• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.671-676
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• 2014

It is known that bones get damaged by accidents and aging. Since the discovery of Bioglass, various kinds of ceramics have been also found to bond to living bone; some of these ceramics are already being clinically used as bone-repairing materials. In the present study, antibacterial calcium silicate gel ($Ag-30CaO{\cdot}70SiO_2$ gel) was prepared by sol-gel method in order to control the microstructure, which is related to the dissolution rate and induction period of apatite formation in body environment. In addition, biological $Ag-30CaO{\cdot}70SiO_2$ is tested. This was done to impart antimicrobial activity to the $30CaO{\cdot}70SiO_2$. Ag ion was added during sol-gel synthesis to replace the $H_2O$ added during the making of the $30CaO{\cdot}70SiO_2$ gel, which has silver solutions of various concentration. After the sol-gel process, 1N-$HNO_3$ solution was used to wash the gel when synthesizing the gel, in order to maintain the porous structure and remove PEG, water soluble polymers. Then, the apatite forming ability of the sol-gel derived CaO-$SiO_2$ gels was investigated using simulated body fluid (SBF), which had almost the same ion concentration as that of human blood plasma. The gels were analyzed by FT-IR spectroscopy, SEM observation, XRD, and fluorescent microscopy. The apatite was successfully created even after washing the gel; apatite is present in an amorphous state, and was found to affect the concentration of the Ag ion in cells in MC3T3 live & dead assay results. From these results, it is suggested that a good material that can be used to repair defects of nature bone is $Ag-30CaO{\cdot}70SiO_2$ gel.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.545-554
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• 2011

In this study, the parameters of Polysomnography (PSG) test, such as total sleep time, snoring time, had been analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness of a developed anti-snore pillow. The developed anti-snore pillow is made up of two polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) vibration sensors, pumps, valves, and air bladders. The two PVDF sensors inside the pillow can acquire the sound signals and the algorithm was perfectly designed to extract snoring by removing unwanted noise accurately and automatically. Once the pillow recognizes snore, a pump inside the hardware activates, and a bladder under the neck area inside the pillow will be inflated. The PSG test was used and two volunteers were participated for the study. The parameters of the PSG results were analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness of the anti-snore pillow. The total sleep time of each volunteer was similar on each phase of test, but the snoring time and the longest snoring episode were significantly decreased with the use of anti-snore pillow. The overall results showed excellent possibilities for reducing snoring for the person who snores during sleep by using the anti-snore pillow. The effectiveness of the anti-snore pillow can be evaluated by the PSG test. Moreover, the relationship between each parameter of PSG test and the quality of sleep will be used for further researches.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.893-899
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• 2004

Even though Ti-6Al-4V has gained popularity as an implant material, the possible dissolution of Al and V ions in body fluids remains a matter of concern. Though commercially pure Ti (Cp-Ti) overcomes this problem, the mechanical strength of pure titanium remains very low. Thus, in this experiment Cp-Ti was processed by Equal channel angular processing (ECAP), in order to increase the mechanical strength. The biocompatibility of ECAP-Ti, Cp-Ti and Ti-6Al-4V was examined by the apatite formation on each sample surface, after treating the surface with 5M NaOH and soaking in Simulated body fluids (SBF). Initially, the samples were mechanically polished on silicone carbide paper (#2000). The polished samples were treated with 5M NaOH solution at $60^{\circ}C$ for 24 hours. The NaOH treated samples were washed gently with distill water and dried at $40^{\circ}C$ for 1 day. The dried samples were heat treated in air at $600^{\circ}C$ for 1 hour. The surface morphology of these samples were studied using SEM and XRD. The SEM studies showed network of pores in all samples. The XRD showed oxide layer formation on Cp-Ti and Ti-6Al-4V. samples. However the oxide layer in ECAP-Ti was not substantial. These samples were immersed in SBF, kept at $36.5^{\circ}C$ for seven days period. At the end of 7 days, the apatite formation was confirmed only on Cp-Ti and was not observed in Ti-6Al-4V and ECAP-Ti. These observations of apatite formation relate to the fact that Cp-Ti showed greater oxide layer than other samples. The apatite examined was confirmed as tricalcium phosphate (TCP) using EDS and XRD.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.29-38
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• 2012

