• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.71-76
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• 2009

This study was conducted to investigate the load acting on a tractor engine when it delivers the maximum power at drawbar. The results of the drawbar tests on the 5 locally-made and 14 imported tractors conducted at NIAE in 2004, and the 15 tractors tested at OECD test stations in foreign countries were analyzed and presented by the torque load ratio, defined as a ratio of the engine torque load caused by drawbar pull to its full-load capacity, as a function of pull speed. The NIAE test results showed that the torque load ratio increased from 20 to 80% with pull speed less than 5 km/h. At speeds faster than 5 km/h, it was 80${\sim}$110% regardless of the pull speed. However, the OECD test results showed that the torque load ratio was evaluated mostly to be 70${\sim}$90% in the entire pull speed range. The same trend was also shown for the maximum drawbar load. The difference in the torque load ratio may be attributable to bias-ply tires for locally-made and some imported tractors. It is also suggested that the input torque load may be increased safely up to 120% of the full load capacity of the tractor engine for an accelerated life test of tractor transmissions.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.75-89
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• 1993

The present paper describes an application of UA(Uncertainty Analysis) to seakeeping model test, basically according to the Performance Test Code of ASME(American Society of Mechanical Engineers), in which all the possible error sources involved in the preparation of test, calibration of instruments, data acquisition and analysis are quantified, and summed up with error propagation coefficients to the final uncertainties. The differences between the static test such as resistance and propulsion test and the dynamic test like seakeeping test are clearly identified during all the procedures of UA and asymmetric bias errors are considered. The DRE(data reduction equation) subject to present UA are the heave and pitch response amplitude operator and nondimensionalized absolute frequency. The usefulness of UA in seakeeping test were confirmed not only for quantifying errors and improving measurement accuracy but also for the validation of various seakeeping analysis tools.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.3708-3728
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• 2021

Indian herbal plants are used in agriculture and in the food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries. Laboratory-based tests are routinely used to identify and classify similar herb species by analyzing their internal cell structures. In this paper, we have applied computer vision techniques to do the same. The original leaf image was preprocessed using the Chan-Vese active contour segmentation algorithm to efface the background from the image by setting the contraction bias as (v) -1 and smoothing factor (µ) as 0.5, and bringing the initial contour close to the image boundary. Thereafter the segmented grayscale image was fed to a leaky capacitance fired neuron model (LCFN), which differentiates between similar herbs by combining different groups of pixels in the leaf image. The LFCN's decay constant (f), decay constant (g) and threshold (h) parameters were empirically assigned as 0.7, 0.6 and h=18 to generate the 1D feature vector. The LCFN time sequence identified the internal leaf structure at different iterations. Our proposed framework was tested against newly collected herbal species of natural images, geometrically variant images in terms of size, orientation and position. The 1D sequence and shape features of aloe, betel, Indian borage, bittergourd, grape, insulin herb, guava, mango, nilavembu, nithiyakalyani, sweet basil and pomegranate were fed into the 5-fold Bayesian regularization neural network (BRNN), K-nearest neighbors (KNN), support vector machine (SVM), and ensemble classifier to obtain the highest classification accuracy of 91.19%.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.95-105
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• 2021

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The measurement of body composition, including muscle and fat mass, remains challenging in large epidemiological studies due to time constraint and cost when using accurate modalities. Therefore, this study aimed to develop and validate prediction equations according to sex to measure lean body mass (LBM), appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM), and body fat mass (BFM) using anthropometric measurement, serum creatinine level, and lifestyle factors as independent variables and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry as the reference method. SUBJECTS/METHODS: A sample of the Korean general adult population (men: 7,599; women: 10,009) from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2008-2011 was included in this study. The participants were divided into the derivation and validation groups via a random number generator (with a ratio of 70:30). The prediction equations were developed using a series of multivariable linear regressions and validated using the Bland-Altman plot and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). RESULTS: The initial and practical equations that included age, height, weight, and waist circumference had a different predictive ability for LBM (men: R2 = 0.85, standard error of estimate [SEE] = 2.7 kg; women: R2 = 0.78, SEE = 2.2 kg), ASM (men: R2 = 0.81, SEE = 1.6 kg; women: R2 = 0.71, SEE = 1.2 kg), and BFM (men: R2 = 0.74, SEE = 2.7 kg; women: R2 = 0.83, SEE = 2.2 kg) according to sex. Compared with the first prediction equation, the addition of other factors, including serum creatinine level, physical activity, smoking status, and alcohol use, resulted in an R2 that is higher by 0.01 and SEE that is lower by 0.1. CONCLUSIONS: All equations had low bias, moderate agreement based on the Bland-Altman plot, and high ICC, and this result showed that these equations can be further applied to other epidemiologic studies.

