• Archives of Plastic Surgery
• /
• v.51 no.2
• /
• pp.251-257
• /
• 2024

Background Plastic surgery has developed to benefit in a variety of challenging areas formerly handled by other disciplines. Medical students do not have a clear picture of plastic surgery as a career due to lacking scope, clinical practice, and understanding of plastic surgery as a clinical area of expertise, including general practitioners, nursing staff, medical trainees, and the general public, and misconceptions about the extent of reconstructive and plastic surgery. Methods A cross-sectional observational study was conducted on Kuwait University Medical students (2nd-7th Years) over a period of 1 month. A questionnaire and a consent form were provided to eligible students. The inclusion criteria were Kuwait University Medical students from 2nd to 7th Years with signed consent form. The response was collected via email sent in coordination with the Vice Dean of Student Affairs in the Faculty of Medicine. Using statistical package for the social sciences, responses were statistically analyzed. Pearson's chi-square test was used to calculate p-values, where p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results A total of 244 eligible medical students, 121 males and 123 females, were included in the study, with a mean age of 21 (±2) years. Similarly, 126 (51.6%) were preclinical students (2nd-4th-year students), while 118 (48.4%) were clinical students (5th-7th-year students). About 79.8% of medical students believed that plastic surgery plays an essential role in trauma management, whereas 9.2% did not consider plastic surgery significant for trauma management. This study found that only 15.5% of medical students were interested in enrolling in plastic surgery residency after graduation, while 47.1% of students did not consider plastic surgery residency after graduation. However, 37.4% were uncertain. The two most driving factors in deciding on plastic surgery residency were expected income (61.8%) and lifestyle (14.3%). Conclusion Improving medical students' education quality can enhance their perception and awareness of plastic surgery. Students should be taught the broader scope of plastic surgery. The inclusion of formal training during undergraduation is the essence of time and should be added to or improved during plastic surgery rotations with more emphasis on reconstructive and hand/peripheral nerve surgery. Student-led interest groups can be a useful tool for educating students about their specialty.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• /
• v.35
• /
• pp.24.1-24.15
• /
• 2023

Background: The construction workers are vulnerable to fatigue due to high physical workload. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between overwork and heart rate in construction workers and propose a scheme to prevent overwork in advance. Methods: We measured the heart rates of construction workers at a construction site of a residential and commercial complex in Seoul from August to October 2021 and develop an index that monitors overwork in real-time. A total of 66 Korean workers participated in the study, wearing real-time heart rate monitoring equipment. The relative heart rate (RHR) was calculated using the minimum and maximum heart rates, and the maximum acceptable working time (MAWT) was estimated using RHR to calculate the workload. The overwork index (OI) was defined as the cumulative workload evaluated with the MAWT. An appropriate scenario line (PSL) was set as an index that can be compared to the OI to evaluate the degree of overwork in real-time. The excess overwork index (EOI) was evaluated in real-time during work performance using the difference between the OI and the PSL. The EOI value was used to perform receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis to find the optimal cut-off value for classification of overwork state. Results: Of the 60 participants analyzed, 28 (46.7%) were classified as the overwork group based on their RHR. ROC curve analysis showed that the EOI was a good predictor of overwork, with an area under the curve of 0.824. The optimal cut-off values ranged from 21.8% to 24.0% depending on the method used to determine the cut-off point. Conclusion: The EOI showed promising results as a predictive tool to assess overwork in real-time using heart rate monitoring and calculation through MAWT. Further research is needed to assess physical workload accurately and determine cut-off values across industries.

• Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.18-23
• /
• 2023

BACKGROUND: Three-dimensional (3D) transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) is the gold standard for the diagnosis of degenerative mitral regurgitation (dMR) and preoperative planning for transcatheter mitral valve repair (TMVr). TEE is an invasive modality requiring anesthesia and esophageal intubation. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemic has limited the number of elective invasive procedures. Multi-detector computed tomographic angiography (MDCT) provides high-resolution images and 3D reconstructions to assess complex mitral anatomy. We hypothesized that MDCT would reveal similar information to TEE relevant to TMVr, thus deferring the need for a preoperative TEE in certain situations like during a pandemic. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed data on patients who underwent or were evaluated for TMVr for dMR with preoperative MDCT and TEE between 2017 and 2019. Two TEE and 2 MDCT readers, blinded to patient outcome, analyzed: leaflet pathology (flail, degenerative, mixed), leaflet location, mitral valve area (MVA), flail width/gap, anterior-posterior (AP) and commissural diameters, posterior leaflet length, leaflet thickness, presence of mitral valve cleft and degree of mitral annular calcification (MAC). RESULTS: A total of 22 (out of 87) patients had preoperative MDCT. MDCT correctly identified the leaflet pathology in 77% (17/22), flail leaflet in 91% (10/11), MAC degree in 91% (10/11) and the dysfunctional leaflet location in 95% (21/22) of patients. There were no differences in the measurements for MVA, flail width, commissural or AP diameter, posterior leaflet length, and leaflet thickness. MDCT overestimated the measurements of flail gap. CONCLUSIONS: For preoperative TMVr planning, MDCT provided similar measurements to TEE in our study.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.281-287
• /
• 2024

In general, design education related to transportation has been recognized as a department specialized in transportation design or as an area of detailed transportation majors within industrial design majors. However, as technological, social, and environmental factors change, the concept of mobility and the ecosystem related to the mobility industry are diversifying, and accordingly, the category of mobility-related design is expanding further. Based on this background, this study is not a mobility design major, but it aims to find implications by analyzing the trend and type of topic selection related to the mobility ecosystem among the last five years of graduation design topics conducted in the design engineering major. As a result of the study, of a total of 131 graduation design works conducted over the past five years, about 30 works were highly related to mobility, and their types were very diverse. In conclusion, it was confirmed that the change and expansion of the mobility ecosystem expanding from products to services and systems were also reflected in the selection of graduation works in that various topics approached from user-centered and user experience were proposed and made into works.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.48 no.1
• /
• pp.96-109
• /
• 2024

Background: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government initiated the Billion Tree Tsunami Afforestation Project including regeneration and afforestation approaches. An effort was made to assess the distribution characteristics of afforested species under present and future climatic scenarios using ecological niche modelling. For sustainable forest management, landscape ecology can play a significant role. A significant change in the potential distribution of tree species is expected globally with changing climate. Ecological niche modeling provides the valuable information about the current and future distribution of species that can play crucial role in deciding the potential sites for afforestation which can be used by government institutes for afforestation programs. In this context, the potential distribution of 8 tree species, Cedrus deodara, Dalbergia sissoo, Juglans regia, Pinus wallichiana, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Senegalia modesta, Populus ciliata, and Vachellia nilotica was modeled. Results: Maxent species distribution model was used to predict current and future distribution of tree species using bioclimatic variables along with soil type and elevation. Future climate scenarios, shared socio-economic pathways (SSP)2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5 were considered for the years 2041-2060 and 2081-2100. The model predicted high risk of decreasing potential distribution under SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5 climate change scenarios for years 2041-2060 and 2081-2100, respectively. Recent afforestation conservation sites of these 8 tree species do not fall within their predicted potential habitat for SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5 climate scenarios. Conclusions: Each tree species responded independently in terms of its potential habitat to future climatic conditions. Cedrus deodara and P. ciliata are predicted to migrate to higher altitude towards north in present and future climate scenarios. Habitat of D. sissoo, P. wallichiana, J. regia, and V. nilotica is practiced to be declined in future climate scenarios. Eucalyptus camaldulensis is expected to be expanded its suitability area in future with eastward shift. Senegalia modesta habitat increased in the middle of the century but decreased afterwards in later half of the century. The changing and shifting forests create challenges for sustainable landscapes. Therefore, the study is an attempt to provide management tools for monitoring the climate change-driven shifting of forest landscapes.

