• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2014

Normal aging causes changes in the brain volume, connection, function and cognition. The brain changes with increases in age and difference of gender varies at all levels. Studies about normal brain aging using various brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) variables such as gray and white matter structural imaging, proton spectroscopy, apparent diffusion coefficient, diffusion tensor imaging and functional MRI are reviewed. Total volume of brain increases after birth but decreases after 9 years old. During adulthood, total volume of brain is relatively stable. After 35 years old, brain shrinks gradually. The changes of gray and white matters by aging show different features. N-acetylaspartate decreases or remains unchanged but choline, creatine and myo-inositol increase with aging. Apparent diffusion coefficient decreases till 20 years old and then becomes stable during adulthood and increase after 60 years old. Diffusion tensor properties in white matter tissue are variable during aging. Resting-state functional connectivity decreases after middle age. Structural and functional brain changes with normal aging are important for studying various psychiatric diseases such as dementia, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Our review may be helpful for studying longitudinal changes of these diseases and successful aging.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.113-127
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• 2023

Background: Resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) may aid in understanding the link between painmodulating brain regions and the descending pain modulatory system (DPMS) in fibromyalgia (FM). This study investigated whether the differences in rs-FC of the primary somatosensory cortex in responders and non-responders to the conditioned pain modulation test (CPM-test) are related to pain, sleep quality, central sensitization, and the impact of FM on quality of life. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 33 females with FM. rs-FC was assessed by functional magnetic resonance imaging. Change in the numerical pain scale during the CPM-test assessed the DPMS function. Subjects were classified either as non-responders (i.e., DPMS dysfunction, n = 13) or responders (n = 20) to CPM-test. A generalized linear model (GLM) and a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were performed to check the accuracy of the rs-FC to differentiate each group. Results: Non-responders showed a decreased rs-FC between the left somatosensory cortex (S1) and the periaqueductal gray (PAG) (P < 0.001). The GLM analysis revealed that the S1-PAG rs-FC in the left-brain hemisphere was positively correlated with a central sensitization symptom and negatively correlated with sleep quality and pain scores. ROC curve analysis showed that left S1-PAG rs-FC offers a sensitivity and specificity of 85% or higher (area under the curve, 0.78, 95% confidence interval, 0.63-0.94) to discriminate who does/does not respond to the CPM-test. Conclusions: These results support using the rs-FC patterns in the left S1-PAG as a marker for predicting CPM-test response, which may aid in treatment individualization in FM patients.

• Journal of Neurogastroenterology and Motility
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.512-527
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• 2018

This review provides a comprehensive overview of brain imaging studies of the brain-gut interaction in functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs). Functional neuroimaging studies during gut stimulation have shown enhanced brain responses in regions related to sensory processing of the homeostatic condition of the gut (homeostatic afferent) and responses to salience stimuli (salience network), as well as increased and decreased brain activity in the emotional response areas and reduced activation in areas associated with the top-down modulation of visceral afferent signals. Altered central regulation of the endocrine and autonomic nervous responses, the key mediators of the brain-gut axis, has been demonstrated. Studies using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging reported abnormal local and global connectivity in the areas related to pain processing and the default mode network (a physiological baseline of brain activity at rest associated with self-awareness and memory) in FGIDs. Structural imaging with brain morphometry and diffusion imaging demonstrated altered gray- and white-matter structures in areas that also showed changes in functional imaging studies, although this requires replication. Molecular imaging by magnetic resonance spectroscopy and positron emission tomography in FGIDs remains relatively sparse. Progress using analytical methods such as machine learning algorithms may shift neuroimaging studies from brain mapping to predicting clinical outcomes. Because several factors contribute to the pathophysiology of FGIDs and because its population is quite heterogeneous, a new model is needed in future studies to assess the importance of the factors and brain functions that are responsible for an optimal homeostatic state.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.26-36
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• 2024

Functional brain imaging techniques have been used to diagnose psychiatric disorders such as dementia, depression, and autism. Recently, these techniques have also been actively used to study hearing loss. The present study reviewed the application of the functional brain imaging techniques in auditory research, especially those focusing on hearing loss, over the past decade. EEG, fMRI, fNIRS, MEG, and PET have been utilized in auditory research, and the number of research studies using these techniques has been increasing. In particular, fMRI and EEG were the most frequently used technique in auditory research. EEG studies mostly used event-related designs to analyze the direct relationship between stimulus and the related response, and in fMRI studies, resting-state functional connectivity and block designs were utilized to analyze alterations in brain functionality in hearing-related areas. In terms of age, while studies involving children mainly focused on congenital and pre- and post-lingual hearing loss to analyze developmental characteristics with and without hearing loss, those involving adults focused on age-related hearing loss to investigate changes in the characteristics of the brain based on the presence of hearing loss and the use of a hearing device. Overall, ranging from EEG to PET, various functional brain imaging techniques have been used in auditory research, but it is difficult to perform a comprehensive analysis due to the lack of consistency in experimental designs, analysis methods, and participant characteristics. Thus, it is necessary to develop standardized research protocols to obtain high-quality clinical and research evidence.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 2015

This paper is to provide some suggestions to complement and extend theory of network city, and to consider preliminarily its applicability for development of the Yeongnam region, exploring its normative implications for urban and regional policy and its significance of empirical research. In order to resolve some limitations and problems of network city theory and of empirical research, we need to reconsider systematically analysis methods, to extend indices of connectivity, to reconfirm normative characters inherent in network city theory, to suggest the constitution of cooperative governance, and to develop policies for embedding functional connectivity into internal community. In a preliminary analysis of Yeongnam region on the basis of network city theory, it is not clear whether the urban system of the region is entirely a type of network city, even though it seems to be close to network city. However, in order for the Yeongnam region to orient towards network city, we can point out importance of policy issues such as expansion of transportation and communication infrastructure, strengthening of economic connectivity, constitution of cooperative governance, and local embeddedness of functional network within the region.

