• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.60.1-60.8
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• 2021

Objectives: The aim of this study was to verify the match between 5 shades of composites from different manufacturers with a shade guide and among the systems using a portable spectrophotometer. Materials and Methods: Shade measurements were performed on specimens of Z350 XT (3M ESPE), Charisma Diamond (Heraeus Kulzer GmbH), Esthet X-HD (Dentsply Caulk), and Empress Direct (Ivoclar-Vivadent) for shades A1, A2, A3, B1, and C3 using a Vita Easyshade spectrophotometer (Vita Zahnfabrik) against a white background. Corresponding shades of Vitapan Classical (Vita Zahnfabrik) guide were measured likewise and shade variation (ΔE) was calculated based on International Commission on Illumination L^*a^*b^* parameters. The ΔE of the composites in each shade was compared by one-way analysis of variance and Tukey's post hoc test (α = 0.05). Results: All composites presented ΔE > 3.7 compared with the shade guide. Variation in shades A3, B1, and C3 was significantly different for all composites. ΔE of Z350 XT was significantly lower for A1 than for the other shades, whereas ΔE of Z350 XT and Charisma Diamond were significantly lower for A2 than for the other shades. Conclusions: No composite shade matched with the shade guide. Equivalent shades of the restorative composite from different manufacturers may show clinically noticeable ΔE.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.328-334
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• 2022

BACKGROUND: The low temperature at flowering period break the balance between vegetative and reproductive growth of apple tree. Summer pruning has been used to control vegetative growth. So, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of summer pruning time on shoot growth and fruit quality of 'Fuji'/M.9 apple trees damaged by the low temperature at flowering period. METHODS AND RESULTS: The following treatments were applied to tree : a) control (no summer pruning), b) pruned 26 June, c) pruned 30 July, d) pruned 28 August, and e) pruned 26 September. The summer pruning significantly increased light penetration and fruit red color by reducing the total shoot growth compared with control. And the summer pruning control the outbreak of apple valsa canker. But the summer pruning at the end of June increased regrowth of shoot and pruning weight compared with the summer pruning at the end of August. The summer pruning at 30 July had the highest fruit weight, but return bloom was the highest in the summer pruning at 28 August. CONCLUSION(S): These results indicated the optimum summer pruning time of 'Fuji'/M.9 apple trees damaged by the low temperature at flowering period were the end of August.

• 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.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.8-16
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• 2024

Communication with the deaf has always been crucial. Deaf and hard-of-hearing persons can now express their thoughts and opinions to teachers through sign language, which has become a universal language and a very effective tool. This helps to improve their education. This facilitates and simplifies the referral procedure between them and the teachers. There are various bodily movements used in sign language, including those of arms, legs, and face. Pure expressiveness, proximity, and shared interests are examples of nonverbal physical communication that is distinct from gestures that convey a particular message. The meanings of gestures vary depending on your social or cultural background and are quite unique. Sign language prediction recognition is a highly popular and Research is ongoing in this area, and the SVM has shown value. Research in a number of fields where SVMs struggle has encouraged the development of numerous applications, such as SVM for enormous data sets, SVM for multi-classification, and SVM for unbalanced data sets.Without a precise diagnosis of the signs, right control measures cannot be applied when they are needed. One of the methods that is frequently utilized for the identification and categorization of sign languages is image processing. African Buffalo Optimization using Support Vector Machine (ABO+SVM) classification technology is used in this work to help identify and categorize peoples' sign languages. Segmentation by K-means clustering is used to first identify the sign region, after which color and texture features are extracted. The accuracy, sensitivity, Precision, specificity, and F1-score of the proposed system African Buffalo Optimization using Support Vector Machine (ABOSVM) are validated against the existing classifiers SVM, CNN, and PSO+ANN.