• Clinical and Experimental Emergency Medicine
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.264-271
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• 2018

Objective For patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), symptoms assessed by emergency medical services (EMS) providers have a critical role in prehospital treatment decisions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of EMS provider-assessed cardiac symptoms of AMI. Methods Patients transported by EMS to 4 study hospitals from 2008 to 2012 were included. Using EMS and administrative emergency department databases, patients were stratified according to the presence of EMS-assessed cardiac symptoms and emergency department diagnosis of AMI. Cardiac symptoms were defined as chest pain, dyspnea, palpitations, and syncope. Disproportionate stratified sampling was used, and medical records of sampled patients were reviewed to identify an actual diagnosis of AMI. Using inverse probability weighting, verification bias-corrected diagnostic performance was estimated. Results Overall, 92,353 patients were enrolled in the study. Of these, 13,971 (15.1%) complained of cardiac symptoms to EMS providers. A total of 775 patients were sampled for hospital record review. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of EMS provider-assessed cardiac symptoms for the final diagnosis of AMI was 73.3% (95% confidence interval [CI], 70.8 to 75.7), 85.3% (95% CI, 85.3 to 85.4), 3.9% (95% CI, 3.6 to 4.2), and 99.7% (95% CI, 99.7 to 99.8), respectively. Conclusion We found that EMS provider-assessed cardiac symptoms had moderate sensitivity and high specificity for diagnosis of AMI. EMS policymakers can use these data to evaluate the pertinence of specific prehospital treatment of AMI.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.65 no.2
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• pp.85-89
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• 2022

Background: There is evidence of a relationship between prenatal excess androgen exposure and central nervous developmental problems and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the offspring of mothers with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Purpose: Here we aimed to use a meta-analysis to investigate whether the offspring of mothers with PCOS are at an increased chance of developing ADHD. Methods: Three main English databases were searched for articles published through December 2020. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to assess study quality. Study heterogeneity was determined using I² statistics and publication bias was assessed using Begg and Egger tests. The results are presented as odds ratio (OR) and relative ratio (RR) estimates with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using a random-effects model. Results: Six articles (3 cohort and 3 case-control studies; 401,413 total ADHD cases) met the study criteria. Maternal PCOS was associated with an increased risk of ADHD in the offspring based on OR and RR (OR, 1.42; 95% CI, 1.27-1.57) and (RR, 1.43; 95% CI, 1.35-1.51), respectively. There was no heterogeneity among the included articles based on OR (I²=0.0%, P=0.588) and RR (I²=0.0%, P=0.878). Conclusion: Our study showed that maternal PCOS is a risk factor for ADHD. Therefore, screening their offspring for ADHD should be considered part of the comprehensive clinical care of women with PCOS.

• Journal of Korean Medicine for Obesity Research
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.158-166
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• 2022

Objectives: The purpose of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the effects of berberine on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) through a systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods: We searched seven electronic databases for studies through October 2022. All randomized controlled trials (RTCs) of berberine were included. Data extraction and risk of bias assessments were performed by two independent reviewers. The RevMan 5.4.1 program was used for meta-analysis. Results: A total of 279 relevant studies were identified, and 6 eligible RCTs were included to study the efficacy berberine on NAFLD. The six selected trials are studies on the effect between berberine and conventional treatment combined treatment versus conventional treatment. Liver function tests, blood lipid levels, and blood glucose levels were assessed. Combination treatment with berberine, ursodeoxycholate acid, metformin, and monascus purpureus showed statistically significant improvements in liver function levels, blood lipid levels, and blood glucose levels compared to conventional treatment alone. However, there was no significant efficacy of berberine combination dietary, exercise than control group on NAFLD. The meta-analysis results of examining 4 RCTs comparing the therapeutic efficacy of berberine showed statistically significant improvement in the liver function test, blood lipids levels, blood glucose levels. Conclusions: This study suggests that berberine has positive efficacy on blood lipids, blood glucose liver function, fatty liver condition of NAFLD. However, the level of evidence is low because of small effect size,so further investigation is needed.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2023

