• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• 제11권2호
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• pp.136-144
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• 2022

Objective: This study was to identify the effect of pressure biofeedback applied in various postures that allow the application of abdominal drawing-in. Design: A cross sectional study. Methods: The study intended to compare changes in the thickness of abdominal muscles between different postures when abdominal drawing-in was performed using a pressure biofeedback unit in five postures and to compare differences in terms of measures such as the transverse abdominis's preferential activation ratio(PAR). Data measured from 30 healthy individuals were used for data analysis. A paired t-test and repeated measures analysis of variance was performed to compare the thickness of each abdominal muscle. Results: The transverse abdominis's and internal oblique's thickness showed statistically significant differences in all postures when abdominal drawing-in (p<0.05). In the comparison between the postures, statistically significant differences were observed between the positions of hook-lying and wall support standing and between supine and wall support standing and between hook-lying and sitting (p<0.05). In terms of the transverse abdominis's PAR in each posture, statistically significant differences were observed between hook-lying and quadruped, hook-lying and sitting, hook-lying and wall support standing, quadruped and supine, sitting and supine, as well as wall support standing and supine (p<0.05). Conclusions: When abdominal drawing-in using pressure biofeedback unit is performed for stabilization exercises, selecting and applying specific postures according to targeted muscles and the subject's functional ability will help provide a more efficient and accurate intervention.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제30권6호
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• pp.601-612
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• 2022

The prediction of structural mechanical behaviors is vital important to early perceive the abnormal conditions and avoid the occurrence of disasters. Especially for underground engineering, complex geological conditions make the structure more prone to disasters. Aiming at solving the problems existing in previous studies, such as incomplete consideration factors and can only predict the continuous performance, the deep attention fused temporal convolution network (DATCN) is proposed in this paper to predict the spatial mechanical behaviors of structure, which integrates both the temporal effect and spatial effect and realize the cross-time prediction. The temporal convolution network (TCN) and self-attention mechanism are employed to learn the temporal correlation of each monitoring point and the spatial correlation among different points, respectively. Then, the predicted result obtained from DATCN is compared with that obtained from some classical baselines, including SVR, LR, MLP, and RNNs. Also, the parameters involved in DATCN are discussed to optimize the prediction ability. The prediction result demonstrates that the proposed DATCN model outperforms the state-of-the-art baselines. The prediction accuracy of DATCN model after 24 hours reaches 90 percent. Also, the performance in last 14 hours plays a domain role to predict the short-term behaviors of the structure. As a study case, the proposed model is applied in an underwater shield tunnel to predict the stress variation of concrete segments in space.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제85권2호
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• pp.197-206
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• 2023

The deterioration caused by chloride penetration and carbonation plays a significant role in a concrete structure in a marine environment. The chloride corrosion in some marine concrete structures is invisible but can be dangerous in a sudden collapse. Therefore, as a novelty, this research investigates the ability of a non-destructive damage detection method named the Power Spectral Density (PSD) to diagnose damages caused only by chloride ions in concrete structures. Furthermore, the accuracy of this method in estimating the amount of annual damage caused by chloride in various parts and positions exposed to seawater was investigated. For this purpose, the RC Arosa bridge in Spain, which connects the island to the mainland via seawater, was numerically modeled and analyzed. As the first step, each element's bridge position was calculated, along with the chloride corrosion percentage in the reinforcements. The next step predicted the existence, location, and timing of damage to the entire concrete part of the bridge based on the amount of rebar corrosion each year. The PSD method was used to monitor the annual loss of reinforcement cross-section area, changes in dynamic characteristics such as stiffness and mass, and each year of the bridge structure's life using sensitivity equations and the linear least squares algorithm. This study showed that using different approaches to the PSD method based on rebar chloride corrosion and assuming 10% errors in software analysis can help predict the location and almost exact amount of damage zones over time.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제56권1호
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• pp.41-49
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• 2023