• Korean Circulation Journal
• /
• v.53 no.11
• /
• pp.744-755
• /
• 2023

Background and Objectives: Aortic valve replacement (AVR) is considered a class I indication for symptomatic severe aortic stenosis (AS). However, there is little evidence regarding the potential benefits of early AVR in symptomatic patients diagnosed with normal-flow, low-gradient (NFLG) severe AS. Methods: Two-hundred eighty-one patients diagnosed with symptomatic NFLG severe AS (stroke volume index ≥35 mL/m², mean transaortic pressure gradient <40 mmHg, peak transaortic velocity <4 m/s, and aortic valve area <1.0 cm²) between January 2010 and December 2020 were included in this retrospective study. After performing 1:1 propensity score matching, 121 patients aged 75.1±9.8 years (including 63 women) who underwent early AVR within 3 months after index echocardiography, were compared with 121 patients who received conservative care. The primary outcome was a composite of all-cause death and heart failure (HF) hospitalization. Results: During a median follow-up of 21.9 months, 48 primary outcomes (18 in the early AVR group and 30 in the conservative care group) occurred. The early AVR group demonstrated a significantly lower incidence of primary outcomes (hazard ratio [HR], 0.52; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.29-0.93; p=0.028); specifically, there was no significant difference in all-cause death (HR, 0.51; 95% CI, 0.23-1.16; p=0.110), although the early AVR group showed a significantly lower incidence of hospitalization for HF (HR, 0.43; 95% CI, 0.19-0.95, p=0.037). Subgroup analyses supported the main findings. Conclusions: An early AVR strategy may be beneficial in reducing the risk of a composite outcome of death or hospitalization for HF in symptomatic patients with NFLG severe AS. Future randomized studies are required to validate and confirm our findings.

• Korean Circulation Journal
• /
• v.54 no.4
• /
• pp.203-217
• /
• 2024

Background and Objective: The effects of radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) for atrial fibrillation (AF) on right ventricular (RV) function are not well known. Methods: Patients who underwent RFCA for AF and underwent pre- and post-procedural echocardiography were enrolled consecutively. Fractional area change (FAC), RV free-wall longitudinal strain (RVFWSL), and RV 4-chamber strain including the ventricular septum (RV4CSL) were measured. Changes in FAC, RVFWSL, and RV4CSL before and after RFCA were compared among paroxysmal AF (PAF), persistent AF (PeAF), and long-standing persistent AF (LSPeAF) groups. Results: A total of 164 participants (74 PAF, 47 PeAF, and 43 LSPeAF; age, 60.8 ± 9.8 years; men, 74.4%) was enrolled. The patients with PeAF and LSPeAF had worse RV4CSL (p<0.001) and RVFWSL (p<0.001) than those with PAF and reference values. Improvements in RVFWSL and RV4CSL after RFCA were significant in the PeAF group compared with the PAF and LSPeAF groups (ΔRV4CSL, 8.4% [5.1, 11.6] in PeAF vs. 1.0% [-1.0, 4.1] in PAF, 1.9% [-0.2, 4.4] in LSPeAF, p<0.001; ΔRVFWSL, 9.0% [6.9, 11.5] in PeAF vs. 0.9% [-1.4, 4.9] in PAF, 1.0% [-1.0, 3.6] in LSPeAF, p<0.001). In patients without recurrence, improvements in RVFWSL and RV4CSL after RFCA were significant in the PeAF group compared to the LSPeAF group. Conclusions: RV systolic function is more impaired in patients with PeAF and LSPeAF than in those with PAF. RV systolic function is more improved after RFCA in patients with PeAF than in those with PAF or LSPeAF.

• Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.185-196
• /
• 2022

BACKGROUND: Two-dimensional (2D) strain provides more predictive power than ejection fraction (EF) in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). 3D strain and EF are also expected to have better clinical usefulness and overcome several inherent limitations of 2D strain. We aimed to clarify the prognostic significance of 3D strain analysis in patients with STEMI. METHODS: Patients who underwent successful revascularization for STEMI were retrospectively recruited. In addition to conventional parameters, 3D EF, global longitudinal strain (GLS), global area strain (GAS), as well as 2D GLS were obtained. We constructed a composite outcome consisting of all-cause death or re-hospitalization for acute heart failure or ventricular arrhythmia. RESULTS: Of 632 STEMI patients, 545 patients (86.2%) had a reliable 3D strain analysis. During median follow-up of 49.5 months, 55 (10.1%) patients experienced the adverse outcome. Left ventricle EF, 2D GLS, 3D EF, 3D GLS, and 3D GAS were significantly associated with poor outcomes. (all, p < 0.001) The maximum likelihood-ratio test was performed to evaluate the additional prognostic value of 2D GLS or 3D GLS over the prognostic model consisting of clinical characteristics and EF, and the likelihood ratio was 15.9 for 2D GLS (p < 0.001) and 1.49 for 3D GLS (p = 0.22). CONCLUSIONS: The predictive power of 3D strain was slightly lower than the 2D strain. Although we can obtain 3D strains, volume, and EF simultaneously in same cycle, the clinical implications of 3D strains in STEMI need to be investigated further.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.1-14
• /
• 1984

