• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.267-273
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• 2021

Mibyeong (sub-health) is a concept that represents the sub-health in traditional East Asian medicine. Assuming that the nose sizes and shapes are related to respiratory function, in this study, we hypothesized that the nose size and shape features are related to the self-rated health (SRH) level and self-rated Mibyeong severity, and aimed to assess this relationship using a fully automated image analysis system. The nose size features were evaluated from the frontal and profile face images of 810 participants. The nose size features consisted of five length features, one area feature, and one volume feature. The level of SRH and the Mibyeong severity were determined using a questionnaire. The normalized nasal height was negatively associated with the self-rated health score (SRHS) (partial ρ = -0.125, p = 3.53E-04) and the Mibyeong score (MBS) (partial ρ = -.172, p = 9.38E-07), even after adjustment for sex, age, and body mass index. The normalized nasal volume (ρ = -.105, p = 0.003), the normalized nasal tip protrusion length (ρ = -.087, p = 0.014), and the normalized nares width (ρ = -.086, p = .015) showed significant correlation with the SRHS. The normalized nasal area (ρ = -.118, p = 0.001), the normalized nasal volume (ρ = -.107, p = .002) showed significant correlation with the MBS. The wider, longer, and larger the nose, the lower the SRHS and MBS, indicating that health status can be estimated based on the size and shape features of the nose.

• Journal of the Korea Computer Graphics Society
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.127-135
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• 2023

Accurate segmentation of histopathology whole slide images (WSIs) is a crucial task for disease diagnosis and treatment planning. However, conventional automated segmentation algorithms may not always be applicable to WSI segmentation due to their large size and variations in tissue appearance, staining, and imaging conditions. Recent advances in interactive segmentation, which combines human expertise with algorithms, have shown promise to improve efficiency and accuracy in WSI segmentation but also presented us with challenging issues. In this paper, we propose a novel interactive segmentation method, ZoomISEG, that leverages multi-resolution WSIs. We demonstrate the efficacy and performance of the proposed method via comparison with conventional single-scale methods and an ablation study. The results confirm that the proposed method can reduce human interaction while achieving accuracy comparable to that of the brute-force approach using the highest-resolution data.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.295-308
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• 2023

This study applied a real-time IoT (Internet of Things) environmental monitoring system to wooden cultural heritages (WCHs) located in suburbs and forests in Korea. It automated the graphs of seasonal Temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH) changes inside the heritage structures and seasonal Performance Index (PI) values. While utilizing line graphs of the existing T and RH change trends and a bar graph expressing the PI values, this study examined the current status of the conservation environment inside the WCHs throughout the year and its diagnosis. Consequently, at higher latitudes, the organic cultural heritage repeatedly experienced large T fluctuations, and the risk of physical and chemical degradation of the materials was greater. However, the RH showed significant seasonal differences, even within the same latitude, indicating that the impact of latitude was not significant. Therefore, the staff in charge must manage RH by considering the surrounding environmental conditions and adjusting the internal environment of the structures. The PI values for the year-round T and RH inside the heritages were confirmed to only be a maximum of approximately 60% of the environmental suitability for conservation throughout the year, depending on the season. The relationship between the germination and growth potential period of xerophilic fungi and the monthly internal temperature and humidity in five heritages located at different latitudes was analyzed. As a result, we could thus determine that four particular months of the year (June-September) represent the periods with the highest risk of damage from xerophilic fungi in the country, regardless of latitude.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.95-100
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• 2024

