• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.79-83
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• 2014

The brachial plexus is a network of nerves that provides movement and feeling to the shoulder, arm and hand. The majority of acute brachial plexus injuries occur when the plexus is stretched violently or torn. This happens as result of the shoulder being pressed down forcefully while the head is pushed up and away from that shoulder. Such injuries frequently result from automobile or motor-cycle accidents or from falls and usually affect one side. Nerve injuries vary in severity from a mild stretching of the nerve to a tearing of the nerve root away from the spinal cord. We experienced a 50-year-old woman with weakness in both upper extremities after an attempted hanging. A consecutive workup revealed bilateral brachial plexus injuries. Six months after the incident, she had fully recovered. This is a very rare case of bilateral brachial plexus injuries after an attempted hanging.

• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.1-10
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• 2007

Objectives The purpose of this study is to report a pediatric patient with bilateral facial nerve palsy. Methods The patient was treated by acupuncture, moxa, herb(Cheongungkyeoji-tang, Palmulgunja-tang) for 1 month. We described his progression and measured the degree by House-Brackmann scale and Yanagihara's scale. Results He started getting better from 7th day of the onset. During admission, the facial palsy had improved from Grade V/V(Rt/Lt) to Grade II/II(Rt/Lt) by House-Brackmann scale and from 0/0(Rt/Lt)score to 36/36(Rt/Lt)score by Yanagihara's scale. Conclusions Compared with unilateral facial nerve palsy cases, this case was not different from the time when it got better, and how much it improved. However, biased degree had increased and then decreased because of the time gap between the right facial improvements and left facial one.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.105-108
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• 2008

Cystic glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a rare disease. Its exact prevalence has not yet been reported. Also, the mechanism of cyst formation remains to be elucidated. We report a case of GBM with a large peripheral cyst. A 43-year-old woman visited our clinic with a 3-month history of severe headache, memory impairment and general weakness. T1-weighted gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) image revealed a midline enhanced solid mass and bilateral symmetric banana-shaped peripheral cysts. A centrally enhanced mass was measured $2{\times}4$ cm in size and both mass and cysts as $7{\times}7$ cm. Both the frontal lobe and the frontal horn were severely compressed inferiorly and posteriorly. We resected a midline solid tumor and cysts via the bilateral interhemispheric transcortical approach. Histopathologic examination revealed GBM. The patient was subsequently treated with fractionated conventional brain radiation therapy, followed by temozolomide chemotherapy. Eighteen months later, there was no tumor recurrence and no neurological deficits were noted. Our patient showed no tumor recurrence and a long survival at a long follow-up.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.221-224
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• 2021

A 8-year-old male Golden Retriever dog with bilateral cryptorchidism presented for evaluation of symmetric alopecia and gynecomastia. Abdominal radiography and computed tomography revealed bilateral enlargement of the testicles in the abdominal cavity. The concentrations of estradiol and testosterone in the blood were evaluated, and the results revealed a low testosterone/estradiol ratio despite a normal concentration of estradiol. For correction, cryptorchid testicles were surgically removed. Grossly, the bilateral retroperitoneal cryptorchid testicles were enlarged, firm, and spherical. On histopathologic examination, the right abdominal cryptorchid testicle was diagnosed as a Sertoli cell tumor (SCT)-Seminoma (SEM) combination. The contralateral testicle in the abdomen was diagnosed as a Sertoli cell tumor. The clinical signs of feminization were improved after surgery. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a case of simultaneous SCT on one side and SCT-SEM combination on the other side with sex hormone profiles in a dog.

• Journal of Information Processing Systems
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.1004-1019
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• 2021

To solve the problems of the low image contrast, fuzzy edge details and edge details missing in noisy image fusion, this study proposes a noisy infrared and visible light image fusion algorithm based on non-subsample contourlet transform (NSCT) and an improved bilateral filter, which uses NSCT to decompose an image into a low-frequency component and high-frequency component. High-frequency noise and edge information are mainly distributed in the high-frequency component, and the improved bilateral filtering method is used to process the high-frequency component of two images, filtering the noise of the images and calculating the image detail of the infrared image's high-frequency component. It can extract the edge details of the infrared image and visible image as much as possible by superimposing the high-frequency component of infrared image and visible image. At the same time, edge information is enhanced and the visual effect is clearer. For the fusion rule of low-frequency coefficient, the local area standard variance coefficient method is adopted. At last, we decompose the high- and low-frequency coefficient to obtain the fusion image according to the inverse transformation of NSCT. The fusion results show that the edge, contour, texture and other details are maintained and enhanced while the noise is filtered, and the fusion image with a clear edge is obtained. The algorithm could better filter noise and obtain clear fused images in noisy infrared and visible light image fusion.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.11
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• pp.145-155
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• 2021

