• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• 제45권4호
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• pp.53.1-53.11
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• 2020

Objectives: This study investigated the incidence of root dentin defects after the use of different post space preparation (PSP) drills. Materials and Methods: Seventy-two bovine incisors were selected and obtained 14-mm-long root sections. Twelve roots served as controls with no intervention (G1). The 60 root canals remaining were instrumented using the crown-down technique with the ProTaper Next system and obturated using the lateral condensation technique. Specimens were randomly distributed into 5 groups (n = 12) according to the operative steps performed: G2, root canal instrumentation and filling (I+F); G3, I+F and PSP with Gates-Glidden drills; G4, I+FI+F and PSP with Largo-Peeso reamers; G5, I+F and PSP with Exacto drill; and G6, I+F and PSP with WhitePost drill. Roots were sectioned at 3, 6, 9, and 12 mm from the apex, and digital images were captured. The presence of root dentin defects was recorded. Data were analyzed by the χ² test, with p < 0.05 considered to indicate statistical significance. Results: Root dentin defects were observed in 39.6% of the root sections. No defects were observed in G1. G5 had significantly more cracks and craze lines than G1, G2, and G3 (p < 0.05), and more fractures than G1, G2, G3, and G4 (p < 0.05). When all root sections were analyzed together, significantly more defects were observed at the 12-mm level than at the 3-mm level (p < 0.05). Conclusions: PSP drills caused defects in the root dentin. Gates-Glidden drills caused fewer root defects than Largo-Peeso reamers and Exacto drills.

• 한국수산과학회지
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• 제57권1호
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• pp.41-52
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• 2024

Serotransferrin cDNA from the Siberian sturgeon Acipenser baerii was isolated and its expression patterns during early life intervals were characterized. It contained an ORF encoding a 708-aa-long polypeptide, including a 19-aa signal peptide. Bioinfomatic analysis and 3D modeling indicated a typical bi-lobal structure with conserved iron-coordinating residues. During embryonic development, the potential transition of maternally provisioned transcripts to zygotically de novo transcribed ones occurred around blastula stage. The transferrin mRNA levels peaked at stages responsible for pronephros, heart and erythropoietic component differentiation. After hatching, the transferrin mRNA expression gradually increased at early ontogenic phases (0 to 3 DPH) corresponding to the periods in which prolarvae exhibited increased blood circulation and liver differentiation. The expression decreased at subsequent stages in which prolarvae exhibited benthic movement. The tissue distribution assay indicated liver-predominant expression at fingerling stage. From the microinjection-based challenge with Aeromonas hydrophila at day-0 and day-7, the transcriptional response was modulated toward upregulation, in which the amounts induced at 6, 12 and 24 HPI were greater in prolarvae injected at day-7 than at day-0. Therefore, transferrin plays important roles in both early development and host protective responses to pathogens in the Siberian sturgeon.

• The Korean journal of internal medicine
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• 제39권2호
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• pp.248-260
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• 2024

Background/Aims: The model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) serves as an indicator for short-term mortality among patients diagnosed with liver cirrhosis (LC) and is used to prioritize patients for liver transplantation. In 2021, the updated version of MELD, MELD-3.0, was introduced to improve the accuracy of the mortality prediction of MELD. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the efficacy of MELD 3.0 and MELD-Na in predicting mortality among Korean patients with LC. Methods: A retrospective review was conducted using the medical records of patients diagnosed with LC who were admitted to Konkuk University Hospital From 2011 to 2021. The study calculated the predictive values of MELD-Na and MELD-3.0 for 3- and 6-months mortality using the area under the receiver operating curve (AUROC) and compared the results using the DeLong test. Results: Of the 3,034 patients enrolled in the study, 339 (11.2%) died within 3 months and 421 (14.4%) died within 6 months. The AUROCs values for predicting 3 months mortality were 0.846 for MELD-Na and 0.851 for MELD-3.0. The corresponding AUROC values for predicting 6 months mortality were 0.843 for MELD-Na and 0.848 for MELD-3.0. MELD-3.0 exhibited better discrimination ability than MELD-Na for both 3 (p = 0.03) and 6 months mortality (p = 0.01). Conclusions: Our study found a significant difference between the performance of MELD-3.0 and MELD-Na in Korean patients with LC.