Vitiligo is a condition characterized by the destruction or dysfunction of melanin-producing cells in the skin, resulting in a loss of skin pigmentation. Facial vitiligo, specifically affecting the face, significantly impacts patients' appearance, thereby diminishing their quality of life. Evaluating the efficacy of facial vitiligo treatment typically relies on subjective assessments, such as the Facial Vitiligo Area Scoring Index (F-VASI), which can be time-consuming and subjective due to its reliance on clinical observations like lesion shape and distribution. Various machine learning and deep learning methods have been proposed for segmenting vitiligo areas in facial images, showing promising results. However, these methods often struggle to accurately segment vitiligo lesions irregularly distributed across the face. Therefore, our study introduces a framework aimed at improving the segmentation of vitiligo lesions on the face and providing an evaluation of vitiligo lesions. Our framework for facial vitiligo segmentation and lesion evaluation consists of three main steps. Firstly, we perform face detection to minimize background areas and identify the face area of interest using high-quality ultraviolet photographs. Secondly, we extract facial area masks and vitiligo lesion masks using a semantic segmentation network-based approach with the generated dataset. Thirdly, we automatically calculate the vitiligo area relative to the facial area. We evaluated the performance of facial and vitiligo lesion segmentation using an independent test dataset that was not included in the training and validation, showing excellent results. The framework proposed in this study can serve as a useful tool for evaluating the diagnosis and treatment efficacy of vitiligo.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.48 no.7
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• pp.706-710
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• 2005

Purpose : Early diagnosis of congenital hearing loss through the neonatal hearing screening test minimizes language defect. This research intends to identify frequency of congenital hearing loss in infants through neonatal hearing screening test with the aim of communicating the importance of hearing test for infants. Methods : From May 20, 2003 to May 19, 2004, infants were subjected to Automated Auditory Brainstem Response test during one month of birth to conduct the test with 35 dB sound. Infants who passed the 1st round of hearing test, were classified into 'pass' group whereas those who did not were classified into 'refer' group. Infants who did not 'pass' in the hearing test conducted within one month of birth were subjected to re-test one month later, and if classified as 'refer' during the re-test, they were subjected to the diagnosis for validation of hearing loss by requesting test to the hearing loss clinic. Results : There was no difference among the 'pass' and 'refer' group in terms of form of childbirth, weight at birth and gestational age. In the 1st test, total of 45 infants were classified into 'refer' group. Six among 35 who were subjected to re-test(17%) did not pass the re-test, and all were diagnosed with congenital hearing loss. This corresponds to 0.35%(3.5 per 1,000) among total number of 1,718 subjects. Conclusion : In our study the congenital hearing loss tends to be considerably more frequently than congenital metabolic disorder. Accordingly, newly born infants are strongly recommended to undergo neonatal hearing screening test.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.284-291
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• 2005

Purpose : Flow cytometric automated reticulocyte analysis is a superior method to manual reticulocyte counting, with respect to precision and sensitivity. Furthermore, flow cytometric analysis is able to measure immature reticulocyte fraction(IRF) and reticulocyte cellular indices(RCI : cell hemoglobin content : CHr, mean cell volume : MCVr, cell hemoglobin concentration mean : CHCMr, distribytion width : RDWr, HDWr, CHDWr). In this study, we investigated the mean values and clinical significances of IRF and RCI in healthy children and pediatric anemia patients. Methods : IRF and RCI were measured with an automated blood cell analyzer, ADVIA 120(Bayer, USA) using oxazine 750 dye, in 57 healthy children and 61 children with anemia. The anemia group consisted of 27 iron deficiency anemia(IDA) patients and 34 patients with anemia associated with acute infection(AAI). We compared the mean values of IRF and RCI in the control group classified according to age, between anemia groups and the control group, and between the IDA group and the AAI group. Results : For the normal control group, the mean values of IRF, CHr, MCVr and HDWr were higher in neonates when compared to older children. The mean values of IRF and RDWr were significantly higher, and the mean values of CHr and CHCMr were significantly lower in the IDA group when compared to the control group. The mean value of IRF was significantly higher, and the mean value of CHDWr was significantly lower in the AAI group when compared to the control group. The mean values of IRF, CHr and CHCMr were significantly lower in the IDA group when compared to the AAI group. Conclusion : We could determine the normal mean values of IRF and RCI in healthy children classified according to age for understanding of hematopoietic response differences according to age. The evaluation of IRF and RCI by automated reticulocyte analyzer seemed to be accurate and clinically useful for the early diagnosis of anemia and the differentiation of IDA from AAI.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.17
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• pp.7825-7829
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• 2015