• IE interfaces
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.75-93
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• 1997

Unlike individual applications, it is extremely hard to obtain user requirements for group systems, since there exists very complicated dynamics in group. This may result in spreading a great amount of products with a broad range of contents. Thus, this study presents a comparative analysis of groupware products. As a result, these products have been categorized into three areas which include cooperation/document management systems, collaborative writing systems, and decision-making/meeting systems. While the systems reviewed here focus on the cooperation/document management systems, the other two areas will be dealt in details in part Ⅱ. The first area ends up with two large categories such as proprietary groupware products and intranet groupware products. However, it has been observed that there is a natural convergence between these two categories. Consequently, the comparative analysis has been performed in terms of functions provided on the two categories and a combined category. Each group of the functions has been divided into three parts which consist of basic functions, quasi-basic functions, and others. Such a decision has been made based on the frequency rate of the functions provided in the products. With a more strict rule, the basic functions comprise electronic mail, sanction, bulletin board, document management, scheduling, security, Web browser, and Internet connectivity. This study also provides a framework for integrated functional model of groupware systems. The basic functions are merged into the model. However, the model is so flexible that it can partially include the quasi-functions in addition to the basic functions. In the future, it is expected that a large number of products will stem from the modification of the functional model.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.109-133
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• 2022

Episodic memory consists of a core event and the associated contexts. Although the role of the hippocampus and its neighboring regions in contextual representations during encoding has become increasingly evident, it remains unclear how these regions handle various context-specific information other than spatio-temporal contexts. Using high-resolution functional MRI, we explored the patterns of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) and cortical regions' involvement during the encoding of various types of contextual information (i.e., journalism principle 5W1H): "Who did it?," "Why did it happen?," "What happened?," "When did it happen?," "Where did it happen?," and "How did it happen?" Participants answered six different contextual questions while looking at simple experimental events consisting of two faces with one object on the screen. The MTL was divided to sub-regions by hierarchical clustering from resting-state data. General linear model analyses revealed a stronger activation of MTL sub-regions, the prefrontal lobe (PFC), and the inferior parietal lobule (IPL) during social (Who), behavioral (How), and intentional (Why) contextual processing when compared with spatio-temporal (Where/When) contextual processing. To further investigate the functional networks involved in contextual encoding dissociation, a multivariate pattern analysis was conducted with features selected as the task-based connectivity links between the hippocampal subfields and PFC/IPL. Each social, behavioral, and intentional contextual processing was individually and successfully classified from spatio-temporal contextual processing, respectively. Thus, specific contexts in episodic memory, namely social, behavior, and intention, involve distinct functional connectivity patterns that are distinct from those for spatio-temporal contextual memory.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Educational Facilities
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.34-41
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• 2006

A multi-sected campus can be explained as an university to be consisted of several campuses, which are physically separate, but are functionally interconnected. The basic structure of university campuses started with a single-nuclei structure of which the facilities were layed out around a single campus core, and it has been changed to multi-nuclei layout, where a single campus core was subdivided into several service cores due to increased service demands. The limitation on the expansion of campuses due to urbanization of surroundings leads to the physical separation of the campuses, and the development of information technology made it possible to connect physically-separate campuses to form the multi-sected campus. The three general characteristics of multi-sected campuses were found; 1) the need for programatic specialization of each individual campus, 2) the need for representative imageability for each campus, 3) necessity for physical connectivity between campuses and functional independency for each campus.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.415.1-415.1
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• 2014

Carrying out first-principles calculations, we study N-doped capped carbon nanotube (CNT) electrodes applied to DNA sequencing. While we obtain for the face-on nucleobase junction configurations a conventional conductance ordering where the largest signal results from guanine according to its high highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level, we extract for the edge-on counterparts a distinct conductance ordering where the low-HOMO thymine provides the largest signal. The edge-on mode is shown to operate based on a novel molecular sensing mechanism that reflects the chemical connectivity between N-doped CNT caps that can act both as electron donors and electron acceptors and DNA functional groups that include the hyperconjugated thymine methyl group[1].

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.151-152
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• 2012

Recently, there are growing interests in building LCCO₂ Assessment to reduce carbon emissions. However, existing methods of assessment system include inefficiency in the process of CO₂ calculation requiring considerable data input. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop an efficient building assessment system appropriate to material production in construction stage. To that end, quantity input technology was limited to data mapping. Also quantity calculation based on work breakdown structure and item codes consisted of hierarchical structure that is based on facet classification were analyzed. As a result, connectivity links of quantity calculation and CO₂ functional units through item codes for data mapping, and assessment system including calculation and database parts were developed.