Objectives: Rwanda reported a stunting rate of 33% in 2020, decreasing from 38% in 2015; however, stunting remains an issue. Globally, child deaths from malnutrition stand at 45%. The best options for the early detection and treatment of stunting should be made a community policy priority, and health services remain an issue. Hence, this research aimed to develop a model for predicting stunting in Rwandan children. Methods: The Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey 2019-2020 was used as secondary data. Stratified 10-fold cross-validation was used, and different machine learning classifiers were trained to predict stunting status. The prediction models were compared using different metrics, and the best model was chosen. Results: The best model was developed with the gradient boosting classifier algorithm, with a training accuracy of 80.49% based on the performance indicators of several models. Based on a confusion matrix, the test accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and F1 were calculated, yielding the model's ability to classify stunting cases correctly at 79.33%, identify stunted children accurately at 72.51%, and categorize non-stunted children correctly at 94.49%, with an area under the curve of 0.89. The model found that the mother's height, television, the child's age, province, mother's education, birth weight, and childbirth size were the most important predictors of stunting status. Conclusions: Therefore, machine-learning techniques may be used in Rwanda to construct an accurate model that can detect the early stages of stunting and offer the best predictive attributes to help prevent and control stunting in under five Rwandan children.

• 대한의생명과학회지
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• 제29권4호
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• pp.249-255
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• 2023

Transporting clinical samples for microbiological testing requires a proper transport medium that guarantees the survival of microorganisms. Therefore, the aim of the study was to determine the ability of Amies Transport Medium (ATM) to maintain the viability of microorganisms in clinical specimens and its suitability as a transport medium for microbiological testing. This study evaluated the performance of swab provided by KS Co., Ltd. for three groups of bacteria comprising aerobic and facultative anaerobic bacteria, anaerobic bacteria, and fastidious bacteria, according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute (CLSI) 8.11.2. The ATM stability test was conducted by dividing the medium into two groups based on the product expiration date of use. All tested media, A and B (the date of manufacture and expiration date are different) showed ≥5 CFU, and there was no significant difference in the result values of Category A and Category B with different serial numbers for each test. The results of this experiment when cross-checked with the guidelines suggest that ATM is a suitable transport medium for microbiological testing, as it maintains the viability of microorganisms and is suitable for overgrowth trials. In addition, compared to the number of CFUs at the origin, the number of CFUs did not increase by more than 1 log after storage. These results have important implications for the development of transport media that can guarantee the survival of microorganisms in clinical specimens.

• 유통과학연구
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• 제22권2호
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• pp.71-82
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• 2024

Purpose: Despite significant research on decision-making, researchers struggle to comprehend the decision-making process. This paper aims to not only examine the relationship between problem-solving skills, cognitive competency, and decision-making but also develop measurement instruments for cognitive competency and problem-solving skills to better model decision-making. Research Design, Methodology and Approach: A cross-sectional study was conducted by surveying 292 university students in HCM City, Vietnam, via email sent randomly by Google Forms. This study identifies the conceptual framework and tests the hypotheses using a deductive approach. The SPSS program was used to evaluate the scales' reliability, and the SmartPLS program was used to assess the measurement and structural models. Results: The results show that the research model better modelled the relationship between problem-solving skills, cognitive competency, and decision-making. Although thinking ability has no direct impact on decision-making, both creativity and problem-solving skills have a positive impact on decision-making. The mediating role of problem-solving skills is also determined by the positive relationship between cognitive competency and decision-making. Conclusions: This study highlights decision-making efficiency through the cognitive process from low to high levels and provides for policymakers and managers to explain the decision-making process in a variety of sectors, such as distribution chains, marketing, and human resource distribution.

• 의료ㆍ복지 건축 : 한국의료복지건축학회 논문집
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• 제30권2호
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• pp.15-22
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• 2024

Purpose: In general, cross-infection caused by bacteria occurs more in hospitals than in local communities. In most cases, infectious diseases spread through contact transmission (direct contact, indirect contact). This study tries to examine which places are most likely to detect infections bacteria and what materials should be used to effectively suppress the spread of infectious bacteria. Methods: Domestic and international literature have been reviewed to determine which bacteria are common and spread in which places. At the same time, antibacterial experiments for several finishing materials are performed to determine the survival period of bacteria for each material. The experiment is conducted mainly on antibiotic-resistant bacteria (MRSA, CRE, etc.) that have a high mortality rate and are very contagious. Results: MRSA has a high incidence in many hospital departments with surgery or immunocompromised patients, such as the elderly, organ transplant patients, and hemodialysis patients. There are experimental results that MRSA dies early in ceramics or silk wallpaper. CRE has a high incidence in hospital departments where there are many patients who are prone to bacteria entering the body directly, such as ventilator patients or critically ill patients with surgical wounds. There are experimental results that CRE dies early in silk wallpaper. In addition, bacteria die on the surface for a variety of reasons. Most MRSA and CRE develop in patients with impaired immunity or surgery, and rapidly die in copper or materials with antibacterial properties. Implications: If finishing materials surface with the ability to kill specific bacteria is used in the place where a large number of specific bacteria are detected, the spread of infectious diseases can be effectively controlled.