• Archives of Craniofacial Surgery
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.133-140
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• 2024

Background: The medial canthal region features a complex three-dimensional and internal anatomical structure. When reconstructing a defect in this area, it is crucial to consider both functional and aesthetic aspects, which presents significant challenges. Generally, local flaps are preferred for reconstruction; however, skin grafts can be used when local flaps are not feasible. Therefore, we conducted a comparative analysis of surgical outcomes skin grafts when local flaps were not feasible, to determine which surgical method is more effective for medial canthal region reconstruction. Methods: Twenty-five patients who underwent medial canthal region reconstruction using skin grafts or local flaps from 2002 to 2021 were enrolled. Patient information was obtained from medical records. Five plastic surgeons evaluated the surgical outcomes based on general appearance, color, contour, and symmetry. Results: Skin grafts were used in eight patients and local flaps were used in 13. Combined reconstructions were employed in four cases. Minor complications arose in four cases but improved with conservative treatment. No major complications were reported. Recurrence of the skin cancer was noted in two cases. All categories showed higher scores for the local flap compared to both skin graft and combined reconstruction; however, the differences were not statistically significant respectively. Conclusion: The choice of appropriate surgical methods for reconstructing defects in the medial canthal region depends on various factors, including the patient's overall health, the size and depth of the defect, and the degree of involvement of surrounding structures. When a local flap is not feasible, a skin graft may provide favorable surgical outcomes. Therefore, a skin graft can serve as a viable alternative for reconstructing the medial canthal region.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.88-104
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• 2024

Purpose: This study explored the suitability of interventions for medication interruption and intervention preferences. Methods: Two rounds of Delphi surveys were conducted with 18 expert panels comprising staff (or charge) nurses, nursing managers, and Quality Improvement (QI) team nurses working in a tertiary general hospital. For 47 situations involving the location of interruption, medication step, and source of interruption, the suitability of three interventions (no-interruption zone, medication safety vest, and education) was evaluated using a 5-point scale. Results: A total of 51 interventions for each situation were found appropriate by satisfying the degree of convergence and consensus. Patients or caregivers, peer nurses, doctors, telephones, and call bells were sources of interruption and were identified as appropriate for the application of interventions. 'Responding to requests and inquiries' by patients or caregivers showed high overall suitability. The nurses' preferred color for the intervention design (no-interruption zone, medication safety vest) is blue text on a yellow background. The priority groups for education related to medication interruptions were patients or caregivers, nurses, and non-nursing staff, in that order. Conclusion: Effective implementation of tailored intervention strategies that consider the specific characteristics of medication interruptions is crucial for mitigating interruptions and enhancing patient safety. Comprehensive educational programs aimed at reducing medication interruptions by improving awareness are necessary. Moreover, future research should evaluate these strategies in clinical settings to ensure their effectiveness in enhancing patient safety.

• Clinical Endoscopy
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.315-324
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• 2023

Background/Aims: Image-enhanced endoscopy can detect superficial oro-hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma; however, reliable endoscopy of the pharyngeal region is challenging. Endoscopy under general anesthesia during transoral surgery occasionally reveals multiple synchronous lesions that remained undetected on preoperative endoscopy. Therefore, we aimed to determine the lesion detection capability of endoscopy under general anesthesia for superficial oro-hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. Methods: This retrospective study included 63 patients who underwent transoral surgery for superficial oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma between April 2005 and December 2020. The primary endpoint was to compare the lesion detection capabilities of preoperative endoscopy and endoscopy under general anesthesia. Other endpoints included the comparison of clinicopathological findings between lesions detected using preoperative endoscopy and those newly detected using endoscopy under general anesthesia. Results: Fifty-eight patients (85 lesions) were analyzed. The mean number of lesions per patient detected was 1.17 for preoperative endoscopy and 1.47 for endoscopy under general anesthesia. Endoscopy under general anesthesia helped detect more lesions than preoperative endoscopy did (p<0.001). The lesions that were newly detected on endoscopy under general anesthesia were small and characterized by few changes in color and surface ruggedness. Conclusions: Endoscopy under general anesthesia for superficial squamous cell carcinoma is helpful for detecting multiple synchronous lesions.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.65-71
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• 2024