The noise generated in the process of obtaining the medical image acts as the element obstructing the image interpretation and diagnosis. To restore the true image from the image polluted from the noise, the total variation optimization algorithm was proposed by the R.O. F (L.Rudin, S Osher, E. Fatemi). This method removes the noise by fitting the balance of the regularity and fidelity. However, the blurring phenomenon of the border area generated in the process of performing the iterative operation cannot be avoided. In this paper, we propose the adaptive total variation method by mapping the control parameter to the proposed transfer function for minimizing boundary error. The proposed transfer function is determined by the noise variance and the local property of the image. The proposed method was applied to 464 tooth images. To evaluate proposed method performance, PSNR which is a indicator of signal and noise's signal power ratio was used. The experimental results show that the proposed method has better performance than other methods.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.175-183
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• 2005

Dose distribution of Korean radiation workers classified by occupational categories was analyzed. Statistics of the occupational radiation exposure(ORE) in 2002 of the radiation workers in diagnostic and dental radiology were obtained from the Korea Food and Drug Agency(KFDA) who maintains the database for individual radiation dose records. Corresponding statistics for the rest of radiation workers were obtained by processing the individual annual doses provided by the Korea Radioisotope Association(KRIA) after deletion of individual information. The ORE distribution was classified in term of 28 occupational categories, annual individual dose levels, age groups and gender of 52733 radiation workers as of the year of 2002. The total collective dose was 66.4 man-Sv and resulting average individual ORE was 1.26 mSv. Around 80% of the workers were exposed to minimal doses less than 1.2 mSv. However, it appeared that the recorded doses exceeded 20 mSv for 43 workers in the industrial radiography and for 147 workers in the field of radiology. Particularly, recorded doses of 23 workers in radiology exceeded the annual dose limits of 50 mSv, which is extraordinary when the working environment is considered. It is uncertain whether those doses are real or caused by careless placing of dosimeters in the imaging rooms while the X-ray units are in operation. No one in the workforce of 16 operating nuclear power plant units was exposed over 20 mSv in 2002. Number of workers was the largest in their 30's of age and the mean individual dose was the highest in their 20's. Women were around 20% of the radiation workers and their average dose was around one half of that of man workers.

• Implantology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.120-138
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to review the outcomes of a series of studies on tissue regeneration conducted in multiple institutions including the Department of Periodontology, College of Dentistry, Yonsei University. Materials and Methods: Studies were performed divided into the following three subjects; 1) Development of three-dimensional nano-hydroxyapatite (n-HA) scaffold for facilitating drug release and cell adhesion. 2) Synergistic effects of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSC) application simultaneously with platelet-rich plasma (PRP) on HA scaffolds. 3) The efficacy of silk scaffolds coated with n-HA. Also, all results were analyzed by subjects. Results: Hollow hydroxyapatite spherical granules were found to be a useful tool for the drug release and avidin-biotin binding system for cell attachment. Also, BMMSC simultaneously with PRP applied in an animal bone defect model was seen to be more synergistic than in the control group. But, the efficacy of periodontal ligament cells and dental pulp cells with silk scaffolds could not be confirmed in the initial phase of bone healing. Conclusion: The ideal combination of three elements of tissue engineering-scaffolds, cells and signaling molecules could be substantiated due to further investigations with the potentials and limitations of the suggested list of studies.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.95-104
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• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether increasing the Ti6Al4V surface oxide negative charge through heat ($600^{\circ}C$) or radiofrequency plasma glow discharge (RFGD) pretreatment, with or without a subsequent coating with fibronectin, stimulated osteoblast gene marker expression in the MC3T3 osteoprogenitor cell line. Methods: Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to measure changes over time in the mRNA levels for osteoblast gene markers, including alkaline phosphatase, bone sialoprotein, collagen type I (${\alpha}1$), osteocalcin, osteopontin and parathyroid hormone-related peptide (PTH-rP), and the osteoblast precursor genes Runx2 and osterix. Results: Osteoprogenitors began to differentiate earlier on disks that were pretreated with heat or RFGD. The pretreatments increased gene marker expression in the absence of a fibronectin coating. However, pretreatments increased osteoblast gene expression for fibronectin-coated disks more than uncoated disks, suggesting a surface oxide-mediated specific enhancement of fibronectin's bioactivity. Heat pretreatment had greater effects on the mRNA expression of genes for PTH-rP, alkaline phosphatase and osteocalcin while RFGD pretreatment had greater effects on osteopontin and bone sialoprotein gene expression. Conclusions: The results suggest that heat and RFGD pretreatments of the Ti6Al4V surface oxide stimulated osteoblast differentiation through an enhancement of (a) coated fibronectin's bioactivity and (b) the bioactivities of other serum or matrix proteins. The quantitative differences in the effects of the two pretreatments on osteoblast gene marker expression may have arisen from the unique physico-chemical characteristics of each resultant oxide surface. Therefore, engineering the Ti6Al4V surface oxide to become more negatively charged can be used to accelerate osteoblast differentiation through fibronectin-dependent and independent mechanisms.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.18 no.9
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• pp.177-187
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• 2013