• The Korean journal of internal medicine
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• 제39권3호
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• pp.430-438
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• 2024

Background/Aims: A poor prognostic factor for Crohn's disease (CD) includes perianal fistulizing disease, including perianal fistula and/or perianal abscess. Currently, a tool to assess perianal symptoms in patients with CD remains nonexistent. This study aimed to develop a perianal fistulizing disease self-screening questionnaire for patients with CD. Methods: This prospective pilot study was conducted at three tertiary referral centers between January 2019 and May 2020. We formulated questions on perianal symptoms, including tenesmus, anal discharge, bleeding, pain, and heat. A 4-point Likert scale was used to rate each question. Patients with CD completed a questionnaire and underwent pelvic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Results: Overall, 93 patients were enrolled, with 51 (54.8%) diagnosed with perianal fistulizing disease, as determined by pelvic MRI. The Spearman correlation findings demonstrated that anal pain (p = 0.450, p < 0.001) and anal discharge (p = 0.556, p < 0.001) were the symptoms that most significantly correlated with perianal disease. For anal pain and discharge, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the scores was significantly higher than that of the combined score for all five symptoms (0.855 vs. 0.794, DeLong's test p = 0.04). For the two symptoms combined, the sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive and negative predictive values were 88.2, 73.8, 80.4, and 83.8%, respectively, with 81.7% accuracy for detecting perianal fistulizing disease. Conclusions: This study indicates that simple questions regarding anal pain and discharge can help accurately identify the presence of perianal fistulizing disease in patients with CD.

• Korean Circulation Journal
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• 제54권3호
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• pp.113-123
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• 2024

Background and Objectives: Previous studies have reported an association between impaired renal function and poor outcomes after radiofrequency catheter ablation in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). However, outcomes of cryoballoon ablation (CBA) in patients with renal insufficiency are not fully elucidated. This study aimed to compare outcomes of CBA in AF patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) versus those without CKD and to assess changes in renal function over 12 months following CBA. Methods: A total of 839 patients (65.1% with non-paroxysmal AF [PAF]) who underwent de novo CBA were prospectively enrolled. We divided patients into two groups based on creatinine clearance rate (CCr) and performed intracardiac echocardiography (ICE)-guided contrast agent-free CBA. Results: In comparison with patients without CKD (CCr >50, n=722), those with CKD (CCr ≤50, n=117) were older and predominantly female, had a lower body mass index, and showed a higher prevalence of heart failure and hypertension. Mean CHA₂DS₂-VAS score was significantly higher in CKD group than in non-CKD group. Procedure-related complications were not significantly different between two groups. During a mean follow-up period of 25.4±11.9 months, clinical recurrence occurred in 182 patients (21.7%) and not significantly different between two groups. In multivariate analysis, non-PAF and left atrial size were independent predictors of AF recurrence. CCr levels significantly improved over 12 months after CBA in CKD group. Conclusions: ICE-guided contrast-agent-free CBA showed comparable long-term clinical outcomes without increasing procedure-related complications and improvement of renal function over 12 months following CBA in AF patients with CKD.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제15권2호
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• pp.213-219
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• 2024