This paper proposes a neural network that can reduce the number of parameters while reducing matching errors in occluded regions to increase the accuracy of depth maps in stereo matching. Stereo matching-based object recognition is utilized in many fields to more accurately recognize situations using images. When there are many objects in a complex image, an occluded area is generated due to overlap between objects and occlusion by background, thereby lowering the accuracy of the depth map. To solve this problem, existing research methods that create context information and combine it with the cost volume or RoIselect in the occluded area increase the complexity of neural networks, making it difficult to learn and expensive to implement. In this paper, we create a depthwise seperable neural network that enhances regional feature extraction before cost volume generation, reducing the number of parameters and proposing a neural network that is robust to occlusion errors. Compared to PSMNet, the proposed neural network reduced the number of parameters by 30%, improving 5.3% in color error and 3.6% in test loss.

• Clinical Endoscopy
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.113-121
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• 2022

Background/Aims: We have been developing artificial intelligence based polyp histology prediction (AIPHP) method to classify Narrow Band Imaging (NBI) magnifying colonoscopy images to predict the hyperplastic or neoplastic histology of polyps. Our aim was to analyze the accuracy of AIPHP and narrow-band imaging international colorectal endoscopic (NICE) classification based histology predictions and also to compare the results of the two methods. Methods: We studied 373 colorectal polyp samples taken by polypectomy from 279 patients. The documented NBI still images were analyzed by the AIPHP method and by the NICE classification parallel. The AIPHP software was created by machine learning method. The software measures five geometrical and color features on the endoscopic image. Results: The accuracy of AIPHP was 86.6% (323/373) in total of polyps. We compared the AIPHP accuracy results for diminutive and non-diminutive polyps (82.1% vs. 92.2%; p=0.0032). The accuracy of the hyperplastic histology prediction was significantly better by NICE compared to AIPHP method both in the diminutive polyps (n=207) (95.2% vs. 82.1%) (p<0.001) and also in all evaluated polyps (n=373) (97.1% vs. 86.6%) (p<0.001) Conclusions: Our artificial intelligence based polyp histology prediction software could predict histology with high accuracy only in the large size polyp subgroup.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.33
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• pp.31-53
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• 2013

In the early twentieth century, history of animation began by modern artists, they produced various experimental images with the newly invented film and cameras. Artists in the field of movie, photography, paintings and others manipulated images in motion. But as some animated movies won industrial success and popularity, they became the trend but experimental style of early animation preserved by so-called non-mainstreamers or experimental animators, counteracting commercialism. Disney animation also followed the trend by applying realistic Hollywood film style, the worse critics placed a low value on the animation and it tarnished the image, although it was profitable investment from a business standpoint. To make images realistic, they opened a drawing class that animators developed skills to imitate motions and forms from subjects in real life. Also some techniques and gizmos were used to mimic and simulate three dimensional objects and spaces, multiplane camera and compositing 3D CG images with 2D drawings. Moreover, they brought animation stories from fairly tales or folk tales, and Walt's personal interest in live-action movies, they applied Hollywood-film-like narratives and realistic visual, and harsh criticism ensued. On the surface early disney animations' potential seems to be weakened, but in reality it still exists by simplifying and exaggerating forms and color as modern arts. Disney animation employs concepts of the modernism paintings such as simplified shapes and colors to a character design, when their characters are placed together in a scene, that visual elements cause mental reaction. This modification gives a new internal experience to audiences. As conceptual colors in abstract paintings make images appeared to be flat, coloring characters with no shading make them look flat and comparing to them, background images are also appeared to be flat. On top of that, multi-perspective at background images recalls modernist paintings. This essay goes in details with the animation pioneers' works and how Disney animation developed its techniques to emulate real life and analyses color schemes, forms, and spaces in Disney animation compared with modern artists' works, in that the visual language of Disney animation reminds of impression from abstract paintings in the beginning of the twentieth centuries.