This study examines the export competitiveness of four major natural rubber exporters in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) region and investigates the factors affecting bilateral natural rubber export. This study utilized the revealed symmetric comparative advantage (RSCA) to measure export competitiveness. Next, this study employed the gravity model using the Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimation to analyze the factors affecting bilateral export from the four major natural rubber exporters to 46 countries in the region. The analysis is conducted by using annual data from 2001 till 2018. The findings showed that all four major exporters maintained their export competitiveness. Indonesia and Vietnam notably exhibited increasing trends in the early 2000s. Besides, the market share for Malaysia and Vietnam have increased from 2013 to 2015 with the BRI implementation in 2013. In addition, this study discovered that non-tariff measures (NTM) have a positive and significant impact on the bilateral export of natural rubber. The overall findings strongly indicate that the natural rubber export has increased post BRI announcement. The outcome highlighted the benefits of BRI implementation on the natural rubber export. This study is the first attempt to apply the gravity model on the natural rubber exports within the BRI region.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.1-10
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• 2021

This study examines the dynamic pattern of the exchange rate volatilities of the ASEAN-5 currencies from January 2006 to August 2020. The exchange rates applied in this study comprise bilateral and effective exchange rates in order to investigate the influence of the US dollar on the stability of the ASEAN-5 currencies. Since a volatility model employed in this study is a natural cubic spline volatility model, the Monte Carlo simulation is consequently conducted to determine an appropriate criterion to select a number of quantile knots for this model. The simulation results reveal that, among four candidate criteria, Generalized Cross-Validation is a suitable criterion for modeling the ASEAN-5 exchange rate volatilities. The estimated volatilities showed the inconstant dynamic patterns reflecting the uncertain exchange rate risk arising in international transactions. The bilateral exchange rate volatilities of the ASEAN-5 currencies to the US dollar are more variable than their corresponding effective exchange rate volatilities, indicating the influence of the US dollar on the stability of the ASEAN-5 currencies. The findings of this study suggest that the natural cubic spline volatility model with the quantile knots selected by Generalized Cross-Validation is practical and can be used to examine the dynamic patterns of the financial volatility.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.20-31
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• 2021

This study aimed to pilot test a newly developed bilateral upper limb rehabilitation training program for improving the upper limb function of individuals with chronic stroke using a visual feedback method. The double-group pretest-posttest design pilot study included 10 individuals with chronic stroke (age >50 years). The intervention (four weekly meetings) consisted of five upper limb training protocols (wrist extension; forearm supination and pronation; elbow extension and shoulder flexion; weight-bearing shift; and shoulder, elbow, and wrist complex movements). Upper limb movement function recovery was assessed with the FuglMeyer Assessment of the Upper Extremity, the Wolf Motor Function Test, the Trunk Control Test, the modified Ashworth Scale, and the visual analog scale at baseline, immediately after, and four weeks after the intervention. The Fatigue Severity Scale was also employed. The Fugl-Meyer Assessment of the Upper Extremity and Wolf Motor Function Test showed significant improvement in upper limb motor function. The Trunk Control Test results increased slightly, and the modified Ashworth Scale decreased slightly, without statistical significance. The visual analog scale scores showed a significant decrease and the Fatigue Severity Scale scores were moderate or low. The bilateral upper limb training program using the visual feedback method could result in slight upper limb function improvements in individuals with chronic stroke.

• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.77-80
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• 2021

Plexiform neurofibromas (PNFs) represent an uncommon variant (30%) of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF-1), in which neurofibromas arise from multiple nerves as bulging and deforming masses involving connective tissue and skin folds. We report the case of a 17-year-old man with known NF-1 presenting with bilateral occipital neuralgia that began in his late adolescence. His chief complaint was radiating pain in the occiput induced by protective helmet wear when riding alpine skiing. Craniofacial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) confirmed the presence of fusiform masses arising from the bilateral greater occipital nerves. Histopathological examination of the biopsy samples showed PNFs. After surgical treatment, the patient's symptoms completely improved. Unlike cutaneous neurofibromas, PNFs have different clinical characteristics and have the risk of malignant mutations. Correct diagnosis and adequate surgical treatment are necessary for PNFs.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.284-287
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• 2021

We report a case of delayed chest wall reconstruction after thoracotomy. A 53-yearold female, a victim of a motor vehicle accident, presented with bilateral multiple rib fractures with flail motion and multiple extrathoracic injuries. Whole-body computed tomography revealed multiple fractures of the bilateral ribs, clavicle, and scapula, and bilateral hemopneumothorax with severe lung contusions. Active hemorrhage was also found in the anterior pelvis, which was treated by angioembolization. The patient was transferred to the surgical intensive care unit for follow-up. We planned to perform surgical stabilization of rib fractures (SSRF) because her lung condition did not seem favorable for general anesthesia. Within a few hours, however, massive hemorrhage (presumably due to coagulopathy) drained through the thoracic drainage catheter. We performed an exploratory thoracotomy in the operating room. We initially planned to perform exploratory thoracotomy and "on the way out" SSRF. In the operating room, the hemorrhage was controlled; however, her condition deteriorated and SSRF could not be completed. SSRF was completed after about a month owing to other medical conditions, and the patient was weaned successfully.