• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.325-330
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• 2010

Introduction: Mini-implant system is applicable to areas of narrow space and area requiring temporary loading support. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcome of a mini-implant system as well as the application of mini-implant system in the dental clinical field. Materials and Methods: The patients who had been operated from Jan 2007 to Dec 2007 in the four dental facility including Seoul National University Bundang Hospital were enrolled. To evaluate the factors associated with the clinical outcome, the patients were classified according to gender, age, area of surgery, type of implant, diameter and length of the implant, and the purpose of the mini-implant system application. Results: From 147 implants, only three implants failed, one of them was for temporary loading. There were no serious surgical or prosthetic complications in this study. Conclusion: An analysis of the preliminary data revealed a satisfactory clinical outcome. However, more long-term evaluation of narrow ridge type as well as the patient’s satisfaction on the use of a provisional type mini-implant system is needed.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.29 no.11
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• pp.1125-1139
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• 2020

This study investigated the distributional pattern of meiobenthos associated with future deep-sea mining in the Korea Deep Ocean Study area present in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone (CCFZ) located in the southeastern part of the North Pacific Ocean. Standing stocks of meiobenthos were investigated in benthic impact experiment sites (BIS) and Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology long-term monitoring (KOMO) sites during the 2008-2014 annual field survey. A total of 14 taxa of meiobenthos were identified. Nematodes were the most abundant taxon (60-86%). Harpacticoid copepods (5-26%) and benthic foraminifera (1-12%) were also dominant at all sites. The total meiobenthic densities varied from 4 to 150 ind./10 cm2. The mean value of total meiobenthic abundance was higher at BIS than at KOMO sites, but there was no significant difference between the two sites. The mean values of the number of taxa and biomass at BIS and KOMO sites were similar. The mean abundance of nematodes that were the most dominant taxa was also higher at BIS than at KOMO sites. The standing stocks in our study sites were relatively lower than those previously reported at other CCFZ sites. These results seem to reflect a low organic concentration in the study area.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.73-80
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• 2013

Due to the fact that possible risk associated with soil-crop-food chain transfer, metal contamination in croplands has become a major topic of wide concern. Accumulation of toxic metals in edible parts of crops grown in contaminated soils has been reported from number of crops including rice, soybean, wheat, maize, and vegetables. Therefore, in order to ensure food safety, measures are needed to be taken in mitigating metal pollution and subsequent uptake by crop plants. Present paper critically reviewed some of the cost effective remediation techniques used in minimizing metal uptake by crops grown in contaminated soils. Liming with different materials such as limestone ($CaCO_3$), burnt lime (CaO), slaked lime [$Ca(OH)_2$], dolomite [$CaMg(CO_3)_2$], and slag ($CaSiO_3$) has been widely used because they could elevate soil pH rendering metals less-bioavailable for plant uptake. Zn fertilization, use of organic amendments, crop rotation and water management are among the other techniques successfully employed in reducing metal uptake by crop plants. However, irrespectively the mitigating measure used, heterogeneous accumulation of metals in different crop species is often reported. The inconsistency might be attributed to the genetic makeup of the crops for selective uptake, their morphological characteristics, position of edible parts on the plants in respect of their distance from roots, crop management practices, the season and to the soil characteristics. However, a sound conclusion in this regard can only be made when more scientific evidence is available on case-specific researches, in particular from long-term field trials which included risks and benefits analysis also for various remediation practices.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.160-167
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• 2019

Depression is a major mood disorder. Abnormal expression of glial glutamate transporter-1 (GLT-1) is associated with depression. Schisantherin B (STB) is one bioactive of lignans isolated from Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baill which has been commonly used as a traditional herbal medicine for thousands of years. This paper was designed to investigate the effects of STB on depressive mice induced by forced swimming test (FST). Additionally, we also assessed the impairment of FST on cognitive function in mice with different ages. FST and open field test (OFT) were used for assessing depressive symptoms, and Y-maze was used for evaluating cognition processes. Our study showed that STB acting as an antidepressant, which increased GLT-1 levels by promoting PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway. Although the damage is reversible, short-term learning and memory impairment caused by FST test is more serious in the aged mice, and STB also exerts cognition improvement ability in the meanwhile. Our findings suggested that STB might be a promising therapeutic agent of depression by regulating the GLT-1 restoration as well as activating PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.251-266
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• 2022