Association rule mining is a popular data mining technique with a wide range of application domains, and aims to extract the cause-and-effect relations between the discrete items included in transaction data. However, analysts sometimes have trouble in interpreting and using the plethora of association rules extracted from a large amount of data. To address this problem, this paper aims to propose a novel approach called HTM for extracting the interesting association rules from given transaction data. The HTM approach consists of three main steps, hierarchical clustering, table-view, and mosaic plot, and each step provides the analysts with appropriate visual representation. For illustration, we applied our approach for analyzing the mass health examination data, and the result of this experiment reveals that the HTM approach help the analysts to find the interesting association rules in more effective way.

• The Journal of Advanced Prosthodontics
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.8-17
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• 2018

PURPOSE. The study aimed to identify the accuracy and reproducibility of preparations made by gypsum materials of various colors using quantitative and semi-quantitative three-dimensional (3D) approach. MATERIALS AND METHODS. A titanium maxillary first molar preparation was created as reference dataset (REF). Silicone impressions were duplicated from REF and randomized into 6 groups (n=8). Gypsum preparations were formed and grouped according to the color of gypsum materials, and light-scanned to obtain prepared datasets (PRE). Then, in terms of accuracy, PRE were superimposed on REF using the best-fit-algorithm and PRE underwent intragroup pairwise best-fit alignment for assessing reproducibility. Root mean square deviation (RMSD) and degrees of similarity (DS) were computed and analyzed with SPSS 20.0 statistical software (${\alpha}=.05$). RESULTS. In terms of accuracy, PREs in 3D directions were increased in the 6 color groups (from 19.38 to $20.88{\mu}m$), of which the marginal and internal variations ranged $51.36-58.26{\mu}m$ and $18.33-20.04{\mu}m$, respectively. On the other hand, RMSD value and DS-scores did not show significant differences among groups. Regarding reproducibility, both RMSD and DS-scores showed statistically significant differences among groups, while RMSD values of the 6 color groups were less than $5{\mu}m$, of which blue color group was the smallest ($3.27{\pm}0.24{\mu}m$) and white color group was the largest ($4.24{\pm}0.36{\mu}m$). These results were consistent with the DS data. CONCLUSION. The 3D volume of the PREs was predisposed towards an increase during digitalization, which was unaffected by gypsum color. Furthermore, the reproducibility of digitalizing scanning differed negligibly among different gypsum colors, especially in comparison to clinically observed discrepancies.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.75-80
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• 2016

Distraction osteogenesis is applied to correct mandible or maxilla deformities. Owing to the distractor being away from the skin, it is not aesthetic. Infection can arise due to manual part. And therefore, it is necessary to make the distractor using a new mechanism. 3D software was used for the intraoral distractor modeling. 3D meshes were used to analyze the stress distribution of the distractor was analyzed using Finite element analysis software. This research developed a intraoral distractor for continuous mandible distraction through convergence study. Base on the results, it provide helpful data for future version of the wireless intraoral distractor in other fields of bio and medical engineering.