Background: The design, implementation, and evaluation are three important stages of occupational safety and health (OSH) interventions. Historically, there has been a tendency to prioritize implementation, often neglecting detailed design and rigorous outcome evaluation. Currently, much has changed, and contemporary approaches recognize the interdependence of these stages, considering them integral to the success of any intervention. This work presents a comprehensive procedure for implementing interventions, not only to ensure short-term effectiveness but also their long-term sustainability through continuous monitoring. The focus is on a national OSH project introducing a near-miss management system (NMS) in Italy. Methods: Initial meetings were convened among project partners, complemented by interviews with diverse stakeholders, to plan implementation steps and test the NMS. Tailored questionnaires were designed for diverse stakeholder groups - initial promoters, company managers and employers, and employees - facilitating targeted implementation, and three case studies were started in Italian regions to assess the structured implementation, involving intervention promoters and collaborating companies. Results: The primary outcome is the development of practical tools, specifically three questionnaires, which are considered valuable for establishing an effective human-centered implementation strategy, meticulously designed to facilitate ongoing monitoring of processes and continual enhancement of instruments intended for NMS integration within companies. Conclusions: This work lays the foundation for successful NMS implementation in Italy and, although the outlined procedure had specific objectives, it also provides valuable insights applicable in enhancing the effectiveness and sustainability of interventions across diverse contexts. It underscores the importance of comprehensive planning, stakeholder engagement, and continuous evaluation in achieving lasting OSH interventions.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제26권1호
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• pp.65-71
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• 2013

Two digestion trials, one with sheep and another with goats, were conducted to evaluate the long-term bias (LTB) of the indigestible dry matter (iDM), indigestible neutral detergent fiber (iNDF) and indigestible acid detergent fiber (iADF) internal markers. The study used eight Santa In$\hat{e}$s castrated male sheep (average body weight of 16.6 kg) distributed in two $4{\times}4$ Latin squares and eight Saanen castrated male goats (average body weight of 22.6 kg) distributed in two $4{\times}4$ Latin squares. The experiments were conducted simultaneously, and the animals were housed in 1.2 $m^2$ individual pens with wood-battened floors equipped with individual feeders and drinkers. The animals received isonitrogenous diets that were offered ad libitum and contained 14% crude protein and 70% sugar cane (with 0, 0.75, 1.5 or 2.25% CaO, in natural matter percentage), corrected with 1% urea and 30% concentrate. The experiment consisted of four experimental periods of 14 d each, with the feed, leftovers and feces sampled on the last four days of each period. The marker concentrations in the feed, leftovers and fecal samples were estimated by an in situ ruminal incubation procedure with a duration 240 h. The relationship between the intake and excretion of the markers was obtained by adjusting a simple linear regression model, independently from the treatment (diets) fixed effects and Latin squares. For both the sheep and goats, a complete recovery of the iDM and iNDF markers was observed (p>0.05), indicating the absence of LTB for these markers. However, the iADF was not completely recovered, exhibiting an LTB of -9.12% (p<0.05) in the sheep evaluation and -3.02% (p<0.05) in the goat evaluation.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제25권4호
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• pp.487-499
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• 2020

This paper proposes a novel approach to model updating for a large-scale cable-stayed bridge based on ambient vibration tests coupled with a hybrid metaheuristic search algorithm. Vibration measurements are carried out under excitation sources of passing vehicles and wind. Based on the measured structural dynamic characteristics, a finite element (FE) model is updated. For long-span bridges, ambient vibration test (AVT) is the most effective vibration testing technique because ambient excitation is freely available, whereas a forced vibration test (FVT) requires considerable efforts to install actuators such as shakers to produce measurable responses. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a famous metaheuristic algorithm applied successfully in numerous fields over the last decades. However, PSO has big drawbacks that may decrease its efficiency in tackling the optimization problems. A possible drawback of PSO is premature convergence leading to low convergence level, particularly in complicated multi-peak search issues. On the other hand, PSO not only depends crucially on the quality of initial populations, but also it is impossible to improve the quality of new generations. If the positions of initial particles are far from the global best, it may be difficult to seek the best solution. To overcome the drawbacks of PSO, we propose a hybrid algorithm combining GA with an improved PSO (HGAIPSO). Two striking characteristics of HGAIPSO are briefly described as follows: (1) because of possessing crossover and mutation operators, GA is applied to generate the initial elite populations and (2) those populations are then employed to seek the best solution based on the global search capacity of IPSO that can tackle the problem of premature convergence of PSO. The results show that HGAIPSO not only identifies uncertain parameters of the considered bridge accurately, but also outperforms than PSO, improved PSO (IPSO), and a combination of GA and PSO (HGAPSO) in terms of convergence level and accuracy.