In 1945, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Approximately 70 000 Koreans are estimated to have been exposed to radiation from atomic bombs at that time. After Korea's Liberation Day, approximately 23 000 of these people returned to Korea. To investigate the long-term health and hereditary effects of atomic bomb exposure on the offspring, cohort studies have been conducted on atomic bomb survivors in Japan. This study is an ongoing cohort study to determine the health status of Korean atomic bomb survivors and investigate whether any health effects were inherited by their offspring. Atomic bomb survivors are defined by the Special Act On the Support for Korean Atomic Bomb Victims, and their offspring are identified by participating atomic bomb survivors. As of 2024, we plan to recruit 1500 atomic bomb survivors and their offspring, including 200 trios with more than 300 people. Questionnaires regarding socio-demographic factors, health behaviors, past medical history, laboratory tests, and pedigree information comprise the data collected to minimize survival bias. For the 200 trios, whole-genome analysis is planned to identify de novo mutations in atomic bomb survivors and to compare the prevalence of de novo mutations with trios in the general population. Active follow-up based on telephone surveys and passive follow-up with linkage to the Korean Red Cross, National Health Insurance Service, death registry, and Korea Central Cancer Registry data are ongoing. By combining pedigree information with the findings of trio-based whole-genome analysis, the results will elucidate the hereditary health effects of atomic bomb exposure.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.280-294
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• 2022

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of propolis extract as a natural preservative for livestock products in term of chemical and microbiological characteristics by meta-analysis. The stages carried out in this study were identification, selection, checking suitability, and the resulting selected articles were used in the meta-analysis. The selection results obtained a total of 22 selected journal articles consisting of 9 articles for analysis of the antimicrobial activity of propolis extract and 13 articles for analysis of the chemical and mirobiological characteristics of livestock products. The articles were obtained from electronic databases, namely Science Direct and Google Scholar. The model used in this study is the random-effect model involving two groups, control and experimental. Heterogeneity and effect size values were carried out in this study using Hedge's obtained through openMEE software. Forest plot tests and data validation on publication bias was obtained using Kendall's test throught JASP 0.14.1 software. The results showed that there is a significant relationship between propolis extract with the results of the antimicrobial activity (p<0.05). In addition, the results of the application of propolis extract on the livestock products for the test microbes and the value of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARs) showed significant results (p<0.05). Conclusion based on the random-effect model on the effectiveness of antimicrobial activity of propolis extract and their apllication as a natural preservative of the chemical and microbiological characteristics of livestock products is valid by Kendall's test (p>0.05). Propolis in this case effectively used as natural preservatives in livestock products.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.15.1-15.18
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• 2022

This review aimed to characterize the effect of direct restorative material types and adhesive protocols on marginal adaptation and the bond strength of the interface between the material and the proximal dentin/cementum. An electronic search of 3 databases (the National Library of Medicine [MEDLINE/PubMed], Scopus, and ScienceDirect) was conducted. Studies were included if they evaluated marginal adaptation or bond strength tests for proximal restorations under the cementoenamel junction. Only 16 studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in this review. These studies presented a high degree of heterogeneity in terms of the materials used and the methodologies and evaluation criteria of each test; therefore, only a descriptive analysis could be conducted. The included studies were individually evaluated for the risk of bias following predetermined criteria. To summarize the results of the included studies, the type of restorative material affected the test results, whereas the use of different adhesive protocols had an insignificant effect on the results. It could be concluded that various categories of resin-based composites could be a suitable choice for clinicians to elevate proximal dentin/cementum margins, rather than the open sandwich technique with resin-modified glass ionomers. Despite challenges in bonding to proximal dentin/cementum margins, different adhesive protocols provided comparable outcomes.