• 한국전자통신학회논문지
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• 제19권3호
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• pp.531-538
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• 2024

수질 환경의 중요성이 강조되고 있는 가운데 광주광역시 도시 하천의 수질개선을 위한 수질 지표는 수생 생태계에 영향을 미치는 중요한 요소로 정확한 예측이 필요하다. 본 연구에서는 XGBoost와 LightGBM 머신러닝 알고리즘을 활용하여 광주천의 중요한 지점인 하류 평촌교(PyeongchonBr)와 상류 방학교(BangHakBr_Gwangjucheon1) 수계의 수질 검사 항목 중 통계적 검증 결과 유의미한 항목인 질소(TN), 질산염(NO3), 암모니아 양(NH3) 세 가지 수질 지표를 예측하는 연구를 수행하였고, 회귀 모델 평가 지표인 RMSE를 이용하여 예측 모델의 성능을 평가하였다. 수계별 개별적인 모델을 구현하여 교차 검증 후 성능을 비교한 결과, XGBoost 모델이 뛰어난 예측 능력을 보였다

• 대한지역사회영양학회지
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• 제29권1호
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• pp.1-15
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• 2024

Objectives: This study investigated the need for nutrition education aimed at improving the health of residents and users of social welfare facilities for persons with disability and aimed to provide basic information for developing a nutrition education program that meets the needs of the field. Methods: Altogether, 249 employees working in social welfare facilities for people with disabilities were included in the study. Data on the health status of residents/users, meal management, nutritional education, nutritional education needs, and awareness of nutritional education were obtained through online surveys. A descriptive analysis was conducted to analyze the demographic characteristics, needs, and perceptions of the respondents, and independent t-tests and χ² tests were performed to analyze and compare the differences between residential and daycare facilities. Results: The majority of residents/users of social welfare facilities for persons with disabilities have developmental disabilities. When educating residents with residents/users of social welfare facilities, 'personal hygiene' was the most necessary topic, followed by 'obesity management' education. Regarding the methods of providing education, face-to-face lectures demonstrated a high demand. They responded that when nutrition education experts provide nutrition education to people with disabilities, they must understand 'the physical characteristics of persons with disabilities' and have the ability to determine appropriate nutrition for such people. The most appropriate nutrition program training would be twice a year, lasting 30 min to 1 h per training session. Conclusions: It will present a direction for operating a nutrition education program for persons with disabilities that meets their needs of social welfare facilities and ultimately contribute to the establishment and activation of nutrition education tailored to welfare facilities for such individuals in Korea.

• 대한영상의학회지
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• 제85권2호
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• pp.270-296
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• 2024

관상동맥 CT 조영술은 높은 정확도로 유의한 관상동맥 협착을 발견할 수 있어 관상동맥 질환이 의심되는 환자들에서 침습적 관상동맥 조영술의 문지기로서의 역할을 인정받고 있다. 그러나 관상동맥에 과도한 석회화 경화반이 있으면 내강을 시각화하기 어려워 영상의 해석에 오류를 초래할 수 있다. 이는 주로 CT 스캐너의 제한적인 공간 해상도로 인해 석회화 경화반에 의한 번짐허상이 발생하기 때문이다. 그럼에도 불구하고, 높은 칼슘 점수를 보이는 CT 영상에서 관상동맥 협착을 평가해야 하는 상황을 종종 마주한다. 이러한 한계를 극복하기 위한 기술적인 방법으로 고해상도 CT 스캐너의 도입, 새로운 재구성 기법 및 후처리 기술의 개발, 감산기법 등이 있으며, 판독에 도움이 되는 방법으로 적절한 창너비 및 창높이의 설정, 혈관의 단면 영상에서 석회화 경화반의 범위 및 내강의 잔류 가시성 평가 등이 권고된다.