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of critical infrastructure comprises a major pillar of maintenance management, shielding public safety and economic sustainability. Although SHM is usually associated with data-driven metrics and thresholds, expert judgement is essential, especially in cases where erroneous predictions can bear casualties or substantial economic loss. Considering that visual inspections are time consuming and potentially subjective, artificial-intelligence tools may be leveraged in order to minimize the inspection effort and provide objective outcomes. In this context, timely detection of sensor malfunctioning is crucial in preventing inaccurate assessment and false alarms. The present work introduces a sensor-fault detection and interpretation framework, based on the well-established support-vector machine scheme for anomaly detection, combined with a coalitional game-theory approach. The proposed framework is implemented in two datasets, provided along the 1st International Project Competition for Structural Health Monitoring (IPC-SHM 2020), comprising acceleration and cable-load measurements from two real cable-stayed bridges. The results demonstrate good predictive performance and highlight the potential for seamless adaption of the algorithm to intrinsically different data domains. For the first time, the term "decision trajectories", originating from the field of cognitive sciences, is introduced and applied in the context of SHM. This provides an intuitive and comprehensive illustration of the impact of individual features, along with an elaboration on feature dependencies that drive individual model predictions. Overall, the proposed framework provides an easy-to-train, application-agnostic and interpretable anomaly detector, which can be integrated into the preprocessing part of various SHM and condition-monitoring applications, offering a first screening of the sensor health prior to further analysis.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.66 no.1
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• pp.82-89
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• 2023

Objective : Rathke's cleft cysts (RCCs) are nonneoplastic cysts. Most of them are asymptomatic and stable; when symptomatic, RCCs are surgically fenestrated and drained. However, the outcomes remain unclear. The authors evaluated the outcomes of RCC decompression. Methods : Between 2004 and 2019, 32 RCCs were decompressed in a single tertiary institution. The clinical characteristics, intraoperative findings, postoperative complications, and endocrinological and surgical outcomes were retrospectively reviewed. Patients who underwent sequential imaging at least twice and at least 12 months after surgery were included in the analysis. Results : Patients' mean age was 40.8±14.9 years, and 62.5% were women. The mean follow-up duration was 62.3±48.6 months. In 21 patients (65.6%), no residual cysts were identified on postoperative magnetic resonance imaging. Of the 18 patients with preoperative visual field defects, 17 (94.4%) experienced postoperative visual improvement. Postoperative complications included endocrinological deterioration in 11 patients (34.4%), permanent diabetes insipidus in 11 (34.4%), infection in four (12.5%), intrasellar hemorrhage in three (9.4%), and cerebrospinal fluid leak in two (6.3%). Follow-up images revealed cyst recurrence in nine patients (28.1%), an average of 20.4 months after surgery; in three patients, the cysts were symptomatic, and resection was repeated. Multivariable analysis revealed that postoperative endocrinological deterioration was the only independent factor associated with cyst recurrence (p=0.028; hazard ratio, 6.800). Conclusion : Our findings showed that although only cyst fenestration for decompression was performed to preserve pituitary function, more pituitary dysfunction occurred than expected. Besides, the postoperative hormonal deterioration itself acted as a risk factor for cyst recurrence. In conclusion, surgery for RCC should be more careful.

• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.76-85
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• 2024