Background: Egypt has the highest prevalence of HCV infection in the world (~14.7%). Around 10-15% of HCV-infected persons will advance to cirrhosis within the first 20 years. The incidence of HCC is expected to grow in the next two decades, largely due to HCV related cirrhosis, and detection of HCC at an early stage is critical for a favorable clinical outcome. No simple reliable non-invasive marker has been available till now. B2M, a non-glycosylated polypeptide composed of 99 amino acids, is one of the components of HLA class I molecules on the surfaces of all nucleated cells. It has been reported that the level of serum B2M is elevated in patients with chronic hepatitis C and HCV-related HCC when compared to HCV-negative patients or healthy donors. Determining the clinical utility of serum B2M as a marker for disease progression in Egyptian patients with HCV related chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma was the aim of the present study. Materials and Methods: In this analytical cross sectional study 92 participants were included in 4 equal groups: Group (1) non cirrhotic chronic HCV; Group (2) HCV related liver cirrhosis; Group (3) HCC on top of HCV,; and Group (4) healthy controls. History taking, clinical examination, routine labs and abdominal ultrasound were conducted for all patients, PCR and Metavir scores for group (1) patients, and triphasic CT abdomen and AFP for Group (3) patients. B2M levels were measured in serum with a fully-automated IMX system. Results: The mean serum B2M level of Group (1) was $4.25{\pm}1.48{\mu}g/ml$., Group (2) was $7.48{\pm}3.04$, Group (3) was $6.62{\pm}2.49$ and Group (4) was $1.62{\pm}0.63$. Serum B2M levels were significantly higher in diseased than control group (p<0.01) being significantly higher in cirrhosis ($7.48{\pm}3.04$) and HCC groups ($6.62{\pm}2.49$) than the HCV group ($4.25{\pm}1.48$) (p<0.01). There was a significant correlation between B2M Level and ALK, total and direct bilirubin and INR (p<0.05), and a significant inverse correlation between B2M level and albumin, total proteins, HB andWBCS values (p<0.05). There was no significant correlation between B2M level and viral load or Metavir score, largest tumour size or AFP (p>0.05). The best B2M cut-off for HCV diagnosis was 2.6 with a sensitivity of 100%, a specificity of 92%, a positive predictive value (PPV) of 97% and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 100%. The best B2M cut-off for HCC diagnosis was 4.55 which yielded sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive values of 74%, 62%, 39.5, 87.8% respectively (p-value <0.01) while best cut-off for cirrhosis was 4.9, with sensitivity 74 % and specificity 74%.The sensitivity for HCC diagnosis increased upon B2M and AFP combined estimation to 91%, specificity to 79%, NPV to 95% and accuracy to 83%. Conclusions: Serum B2M level is elevated in HCV related chronic liver diseases and may be used as a marker for HCV disease progression towards cirrhosis and carcinoma.

• Journal of the Korea Computer Graphics Society
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.21-29
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• 2016

Cell segmentation is an important but time-consuming and laborious task in biological image analysis. An automated, robust, and fast method is required to overcome such burdensome processes. These needs are, however, challenging due to various cell shapes, intensity, and incomplete boundaries. A precise cell segmentation will allow to making a pathological diagnosis of tissue samples. A vast body of literature exists on cell segmentation in microscopy images [1]. The majority of existing work is based on input images and predefined feature models only - for example, using a deformable model to extract edge boundaries in the image. Only a handful of recent methods employ data-driven approaches, such as supervised learning. In this paper, we propose a novel data-driven cell segmentation algorithm for bright-field microscopy images. The proposed method minimizes an energy formula defined by two dictionaries - one is for input images and the other is for their manual segmentation results - and a common sparse code, which aims to find the pixel-level classification by deploying the learned dictionaries on new images. In contrast to deformable models, we do not need to know a prior knowledge of objects. We also employed convolutional sparse coding and Alternating Direction of Multiplier Method (ADMM) for fast dictionary learning and energy minimization. Unlike an existing method [1], our method trains both dictionaries concurrently, and is implemented using the GPU device for faster performance.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2001