The student's attitude toward science is generally influenced by their teachers. Therefore, teachers' positive attitudes toward science and science teaching play an important role to change the student's attitude toward science. The purpose of this survey is to investigate the status on attitudes toward science and science teaching among the secondary school science teachers in Korea. The attitudes were surveyed by the questionnaire which was developed by Sung-Jae Pak. The instrument is designed to use Likert type scale and is composed of two kinds of scale: one is the attitudes toward science scale (the AT scale) and the other is the attitudes toward science teaching scale (the AT Kale), which contains 24 questions respectively. Each of them has 6 sub-level areas. The six areas of attitude toward science are as follow: The goals and values, process and method of science, knowledge and the view of nature, social and cultural aspects, scientist and a career in science, the preferences and willingness. The six areas of attitude toward science teaching are as follow: The goals and values, process and method of science teaching, the content and structure, social and cultural aspects, science educator and a career in science teaching, satisfaction and willingness. From 152 teachers' responses, the tendency of total as well as each area and the contrast of their backgrounds at the level of 5% significance were analyzed by SPSS computer program. Some results and conclusion of the study are as follow: 1. The overall attitude of the measured secondary school science teachers shows a positive trend tendency. Also total positive attitude toward science teaching are slightly higher than that of science, which support the fact that the teachers are not scientists but they are directly involved in teaching of science. 2. The attitudes toward science are moderately correlated to the attitudes toward science teaching (r=0.52). 3. The areas of knowledge, nature-view and tile area of social aspects of science show a very negative tendency. Also the two areas are not correlated to some other areal at the level at 5% significance. 4. Female science teachers exhibit just a little more positive attitudes than those of male teachers in science teaching. 5. The science teachers who wanted to have a profession of scholar or educator exhibit a little more positive attitudes than others in science and total attitudes (AS+AT). 6. The more the science teachers have "intellectual delights" the more their attitudes toward science and science teaching are positive. 7. At the level of 5% significance, there are differences which college they graduated from, but there are no differences in multiple comparison at 10% level. 8. The differences in their background dose not appear in such as age; teaching career; academic career; deny the superstition; their onlook for the scientist or educator when they were freshmen; major the basic science; opinions about the U.F.O. and the origin of life. 9. The responses of certain individual statement are quite different from the overall tendencies, which strongly suggest the de1ailed analysis and deeper study. For the continuing study, it is recommendable to revile the measuring tools with the theoretical study for the better validity and reliability, and investigate the status of the attitudes toward science and science teaching among the science teachers with sufficient samples.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
• /
• v.38 no.3
• /
• pp.305-313
• /
• 2015

After Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, study and maintenance of monitoring systems have been made at home and abroad. As concerns about radioactive contamination of water have increased in Korea, update of maintenance of managing radioactive materials in water is being made mainly by Ministry of Environment. In this study, we analysed current state of monitoring system modification in Japan, the country directly involved and neighboring country. According to the result, Japan modified the legislations first. Then Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) provides theoretical background of radiological monitoring. And Ministry of the Environment actually watches state of water pollution in public waters and underground water. Finally related agencies like local government are monitoring current state of radioactive contamination in water environment. By region, local monitoring stations share the investigation of the whole country. Also, additional monitoring is running around nuclear facilities. After Fukushima disaster, monitoring for area near Fukushima is added. Among the reference levels, management target value of drinking water and tap water is 10 Bq/kg, and those of public water and underground water are 1 Bq/L. Measuring intervals varied from every hour to once a year, regularly or irregularly depending on the investigation. The main measuring items are air dose rate, gross ${\alpha}$, gross ${\beta}$, ${\gamma}$ radionuclide, Cs-134, Cs-137, Sr-89, Sr-90, I-131, and so on. In comparison, regulations about general public water in Korea need to be modified, while those about area near nuclear facility and drinking water are organized well. In future, therefore, domestic system would be expected to be modified with making reference to the guidelines like WHO's one. As good case of applying international guideline to domestic environment, Japanese system could be a reference when general standard of radioactivity in public water is made in Korea.