMI were assigned to three groups receiving placebo, GEF 300 mg/day or GEF 600 mg/day. The Korean versions of the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale (K-ADAS), Mini-Mental State Examination (K-MMSE), and Stroop color-word test (K-SCWT) were also evaluated along with the safety profiles. Results: One hundred thirty-six participants completed the study. After eight weeks, we analyzed intergroup differences in primary or secondary outcome score changes. When we compared the GEF group with the placebo group, we observed significant improvements in the K-ADAS and K-SCWT scores. The GEF group did not show a significant improvement in K-MMSE and BDI scores compared to the placebo group. No adverse events were observed in the gintonin and placebo groups for eight weeks. Conclusion: The GEF is safe and effective in improving subjective cognitive impairment related to both the K-ADAS and K-SCWT in this study. However, further large-scale and randomized controlled studies are warranted to secure other cognitive function tests besides the K-ADAS and K-SCWT, and to confirm the findings of the current study.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.209-212
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• 2004

Soil environment has not received much attention from the environmental impact assessor community although soil contamination may affect human health and the eco-system. This study was the first trial to discuss the role and importance of soil environment in the environmental impact assessment(EIA) and suggest possible environmental impact assessment schemes for soil. The objectives of the study were to show the effects of soil contamination on human health, the environment and the social community, suggest efficient EIA schemes in Korea and establish the basic concepts of soil environment assessment involving fate and transport of contaminants and its risk.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.17
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• pp.17-24
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• 2001

Risk assessment is useful tool making good decisions on the risks of certain hazardous com-pound and suggests safe margin through scientific process using toxicological data, statistical tool, exposure value and relevant variants. The goal of risk management is to protect the public health from hazardous compound based on result of risk assessment having reality. For the suggestion of exact man-aging information, risk assessment must be designed to represent a "plausible estimate" of the exposure to the individuals and to minimize uncertainty. Risk assessment methodology and knowledge are expected to change more rapidly than before and up-to-date methodology should be applied in regulatory aspects through the Agency. For the useful application of risk assessment, the communication between the risk assessor and the risk manager is needed before the initiation of the risk assessment and upon its completion. Generally, the risk assessment itself as a practical tool in the regulatory decision making process would be regarded with social economic impact.ic impact.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.1016-1022
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• 2007

It is demanded to produce the safety evidence documents in other to approval safety characteristic of railway signaling system which stands is included, it is demanding from IEC 62425 standards. Also it is express clearly that safety assessment if signaling system has to be verification of these safety evidence documents. This Safety Case has the results of safety activity through system life-cycle, such as hazard lists, hazard identification and analysis, risk assessment and countermeasure, verification and test results. Consequently, first of all, the analysis and verification of these Safety Case documents has to be accomplished to approval and acceptance of signaling system safety. And also if the safety assessor was want, it is able to be experimental test auditory which is, arbitrary faults injection test, to above described documents verification. In this paper, the contents and architecture of Safety Case are presented as first steps of safety assessment technology establishment for railway signaling system.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.15-24
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• 2004

This paper describes a GIS-based assessment of residential building damage caused by the 1994 Northridge earthquake in which the fractions of existing buildings damaged at various percentages of replacement cost are related to a range of seismic parameters. The assessment uses data from safety inspection reports and tax assessor records, both of which were geocoded and linked to seismic parameters derived from strong motion records at 164 different sites. The paper also describes a GIS-based pattern recognition algorithm for identifying locations of most intense building damage. The algorithm provides a framework for rapidly screening remote sensing data and dispatching emerging services.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.1480-1483
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• 2009

The KNR wayside and onboard subsystem has completed commissioning tests applicable to the Pilot Line section by BOMBARDIER. Andreas Hardt/Assessor and Rod Muttram/VP, Quality & safety approved the Automatic Train Protection(ATP) System. However additional evidences are necessary to come to a Specific Application, which is mandatory to approve the Generic Applications included for commercial running on the overall main line railway with ATP. According to Factory Acceptance Test plan, CBC, CBF, LEU(Line Electronic Unit) made by domestic factory is tested by official recognition test Standards-Setting Agency. It is important to verify quality which form checklist during Factory Acceptance Test. In this paper, review the process, test item, norm and checklist for the CBC, CBF, LEU.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.296-303
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• 2020

This study examined the factors affecting the emergency nursing performance of nursing students during a simulation. The variables related to the simulation were the objective and subjective emergency nursing performance, critical thinking, program outcome, simulation satisfaction, simulation confidence, and simulation immersion. The participants were 92 senior students who provided informed consent with an explanation about attending the study. The general characteristics and simulation-related data were obtained from the students before and after the simulation. An assessor evaluated the objective emergency nursing performance during the simulation and program outcome through a report reviewed after the simulation. Data analysis was performed using the number, percentage, mean, standard deviation, X²-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and progressive regression through the SPSS/WIN 22.0 program. Emergency nursing performance by the assessor was negatively associated with the satisfaction of clinical practice (r=-.31, p=.005) and positively related to the subjective clinical performance (r=.23, p=.036). The affecting rate was just 12%, which was low for explaining the objective emergency nursing performance during the simulation. Further studies will be needed to explore other factors affecting the emergency nursing performance.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.14-23
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• 2020

Objectives : We investigated the efficacy and safety of miniscalpel acupuncture (MA) treatment combined with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for chronic neck pain (CNP) in an assessor-blinded randomized controlled pilot trial to establish a basis for larger-scale randomized controlled studies on this subject. Methods : Participants (n=36) were recruited and randomly allocated to the MA group, NSAIDs and combined treatment group. The MA group received MA three times over three weeks. The NSAIDs group was administered orally with zaltoprofen 80mg t.i.d. over three weeks. The combined treatment group received MA and zaltoprofen in the same manner as MA and NSAIDs groups. The primary outcome was pain as assessed by a visual analogue scale (VAS) and the secondary outcomes were assessed using the Neck Disability index (NDI), EuroQol 5-dimension questionnaire (EQ-5D), and Patients' Global Impression of Change scale (PGIC). Assessments were made at week 0 (baseline), 1, 2, 3 (primary end point) during treatment and at week 7 (4 weeks after the end of treatment). Results : 35 participants completed the study. No serious adverse event occurred and blood test results were within normal limits. The improvement of VAS and NDI was significantly greater in combined and MA group than that in NSAIDs group (p<0.017). The combined group showed better outcomes in EQ-5D at visit 2 and 5, in PGIC at visit 4 than the NSAIDs group (p<0.017). No significant differences were found between combined and MA group. Conclusions : Our results suggest that both combined and MA group can be more effective in improving pain control than NSAIDs group. A large-scale clinical study is warranted to further clarify these findings.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.81-95
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• 2008

The study is intended to develop the measures to introduce the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) project manager (Environmental Assessor), who will be responsible for leading the EIA task. This role requires a quality standard of expertise in the area of natural science, social science, knowledge and technology on environment design mechanism, and the integrated approaches that combine the relevant policies and systems. To facilitate the system, the certificate will be given to the person who is well acquainted with the knowledge on EIA with relevant experiences, thereby authorizing them to coordinate the assessment task for reliable outcome. Hence, the need for introducing the system is very crucial. The EIA project manager, as a guide for an EIA project team, shall be the person who has a comprehensive understanding of the project, the knowledge about the principal for implementation of EIA and the expertise in structuring the management system, with a skill to maintain the good relationship with the people engaged in the project. To that end, it is highly recommended to set up such a certificate system to be incorporated in the college curriculum.