The Bethesda System (TBS) was first developed in 1988 for the need to enhance the communication of the cytopathologic findings to the referring physician in unambiguous diagnostic terms. The terminology used in this reporting system should reflect current understanding of the pathogenesis of cervical/vaginal disease so the framework of the reporting system should be flexible enough to accommodate advances in medicine including virology, molecular biology, and pathology. Three years after the Introduction of TBS, the second Bethesda workshop was held to set or amend diagnostic criteria for each categories of TBS. TBS 1991 is now widely used. The third Bethesda workshop, The Bethesda System 2001 Workshop, was held in National Cancer institute Bethesda, Maryland from April 30 to May 2, 2001. Again, the goals of this workshop were to promote effective communication and to clarify in reporting cervical cytopathology results to clinicians and to provide with the information to make appropriate decisions about diagnosis and treatment. Nine forum groups were made and there were Web-based bulletin board discussions between October, 2000 and the first week of April, 2001. On the basis of bulletin board comments and discussions, the forum moderators recommended revised terminologies in the Workshop. Hot discussions were followed after the presentation by forum moderators during the workshop. Terminologies confusing clinicians and providing no additional informations regarding patient management were deleted in the workshop to clarify the cervicovaginal cytology results. Any informations related to the patient management were encouraged to add. So 'Satisfactory for evaluation but limited by...' of 'Specimen Adequacy' catergory was deleted. Terminology of 'Unsatisfactory' was further specified as 'Specimen rejected' and 'Specimen processed and examined, but unsatisfactory'. Terminologies of 'Benign Cellular Change' and 'Within Normal Limits' were combined and terminology was changed to 'Negative for intraepithelial lesion or malignancy'. In General categorization, category 'Other' was newly inserted and the presence of 'Endometrial cells' in women over 40 years old can be checked. Although the category 'Benign Cellular Change' was deleted, the organisms or reactive changes of this category can be listed in the descriptive diagnoses. Terminologies of ASCUS and AGUS were changed to atypical squamous cell and atypical glandular cell, respectively. Diagnostic term of 'Adenocarcinoma in situ', which is highly reproducible with reliable diagnostic criteria, was newly Inserted. The category of hormonal evaluation was deleted. Criteria for liquid-based specimen were discussed. Reporting by computer-assisted cytology was discussed and terminology for automated review was newly inserted. This is not the final edition of Bethesda 2001. The final document can be prepared before the ASCCP meeting in which Consensus Guidelines for the Management on Cytology Abnormalities and Cervical Precursors will develop in September 2001.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.1318-1324
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• 2010

Recently, U-Healthcare is receiving attentions as a research for reducing the manpower, time in treatment, and etc. Although fundamental technologies, such as sensing, measuring, and etc. are sufficiently investigated. However, Technologies of IT/Medical convergence, which graft IT technologies to medical area, are still in germ. For this, we present a novel healthcare system, which can be applied to the middle sized medical environment, such as private hospital, home, or etc., by means of pre-verified technologies and the expert system. There exist IT element technologies are sufficiently developed in the fields, such as network, database or etc. due to the remarkable developments in IT technologies, and the healthcare is a mission-critical environment. Therefore, it is important not only to investigate novel approaches but also to utilize verified technologies for the U-Healthcare solution. Presented solution provisions automated medical services based on expert system by utilizing the measured data, such as body fat, blood pressure, blood glucose, and etc., in order to provide convenient treatment environment to doctors and nurses. In addition, since people, who do not have medical knowledge, can self-diagnose themselves, it is expected to cut medical costs in various areas. Especially, since each devices communicate with each other through standardized Bluetooth technology, Presented healthcare system is an extensible solution which can easily accept various medical devices. As a result of this, we can safely say that the self measurement and diagnosis services in U-Healthcare are now enhanced by reducing medical cost through our healthcare system.