The purpose of this study is to propose a new method of analysis focusing on interconnections between species rather than traditional biodiversity analysis, which represents ecosystems in terms of species and individual counts such as species diversity and species richness. This new approach aims to enhance our understanding of ecosystem networks. Utilizing data from the 4th National Natural Environment Survey (2014-2018), the following eight taxonomic groups were targeted for our study: herbaceous plants, woody plants, butterflies, Passeriformes birds, mammals, reptiles & amphibians, freshwater fishes, and benthonic macroinvertebrates. A co-occurrence frequency analysis was conducted using nationwide data collected over five years. As a result, in all eight taxonomic groups, the degree value represented by a linear regression trend line showed a slope of 0.8 and the weighted degree value showed an exponential nonlinear curve trend line with a coefficient of determination (R²) exceeding 0.95. The average value of the clustering coefficient was also around 0.8, reminiscent of well-known social phenomena. Creating a combination set from the species list grouped by temporal information such as survey date and spatial information such as coordinates or grids is an easy approach to discern species distributed regionally and locally. Particularly, grouping by species or taxonomic groups to produce data such as co-occurrence frequency between survey points could allow us to discover spatial similarities based on species present. This analysis could overcome limitations of species data. Since there are no restrictions on time or space, data collected over a short period in a small area and long-term national-scale data can be analyzed through appropriate grouping. The co-occurrence frequency analysis enables us to measure how many species are associated with a single species and the frequency of associations among each species, which will greatly help us understand ecosystems that seem too complex to comprehend. Such connectivity data and graphs generated by the co-occurrence frequency analysis of species are expected to provide a wealth of information and insights not only to researchers, but also to those who observe, manage, and live within ecosystems.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.135-145
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• 2019

Analysis of a long cycle or a trend of time series data based on a long-term observation would require comparability between data observed in the past and the present. In the present study, we proposed an approach to ensure the compatibility among the instruments used for the long-term observation, which would allow to secure continuity of the data. An open-path gas analyzer (Model LI-7500, LI-COR, Inc., USA) has been used for eddy covariance flux measurement in the Gwangneung deciduous forest for more than 10 years. The open-path gas analyzer was replaced by an enclosed-path gas analyzer (Model EC155, Campbell Scientific, Inc., USA) in July 2015. Before completely replacing the gas analyzer, the carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) and latent heat fluxes were collected using both gas analyzers simultaneously during a five-month period from August to December in 2015. It was found that the $CO_2$ fluxes were not significantly different between the gas analyzers under the condition that the daily mean temperature was higher than $0^{\circ}C$. However, the $CO_2$ flux measured by the open-path gas analyzer was negatively biased (from positive sign, i.e., carbon source, to 0 or negative sign, i.e., carbon neutral or sink) due to the instrument surface heating under the condition that the daily mean temperature was lower than $0^{\circ}C$. Despite applying the frequency response correction associated with tube attenuation of water vapor, the latent heat flux measured by the enclosed-path gas analyzer was on average 9% smaller than that measured by the open-path gas analyzer, which resulted in >20% difference of the sums over the study period. These results indicated that application of the additional air density correction would be needed due to the instrument heat and analysis of the long-term observational flux data would be facilitated by understanding the underestimation tendency of latent heat flux measurements by an enclosed-path gas analyzer.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.233-245
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• 2024

In a field study, we investigated the consequences associated with the irrigation of red pepper with water contaminated by three types of veterinary antibiotics (amoxicillin, oxytetracycline, and chlortetracycline) on the soil residue, the absorption-translocation, and crop yields. As a result of evaluating the residue of veterinary antibiotics in pepper cultivation soil treated with veterinary antibiotics a total of 7 times from June 7 to August 26, 2023, the three antibiotics were not detected at the background level, but in the group treated with 10-fold and 50-fold of the background level was detected at a level of 2-10 ㎍/kg. For the leaf (stem) and fruit of red pepper, all three types of veterinary antibiotics were found to be below the detection limit at all treatments. However, trace levels were detected in red pepper roots. If veterinary antibiotics are unintentionally introduced into agricultural soil in the short term, the soil environment and crop safety will not be a problem. However, long-term introduction of veterinary antibiotics in agricultural soil may have negative effects by affecting soil microbial diversity and antibiotic resistance problems, so continuous monitoring and risk assessment are deemed necessary.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.131-141
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• 2004

For geotechnical applications, engineers use data obtained from a site investigation to interpret the structure and potential behavior of the subsurface. In most cases, these data consist of samples that represent 1/100,000 or less of the total volume of soil. These samples and associated field and lab testing provide the information used to estimate soil parameter values. The resulting values are estimated ones and there exists some likelihood that actual soil conditions are significantly different from the estimates. This may be the case even if the sampling and interpretation procedures are performed in accordance with standard practice. Although these efforts have been made to characterize the uncertainty associated with geotechnical parameters, there is no commonly accepted method to evaluate quantitatively the quality of an investigation plan as a whole or the relative significance of individual sampling points or potential sampling points.