• 전자공학회논문지
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• 제54권8호
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• pp.26-33
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• 2017

차량통신은 도로 위 차량들 간의 효율적인 조정을 가능하게 할 수 있을 뿐만 아니라, 더 나아가 미래 차량의 어플리케이션으로 차량 안전, 인포테인먼트 그리고 자율 주행까지도 다룰 수 있다. 3GPP(3rd Generation Partnership Project)에서는 LTE(Long Term Evolution) 기반 차량 통신에 대한 표준화 연구가 활발히 진행되고 있다. 차량 통신은 안전과 밀접한 관련이 있기 때문에, 낮은 지연과 높은 신뢰성을 필요로 한다. 하지만 차량의 빠른 이동성으로 인해 V2V(Vehicle-to-Vehicle) 환경은 채널 왜곡이 매우 심하며, 높은 신뢰성의 차량 통신을 위해서 채널 추정이 매우 중요한 요소임을 알 수 있다. 이를 위해 본 논문에서는 LTE 기반 V2V 환경에서 채널 추정 기법을 제안한다. LTE 기반 업링크 시스템에서 채널 추정은 파일럿 심볼인 DMRS(DeModulation Reference Signal)를 이용한다. 기존 채널 추정 기법으로는 LS(Least Square), DDCE(Decision Directed Channel Estimation), STA(Spectral Temporal Averaging), 그리고 Smoothing이 있다. 본 논문에서는 기존의 채널 추정 기법들과 달리 파일럿 심볼에서 QS(Quadratic Smoothing)를 이용해 보다도 정확한 채널을 추정하며, 데이터 심볼에서 적응적으로 채널을 추정하는 ASCE(Adaptive Smoothing Channel Estimation) 기법을 제안한다. 모의실험 결과, 제안한 ASCE 기법이 NMSE(Normalized Mean Square Error)와 BER(Bit Error Rate) 측면에서 전체적으로 성능이 향상 된 것을 볼 수 있다.

• 한국작물학회지
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• 제35권1호
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• pp.44-52
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• 1990

돼지감자의 괴경반식 대신 종자반식에 의해서 건전한 유묘와 식물체를 육성함으로써 돼지감자 유전소재의 수집과 보존 및 개량에 종자반식을 이용하고자 하였다. 이를 위하여 국내외에서 수집한 9종(Mammoth French White, D-19, JA6, K-8, JA 13, Violet de Renne, Medius, Nahodka, Fuseau 60) 돼지감자 화기에서 종자를 채취하여 종피제거 방법에 의해 종자휴면을 타파한 후 종자로부터 발아유도되어 발생한 유묘의 생육특성을 조사하였으며 최종적으로 종자반식에 의한 바이오매스 생산성을 괴경반식에 의한 경우와 비교하여 다음의 결과를 얻었다. 1. 돼지감자 휴면종자는 종피제거방법에 의해 완전한 발아유도가 가능하였다. 2. 종자에서 발생한 유묘는 왜성형태를 유지하며 동시에 하배축을 비대시켜 하배축을 증대시켜 생리적 왜성(physiolo-gical dwarfing)의 특성으로 발현되는 경우가 겨울동안 온실에서 육묘한 경우에 한하여 나타났다. 3. 종자에서 발생한 유묘의 생리적 왜성은 JA6 품종의 경우 유묘령과 무관하게 12시간 미만의 단일에 감응하여 나타난 결과이었다. 4. 일단 발현된 유묘의 생리적 왜성은 생육기간동안 일장이 증가함에 따라 정상 식물체로 회복되었다. 5. 종자반식에 의한 육묘이식 재배시 괴경수량은 3.51 ton/10a으로 괴경반식에 의한 경우 3.02ton/10a에 비교하여 오히려 많았다. 6. 종자를 직접파종하였을 때 괴경수량은 괴경반식에 의한 경우의 52%에 불과하였다.